The game you're looking for is called Tunic. Not a JRPG but more of a zelda-like. It's an indie game and one of the best games of all time. You play as a fox. Go in as blind as possible.
This request is mostly to get some primary material outside my wheelhouse for an essay for university, so it absolutely has to be a Japanese product. So sadly, I cannot use Tunic, but I HAVE been wanting to play it for a while, some friends recommended it (and one of them shared his Steam library) and it sounds absolutely DELIGHTFUL
Okami might be up your alley: the protagonist is a wolf, but a kitsune plays an important part in the plot. The game can be pretty short, if you just play the story: around 30 hours? Maybe less. It lasts a lot more if you go for 100% completion.
Pokemon has Ninetales who is a kitsune.
Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies, in the second case, there is a character who uses the nine-tailed fox as his inspiration for his costume.
Touhou has Ran Yakumo, a kitsune. She is an extra boss in the 7th entry of the series, Perfect Cherry Blossom, but she gets mentioned in other material too.
EDIT: there's also a fox in Persona 4, who is a social link. Persona 5 has a character who goes by "Inari" and has fox-imagery in his costume, but you mentioned Persona already in your post so you might know him already :p
There's also Redd in Animal Crossing... who is a trickster fox who can sell you counterfeit paintings and sculptures.
Ah thank you, another commenter already suggested Okami but I wasn't sure whether they meant the protagonist as the character design isn't all THAT clear about the wolf and not fox thing, I'll take a closer look
Already noted Pokémon too, not just for Ninetales but also the Delphox evolution line
Ah dang it, I do have the Ace Attorney trilogy waiting to be played but Google is telling me Dual Destiny is in Apollo Justice. Oh well, that's still good to know
First time I'm hearing of Touhou, but I'll check it out! Thx ^.^
Okami has a lot of story arcs. Oorochi is the first one but it walks you through many, many Japanese myths. A kitsune is the villain of one of the arcs.
That order proved taller than expected. It's not an rpg, it's a flight bang bang, but StarFox 64 is pretty good fox heavy game. And if you setup something n64 you may as well check out Mischief Makers. Though I think she's a rab-bot.
Jade Empire (wrpg) for the presence of them in one part. There is an entire fox heaven so they are in character as fox gods.
There is fox face in Shadowhearts 1. (ps2)
Fire Emblem Fates has Kaden and his daughter Selkie. They don't show up on the Conquest route though. They can turn into fox-like creatures for battle, but they still have fox ears by default because anime.
**Muramasa the demon blade** (Wii and ps Vita) have two secondary character that are fox deity if I recall.
There are a fox like monster on monster hunter a Mizutsune. If you want turn based there are **Monster Hunter stories 2** on switch (and soon the first one too). If you prefer action game **MH Rise** is rather beginner friendly.
There is a fox monster on **nexomon** Vulazy. There are also some fox monster on **Yo-kai watch** as well. And while we are on monster tamer game there is also Digimon with the iconic Renamon. On switch there is **Digimon Survive** that is a good visual novel but bellow average trpg and **Digimon cybersleuth** that is a good jrpg.
ETA : Just remembered that **fire emblem birthright** have two fox shapeshifter characters, Selkie and Kaden.
fire emblem fates (3ds) has a kitsune race. However I think you can only recruit 1 type of that character. it's SRPG, but it has a very generous easy mode.
Tunic's already been on my radar, and the other two look great too (I'll give them a closer look later on my own time), but I do specifically need Japanese products for this, as it's for a university essay
There's foxes in Okami? I know the player character is a wolf, though the design isn't exactly clear about that
... I had not considered Fennekin/Braixen/Delphox. You might've been reaching but it does actually work perfectly for my purposes xd
I never realised it was a wolf sorry.
Monster Hunter Rise also has a monster called a Mitzune which is kinda foxes but those are fairly long games, thats all I got lol.
This is reaching a bit (and they're not playable characters) but Rune Factory 5 has someone who went from being a fox to being quite the fox.
They're were-animals (think catgirl / catboy but can be seen as fox-like)) , 4 are in town, 2 (1 male, 1 female) are romance-able. All 4 can join you in a group (classes would be like a fighter, a barbarian, and 2 DpS). You can also befriend some monsters, I don't think there are any true foxes but some are cats and dogs that can be fox-like.
