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The 20 best JRPGs since 2010
Atlus, Monolith, Square and the smaller studios that outpaced them. Twenty games from the last decade and a half, ranked on how well they've held up against a genre that's rarely been this crowded.
A ranking is only worth reading if it argues. So each entry below says what the game does that the others don't, where it breaks, and who it is actually for — and every position is defended in a sentence you can disagree with.
How we rank
Every placement is weighed against public critical consensus, technical analysis and player reception rather than a single in-house playthrough. We weigh three things: how much the game reacts to the player, how well its systems have held up since launch, and how it plays today rather than at launch. Ports and revisions are judged as the version you can buy now.
Royal's additions — a new semester, a new confidant, expanded Palace content — turn an already excellent Persona 5 into the version nearly every critic and fan now points to as definitive, with a level of style, music and combat depth few JRPGs this decade have matched.
It scored 95 on Metacritic, among the highest-rated JRPGs of the last fifteen years; a slow opening stretch and the repeating Palace-dungeon structure are the only consistently cited soft criticisms.
Why it's here
- Some of the genre's best UI and stylistic presentation
- A confidant/social-link system with real narrative payoff
- Turn-based combat with genuine late-game depth
Best for
Anyone who wants the decade's most acclaimed JRPG.
The version of Persona 5 that made the case this was the genre's new standard.
Director Katsura Hashino's team pointed the Persona calendar structure at an original fantasy setting and a story about prejudice and public trust, and the Archetype job system is one of the most inheritance-driven, flexible builds the genre has shipped.
It scored 94 on Metacritic, tied for one of the best-reviewed games of 2024; side-content pacing bloat, a complaint familiar from other Atlus RPGs, is the most common criticism.
Why it's here
- An election-driven calendar with real narrative stakes
- The Archetype system: inheritance-based job flexibility
- 2024's biggest RPG awards haul, largely earned
Best for
Persona fans who wanted the formula pointed somewhere new.
Proof the Persona team's structure works outside Persona itself.
Reload rebuilds 2006's Persona 3 with Persona 5-style UI and combat direction without softening the original's more somber, mortality-focused tone — a difficult balance most remakes don't manage this well.
It scored 87–89 depending on platform; the exclusion of FES/Portable's expanded content (The Answer epilogue, the female protagonist route), sold separately, is the most consistent complaint from longtime fans.
Why it's here
- Modernized presentation that keeps the original's somber tone intact
- Persona 5-caliber UI and combat direction
- A genuinely difficult remake balance, mostly stuck the landing
Best for
Persona fans who want the darkest entry in the modern engine.
A remake that modernized the presentation without softening the story.
Uniting the casts and themes of Xenoblade 1 and 2 around two warring nations with shortened soldier lifespans gives Xenoblade 3 real thematic weight, on top of a technical achievement that pushed Switch hardware further than most first-party releases.
It scored 90 on Metacritic; its sheer scale and length are occasionally cited as a barrier to entry rather than a criticism of quality.
Why it's here
- A technical high point for Switch-era JRPGs
- Ouroboros fusion combat built on two prior games' systems
- A story that meaningfully unites Xenoblade 1 and 2's themes
Best for
Xenoblade fans and anyone who wants Switch's most ambitious JRPG.
Monolith Soft's most technically ambitious Switch release, and it mostly delivers.
2B and 9S's android war blends PlatinumGames' bullet-hell/hack-and-slash combat with Yoko Taro's philosophical, route-based storytelling — a combination the genre has rarely matched since, held together by Keiichi Okabe's widely-praised score.
It scored 88 on PS4 and 84 on PC; the PC port's launch-day technical issues (later patched and community-modded) are the most cited practical complaint against an otherwise acclaimed game.
Why it's here
- Genre-blending action combat rarely matched since
- Multi-route storytelling that recontextualizes earlier playthroughs
- Keiichi Okabe's score, among the decade's best JRPG soundtracks
Best for
Players who want the genre's best action/JRPG hybrid this decade.
The combat-and-philosophy combination the genre keeps trying to recapture.
The "S" edition adds a toggleable 2D retro mode and orchestral score to an already classic-structured turn-based JRPG — Akira Toriyama's character designs and a deliberately old-fashioned hero's journey that critics consistently call one of the genre's best traditional entries.
It scored in the low-to-mid 90s across platforms; its conventional, old-fashioned structure is a deliberate choice rather than a flaw, though it means less structural ambition than genre peers on this list.
