JRPGs aren’t generally known for their decision-making, but there have been a handful throughout the years that have decision-making play heavily into how the gameplay and story play out.
This can be due to optional routes taken to characters recruited to decide who lives or dies, and it presents a further level of player agency than the majority of games in the genre.
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The genre has made an epic resurgence thanks to mainstream booms like Baldur’s Gate 3 and Pillars of Eternity 2.
I’ve always loved JRPGs, but I’ve noticed most of them don’t let you stray from the beaten path when it comes to the story. Rarely are there multiple endings or choices to make when it comes to dialogue throughout the game. However, there are a select few that give you plenty of player agency over how the story goes.
We’re going to check out a bunch of JRPGs that let the player decide how things play out at certain points in the game.
10Triangle Strategy
You Determine the Fate of Your Land
Triangle Strategy
Triangle Strategyis a great throwback, strategy JRPG that brings elements of games from the 90s into the modern era and does it with style and substance.
The decisions here happen during every chapter, and they can affect who lives or dies, who your allies and enemies are, and ultimately, the path this surprisingly complex and mature story takes.
It’s a perfect complement to a deep, political story and the fact that you have the ability to shape it makes subsequent playthroughs feel quite a bit different depending on what you decide to do.
9Chrono Cross
The Path of Time
Chrono Cross
Chrono Crosscan be a wildly confusing game by today’s standards, and figuring out which way you need to make events play out is part of a narrative puzzle that makes the game so engaging to play.
You have plenty of ways to shape how the events play out as well, with tons of characters to recruit and even crucial moments of the story where you’ll be forced to make a decision, unable to know the ramifications until long after.
Certain characters can get locked out of your playthrough completely and this can alter your party completely from one playthrough to the next.
There are also multiple endings to unlock, with one being so obscure that only the most dedicated of players will figure it out without using a guide.
8Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
A Philosophical Struggle
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Fextralife Wiki
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33is thebreakout hit of 2025, and while it pays homage in many ways to games of the past, it also paves its own way with a host of unique qualities.
One of those is how your choices in the sidequests and especially the ending shape the world. The side content can be so valuable in this game that if you ignore it, you might lose sight of what is really happening at the end of the game.
In Act 3, several long side quests featuring Maelle and Clea are available, and each of them adds so much to the story and even affects the fate of a major character in the game.
There are also tons of conversations to take part in at camp, and depending on your dialogue choices, you can start entire relationships, or if you refrain from talking to party members, you can also miss out entirely on optional areas or unique attacks.
Then there is the ending, which has the internet in a war at the moment over what the right choice is.
That choice affects the very survival of the world you play the game in and decides whether certain characters live or die, and it’s one of the most brutal and hard-to-choose endings I’ve experienced in a game.
7Unicorn Overlord
Judge, Jury, Executioner
Unicorn Overlord
Unicorn Overlordwas a pleasant surprise in 2024, and it hit big because of its gorgeous art style,strong strategic gameplay, and overall amazing presentation.
One aspect of the game that is underplayed is the decision-making throughout the game.
Often, after a big story-relevant battle, you’ll be given the choice to let certain characters join you or to let them go.
Some of the time, you’ll even get the chance to execute certain characters on the spot. This means that some playthroughs will have you siding with different characters, executing different people and shaping your army in a much different way.
There are also multiple endings that can be unlocked depending on your choices throughout the game and, on top of that, several romance options to pursue to change the relationships between your characters.
6Valkyire Profile
Lenneth And The Fate of the World
Valkyrie Profile
Valkyrie Profileisone of my favorite JRPGs ever, and part of the reason is that you feel like you are in charge of how the fate of the world plays out.
You play as Lenneth, a Valkyrie tasked with gathering fallen souls to fight for the fate of the world when Ragnarök arrives. You have a set amount of time to do this and your choices in each chapter each take up a certain amount of time.
There are tons of characters to recruit, but the Catch 22 is that recruiting some will block you off from others and the timing when you recruit certain characters can alter the path of the story completely.
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Something as simple as entering a dungeon before you’re supposed to can change which characters are available, and something as trivial as refusing to fight a boss when given the chance can make it so you’re unable to recruit a certain character later in the story.
