Was 2024 the best year ever for JRPGs?

Of course, it's a very broad brushstroke to claim that the heyday of Japanese role-playing games ended around the time The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind was released for Xbox and Western RPGs became more common - but it wouldn't be entirely wrong. After amazing decades, the Japanese gaming industry was left behind as role-players gravitated towards series like the Elder Scrolls, but also Diablo, Fable, Fallout, Knights of the Old Republic, Mass Effect and The Witcher.

I'm certainly not saying that Japanese role-playing games stopped coming. On the contrary, they have continued to be released, but Final Fantasy went into something of a slump with Final Fantasy XIII and series like Megami Tensei, Persona, Star Ocean, Suikoden, the Tales series, Xenoblade and others - certainly delivered quality, but felt a bit niche and low-budget.

To continue with the broad brush strokes, the Japanese games industry started a new journey back maybe five or six years ago with more and more lavish games that fully matched what the West could offer. And at the same time, we also noticed that Japanese role-playing games seemed to be making a comeback. Kickstarter campaigns were booming, the Persona series was getting the recognition it deserved, Final Fantasy was starting to hit its stride again, and the Yakuza series was moving from action to role-playing.

As we look back on 2024, I think we've just experienced gaming history. I've been reading Wikipedia pages and Metacritic to try and poke holes in my theory, but I don't think we've ever had a gaming year with so many Japanese role-playing games that were also of such an incredibly high standard. Here at Gamereactor we have reviewed no less than 20 Japanese role-playing games this year (or large expansions) that have received a rating of seven or higher - two of which received the maximum rating, and I personally was close to making sure it was another one. And they are not in a lump either, but have been scattered throughout 2024.

I won't try to make a comprehensive list, but some highlights include the release of Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, the sequel to one of my most beloved games. I thoroughly enjoyed my way through the adventure that kept me busy for over 150 glorious hours. Just a week later came the Persona 3 Reload remake, which gave more people the opportunity to discover this wonderful series while waiting for Persona 6. Just three weeks later came the first full-potter of the year in the form of the magnificent Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth, which completely set a new standard for remakes.

Jump forward another week and we find Granblue Fantasy: Relink, which was also a real stunner, and another week later came Vanillaware's incomparable Unicorn Overlord. Already here (in March) we're up to Japanese role-playing magic that alone would have made 2024 a gaming year to remember, but it just kept on pouring - because two weeks later it was time for Dragon's Dogma 2, Capcom's top game. Incidentally, Rise of the Ronin was also released the same day.

April couldn't have been worse, of course, and like clockwork the Final Fantasy XVI expansion The Rising Tide, the spiritual Suikoden sequel Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes and Sand Land were released, making even this normally sleepy month of gaming truly memorable. After that, summer began to approach, but Nintendo managed to release the remaster of Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door in May, while FromSoftware pounded away with Shadow of the Erdtree (the Elden Ring expansion) in June. July wasn't without some great Japanese role-playing games either, with Capcom's very unique Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess (seriously, try this if you're into Japanese mythology), before the summer was rounded off with Visions of Mana in August.

September was actually the only month of the year that didn't have much memorable to offer in the genre, but then again, no one really needed more either after the avalanche of quality that had been - and soon it was October.

And... October delivered. There were two big releases from Atlus, Romancing Saga 2: Revenge of the Seven Heroes - but also Metaphor: ReFantazio. The latter also received our highest rating and has been praised even by the players. It's not every day we get the chance to be part of a brand new adventure together with Atlus, and people were obviously very keen on it.

In the normally AAA-heavy November, the Japanese role-playing games continued to do well with the releases of Mario & Luigi: Brothership and Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake, with the latter in particular becoming immensely popular. Finally, December saw the release of Fantasian Neo Dimension, which had the honour of rounding off the JRPG gaming year 2024.

After years of being grateful for Japanese role-playing games and hacking my way through ones that I would have rated maybe six or seven, often with a clear sense of budget, I (and everyone else) have been completely drowned in lavish quality in 2024. That it would be as good again next year - or even any other year - actually feels doubtful, which is fine. This insane amount of Japanese role-playing games, which actually take time to play, is almost unmanageable, and I still have five games left on my own list of what I want to get to before 2025.

But not only have there been many good games released, they have also sold a lot, which hopefully means that more publishers dare to invest in the game type. So there is a good chance that we will see more and more and larger productions in the future, and I think it's only a matter of time before classics like Final Fantasy V and VI are released as HD-2D Remakes.

Something that has further helped the game type is that the West is largely stuck in the live service swamp, which has meant that "our" role-playing games have lost popularity and are not released as often (live service games take up an extreme amount of resources). Many people also complain loudly that they think the West's major productions are a bit too heavily focus group-tested and political.

Thus, I believe we are now entering a new era for Japanese role-playing games, where we will also see Western developers increasingly following the model, such as in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Enjoy it, because this kind of thing always goes in waves and as good as we fans of the genre have been able to eat in 2024, we may never get to do it again, but we undoubtedly have several really good years ahead of us.