World of JRPGs

I guess i start with my quite weak gaming year 2025 in comparison to my other years. My games were

• Ethernights
• Clair Obscure: Expedition 33
• Digimon Story Time Strangers
• The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie
• Octopath Traveler II
• A Hundret Line: Last Defense Academy
• 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim
• Fire Emblem Engage (flier only)

I say it's a weak year because i haven't finished 3 games on this list, even though i want to. That's all because of personal stuff, but i want to play more games 2026 again.

I can't even say which is my favorite, Clair Obscure: Expedition 33 is received a ridicilous amout of awards, but it think it's hype is a bit annoying, because i think of it of a very good game, but not exceptional.

The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie is not the strongest trails title for me. It's again a good game in my opinion, but i expect more of the finish of act 1, but Trails of Cold Steel III/IV and Trails to Azure are better.

Maybe it will be A Hundret Line: Last Defense Academy, but haven't finished it.

Digimon, maybe i was for sure the fastest i have finished because irl reasons and felt the best to play at the moment. Let's say Digimon Story Time Strangers is my favorite because it was there at the best time to play it, not because it's the best game.

Vaguely in order from worst to best, always referencing the most recent release:

• Baten Kaitis Origins Just worse in pretty much every way compared to the original.
• Super Mario RPG It does show it's age and feels way too simplistic for my taste.
• Pokemon Legends Arceus I loved the first area. In fact I spent so much time there, every other area became boring since I was overleveled and already had most of the Pokemon. Needs some serious balancing.
• Baten Kaitos There is much to be loved as the game does so many things you normally don't see. However, a good chunk of mechanics is best ignored as the game progresses and battles become monotonous.
• Star Ocean Second Story R Kinda a repeating thing this year, the first half was awesome, the second half not so much. Both story and many mechanics took a nosedive.
• Harvestella All around really solid but simplistic. The story goes hard after a certain point and at the end I felt like I finished multiple games.
• Xenoblade X I love everything Xenoblade, but this one has a few problems. E.g. Skells. They don't scale with anything and are so much better than ground combat, they basically drain the RPG elements out of the game once you get them. Beat the entire second half without ever changing my Skell. Also, much more personal, I much prefer the headcanon I built for half a decadd over the new story elements added in the remaster.
• Metaphor A mixed bag. There is so much good compared to Persona 5, but having endless mana regen just completely kills any challange and led to way less thightly designed dungeons.
• Pokemon Conquest I just love SRPGs and having multiple layers and meta progression between dozens of different stories made it perfect to play every so often. Placement is heavily biased, playing a few campaigns with my partner is a tradition for the holiday season. A good chunk of maps is really annoying if you play the game for longer stretches.

100% complete playthroughs of all three of Xenoblade Chronicles 1, 2, and 3.  including the expansion packs.

I'm a single dad and only played in my own time, and started in February; finishing all three felt like a major personal achievement.  Overall roughly 800 hours total (but again, went for 100% completion, only missed a couple of the superbosses), and finished the whole run in Dec 25th.

I started one I can't remember the name but final fantasy 12 took over my gaming for the end of 2025. just past draklor and doing side quests atm.

I played through the following JRPG/JRPG-adjacent games this year:

• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
• Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
• Final Fantasy XVI
• Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles
• Fire Emblem Engage
• Trails through Daybreak 2

My two favorites were FF16 and E33, but I'd be hard-pressed to pick one over the other. I enjoyed FF16 quite a bit more than I thought I would, despite all the negative word-of-mouth I heard about it. At this point, I view E33 as a very impressive freshman effort from a new studio, but lacking some polish. That soundtrack, though, will stand as one of the top works of the decade, I'm sure of it.

In other genres, I continued playing Honkai: Star Rail, and I finished:

• 1000xRESIST
• The Great Ace Attorney: Adventures
• Hades 2
• Kaizen: A Factory Story
• The Last of Us 2
• Pathfinder: Kingmaker
• Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous

This one's easy: I thought Hades 2 was damn near flawless, and easily the best game I played this year. My biggest complaint about the game--the ending--was actually addressed in the first post-live patch, so that's cool.

Overall, I'd call this a fairly average year for me. Outside of Wrath of the Righteous being super disappointing, no big surprises, either. Maybe a little unexciting, just your usual good and bad.

JRPG or JRPG-like games I played in 2025

• Astral Chain
• Neir: Replicant
• Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Future Redeemed (DLC. Played the main game previous year)
• Xenoblade Chronicles X: DE

That reminds me I should play Neir: Automata this year too, didn't mention it in the other post though.

Edit: Oh, also played Fire Emblem: Three Houses, but only completed one and half route yet, so still playing it. Will probably list it in my 2026 games.

• Yakuza 8 infinite wealth: I had a lot of fun with it, platinum it. Story is a bit wonky but Ichiban and Kiryu in the same team is very hype. My favorite this year. I don't like their dlc structure.
• FF7 Rebirth: pretty fun but it has flaws. The story is... something, but the gameplay offers a lot. It still feel like there's a lot of missed opportunities. Hard mode is not fun.
• Dragon Quest 3 2dhd: it was fun at first but I really had to force myself through the last section of the game, it went on for too long. Didn't try to do the bonus content, DQ is just not my jam.
• Live A Live remaster: I love this game, very pretty, but I almost feel like I like the snes version better because I can fast forward the bad parts. My #2.
• Octopath Traveller 2: I didn't get very far, the gameplay loop felt too similar to the first game, the stories didn't drag me in. Pretty though.
• Clair Obscur Expédition 33: I'm struggling with it. I don't like the dodge mechanic, it has way too much impact during battles, but I understand why people love it.
• Eiyuden Chronicles: currently playing through it on Hard Mode. The story is predictable but that doesn't stop me from enjoying it. It has a lot of charm, especially the characters. So far my #3.