Key facts
- Cheapest right now
- € Standard · Global · Difmark
- Live offers
- 4 offers · 3 stores
- Our pick
- Standard · Physical · Global · Playstation Store — €
«Which JRPG should I get on PS5» is almost never a question about quality. Seventeen of the games below are excellent and you will still bounce off half of them, because the thing that decides whether you finish a hundred-hour Japanese role-playing game is not the story or the art: it is whether you enjoy the fight you have to repeat a thousand times.
So this list is sorted by combat, not by score. Below you have the PS5 JRPGs we have live seller offers for, grouped by what the battles actually feel like, with a price column that moves with the board.
One note before you read the verdicts: Steam only records reviews for the PC version of these games, so where we quote a Steam verdict it belongs to the PC release of the same title. It is a quality signal, not a review of the PS5 build.
What kind of fight do you actually want?
Answer this before anything else and the shortlist writes itself. The whole page in one table, with the combat system, how the same game is scored on PC and the live price on PS5.
| Game | Combat | Steam verdict (PC version) | Price on PS5 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 | Turn-based with real-time parries | Overwhelmingly Positive · 180,000+ reviews | € |
| Metaphor: ReFantazio | Turn-based | Very Positive · 24,000+ reviews | € |
| Persona 5 Royal | Turn-based | Overwhelmingly Positive · 90,000+ reviews | € (with coupon Gocdkeys) |
| Persona 3 Reload | Turn-based | Very Positive · 42,000+ reviews | € (with coupon Gocdkeys) |
| Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade | Action with tactical pause | Very Positive · 42,000+ reviews | € (with coupon Gocdkeys) |
| Final Fantasy VII Rebirth | Action with tactical pause | Mostly Positive · 24,000+ reviews | € |
| Final Fantasy XVI | Pure action | Mostly Positive · 23,000+ reviews | € |
| Granblue Fantasy: Relink | Co-op action | Very Positive · 40,000+ reviews | € (with coupon Gocdkeys) |
| Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty | Action built on deflection | Mixed · 20,000+ reviews | € (with coupon Gocdkeys) |
| Fate/Samurai Remnant | Musou-style action | Very Positive · 5,000+ reviews | € (with coupon Gocdkeys) |
| Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth | Turn-based | Very Positive · 16,000+ reviews | € |
| Like a Dragon Gaiden | Pure action | Overwhelmingly Positive · 9,000+ reviews | € (with coupon Gocdkeys) |
| Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii | Pure action | Very Positive · 6,400+ reviews | € |
| OCTOPATH TRAVELER II | Turn-based | Very Positive · 13,000+ reviews | € (with coupon Gocdkeys) |
| Sea of Stars | Turn-based with timed hits | Very Positive · 11,900+ reviews | € (with coupon Gocdkeys) |
| Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter | Turn-based | Overwhelmingly Positive · 4,300+ reviews | € (with coupon Gocdkeys) |
| Tactics Ogre: Reborn | Tactics on a grid | Mostly Positive · 4,000+ reviews | € (with coupon Gocdkeys) |
The four that define the genre right now
If you have not played a JRPG in a decade and want to know why people keep talking about them, start in this group. All four are turn-based, all four are enormous, and all four are the reason the genre is having a moment.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 — the one that broke out
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, from Sandfall Interactive, carries Overwhelmingly Positive on Steam with more than 180,000 reviews and a 90 on Metacritic: the strongest combination on this page by a distance. Turn-based, but with real-time parries and dodges on every enemy attack, so you never get to look away. It is also the widest board of the group, which usually means the best price.
Metaphor: ReFantazio — the newest from the Persona team
Metaphor: ReFantazio, by ATLUS. Very Positive with more than 24,000 reviews and a 92 on Metacritic. Same calendar-and-social structure that made Persona famous, moved into fantasy, and slightly friendlier to newcomers because you are not also learning a Japanese school year.
Persona 5 Royal — still the reference
Persona 5 Royal, also ATLUS. Overwhelmingly Positive with more than 90,000 reviews and a 94 on Metacritic for this PS5 version. If you only ever play one game from this page, the consensus still points here, with one warning: it is the longest commitment on the list.
Persona 3 Reload — the shorter way in
Persona 3 Reload. Overwhelmingly Positive with more than 42,000 reviews and an 89 on Metacritic. A full remake of the game that invented the formula, and noticeably tighter than Royal. The sensible first Persona if a hundred hours sounds like a threat rather than a promise.
The block below already has each seller's own coupon applied, which is why the order does not always match what the store shows on its own page.
