Over the last several decades, JRPGs have cultivated a massive amount of popularity within the gaming community. The genre itself offers some of the most unique settings, stories, and gameplay that push the limits of what video games have the potential to be. Though, for newcomers, it can sometimes be difficult to break into the JRPG genre as a whole.
Given how outlandish the worldbuilding, storytelling, and characters of JRPGs can often be, for some players, these games can feel rather inapproachable. Not to mention how deep the lore of some JRPGs can get, especially for games like Final Fantasy 7 that have had a massive following since the late 90s. Luckily, one such JRPG fan has made a convenient infographic that shows the pros and cons of certain JRPG franchises to give players a better idea of what they are getting into.
Over on Reddit, a user named Liquid23- created a chart that shows off six of the most popular JRPG series of all time: Final Fantasy, Pokémon, Shin Megami Tensei, Persona, DragonQuest, and the Tales of series. Each one with a set list of pros and cons for each franchise that should give new players an idea of what to expect from each series.
A chart depicting pros and cons of 6 JRPG series I’ve played. Pick your main series. fromrpg_gamers
While the chart doesn't serve as a replacement for playing the games in-person, it does show potential new players not just what they would be getting into with each title, but also how each one deviates from each other, in spite of belonging to the same genre and sometimes being published by the same studio. For instance, both Persona and Shin Megami Tensei possess similar mechanics, since they're both published by Atlus, but are mechanically and stylistically different from each other that both series feel distinct.
As JRPGs continue to grow in popularity, it allows for more obscure game series to be introduced to a wider audience. For example, when Shulk was first introduced in Super Smash Bros. For Wii U, it drew a lot of attention to the Xenoblade Chronicles series. To the point where Xenoblade Chronicles is one of the most popular, second-party Nintendo franchises currently in circulation.
In any case, it will be interesting to see how much growth JRPGs continue to achieve. The massive demand for certain titles has allowed for cross-platform releases of games that were previously tied down to certain consoles, such as Persona 5 Royal and NieR: Automata. Not to mention the influx of new JRPGs that have been released over the last couple of years.