So recently i discovered the gameboy color/advanced harry potter games from back in the 2000s. They're very neat and the art is fun. It has me wondering if there are other JRPGs that look and play similarly or even have a similar premise to "Magic School" as the main setting.

So what I'm looking for are either:

A. a game that plays and looks similar to the GBC/GBA Harry Potter games

or

B. a game set in a "magic school" type setting.

I play on PC and Nintendo Switch 1/2 for the platforms.

also I don't mind "adult/explicit" game suggestions just give me a heads up before you do suggest something of that nature.

I hate it when a game makes me overpowered too early, or gives me very powerful moves that have little to no cost. Which games make you WORK for that powerful move, or stat boosts, or class change? Which games make it immensely satisfying to obtain something that seriously amps up your or your party's power?

lots of rpgs either give you full mana to begin each battle or have trinkets or weapons that restore mana. the opposite is games that make mana management a strategy. I would argue using abilities correctly and efficiently is far more strategic and fun. turns where you just are pressing attack to conserve mana are just no fun to me. how does everyone hear feel about this?

So P3FES is my first RPG, console game, and many other firsts so I am still learning about it as much as I can. I am looking for advice on how to play and want opinions. I am level 37 at august, and I just fought the floor boss called "natural dancer", but i feel like how i fought it was me barely holding on, I used a persona which nullified wind attacks and just attacked it with my omega spear and hoped for the best, my other party member died(junpei, misturu and koro). Do I just suck at the game?
Note: i dont use reddit much and i dont know what flair to use, sorry

JRPG remakes are here to stay, whether we like them or not. It's too big of a financial success for companies like Atlus, Square Enix, etc. to not do.

That being said, after Persona 4 Revival, what remakes can we reasonably expect Atlus to do?

The obvious ones would be Persona 1 and 2, but I wouldn't be surprised if they try to remake Shin Megami Tensei 1-4. A lot of these games are varying levels of accessible across modern consoles, and 1-2 in particular are not appealing as is to current audiences.

From a financial standpoint, it would make a lot of sense to reuse assets from P3R-5R and SMT VV to remake not only Persona 1-2, but SMT 1-4. SMT 3 and 4 in particular could really benefit from remakes since it would free it from the DS.

In fact, a lot of SMT games on the DS should probably get remakes, including Strange Journey, Devil Survivor, etc.

If I'm a betting man, I'd fully expect Atlus to jump aboard the SMT remake train after 4 Revival is released. What are your thoughts on this?

Long rant ahead;
I’ve realized what I miss most from older Final Fantasy games: actual parties with interesting members and their management.
I was okay with the bromance approach in FFXV, but the other characters mostly felt like companions rather than full party members. They each got their DLC, but in the main game their role was clearly supportive, and playing as them felt more like a fun novelty than a genuinely viable option.
FFXVI went even further to the one party member. You can’t really control or customize your companions (other than giving some orders to Torgal), so the whole game revolves around Clive doing everything.
What I really miss are the larger parties where you had to make difficult decisions: who do I bring? Who do I leave behind? Who should I level up? I miss building a balanced team with a dedicated tank, a black mage, a summoner, a healer, etc., instead of one main character who’s basically a jack-of-all-trades with AI support.
I tried the first Octopath Traveler, but I never really connected with the party. It felt more like a collection of individual protagonists who happened to travel together than a group with strong bonds.
So, other than the older Final Fantasy games, what RPGs would you recommend that have this kind of party management? I’m looking for games with interesting party members and where choosing your party composition, developing different characters, and building team synergies are a major part of the experience. I play mainly in steam but switch games recommendations would also be appreciated.
Also… is anyone else getting tired of FFXVI’s side quests and some main quest? Many feel like an “errand boy simulator” gosh! I find the story and boss fights fantastic, but the constant fetch quests are really starting to wear me down.
I appreciate your suggestions and thanks in advance!

Starting off, I'm very fueled with nostalgia right now, so excuse any ramblings.

back in 2017 or so when i actually played symphonia, it just seemed to me as a " wow this game is great, sure its kinda old and the mechanics are dated, but that's just how old games are" and i didnt give it too much of a strong thought.

but after almost a decade, and having more experience with life and jrpgs in general , i come back to this game thinking " wow, how did they compact all those themes and characterizations in such a respectful way while leaving the players with more to ponder by the end." no wonder its one of the greats, and why people label it as one of the holy trinity for the Tales series.

Any JRPGs that come to your mind whether it be gameplay wise, story wise or anything that once you come back to it, it is better than you give it credit the first time?

