With the exception of Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave, 2026 has been a relatively quiet year for Japanese role-playing games. That's all set to change starting in January 2027. Next year will see fresh releases from some of the genre's biggest franchises, like Final Fantasy, Persona, and Kingdom Hearts.
There are also some JRPG-adjacent games to look forward to, like the latest from Yakuza creator Ryu Ga Gotoku Studios. While some of those anticipated titles already have firm launch dates, there are a few more with a more generic 2027 release window that will likely make their debut in the second half of the calendar. Here's a few of the biggest JRPGs we can't wait to play in 2027.
Technically speaking, RGG's sweeping fifty-year epic is an action-adventure game, but there's plenty of overlap here for fans of role-playing games to enjoy. While the combat in Stranger Than Heaven promises to be more intricate and challenging than the button-mashing fare of Yakuza or the turn-based Like a Dragon, players can also expect meaty storytelling, tons of optional exploration, and a bunch of side-quests to delve into. Also, both Tupac and Snoop Dogg appear in this game.
Don't you want to know what they're up to? Atlus's Persona series is often associated with slick urban settings, but P4 marks a bit of a swerve for the series, setting the action in the sleepy rural town of Inaba. As usual, you'll step into the shoes of a new transfer student at the local high school, balancing making new friends and maintaining good grades by day while investigating supernatural phenomena by night.
The story revolves around the Midnight Channel, a television station that shares creepy videos on rainy nights that seem to be connected to an ongoing serial murder case. With roller-coaster plot twists, banging tunes, and an endearing ensemble cast, this already great game is about to get a serious glow-up. Just in time for the original PS1 game's 30th anniversary year, Square Enix brings its wildly ambitious Final Fantasy 7 remake trilogy to a close with Revelation.
We've already gotten a look at the open-world gameplay made possible by the new addition of the Highwind airship, as well as a glimpse of the opening sequence that teases Cloud's incoming realization about what really happened in Nibelheim five years earlier. Both Remake and Rebirth added some fascinating new twists to this iconic story — along with an absolute ton of minigames and optional content — and we eagerly anticipate more of the same here. After eight long years, Sora is finally coming back.
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