Best JRPGs With Great Replay Value

2 weeks ago 6

Murillo Zerbinatto is a contributor from Brazil. He's an RPG enthusiast (with a focus on JRPGs) who has been around the world of games and content creation for more than five 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 RPGs is already a time-sinking endeavor, Murillo doubles down by being a platinum hunter as well.

It is well known that JRPGs are famously long games compared to other genres. That is true for most RPGs, sure, but JRPGs take the cake because, more often than not, they are story-heavy, and you will spend far more time watching cutscenes than actually playing.

That is not an absolute rule, however, since we have plenty of JRPGs that are more gameplay-focused than story-driven. Still, playing a JRPG ultimately requires a significant time investment, which often leads us to play a game only once. I, for one, rarely replay JRPGs, unless they have a trophy that demands it.

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

The thing is, there are still a few JRPGs with high replay value, games you can keep coming back to and always find a fresh kind of fun. In this list, I will show which titles I consider to have the biggest replay factor and how you can enjoy consecutive playthroughs without burning out.

9 Star Ocean: The Second Story R

Recruit New Characters

Star Ocean: The Second Story R

To me, Star Ocean is one of the most underrated series out there. Despite offering unusual features since its inception, such as an insane Item Creation system, a blend of sci-fi and fantasy settings, and the Private Actions system, the franchise never quite reached the pedestal it deserved. That changed, at least a little, with the remake Star Ocean The Second Story R.

For those unaware, Star Ocean The Second Story R features 13 party members in total, but you can only recruit eight in a single playthrough. This already starts with your protagonist selection, either Claude or Rena, since each one has exclusive characters tied to their run. Then, as you might expect, you need to choose who will join your universe-trotting quest.

That alone already gives Star Ocean The Second Story R a high replay value. Then we have the amazing Item Creation system. Those who master this crafting system can completely break the game early on, creating endgame equipment before even assembling a full party. It is a JRPG that truly rewards players who engage with its mechanics.

8 SaGa Frontier

New Protagonist, New Playthrough

Best JRPGs With High Replay Value - Saga Frontier

This one feels a bit like cheating, but it works exactly as intended for those who enjoy replaying the same JRPG over and over again. SaGa Frontier lets you pick one of seven protagonists, or eight in the remastered version, and follow their storyline. While each character has their own plot, the areas you wander through, the quests you find, and the recruitable characters are pretty much identical.

Still, each protagonist offers something new. Red, for instance, has the most traditional, story-driven journey, while Lute offers the most open-ended structure, letting you freely gallivant around before tackling the main objective.

Because SaGa Frontier is packed with hidden variables, every playthrough ends up being surprisingly engaging. You might complete a new side quest with a different protagonist, use new weapons and glimmer previously unseen techniques, or even recruit entirely different party members. And do not stop with SaGa Frontier, since you can do this with pretty much any other SaGa game as well, especially Scarlet Grace or Emerald Beyond.

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7 Trials of Mana

Bunch of Classes to Test

The main character and their party in a cave (Trials of Mana)

I love earning a platinum trophy, but I hate it when a game requires multiple playthroughs. Still, some JRPGs are worth it because they offer meaningful differences across runs, and Trials of Mana is a great example.

First, depending on the protagonist you choose, you get a different storyline and a distinct villain. The core of the game stays essentially the same, but there are still some changes here and there. The most fun part, however, is the fact that each character has a class, and you can evolve them through different paths.

So, if in one playthrough you used Hawk, Riesz, and Angela and took them all down the light-aligned class path, in the next one, you can play with the other three party members and follow the dark class route. Then, in a third run, you can mix and match members and classes, constantly refreshing your quest. The outcome is the same, but the execution differs, which dramatically enhances enjoyment across multiple playthroughs.

6 Triangle Strategy

Branching Storylines

Best JRPGs With High Replay Value - Triangle Strategy

JRPGs with branching storylines, like Triangle Strategy, are both a blessing and a curse. For anxious players like me, while it means you have plenty of content to choose from, it also means you will miss a lot of it by playing only once. That is the blessing: you can replay the game and catch glimpses of story paths you have never seen before, as long as you are not tired of the gameplay.

Triangle Strategy has four endings depending on your choices, as well as recruitable party members who also vary based on your decisions. The Scales of Conviction system helps determine major in-game decisions, with your own characters weighing in on the outcome.

Sometimes you fail to persuade your party members to pick the decision you wanted, or maybe now you want to try a new strategy by selecting different party members. You can do that. Just replay Triangle Strategy. The game feels like it was designed with multiple playthroughs in mind, and luckily, that is exactly what this list is about.

