The Best JRPGs With Inspiring Hero Journeys

A hero’s journey can mean a lot of things in fiction. Typically, it refers to the main character going through their narrative’s plot and reflecting on how they change by the end. If a character is changed significantly from the starting point to the end point, then that’s often seen as a victory.

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By  Tristan Jurkovich

Book readers, moviegoers, and game players want to be wowed by the end of their experience and much of that factor can be chalked up to how the main character grows. If they don’t, that doesn't mean that piece of media is bad, but for now, let’s focus on games, specifically RPGs from Japan, where the heroes do change dramatically. They will be ranked based on how much they grow, and how satisfying that growth is to witness.

Spoilers Ahead For The Games Listed

7 Zephyr, Vashyron, And Leanne (Resonance Of Fate)

It’s A Threeway Tie

Zephyr, Vashyron, and Leanne are the three leads of Resonance of Fate. They’re the only playable party members in this turn-based RPG with gunplay straight out of The Matrix, so it’s hard to separate them. They are at the bottom of a dystopian society and the only way up is through grunt work. They’re okay at the start, but there’s also not a lot going on with this band of mercenaries. They’re kind of like the crew in Cowboy Bebop, who also take a while to get accustomed to in that anime.

As players hang out with this crew more, their faults and charms will start to become fascinating. Even though the game is episodic, the three heroes will change to be a bit less money-hungry and more noble as the story progresses, although a dog can only learn so many new tricks.

6 Will (Metaphor: ReFantazio)

From Pauper To Prince

Metaphor: ReFantazio

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RPG

JRPG

Action

Adventure

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10 /10

Released

October 11, 2024

Developer(s)

Studio Zero

Publisher(s)

Atlus

Platform(s)

PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S

Genre(s)

RPG, JRPG, Action, Adventure

OpenCritic Rating

Mighty

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The Persona team at Atlus mostly write their protagonists to be silent, but this changed with Will in Metaphor: ReFantazio. He has more input in the plot, and his overall mission is to kill the spell caster who put the prince of the nation under a curse. Once this villain, Louis, is dead, Will’s mission will be over, and presumably, the nation will be saved.

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By  Tristan Jurkovich

The twist is that Will is technically just the “will” of this prince, which manifested to push onward in his half-dead state. When the prince is officially slain toward the end, Will fuses back into the body and becomes whole again. Will, then, is a great example of a character who literally has an outward change on his hero’s journey.

5 Oliver (Ni no Kuni: Wrath Of The White Witch)

No Time For Tears

Oliver comes from another isekai adventure, but one a that's bit more whimsical. In Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch, Oliver loses his mom but gets swept away into another world where his stuffed animal friend, Mr. Drippy, says there might be a way to see his mom again.

No surprise to anyone, Oliver begins as a bit of a crybaby. He is a kid, after all, one who loses his mom and has to fight monsters. Thanks to strong bonds formed through the adventure, Oliver learns to wipe those tears away and heroically saves this newfound world from disaster.

4 Laharl (Disgaea: Hour Of Darkness)

Letting Go

Laharl is the prince of the underworld in Disgaea: Hour of Darkness. He kind of has the opposite path as Oliver, as he was raised to shut out feelings and is more annoyed that his father passed than sad, as he has to step up and rule in his place.

No one in the underworld is thrilled about this turn of events, and they try to usurp the throne from him. Laharl is basically a brat who thinks he deserves to rule, but also hates it. Slowly, he learns to trust his team, listen to his people overall, and welcome feelings beyond “this sucks” and “I have to kill you now.”

3 Sora (Kingdom Hearts)

Reclaiming The Power Of Friendship

Sora starts as a charismatic kid in Kingdom Hearts who dreams of adventuring with his two best friends, Kairi and Riku. He comes from a normal island home but gets swept up into a Disney-filled magical universe. He loses Kairi and Riku, but gains the support of Donald and Goofy, who have lost their king, Mickey.

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While he may smile through the rough patches, Sora is hurting inside. He wants to save Kairi, who was kidnapped, and Riku has turned to the dark side. With the power of friendship and his massive Keyblade, Sora battles through the darkness literally and figuratively. Sora starts as a good, caring person and ends as a true hero ready to take on any challenge.

2 Neku (The World Ends With You)

Taking Off The Headphones

Neku looks a lot like Sora with his fashionable threads and spiked hair. However, the two couldn’t be more different in the personality department. Neku is a loner in The World Ends With You who doesn’t understand people and instead drowns them out with music in his solitary life in Japan. This leads to his death, and he awakens in an afterlife where everything is set up like a game.

To get resurrected, or make any other wish, Neku has to go through trials with various partners. Even when faced with this reality, Neku shrugs it off. Through repeated trials, Neku learns to trust his partners and people overall, thus losing the need for the safety of his headphones.

1 Clive (Final Fantasy 16)

Accepting His Fate As Ifrit

Many characters go through the wringer in the Final Fantasy series. The most recent protagonist, Clive from Final Fantasy 16, really goes through it, though. He loses his home in The Grand Duchy of Rosaria, his father, and his brother, all in an instant. What’s worse is that his mother, Anabella, was behind it all, and she has defected to The Holy Empire of Sanbreque, an enemy nation. Clive then basically becomes a slave of war.

In the opening hours, Clive is a broken man who slowly starts to regain himself as a fiery power awakens within. He learns that Joshua, his brother, is alive, and helps put the world back together one revenge killing at a time. Clive is a brooding protagonist who gets what he wants in the end, mostly. It’s unclear if he dies or not, but either way, he still makes a valiant effort at saving humanity, and he sacrifices everything (or almost everything) to do so.

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