Who is better jrpg dev than Square Enix?

Can't think of any. Only Atlus comes close for PERSONA series.

IMO ... none. Final Fantasy series still dominates every other jrpg's.

Well?

Atlus is more consistent in making great games; with Squareenix is a hit or miss and not only that, they are masters of marketing so you'll only know for sure until the day of release.

Nihon Falcom and Atlus. SquareSoft is the all time great, Square Enix has been hit or miss.

Square Enix still makes good Dragon Quest games.

Square-Enix is still the best in my opinion with Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, and Kingdom Hearts games. Not really sure who I’d put second. Maybe Namco as I really enjoy the Tales of games.

From Software

@93BlackHawk93: At this point JRPG is considered its own genre and not just Japanese RPG’s. Many would argue Dark Souls isn’t a JRPG despite being an RPG made by a Japanese dev but eh.

Atlus, but Square Enix are innovating, since they turned their own ATB system into real time battle engagement and party management. They took notes from classic MMO RPG before these turned into hack and slash games with stats and customization, and Final Fantasy XIV is closer to the former than to the latter, despite the fact that XV was streamlined from XII. Xenoblade Chronicles was another.

Nihon Falcom.

@Juub1990: That's dumb. Souls games have so many Berserk references that it's blatant. The west also doesn't own ARPGs.

Nihon Falcon with the Legend of Heroes series (check it out btw, latest fire emblem follows the mechanics of this game series closely).

Atlus with Persona series and the etrian odyssey games (tbh I think their SMT offerings is average, and I finished them all from ps2 to 3DS games).

Camelot.

The Golden Sun series easily shits on some of Square-Enix's Final Fantasy titles

@93BlackHawk93: I agree with juub. Also, what's the point in labeling a game based on country rather than its design? Jrpg is a dated term that IMO now refers to a class of game design types from Japan, rather than any RPG from the country at all.

I'd say YS as well, since Square Enix have moved over to action-rpgs now.

I agree for the most part, even with Final Fantasy XI and XIII, for they have released The World Ends With You as well. They often experiment and are successful with it.

I like Intelligent Systems more. But they've been better.

Adsparky said it all. I love both companies equally.

Atlus.

@xantufrog: There are several schools of Japanese RPG game design:

Light RPG - Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, etc.

ARPG - Mana, Kingdom Hearts, Hunting RPGs, Soulslikes, etc.

SRPG - Fire Emblem, FF Tactics, Ogre, etc.

Social sim - Persona-likes, VN-style RPGs, etc.

As far as I'm concerned, JRPG is an industry, not a genre. Like how anime, J-pop, K-pop, Hollywood, Bollywood, etc. are industries, not genres.

Atlus, From Software, Intelligent Systems.

@Jag85: if that's the case, I don't think it's a useful term for most people. You can't ask "do you like jrpgs" or compare "jrpgs" - because it's just every possible RPG genre under the sun made by a company on a particular collection of islands.

I think the anime example argues my point - Anime is different from other cartoon types, it's a specific term. Dark Souls bears no resemblance to Chrono Trigger.

Squaresoft.

Squaresoft lost a lot of what they were when they joined up with Enix and haven't been the same since. You can't lump them together with Square-Enix.

Atlus and From Software are the best modern JPRG developers currently.

Final Fantasy is the best.

You are right. Intentionally leaves YS series cause I dont want to include action rpg.

@xantufrog: Nowadays, in the English language, anime almost exclusively means Japanese animation. In other words, the likes of Avatar: Last Airbender are not considered real anime, regardless of how much they borrow from the styles and conventions of anime. And no one is calling The Lion King an anime either, despite being a shot-for-shot rip-off of Kimba the White Lion.

And yes, you can be a fan of regional industries. Anime, J-pop, K-pop, Hollywood, Bollywood, Euro-dance, etc. all have fans who enjoy the regional and cultural traits of these industries, not because of any particular genre from these industries. It's no coincidence that most JRPG fans are often anime fans as well. Why this crossover? Obviously because they're fans of Japanese pop culture. That's what truly defines JRPGs, not any particular set of mechanics.

If Souls, for example, had the art style of a Dragon Quest game, I'm pretty sure most people would be calling it a JRPG. And that's because it's the art style and aesthetics that define JRPGs more than any mechanics. Which is why many have a hard time seeing Souls as a JRPG, because it doesn't have the trademark JRPG art style. And yet, ironically, the biggest influence on Souls' art style is a manga, Berserk.

Well Final Fantasy is utter garbage now, but SE still has Dragon Quest and Project Octopath Traveler, so I would say they are still high up there.

I personally prefer Monilith Soft (Xenogames) and Nihon Falcon (Legend of Heroes/Ys).