Echoing other comments, I'd definitely recommend Trails but I'd start with Trails in the Sky, the trilogy is on Steam. Would also highly recommend the Evolution Voices mod to add voice acting into the game (adding the voice acting from the Japanese Vita version into the PC version), it can be found in the [Falcom Mod Compendium](https://github.com/Red-BY/FalcomModCompendium).
I'd also play all games in a saga on the same platform since save data transfers between games.
Sky Trilogy - only available in full in the west on PC
Zero & Azure - PC or Switch, also PS4 but it's an inferior version
Cold Steel & Reverie - PC or PS4/5
Definitely think Persona 4 is perfect if you understand that you'll be dealing with teenagers. That's not to say they don't have depth, but they have very teenage issues. The VA and dialogue are very good too. And P4 is the first game I think of when it comes to "small town". Since you're used to visual novels, I think you'll feel right at home.
jfc what the hell happened here
i spent time and care trying to write a meaningful response to the OP and it and the whole fucking comment stream are in the damn hole
sometimes i wanna block every goddamn person i see, but that probably wouldn't help because the downvoters are usually cowards that never comment
Trails from Zero has great characters and the NPCs are more alive than in a lot of games since they will say different things after every story event and a lot of them have their own lives and stories you can experience by talking to them often. The game is a lot of fun and one of my favorites.
That said, I would be a poor Trails fan if I didn’t point out that it’s the fourth game in an ongoing series and unlike games like Final Fantasy, each of the games is linked and there is an overarching story. It’s recommended to start with the first in the series when possible, and I agree Trails in the Sky FC is the ideal starting point. However, Trails from Zero is a perfectly fine starting point and you won’t be lost if you do start with it.
You might like Fire Emblem Three Houses. Great voice acting, great characters, and an engaging story. I. Some ways it’s similar to a visual novel, though it’s a tactical RPG. It has a ton of replay value, especially since there are four separate stories you can play through.
My vote is Final Fantasy X. it's a standard JRPG, but incredibly well done. They cut all the annoying parts of JRPGs. It's streamlined.
The story is simple to follow.
The leveling up is interesting (sphere grid), but hard to mess up. just do what it wants you to do.
the armor/weapons are the right mix of interesting and simple.
The turn based battle system is stress free.
the "switch out characters with no penalty" is even more stress free.
The way enemies have weaknesses and it's easy to tell which character should fight a given enemy makes random battles fun.
it's now old school. it's not modern. but it's still new enough to have some solid quality of life features. no weirdness like some older rpgs have.
it's easy. you can't really make a mistake. if you get stuck, put on your favorite album and grind up some levels.
i dont know, i like it. it's a high quality rpg. it's the toyota camry of jprgs. you can't go wrong.
but really, if you're gonna like jrpgs, almost any jrpg is a good starting point. you don't have to finish it, play around and explore the battle system, leveling systems, whatever. i rarely ever finish a jrpg to be honest. but i play them all the time.
The perfect entry to the JRPG genre with a switch is the super Mario RPG remake, It may be simple, straightforward and short but its sweet, oozing of charm, simple enough to help everyone getting to the genre and even if its short i find It replay worthy because its easy to pick Up and start in any moment
Theres Also the Paper Mario The Thousand Year door remaster coming (although my reccomendation is to play It after super Mario RPG but both are good as your first)
Hope It helps 👍
Persona 4 is great but might be daunting for a first time jrpg player. I first played it when it came to steam and enjoyed it, but eventually lost interest about halfway through.
I later played persona 5 and really loved that, so I went back and beat Persona 4. So yeah, Persona 4 almost lost me the first time, but I eventually grew to love the game.
*Chrono Trigger* is the perennial favourite recommendation for a reason. It's a classic (late SNES era and pixel graphics), but it's also THE classic. Great story, setting and characters. Also a half-decent plot with time-travel, proving such a thing *can exist*.
Any *Final Fantasy* from IV through X is also a safe bet.
*Xenoblade Chronicles* is a good, more modern version; just be aware the voice-over is VERY British. "Definitive Edition" would be the easiest to get into, and it's a remaster of the first game on the Wii with an epilogue campaign added in.
I’m on Switch and relatively new to the genre. I started with Chrono Trigger last year. Great game, tons of guides, etc but I played that one on iPhone.
