Final Fantasy VI, AKA Final Fantasy III, as it was called stateside when I first played it in the 90s (I bought it at Media Play, anyone remember that?).

Great cast of recruitable characters that isn’t too large, in my opinion, and the Esper system is pretty great. Also, for me, one of the most impactful JRPG storylines of all time.

Have fun, whatever you choose! It’s a great genre, but time consuming. If a game doesn’t click for you within 15 or so hours, it may not be one for you.

Don’t get into the Trails series. Not because it’s not good, but because the grindfest is definitely better suited for when you have a few JRPGs under your belt. If you like Persona 5, I recommend looking around at ATLUS’s other entries. There’s the Digital Devil Saga, Soul Hackers, Devil Survivor, Raidou Kuzunoha, the other Persona series… I really liked Devil Survivor 2 growing up, it was light-hearted in comparison to everything else despite the eldritch gods plot.

If you liked Persona 5 then don’t sleep on Persona 4 Golden. And there’s an upcoming remake of the excellent Persona 3, but they recently ported Persona 3 Portable to modern systems if you don’t want to wait.

If you want something more traditional, I think Chrono Trigger holds up very well and is very accessible for new players compared to some of the other JRPGs of its era. If you want something traditional but a bit more modern, I think Final Fantasy 9,10, and 12 are all very easy to pick up and are on basically every system.

Chrono Trigger for sure. It’s considered one of the JRPGs of all time and is relatively short with little no grinding.

These suggestions are all great. I would firstly pitch Earthbound, which is an offbeat example of the genre with it’s bizarro take on urban fantasy. The art and music are terrific and the whole experience is just really memorable and sweet.

I also want to pitch Final Fantasy 9 especially if you play on PC with the lovely Moguri Mod.

It’s an accessible example of the genre with a great story and well written party members, and the mod updates the look of the game while providing some handy quality of life options (e.g. switching on/off random enemy encounters).

Quest 64 is basically baby’s first JRPG.

It has no money. It has no gear. It has no cutscenes or events. All it has is spells and stats.

All four elements have their individual levels. To level them up, find spirits in the overworld or get a level up, and it’ll let you put one point into an element. When you have enough points in two or more elements, it’ll let you combine them (but you have to remember the combinations).

All your stats have individual XP bars, and raising one to 100 gives you 1 character level (which also gives you 1 point for your elements). To level them up depends on what you wanna raise. DEF is raised by getting hit. MP is raised by using magic. HP and physical attack are raised by bonking enemies with your staff. That kind of thing. (TLDR it works like Final Fantasy 2)

It’s very simple as an RPG, but it’s pleasant to look at and listen to.

Not really what you would think of when mentioning a jrpg, but the Mario & Luigi series are excellent games!

In addition to what others have said, I recommend The Legend of Heroes, which is a six game serialized series. Start with Trails from Zero (if you are on a PS4 or PS5 or Switch) or Trails in the Sky (if you are on Windows) and work your way forward from there. That will keep you busy for quite a while.

If you enjoyed Persona 5, I definitely recommend checking out the other Persona games. Persona 1 and 2 are a little less beginner friendly and are more like the Shin Megami Tensei series they spun off from. 3 and 4 are a lot like Persona 5, so they’ll be familiar experiences.

The announcement for Persona 3’s Remake just got leaked recently so if you want to experience that game but have the more modern quality of life experience, you could wait for that game to come out next year.

I’m not deep into the genre, but my recommendation is Chrono Trigger. Such a good game.

If you enjoyed Persona 5 then I can definitely recommend Persona 4! Persona 4 Golden is actually what got me into JRPGs when it was released on Steam a couple years ago.

But if you want to try different series some I’ve enjoyed and think would be beginner friendly are:

• Dragon Quest XI S
• Final Fantasy VII Remake
• Tales of Arise

I’d also recommend Chrono Trigger if you want to check out an old classic.

IMO I think that old jrpgs can be easier to acclimate to as they have less feature bloat. They can be hard sometimes but there are more fair ones. I think final fantasy V, Lufia, or Dragon Quest V are pretty good, pretty simple jrpgs. If you want more like persona 5 there are a ton of games in the persona and SMT series and most are good, but they can be more challenging.

While not really what one would think of as a classic JRPG, one of my all time favorites is Paper Mario and the Thousand Year Door. I tend to have a hard time getting into turn based combat, so the action command system really improved the moment to moment gameplay for me.

I’d just pick a game you like the look of and jump in. Any game you are really enthusiastic about is as good an entrypoint to the genre as any. Chrono Trigger is of course a classic, and I really liked Triangle Strategy as well.

I have absolutely loved both of the Octopath traveller games. Bravely Default II is also similar and similarly great.