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Published Apr 17, 2026, 3:40 PM EDT
Murillo Zerbinatto is a contributor from Brazil. He's a JRPG enthusiast who has been around the world of games and content creation for more than six years now. He has a particular love for Final Fantasy and has absorbed all the content this long-running series offers, including its obscure spinoffs such as Dimension I & II, Explorers, and My Life as a King. While playing JRPGs is already a time-sinking endeavor, Murillo doubles down by being a platinum hunter as well.
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We know some developers who are household names in the JRPG world. Ask any acquaintance who is a JRPG fan if they know Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Persona, Kingdom Hearts, or maybe even Tales of and Star Ocean, and they probably will. Not only are the franchises famous, but so are the developers behind them.
But for every major title that Square, Atlus, and Bandai Namco release, some smaller ones end up passing the crowd by for whatever reason. Maybe it's a lack of marketing, or the game didn't have much buzz at its launch and quickly fell into obscurity. It doesn't mean they are bad games, they are just not talked about as much.
In today's list, I want to present some little-known JRPGs from famous developers that didn't hog the spotlight like more famous franchises. When I talk about famous developers, I mean the JRPGs they developed, not just the ones they published. Walk with me on the B-side of the JRPG industry.
10 ASH: Archaic Sealed Heat
Rise from the Ashes
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Mistwalker |
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Nintendo |
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October 4, 2007 |
I understand that Mistwalker might not necessarily be one of the most famous developers in the world, but it is still helmed by Hironobu Sakaguchi, the father of Final Fantasy, one of the most acclaimed JRPG series, if not the most.
Mistwalker's most famous titles are certainly Lost Odyssey, Blue Dragon, and the recent Fantasian, but did you know that in the meantime, the dev also created ASH: Archaic Sealed Heat, a Nintendo DS tactical JRPG? In ASH, we play as Aisya, who is chasing the monster that burned down her kingdom of Millinear. Aisya has the power to revive the deceased as ash warriors, quite similar to Valkyrie Profile.
On the battlefield, the game plays as a tactical RPG. We move through grids, and we can search each one for items or engage in battle with enemies. Once a battle starts, it plays as a traditional turn-based fight, with each member using their magic, and it ends as soon as one side is defeated or if we flee. Units also have classes, which determine their skills, strengths, and weaknesses.
9 Boktai: The Sun is In Your Hands
Almost Literally
Boktai: The Sun is in Your Hand
Boktai: The Sun is In Your Hands was not only produced by a famous developer in terms of the company, but also by an illustrious developer known as Hideo Kojima. After developing Metal Gear Solid 2 and before launching Snake Eater, he produced this GBA JRPG that clearly presented an innovation because, well, Kojima.
On the surface, Boktai: The Sun is In Your Hands seems to be an action RPG like any other. However, its most distinct mechanic is that to use some battery-powered weapons, we need to recharge the cartridge. You didn't read that wrong, trust me. Boktai's cartridge came with a photometric light sensor, which recharged while in the sun.
There were clearly workarounds if you were the type of gamer who hates touching grass, but anyone who had a GBA knows that an external light was necessary just to see the screen, so the feature made sense. Only Kojima could come up with something that novel even in a JRPG.
8 Sweet Home
Prehistoric Capcom
During the SNES era, Capcom wanted to dive headfirst into the JRPG wave, and thankfully so, because they launched the Breath of Fire series, my lifelong favorite. However, it wasn't just with Ryu's draconic adventures that Capcom emerged in this scenario. Even before Breath of Fire, and especially Resident Evil, they were already testing the waters with Sweet Home.
Sweet Home is an NES JRPG set in a haunted mansion. I know what you're thinking, and yeah, you're right: it was used as the basis for the first Resident Evil. To be honest, the combat part is the most forgettable aspect of Sweet Home, because most confrontations were resolved with just basic attacks.
The game's focus was puzzle-solving and party management. We could control five members, each with an innate tool, such as a Lighter, Camera, and Key. However, at any given time, we could only form a party of three, leaving the others behind. So it was necessary to keep swapping between them at every moment if you wanted to progress and discover the mysteries of the mansion.
7 Kartia: The Word of Fate
The Power of Cards
When I'm watching a gaming showcase and the Atlus logo appears on the screen, I already sit up in my chair and start paying more attention. I never imagined the developer would become synonymous with excellence, or rather, a reference in the JRPG genre, but here we are. After many games with questionable quality, Atlus finally found its footing and forgot what it's like to miss.
However, not all games were negligible. The PS1 had a great selection of tactical JRPGs, including Kartia: The Word of Fate. The game plays like a typical strategy game, but with the added benefit of the Kartia system. They are cards used to summon phantoms as party members, cast spells, or create weapons for human party members.
It is possible to combine Kartias to create more powerful individuals and bolster our party. If a phantom dies, the game continues. However, if it's a human, it's game over. Another interesting point is that we could destroy terrain, adding an extra layer of strategy to each combat.
Related
10 PS1 JRPGs Still Trapped on Original Hardware
Some are in dire need of a port, I would say, simply because I want to replay them.
6 Soma Bringer
An Anime Hack and Slash
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Monolith Soft |
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Nintendo |
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February 28, 2008 |
Nowadays, Monolith Soft is known as Nintendo's wizards. It's because of their tricks and development techniques that they manage to make massive games like Xenoblade Chronicles run on the Switch, which allowed them to lend this know-how to the creation of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
Before Xenoblade, Monolith had produced Xenosaga and Baten Kaitos, both relatively well-known series. Meanwhile, the developer also created Soma Bringer, a little-talked-about Nintendo DS JRPG, at least here in the West.
