JRPGs are always pretty ambitious, whether it's because they want to introduce an entirely bespoke, one-off battle system, a new approach to dramatic and emotional storytelling, or some third thing no one expects at all. Whether it's ambitious PS2 JRPGs, cross-platform behemoths, and everything in between, the genre has so many genuinely interesting games with equally interesting stories behind them.
Whether it's because the new, more powerful 360 hardware offered new opportunities or because their developers wanted a new challenge, the 360 was a major turning point for the JRPG genre on the Xbox. Traditionally much more popular in the PlayStation and Nintendo ecosystems, the Xbox 360 saw significant gains, in part thanks to developers' specific ambitions. These eight Xbox 360 JRPGs offer an intriguing mix of ambitions, from strictly technical ambitions and ever-increasing scope creep to high-concept takes you never expected to see as a game, let alone a JRPG. They aren't necessarily Xbox 360 exclusives, but all were huge releases for the system.
Hear me out on this one. Eternal Sonata is a pretty weird JRPG concept where basically, the entire game is based around the music of the Classical composer Chopin. I don't just mean that they used his music for the soundtrack, either, although obviously, they did. But the game is set within Frédéric Chopin's dreams as he's dying of tuberculosis, which is definitely one of the best JRPG stories with a decidedly weird origin.
The game had some ambitious mechanics, including tying combat to the light and dark visual motif present throughout. Except the ambition wasn't really just that the setting was unusual or that it had some interesting mechanics. The ambition in this case is that the developers wanted to make Chopin's music and life story into a cohesive game, with an intent to make a clear and fairly unique statement on modern culture and gaming. Lots of games have ambitious mechanics, settings, or technical backgrounds; Eternal Sonata has an entirely different kind of ambition and honestly, I'm here for it.
Technically part of the Drakengard franchise, NieR was a fantastic game, and it has a very cool — and weird — sequel in the form of NieR:Automata. Its ambition lies mainly in its creative approach. Game director Yoko Taro wanted to make a game that could incorporate elements of many different genres without fundamentally changing the game's basic controls.
The end result was something that featured diverse segments such as action-RPG and side-scrolling, and in some battles, the camera switches to simulate a top-down shoot 'em up style. The approach was even found in its two Japanese versions: Nier Replicant for the PS3, which featured a teenage protagonist, and Nier Gestalt for the Xbox 360, featuring an adult man. The game released to mixed reviews, but it's a clear example of creative ambition even if it didn't quite land how its developers wanted it to. And hey, it spawned a smash-hit direct sequel, so it got there in the end.
Star Ocean: The Last Hope's developer, tri-Ace, built a reusable, next-generation RPG engine with the explicit ambition of being one or two steps ahead of high-end PC-quality graphics. This is one case where the ambition is perhaps a little larger than the delivery, since they only used the engine in three games.
The engine was initially created for Infinite Undiscovery and was extensively updated for Star Ocean 4, with a specific target of continuous 60 fps. The game looked pretty good, to be fair, and lots of console games don't even bother trying for 60fps these days. Star Ocean: The Last Hope is a perfectly good JRPG, and although it isn't the best Star Ocean game, it represents significant technical ambition that's worth remembering.
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