Metacritic’s early 2026 JRPG leaderboard is already tilting toward games that are not brand-new at all. DualShockers’ list of the 10 best JRPGs of 2026 puts several Switch 2-specific re-releases near the top, and Melissa Sarnowski says that has changed how the year looks for the genre.
“If you like JRPGs, then you’ll find that 2026 has been a solid year for the genre,” Sarnowski writes. She adds that the year is especially good for players who own a Nintendo Switch 2 and like re-released games, because many titles from JRPGs and beyond have landed in platform-specific versions this year. That flood is now shaping Metacritic in real time, which is why the ranking is drawing attention now.
The list still includes newer takes that look built to pull in both longtime fans and first-timers. Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined is described as much more beginner-friendly than the original, with a version that tries to condense a game that can take over 100 hours into something less intimidating while keeping the original’s core charm. But the same slow pace that defined the older game still hangs over the remake, especially in the opening hours, where the story can feel sluggish.
Ys X: Proud Nordics is also part of that pattern. It is presented as an updated version of Ys X: Nordics for the Switch 2 and PC, with quality-of-life improvements, additional locations, and bosses. Even so, the response is not pure praise: the extra material is said to add too much bloat, mostly in dialogue. Final Fantasy Resonance, meanwhile, is framed as a love letter to the franchise and its players, bringing characters from different games together in one experience.
The harder edge of the ranking comes from what it leaves untouched. A re-release of Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is described as unchanged, which is exactly the sort of result that muddies a year-end chart built around Metacritic scores. If several of the highest-ranked JRPGs are revised or repackaged versions rather than new releases, the list says as much about platform timing as it does about the state of fresh 2026 launches.
That is why the question now is not whether 2026 has delivered strong JRPGs. It has. The real issue is how much of the year’s Metacritic picture belongs to new games and how much belongs to Nintendo Switch 2 upgrades that arrived early enough to crowd the top of the standings.