Final Fantasy, put in order
Three entries with the same name on the box and three completely different games underneath. The mistake people make here is buying by number instead of by combat.
Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade — where the remake starts
Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade, Square Enix. Very Positive with more than 42,000 reviews. Action combat with a tactical pause that slows everything down when you open the command menu, which is the compromise that keeps both camps reasonably happy. This is chapter one: do not start with the sequel.
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth — the middle chapter, and the biggest
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. Mostly Positive with more than 24,000 reviews, a step down from the first part, and worth understanding before you buy: the criticism is almost entirely about the volume of side activities, not the combat, which most people consider better than Remake's.
Final Fantasy XVI — the one with no turns at all
Final Fantasy XVI. Mostly Positive with more than 23,000 reviews, and the most divisive entry on this page, for one reason: there is no party management and no menu-driven combat. It is a straight action game with a Final Fantasy story attached. It also has the widest seller board of the three, so it is usually the cheapest way to try the modern series.
What if turns are not your thing?
Three games that keep the Japanese role-playing structure — parties, gear, long stories — and throw out the menus.
Granblue Fantasy: Relink — the co-op one
Granblue Fantasy: Relink, by Cygames. Very Positive with more than 40,000 reviews. Short missions, a huge roster and a loop built to be played with other people, which makes it the odd one out on a page full of solitary hundred-hour campaigns.
Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty — read the verdict before you buy
Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, KOEI TECMO. A 79 on Metacritic but a Mixed verdict from more than 20,000 Steam reviews, and that gap is the useful information: it is a deflection-based action game in the Nioh mould, brutal on its own terms, and most of the negative reviews are people who expected something gentler.
Fate/Samurai Remnant — the crowd-clearing one
Fate/Samurai Remnant, also KOEI TECMO. Very Positive with more than 5,000 reviews and an 80 on Metacritic. Closer to a musou than to a role-playing game in the moment-to-moment, with a proper story around it. The relaxed pick of this group.
Like a Dragon: the way in is not the one you think
The series that turned itself from a brawler into a turn-based role-playing game halfway through, which is why the entry point matters more here than anywhere else on the page.
Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth — the big turn-based one
Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, RGG Studio. Very Positive with more than 16,000 reviews and an 89 on Metacritic. Full turn-based combat, two cities, and an amount of side content that would be a whole game elsewhere.
Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name — the short one
Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name. Overwhelmingly Positive with more than 9,000 reviews and the best review ratio of the three. Real-time brawling, a fraction of the length, and the cheapest honest test of whether this series is for you.
Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii — the silly one, and it means it
Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii. Very Positive with more than 6,400 reviews and an 81 on Metacritic. Action combat again, a ship, and no requirement to have played anything else first.
The board below is one of the widest on the page, again with every seller coupon already deducted.
Classic turns, pixels and HD-2D
The group people underestimate. Smaller games, smaller prices, and the ones most likely to actually get finished.
Octopath Traveler II — the beautiful one
OCTOPATH TRAVELER II, Square Enix. Very Positive with more than 13,000 reviews. Eight protagonists, HD-2D art that still has no real competition, and a combat system built around breaking enemy defences on the right turn.
Sea of Stars — the one to start with
Sea of Stars, Sabotage Studio. Very Positive with more than 11,900 reviews and an 87 on Metacritic. Turn-based with timed hits, no random encounters, no grinding, and short enough to finish. If someone has never played a JRPG, this is the one to hand them.
Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter — the start of the long saga
Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter, Nihon Falcom. Overwhelmingly Positive with more than 4,300 reviews and an 89 on Metacritic. The opening of the densest continuity in the genre. Start here or do not start at all.
Tactics Ogre: Reborn — the one on a grid
Tactics Ogre: Reborn, Square Enix. Mostly Positive with more than 4,000 reviews and an 84 on Metacritic. Tactical combat on a grid rather than a party facing a line of enemies, and a political story that treats you as an adult. Different genre in practice; same shelf.
If you want the short version: Sea of Stars if you have never played one, Persona 3 Reload if you want the full Persona experience without the longest version of it, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 if you want the game everybody is arguing about, and Final Fantasy XVI if the menus are what put you off in the first place.
When you have decided, you can buy Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 key or buy Final Fantasy XVI key straight from the full board, with every seller coupon already applied.
I have been a gamer for as long as I can remember, and for the last 14 years I have been making life easier for other gamers. CEO and co-founder of Gocdkeys.
LinkedIn profile More about Luis Abrines
+ 120 Tickets by link