Curated playlist

Japanese role-playing video games

Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy OriginIn Stranger of Paradise, Jack's party are agents sent repeatedly from another world.
Dissidia Final Fantasy Opera OmniaOne fan recorded about 100 hours of Dissidia Final Fantasy Opera Omnia before its servers closed.
Final Fantasy XV: Pocket EditionFinal Fantasy XV: Pocket Edition squeezed a console epic onto a touchscreen. Only the first of ten chapters is free.
Final Fantasy IV (2007 video game)Three quarters of Final Fantasy IV's original script never reached players in 1991.
Final Fantasy XIIIFinal Fantasy XIII's heroes learn their mission is to destroy their own world.
Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VIICrisis Core: Final Fantasy VII explains a death that fans of the 1997 game already knew.
Pokémon (video game series)The Pokémon video game series has sold more than 515 million units worldwide. That makes it the fourth best-selling video game franchise, behind only the Mario franchise, Call of Duty, and Tetris. It started in 1996, when Pocket Monsters…
Final Fantasy IIIFinal Fantasy III's developers followed a programmer to Sacramento after his work visa expired.
Yakuza (franchise)By 2024, Sega reported that the Yakuza series, known in Japan as Like a Dragon, had sold a combined 27.7 million units since its debut in 2005. Those buyers were playing games about organized crime. In the same games they could also sing…
Final Fantasy VIIFinal Fantasy VII skipped the Nintendo 64 after one big enemy slowed it down.
Final Fantasy VII RemakeFinal Fantasy VII Remake's reveal sent Square Enix's stock to its highest point since November 2008.
Final Fantasy VII RebirthFinal Fantasy VII Rebirth was released on Leap Day, the 29th of February 2024. Square Enix chose that date deliberately.
Final Fantasy XIII-2In Final Fantasy XIII-2, Serah and Noel jump between eras to repair paradoxes in time.
Final Fantasy XVIIn Final Fantasy XVI, the hero hunts a fire monster that turns out to be him.
The Last StoryThe Last Story began as science fiction until Nintendo rejected the story outright.
Final Fantasy III (2006 video game)Final Fantasy III sold 500,000 copies in its first week in Japan in 2006. It had never been sold outside Japan.
Final Fantasy XVFinal Fantasy XV shipped five million units in one day. Square Enix said that covered its development costs.
Final Fantasy X-2Final Fantasy X-2 built its costume-changing battles from magical girl anime and Charlie's Angels.
Suikoden (video game)Suikoden, a 1995 Konami role-playing game, asked players to recruit 108 warriors to overthrow an empire.
Persona 3Persona 3 asks its player to press a gun-shaped device against their own head and fire. The device is called an Evoker, and the shot summons a Persona, a physical form of the shooter's psyche. Atlus developed this role-playing game, which…
Dragon QuestOver 300 Japanese schoolchildren were arrested for truancy when Dragon Quest III went on sale.
Final Fantasy IIFinal Fantasy II replaced experience points with stats that grow by use. Its designer felt it went too far.
Final Fantasy XFinal Fantasy X shipped in Japan in 2001 and sold more than 2.14 million units on its first day alone, including 1.4 to 1.5 million pre-orders. A million copies moved within hours of release. Square had expected modest returns from a…
Final Fantasy XIIFinal Fantasy XII lets players program their characters to fight on their own. It drew on American football plays.
Fire EmblemFire Emblem is a Japanese fantasy strategy franchise published by Nintendo, and in 2010 it was handed a hard number. Nintendo told the developers at Intelligent Systems that their next game had to sell more than 250,000 units. If it fell…
Elden RingGeorge R. R. Martin wrote Elden Ring's backstory, not its in-game story. Some critics found his role unclear.
EarthBoundEarthBound is a 1994 role-playing game for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, and its American advertising declared, 'This game stinks.' Nintendo meant it as a joke. In Japan the game was called Mother 2, and it was led by Shigesato…
Persona 5Persona 5 opens in an interrogation room in Tokyo, and it keeps pulling the player back there. The 2016 role-playing game, built by the Atlus development studio P-Studio, is the sixth installment in the Persona series, which grew out of…
Pokémon Red, Blue, and YellowPokémon Red, Blue, and Yellow began as a pitch that Nintendo's own staff could not make sense of. In 1990, the game developer Satoshi Tajiri described his concept to them, and the response was skepticism. They judged his ideas too…
Final Fantasy (video game)Final Fantasy got its name because its creator planned to quit if it failed. Square was also facing bankruptcy in 1987.
Final Fantasy XIVSquare Enix rebuilt Final Fantasy XIV from scratch while the failed original kept running.
Final Fantasy XIV (2010 video game)One flowerpot in Final Fantasy XIV used as much detail as a whole player character.
Final Fantasy VIIIFinal Fantasy VIII sold 2.21 million copies in one day in Japan.
Suikoden IIIn Suikoden II, best friends Riou and Jowy are fated to fight until one dies. A hidden third ending spares them.
Persona 4Persona 4 is a 2008 role-playing game from the Japanese developer Atlus, and it opens on a puzzle that sounds like a ghost story. In a small rural town, bodies are found dangling from television antennas, and no one can say what killed…
Pokémon Scarlet and VioletPokémon Scarlet and Violet are role-playing games from the studio Game Freak, built for the Nintendo Switch and released on the 18th of November 2022. The story starts at a school. Players enroll at Naranja Academy in Scarlet or Uva…
Chrono TriggerChrono Trigger is a 1995 role-playing game that Square developed and published for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It began with a research trip. In October 1992, three veteran creators traveled to the United States to study…
Elden Ring NightreignElden Ring Nightreign reached 2 million sales on its first day. It is a 2025 spin-off from the developer FromSoftware, published by Bandai Namco Entertainment, and it takes place in a land where night never lifts. The people of this land…
Pokémon Diamond and PearlPokémon Diamond and Pearl, a pair of role-playing games for the Nintendo DS, helped players complete more than 10 million Pokémon trades over Wi-Fi. Game Freak developed them for the Nintendo DS and released them in 2006, the 10th…
Mother 3Mother 3 is a role-playing game that took twelve years and four consoles to finish, and then never left Japan. In the run-up to its release, people who phoned the Japan Post heard the game's main theme, "Love Theme", while they waited on…
Bravely DefaultThe team behind Bravely Default never expected the 3DS game to leave Japan. It sold a million copies by July 2014.
Granblue FantasyA live-streamed 700,000 yen spending spree forced Granblue Fantasy to apologize.
Suikoden IIISuikoden III tells one war from three sides, with no heroes or villains. Players live through each view in turn.
BloodborneIn the game Bloodborne, the miracle cure that heals almost any ailment slowly turns people into beasts.
Pokémon X and YPokémon X and Pokémon Y, released for the Nintendo 3DS in 2013, sold more than four million copies worldwide in one weekend. That made them the fastest-selling games the handheld had ever seen. Game Freak developed the pair, and The…
Dragon Quest VIIDragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past sold 3.57 million copies in Japan within 17 days of going on sale in 2000. Enix published it for the original PlayStation, as one more entry in a role-playing series that Yuji Horii has…
Pokémon Black and WhitePokémon Black and White, a pair of role-playing games for the Nintendo DS, began with a rule that broke a long habit of the series. After the first generation, every new set of games had mixed fresh creatures in among old favorites.…