JRPGs are generally very, very long games. While most end up being worth the journey, some can be an absolute slog at the start of the game before the story really picks up.
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JRPGs are an acquired taste for some, but these games are tasty no matter what.
We’re going to cover all eras of the JRPG-dom to find the games that have slow starts, but are well worth playing if you manage to push through the opening hours. This is easier said than done at times, but your efforts will be rewarded here.
Our criteria is going to be JRPGs that start slowly and offer you very little in the way of fun combat, intriguing stories, or intriguing systems to engage with in the early hours. But slowly, they reveal themselves to be incredibly fun and deep games that just get better and better the further you get in them.
10Kingdom Hearts 2
Twilight Town Is Hell
Kingdom Hearts 2
Kingdom Hearts 2isone of the best games on PS2, but you would never know that from the opening hours.
I don’t care about themes, or narrative requirements. Twilight Town, which serves as the opening 2 or so hours of the game depending on what you do there, is one of the worst areas in gaming history.
It is aggressively boring, you have a joke of a weapon, none of the combat mechanics are unlocked, it’s an absolute disaster in terms of gameplay, mission design, and overall narrative feel.
It does get better though, and once you get past Twilight Town, the game becomes the sequel you were promised.
Sora takes over, and with him comes a slew of fun combat mechanics and a great, crazy story that lives up to everything the first game promised.
9Final Fantasy 10
Wade Through The Waters
Final Fantasy 10
Final Fantasy 10 is a wild experience, but you wouldn’t know that by the opening hours. The Blitzball beginning, followed by the first attack of Sin, has you wandering around temples and islands without a lot of direction as to what’s even happening for the first handful of hours.
I remember my first time playing through the game and thinking maybe Squaresoft had lost it, because I wasn’t feeling that Final Fantasy magic.
I pushed through, however, and was rewarded with that classic Final Fantasy greatness, with epic summons, incredible boss battles, mind-blowing cut scenes, and some truly special storytelling.
This is one that starts like a 5 and ends like a 10. It’s that good, and that worth it to push through.
8The Legend Of Dragoon
Wait Till You Can Transform
The Legend of Dragoon
Legend of Dragoonmight not get the hype of other JRPGs, but if you stick with this one,it is an awesome experience.
Unfortunately, a lot of people fall off in the early hours of this game because it’s, for lack of a better word, dull. It feels like JRPG 101 with mysteries popping up, generic soldiers to fight, and a character that feels like TEMU Cloud.
You have to get past the opening hours until you’ve got a full party to play with. As you get more characters, the story gets very good, and once you’ve unlocked their Dragoon transformations, you’ll gain some spectacular-looking attacks that make combat a lot more satisfying.
You’ll also unlock more Additions, which are effectively this game’s version of combos that get more and more elaborate and rewarding to pull off.
The story gives you the biggest payoff, as the somewhat simple seeming tale goes fully off the rails around the midway point in the best way, and villains and heroes start to both turn to shades of gray. You’re not even sure who to believe or what is right or wrong at that point.
7Final Fantasy 12
Slow To Build
Final Fantasy 12
Final Fantasy 12is one of the most mature titles in the series from a story perspective, but for that complex story to get going, you’re going to have to suffer a bit at the start.
It’s a cliché with JRPGs at this point, but you will literally be fighting rats in a basement in the opening hours of the game, and the events that lead up to you getting a full party can certainly feel like moving through quicksand.
However, once the gang is together, and you’ve got access to the overworld areas, the action picks up considerably, with thrilling boss fights, amazing cinematics, awesome summons to unlock and, generally, all the typical Final Fantasy goodness many come to expect from the series.
The story also picks up a ton in the second half of the game, so I implore you to get through the opening segments where you’re just wandering around with Vaan and wait till the real main characters join the fray.
6Chrono Cross
Serge’s Journey Starts Simple
Chrono Cross
Chrono Crossis not nearly as beloved as its predecessor, and part of that is due to the extremely slow start it gets off to. After the compelling opening, you, of course, get stripped of all your powers and sent back to square one, which, to this day, is the worst trope in video games.