Why it's here
- A toggleable 2D mode that changes the whole presentation
- Akira Toriyama's instantly recognizable character designs
- One of the best-reviewed traditional turn-based JRPGs this decade
Best for
Players who want classic JRPG structure done as well as it's ever been done.
Old-fashioned by design, and better for it.
Covering the original's mid-game overworld journey across expansive open regions, Rebirth pairs deep combat with character writing — especially around Aerith — that critics have called the series' strongest in decades.
It scored 93 on Metacritic; side-content and minigame density is the most common criticism, with some reviewers finding the open-world padding works against the pacing of the main story.
Why it's here
- The series' best-reviewed entry in over twenty years
- Combat that expands meaningfully on Remake's real-time/ATB hybrid
- Character writing widely praised, especially around Aerith
Best for
FF VII fans following the Remake trilogy, or newcomers willing to start there.
The moment the Remake trilogy proved it wasn't just riding on nostalgia.
Continuing the turn-based pivot Like a Dragon (2020) started, Infinite Wealth splits its story between Japan and a fully-realized Hawaii setting, layering surprisingly deep turn-based systems onto the series' open-city structure without losing its trademark humor.
It scored 89–93 depending on platform — the highest-rated Yakuza/Like a Dragon entry to date; some series veterans still miss the original brawler combat the RPG pivot replaced.
Why it's here
- The series' highest Metacritic score to date
- A dual Japan/Hawaii setting with real scale
- Turn-based combat far deeper than the pivot's first entry suggested
Best for
Yakuza fans who've come around on the RPG pivot, or newcomers to either.
The RPG pivot fully vindicated, four years and one sequel later.
Set on the frozen bodies of two giant titans, the original Xenoblade's vertically-designed open world and orchestral score helped legitimize the open-world JRPG format the series has built on since — and its design philosophy is widely cited as an influence on later Nintendo open-world design.
It scored 92 on original release; the Definitive Edition adds a new epilogue and quality-of-life updates that address most of the original's rougher edges.
Why it's here
- A genre-defining vertically-designed open world
- An orchestral score still cited among the series' best
- The Definitive Edition's epilogue, a genuinely satisfying capstone
Best for
Players who want to see where Monolith Soft's open-world design started.
The open world that helped teach the industry how to build one.
New protagonist Van Arkride and the new Calvard Republic setting were built specifically to give newcomers a real entry point into the Trails series' notoriously dense, ten-plus-game continuity — a genuinely successful soft reboot.
Reception has been strongly positive; the action/turn-based hybrid "Shard Skill" combat is a step away from the pure turn-based systems longtime Trails fans grew up on, which some found a mixed trade-off.
Why it's here
- The most accessible entry point into the Trails saga to date
- Strong worldbuilding in a genuinely new setting
- A hybrid combat system that speeds up pacing, for better or worse
Best for
Players curious about Trails who've been intimidated by the series' scale.
The on-ramp the Trails series has needed for a decade.
Eight fully-realized protagonists share a world with day/night mechanics and refined Break/Boost combat; the individual stories are stronger than the first game's, even if they still only partially intersect.
It scored 84–86 depending on platform; the thin connective tissue between the eight stories remains, though less pronounced than in the original.
Why it's here
- HD-2D presentation at its most refined
- Eight fully separate, stronger-written character stories
- Break/Boost combat with genuine tactical depth
Best for
Players who want eight distinct JRPG stories in one package.
Same structural trick as the original, executed with a much steadier hand.
A spiritual successor to Sabotage's own The Messenger, Sea of Stars is a lovingly crafted homage to Chrono Trigger-era JRPGs, with timed-hit combat that adds real skill expression to an otherwise classic structure.
It scored 88–91 depending on platform — remarkably high for an indie-scale JRPG; some found the story and villain writing thinner than its combat and pixel-art presentation.
Why it's here
- Pixel art among the best in the modern indie JRPG space
- Timed-hit combat with genuine skill expression
- A tight, well-paced runtime relative to genre peers
Best for
Players who want a shorter, lovingly-crafted retro-JRPG homage.
An indie budget with AAA-level critical reception.
Octopath Traveler introduced the HD-2D visual style that Square Enix has since built an entire sub-genre around, paired with Boost-based turn-based combat that rewards exploiting enemy weaknesses.
It scored 83–84 depending on platform; the eight protagonist stories rarely intersect meaningfully, a structural choice that became the series' defining criticism as much as its identity.
Why it's here
- Debuted the HD-2D visual style Square Enix has built on since
- Boost-based combat with real weakness-exploitation depth
- A structural gamble that became a genre-defining trait
Best for
Players who want to see where the HD-2D format started.
