Best JRPGs With Complex Crafting Systems

JRPGs have explored a variety of different gameplay mechanics over the years, and item crafting is one of the most frequently reoccurring. While many effective weapons and armor can be purchased in shops, many games offer an alternative that either allows players to get the same weapons at a lower cost or craft weapons that are stronger than the ones in shops.

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By  Daniel Dilena

Item crafting has been a popular game mechanic in JRPGs for decades, and most games in the genre take different approaches to item crafting. While many item crafting systems are remarkably simple, many can be incredibly complex. Here are some JRPGs with very complex crafting systems.

8 Dragon Quest 11

An Enjoyable Approach To A Classic Mechanic

Despite being the godfather of JRPGs, crafting systems came relatively late to the Dragon Quest series. The alchemy pot in Dragon Quest 8 was one of the first examples of crafting in the series, though it was relatively simple to use.

Dragon Quest 11 makes the process much more intricate with the Fun-sized Forge, a crafting system that requires the player to hammer out the item via a mini-game that requires patience, balance, and tactics. With this, players can not only make unique items but also more powerful versions of items as well.

7 Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings And The Lost Ocean

A Unique Approach To Crafting New Cards

The Baten Kaitos games are unique hybrids of deckbuilders and role-playing games, where the characters use a variety of cards to define their actions in battle. There are different ways to earn cards, including beating enemies in battle, buying them from shops, and, of course, crafting them.

However, crafting cards in Baten Kaitos is a lot harder than it might seem. In order to craft a card, players must use a very specific card combination in the middle of battle. Other cards need to be aged, which can mean waiting from a few minutes to dozens of hours. Still, some incredibly powerful cards can be created with this method, so it can be worth it to try.

6 Final Fantasy 10

Completely Open-Ended Equipment Crafting

Final Fantasy 10 is one of the most popular entries in the franchise, with a unique turn-based combat system and revolutionary graphics. It also has a very complex equipment upgrade system, though it doesn't seem that way at first.

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In Final Fantasy 10, all weapons and armor have the same statistics. However, all equipment has two ability slots, which can be upgraded with items to add particular effects to them. These effects can add incredible effects to each weapon, and even change the appearance of the weapon entirely. While there is a limit to how much an item can be customized, nearly any piece of equipment can be transformed using this method.

5 Monster Hunter: World

A Wide-Ranging Variety Of Materials And Ingredients

Monster Hunter has always been a franchise where using materials of defeated monsters to create stronger equipment was a core part of gameplay, so their crafting systems are naturally very robust as a result. Monster Hunter: World is easily one of the biggest Monster Hunter games to date, so its crafting system is appropriately expansive.

Aside from being able to auto-craft items from ingredients found in the wild, players can also use materials from the monsters they defeat in order to upgrade their weapons and armor, which can branch out into completely new weapons and armor given the right materials. Making the perfect loadout in Monster Hunter: World takes quite an effort, but it's all worth it for Monster Hunter fans.

4 Star Ocean: Till The End Of Time

A Convoluted Crafting System

The Star Ocean games are well-known for their unique crafting systems, as well as how easy it is to create game-breaking weapons early on in order to trivialize battles. Crafting systems are a core part of the series, though their complexity varies from game to game.

Star Ocean: Till the End of Time has the most complex crafting system in the series. While in other games, item creation can be done easily from the main menu, item creation in this game requires the use of a factory. By constructing lines of workers, which can include both party members and NPC workers, the workers will begin automatically crafting items based on specific plans or even original concepts. It's a lot to get a handle on, but some of the best items in the game can only be made this way.

3 Shin Megami Tensei 5: Vengeance

A Legacy Of Renowned Demon Fusion Tradition

While item or equipment crafting isn't really something that's focused on very much in most Shin Megami Tensei games, demon fusion (which can certainly be seen as a form of crafting) is an incredibly important part of the game that can mean life or death for the player. Shin Megami Tensei 5: Vengeance is the most recent entry in the series, and its demon fusion system provides an incredible amount of functionality.

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While it's relatively easy to shoot for a particular demon to fuse, it can be difficult to ensure that it inherits the skills necessary for it to be a powerhouse. Shin Megami Tensei 5 provides a variety of different ways to do so, whether it be manually fusing demons until the player reaches the desired demon, or using essences to inherit the skills that way.

2 Legend Of Mana

A Surprisingly In-depth Crafting System

Legend of Mana is a rather odd game, not just in the Mana series, but among JRPGs as a whole. It has a lot of very bizarre mechanics, and it can be very difficult to get a handle on everything at once.

Included in this is Legend of Mana's weapon crafting system, which can get incredibly convoluted very fast. While making the weapons themselves is somewhat simple, upgrading them through tempering is incredibly deep, as nearly any item in the game can be used to improve equipment. With a lot of patience and luck, players can create incredibly powerful weapons.

1 The Atelier Franchise

The Epitome Of The Item-Crafting JRPG

While most JRPGs have item crafting as more of a side activity, the Atelier games put their crafting systems front and center. Unlike in other games, players must engage in alchemy to progress in the game, and as a result, they are incredibly in-depth and extensive.

Alchemy is incredibly complex and requires not only obtaining high-quality ingredients but also manipulation of those ingredients to create powerful items. How exactly alchemy works varies from game to game, but it's certain that Atelier players will be spending hours in crafting menus trying to create the best items and weapons.

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