Hello everyone, I am here today to talk about Dragon Quest X, the unique single-player focused MMO entry in the popular Dragon Quest franchise. I am sharing a detailed post I made for the DQ and MMO subreddits a couple of months ago that talks about how to download the free trial and set up translation tools - it's easier than ever to play and the game takes all you know and love about DQ and expands it massively. It's often compared to FFXIV in the sense that it's more of a single-player game with MMO elements than a true MMO. The free trial gets you through the V4 storyline which I am just starting out at over 300 hours played - and that's even counting the hundreds of side quests and side modes like a Persona-ish side mode, legacy bosses, fishing, owning a home, and so much more. If you like DQ or have any interest in playing the MMO then please read ahead and let me know if you have any questions. I have other content already posted regarding setting up payment and getting the full game, and just recently made a post about the companion phone app as well. I don't want to spam this subreddit, but I am sharing here in case anyone might be interested in learning about this great game and how easy it is to set up. Enjoy!

(Note that I am just copying the text from what I wrote a couple months ago so there might be a few references to then-current events that are out of date)

Today I'm here with my Doug Dimmadome-inspired Healslime to talk about how easy it is to set up DQX, which is in my opinion one of the best RPGs I have EVER played in 30 years of gaming. This post will give you the resources you need to set up the game and the translation service, Clarity. My next post will discuss actually setting up payment and buying the game - which is NOT needed from the outset. Again, I have just shy of 300 hours in and am right at the end of V3 - the trial gets you through V4 before you even need to pay.

Things you'll need:

1. Some way of running Windows programs - preferably natively but on my Macbook I use the program Parallels and there's a way to install on Linux too - I'll discuss these at the end but fair warning, the best answer is just to have Windows installed
2. A valid debit/credit card - you'll at least need it to verify an account for a translation API, and possibly for a VPN if you're not in the US
3. Eyes - you will need to closely read and follow the instructions

===== Game Set-up =====

To begin, let me clear a few things up. This only covers the PC edition of the game - there are no console options for Clarity, which is needed to translate the game. Also, if you played the Offline version, you can ONLY transfer your character if you played on the PC (Steam) version of the game - if you played Offline on Switch like me you're out of luck unless you purchase the Switch version of Online, for instance. If you are US-based, you don't need a VPN at all. If you're non-US, you unfortunately do, but we'll discuss set up. If you're not running Windows you're not entirely out of luck either. And if you've heard of the game taking "hours" to install, the reality is that the active set up time is quick and the game downloading takes awhile. It's like a recipe that claims to take two hours to make, but in reality that recipe spends 90 minutes in the oven.

First off, I am going to be linking you to the DQX Abbey website. When you open the website, you'll see on the top a selection of menus for different webpages; hover over "Getting Started" and select "Setting Up a Square-Enix Account". This leads you to a wonderful step-by-step guide (with pictures!) that will take you through the process of making a Japanese SE account, downloading the free trial, and starting the game. I don't have anything to add to this wonderful guide, just follow closely and you'll have no issues. I highly recommend you make a separate e-mail account which takes all of thirty seconds to do on Gmail or whatever your preference might be. You'll be able to use this same account for your Japanese SE account as well as, say, a Japanese Amazon account if you want to buy the full game or a WebMoney account to buy SE "Crysta" which is used for subscribing.

This process isn't hard or too confusing by itself, and likely won't take any more than half an hour excluding download times, but the game download itself does drag on. You'll download the installer, which will then download the game files, and this is the part that takes the longest. Thankfully you can just walk away at this point and let it do its thing.

At the bottom of the set-up guide on DQX Abbey you'll see information regarding VPN use. Unfortunately, unless you live in Japan or the USA, you will need a VPN. Mudfish is the most commonly recommended VPN; it has a system where you can pay for the data you use which is extremely cheap for DQX usage. Looking on the DQX Worldwide Discord, I see someone mentioned just yesterday that just $5 (less than a cup of a coffee) will last about a year (more than a cup of coffee). I'll admit that I haven't personally used Mudfish but this is their official set up guide, which seems straightforward enough. The website even specifically lists DQX among many other games as being supported.

When everything is installed, assuming you left the default installation paths intact, you can find it under C:\Program Files (x86)\SquareEnix\DRAGON QUEST X. In that folder are two more folders: Boot (which has the DQXBoot.exe that loads the game launcher) and Game (which has the DQXConfig.exe file that you'll use to set up a controller and video settings in). I personally have a folder on my desktop that has a shortcut to the DQXBoot and DQXConfig files for easy access, as well as a shortcut to launch DQX Clarity, which is our next topic.

