Current Events > What are the best Switch RPGs?

(+) Yeah! (+)

And is it a good console for RPGs in general?
So far I've found 2 I wouldn't mind having on a handheld.

Chained Echoes

Chained Echoes
Octopath 2

Id say the switch has a ton of great jrpgs. A jrpg fan should own a switch and a ps5.

Zikten posted...

Id say the switch has a ton of great jrpgs. A jrpg fan should own a switch and a ps5.

I don't think I've achieved (J)RPG fan status yet. I'm not a total beginner, but RPGs are a huge blind spot for me.

But I played a bunch of games this year to get a clear idea of what I like and the handheld RPGs were easily the most engaging. Makes sense to pursue that.

Super Mario RPG in a week

Pokemon

Dakimakura posted...

Pokemon

I am curious about the Arceus game but hesitant to support Game Freak phoning it in.

ViewtifulJoe posted...

I am curious about the Arceus game but hesitant to support Game Freak phoning it in.

Even phoned in, it's the best pokemon game they ever made. Even Dunkey liked it.

CROSSCODE

Go play it if you havent

Arceus was my favorite pokemon game by far, especially with recent foibles. Just be aware that you need to go in with a collector mindset or you will get hard walled and have to grind dex progress. It didn't happen to me but I was deliberately catching tons of stuff, pursuing dex entries, and switching up my current team (apart from starter) to keep new evos rolling.

Just finished Octopath 2 this past weekend and loved it. Haven't gotten a chance to jump on it but people say Chained Echoes is great. And expectation is that the Mario RPG and Thousand Year Door remakes will be at least about as good as the originals.

Other "classic and improved" remakes are Tactics Ogre Reborn and Star Ocean Second Story R, the latter of which just released.

Is Cassette Beasts on Switch? That's another good one. SRPGs are a bit of a different beast, but there's Fire Emblem (I'd recommend Three Houses for someone new to the series more than Engage) and a couple Disgaea games.

Xenoblade games are hit or miss and play very differently. Can't for sure recommend them but it might be worth looking into.

Dalthine posted...

Arceus was my favorite pokemon game by far, especially with recent foibles. Just be aware that you need to go in with a collector mindset or you will get hard walled and have to grind dex progress. It didn't happen to me but I was deliberately catching tons of stuff, pursuing dex entries, and switching up my current team (apart from starter) to keep new evos rolling.

I'm aware it's an actual catch em all style game and not a battler. I'm okay with having to go slow. The patient approach is kind of what's been making these so much more enjoyable than years ago.
I can't get anyone to say much about what it's like to replay it so I'm guessing that's a weak point. It's a Pokemon game with all those different team choices though, replaying can't be too awful.

Dalthine posted...

Xenoblade games are hit or miss and play very differently. Can't for sure recommend them but it might be worth looking into.

Xenoblade 1 is one of the two locks in the OP. I've played it but I want to play it more. It was great.
It's been years, I still think about it every other day.
The others in the series, meh.

The other games, I'm gonna have to look into them. Pretty much all my RPG experience is a few Nintendo RPGs, a couple of Final Fantasies, TWEWY 1, New Vegas and Dark Souls.

ViewtifulJoe posted...

I can't get anyone to say much about what it's like to replay it so I'm guessing that's a weak point. It's a Pokemon game with all those different team choices though, replaying can't be too awful.

I don't tend to replay games much, so I can't say there. But because your only regularly fixed pokemon is your starter, it's probably worse for replays than other games in the series.

It's very good for just not running out of things to do, though. You complete a dex every with only like 25% of the tasks for a pokemon, so if you want to 100% do them, you'll be grinding a while. Also possibilities like trying to get alpha versions of all pokemon or the like if you want.

The other games, I'm gonna have to look into them. Pretty much all my RPG experience is a few Nintendo RPGs, a couple of Final Fantasies, TWEWY 1, New Vegas and Dark Souls.

The others I mentioned...

Octopath and 2 are their attempt at modernizing the classic style. Pixel sprites with 3d backgrounds but highly detailed. Battle systems are based on simple, pure menu older RPGs but with some extra spice thrown in with break mechanics and storing/spending BP to empower attacks. A decent take on modernizing the genre. Story is the weaker point because you have 8 separate stories loosely tied together rather than one major one. Characters are very JRPG-like, for better or for worse.

