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Can anyone recommend some JRPGs with less sexism?

StormBrute

StormBrute

Member
Oct 26, 2017
265
I've been a fan of the genre for forever, and as part of that have been digging into a fair number of games that I'm trying to catch up on. However, a common thread in a lot of the JRPGs I've been playing is... horrible sexism. And I'll be honest, I still enjoy some of these games and am willing to work past the issues, but I'm just at a point now where I want to find other options if at all possible.
  • Constant damseling and weakening of women to prop up men... (Kingdom Hearts, even if Aqua is cool you don't give her any respect)
  • Atmosphere of disrespect with constant sexist "jokes" or othering women as overly emotional, fickle, or focused on "finding a good man"... (Tales of Berseria, the male cast in that game is just fucking trash for how they speak about women)
  • Constant objectification of women by forcing them into sexualized outfits, objectified jobs/classes, or seductress roles even when you initially think the characters might be respected... (Dragon Quest and Yakuza: Like A Dragon)
  • Male party members just being the absolute fucking worst and diminishing women through either being chauvinistic "protectors" or just straight-up sexual harassers... (Again, Persona and also Tales of Berseria again)
  • Just straight-up pushing women out of the narrative and game... (FFXV)
  • Sexualization of minors either directly through sexualized designs or representations or indirectly through disgusting commentary... (Again, so much Persona...)
  • Pretending to be progressive about women's issues while still using it to objectify them and then going on to harass and mistreat the women of the cast regardless (God, fuck you Persona 5, how you treated Ann is absolutely infuriating)
Finally, as a last general thing I see a lot in media, shoving women characters into diminutive, accessory roles for the male main cast, or otherwise just lumping them into generic, sexist stereotypes that can't imagine anything not focused on them being women. I want to see agency and story focus on the women in the cast and story, them being treated the same as other party members, not just as objects or supporting players.

I'm aware that... many JRPGs have these issues. For someone who enjoys the genre, I understand that there's varying levels you have to put up with to be able to engage with anything but some Square Enix titles, as ridiculous and pathetic that may be. But if people are able to recommend anything that's at least better than most, I would be grateful.

It really doesn't have to be perfect! My standards are lower than they maybe should be! But just something that's not as egregious all the time. I can accept bad designs if the writing isn't as bad and the camera doesn't go full voyeuristic. I've been playing the genre for 20 years, I'm not super picky, I just want better.

(And yes, I'm aware Western-style RPGs and other games suffer from many if not all of the same issues, but I don't like Western-style RPGs, so I'm not asking for recommendations of that genre here.)


I have my own preferences for types of JRPGs I like, but I want to leave this open to any kind of recommendations in the genre to start to hopefully build up some titles in general. Feel free to recommend Japanese-style RPGs from non-Japanese developers, or strategy RPGs, or games that stretch that definition of the genre. Indie or AAA, modern or old. Anything you got!

I'm pretty picky when it comes to JRPGs nowadays, I'm aware, in part due to how many I've played.

Nowadays, I'm primarily looking for depth in gameplay. I'm personally tired of old-school, basic battle systems (like Dragon Quest, Breath of Fire I-IV, Suikoden) and games that try to emulate that (Lost Odyssey), but I love turn-based RPGs so long as they have evolved mechanics. I'm also fine with action RPGs, but I find many I've tried become button-mashy. I find the story in a lot of JRPGs... subpar, so a bad story is not a deterrent so long as there's good gameplay. But don't just worry about my own preferences! Even if you think it won't fit, feel free to throw it in.

Random callouts of JRPGs I've particularly loved:
  • Final Fantasy VII (and remake), X, XII, XIII, XIII-2
  • Grandia 2 and 3
  • Chrono Cross (my favorite game) & Chrono Trigger
  • Dark Cloud 2
  • Dark Souls/Bloodborne/Sekiro (which, sure, is close enough to a JRPG, I guess?)
  • Battle Chasers Nightwar
  • The World Ends with You
  • Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door
  • Undertale
  • CrossCode
  • Xenosaga: Episode III
  • Xenoblade & Xenoblade X
As you can see, definitely still varying degrees of sexism in those games (some very sexist designs in Battle Chasers, Xeno, and FF12), but they didn't come off quite as egregious as some others to me, probably in large part due to the writing. All of that to say it doesn't have to be perfect! Just... not as bad as some of those examples at the top.
 