It’s beyond complex and getting the true ending of the game requires a guide or luck beyond my comprehension. Your choices in the game literally affect the fate of the world and how the ending plays out, and it’s one of the most replayable JRPGs because of it.
5Vanguard Bandits
Your Choices Determine the Tone
Vanguard Bandits
I’m going to assume you haven’t played Vanguard Bandits. If that’s the case, you’re missing out onone of the coolest games of its timeand although the late 90s were chock-full of epic JRPGs, none did what Vanguard Bandits did.
The way the choice and consequence system here works is very interesting. There are only a couple of paths you can take, but within each are a handful of choices.
If you make incorrect choices, you will end up with a party full of basically the joke characters of the game, and the plot will become an absolute mess because of it.
It’s not lost on the developers either if you choose this path, as the intro scenes before the title will suddenly be comedic outtakes, and the music that plays on the title screen will have the wrong lyrics.
It’s a hilarious way to play the game, and the story adapts to how much of an idiot you are, which is something most games can’t claim.
4Romancing Saga 2: Revenge of the Seven
The Most Open-Ended JRPG
Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven
Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Sevenis one of theweirdest and most original JRPGs out there. Part of what was so jarring to me while playing it is that there is no set path.
The entire game is an open book for you to explore, and there are no right or wrong choices. However, everything you choose to do affects the world and affects the ending you will get.
The way you handle conflicts, the order you recruit characters in, and who you choose to travel with will alter everything from conversations you get to witness between characters to entire dungeons and areas of the game being blocked off.
you’re able to never get bored while playing because everything is constantly changing due to the choices you’re making and the party is being switched up in the process as well.
The order you attack the seven referred to in the title affects the path of the story, and to list the permutations the game can take based on your decisions would take eons to do.
The story itself isn’t anything too special, but the way you shape it based on how you approach the world is fascinating and something wholly unique to the Saga series.
3Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne
The End of the World in Your Hands
Shin Megami Tensei 3 Nocturne HD Remaster
Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturnemay not be the same level of popularity that the Persona series is, but for those who can handle the challenge, it’s a fantastically bizarre game that involves a ton of player choices and consequences.
Throughout the game, you’ll be fighting various demons and deciding whether to recruit them into your party, but aside from that, you’ll be taking part in many conversations that shape the path the story will take.
Doing something as innocuous as apologizing when discussing something with an NPC can change what ending you start trending towards, and there are a variety of variations the story can take,e as these games typically give you 3 different paths the story can go.
It’s a dark, dour world you’ll be exploring here, but the claims from the beginning of the game tell you that you will get to decide what happens in the world, and they ensure that’s not just lip service, it’s something that you actually do.
2Star Ocean: The Second Story R
Space Options
Star Ocean: The Second Story R
Star Ocean: The Second Story Rhas a lot in common with another space opera, Mass Effect. That might be surprising to hear when it comes to a JRPG, but it is very much the case.
In Star Ocean: The Second Story R, you have tons of choices to make throughout the game. Which characters will you recruit? Which companions will you romance?
There are so many choices to make throughout the game, and they all go into determining which of the numerous endings you ultimately get.
Star Ocean: The Second Story R also has several romance options throughout the game and, to make this even more intriguing, the characters you don’t end up romancing will actually date each other, which, to my knowledge, is something that doesn’t happen in any other game like this.
Overall, it’s an incredibly underrated game that offers you a ton of choice in how the events play out.
1Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Choose Your Kingdom
Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Fire Emblem: Three Housesposes a very important question to you from the very start of the game.Who will you fight for?
It’s given to you with little to no background on the characters in play, but you still must make a choice.
This choice not only determines what army you’ll fight for when the larger conflict breaks out after the opening hours, but also who will be available for you to recruit and, ultimately, what ending you’ll get.
It makes it so playing through Fire Emblem: Three Houses requires 3 playthroughs to see everything it has to offer.
If that’s not enough, you can also have characters die and be gone forever from your team, depending on what you choose to do in combat, so your choices matter a lot there as well.
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