I'll let other people speak to Chained Echoes. All I have to go on is reputation.

Mario RPG and Thousand Year Door are both classics and you could jump right in with the originals if you wanted. They're smaller number classic RPGs (HP reaches into hundreds, not thousands), with smatterings of more Mario-like stuff mixed into exploration.

Tactics Ogre Reborn is in the same vein as Final Fantasy Tactics. Made by the same team as well I believe, but this game actually has major story branches and multiple endings. Exp and job mechanics are a bit improved and less obtuse compared to the original. A darker and more political story as well, like FFT.

Star Ocean 2 is one of the PSX classics and, depending on who you ask, the only good Star Ocean game. If you want to dive deep, it is rife with intricate and abusable secondary mechanics. Action RPG combat with a party rather than menu based. I haven't played the remake myself but I've largely heard effulgent praise at how good it is.

Cassette Beasts is an indie take on pokemon, but a pretty solid one since they more adapted their own thing to it rather than tried to purely ape the base material. A new take on type mechanics, convenient move and evolution methods, and every battle is double with you and a swappable NPC partner.

Dragon Quest 11, although it isn't the only console it's on.

Triangle Strategy

Front Mission 1st

WrkHrdPlayHrdr posted...

Dragon Quest 11, although it isn't the only console it's on.

Also great, forgot this got a Switch release.

I'm playing Chained Echoes now and it's chill

Skyrim

Get Live A Live if you want to play something that isn't as bloated as a typical JRPG. Monster Sanctuary scratches the monster collection itch as well as Metroidvania if you're into the latter genre. The Tenth Line is another solid RPG that doesn't get talked about much.

Monster hunter stories 2. It has the bonus of being a better pokemon game than any recent Pokemon title as well lol

Ys 8 and 9

The Switch is arguably one of the best RPG consoles since the genre as a whole is known to have a decent bit of grinding and you can take your Switch with you for gaming on the go.

On top of the great recommendations already here, I'll add a few more.

Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster and Final Fantasy XII The Zodiac Age are both great, decently modern Final Fantasy releases that can be played on the Switch. FFX plays like a classic, turn-based RPG, but FFXII is a little more action-oriented. I'll also add in the Final Fantasy VI Pixel Remaster as well if you are interested in the classic, 2D style.

Persona 5 Royal and Persona 4 Golden are both great, stylish, turn-based JRPGs that are beloved by many RPG-enjoyers and are generally considered the best games in the Persona franchise.

Undertale is a widely loved RPG that I don't see mentioned in this topic yet. I've never played it myself, but I have heard nothing but good things about it.

Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch and its sequel Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom are beautiful JRPGs that have animations done by Studio Ghibli (the artists behind movies like Howl's Moving Castle, Spirited Away, and My Neighbor Totoro). The stories are wonderful! I highly recommend these two!

Golf Story is a great game that mixes RPG mechanics with a Mario Golf-like gameplay. I know it sounds like a weird combination, but it's genuinely really fun!

I've never played Disco Elysium, but I've seen nothing but rave reviews for it.

The Collection of Mana release on Switch is a collection of the first three games from the Mana series; those being Final Fantasy Adventure (known as Mystic Quest in Europe), Secret of Mana, and Trials of Mana. If you are alright with the old school style, Secret of Mana and Trials of Mana are phenomenal games! There is also a modern remake of Trials of Mana available on the Switch that is great, but be warned that the English dub in the remake is pretty bad.

Dragon's Dogma is a great open world, action RPG where you can do cool stuff like climb up and down giant monsters in order to stab them in the face. The story is kind of so-so, but the gameplay is a lot of fun.

A5modeu5 posted...

CROSSCODE

Go play it if you havent

Seconded

R_Jackal posted...

Monster hunter stories 2. It has the bonus of being a better pokemon game than any recent Pokemon title as well lol

Smackems posted...

Ys 8 and 9

These and octopath are good choices, there really are a ton of options tbh. Tales of Vesperia is also available and a very solid choice (action rpg).

