4 Most Popular JRPGs In 2019 so Far

Kingdom Hearts 3

Fans have been waiting a long, long time for Kingdom Hearts 3, so it’s no surprise that it’s the most popular JRPG of 2019 so far. The game saw a strong reception at launch, garnering an 83 on Metacritic, based on over 80 official reviews.

To make matters even better, though, the game has an 8.3 user rating with over a whopping 1400 scores. Kingdom Hearts 3’s success isn’t just based on scores, however, oh no. The latest game broke a sales record for the franchise, becoming the fastest-selling Kingdom Hearts game in history, with over 5 million copies just over a week after launch.

We haven’t seen any more numbers since then, but that number has surely gone up, and with Critical Mode and other free DLC coming, Kingdom Hearts 3 is bound to sell even more by the end of the year. It’s amazing to think that only one month into 2019 we already had a strong candidate for best RPG of 2019.

Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition

For being a game over 10 years old, Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition achieved some great success when it launched earlier this year. The game has hit over 500,000 sales worldwide, a decent achievement for any niche JRPG, but made even more impressive considering this is simply an updated version of the original Xbox 360 game.

Still, it is true that there’s a ton of content fans in the West never received, due to the US never seeing the release of the PlayStation 3 version. The Definitive Edition also fared well in reviews garnering an 84 on Metacritic on Switch, an 81 on PS4, 80 on Xbox, and 80 on PC.

Even in our own review, we gave the Definitive Edition the high marks of 4.5/5, saying it’s the best way to play one of the best JRPGs ever made.

Final Fantasy IX (Switch)

The Switch has become a JRPG powerhouse lately, receiving a torrent of both new and classic titles. One major absence starting to be filled is the Final Fantasy series, with many of the classic games now arriving on the handheld-hybrid. One of the first of those was Final Fantasy IX, which was shadow-dropped onto the eShop after a Nintendo Direct in February.

For being a nearly 20-year-old JRPG the game did quite well for itself, rocketing up the Switch charts to be the third most downloaded game on the eShop, just behind the juggernaut Fortnite and the hit tactical-RPG Wargroove. Final Fantasy IX retained that position throughout the month.

Final Fantasy IX has only become more and more beloved by fans over the years, and the opportunity of playing all-time classic JRPGs on Switch is clearly appealing to people. With Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD, Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age, and Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles Remastered on the way, it’ll be interesting to see how those entries fare.

The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel (PS4)

Late last year, Nihon Falcom announced that The Legend of Heroes’ Trails series had hit 3.9 million sales worldwide, with the Trails of Cold Steel subseries accounting for 1.5 million of that. Definitely impressive numbers for a series that’s super niche.

Although we don’t yet have sales numbers for the recently released Trails of Cold Steel PS4 version, it fared well in terms of reviews and user ratings. Metacritic has the PS4 version at an 82 currently, with a pretty stellar 9.0 rating from users, based on over 60 scores.

In fact, everywhere you look Trails of Cold Steel has fantastic scores from players. The Steam version of the game, which released two years back, has an “Overwhelmingly Positive” rating on user reviews based on over 15000 reviews.

The updated PS4 port features a turbo button, 4K compatibility, and more, that only adds fuel to a series that’s been gaining steam over the past few years.