Developing My JRPG Rating System

Playing JRPGs is fun and challenging. Ranking them is a big challenge too. I’ve been engaged with both lately - good times. A few years ago, I ranked my top JRPGs, which was super hard because some were practically tied. Now I’ve decided to make my own rating system, allowing overall scores to rank the games for me. So far, I like the results.

Spreadsheets can be fun too

To make the work of rating JRPGs easier, I employ the good ol’ fashioned spreadsheet technique. I’m using the one made by Apple, called Numbers; it’s very nice. (Update: I converted it to Google Sheets.)

How do you rate games?

I’ve been wrestling with whether to utilize a 5-star rating system or a scale of one-to-ten. I want some nuance in the ratings but not too much; maybe a 7-tier scheme would fit best. For now, though, I’m using a score of 1 through 5:

1. Bad
2. Below average
3. Average
4. Above average
5. Good

These are very basic terms that I plan to tweak, like maybe a score of four is “good” and five is “great.”

For me, it’s been too difficult to rank or rate JRPGs simply by giving each a blanket score. I end up thinking about my time with the game, how much I enjoyed it or how it made me feel otherwise, and what parts of it I liked or disliked for example. I’ve also asked myself if I’d replay the game, thinking that should add weight to the game’s score.

In the end, I decided to rate JRPGs in categories and then average those to an overall score. I find it easier to focus on a particular aspect of a game, like “voice acting,” and then compare that to other games. That way it’s more apples-to-apples.

When it comes to JRPGs, I see three main pillars, aspects that make or break them:

1. Presentation
2. Story
3. Gameplay

Rating JRPGs on three broad categories is too vague, so I break each main pillar down into two sub-traits:

1. Presentation

1. Visuals
2. Aurals

2. Story

1. Plot
2. Characters

3. Gameplay

1. Combat
2. Exploration

Now, within each of these subcategories, there are numerous related aspects of a JRPG. For example, in “Aurals,” there’s: music, sound effects, and voice acting. But I find rating JRPGs on those six aspects to be enough.

I average each of the two subcategories, as seen in the spreadsheet image, yielding an average score for the three main pillars. And then I average those to find the overall average score, rounding to the nearest tenth decimal place. Finally, the magic of sorting by column, descending, shows me the top games.

Final thoughts

This is a work in progress, and I’m finding it very helpful while challenging. When I look at the overall scores for each JRPG I have played through, I love that they’re ranked in order for me. So far, I think the results are mostly accurate, but I think there’s still tweaking to do.

Let me know what you think of this system; I could use fresh perspectives here. What would you tweak? Thanks!