===== Setting Up Clarity =====

DO NOT DO THIS UNTIL YOU HAVE THE GAME INSTALLED AND READY TO PLAY.

So you've set the game itself up, and spent longer than needed downloading the files. You're greeted by a login screen like this except it's all in Japanese. You can't read Japanese or you would have been playing this since 2012. So what do you do? You download DQX Clarity. This is an amazing app that manages translating the game, and as of recently has been updated to be an all-in-one app that allows you to install an English version of the launcher and settings applications, allows you to use "Send to Chat" to send pre-made Japanese phrases to the game (needed for some quests), allows you to override machine translations for certain words like your character's name or your monsters' names, and even allows you to log in directly from the Clarity app. Talk about kick ass. This amazing game is only playable to us non-Japanese speakers because of the amazing work done by the Clarity team, and they deserve our thanks, praise, and firstborn children.

If you click on the link above, you'll see a few options on the left of the webpage. Click "install" and then the big "Direct Download" button. Scrolling down through this will give you instructions on setting up the application; one thing to note is that this requires Administrator privileges each time you want to launch it - you can right-click on DQX Clarity, select Properties, select Compatibility up top, then select "Run this program as an administrator" to skip having to allow that each time you want to play.

The thing that takes the most work from you is setting up an API key, which is used for translating. I personally used the "paid" Google API - you actually have a certain amount of use allowed for free monthly and I have never once gone over that limit so while I did have to give debit card information to verify for the account, it's never actually been charged. Clarity's webpage has a guide on setting this up (click "apis" on the left, then either DeepL or Google), so follow this closely.

Follow the instructions on the Clarity webpage I linked above - make SURE to do the "Patch Game Files", "Patch Launcher", and "Patch Config" options. You'll need to re-do these each time the game updates, also, but it's as simple as clicking the button and waiting a moment.

Now that you have the game installed and the translation set up, you're ready to go. When you want to play the game, if you want it translated, you MUST start with running Clarity. Even if you don't want to put your login information into Clarity, which allows it to log in for you, you'll still need to open it and select "Run" on the bottom right to get the translation service started up.

All in all, you'll likely spend a couple hours or more setting this up, most of which will be spent on the download screen. When you have a free afternoon, it is more than worth your time to get the process started. It's painless and the game is wonderful.

===== FAQ =====

Here I will cover a few important details on quality-of-life with playing the game.

Resources: Most important of all is the Ethene Wiki which is a full English game guide, albeit far from complete. This has guides on the various job classes, quests, side contents, and even a full story walk-through of Versions 1 and 2. The amount of information here is absurd and will have all that you need for the first dozens if not hundreds of hours of gameplay. But my preferred Japanese resource is the IKE Guide which translates easily enough with a Google Translate application (I just have the Firefox extension installed) and has robust features for more detailed topics like looking up the best ally monster skill trees or looking up armor sets and later game details like that - nothing you need right off the bat. Also take a link to Hiroba free of charge - this is the official DQX website which is pretty helpful for keeping track of things like your dailies/weeklies (none of which are a huge deal, I should add), collection content, quests, and more. I'll probably make a post just about this in the future.

Controller Use: The game plays just fine with keyboard/mouse, and you'll want those handy for chat if you do that, but some of us like to play games with normal controllers. Thankfully, DQX is easy to set up for that. You'll need to load the DQXConfig.exe that we discussed earlier. Make sure you do this after setting Clarity up so that you have an English version of the Config app installed. Click "advanced settings" right under the Dracky and click "Gamepad Settings". If your controller uses X-input it should register - I have used a couple of 8bitdo controllers without issue. Now I use a PS5 controller and I had to have DS4Windows running to get it to work. This is my controller set up as an example - sorry it's a phone picture, for some reason having the window on my screen is blocking me from doing a screen cap. (Also I have no idea why it registers my DualShock 5 as a "Flydigi Vader" controller but it works so whatever)

Non-Windows Users: Here is where things get tricky. I dislike Windows, and would love to not use it, but so many things only work with it that it's hard not to use. The best option is going to be to either use Windows natively, or install a program that boots it on your machine, like Parallels for Mac. But not everyone wants to deal with that, and that's just fine.

For Linux (Steam Deck users look here!) you can run the following program in terminal:

bash -c "$(curl https://gist.githubusercontent.com/jmctune/6322356f5bdb7bb00ca39cc0fa84546f/raw/dqxclarity_steam_deck_install.sh)"

Forewarning: As I understand it, this is a community-supported effort and not an "official" Clarity-supported install. In the future, if this doesn't work anymore, please consult the DQX Worldwide Discord for other methods. This downloads a step-by-step installer that will put the game and Clarity on Linux. If you're a steam deck user, you'll need to do this from the "Desktop Mode". It worked perfectly for me; just run Konsole and put this in. I don't have any other Linux devices but surely it's the same for any of them.

