8 PS3 JRPGs You Should Avoid

1 week ago 6

Published May 17, 2026, 11:30 AM EDT

Adam Braunstein is a Staff Writer at DualShockers who has been covering games professionally since 2019. He primarily writes lists and features, with a focus on RPGs, JRPGs, action-adventure games, VR, long-running franchises, nostalgia, and the broader state of the gaming industry.

Before joining DualShockers, Adam contributed to gaming outlets including Venture 4th, GameSkinny, The Nerd Stash, Attack of the Fanboy, and Daily Gamer. He has also interviewed developers, written occasional guides and news articles, and reviewed games for previous publications. Adam holds a Master’s Degree in Creative Writing.

The PS3 era was not the time for the JRPG to thrive. The magic that the PS1 and PS2 had was just gone, the uniqueness of the art style was gone, and in place was this consistent yet kind of ugly and static 3D blah with terrible environments, characters that had been reduced to a bad-looking 3D anime attempt that never quite hit.

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There were a few solid ones for sure, but too many of them felt overdone or undercooked. I think developers just got complacent, or didn't buy their own idea anymore. Everyone wanted to evolve and catch up with the trends, but in the process, they left the soul of the genre behind.

We're going to check out some PS3 JRPGs that are best left in the past.

8 White Knight Chronicles

Out of Ideas

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No, it's not a game about your Instagram posts in 2018, but instead, White Knight Chronicles is a game that, if you've never, ever played a JRPG before, you could think it's actually something quite special and unique. And that's because it's like asking ChatGPT to write a JRPG. Which is to say, it has all the tropes, the cool moves, the powerful transformations, the kingdom being invaded, and pretty much every level of JRPG idea that's ever been had, is here.

So while you could do worse for sure, you're getting nothing new here. It's got generic characters, generic villains, and generic environments, and while the combat does have unique ideas resembling real-time with a pause system, there is so little here that you haven't seen before. It's just not worth the endless grind that's involved with the game, and the bland environments make it a true slog that is not worth the time.

7 Time and Eternity

A Waste of Great Art

PS3 JRPGs Still Trapped on Original Hardware - Time and Eternity

Time and Eternity is about someone going back in time to stop their own murder. It's a cool idea, and there is some awesome art style here, with gorgeous hand-drawn sprites in combat, which is a style I've wanted for some great JRPGs to have for a long time. But unfortunately, this game wastes that on terrible anime tropes, pervy jokes, and combat that refuses to evolve throughout the course of the game.

Time and Eternity will surely catch your eye, but after you've been fooled, you'll see what it sadly is. The art can only carry so much when the rest of the time is full of fan service, limited exploration, terrible dialogue, and the amateurish feeling that permeates every moment of the game. It could've been a turning point for JRPGs as the art style is absolutely awesome, but everything else absolutely sucks.

6 Cross Edge

All the Flash, None of the Sizzle

Cross Edge has all the elements that you need to be a great JRPG. Amazing looking art, a cool combat system, multiple characters, and a colorful world. But much like most of the games on this list, it's missing that secret sauce that has unlocked the keys to the JRPG hit kingdom for so long.

But that's unfortunately, all the good the game has going for it. The combat is a highlight for sure, but the grind required to be successful in this game is among some of the worst I've ever experienced in a JRPG, and that is really saying a lot. Then, the characters, of which there are plenty, all fall into one bored and tired anime trope or another. Lastly, the frankly uncomfortable fan service segments that use characters that appear to be children. It's a problem with plenty of JRPGs, but here it's just flat out in horrendous taste. Good combat can't save a game that decides to put effort into things that nobody should ever put effort into.

5 Tales of Zestiria

A Tale to Forget

Tales of Zestiria has its defenders, but as far as the Tales series goes, this one is extremely forgettable and an experience I can't really say anyone needs to play unless they've really exhausted the entire series and just want to play every Tales title imaginable. Yes, it's a sequel story to the far superior Tales of Berseria, and in order to get the full scope of that world, I guess you could play this one and grit your teeth through the plainness of it all, but there are several reasons why you shouldn't.

The game world is one of the blandest I've ever seen for a game of this budget. Bandai Namco has some deep pockets, and they seem to have not even tried here. Whether it's the boring villages and cities you'll explore in the dungeons that repeat the same looking rooms over and over again, this is one of the poorest attempts at making a compelling world I've seen in a game.

