Kirdie Pañebe

5 Most Underrated JRPGs of the PS1 Era Role playing games or RPGs in the modern era is an assortment of different games from different companies from different parts of the world with only one common premise of playing a main character whom the player controls while completing various quests. Before this status quo existed, RPGs had its roots traceable back in the era when Japan was in the forefront of electronic entertainment by giving the world the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), or Famicom being its eastern name. RPGs became an established genre back then domestically in Japan as multiple game companies have created multiple entries on their respective franchises with each outperforming one another and even their own titles with their unique twist on the RPG element. A decade later, this supremacy is further cemented as Sony launched the first Playstation (PS1), giving every game an exponential boost in every aspect possible. This monumental launch of a brand new game system gave every company the necessary tool they needed to tell their own story and unique way of expressing it. However, this meant that the market became open to other companies outside Japan and thus taking the exclusivity of RPGs off from Japanese games. To stake back their claim in the video game business, the same companies who jump started the genre coined the new term, albeit unimaginative, Japanese Role Playing Games or JRPGs. With this, the pioneers of the genre have established, if not taken back, their own identity in the video game world and with this new face came the multitude of titles even to the point of saturating their own market with low quality and blatant copies of one another. In the chaos of the myriad titles that plagued the unique market of JRPGs, some developers fought through the norm and made their own interpretations of the genre and produced some of the best and timeless classics that aged like fine wine decades later. Even if it meant only a handful of people were able to witness the majesty of their magnum opus, developers swam against the current to tell their unique tales. Below are such five gems that resonates only to a select few from the PS1 era: Legend of Mana The fourth entry to the Mana franchise by the JRPG titan Squaresoft, it tells the story of a silent protagonist fighting his or her way through various towns and dungeons in order to restore a war-torn world back to its former beauty, of which the player has absolute freedom on how to do it. Legend of Mana broke through the conventional world building that other JRPGs have set as instead of a world already populated with villages and dungeons, the player will have to create the world from scratch like building a lego set from pieces that are acquired from previous quests. Though it hasn’t veered away from the typical silent protagonist trope of JRPGs, it breaks away from the formula by giving the player the choice of the character’s gender, a first for JRPGs at the time. On top of that, it also experimented on the idea that games can have multiple endings unlike the typical linear approach on storytelling. Backed by an excellent soundtrack and a unique combat system, the game actually performed well upon launch but was given low ratings by critics due to side stories being unengaging to the player with no incentive on finishing it. Breath of Fire 4 Same as the previous entry, this title is also the fourth installment of its franchise but was developed by Capcom, a titan of the games industry not for JRPGs but in the field of fighting games as they developed the Street Fighter franchise. Breath of Fire 4 tells the story of Ryu, not to be confused with Street Fighter’s Ryu, an amnesiac who later finds out he’s the clone of a god of another continent and further in the story fights that same god in order to save the world from total destruction. As the franchise is known to recycle characters throughout different titles, very few fresh concepts were introduced in the new installment aside from combo systems and the much improved graphics and art style. This entry on the installment, however, broke through expectations as it was still bearing 2D animations meshed together with a 3D world but was still fighting toe to toe against other full 3D titles at the time of launch. Critics agreed that although it was not the best in the franchise, it held its own against titanic odds and competition. Final Fantasy Tactics Whenever Final Fantasy is mentioned, seasoned players of the franchise will almost always say that the mainline numbered entries are the best without argument, however, Final Fantasy Tactics will tell you otherwise. It tells the story about Ramza, an illegitimate son of a war general whose naive eyes are opened through pain and suffering of the world he lives in and later in the story will have to bring down the otherworldly beings responsible for it. Tactics brings its unique take on the Final Fantasy formula as it’s the only non-numbered entry at the time bearing the classic class system but players will have to fight enemy encounters from the map down to grid turn-based battle system. Moreover, its most compelling aspect is the story it tells that shifts from a medieval setting to a world where flying airships coexists with messiahs foretelling the end of the world while exploring unique stories of characters that the protagonist interacts with. Though not belonging to the echelon of the franchise’s numbered entries, Final Fantasy Tactics became a cult classic over the decades. Suikoden 2 With the computing power of the Playstation, at the time, people would assume that almost all games on the console would join the 3D games party everyone was invited to; however a maverick rose through the ranks and decided 2D was the way to go. This certain developer, Konami, gave birth to the Suikoden franchise and with its second entry challenged how 2D games are made. It tells the story of Riou, a silent protagonist who is suddenly thrown into the flames of war with his best friend Jowy under the pretense that the enemy of their country broke the peace treaty both sides persevere to achieve. This second entry did not offer much improvement in graphics fidelity or combat style from the first one but it bore an exponentially captivating story circling on the consequences of war, betrayal, and the boundaries of friendship all while set in a magical world. It also gave birth to arguably one of the best antagonists in all of JRPGs and on top of it, everything was animated in timeless 2D sprites which the franchise was beloved for making it a hallmark of the emerging revival of 2D graphics retro games at present. Chrono Cross Taking the crown on this list is Chrono Cross as it is almost perfect in every aspect one can hope for a JRPG to possess. The sequel to the critically acclaimed Chrono Trigger, it is set in a tropical world bearing parallel universes and it tells the tale of Serge, another silent protagonist who unintentionally travels between a world where he survives a childhood sickness and another in which he tragically dies, and in a very bizarre plot twist, fights Fate itself. It can be disorienting to digest the premise at first but the way the story unravels gives players a satisfying experience when discovering plot twists. Combine the above together with a stellar soundtrack, a combat system that breaks away from the grindy standards of most JRPGs, and boasting a cast of 45 different characters, it gives every player an exceptionally unique, memorable experience and multiple endings to pursue. It was no wonder that Chrono Cross was able to receive multiple accolades and an almost perfect score on every review as it broke through multiple barriers that JRPGs of its time have set. It is one of the few games that stood the test of time where its uniqueness garnered very dedicated fans and has now been remastered for modern players to enjoy. All in all, these titles are only a handful among the many gems buried in the saturated JRPG market. Even more are still in the rough, just waiting to be discovered and played by unsuspecting players. Every title can claim to be a JRPG but a very little amount can remain in the memory of a select few and be remembered in decades to come.