Long before linear, character-driven stories with party members on an adventure to save the world became standard, JRPGs were already taking shape as far back as the 1980s. Developers in Japan were experimenting on home computers with limited memory, simple graphics, and almost no established rules for what an RPG should be. What emerged from that period were small, sometimes awkward, yet deeply important titles that quietly shaped an entire genre.
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The first wave of JRPGs did not come with anything too sophisticated. Many relied on text, symbols, or bare-bones visuals. Their stories were often simple, sometimes barely explained, and their mechanics were rough around the edges. Yet these games introduced ideas that would later define the JRPG genre, and their influence can still be felt today.
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Underground Exploration (Chitei Tanken)
Release Date: 1982
- Text-based dungeon exploration with party-focused combat.
- Players build a party, fight monsters, collect gold, and manage supplies.
Underground Exploration first launched in Japan in 1982, and it’s one of the earliest role-playing games created in the country. Unlike later games that use graphics and icons, Underground Exploration runs mostly through text: players see words and symbols on screen and type responses to move and act. The game gives control of a small group of adventurers, usually four to five, and sends them into an underground labyrinth that travels many floors deep.
The main challenges are surviving the environment, managing food and medicine so that the party doesn’t weaken, and finding treasure hidden in the depths. There are monsters to be fought and gold to buy supplies. Over time, the party slowly pushes deeper, floor by floor, with a turn-based structure that advances time as the group moves and fights. It may be rudimentary, but it sounds familiar, doesn’t it?
Spy Daisakusen
Release Date: 1982
- Spy‑themed adventure with RPG‑like mechanics
- Modern setting with text-heavy gameplay.
Spy Daisakusen brings a surprising twist to early RPG history by putting players in the shoes of international secret agents rather than knights or wizards. Developed by Pony Canyon and released in 1982, it took cues from the Western spy franchise Mission: Impossible and adapted it into an early Japanese role‑playing game.
In Spy Daisakusen, players take control of an elite agent who must infiltrate dangerous locations, steal secrets, and avoid being caught. It was a refreshing change of pace for gamers of the era who were tired of fighting goblins and skeletons. However, players may notice that the game relies heavily on text and is highly experimental.
The Dragon And Princess
Release Date: 1982
- Popular for being the first Japanese game to use a separate tactical screen for battles.
- It combines traditional text-based storytelling with a grid-based combat system.
The Dragon and Princess is another experiment by Koei that changed how combat works in JRPGs. While much of the game uses text descriptions, it also has a turn‑based combat screen. On this overhead grid, characters and enemies take turns positioning and attacking, a system that inspired later JRPG battle mechanics.
The blend of text adventure and early strategic combat, along with party management, gives The Dragon and Princess a strong claim as one of the first Japanese games to include real, recognizable RPG systems, even before genre conventions were fully established. The story follows a traditional path, in which a group of characters has to journey across the land to rescue (unsurprisingly) a princess from a dragon.
Danchizuma No Yuwaku (Seduction Of The Condominium Wife)
Release Date: 1982
- An early adult-themed RPG where the player controls a traveling salesman in an apartment complex.
- An unusual blend of adventure, choice, and adult‑themed interactions.
It might seem strange to include an adult-oriented game in this list, but Danchizuma no Yuwaku by Koei is the fourth JRPG ever made, so it’s not right for another title to take its place in a list of the first 10 JRPGs. This JRPG never left the shores of Japan, but it was the first erotic RPG in the country, and beyond its mature theme, it featured surprisingly solid game design. Players are a condom salesman who makes their way through a large apartment building (a danchi). As they move from door to door, players encounter different residents. The protagonist uses his charm to seduce the residents and sell his products.
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Though its content is far from the typical fantasy RPG, Danchizuma no Yuwaku contains role‑playing elements such as stat management (health, intelligence, stamina) and resource balancing. Encounters with ghosts and gangsters add a combat‑like dimension where survival and stamina preservation become gameplay concerns.
Sword & Sorcery
Release Date: 1983
- A medieval fantasy adventure with character classes.
- Features turn‑based combat and open exploration.
Koei continued its early RPG experimentation with Sword & Sorcery in 1983. Released for Japanese home computers like the FM‑7, PC‑8001, and PC‑8801, this game was a turn-based RPG with a similar story to The Dragon and Princess, so it’s basically about a kingdom in peril, a wicked wizard, and a princess who needs saving.
Sword & Sorcery is open-ended, so towns and castles are places to rest, trade, and explore. Battles occur in a turn‑based manner, with simple attack and magic commands driving the outcome. This structure of distinct character roles, stat‑driven combat, and exploration across a linked world makes Sword & Sorcery one of the more fully formed JRPGs from the early 1980s, bridging the gap between proto‑RPG experiments and the more mature titles that followed.