Then there is the combat, which has some cool ideas and feels fine enough in action, but the camera is a nightmare, and so much of the combat is indoors, and that makes things tough to keep track of because of how cramped it all feels. There is multiplayer, but with this camera, good luck seeing what is even happening on screen, as it's as much of an enemy as the monsters you'll fight in the game. It's a game that, if you can find on sale for $5, you could do worse, but there are far greener pastures in the JRPG world to put too much time into it.

4 Natural Doctrine

The Masochist's Dream

Natural Doctrine - Japanese PS4 Trailer (1)

Natural Doctrine is a game that I came across some years ago and thought it looked great. It's a brutal-looking game that seems to spurn the typical JRPG look. And that comes through with the grittiness of the story and overall look of the game. It's a small-scale story about a soldier that is fighting through goblin hordes, and fighting is a lot of what you'll be doing here.

The problem is that the combat is absurdly obscure. You need a YouTube instructional video to understand half the mechanics in the game. The combat is cool for sure, once you understand what the hell is even happening in the game. There is an initiative order, there is a grid to worry about, and you need to figure out how to even open doors, too. It's just too much.

You can stare at guides for this game for hours and barely understand what you just read. It's not a bad game by any means, and if you're really looking for a crazy challenge, you can give this one a shot, but I'd avoid it because it's just not worth the insane amount of work you need to do to make it an enjoyable experience.

3 Final Fantasy XIII

Missing the Magic

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Some might think this inclusion is heresy, but as a lifelong Final Fantasy fan, with 30 years of experience with the series, I can't recommend the game for a variety of reasons. First off, the main character, Lightning, is the dullest in the series. Yes, she's a badass, she has a cool design, but she's so incredibly dull, and that kind of overrules any of the other stuff for me. But there are other characters, like Snow, who, despite having the look of the classic Final Fantasy hero, won't shut up about being a hero, so couldn't care less or not if he becomes a hero.

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Then characters like Hope and Vanille show up with some of the worst voice acting on earth, and I think many others were begging for poor Sazh to be included in a way better game. Then there's the combat, which I will say eventually, like 20+ hours in, does finally get good, but those opening 20 hours are some of the uninspired combat the series has ever seen.

You control one character the whole time, and though you can switch into different Paradigms, they all feel so weak. Seriously, go look at the magic attacks in this game; they look and feel so bad compared to the rest of the series. While the story is good, this trilogy should've never happened, and, while there are worse games, I can't say this is a game you ever really need to play.

2 Record of Agarest War

Record for Repetition

Record of Agarest War is a game that had so much potential. It's got a great premise, in which you play protagonists who spawn multiple generations of characters to play as. The game is equal parts JRPG and dating sim. Depending on who you date, that offspring becomes the main character. It's a really cool idea that, unfortunately, is caught in a wave of garbage.

The dialogue is painful to sit through, with none of the characters ever really having any personality to speak of, so the relationships you form have no impact whatsoever. The combat is decent enough, with a turn-based grid system that has slick animations and plenty of over-the-top moves that look great, too. However, the fights are endless, and they never take place anywhere interesting at all. What starts as something that feels really cool and new quickly becomes so boring that you couldn't care less what happens in the story, and the overall experience is just too bloated to catch your attention for all that long.

1 Last Rebellion

Close To Being Something

PS3 JRPGs Still Trapped on Original Hardware - Last Rebellion

Last Rebellion has a lot of elements that are quite endearing. Still, it manages to shoot it all down in spectacular fashion over and over again to the point that it's impressive. For example, the story is pretty interesting, about two people that share one soul, but honestly, they do nothing with the concept that stands out. There is also some solid combat here, but there is almost nothing else to do, so it feels like the game wants you to get bored with the combat before you even play enough to really get into it.

For example, the combat takes place in some of the most uninspired environments you've ever seen in a game. Seriously, room to room feels like it's one asset copy and paste after another. The combat, of which the majority of the game will be, has some cool features like targeting body parts of enemies, but the fights go on, and on, and on. Every enemy is a damage sponge, making bosses feel no different than normal enemies. It's also got terrible lip-synching and some horrendous voice acting, too. This was 2010, so there was no excuse for low effort in this regard. Last Rebellion is so lazy that it forgot to put "The" before the title.