Despite its more colorful anime presentation, Soma Bringer has gameplay similar to Western hack-and-slash titles. After choosing a character, you pick a class, each with its weapons, equipment types, and skill tree, and then you set off scouring dungeons. Three characters accompany the party at all times, with one being player-controlled and the others by AI, unless you do a wireless multiplayer session.
5 Child of Light
When Ubisoft Was Fun
Child of Light might be the best-known JRPG-inspired title on the list, but it's worth a shoutout because the game was produced by none other than Ubisoft, the behemoth of game development. Or well, sort of nowadays, but you know what I mean.
Produced by Ubisoft Montreal, Child of Light is a miracle, because I don't imagine such a game would exist today under Ubisoft's umbrella. The gameplay blends turn-based and real-time elements, very much like Grandia. We have a timeline dictating each character's turn, and depending on our actions, we can act earlier or even disrupt the opponent.
The story is darker than it seems. We are in the world of Lemuria, which is where the little girl Aurora finds herself after she dies. To return to the real world, she needs to recover the sun, the moon, and the stars from the Queen of the Night, which makes me believe she wasn't dead at all, just sleeping very deeply.
4 Reynatis
FuRyu Is Always Trying
I'll be the first to tell you to be wary whenever you get excited for a FuRyu JRPG, but the thing is, they really know how to talk the talk, because one way or another, they always bring many industry veterans to work on their games. For this list, I chose one of the most recent releases, Reynatis.
Listen, Reynatis isn't a good game. You can try it if you're interested, but don't say I didn't warn you. However, it doesn't change the fact that it has a soundtrack by none other than the wonderful Yoko Shimomura, responsible for games like Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy XV, and a script by Kazushige Nojima, writer for a bunch of Final Fantasy games, including Final Fantasy VII and its spinoffs.
However, not even the presence of those two was enough to carry the quality of the games on their backs. Reynatis tries to innovate with its action battle involving two modes, called Suppressed Mode and Liberated Mode, but it doesn't engage. I can't speak on the rest of the plot because I dropped it, but yeah, it fits the article's prompt.
3 Guns Undarkness
Project with Great Potential
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Shoji Meguro |
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Kodansha |
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2026 |
I'm going to cheat a bit on this one because it's a game that hasn't been released yet, but I think it's worth our attention. Guns Undarkness is being produced by Shoji Meguro, the composer of Shin Megami Tensei and Persona. If there's one thing every fan of those series can confirm, it's that their entire soundtrack is just banger after banger.
Guns Undarkness ran a Kickstarter campaign in 2022 that was quite successful. Although the Steam page says the release is 2026, I have my doubts. The description categorizes it as a "turn-based tactical JRPG inspired by games like Metal Gear Solid and Persona." I mean, what else do we need?
The story is set in 2045, after humanity became too comfortable with technology and created a chasm between social classes, you know, just like today. The gameplay system involves engaging enemies in stealth or behind cover, then initiating turn-based combat with an advantage. It's promising and has potential, but I'm still cautious about my expectations.
2 Little Town Hero
No More Pokémons
Little Town Hero is quite the odd mix. First, it's a Game Freak game released in 2019, meaning it was released while they were preparing the launch of Pokémon Sword and Shield. Second, the game features a composition by none other than Toby Fox, the creator of Undertale. That's a match I wouldn't be expecting.
In the world of Little Town Hero, everyone lives enclosed in a village, blocked by the walls of a castle, and they accept it, except for the protagonist, who wants to go out into the world. One day, when a monster invades the town, the protagonist manages to fight it off using a Red stone he found and finds the perfect excuse to wander through the world.
The battle system in Little Town Hero is turn-based and quite complicated, to be honest. To summarize, each attack is made with Dazzits, which doubles as an action. Each action has an attack and defense value, and the goal is to destroy the enemy's Dazzit. Once their actions are exhausted, we can attack their body and cause direct damage. Some spells cause damage directly to the Dazzit, and we can also move through the map, triggering some events. It just works and makes every battle feel worthwhile instead of relying on infinite random encounters with fodder enemies.
1 Dungeon Encounters
The Return of the ATB
Square Enix has been in the industry for a long time, producing JRPGs both under the Square banner and publishing them through Enix. It is to be expected that throughout its history, some smaller JRPGs were lost or didn't receive much renown. Since it's my favorite company, I always try to give the weirder ones the time of day and, in those endeavors, I've found some rare gems.
I could highlight Harvestella, Voice of Cards, or even old games like Treasure of the Rudras and Bahamut Lagoon. However, I want to talk about a more contemporary one that was somewhat overlooked: Dungeon Encounters. While the game wasn't developed by Square, it has a famous developer at its forefront, Hiroyuki Ito, creator of the ATB system and also director of Final Fantasy IX.
As the name implies, we explore dungeons, but instead of being a 3D exploration, it's all done on a board. The goal is to explore 100 levels, but the dungeon will do everything to stop you, whether through random events or its battles, appropriately dictated by an ATB system. Some say Dungeon Encounters is a streamlined version of Wizardry, which I consider a fitting description.
Next
10 Best JRPGs That Are Unapologetically Weird
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