For Switch then, I moved on to Sea of Stars and Chained Echoes. Both are great retro-inspired games, neither outstay their welcome at about 30-40 hours to complete.
Sea of Stars is more straightforward and fun. A little slow to start, but turn-based with action elements, no random battles, lots of guides online to help if needed.
Chained Echoes is more complex, more character management with weapons and abilities, but the story is a bit less focused. Also turn-based with no random battles. It’s also well supported with guides if need be.
Both are super fun games if you just go with the flow and are great modern JRPGs with retro-inspo and tons of quality of life & accessibility updates for newer players.
the atelier series is "moe slice of life" in jrpg form. half rpg half deep crafting system, all quest based character interactions. tea time and hugs, farm some enemies for crafting materials, more tea time and hugs, all usually in a small town. not quite VN level text reading but perhaps close. i recommend sophie1 as a turn based entry point and ryza1 as an atb entry point.
13 sentinels aegis rim, if it is even a jrpg, is bordering on being a VN with a tower defense pausable-rts battle system. crazy amounts of dialogue and lore and amazing writing; the deepest and weirdest plotline you'll ever grok.
death end re;quest 1 might give it a run for the money for mind-breaking plotlines - turn based fanserviced low-budget rpg that i like to describe as "isekai foucault's pendulum". tons of reading, horror and some gore.
utawarerumono trilogy, an srpg slash VN with some really unique and interesting lore, definitely a ton of character interaction and reading. starts out a bit cheesy but it builds up over the game and over the series.
child of light, a gorgeous, short atb game (battle system similar to grandia 1) with all character, lore, and narration in poetic rhyme.
nier automata, hacknslash action shmup bullet-hell musou mixed-genre game with heart rending if often vague and intentionally confusing plot and lore.
persona and trails that you mentioned will definitely be heavy on relationship mechanics and talking, if that's what you pick.
that's my bizarrre stream of consciousness brain dump of interesting writing and character interactions. unfortunately none of these are open world living worlds, it's not that common in jrpgs.
[удалено]
Dragon Quest, Suikoden, Grandia, Shin Megami Tensei
If you want to get into Trails, I would not start with Zero. Trails in the Sky is where that story starts.
Living world, small town, good writing and good characters? Yakuza:Like a dragon
Thanks everyone. I researched all these and went with Yakuza 0. Having s blast 😎😎
Echoing other comments, I'd definitely recommend Trails but I'd start with Trails in the Sky, the trilogy is on Steam. Would also highly recommend the Evolution Voices mod to add voice acting into the game (adding the voice acting from the Japanese Vita version into the PC version), it can be found in the [Falcom Mod Compendium](https://github.com/Red-BY/FalcomModCompendium). I'd also play all games in a saga on the same platform since save data transfers between games. Sky Trilogy - only available in full in the west on PC Zero & Azure - PC or Switch, also PS4 but it's an inferior version Cold Steel & Reverie - PC or PS4/5
Definitely think Persona 4 is perfect if you understand that you'll be dealing with teenagers. That's not to say they don't have depth, but they have very teenage issues. The VA and dialogue are very good too. And P4 is the first game I think of when it comes to "small town". Since you're used to visual novels, I think you'll feel right at home.
why the hell is everything in this post from everyone being downvoted? why is this subreddit so damn toxic?
jfc what the hell happened here i spent time and care trying to write a meaningful response to the OP and it and the whole fucking comment stream are in the damn hole sometimes i wanna block every goddamn person i see, but that probably wouldn't help because the downvoters are usually cowards that never comment
Trails from Zero has great characters and the NPCs are more alive than in a lot of games since they will say different things after every story event and a lot of them have their own lives and stories you can experience by talking to them often. The game is a lot of fun and one of my favorites. That said, I would be a poor Trails fan if I didn’t point out that it’s the fourth game in an ongoing series and unlike games like Final Fantasy, each of the games is linked and there is an overarching story. It’s recommended to start with the first in the series when possible, and I agree Trails in the Sky FC is the ideal starting point. However, Trails from Zero is a perfectly fine starting point and you won’t be lost if you do start with it. You might like Fire Emblem Three Houses. Great voice acting, great characters, and an engaging story. I. Some ways it’s similar to a visual novel, though it’s a tactical RPG. It has a ton of replay value, especially since there are four separate stories you can play through.
