2025 is Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's year. Still, for all of its technical and artistic achievements, it's not infinite, and even replay enthusiasts should let go at some point. The void will feel immense, so let's look at similar titles you don't want to miss out on.
Final Fantasy 8
Clair Obscur's director Guillaume Broche has cited Final Fantasy 8 as one of his favorite games, and it shows. There's a whole minigame in trying to list all the influences Final Fantasy 8 had on Expedition 33, from the world's art to some of the characters' looks and personalities, but you're even better off just playing Final Fantasy 8. Much like Clair Obscur, FF8 took a completely bold approach to the JRPG genre, but it just wasn't as well-received. Sure, Final Fantasy 8 sold big time and achieved critical acclaim upon release, but it quickly got hit by an unhinged tsunami of backlash that rendered it the black sheep of the franchise to this day. That's sad, as players should've at least respected Squaresoft's attempt at preventing things from going stale, especially in a game that, less popular mechanics aside, remains a tremendous cinematic, musical, and overall aesthetic triumph to this day.
Final Fantasy 8 should've hit just as hard as Expedition 33 did upon release, but it came out to a world that just wasn't ready. The great praise some of the key people behind Expedition 33 have showered FF8 with prompted many to give it a try, and I'm sure they didn't regret it. You can be next.
Lost Odyssey
One of the reasons why the Xbox 360 was easily the best Microsoft soldier in the console wars was how that's the only generation when the company addressed the need to compete with the PlayStation's JRPG offerings, and Lost Odyssey was their crowning achievement. Lost Odyssey was everything a Final Fantasy game should be, or should've been, considering how it came out very close to Final Fantasy 13, which was everything a Final Fantasy title shouldn't have been.
On top of a great story, cool looks, and characters, Lost Odyssey even featured a proto version of the QTE-style events that made Expedition 33's turn-based battles so fresh and immediately memorable.
Vagrant Story
Some argue Vagrant Story is the best game on the original PlayStation, and I believe the only reason that number isn't much higher is that not enough people bought it. This is one of the finest, most engrossing, and most original RPGs ever made, and more people need to know about it.
Whereas I can see why games such as Final Fantasy 8 and Skies of Arcadia failed to sell, one because it strayed too far from Final Fantasy, the other because it didn't have "Final Fantasy" in the title, Vagrant Story's commercial failure, or failure to dominate sales, to be more precise, baffles most who got to play it. It was one of the most gorgeous games on the PlayStation, featured all-new mechanics that anyone could enjoy, and even had the same marketing machine behind it that the Final Fantasy series had. Luckily, because of its beautiful art style and direction, Vagrant Story remains a game anyone should give a try even today.
Skies of Arcadia
Skies of Arcadia not only nailed the beloved basics of JRPG combat, but it also added an extra dimension via its unique world composed of layers of explorable floating islands that, unsurprisingly, are really fun to explore when you happen to have a flying pirate ship.
Skies of Arcadia was capable of going toe to toe with any of the best additions to the genre during the PS2 years, but it fell to the Dreamcast curse, which prevented it from reaching the popularity it deserved. Had it come out for the PlayStation 2, I certainly wouldn't have to be reminding people of its existence, though I do it with pleasure.
Though Shenmue is the Dreamcast's best-known title, it's never going to be the best when there's Skies of Arcadia.
Panzer Dragoon Saga
Panzer Dragoon Saga was Sega's answer to Final Fantasy 7, and the relatively few people in the know are aware that this was no marketing ploy. Saga offered a tremendous alternative to the then-reigning FF-style gameplay through its battle system inspired by the classic on-rails Panzer Dragoon titles. The result was a game where frantic movement prevented any battle from ever feeling stale.
And there's a reason why I'm putting this one last. Panzer Dragoon Saga acts as Simon, that optional boss that'll absolutely kick everyone's ass. That's not because Saga is harder to play through, but it's the hardest game on this list to get to play, as the only ways are via either emulation or for shelling out over $500 to get a used copy to run on the Saturn that you so totally own. Sadly, though entirely deserving, there's no guarantee that a remaster will ever come to fruition, as we don't know if Sega still has the source code in its possession.
The post Want more like Expedition 33? Try out these underrated JRPGs appeared first on Destructoid.