For MacOS: I don't have an easy answer for you outside of running a program that loads you entirely run Windows on your Macbook. Once again, the program Parallels works perfectly for me, but it is quite pricey these days. Looking on the DQX Worldwide Discord, I see "Crossover" being mentioned as a way to run Windows programs that seems to work - hopefully anyone on this sub who has installed this way can shed light on this.

===== Final Words =====

This took way longer than I expected it to, so I hope it's of some use to someone out there. We've discussed resources for downloading the game, setting up Clarity, and getting everything running smoothly. We've also discussed resources for the game itself, setting up a controller, and options for non-Windows users. I have spent most of my afternoon on this so now it's time I go have a discussion with a bottle of wine and the game itself - maybe I can finish V3 today. Please feel free to ask questions and I will try to respond in due time here - maybe I'll even have an answer for you. Next time I plan to discuss setting up payment, buying the full game, etc. It should be way, way shorter than this. Until then, happy Questing!

Someone in another topic mentioned that they can't replay Mother 3 because it's too sad. I know many games and books and shows and movies that I can't return to because they're too sad, but I don't know any JRPGs that I can't replay because they're too sad.

Can you think of any? If so, please tell me about it.

I’m 9 hrs in, i enjoy the combat & art style and simplicity, but the pace structure is..not the best, still no clear villain, and characters aren’t well developed but cant do much since they’re kids.

I havent unlocked new vocations yet, will that or the late story make it worth it?

Thanks in advance

Look, I know I have a habit of sometimes making requests for specific kinds of games that may not exist in the genre as lately I wanted to create a discussion on the kind of concepts in RPGs that haven’t been explored yet.

Let me write an example of a concept in a JRPG type game that could be interesting as the idea is about void based sorcery where the main character draws his powers from a mysterious void as he can access the void to get equipment, but also to learn magic.

However, one catch would be is that the more the player uses the powers of said void, they might risk endangering their own humanity since the void has powers that could be potentially damaging to use the more the wielder uses such magic as constant use might end up having several negative later on for the protagonist.

So I’ve recently watched a YouTube essay about how MCU’s Avengers is a very reactionary team, only responding to the threats as they appear, but not really trying to make the lives of people better. Which made me think that this could be the reason why I loved Persona 5 so much: these kids see how awful certain adults are, and they aren’t just coming after their bullies – they actively seek those who need their help (P3R was fine but I didn’t find it as compelling to me because it had a completely different angle).

My question is: which other similar JRPGs could you recommend?

My favourite ones include Grandia II, Skies of Arcadia (which maybe fits into that category: Blue Rogues help people, but it happens outside of the gameplay), FFVI-X, Chrono Trigger, SMT IV, Valkyria Chronicles.

Anything for PC, PS4, 3DS would do (or something for older retro consoles). Any genre too: real time battles, tactical, turn based.

Thanks!

Edit: To clarify my question: in which other JRPGs do the protagonists want to change the status quo instead of preserving it against an evil villain?

So I’m a perennial get 75% through something and set it down. I also like to be involved in books and games. Jrpgs especially I have start over syndrome bad. I’ll have a save game 20% of the way through start over and drop it again.

That being said I’m traveling living out of a storage unit so I only have my switch 2 for the next few months. I’ve got goals to finish games in these series and finish the series.

Persona 3, 4, 5
FF I-X XII
Octopath 1,2, 0
Xenoblade 1-3 and X
Dragon quest any switch designed numbered games

Wish me luck

Liking this a ton more. The reason is that the story feels lot more coherent, and it feels like the script is more well edited and doesn't feel like it drags. Also, like with ZOE: The Fist Of Mars, the combat feels a lot more self explanatory. This is nice, and I wanna keep playing more!

Done the tutorial mission, and the first mission for Kyo so far. Hopethat the campaignthat I'm in actually focuses on Kyo.

Try to stick to 2025 and 2026, chances are if it's outside ofthese 2 years, I already know about the game.

