The best JRPGs on PC 2024

Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth

Take a trip with Kazuma Kiryu and Ichiban Kasuga to the series’ first outing outside of Japan, as they visit Hawaii. Ichiban is on a journey to find his birth mother, whereas Kiryu has received a mysterious mission from the Daidoji faction, a group made up of highly important Japanese politicians. Here’s what Harry Schofield had to say about the game in our Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth review: “Sprawling but never bloated, it remains captivating from beginning to end across both its main narrative and bountiful side adventures, almost never missing a beat”.

Genshin Impact

Persona 3 Reload

The Persona series is renowned for being some of the best JRPGs on the planet, and it appears Atlus felt like it could improve on its previous work even further with the release of Persona 3 Reload. This version of Persona 3 has been rebuilt for the modern era with several quality-of-life tweaks borrowed from Persona 5, making it easy for P5 fans to enjoy this classic game. Take a look at our Persona 3 Reload review to see what makes this title stand out from the rest of the excellent games in the series.

Granblue Fantasy Relink

Taking place high above in the Sky Realm, you play as the captain of a skyfaring crew as you search for the fabled island of Estalucia. While your journey begins with Vyrn, a dragon, and Lyria, a powerful girl with mysterious abilities, but you never quite know who you’ll meet and eventually add to your growing party. If you love JRPGs but hate turn-based combat, Granblue Fantasy Relink’s combat features a ‘Full Assist’ mode to give players of all skill levels a helping hand.

You’re going to have to search for the best Granblue Fantasy Relink weapons to strengthen your party on this adventure. The path ahead is filled with plenty of dangerous mythical creatures and evil humans who want nothing but to take you down. Speaking of mythical creatures, we also have a Granblue Fantasy Relink feathers guide if you’re fighting against griffins and you want to get your quests done quickly.

Final Fantasy XV

What begins as possibly the most boring stag any groom-to-be could ever imagine, Final Fantasy XV soon turns into an action-packed adventure that features its own unique battle system. You play as Noctis, the crown prince of the kingdom of Lucis, as he uses his warp ability and striking greatsword to keep enemies at bay alongside his trusted allies and best pals Gladiolus, Ignis, and Prompto. In addition, you can indirectly control other allies in battle by performing certain actions or using chunks of the Tech Bar to command them.

It’s undoubtedly one of the best looking Final Fantasy games on PC, as you take to the road in the snazzy Regalia and explore the expanse of this open-world game – rustling up meals by the campfire or racing Chocobos through meadows and completing many elaborate side quests. Although your road trip takes a considerable detour and a dark turn, you’ll find yourself among friends who genuinely care for each other while at the same time mildly mocking each other, you know, as friends do. Although the beginning takes a while to get going, stick with it because it’s an unforgettable journey.

Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch remastered

If you are looking for a JRPG with the visual quality of a Studio Ghibli film, why not play the game that the renowned Japanese animation studio actually worked on? You take on the role of Oliver, a young boy transported to an alternative world that’s linked with our own via the idea of soulmates – how every person in one world has a counterpart in the other.

This JRPG has a mixture of various tried and tested battle mechanics: the active time battle system from some Final Fantasy games, real-time movement from more modern RPGs, and familiars you can send out to aid you in battle, in a remarkably similar nod to the Pokémon games. It all works together well, and even though this JRPG can be rather difficult at times, it’s worth persevering. The story is whimsical and well told, with capturing and managing your familiars scratching the same itch that the Pokémon games do so well. It’s a hugely satisfying game that’ll keep you occupied for hours on end. Fair warning for when you begin Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch: we highly recommend having a box of tissues to hand.

Yakuza: Like a Dragon

Yakuza: Like a Dragon’s combat is nothing like the previous Yakuza games, which were more about learning combos for real-time fisticuffs with street thugs and enemy Yakuza. Instead, Like a Dragon opts for a classic turn-based battle system, as whenever the new protagonist Ichiban throws down, he just starts “thinking in Dragon Quest terms”. The big difference here is that rather than silly names for regular spells, Like a Dragon has you battering thugs with bikes and summoning giant lobsters with a quick phone call. If that’s not setting the tone for this bizarre caper, then we don’t know what is.

Octopath Traveler

Octopath Traveler’s stunning visual style is the main draw to this JRPG – with a mix of 2D sprites set against gorgeous isometric backdrops. No matter if you’re walking around a snowy town or fighting monsters in desert plains, this JRPG is immensely pleasing to the eye, like something from a concept art book. Completing all eight character stories may sound daunting at first, but Octopath Traveler breaks down each story into digestible chapters so as not to overwhelm you, and it lets you explore at your own pace.

