JRPGs With Opening Hours So Strong They Immediately Hooked Players for 80+ Hour Journeys

2 hours ago 3

Published Feb 10, 2026, 6:30 PM EST

Adam is a lifelong gamer who enjoys RPGs, action adventure games and a healthy helping of VR to boot. He has written for countless sites in the gaming medium, and you can find him playing the newest souls-like or JRPG.

JRPGs are generally massive games, and they're known for starting in mostly mundane ways. At least, that's part of the time. Other times, the opening hours are so compelling that you're immediately drawn in and ready to dedicate your free time to the game for the foreseeable future.

The ways a game can hook you are numerous, but they generally kick the story off with a bang, rather than a whimper. Little kids waking up in their idyllic little home villages will be nowhere to be found on this list, so keep that in mind.

Collage of the best JRPGs of all time (EarthBound, Chrono Trigger, Kingdom Hearts 2)

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The JRPG genre has a long and storied history full of incredible titles (and quite a few forgettable ones). This list breaks down the best around.

We're going to take a look at JRPGs that have you locked in from the opening hours of the game.

10 Kingdom Hearts

A Most Intriguing Start

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Disney and Final Fantasy? Sure, why not? Back in the early 2000s, Square Enix couldn't miss, and Kingdom Hearts, despite being a wild combo that most people wouldn't dream of, became one of its biggest franchises. Now, it wouldn't have worked had the opening of the game not been so gripping.

Immediately, things feel awfully dark, both visually and figuratively, as you start by fighting strange creatures armed with a bizarre-looking weapon, and you've got no context for anything. Then, out of nowhere, a terrifyingly huge creature attacks. It's much more intense than you'd expect from a Disney product.

You're given a brief respite on Destiny Island, spending time with your friends Riku, Kairi, and Wakka, and everything feels perfectly innocent, capturing a childlike, carefree nature brilliantly. That all comes crashing down shortly after, as a storm hits, and The Heartless appear. All of a sudden, Sora gets chosen by The Keyblade, and you're whisked off to a foreign land, with nothing to guide you but the desire to find your friends.

It's a simple opening that is incredibly intriguing due to the mystery of it all, and no game in the series managed to do it better.

9 Shadow Hearts

A Path Much Darker

Shadow Hearts is a unique JRPG that introduces an incredibly dark and disturbing world from the very beginning. You see a woman, Alice, get attacked while on a train by monsters, and then the protagonist, Yuri, springs into action. But this is far, far from the hero rescuing the damsel in distress here. In fact, the two characters get off to a rather... un-politically-correct start together, and that's all I'll say about that. Clearly, this isn't a lighthearted JRPG or meant for those who get offended easily.

The opening then has the two characters wandering a dark and dreary area filled with monsters. Then you get sent into Yuri's dreamworld, which is just a cemetery filled with all manner of terrifying enemies to fight. It's a whole different flavor of JRPG that was meant to cater to a specific audience, and the opening hours make sure to weed out anybody still searching for some whimsy and hopefulness in the tone. This is not that game, and it's a hidden gem because of it.

8 Xenoblade Chronicles 3

No Time for Innocence

Xenoblade Chronicles 3 starts with you in the midst of a literal war. Immediately, you're introduced to important battle mechanics, and given the state of things, it's clear this war is being fought by those who appear to be very young. It's a wild contrast to the previous game in terms of tone, and for those who didn't vibe with that one for various reasons, the third entry in the series had a much more mature feel to everything from the get-go.

That opening battle segment is a great start, but quickly, things get even more interesting with the discovery of the ability to become Ouroboros and interlink with your teammates to morph into incredibly cool-looking robot forms. It immediately adds a layer to the combat that neither of the previous games in the series had to offer.

From there, the combat gets even more complex and enjoyable, and the stakes are set incredibly high, as you learn that none of these soldiers has a natural lifespan past 10 years. It's tragic, weighty, and played expertly by the voice cast, introducing us to a terrifying situation where, no matter the outcome of this war, our main characters are not long for this world. It's an awesome way to set the table for what would turn out to be an unforgettable adventure.

7 Persona 5

A Thrilling Heist

Persona 5 is a modern classic that starts in thrilling fashion, as you run through a casino, clearly involved in some kind of heist that has some serious stakes. You've got a slick anime cutscene to introduce the main character, Joker, and instantly, the game just drips with "cool." It's not all aesthetic either, as the combat system comes into play immediately, and you get introduced to the fantastically stylish UI, and how the Personas work as well.

It's adrenaline-fueled and gives you just a glimpse into what the rest of the game is going to be like. It's a brief opening for sure, and things do slow down a considerable amount right after it, but that opening salvo aimed right at your endorphins does more than enough to make sure you're coming along for one of the all-time great JRPG rides.

6 Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne

The End of it All

Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne is a game that is for JRPG vets only. The difficulty is one thing, but the way the game starts is also as hardcore as it gets. You play as an ordinary teenager, and then all of a sudden, the world ends. It's not "The world ends, and you have to save it" either. It's over. Everyone you knew and loved is gone; this is the new world. It's a barren apocalypse, and you're simply there to try and figure out just what the heck happened.

