The 5 Best Enix JRPGs

Before Square Enix was Square Enix, there were two fierce rivals in the JRPG market. Enix and Square dominated the genre in their own distinctive ways, each one building a catalog of stone-cold classics. Enix is of course most famous as the publisher of Dragon Quest, but there’s a lot more to its legend than that. The company worked with a wide array of developers, making for a very eclectic line-up. We’ve picked out five of the best Enix JPRGs, and to keep it interesting we’re limiting it to one game per franchise.

Dragon Quest V: The Hand of the Heavenly Bride

Choosing just one Dragon Quest game is a real challenge, but there aren’t any wrong answers. Any given entry is easily among the best Enix JRPGs. Dragon Quest V is a very special game, even by the standards of the series. The game follows the life of the main character from birth well into adulthood, and has a lot of interesting things to say about the nature of heroism. The main character’s monster taming ability ultimately inspired the popular Dragon Quest Monsters spin-off series, too. This is perhaps the most character-driven plot in the series, and a tale that still resonates with fans of the series today.

Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen

It’s perhaps a little stretch to call Quest’s Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen a JRPG. In reality, it’s a game that defies most genre labels. It’s close enough to count, though. You have to lead a revolution against an evil empire, and you’re going to need an army to do it. Explore the world, customize your forces as you see fit, and make sure you don’t run out of money to pay everyone. With tons of potential routes to take through the game, secret characters to recruit, and more than a dozen endings, Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen is a hard game to put down. Its sequel Tactics Ogre might be more famous these days, but this game stands tall as one of the best Enix JRPGs.

Robotrek

Developer Quintet made several great games in cooperation with Enix. Robotrek is perhaps the most conventional of the lot, which is saying something given how creative it is. It’s a light-hearted JRPG where you play as the son of a brilliant inventor. Since you’re a kid, you don’t actively participate in battles. Instead, you build and customize robots to do that messy work for you. You can even create your own special moves. That’s already pretty cool, but you can also generate new items to boost your ‘bots by combining scraps you find along the way. A very quirky game, and one you won’t soon forget.

Valkyrie Profile

The PlayStation played host to a lot of cool JRPGs, many of which were published by Enix. Valkyrie Profile, from developer tri-Ace, is a very unique game. Playing as the Valkyrie Lenneth, you’re in charge of gathering up the souls of powerful heroes to take part in Ragnarok. You’ll explore areas in from a side-view perspective, with some platforming and puzzles thrown into the mix. When it’s time to battle, Lenneth doesn’t fool around. While battles are technically turn-based, they’re some truly exciting and fast-paced skirmishes. The gameplay is great, the story is compelling, and the presentation is sublime. A true must-play.

Star Ocean: The Second Story

The original Star Ocean was a Japan-exclusive Super Famicom release that came very late in the console’s life. It was technically impressive, and its science-fiction plot helped it stand out from the crowd. As good as that first game was, the PlayStation sequel was even better. When a space explorer ends up stranded on a backwater planet, he’s soon swept up in events that threaten to shake the galaxy. Similar to the Tales of games, Star Ocean: The Second Story features action-based combat. This is another game with multiple endings, but in this case you’ve got a whopping 86 of them to find. This game had a fantastic remake in recent years, and that’s the best way to check it out.

What are some of your favorite Enix JRPGs? Let us know in the comment section below!