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My Blue Heaven

My Blue Heaven

Banned
May 19, 2020
4,828
it seems like you just wanted to post an aggressive screed about your problems with JRPGs with the recommendation element being like an afterthought. your preferences also come off as overly picky.

play chrono cross i guess? i don't think that has anything from your laundry list but i'm sure someone will tell me i'm wrong because of so and so thing lol.
 
Seda

Seda

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Oct 25, 2017
9,078
SaGa Scarlet Grace Ambitions has one of the best turn-based battle systems to have ever existed, and it is much more a mechanics-driven game than a story/character-driven one. It's structured *very differently* from a traditional JRPG, but might be up your alley (but again, it's different enough, so maybe not). I don't think it has any egregious sexism, although maybe there's some off-the-cuff remark I've forgotten about somewhere. But again it's not really character-driven to begin with.

You could also go the dungeon crawler route. Something like Etrian Odyssey, you can avoid certain class artworks that are more skeevy.
 
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Geode

Geode

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Oct 27, 2017
4,662
Uhhh FFXIV? Create a female character and enjoy being the hero.
 
Pyro

Pyro

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Jul 30, 2018
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Well it ain't Dragon Quest VIII:

Pyro said:
Though I gotta give the game the side-eye for Jessica's character specific skill point being sex appeal. Mechanically it's nice being able to "stun" enemies by making them fall in love with her but holy shit that made the game seem straight outta the 40s or something.
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Or Dragon Quest in general now that I think about it:

www.thegamer.com

What's Up With The"Puff-Puff" Thing In The Dragon Quest Series?

The Dragon Quest series has a long-running joke about beautiful female characters offering "puff-puff," often with sexual connotations.
www.thegamer.com www.thegamer.com
 
Strings

Strings

Member
Oct 27, 2017
31,932
Koudelka?

266990-koudelka-playstation-front-cover.jpg


I don't think it runs into anything you mention. Horror JRPG with a female protagonist.


Kingpin Rogers said:
Trails in the Sky FC?
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Scherazard has sex appeal so it's disqualified ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Estelle is great and all (as are a few other characters like Julia Schwartz), but come Cold Steel the games get bad about this stuff.
 
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copelandmaster

copelandmaster

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,973
...fuck, idk.

Closest thing I can think of is the Final Fantasy XIII trilogy, as they are female prominent and the guy cast members are very respectful. But...Vanille makes people angry in XIII in spite of her positive relationships with Hope, Sazh, and Fang (demeanor, spoiler stuff/choice the character makes, battle VO), Serah's joke dialogue choices in XIII-2 might upset you or something, and Lightning wears a bunch of questionable outfits in LR while dominating the battlefield single-handedly.

Pick XIII-2, I guess.

EDIT: I think you should at least give FFX and MAYBEEEEEE FF X-2 some thought (Brother in X-2 will piss you off though). Its a romance story, sooooo
 
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purseowner

purseowner

From the mirror universe
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Oct 25, 2017
9,445
UK
StormBrute said:
Finally, as a last general thing I see a lot in media, shoving women characters into diminutive, accessory roles for the male main cast, or otherwise just lumping them into generic, sexist stereotypes that can't imagine anything not focused on them being women. I want to see agency and story focus on the women in the cast and story, them being treated the same as other party members, not just as objects or supporting players.
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I love the Utawarerumono series because it succeeds in this. But that's VN/SRPG, not so much a JRPG, you say you want gameplay and it's 70% visual novel, and I still think you'd have issues with some of the designs, so not necessarily very relevant. But I mention that because I can't really think of any JRPGs that don't fall foul of one or more of the criteria you list. Suikoden maybe? Dunno, my memory's hazy on any prominent female characters in there.
 
Mesoian

Mesoian

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Oct 28, 2017
27,186
Grandi-
Valkyria Chr-
Xenogea-
Star Oce-

Hmm...

Y'-
Tales of B-

Undertale. You should play undertale.
 
Dice

Dice

Member
Oct 25, 2017
23,103
Canada
Strings said:
Scherazard has sex appeal so it's disqualified ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Estelle is great and all (as are a few other characters like Julia Schwartz), but come Cold Steel the games get bad about this stuff.
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I'd say FC still passes. Schera is tame as hell and more of a mouthpiece than femme fatale IMO. Trails to Zero and Azure aren't too bad either. But yeah Cold Steel gets horny.