It's a chilling opening that I haven't really seen in other JRPGs, and the dour silence of it and the feeling of dread are both palpable and disturbing. This game is dark as all get out, and the opening moments make sure you understand that. There is no black and white in this game world, only shades of gray, and you can either embrace the end of the world or find a new game. It makes a statement from the first moments, and those who stick with it are rewarded heavily.

5 NieR: Automata

The Battle for Earth Begins

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NieR: Automata is a game nobody saw coming. The first Nier was good, but didn't exactly blow anyone away sales-wise. This sequel needed to hit big and hit quick. Luckily, that's exactly what it does. NieR: Automata starts with you joining a fleet of soldiers in a ship, having you play through a short bullet-hell segment before getting boots on the ground and laying the smack down on some alien robots with the most stylish combat seen this side of Devil May Cry.

The action only amps up from there, having you face off against a gargantuan boss within the first 30 minutes. Then, a shocking end to the sequence that sees 9S and 2B nuke themselves to the moon, literally, as they commit a joint suicide to take down the threats and then get rebooted back on their lunar base. From there, you investigate what used to be Earth, seeing a sprawling cityscape that is both beautiful and terrifying, and that's all within the first hour. It's a fantastic intro to a game that will take you places you've never dreamed of.

4 Xenogears

The Call to Action

Xenogears opens with one of the coolest anime sequences ever. You're shown a ship trying to contain some kind of creature, and quickly, things get out of control. Something takes over the ship's controls and turns its own guns on the escape pods filled with people fleeing for their lives. That ship crashes, and a nude woman rises, looking solemnly out in the distance as the rest of the ship's remnants fall to the water. It's a healthy dose of shock mixed with genuine intrigue as to how or why these events will matter to the overall story.

Then, you're thrown into an intense-looking battleground where Fei is controlling a gear, and with little context of who anyone is or what this battle we're seeing is. Finally, we're tossed back to moments earlier, giving us the classic small, quiet town where we see how things all come to play out.

It subverts that concept to me, by showing us utter chaos before giving us the typical "living a quiet, boring life" scenario that so many JRPGs start with. It's immediately compelling, and the opening anime sequence alone is plenty to keep you planted and to keep on playing.

3 Final Fantasy 10

One Heck of a Half-Time Show

Final Fantasy 10 is one of the best JRPGs ever to exist, and it wastes no time in gripping you from the start. You begin watching a sequence that is unheard of in Final Fantasy games to this point, with a full-on sporting event of some kind on display called Blitzball. You're the star athlete, Tidus. After that, you get to greet your fans, you're in this advanced-looking city, and it's got some very "not my Final Fantasy" vibes.

That is, until shortly after that, the terrifying force known as Sin appears, destroying everything, launching you into combat alongside perhaps the coolest party member in JRPG history, Auron. You go from athletic superstar to fighting for your life in seconds, amplifying the stakes considerably. Then, suddenly, everything you know is gone. The city, the creatures you were fighting; all gone.

You're in a different world now and have to figure out just what the heck all that was. It's an incredibly gripping opening sequence that immediately demands your attention, from the dazzling graphics to the amazing cutscenes and clearly upgraded combat system too. It's the perfect appetizer for what is one of the best Final Fantasy titles out there.

2 Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

The Stakes are Set, The Sails are Raised

From the opening 15 minutes of Clair Obscur, I was immediately hooked. Seeing Gustav's ex-girlfriend disintegrate in his hands, the music, the terrifying Paintress being identified immediately as she looms in the distance. It's pure magic. You feel the weight of the mission, and as the opening segment closes, you land on the beach, and immediately, the mission gets far more dire.

Renoir's complete obliteration of the majority of the expedition is one of the most shocking moments in JRPG history. It establishes an additional terrifying threat that will stand in your way to the Paintress. Honestly, the game could've been Frogger from that point on, and I would've played through it to see how it ended.

Thankfully, it was supported by some of the best combat, character development, and visuals a JRPG has ever seen. It was a masterclass in getting players on board from the get-go, and it went a long way towards securing the most Game of the Year Awards in video game history.

1 Final Fantasy 7

The Mission that Changed Everything

Forget the opening hours. The opening seconds of Final Fantasy 7 stand alone in gaming history as perhaps the most iconic opening segment ever. Awesome spiky blonde guy wielding a big sword jumping onto a moving train? Yup, we were all in from that moment, and the ensuing mission is high octane, unleashing a different kind of feel that JRPGs till that point didn't really harness.

While most JRPGs would put you in a quiet town or something of the sort, Final Fantasy 7 has you starting the game on an eco-terrorist bombing mission, complete with maybe the best opening song of all time in any piece of media. The mission is full of combat, and in the process, you get to know your party, led by the enigmatic Barret, who starts things off with a bang by having a literal gun attached to his arm.

It was a different look for JRPGs in general, and it was immediately compelling, somehow managing to introduce the main characters, the overarching threat, and the inciting incident of the game all at once. It's an intro masterclass and one of the biggest reasons the game became as iconic as it is today.