u/Silly-Milly-420

Hello!

Last time, we talked about the best JRPGs of 1986, and the winner of that question was Dragon Quest I (or Dragon Warrior I), for how it mended together elements from Wizardry, Ultima, and Enix's old text games, along with great music and a charming art style by Akira Toriyama to create a game that would essentially lay the groundwork for the next 40 years of JRPGs. Now, it is time to talk about 1987! Like how 1985 was essentially an evolution of 1984 in the history of JRPGs, 1987 is like that, but better, as not only were there great follow-ups to the games from last year and before, but also, many different franchises were launched, with a few being very important in the history of JRPGs.

Riding on the success of the first Dragon Quest, Enix and Chunsoft got to work on the follow-up, Dragon Quest II: Luminaries of the Legendary Line (or Dragon Warrior II). In this JRPG, it felt more like an expansion of the previous entry with a more exciting and difficult combat system (that's once again inspired by Wizardry), a larger party consisting of the protagonist and his two cousins, more areas to explore, multiple enemies and heroes in a battle, and a sailing ship. The game sold more than its predecessor with 2.4 million copies, with its success being one of the reasons why Dragon Quest became a cultural phenomenon. Outside of Enix, T&E Soft released Hydlide 3: The Space Memories, which added several improvements such as a Day/Night Cycle, a combat system that's very similar to The Legend of Zelda, four distinct character classes, and a weight system that impacted how the player moved.

Falcom released four JRPGs this year. First was the fourth entry in their Dragon Slayer series, Dragon Slayer IV: Drasle Family (or Legacy of the Wizard), which returned to the deeper Action JRPG mechanics of Xanadu while also keeping the side-scrolling view of Romancia. It was also one of the earliest examples of a non-linear, open-world Metrovania-style action RPG (the other being System Sacom's Euphory, which is not in the image) as well. It was also one of the first Falcom games to be released in North America. Next, Falcom released the next entry in the Dragon Slayer series with Dragon Slayer V: Sorcerian. It was a party-based action JRPG where the player controls four characters in a side-scrolling view, and it included character customization, class-based puzzles, and a new scenario system with 15 quests to play through. The game was also episodic, as well with numerous add-ons, including more scenarios, developed by not only Falcom, but other companies such as Amorphous and Quasarsoft as well. The third (and last one we'll talk about in this section) JRPG they released was in partnership with Hudson Soft, as it was the first spin-off to one of their Dragon Slayer entries, Xanadu, with Faxanadu. It wasn't the only JRPG that Hudson Soft worked on, as they also made the first entry in their Momotarou Densetsu series.

In between the grand follow-ups to previous JRPGs and the start of several franchises, there were also plenty of unique JRPGs that were released that year. Square made Cleopatra no Mahou, a JRPG centered on archeology. Culture Brain made The Magic of Scheherazade (which is not in the image), which featured a setting based on the Arabian Nights, Time Travel, the introduction of team attacks, and a unique combat system that blended real-time solo action and turn-based team battles. Data-East developed Toujin Makyou Den: Heracles no Eikou, which was the first entry in the Glory of Heracles series. Kogado Studio made the sequel to Cosmic Soldier with Psychic War: Cosmic Soldier 2 (I accidentally put the first one in the image), which featured a unique tug of war real-time style combat system with energy clashes, and a more improved conversation system that more resembles a later JRPG we'll talk about. Also, there were a few horror JRPGs released that year, which included Fun Factory's Shiryou Sensen: War of the Dead (Which was one of the first JRPGs to be on the PC Engine, along with Team Career's Gaia no Monshou) and HummingBirdSoft's Laplace no Ma. While the two are different in their gameplay and story (The former had a side-view real-time combat style and was about a female SWAT member saving civilians in a monster-infested town, and the latter had turn based combat and was set in a mansion with multiple playable characters), the games were noted for their creepier atmosphere than most other JRPGs of their kind, and Laplace no Ma even became the first game in the Ghost Hunter series.

For these next games, they were the start of their own franchises; however, unlike the previous franchise starters (Momoden, Glory of Heracles, and Laplace no Ma), these games are legendary for being the start of some of the biggest franchises in not just JRPG history, but also gaming history. Going back to Falcom, the Fourth game that they released was the start of one of their biggest long-running franchises, Ys I: Ancient Ys Vanished. Inspired by both Dragon Slayer and Hydlide, Ys took their concepts (The gameplay of the former and the health regeneration mechanic of the latter), while also providing a few new twists, such as a bit more focus on storytelling, and a bump-attack system where the protagonist Adol can automatically attack the enemies when running into them off-center, therefore making the problem of grinding meaningless. Combined with a sublime soundtrack composed by Yuzo Koshiro and Mieko Ishikawa, the game became the start of the Long-Running Ys franchise, with it having many entries to its name. Influenced by the success of Dragon Quest on the Famicom, Sega decided to make its own JRPG with Phantasy Star. The Master System game made brand-new innovations for the JRPG genre with a setting that merged Sci-Fi and Fantasy, animated monster encounters, and pre-defined player characters with their own backstories. Eventually, Phantasy Star would become one of Sega's biggest franchises with numerous entries, and it was also responsible for launching the careers of a few people, including Rieko Kodama, Naoto Ohshima, and Yuji Naka. Meanwhile, Atlus adapted Aya Nishitani's Digital Devil Story novel for the Famicom as Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei. The game had a more modern setting, unlike the other JRPGs at the time, and it had a monster-catching system as well. This game was the start of Atlus's Shin Megami Tensei series, which is one of the biggest JRPG franchises of all time, with numerous Spin-Off series such as Devil Summoner and Persona. Finally, Square released the game that would change their future, Final Fantasy. The game featured ideas that would become commonplace in other JRPGs, such as a character creation system with Jobs that can be upgraded halfway through the game, a time travel plot, side-view battles with the party of the right and the enemies on the left, and transportation through canoe, ship, and airship. Along with designs by Yoshitaka Amano and a great score by Nobuo Uematsu, the game sold 2 million copies in all versions, and it launched one of the biggest JRPG franchises.

Special mention goes to Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, Castlevania II: Simon's Quest, and Wonder Boy in Monster Land (Not in this image). They're games in their respective franchises that have more RPG elements in them than any of their other games. Also, most of them are quite influential as Castlevania II laid the groundwork for later Castlevania games such as Symphony of the Night, and Wonder Boy in Monster Land's combat served as an influence for Popful Mail.

All in all, those were the JRPGs of 1987. Which one was the best?