It seems like JRPG is one of the few genres that Sega has excelled at more so than Nintendo within the past few years. Sega released their first major console back in the late 80’s and since then they have created multiple first party franchises that ended up becoming more popular than anyone would have imagined. The original Phantasy Star game came out back in ’87 and at one point the franchise was considered to be more popular than Final Fantasy which also started in the late 80’s on the Nintendo Entertainment System. During the early 90’s the Phantasy Star series was one of Sega’s top JRPG’s and by the time we got to 2000’s we got games likes Skies of Arcadia along with the beginning of the Like a Dragon series in 2005. Even though, the Phantasy Star series began to fade in popularity following the early 90’s the Phantasy Star Online 2 game from 2012 was highly popular in Japan before it was released worldwide back in 2020.

Phantasy Star Online had reportedly earned more than $913 million in revenue and even though it was an MMORPG it kept the name of the legendary JRPG Phantasy Star alive throughout most of the 2010’s decade. If you look at Nintendo and the best JRPG titles they published within the past two decades or so most of them have been Fire Emblem or Paper Mario games. There have been games like Fire Emblem: Awakening and Fire Emblem: Three Houses from ’12-’19 that are considered classics but lack the popularity that other JRPG’s from the 2010’s had. When you think about some of the most popular JRPG’s of 2010’s decade names like Persona 5 and Final Fantasy XV comes to mind before Fire Emblem. At this point some can argue that the Like a Dragon franchise is more popular than Fire Emblem especially since it seemingly gets more mainstream attention. Also, the Like a Dragon series is generally “M” rated and more reality based opposed to the Fire Emblem franchise which leans more towards fantasy with a “T” rating.