Worst 10 JRPG's

Only two Top 10's in, and I'm already out of ideas. Well, that's not true, I mean, how hard is it to think of stuff to make Top 10's of when it comes to gaming? That said, I'd recently thought about what the worst RPG's I've ever played were, so figured it was good fodder for a Worst 10. Can't really call it a Token Top 10 though. Woefully Worst 10, maybe? Unsurprisingly, most of these came out during the JRPG boom that occurred once FF7 came out. It should be mentioned that I only finished one of following games, but you usually really only have to play a JRPG for a few hours to know if it's any good or not.

10. SAGA Frontier 2

Admittedly, this one actually isn't too bad, but when I thought of all of the JRPG's I'd played, this one struck me as rather annoying. Though, I do recall it being an extremely pretty game with it's hand-drawn water colour art style, I've never really liked anything about the SAGA series, except for the art and music. And that's not enough to hold a game together. Also, I've never played Unlimited SAGA, so I can't put that on the list, though I've heard it's terrible.

9. Granstream Saga

A truly bizarre JRPG with an top-down view that wasn't isometric. However, it would switch to a different camera angle during battle and cutscenes. But for some reason they didn't give any of the characters in the game a face. That's right, all of the characters in the game have a body, head and hair, but they didn't give them faces. Would an extra texture map for the faces have been that hard to put in? No idea what they were thinking. Cool anime cutscenes though.

8. Shadow Madness

A super boring battle system can sometimes break an RPG, and this is a really good example of that. Though, it's not like the graphics or sound were particularly great either, the battle system was absolutely dull and uninspired. I also couldn't tell you anything about the story. It would've been a complete failure if it wasn't for the fact that the game did have a unique sense of humour, particularly because it was sort of a western JRPG. It was developed by CRAVE, an american company, so this game is sort of an anomaly for its time.

7. Hyperdimension Neptunia

Apparently the sequels are better, but this one was enough to put me off of the series for good. It was enough to put me off of NIS America games for good actually. Sad really, because the series has a lot of old school SEGA references that would be right up my alley. I honestly couldn't play this game without feeling a mixture of seedy (because of the dodgy anime girls) and bored (because every other aspect of the game is absolutely boring). The JRPG elements that are in here are barebones and stereotypical. Definitely avoid, unless you're into scantily clad anime girls and endless innuendos.

6. Guardian's Crusade

Maybe I just wasn't the target audience for this one. I guess this was more intended as a children's JRPG, but of course, wanting to play every single one that came out (at least back then), I had to give it a shot. I remember the graphics being vibrant, but the gameplay itself was incredibly simplistic. Being directed at children, the story obviously wasn't particularly interesting either. I do admire the fact that a company decided to put out a JRPG directed at children though.

5. Final Fantasy: Lightning's Return

I seriously hate games that give you a time limit in which to get to the end of a game. Luckily, I don't know of any JRPG's that have that mechanic. Except for this one. Are you having a laugh!? One of the major things in a JRPG is exploration, and you're going to actively hamper that by putting me on a time limit!? Such a stupid decision. Maybe it's not so bad if you know exactly what you're doing. However, if you're playing the game for the first time, you don't. The worst FF I've ever played by a country mile.

4. Koudelka

This game to me seemed like a mixture of a JRPG and a Survival Horror. A bit like Parasite Eve, except bad. Like Saga Frontier 2, I do recall the game being graphically pretty, but like Shadow Madness, the battle system absolutely killed it for me. I can deal with bad battle systems if they're over quickly and don't happen so often, but this was not the case in Koudelka. The Shadow Hearts games are a continuation of this series, and apparently they're very good, so the potential was definitely there.

3. Enchanted Arms

When I first got my PS3, this and Elder Scrolls Oblivion were the games I got with it. This being the only JRPG out for the PS3 at the time. Since it was pretty much a launch title, I didn't except too much (much like Evergrace on the PS2). It certainly delivered on that front. Crappy battle system, boring characters and nothing too memorable about the story make for a bad JRPG. I don't even recall it looking that great, even though it was one of the first PS3 games I'd played.

2. Holy Magic Century

Also known as Quest 64, this game has a bit of a reputation as being one of the worst JRPG's of all time. I actually finished this game though. Mainly because there was a spell you could spam (Earthquake?) and just mow through everything in the game, but also because it was pretty much the only JRPG for the N64. At the time, I only had an N64, so this was a good as it was going to get.

1. Technomage

Techno-what? Yeah, most people probably haven't heard of this game. I believe it was a PAL only release for the PS1, and there's a good reason for that: It's terrible. But worse than that, it's unmemorable. Honestly, I can't tell you a single thing about it. Can't recall the battle system, the graphics, the music or even the characters or story. But I do know that I played it. All of the other games on this list have something that sticks out in my mind, good or bad. This has nothing. That's what makes it the worst JRPG I've ever played.

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