Secrets Of Khufu (Khufu‑Ō No Himitsu)
Release Date: 1983
- A solo dungeon adventure in the Great Pyramid of Egypt.
- Maze‑like corridors, survival choices, and a simple RPG feel.
In 1983, Japanese publisher Koei decided to trade the usual knights and dragons for the dusty corridors of Ancient Egypt. Secrets of Khufu is a fascinating example of the dungeon crawler in its purest form. Players find themselves in the pyramids of Giza, and their goal is simply to find the legendary treasure said to belong to Pharaoh Khufu.
Instead of flashy graphics, the game presents maze‑like corridors filled with traps and monsters. Players have to keep one eye on their character’s endurance, avoid running into enemies carelessly, and make sure their character doesn’t starve by gathering food as they go.
Arfgaldt
Release Date: 1983
- A text-based fantasy adventure with early RPG systems.
- Explore a hex map, fight monsters, and gather food and treasure.
Arfgaldt was one of the early attempts in Japan to blend a text adventure with role-playing elements. This game first appeared as a printed BASIC listing in ASCII magazine in 1983 for the FM-7. Unlike graphics-based games, all of Arfgaldt’s world and actions are presented in text, meaning the player uses simple typed commands to move, explore, and interact with the game.
In Arfgaldt, the player starts with a predefined character and steps into a fantasy world shown only through coordinates on a hexagonal map. The game comes with a printed map in the original magazine, but the screen itself shows only the character’s current position and environment descriptions, information that players must then complete for themselves by looking at the map. As the character ventures from place to place, they may find food to avoid starvation and treasure to collect.
Panorama Toh (Panorama Island)
Release Date: 1983
- A very early hybrid action‑RPG with real‑time combat.
- An open world with survival needs, NPCs, and a day–night cycle.
Nihon Falcom is a legendary name in the JRPG world, and Panorama Toh is where much of their innovation began. When Panorama Toh was released in 1983, it felt unusual even to players at the time. Built for the NEC PC-8801, this game puts players on a mysterious island and lets them wander freely in a top‑down open world. Instead of turn‑based fights, enemies were fought in real time, and the player had to juggle basic survival tasks like finding food to restore lost life.
Unlike the turn‑based battle and leveling systems that would define later JRPGs, Panorama Toh focused on free movement, on‑the‑fly decision-making, and survival mechanics. Even without traditional levels, it felt like a world full of choices, and that was groundbreaking at the time. The island setting wasn’t just a backdrop, either; it included a simple day-night cycle where dangers could change, and sometimes the player could choose to chat with NPCs or, in a twist, fight them.
Dragon Slayer
Release Date: 1984
- The first true action JRPG.
- Real‑time combat, dungeon crawling, and item puzzles.
Dragon Slayer is one of the earliest Nihon Falcom games, and it reshaped how Japanese developers think about RPGs. Instead of the slow, menu‑driven systems common in earlier experiments, this game put players right in the action. Players control a character in real time, slashing through dungeon corridors, bumping into creatures, and solving simple puzzles as part of their quest.
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The idea for Dragon Slayer was straightforward. The protagonist starts out weak and needs to explore, gather treasure, find useful items, and grow stronger before surviving threats from deeper in the dungeon. Combat wasn’t turn-based, and walking into an enemy dealt damage, so every step forward felt risky and immediate. Even though Dragon Slayer predates JRPGs like Final Fantasy, its influence can’t be overstated. This game helped define the action RPG subgenre in Japan with its arcade‑like movement and role‑playing mechanics. It also inspired many later series and sequels.
Hydlide
Release Date: 1984
- One of the earliest Japanese action role-playing games.
- Real-time combat and open exploration in a fantasy kingdom.
Hydlide is one of the oldest open-world RPGs, and it was very successful in its day. It was created by T&E Soft’s Tokihiro Naito, who set out to blend active movement with RPG growth systems, something most games of that era were not doing. This project didn’t borrow heavily from Western RPGs because Naito hadn’t yet played major Western titles like Ultima or Wizardry during development. Instead, its roots are tied to Japanese arcade games and early adventure titles, especially The Tower of Druaga and the early dungeon RPG The Black Onyx.
Instead of menu-driven actions, the player walked Jim around a continuous landscape filled with plains, forests, and dungeons. Enemies were dealt with in real time by walking into them, a combat style that would later be called bump-based action. Players could switch between attacking and defending, use magic spells they found, and freely explore territory. It didn’t pause for battles or use complex menus; the world felt connected, and actions happened as the hero moved.
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