Great JRPGs With No Classes

JRPGs are known for their expansive stories, often carried by a cast of characters who work together doing epic fantasy things like defeating goblins, fighting huge bosses, or killing god with the power of friendship. A JRPG is defined by its party mechanics, and in order for a game to be well-remembered, there needs to be a tight cast of characters who are compelling both mechanically and narratively in order to really grip the player.

All JRPGs, whether high fantasy epics or urban fantasy wonders, need a good party. But sometimes, especially in games where there’s a large emphasis on individual characters or creature collecting, JRPGs will subvert the typical tropes of their fellow games by not including classes. Pre-defined classes can help give players an idea about how they should build their character, but these games let the merits of the character shine by themselves.

Alliance Alive

Skills Grow With Use In This Title

Standing out as one of the hardest titles available on the Switch, Alliance Alive pulls no punches and expects the player to develop their party smartly and efficiently, making good use of their pre-established stats to help them shine with the use of one or two weapons.

Instead of classes, characters will level up the skill based around what weapon they’re using. A spear user will grow more effective with spears, and gain more spear skills, and so on. This lets many characters be built to match whatever players have in store for them.

Chrono Cross

A Classic RPG Where Each Character Has Unique Merit

A fantastic sci-fi fantasy mix, Chrono Cross stands out as an excellent gem, somewhat obscured by the monumental popularity and renown of its sister title and predecessor, Chrono Trigger. Despite this, players who give this game a try will find an excellent game waiting for them.

In this game, each playable character (and there are a lot) has a unique combination of elemental affinities on top of their stats that defines them in a particular way, but still allows players to use them as they see fit without restrictive classes.

SaGa Emerald Beyond

Weapons Dictate Character Growth In This Title

The incredible Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven has helped draw people back to this fantastic JRPG franchise, with one of its most recent titles, SaGa Emerald Beyond standing tall as the perfect synthesis of everything that this series wishes to be.

Part of this gameplay philosophy is that the game has classless play, instead opting for the weapon used by each character to dictate how their innate stats are shaped over the course of the game, leading to some fantastic character and weapon combinations.

Earthbound

An Iconic And Highly Influential Classless JRPG

Few games can claim to be as important to the genre of JRPGs as Earthbound is. This monolithic JRPG has captured the hearts and minds of players for decades, hiding an oddly sinister and compelling story behind the glossy facade of an idyllic town.

Each character in this game has their own strengths, weaknesses, and predefined roles for the player to experiment wtih, but nothing as explicit as a class defines them, which is makes finding out each character’s utility an excellent part of the game.

Shin Megami Tensei V

The Nahobino Can Be Built In Any Way The Player Desires

In a series known for its difficulty, Shin Megami Tensei V allows players to experiment with builds and party compositions like never before, as unhindered as ever by the titles and niches that come with character classes.

The Nahobino can be a physical attacking expert, or a skilled supporter of his demons, or a magical savant with a broad array of elemental affinities to push back foes. Even individual demons can be specialized in a classless way based on their innate attributes.

Pokémon Scarlet And Violet

Build A Team That Uniquely Suits You

All Pokemon titles afford the player a chance to build an excellent party of creatures unburdened by classes. Most creatures, especially in non-competitive play, can be specialized in a variety of ways to make a unique Pokemon that players are attached to.

In Scarlet and Violet specifically, all the new innovations that have come with the Pokemon series like nature mints and xp candies blend together to make an excellent experience where nothing stops even the most casual of gamers from developing a Pokemon that exactly meets their specifications.

Monster Hunter Stories 2

An Excellent Spin-Off JRPG

The creature collecting sub-genre has a legacy that stretches much further back than Pokemon, but new additions to the genre show that modern titles are just as valid. Monster Hunter Stories 2 does away with classes seen in other RPGs to bring players an incredibly interesting attack system based around three different fighting styles.

Strength, speed, and technique all interact with each other in a scissors-paper-rock fashion, allowing for some incredible counters and combinations when put together in head to head battles that completely subverts the genre’s tropes.

The Legend Of Heroes: Trails Through Daybreak

An Engaging And Tactical JRPG Perfect For Newcomers To The Series

The newest entry in the long running Trails series, if you’re someone looking to get into this line of exceptional JRPGs but don’t know where to start, you’re not alone. Luckily, The Legend of Heroes, Trails Through Daybreak is an excellent starting point for series newcomers.

Every character in this title has their own completely unique host of skills and battle styles that can’t be matched by anyone else, making for a classless combat experience that showcases each character in a different light.