There really are a ton of good choices, especially when you start adding all the classics. Im a big fan of dragons dogma as well.

*You should look at the overworld sprites for cassette beasts before you play, you can get used to it but its way more low effort than retro to me.

I prefer nexomon: evolution (**extinction?, shit I googled this and I think evolution is actually a new one) as a Pokmon rip off game, honestly almost has old school (snes) final fantasy vibes as well

As a huge Rune Factory fan it bums me out nobody has mentioned Rune Factory 4 Special. The best game in the series.

other than Xenoblade, Pokemon and Persona, I enjoyed Tales of Vesperia when I played it a few years back.

archizzy posted...

As a huge Rune Factory fan it bums me out nobody has mentioned Rune Factory 4 Special. The best game in the series.

Speaking of Rune Factory @ TC, do not waste your money on the Switch version of Rune Factory 5, that game is like, modern Pokemon levels of poorly optimized. As soon as I first tried the PC version I couldn't even think about going back to the Switch version.

DQ11 >

Tag for later

It has every Final Fantasy from 1-12 (excluding 11, since it's an MMO)
Also Chrono Cross, which is a divisive game, but I personally love it
And if you dive into the Virtual Console offerings it also has the first two Breath of Fire games and EarthBound

Oh right. Earthbound.
(Memories resurface of Reggie Fills in 2006, saying Earthbound would be on Wii Virtual Console, name dropping it as if it'd be one of the first games on there. Weekend after weekend of me eagerly getting up to see if it'd been added yet. No sign. Consoles I'd forgotten about, games I'd never heard of, hanabi festivals. No Earthbound. The MOTHER 3 fan translation project and Earthbound being in SSBB to tide me over for a while. But still no Earthbound. After a while, apathy.)

But now Reggie Fills is gone. Maybe it's finally time.

I guess I could put Dark Souls Remastered on there if it gets cheap enough.
I've only played the original and the prompt swap/air rolls/general QoL changes look nice.
Not sure how it'd feel on a handheld though.

Felt fine on handheld to me, seemed easy, but Id played bb, ds3, and er by then tbh.

Alteres posted...

Felt fine on handheld to me, seemed easy, but Id played bb, ds3, and er by then tbh.

It's an easy game but challenge is only the appeal the first time round. After that it's all running around making dumb OP builds as fast as possible. Or lv1/challenge runs with varying amounts of exploits.

I only really like DeS and DS1. Makes it hard to take the Dragon's Dogma recommendation because it's usually coming from people who like all the Fromsoft games.

Tried to watch a Dragon's Dogma video. Guy told me he liked NMH and God Hand but they sucked. Then with a straight face he tried to tell me to play Raid Shadow Legends.

I almost commented and told him what I thought of him. But that's what he wants, engagement. So instead, out of spite I deliberately looked into one of the drastically different games people keep suggesting but I'm not as naturally configured to like. Persona 5.

None of the Persona 5 characters seem cool. Can't get a read on the weird gameplay which seems to do a bunch of different things.
I don't know what I think of the whole stealth aspect but I sort of want to give it the benefit of the doubt because the player character looks pretty agile.

Being shown cutscenes is making me hesitant, the video I'm watching hasn't mentioned how fast you can power through them/skip them. Also looks like there's a real split between walking around town interacting with people and actually getting to play a video game.
Someone I know has this and really likes it though. That's an overwhelming plus because I could probably just borrow it.

The Xenoblade Trilogy, easily!
You'll thank me later.

FFX is available on Switch, so by default it's the best RPG on Switch.

Disco Elysium is incredible. It's not a battle RPG, though, so don't go in expecting a traditional video game with monsters and stuff.

I think the Octopath games have some interesting mechanics but their level design and story are pretty bad sadly.

Pleasantly surprised by Sea of Stars, but I'm not sure I'll finish it.

Arceus was really fun! But there are definitely legitimate criticisms of it.

came in to say Disco Elysium.

iirc, Divinity: Original Sin 2 is also on the Switch, and mechanically/the amount of freedom it provides, it's one of the best turn-based RPGs that I've played.

the shield thing can be annoying, though.

edit: I also hear Ikenfell & World of Horror are good

ViewtifulJoe posted...

