Our annual batch of scorching hot deals is back in the form of the Steam Summer Sale, which offers boatloads of big discounts on quite literally thousands of games. The Witcher and Dragon Age trilogies are both cheaper than a Tesco meal deal, but if we turn our gaze to some similarly great JRPGs instead, we’ll find just as juicy savings.
Steam’s list of the 50 best-rated Japanese roleplaying games, based on user reviews, are basically all discounted, including multiple Final Fantasies, Like A Dragons, and Personas. The only games in the list that aren’t on sale are Shin Megami Tensei 5: Vengeance, which just came out, Final Fantasy 14 (an MMORPG as opposed to a straight up JRPG), and Felvidek (more a Japanese-inspired RPG with turn-based combat), so I’m not really counting them anyway. You’ll see green savings tags running all the way down the list regardless.
Some especially good deals come from the original, unremade 1997 Final Fantasy 7 at $4.79, side-scrolling sleeper hit Astlibra Revision $19.99, leather pant-making sim Monster Hunter Rise at $10, zany crime epic Yakuza: Like A Dragon with a 80% off discount cutting the price down to $11.99, and all-time, any-genre great Chrono Trigger, which is an absolute steal at $7.50.
The entire top three are also discounted, and also come from the same ‘high-schooler beat/befriends demon’ series Persona. Steam’s best-rated JRPG Persona 4 Golden is 40% off; jazzy teenage rebellion Persona 5 Royal is 50% off, and this year’s remade Persona 3 Reload has a 30% off sale.
Multiple entries in our best JRPGs list are also discounted, so check out some good recommendations while you’re at it.