Top 10 JRPGs That Were Overshadowed by Final Fantasy VII

Hardcore Gamer: Unfortunately, in all of its hype and praise — and regardless of how much it helped define the roleplaying genre – Final Fantasy VII did a huge disservice for the type of game it represented. Many games got swept under the rug due to that one acclaimed product essentially hogging all the glory and this is a list of the top 10 JRPGs that Final Fantasy VII unfortunately overshadowed.

[Pozzle]

Almost every JRPG has been overshadowed by Final Fantasy, tbh. Final Fantasy has become the go-to JRPG series for the Western media to focus on, meanwhile other games (some that are just as good, if not better) get completely ignored.

[Pyrrhus]

I agree, but realistically, Final Fantasy/Kingdom Hearts were both so grand before this generation. But with Squenix's downward trend in terms of quality games at least we get to experience the gems of JRPG this generation.

[LightofDarkness]

Agreed, it can be disconcerting to read of the "demise" of the JRPG simply because the last few Final Fantasy games have been sub-par. The Tales series is certainly deserving of more attention at this stage, while Xenoblade showed many just how relevant and amazing JRPGs can be in the modern gaming world. But it's like everyone has a terrible selective memory disease, because about one month later, we're back "JRPGs ARE DOOMED", despite some sterling releases over the past two years.

[Godmars290]

Honestly can say that each of those games had better character interactions and story involvement than FF7.

Wh-What?!

[izumo_lee]

If you are a JRPG fan no game is overshadowed by another. I played almost all the games on that list except the Sega Saturn ones cause i didn't have one at the time.

Xenogears is my all time favourite JRPG despite that it wasn't truely finished. Wild Arms was the first game i bought for the Playstation & loved every minute of it. Legend of Dragoon is well legendary. Tales of Destiny was solid. Grandia has one of the best battle systems.

When FF7 released if you were new to the genre than yeah i can agree that the game overshadowed many underrated gems. However if you were a fan of JRPGs before FF7 released than all these games should've been on your playlist.

[-Gespenst-]

I was hoping they wouldn't put Legend of Dragoon on there, but it showed up at the end. That game sucks- serious case of rose-tinted glasses. I still like VII and most of those games, but Legend of Dragoon is shambolic.

[Darth Gamer]

Out of everyone on that list, maybe besides Xenogears, Legend of Dragoon is my absolute favorite. I personally think it is a gem of a game and have been wanting and waiting patiently for a part 2. I don't understand how you thought it was horrible. everything about it was quality. After 4 discs, I was upset that it had ended.

[belac09]

i LOVE legend of dragoon, your cray cray.

[wishingW3L]

very true. Legend of Dragoon wasn't a good game back in the day and it sure isn't one now. Story was garbage, the battle system was garbage, the characters had no personality at all and the entire progression of the game was as linear as FF13. In fact, Legend of Dragoon doesn't even has side quests... The only people that say that it was a good game are those that only played it when they were like 5 years old and speaking from nostalgia alone.

[-Gespenst-]

Now that's a breath of fresh air! Finally someone who agrees with me.

Actually though, it did have A sidequest. You could fight this superboss called Faust I think, he was really easy though.

Yeah though I mean the dialogue read like it was written by a 5 year old, the story "borrowed" like a hundred tropes from Final Fantasy VII. A large part of the story involved following "the platinum haired man" (Lloyd) Remind you of anyone?

And god the naming of everything- "Winglies", "Melbu Frahma", "The moon that never sets", "The black monster", "Virages" (which = Jenova), "The Valley of Corrupted Gravity". Garbage. Just these names that are desperate to sound "rpg-ish" but come across as nonsense.

The music is one of the most amateur soundtracks I've ever heard. Full of all sorts of definitely unintentional errors.

Characters are like fully 1-D, with the possible exception of Rose, and they've got that stupid childish colour-coding thing going on.

That battle system was just straight broken and largely required luck since it was so glitchy. No skill, just unreliable reflexes, for everything.

I could go on and on.

[Pyrrhus]

Rogue Galaxy should be on the list. Came out towards the end of the PS2 lifecycle and was an incredible game by Level 5.

[Godmars290]

He's talking about PS1 games. P-S-1.

[jc48573]

i want to point out that Contrail only made Wild Arms 2. The other Wild Arms games were created by MediaVision.

[TwinDad]

I enjoyed 6 the most, with 4, 8, 9 being the other FF that I loved, so I can appreciate #1 on the list.

I would have put Skies of Arcadia on the list at #2.

[kma2k]

Apparently im from the old school IMO FF III (VI) is the best of the series.

[LightofDarkness]

I think most people who played VI (certainly those who played it before VII) regard it as the superior game. I do, and I would say that it just about beats VII, which I would regard as being on a relative parity with IX. IX had far more natural dialogue with obvious gameplay and story-telling improvements, but the plot itself was not as compelling as VII, nor was the setting, so it's hard to say which is better in the context of a Final Fantasy game given those comparisons. IV is also a landmark entry for the series, with a pretty strong plot (especially for the era it arrived in).

[shadowmist13]

I was young when i got breath of fire 4(grade 1).Its cover looked epic to me so i took it, Played it and finished it,abd I could barely read at that time lol but it was a pretty awesome game for its time,think i will go download the rom now and play on my phone =D.

[RiseAbove]

He forgot to include both Lunar and Lunar 2. Both fantastic games! And I love Grandia!

[-Gespenst-]

Lunar is good but it's pretty overrated. Not a single sidequest in that game. And the story had a strong whiff of American imperialism / Puritanism about it (I know it's not an American game.) The Red, White, and Blue Dragons? The "Frontier" and the "vile tribe" that lives within it? The naive and innocent hero in his weird crusader-esque armour? The "fall" from the blue moon thing?

I haven't played 2 mind you but it looks like more of the same.

[CLOUD1983]

It doesn't matter how successful or legendary FFVII was/is the point is that every JRPG fan out there search for good JRPGs like a thirsty man search for water in dessert, 1 is never enough! & btw some of the games on this list belong to my TOP 10 all time favorites like Xenogears, BoF III, LoD etc

[TheOneWhoIsTornApart]

The ironic thing about Xenogears was that its plot and characters were originally going to be used for Final Fantasy VII but was deemed far too dark for a FF game.

[HarvesterOSarow]

I'm pretty sure it was suppose to be the next Final Fantasy which would have been 8, but Square said it was too dark, and they didn't want to go back to using sprites again?

I'll look it up later :P

[TheOneWhoIsTornApart]

Im pretty sure it was supposed to be FF7 but I too will look it up.

[TheOneWhoIsTornApart]

I was right. Soraya Saga and Tetsuya Takahashi submitted the script to Xenogears for Final Fantasy VII.

[HarvesterOSarow]

Nice! I'm glad VII is VII and Xenogears is Xenogears lol Interesting to know though. I always thought they worked on it when VII was being made and they were hoping for it to be VIII. Thanks for the clarification.