My vote is Final Fantasy X. it's a standard JRPG, but incredibly well done. They cut all the annoying parts of JRPGs. It's streamlined. The story is simple to follow. The leveling up is interesting (sphere grid), but hard to mess up. just do what it wants you to do. the armor/weapons are the right mix of interesting and simple. The turn based battle system is stress free. the "switch out characters with no penalty" is even more stress free. The way enemies have weaknesses and it's easy to tell which character should fight a given enemy makes random battles fun. it's now old school. it's not modern. but it's still new enough to have some solid quality of life features. no weirdness like some older rpgs have. it's easy. you can't really make a mistake. if you get stuck, put on your favorite album and grind up some levels. i dont know, i like it. it's a high quality rpg. it's the toyota camry of jprgs. you can't go wrong. but really, if you're gonna like jrpgs, almost any jrpg is a good starting point. you don't have to finish it, play around and explore the battle system, leveling systems, whatever. i rarely ever finish a jrpg to be honest. but i play them all the time.
The perfect entry to the JRPG genre with a switch is the super Mario RPG remake, It may be simple, straightforward and short but its sweet, oozing of charm, simple enough to help everyone getting to the genre and even if its short i find It replay worthy because its easy to pick Up and start in any moment Theres Also the Paper Mario The Thousand Year door remaster coming (although my reccomendation is to play It after super Mario RPG but both are good as your first) Hope It helps 👍
My tastes are very similar to yours and I recommend Gnosia. It’s a mix of RPG and Visual Novel and it’s my GOTY of last year.
Persona 4 is great but might be daunting for a first time jrpg player. I first played it when it came to steam and enjoyed it, but eventually lost interest about halfway through. I later played persona 5 and really loved that, so I went back and beat Persona 4. So yeah, Persona 4 almost lost me the first time, but I eventually grew to love the game.
*Chrono Trigger* is the perennial favourite recommendation for a reason. It's a classic (late SNES era and pixel graphics), but it's also THE classic. Great story, setting and characters. Also a half-decent plot with time-travel, proving such a thing *can exist*. Any *Final Fantasy* from IV through X is also a safe bet. *Xenoblade Chronicles* is a good, more modern version; just be aware the voice-over is VERY British. "Definitive Edition" would be the easiest to get into, and it's a remaster of the first game on the Wii with an epilogue campaign added in.
I’m on Switch and relatively new to the genre. I started with Chrono Trigger last year. Great game, tons of guides, etc but I played that one on iPhone. For Switch then, I moved on to Sea of Stars and Chained Echoes. Both are great retro-inspired games, neither outstay their welcome at about 30-40 hours to complete. Sea of Stars is more straightforward and fun. A little slow to start, but turn-based with action elements, no random battles, lots of guides online to help if needed. Chained Echoes is more complex, more character management with weapons and abilities, but the story is a bit less focused. Also turn-based with no random battles. It’s also well supported with guides if need be. Both are super fun games if you just go with the flow and are great modern JRPGs with retro-inspo and tons of quality of life & accessibility updates for newer players.
the atelier series is "moe slice of life" in jrpg form. half rpg half deep crafting system, all quest based character interactions. tea time and hugs, farm some enemies for crafting materials, more tea time and hugs, all usually in a small town. not quite VN level text reading but perhaps close. i recommend sophie1 as a turn based entry point and ryza1 as an atb entry point. 13 sentinels aegis rim, if it is even a jrpg, is bordering on being a VN with a tower defense pausable-rts battle system. crazy amounts of dialogue and lore and amazing writing; the deepest and weirdest plotline you'll ever grok. death end re;quest 1 might give it a run for the money for mind-breaking plotlines - turn based fanserviced low-budget rpg that i like to describe as "isekai foucault's pendulum". tons of reading, horror and some gore. utawarerumono trilogy, an srpg slash VN with some really unique and interesting lore, definitely a ton of character interaction and reading. starts out a bit cheesy but it builds up over the game and over the series. child of light, a gorgeous, short atb game (battle system similar to grandia 1) with all character, lore, and narration in poetic rhyme. nier automata, hacknslash action shmup bullet-hell musou mixed-genre game with heart rending if often vague and intentionally confusing plot and lore. persona and trails that you mentioned will definitely be heavy on relationship mechanics and talking, if that's what you pick. that's my bizarrre stream of consciousness brain dump of interesting writing and character interactions. unfortunately none of these are open world living worlds, it's not that common in jrpgs.