10 JRPGS that are Better than their Metascore

Game Rant - "From Star Ocean to Final Fantasy, there have been a number of JRPG's that have been unfairly undervalued by their Metascores. Here are 10 examples."

[Rangerman1208]

While I agree that the combat in Star Ocean 5's combat is pretty fun, saying that its story is more enjoyable than its predecessors is highly debatable. Also, it's not just the technical issues the game suffers from.

[Gaming4Life1981]

Star Ocean 5 was garbage and I was a huge star ocean fan.

[Docmortem]

Completely disagree the games I played from the list all deserve their scores (Star Ocean, Nier, Tales of Zesteria, Type-0). While there are certainly people that love these games, they have flaws in many categories, that justify those scores.
Star Ocean especially bored the hell out of me. Lame story and face roll battle system (I finished the game anyway). These games are really niche and when rated by a broader public, fall short. In my opinion even in their own genre.

[solideagle]

I personally have not played any game below 80 and thought wow this should have been 80-90 game. The only game I thought should have been 90 was Shadow Hearts II: Covenant. I am pretty sure there will be some games but average score usually is pretty good indication.

do you recommend any JRPG which you think were good/amazing but it didn't score well? I just purchased Tokyo xanadu but it seems way too slow like trails game but trail at least has good story. I will give it a shot

[rainslacker]

I think there were quite a few JRPG games that got hit with lower meta scores last gen when all these reviewers were on their anti-anime tropes kick. Not that they should get up there into the high 80s or 90s, but they weren't 60-70 games either.

That's mostly died off this gen, thankfully

[WickedLester]

Ni No Kuni 2 is way better than it's metascore.

[solideagle]

I think Ni No Kuni 2 combat is pretty generic but if you add all DLCs then its combat is pretty awesome. I purchased the complete edition so I can say DLC changes the combat completely

[FinalAeonX]

Ni no Kuni 1 is way better than its metascore

[Kumakai]

.

[Father__Merrin]

meta scores are rubbish best ignore them. many gems out there

[solideagle]

can you please name few?

[Kocurstvo]

Useless to argument troll, but e.g. Eat Lead is hilarious and extremely funny, yet mediocre on metastupids.... Lords of the Fallen, Strange brigade... I could name hundreds

[gold_drake]

star ocean.... my main problem with it is the battle system, it always has been. but i wouldnt trust metascores that much. some of the, in my opinion, best games ive played have low scores.

[Z501]

Agree 110% with Nier.
With all the praise Automata gets. Nier does everything better EXCEPT combat & graphics.
The story is better
Nier/Kaine/Emil > 2B/9S/A2
Humans/Shades > Androids/Machines

[rainslacker]

I think automata was supposed to be a smaller side story within the nier universe. It was only a small part of the larger universe, and the characters motivations and the story were more focused.

But I agree the original nier had a better story. I would love a remaster.

[Darkwatchman]

Disagree heavily with Zesteria being on the list at all, let alone #2. It was rUINED by massive input lag even on PS4, even though it was originally a PS3 game just ported to PS4. So it’s a 30FPS Tales game with major input lag? Nah, it ruined the combat.

[Tross]

The importance of a metascore is blown way out of proportion. It’s an ok guidepost for those who want to get an idea of what the critical reception is for a game at a glance, but let’s not forget that it’s an arithmetic mean, which is a number that can be easily influenced by outliers. The mode (most common score) is, IMHO a much more useful figure if you care so much about scores in general (which in itself is a figure with highly inflated importance).

[Juvia]

Well said, and spot on.

[Zeldafan64]

All the Xenoblade games should be .5 higher than they are.

[Imortus_san]

Those are all weak games.

[BrainSyphoned]

Infinite Undiscovery need to remain that way. Tedious, tedious, horrible achievements, tedious. Easily my least favorite RPG I completed on the 360.

[Segata]

Infinite Undiscovery is one of the worst RPGs I have ever played with one of the worst opening acts to a game.

[AK91]

Lost Odyssey

[SegaSaturn669]

The Last Remnant is very 6.5/10. The only reason I'd score it higher is because the music rocks. Star Ocean is amazing but the AI is really, really bad -- like the healer prioritizing attack buffs on a dying team.

Nier is amazing. The soundtrack alone fits the atmosphere so well. Deserves at least an 8.

[rob-GP]

Didn't realise Star Ocean was so low - bought it on release and platinumed it after about 200 hours or so. I enjoyed it but I'd only really played SO 4 briefly before that and none of the previous games. Obv since then I've played others but I still recall it being a fun game.

The Last Remnant you can't really judge based on its score last gen. The PC version and subsequently the PS4 and Switch enhanced remasters are much better. They've sped up the combat, fixed the vast majority of the issues and the game is in a much better state than the previous gen release. As such, the launch 360 version deserved the lower score (although again, I had 100% it) but the remaster deserves much more (which I think it got).

I've played Infinite Undiscovery and FF Type-0 but I can't really remember much of those but they were pretty average from what I do remember.

Lost Odyssey got a 78 which, although being quite high, seems low as the game was great. It's a game I wish had come to other platforms via the way of a remaster this generation, or even a sequel if MS were invested in their own JRPG IPs. Another is

Resonance of Fate is another game which got mid-70s yet is worth a look, especially the PC and PS4 4k remaster from a few years back. Meta doens't seem to have scores for the updated version, only the original, but I really enjoyed the bump in quality in the latest release.

[OG_TK_Cole]

Ni No Kuni 2 was way better than the Metascore.

[ShadowWolf712]

Ehhh, idk, most of these are frankly pretty fitting.