Blog:Grust's Top 5 Best Consoles for JRPGs

The JRPG... for any other game, I'll have a beer, but for a JRPG, I'll have a fine wine. I can't think of any other genre that gives me a feeling of culture and sophistication than a JRPG, with great stories, likable characters, amazing soundtracks, and the fact that every battle aids in getting you stronger. I feel like I should be in a silk robe, smoking a pipe while talking about this. Now everyone does a top 10 best JRPG list, but no one ever talks about consoles for the best video game genre, so let's see what I view are the top 5 best consoles for JRPGs. Now I won't discuss handhelds, cuz they deserve their own blog. Now since this is putting me in a very good mood, Tyrant won't have to be horrifically tortured today so he gets the blog off.

5. Sega Dreamcast: The Sega Dreamcast was a very good console for Sega to end on but it's not well known for JRPGs so it's high on the list. However we got Grandia 2 and Skies of Arcadia on it, two of the best JRPGs I ever played. Now while Skies of Arcadia was ported to the Gamecube and was improved, the same can't be said for Grandia 2, which while ported to the PS2 (AKA the Dreamcast Killer) it suffered from downgraded graphics so the Dreamcast is the definitive way to play it. The Dreamcast might not be known for JRPGs, but we got 2 of the best thanks to it.

4. Nintendo Entertainment System: The console that saved gaming in the West had some very great JRPGs, including Dragon Warrior (Dragon Quest) and Final Fantasy, two of the most important JRPGs ever made with Dragon Warrior setting up the basics of a JRPG and Final Fantasy introducing jobs and customization. We also got the Ultima Games and even some great action RPGS like Willow. Sadly though the NES port of Final Fantasy has aged poorly due to numerous ports adding more dungeons and fixing some bugs that made the NES version half broken.

3. PlayStation 2: By the time the PS2 was out, JRPGs were exploding in popularity and Sony took advantage of that and gave us some great JRPGs, including Final Fantasy X, my all time favorite 3D Final Fantasy and the crossover action RPG, Kingdom Hearts. We also got games like Star Ocean: Till the End of Time, several of the Shin Megumi Tensei games including Persona 3 and 4, and The Xenosaga trilogy. However some took advantage of its popularity and we also got Inuyasha: Secret of the Cursed Mask, which isn't a bad game, but was very basic and the exposition was really annoying. Still a must own console for any lover of RPGs.

2. Super Nintendo Entertainment System: Say what Grust? Your all time favorite console is only 2nd on this list? Yes I have said often SNES is my all time favorite console, but this is for what I think is the best for JRPGs. But still the SNES has some very great games like Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy 2 and 3 (technically 2 is 4 and 3 is 6) and what I consider the best gateway JRPG for anyone who wants to get into JRPGs, Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars which is simple but so well done, even after getting more complex JRPGs, I would still enjoy playing it because it's fun. I like to call SNES the Queen of RPGs for a reason so number 1 would be the king. And you all know what I'm talking about.

Honorable Mentions

 * Sega Saturn: While this has some RPGS, there are two reasons I'm leaving this off. One is most of the RPGs never saw a U.S. release and I don't speak Japanese (if I did I'd have moved to Japan long ago) and second is most games on Saturn are really going up in price.  One game I'd like, Magic Knight Rayearth, based on the anime, is $500 on average.  These two factors keep Saturn off the list.  Sorry!


 * Playstation 3 and XBox 360: By this point JRPGs were slowly beginning to die out but combined we still got some great JRPGs like Lost Odyssey, Star Ocean: The Last Hope, and Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch. These may have even saved JRPGs because they're becoming quite popular again on handhelds.


 * Switch: The Switch is ongoing so I'm keeping off the list but Octopath Traveler is giving me big hopes for the system.

K onto number 1

Oh come on do I really need to tell you guys? Well I'm doing it anyway.

1. Sony Playstation: You guys knew this was number 1 didn't you? This was the console that made many 90s kids, myself included, fall in love with the JRPG genre, helping to popularize the genre with Final Fantasy 7. In addition, two Final Fantasy games that were never originally released outside of Japan finally came to us, Final Fantasy 2 (The actual 2) and Final Fantasy V which gave us so much customization, replay value was almost endless. Also we got two other 3D Final Fantasy games 8 and 9 for the system. And that's not all, we even got Suikoden 1 and 2, The Legend of Dragoon, and Wild Arms 1 and 2 and the severely underrated Legend of Legaia. While most of my PS games are on a rotating CD rack, I keep my RPGs in a drawer, cuz my rack can't handle that collection. There's a reason I call the original Playstation the King of RPG consoles. It's because it's my number 1 choice for best console for JRPGs.

So do you have a favorite console for RPGs. Let me know in the comments. Sorry for not torturing TyrantRex. This put me in too good of a mood.