At times, the gameplay can feel rather old-fashioned, with a similar focus on multiple protagonists that fans of Square Enix’s Saga series will recognize. However, each playable character has unique actions outside of battle, such as pickpocketing unsuspecting victims or inquiring with townsfolk for more information. They also use their unique talents in the turn-based battle system, which also uses the classic Final Fantasy job system and its own risk-reward break and boost system that allows you to whittle down enemy defenses gradually, then boost to strike harder at the cost of some of your turns. A lot is going on in this JRPG, and it’s absolutely worth exploring for yourself.

Chrono Trigger

Let’s face it: this is the worst version of one of the greatest JRPGs ever made. However, even with that caveat laid bare, we would still highly recommend Chrono Trigger, largely due to its distinctive art style, designed by Dragon Ball’s Akira Toriyama. What begins with the disappearance of a young girl at a fairground soon becomes a saga about traveling through time to stop a monster from the future from ending the world. With the help of a wide variety of allies, from tech-savvy friends to robots and a frog knight, your job is to prevent the world from turning into a post-apocalyptic nightmare.

Combat is not too dissimilar from other Square Enix games of the same era, but it sets itself apart by linking up special moves with other allies. When two compatible characters have their active time battle bar completely filled, you’ll get the option to combine their techniques for entirely different effects. For example, while Crono’s cyclone tech is primarily for hitting all enemies with regular damage, if Marle is in your party and has her bar filled, she can imbue him with healing magic to turn the cyclone into a powerful healing skill that restores HP to all allies. Part of the fun is discovering these powerful combinations to aid you in battle, all the while hopping through rifts in time. If you want the quintessential JRPG experience, we can’t think of a better game than this. If you’re looking for more retro greatness like Chrono Trigger, our list of the best classic PC games should be your next stop.

Grandia HD Remastered

Grandia is a hero’s tale about a young lad who answers the call to adventure after discovering a mysterious stone in a temple. Before long, he meets fellow adventurers to see what lies in the journey ahead. While the story is the hook, it’s the surprisingly well-thought-out combat that reels you in. In a similar vein to Final Fantasy games of the era, Grandia has its own take on an active battle system that’s a lot of fun to play. Depending on where the pips representing your characters are at any time, it’s possible to use certain attacks like the single-hit criticals to interrupt an enemy that’s about to use a high-damaging skill or heal themselves.

Compared to other RPGs made in the era of 90s polygon backgrounds and 2D sprites, Grandia doesn’t age anywhere near as badly, and there is some rather laughably bad voice acting to enjoy. The second Grandia game is also on PC, but we think the first is still the best.

Sea of Stars

Now that you’ve seen two classic JRPGs on this list, it’s time to include a modern game that heavily borrows from them. It may have been overshadowed by another big RPG this year, but according to our Sea of Stars review, it improves on what makes those games special “by modernizing their magic through balanced and engaging turn-based combat wrapped up in an enthralling world to explore.”

This 30-hour adventure is one where you’ll want to visit every town, spelunk through every dungeon, and brawl against every monster just so you can look at its gorgeous pixel art. It helps that the story is one of the better ones in recent JRPG history, with characters that are relatable, even if their destinies don’t always align. Combat uses mechanics similar to those of Chrono Trigger and Paper Mario games while also giving you the opportunity to interrupt enemy attacks. They’re all familiar concepts but work well together. This game was among the nominations for the best RPG at the Game Awards 2023, and it deserves to be here.

Tales of Arise

Arise makes the classic JRPG series feel genuinely new again with revamped visuals, a more fluid and intuitive combat system, and a mature story that carries you to its conclusion.

It’s clearly made to embrace new players, and if you’ve ever been curious about the Tales games, then this is the best one to start with. However, that doesn’t mean that series veterans have been side-lined at all – it’s refined rather than dumbed down. And if you’re at all curious, then there’s a free demo on Steam, so you can try it before you buy.

South Park: The Stick of Truth

While its sequel is more of a tactical RPG, South Park: The Stick of Truth is probably the closest we’ll ever get to Paper Mario-style combat. As the ‘new kid’ that’s just moved into South Park, where the rest of the town’s children are playing a town-wide fantasy game, you soon ally with Butters, Kenny (who is dressed as a princess), and Cartman as you try to recover the hallowed Stick of Truth. The story soon descends into utter madness, with alien abductions, Nazi zombies, and a jaunty trip to Canada. Your overall enjoyment of The Stick of Truth largely depends on whether you find Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s sense of humor ‘funny’ and whether or not you can stand callbacks to many prior episodes of the TV show.