Lemme think.

Valkyrie Profile

I'd argue a number of Tales games

Breath of Fire games aren't too bad. (occasional gratuitous Capcom proportions).

Ni no Kuni was a good option.

Xenoblade 1 lets you change outfits (a couple of questionably dressed NPCs though).

Some FF games.

.....running low now.
 
Starlatine

Starlatine

533.489 paid youtubers cant be wrong
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Oct 28, 2017
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Since people are rec'cing western games made in jrpg style, i don't remember Septerra Core having anything of sort. But its been a while since i played it. Also, its kinda ugly, but i remember it being quite novel and intriguing in some ideas (and battle system)
 
PBalfredo

PBalfredo

One Winged Slayer
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Oct 26, 2017
4,520
OP, if you're open to widening your criteria to include Strategy JRPGs, then I recommend playing Fire Emblem Three Houses. And specifically joining the Black Eagle house.

latest


The female leads are very much the star of the show and are far from being used simply to prop up men. The game is interested in dealing with the issues women face in its feudal setting and the Black Eagles route specifically is engaged with dismantling those patriarchal, heteronormative systems. The designs for women is good overall, with standouts like Edelgard here which concerns itself primarily with showing her power and authority, rather than titilation.
 
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TeenageFBI

TeenageFBI

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,436
jb1234 said:
Good luck.
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Yep. I can't think of many that don't have at least a few unfortunate scenes.

But if we're defining JRPG as a genre and not simply an RPG that was developed in Japan*, I have a few off the top of my head: Undertale, Deltarune, Omori



*This definition is a lot more interesting.
 
Platy

Platy

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Oct 25, 2017
28,076
Brazil
Indies or Nintendo

Mother, Paper Mario, Pokémon...

Nintendo put all the objectification on Xenoblade =P
 
Strings

Strings

Member
Oct 27, 2017
31,932
It's been a while since I've played through it completely, but I don't think Wild Arms 3 would run up against any flags either:

Wild_ARMs_3.jpg

wild-arms-3-05-12-16-1.png


Available on PS4/5.
 
Mesoian

Mesoian

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Member
Oct 28, 2017
27,186
You might like Star Renegades.

I'll admit though, I bounced off it because I couldn't wrap my head around the combat system. It's fucking gorgeous though.

star-renegades-review-1.jpg
 
Morrigan

Morrigan

Spear of the Metal Church
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Oct 24, 2017
34,634
StormBrute said:
But if people are able to recommend anything that's at least better than most, I would be grateful.
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Unfortunately most of the JRPGs with minimal or no sexism are from the 90's, and will have "old-school" gameplay that you said you don't prefer in your spoiler tag, with the exception of perhaps Final Fantasy Tactics and Panzer Dragoon Saga (though good luck finding that one).

But, well, Phantasy Star IV, Shining Force I and II are definitely "better than most", and are $1 each on Steam. Phantasy Star's gameplay is probably not that in-depth, though, and obviously those games are very old, but yeah. Wild ARMs is another similar example with simpler gameplay (I still think they're pretty fun though!).

More recently, I'd say Octopath Traveler qualifies as "better than most". Primrose's story and character is rife with sexist writing, unfortunately, but overall, it's not too bad and the combat system is the best I've seen in a JRPG. Trails in the Sky is another good mention, there's some diet sexism at times but nothing too obnoxious. (Absolutely avoid Trails of Cold Steel, however...)

If you don't mind games that are "JRPG style" but not made in Japan, I would recommend Cosmic Star Heroine, CrossCode, and Fell Seal. They have very deep gameplay systems too and are available on most modern platforms. They feature zero sexism that I can think of.

craven68 said:
FF12 is really good at this level , there is no sexual comment at all in the game.
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Ehhhh
latest

That's... pretty egregious
 
seeds

seeds

Member
Jun 25, 2019
559
If you define JRPG liberally enough to include western games inspired by JRPGs (I don't, but many do), you should play Crosscode and Ikenfell. The former may be a little removed from what you're looking for but it's extremely good, and the latter has a fantastic tactics-inspired battle system and a lovely soundtrack
 
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