The structural choice that became both the format's identity and its critique.
Titans as walkable continents remains one of the strangest, most ambitious settings the series has built, with a soundtrack (Yasunori Mitsuda and collaborators) regularly cited among its best.
It scored 83–84; a clunky, poorly-explained Blade-summoning system and technical performance issues drew real criticism at launch, both substantially improved through post-release patches.
Why it's here
- Titans as walkable, living continents
- A soundtrack widely cited among the series' best
- Post-launch patches that meaningfully improved a rough start
Best for
Players willing to push through an uneven opening for one of the series' biggest worlds.
Ambitious enough to forgive a rocky launch.
A visual overhaul (new "artistic accent" shading) and a tighter, more fluid Linear Motion Battle System gave Tales its best-reviewed entry in years, anchored by Alphen and Shionne's central romance.
It scored 87, the series' best-reviewed entry; a repetitive mid-game episodic structure is the most common specific criticism.
Why it's here
- The series' best-reviewed entry to date
- A real visual and combat overhaul over recent predecessors
- A central romance widely praised for its writing
Best for
Action-JRPG fans, or lapsed Tales fans checking back in.
The Tales revival the series needed, and got.
A brother's search for a cure to his sister's illness unfolds very differently across multiple playthroughs, building toward some of Yoko Taro's most emotionally devastating late-game reveals, scored by Emi Evans and Keiichi Okabe's widely-loved soundtrack.
It scored 83; combat is generally considered the weakest part of the package even after the remaster's improvements, a fair trade against the strength of the writing and music.
Why it's here
- A multi-playthrough structure built around devastating late reveals
- A soundtrack as celebrated as Automata's
- Real remaster improvements over the 2010 original's rough edges
Best for
Automata fans who haven't played the prequel, or anyone who wants the series' saddest story.
The weakest combat in a Yoko Taro game, wrapped around some of his best writing.
Young king Evan's quest to build an ideal kingdom pairs real-time combat with a genuinely engaging kingdom-management side system, wrapped in Level-5's own bright, Ghibli-adjacent art style.
It scored 81–84 depending on platform; without Studio Ghibli's direct animation involvement (unlike the original Ni no Kuni), both combat and story read as shallower than its predecessor to many longtime fans.
Why it's here
- A genuinely engaging kingdom-building side system
- Level-5's own distinctive, Ghibli-adjacent art direction
- Real-time combat accessible to newcomers
Best for
Players who want the kingdom-building hook more than deep combat.
Charming on its own terms, a step down from what came before it.
The Brave/Default risk-reward turn-banking mechanic is a genuine innovation on classic Job System design, and it's widely credited with proving there was still appetite for old-school turn-based JRPGs on modern hardware.
It scored 85; a repetitive back-third that reuses earlier dungeons and bosses is the most consistent criticism against an otherwise well-regarded revival.
Why it's here
- The Brave/Default turn-banking mechanic, genuinely inventive
- A deep, flexible Job System for build-focused players
- Proof classic JRPG design still had an audience in 2012
Best for
Classic-JRPG fans who want the innovation that led to Bravely Default II.
The revival that proved the classic Job System still had room to grow.
Built by Suikoden creators Yoshitaka Murayama and Junko Kawano and funded via a record-breaking Kickstarter, Eiyuden Chronicle revives Suikoden's 100+-character recruitable roster and castle-building structure with real sincerity.
It scored 79; uneven pacing and technical roughness — frame rate and bugs at launch — kept it from matching the top tier of this list despite the goodwill behind it.
Why it's here
- A 100+-character recruitable roster, true to its Suikoden roots
- Castle-building and both 2D and strategy-battle segments
- Built by the genre's original creators, for genuine fans of the format
Best for
Suikoden fans who've been waiting for a real spiritual successor.
The Suikoden revival fans backed and mostly got, rough edges included.
A small-town murder mystery wrapped around Persona's social-link calendar structure, Golden added new social links, a new character and expanded content over the original Persona 4, and it's widely considered the definitive way to play it.
Reception has remained consistently strong since its 2012 Vita debut and 2020 wider re-release; it closes this list mainly on age and scope relative to the newer entries ranked above it, not on quality.
Why it's here
- A murder-mystery hook distinct from Persona 5's heist framing
- Golden's added content, widely considered essential
- A cast and small-town setting still fondly remembered
Best for
Persona fans working backward through the series, or anyone who wants the mystery-focused entry.
The Persona entry the series' current fans started with, for good reason.