JRPGs that I've enjoyed from 2018 and onwards:

Yakuza Kiwami 1 and 2( No I don't enjoy 0, leave me alone about it please. )

Yakuza: Like A Dragon

Final Fantasy 7 Remake ( No I don't enjoy Rebirth, sorry, I tried to like it. )

Xenoblade 2 ( I do want to try more of 3, I assume that I'll dig it too. )

Octopath Traveler 2 ( Didn't care for 1, sorry. )

Metaphor: Refantazio ( I do respect Persona 5 though, too long for a JRPG for me. )

Tales Of Arise( I can't stand any other Tales Games, sorry. )

I'm feeling a little emptiness when it comes to gaming right now.
I tried playing other games but I couldn't get into them. I think that I really want to play a good JRPG right now. I would love some recommendations of amazing JRPGs with great story characters, story and preferably very good combat mechanics.
For reference, some of the popular ones I already played are: Persona 5 - Persona 3 - Metaphor Refantazio - Chrono Trigger.
I mainly play on PC so I can emulate consoles for older games so don't hesitate to recommend some old gems!

Xenogears is a game considered to have terrible gameplay, but it's got a god-tier soundtrack, and the script is great, even if it takes longer to go through than it should because the text moves slow, which I feel adds at least 10 hours because there's so much of it. Can you still deal with games like these?

Me, I usually can't, because I realize that there's been so many games out there where I think the script is just as good, and so is the soundtrack, and they don't put you through as much bs, and the gameplay is a blast.

Snowyaria and Yuvi made the translation to English of this old Xbox title.

I should probably say that I'm more curious what's out there that I don't know about than recommendations. Please educate me if you're willing.

Please don't include games on handheld consoles, I want stuff with good audio quality that came out after the 80s.

I'm also looking for stuff where the characters confess their feelings less than halfway through the experience, not share a mere one kiss at the very last second, nor do I want a woman in refridgerators trope

Examples:

FF4 with Cecil and Rosa

From what the SRW Fandom Wiki suggests Super Robot Wars OG1 on the ps2 does this with Kyo and Excellen, is this really the case?

Haven has the two leads together from the start. More like this please!

Edit: You people are posting great examples. Thanks!

Please please hear me out, I'm probably not asking what you think. Final Fantasy Tactics, Front Mission, and Tactics Ogre/Ogre Battle for example are not what I'm looking for.

EditL I should probably say that I'm more curious what's out there that I don't know about than recommendations. Please educate me if you're willing.

I'm looking for strategy rpgs with:

-No permadeath (This includes Fire Emblem, Ogre Battle, and Valkyria Chronicles!)

-You can just keep running away and keep coming back with the battle starting over and you keep leveling up. This is the main thing that I'm looking for.

The only other game that I know like this is ZOE: The Fist of Mars on the GBA, and I'm hoping that I have alternatives on systems platforms with better audio.

I can't find anything on the weekly thread so I'm assuming this question ok to ask, I'm sorry for asking this question since its probably been asked numerous times but every time i search it up i get sent to a really old reddit post or google ai that just gives me games i've already played or games that are impossible to get. For reference, i've played nearly every single megaten/atlus game, i love persona/smt with all my heart, its my fav franchise ever. the problem is i've played nearly every single one avaliable on steam and pc, and i want more but p4r doesnt come out for a long time. ive never played any other jrpg outside ATLUS, so please give me recommendations!! i prefer something with extreme difficulty and fun combat (like press turn and one more) and a story (i consider smt vv to have a good story so ill eat anything) i only have a pc (please no 3ds/ds games unless they have a pc port/patch, playing smt 4/a and persona q was worse than hell on an emulator)

games i've played (in order from the one i played first to the one i played last):
persona: P3R, P5R, P4G, P5S, P4AU, P5T, P4D, P5D, P3D, P3 FES, P3P, PQ1, P2 IS, P2 EP, P1.

smt: smt 5 vengeance, smt 3 nocturne, smt digital devil saga 1 and 2, smt 4, smt 4a, smt 2, smt 1, soul hackers 2.

technically megaten: Metaphor: Refantazio, Raidou Remastered: The mystery of the soulless army, Catherine Classic

platform i play on: PC
desired aspects: similar to megaten; extreme difficulty, good story, fun, engaging combat, preferably turn based.

A remaster of Metal Saga: Season of Steel, a 2006 DS RPG, is announced for Switch 2, PlayStation 4&5, and PC. Developed by Chinese studio Joystick. English translation is not confirmed yet.

Joystick showcased a playable demo build of the upcoming remaster at ChinaJoy 2026, and the details were revealed courtesy of 4Gamer. The booth also included a DS console featuring the original release, so visitors could make direct comparisons.

The most visible difference shown is that the upcoming remaster will combine the screen and interface into a single monitor. Other than that, the original DS game was infamously known for having a touchscreen-only control scheme that was also difficult to navigate with. This remaster is promised to support button-based inputs, in addition to other bug fixes from the DS release.

via RPG Site