5 Chrono Trigger

Thank You, New Game+

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Chrono Trigger is famous for many things, especially for being considered one of the best JRPGs ever made. The game also introduced a mechanic that, while it was featured in earlier titles, was coined and popularized by Trigger: New Game+.

Basically, after finishing the game, you can start a new run using your old save, carrying over your party’s levels, items, equipment, and more, completely steamrolling the early areas. In many JRPGs, this is just mindless fun, but in Chrono Trigger, it becomes an opportunity to unlock one of the 12 endings (or 13 if you are playing the DS version).

Depending on when you face Lavos in the timeline, you will get a different ending. That is just how time travel works. Defeat Lavos before meeting Frog, and he stays an amphibian forever. What if you defeat Lavos after dealing with Magus? Looks like Glenn gets his human form back. If I had to pick the JRPG I have replayed the most in my gaming life, it would definitely be Chrono Trigger.

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4 Fire Emblem: Three Houses

Three Houses, Four Paths

Fire Emblem: Three Houses

I know there are probably better Fire Emblem games to replay, but for the sake of simplicity, I am sticking with Fire Emblem: Three Houses. After all, it has four branching paths, so if you want to see everything and get the most out of the game, you will naturally need to replay it.

Is it painfully boring to repeat all the monastery sections and early chapters until you reach the branching point again? Yeah, absolutely. But that is part of replayability. And you can always try new strategies, tackle a higher difficulty, or build an entirely untried party. They are your students, your call.

I know I am stretching the argument a bit here just to make a point because, technically, Fire Emblem: Three Houses does offer a lot of replayability, but that does not necessarily mean it provides endless enjoyment on repeat runs. Still, fun is subjective, and I have seen people speedrun JRPGs thousands of times and enjoy every second of it.

3 Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter

The Secret Is Replaying the Game

10 Dense JRPGs That Give Beginners No Chance - Dragon Quarter

Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter

I always say that Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter was released ahead of its time. Direct comparisons with Breath of Fire IV do not do this entry justice, since it took a bold approach to gameplay that heavily relies on replayability, borrowing ideas straight from roguelikes.

In Dragon Quarter, we play as Ryu, a ranger with the lowest possible D-Ratio of 1/8192. This works like a caste system, and our dragon boy sits at the very bottom. Throughout the game, we encounter locked doors that only open for characters with a higher D-Ratio. And how do you increase your D-Ratio, you might ask? Simply by staring at the Game Over screen and restarting the game.

Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter is extremely difficult and fully expects you not to beat it on your first playthrough. In fact, it encourages you to reset because doing so lets you start a New Game+, making your next run easier. On top of that, the Scenario Overlay System introduces more story cutscenes the more you play, reinforcing that constant sense of replayability.

2 Pokémon

Nuzlocke Rules

Pokémon is one of the few JRPGs I genuinely enjoy replaying. Initiating with a new starter, changing my team all the time, getting blessed by RNG, and finding a shiny, there are plenty of factors that can make a new playthrough feel fresh. But let me tell you about something else that can really amplify your enjoyment: Nuzlockes.

Pick your favorite Pokémon title and look up the Nuzlocke rules. First, if your Pokémon faints in battle, it is considered dead, meaning you can no longer use it. Second, only the first Pokémon that appears in a given route or area can be captured, and if you fail to catch it, you lose the chance to capture any Pokémon in that area.

And that is basically it. You add a heavy dose of RNG to your run, which not only raises the tension by putting everything in Lady Luck’s hands, but also forces you to adopt unusual strategies to face every trainer out there. Best of all, you do not need to pick a specific Pokémon game, since Nuzlocke rules apply to any entry in the series, including your favorite one.

1 Final Fantasy V

The Four Job Fiesta

Best JRPGs With High Replay Value - Final Fantasy V

Are you familiar with the Four Job Fiesta? It is a beautiful annual charity event that challenges players to complete Final Fantasy V using a specific ruleset defined by the event. As the name suggests, you can only use four Jobs in your party, and each character must embody at least one of them.

Different run types in the event can also change the game’s initial dynamics. Some runs, like Typhoon, increase the odds of getting Jobs from earlier Crystals, while Volcano runs are more likely to give you later Jobs. That means if you only get Monk from the Wind Crystal, your entire party will be punching enemies until you reach the next Crystal.

While the Four Job Fiesta charity event only happens once a year, you do not need to wait for it to roll around to try your own unofficial run. Final Fantasy V is already, by nature, a highly replayable game, but this kind of challenge run raises the stakes even higher and guarantees an entirely different kind of fun.