5 JRPGs You Need to Pretend You Played
by M.D. Harle
JRPG weirdos round the world rejoiced last Nintendo Direct as news of not only the long awaited Chrono Cross remaster graced our ears but Square Enix too saw fit to facelift and formally translate the cult classic Live A Live.
Our hair may already be falling off our heads as we boldly trek into 40, because let’s be real zoomers are not touching these things but our spirits haven’t fallen knowing that soon we’ll be able to revisit and visit these two precious Square Gems.
Yes, you’ll finally get to play one game that’s better than two of the three PlayStation 1 Final Fantasies and one that’s perhaps as good as one of the three Super Nintendo Final Fantasies.
Good news for most, but it does mean that you’ll have to now, you know, actually play the games...
Lest someone now actually calls you out on your bullspit.
In otherwords, with these games playable, your game player credibility will be called into question.
You’ll no longer be able to just say ‘yeah I actually played Chrono Cross’ or ‘I knew about Live A Live in the 90s’, you’re gonna have to prove it.
Just as Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne was taken away from JRPG stolen valorizes with the release of its remaster, soon these two will be as well.
Don’t fret though, OnlyJRPGS.com has your back with this list of OTHER JRPGS you can pretend to have played to convince people you’re cool and are worth keeping around!
From some of the people who would go on to make Chrono Cross and Xenoblade, in addition to a thing called Xenosaga which none of us will ever get to play in a comfortable fashion again, came Xenogears; A PS1 Square RPG a friend of mine who probably did actually play it called ‘A Religious Experience’.
A dense and profound story coupled with sloggish chunks of grind, this is the perfect game to tell you less cool, slightly more hair having friends, you played ‘back in the day’.
It was supposed to be Final Fantasy 7 you know, but thank god it wasn’t.
Speaking of the broader ‘Xeno’ continuum, yeah you can play this bad boy, and its sequel, and its sequel’s prequel, and its upcoming sequel, on the Switch.
You could even play it on the 3DS if you like bad versions of things!
But really now that its common place, it’s very cool to go around and say that you ‘actually had this on the Wii’. We’ll really respect you for this one.
3. A Phantasy Star game for the Genesis, IV maybe
There’s a whole bunch of those.
Just pick any one of them and start making things up.
No one will be able to call you out on it.
4. Final Fantasy 1, 2, or even 5!
While these games are playable via mobile and on Steam currently, let’s be real, the vast majority of so-called Final Fantasy fans haven’t gone back to these.
No one would have gone back to 3 either if the remake of it didn’t come out, so actually, that’s a nice one to casually drop to people to as long as you say something stupid like ‘yeah bro I like imported this from Japan for like $150 dollars back in the day. That’s, like, $700 dollars in current US dollars. Gawrsh!’
Some people may have played Final Fantasy 5, though it is less than 4 or 6 so if you find a particularly OAFish PAX East attender you’ll be able to pull sweet wool over his glossy eyes.
5. Persona 1 and 2
Piss off SMT fans by saying Persona 1 and 2 are better than Shin Megami Tensei games.
Piss off Persona fans by saying they are not real fans unless they play the originals.
It doesn’t matter you didn’t either!
Persona has swag so pretending you’ve played the PS1 classics will totally get you game aficionado cootchie too.