On top of that, you’re just playing as Serge for a decent amount of time, fighting lizards on a beach and performing fetch quest tasks. Once Kid joins you, you’re still kind of flying blind for a bit until things finally pick up a bit once you discover Another World.
Once that happens, the game gets good very quickly, with tons of characters becoming available to recruit. The plot picks up the pace too, introducing some wild elements that make it one of the more unique stories in any game period.
5Xenoblade Chronicles 3
The Intrigue Builds
Xenoblade Chronicles 3
Xenoblade Chronicles 3opens in an exciting enough fashion, but immediately after, you’re thrown face-first into a world that is completely mysterious, with little to no idea what is going on and why.
Normally, that setup is fine for a JRPG, but the gameplay here is what makes those opening hours tough to get into.
You don’t have half the battle mechanics revealed to you until 10 or so hours into the game, and you’re also without a chance to unlock the exciting job-type system that alters your characters' attacks and allows a huge amount of customization.
There are also tons of guest characters you can bring alongside you that change how your attack strategy goes as well, but most of them aren’t available until you get much further into the game.
Thestory is a wild ridethough, and makes the opening slog well worth it in the end.
4NieR: Automata
World Building, Yoko Taro Style
NieR: Automata
Fextralife Wiki
Nier Automatais one of my all-time favorite JRPGs, but I almost didn’t make it through the opening hours.
For starters, the opening hour of the game does not give you the chance to save. That means if you die at any point from the start of the game to the big boss battle that takes place at the end of the intro, you’re going to have to do the entire thing again from the start.
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Once you finally finish that opening, it still takes a while for things to really pick up story wise.
It’s about 3-4 hours in that you start getting the really intriguing story revelations. Once that happens, it’s full speed ahead, as it’s one of the more fascinating stories in gaming. Each subsequent ‘playthrough’ gets better, with the third being the apex of the game in many ways.
3The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel
An Epic Journey with a Dull Introduction
The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel
Trails of Cold Steelmarks the start of the most popular arc in the Legend of Heroes franchise, but it’s safe to say it does not get off to the best start by any means.
The in-media res intro that has you in the middle of some conflict is decent enough, but as always, all the attacks and abilities you have there are whisked away from you as you head back to the starting point, which is also one of the more underwhelming areas I can think of.
You are assaulted with endless dialogue in the opening hours and some of the most uninspired, early PS2-looking dungeons as well.
If you can manage to get through the rather pedestrian nature of the opening hours, you’ll be treated to some fantastic combat, a great cast of characters, and some genuinely great storytelling that builds the foundation for what has becomeone of the most successful JRPG seriesof the past 10 years.
It takes a lot to get to that point, but the juice is worth the squeeze.
2Octopath Traveler 2
The Beginning is Lonely
Octopath Traveler 2
Octopath Traveler 2is abig improvement on the original in many ways, but unfortunately, most of that improvement doesn’t really happen until you get all the characters together.
Until that point, you’ll be playing eight wildly different stories that don’t feel all that cohesive. What’s worse is that the stories often have you playing as a single character for a good portion of time.
The combat system simply doesn’t shine until you’ve got a decent party to fight with, and the story itself doesn’t really pick up until all the pieces are in place and that doesn’t happen until hours into the game.
If you stick with it, you’ll get plenty of JRPG goodness here, and the battle system becomes one of the best in the genre.
1Persona 5
10 hours Of Pain To Start
Persona 5isone of the best JRPGs of all time, but you wouldn’t know it from the first 10 hours of the game.
There is a ton of setup here, and although the opening segment is thrilling, you’re quickly thrown into the real world, where you will proceed to do chores, go to high school, hang out with friends, and find ways to make money. Generally, the game quickly shows that it’s equal parts social sim as it is a JRPG.
This scared a lot of people off, but what’s important to know is that there are 90 hours+ of gameplay after this opening slog, and it’s full of great character development, great storytelling, and incredibly addicting persona collecting and fusing.
It also has some of the best boss battles in the genre, and the subject matter gets pretty dark and mature as the game goes on. If you can stomach the opening 10 hours, you’ll be rewarded with an awesome journey.
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