None of the Persona 5 characters seem cool. Can't get a read on the weird gameplay which seems to do a bunch of different things.
I don't know what I think of the whole stealth aspect but I sort of want to give it the benefit of the doubt because the player character looks pretty agile.

Being shown cutscenes is making me hesitant, the video I'm watching hasn't mentioned how fast you can power through them/skip them. Also looks like there's a real split between walking around town interacting with people and actually getting to play a video game.
Someone I know has this and really likes it though. That's an overwhelming plus because I could probably just borrow it.

Persona 5 is a top 10 RPG for me, but I will warn you that outside of the dungeons, there's not much RPG to it compared to a typical entry in the genre -- it's basically half visual novel, but in a way that does provide a bit more gameplay.

A lot of days in the game are more or less on autopilot and you're just reading things, but there are also a lot of days where you get to choose how you spend your time. And that's largely how you improve your party and abilities -- by taking part in activities outside of the dungeons. Hanging out with a party member and experiencing their personal story will grant them new abilities and benefits in battle; there are also NPCs you can spend time with that offer party-wide benefits, such as improving everyone's ability with ranged weapons or expanding the inventory offered in shops (or bringing the prices down).

It's not an RPG for everyone, and can definitely feel slower paced, but I really got into it.

I also forgot to mention Digimon Survive earlier, which is a tactical RPG/visual novel hybrid. Unfortunately it doesn't get as deep into either aspect as I would have liked, but as somebody who grew up with the anime, I enjoyed it. It's absolutely written with an older audience in mind rather than kids, too. Only real knock is that there's no English voice option, so I unfortunately had to turn off the VA altogether after a bit.

I thought about it and yeah, if the person I know is willing to lend it, I could give Person 5 a try.
A video I watched made it sound like Final Fantasy 8. Collecting monsters, turning them into abilities for party members. That's good.
As for the half game half talking thing, Blazblue kind of did that with its story mode. That was okay.

Videos of Switch RPGs keep telling me to play Shin Megami Tensei.
But I'm pretty sure that's the game where you play for 8 seconds then some Matador shows up and rolls over you.

Edit: Oh yeah I went to the store again and had a look around. Selection wasn't incredible and some of the prices were scoff-worthy. No DSR, no Final Fantasy games which is weird because I assumed they'd be easy to find.

All the Fire Emblems and similar games keep getting lumped in.
Those look less like RPGs and more like carefully moving pieces around a grid.

Dragon Quest 11 keeps coming up too. My assumption was that those are deliberately really safe, generic fantasy stories where the chosen one gets the power sword and defeats the evil dragon or something.

I really like the SaGa games, if you're after more experimental stuff. They've ported/remastered some SNES/PSX/PS2 titles, and Scarlet Grace (originally on PS Viva I think?) has one of the greatest battle systems imo

I hate that all the strongest contenders are ports from previous consoles.
Except Arceus, but even that has the caveat that I'd be supporting Game Freak.

Or maybe I'm playing it way too safe. I just also hate the gambling aspect of getting into new franchises.

Friends,

Xenoblade 2 I have played like 6 times or more.

its super cute, the girls are cute.

accents are done well too. great voices.

ViewtifulJoe posted...

I hate that all the strongest contenders are ports from previous consoles.
Except Arceus, but even that has the caveat that I'd be supporting Game Freak.

Or maybe I'm playing it way too safe. I just also hate the gambling aspect of getting into new franchises.

If it's any consolation, there's a new SaGa game coming in 2024 :)

A lot of these, I don't know anyone who plays/likes them. And that makes me worry I'd play them once, maybe have some fun, but then have nothing compelling me to revisit them.

I think that's why I ended up not buying Bloodstained ROTN despite being excited about it. I knew it'd be here and gone in record time.

That was kind of my problem with Xenoblade 1. You beat it and then you just walk around listlessly, having liked so much but unable to talk about it because you can't say anything without spoiling half the game. All the so-called Xenoblade in-jokes are more about Smash Bros too, so they don't help either.
Man, it was hard work finding spaces to talk about Xenoblade 1 in other conversations.