8 PS4 JRPGs You Should Avoid

2 weeks ago 5

Published May 26, 2026, 8:30 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 PS4 was a rough time for JRPGs, and that's being kind. The genre was so far gone at this point that you kind of had to grit your teeth to enjoy the "good" JRPGs out there. Games like Final Fantasy 15 and Tales of Arise were decent games, but ones that felt a far cry away from what the golden era of the genre had to offer.

It lost the magic; it just didn't have companies that wanted to buy into what made the JRPG genre special to begin with. Too many of the classic companies were gone or had moved onto other consoles.

8 Best JRPGs That Aged Like Fine Wine

These JRPGs can still teach a thing or two to their modern counterparts.

We're going to check out some PS4 games that I think you can comfortably pass on today.

8 Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness

Lost in Space

Where do we even begin with this disaster? After a staggering 7 years without a new game in the franchise, 2016 finally brought back the Star Ocean series with Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness, and the result was something that is easily the worst game in the series. The graphics were awful, the story was painfully bad, and the characters, on which the series has built its reputation, were the most forgettable bunch of generic, anime tropey garbage that we'd seen in a long time.

If there is a saving grace here, I guess you could say the combat was okay, with some cool attacks and a decent amount of depth, but the enemies were boring in their design, the environments were incredibly dull and the exploration that the series had always been great about felt so limited, like a game forced out on a limited budget despite being one of the biggest JRPG series to ever exist. It was a disaster and seemed to be the beginning of the end of the Star Ocean property until it was revived years later.

7 Final Fantasy XV

Not Royal Enough

I want to make an important distinction here. Final Fantasy XV: Royal Edition is a wonderful game that feels very close to what the original vision of the developers was with this game, with tons of new quests, new bosses, expanded exploration, and much more story. The base game, however, I can't recommend. When Final Fantasy XV was first released, it was just such a disappointment. From the lack of ability to play as your different party members to the story that just felt completely unfinished due to upcoming and, as of that point, unannounced DLC, it was just a ridiculous mess of an experience.

On top of that, the game just felt empty. We had this massive open world, with seemingly not all that much to do in it. It was so incredible to look at, but it really had little to offer other than that. We had a great villain in Ardyn, but the 4 Chocobros got little to no backstory and were just kind of there to be good buds to Noctis. Of course, the DLC would add all of that later, but you should never have to pay for story. There are massive sections of plot just seemingly cut, like the infamous Leviathan segment and the absolutely horrendous horror section that made fans wonder just what the hell was happening. So again, Royal Edition, great, basic edition, bad.

6 Valkyria Revolution

A Genre Shift

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Valkyria Revolution took all the goodwill of the franchise and decided to just throw it out the window in order to create an underwhelming action RPG that felt more like a poor attempt at a Dynasty Warriors game than anything close to the tactical and deep gameplay the Valkyria Chronicles series had been known for up to this point.

This is just one of those games that makes you ask, "Why?" Why do this? Why did this series need a big-time revival and upgrade to the next generation instead of just throwing away everything this series was built on? There are some decent parts, like the combat, and the graphics are colorful and nice to look at sometimes, but the experience just feels like such a misstep. There were so many directions for the series to go. This was the direction nobody asked for, nobody wanted, and it effectively caused it to lose steam almost entirely.

5 Lost Sphear

Lost Ambition

Lost Sphear comes from the developers behind I Am Setsuna, which was a throwback to the golden age of JRPGs, and this follow-up just didn't do much to bring back those fond memories. The graphics were basic, looking like a late PS2 game more than a PS4 game, and it just felt like the ambition to do more than I Am Setsuna wasn't there. They felt like they were resting on their laurels, and the problem is that those laurels weren't all that amazing to begin with.

It's like getting a C+ on a test and going, "Yeah, I don't think I need to push any further." The combat was grindy and while there was a cool idea to the story where memories can create present-day reality, it felt like it was setting up dominoes the whole time that should've eventually fallen, and they just don't. The writing felt amateurish, and it just struggled to grip anyone who was dying for that nostalgia shot. This was the era right before the JRPG hit its second golden era, and while it's not the worst game ever, it's a skippable JRPG in its purest form.

4 Valkyrie Elysium

Killing the Name

Valkyrie Elysium is just a game that didn't need to happen. Plain and simple here. Why, when you have a property as great as Valkyrie Profile, would you turn it into a generic action RPG? It was a baffling decision. Let's piss off the entire fanbase that still talks about a series to this day. Brilliant idea. At its core, it's not a terrible game, with some cool mechanics where you can summon some companions to fight with, and it all looks very good in action; it's just one of those games that had no real audience.

It was a Devil May Cry-like game with RPG elements, and it was a fine package overall. But nobody cared. This thing could've got a 9/10, and it still probably wouldn't have made much of an impact. It had the name of a series that people loved, with the gameplay of a series completely disconnected from it. It had some good ideas, a rather compelling story that built on the series lore, and it just didn't work because it was made for nobody in particular.

3 Freedom Wars Remastered

All the Wrong Moves

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Freedom Wars Remastered is a game that feels sort of like Attack on Titan if it happened in the future. That's a great premise for sure, but for some reason, this game just doesn't hit for me at all. The combat should be epic and thrilling because of the nature of these monstrosities constantly invading. There are a healthy number of weapons and ways to fight, but it all feels way too generic. It was originally a PS Vita game, and the remastered version just didn't add much to the experience.

It feels so generic, with a lengthy—and I mean lengthy tutorial mission that feels like it's setting up some epic fights in the main game. Unfortunately, the tutorial is all you get. It's the same mission over and over and over again. The graphics are underwhelming, the characters are as stock anime as it gets, and despite the pretty intriguing setup, it just didn't work for me at all. I started playing it right after watching Attack on Titan, so I really should've been easy to impress here, and still, I fell off immediately.

2 Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin

Jack of No Trades

Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin

Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin is a game with unparalleled combat depth. Seriously, I can't think of another game that has this much variety in terms of combat. However, that's about all this game has going for it. When people see Final Fantasy, they want a story, they want great characters, they want exciting worlds, and great villains. There is none of that here. The maps are repetitive as hell, which, unfortunately, is a Team Ninja calling card, and the characters are some of the worst the series has ever seen.

The highlight, if there is one, is the ever memeable Jack, who listens to 2000s Nu Metal and is the definition of the word Edgelord. While the combat is fun, there is just nothing else to keep you playing here. The story is awful, with only a loose connection to Final Fantasy games in general, and it takes so long to get going that you're likely to have given up before any part of it gets interesting. The maps should've been better to support the awesome combat, but I fell off this one before I got to see what all the Chaos nonsense was about, and I felt like I didn't miss out. If you're just dying for a different kind of Final Fantasy game, then this is worth a shot. Just don't go in expecting to be wowed.

1 Left Alive

Only For the Few

Left Alive is a game that I won't say is a terrible game, because it needs at least one defender in this world. As a spinoff to the great Front Mission series, Square Enix thought about diving into a hybrid JRPG, Metal Gear Solid experience with this one, which received some mixed results. It really tries, with a variety of characters to play, some cool combat set pieces, and a complex story, but it's a mess. The combat is underwhelming, with a weird mix of stealth and action segments that don't really ever seem to mesh that well.

It's also just wildly difficult. It feels like the developers actually hate the player while you play this game. I guess in some ways it's a very realistic look at what sneaking around a battlefield like an enemy would feel like, but on the other hand, it gives you so few tools to be stealthy that it makes you wonder why these characters are even trying here. There is an audience for this game, I think, and it's me and the 10 most dedicated and proud Left Alive fans.