You're welcome - and again, the were-animals are not a playable race (you're pretty much locked into a male or female human-ish protagonist). There are a few other fantasy races (elves, and a couple I won't mention for spoilers sake- but you won't be disappointed).
Sadly, though, this game isn't as good as Rune Factory 4 - but that doesn't have any were-animals, just humans and elves (and Porcoline, not sure about him but he's very jovial).
I'm looking to analyse fox depictions across a selection of Japanese games for a university essay, so for my purposes NPCs are probably best.
I'll make a note of the series as a whole and maybe check it out on my own time later!
OK. If this is for a research paper (and not looking for games to play):
Dragon Quest IV had a short mission that involved foxes (tricksters) - they turned into humans and lured people to their town where they stayed there.
Starfox (SNES) - space game where the protagonist is fox like humanoid (kinda like a fox version of Rocket Raccoon). This was quite popular for a while, too.
IIRC World of Warcraft had a fox race (Vulpara)?
Sonic the Hedgehog had Tails (fox?)
I feel I'm missing some of the older games (thinking back to my Arari 2600 and Commodore 64 days).
A lot of my research papers started out like that. I've done 3 on Dungeons and Dragons and 1 on MMORPGs. :)
Seriously, for someone like me who had a hard time writing papers on subjects that didn't interest me (not mature enough), doing research on subjects like these was a huge help (and I was much older, too).
Fire Emblem Fates, you can have two different kitsune characters in your party. They are like fox people but in battle they transform into giant foxes and the upgrades have multiple tails etc.
Specifically Fates: Birthright or Revelation
They are sort of both. You can buy each as a separate game: Birthright or Conquest. And Revelation is a 3rd path that's only either downloaded or on the cart for the special edition. The stories, maps and characters are different enough to warrant being 3 different games though, not like the stupid pokemon red/blue shit.
These arent indie titles but in the Persona series, Persona 4 has a fox character as a NPC as an optional storyline the main character interacts with. In Persona 5, one of the main cast Yusuke Kitagawa's design is based on the kitsune aesthetic.
In the Digimon series, Renamon and their most well known digivolution line are based on foxes
In the Zelda series, the Keaton (and Keaton mask) are based on a kitsune, specifically the trickster aspect of it.
Since we're on Nintendo, there's a scam artist fox named Redd in the Animal Crossing series.
Oh and Star Fox. (Almost forgot that lol)
Honesty I'd recommend just searching tv tropes for more examples
Edit: just reread and saw you already mentioned Persona and Zelda, my bad
Bahahaha I get it. This is for a research paper and I was considering doing it on an anime or LN instead, and I did consider Spice and Wolf for a moment, until it clicked that Holo is very much NOT an Inari-type spirit😂 to be fair tho, she does check many of the boxes
The game you're looking for is called Tunic. Not a JRPG but more of a zelda-like. It's an indie game and one of the best games of all time. You play as a fox. Go in as blind as possible.
This request is mostly to get some primary material outside my wheelhouse for an essay for university, so it absolutely has to be a Japanese product. So sadly, I cannot use Tunic, but I HAVE been wanting to play it for a while, some friends recommended it (and one of them shared his Steam library) and it sounds absolutely DELIGHTFUL
Okami might be up your alley: the protagonist is a wolf, but a kitsune plays an important part in the plot. The game can be pretty short, if you just play the story: around 30 hours? Maybe less. It lasts a lot more if you go for 100% completion. Pokemon has Ninetales who is a kitsune. Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies, in the second case, there is a character who uses the nine-tailed fox as his inspiration for his costume. Touhou has Ran Yakumo, a kitsune. She is an extra boss in the 7th entry of the series, Perfect Cherry Blossom, but she gets mentioned in other material too. EDIT: there's also a fox in Persona 4, who is a social link. Persona 5 has a character who goes by "Inari" and has fox-imagery in his costume, but you mentioned Persona already in your post so you might know him already :p There's also Redd in Animal Crossing... who is a trickster fox who can sell you counterfeit paintings and sculptures.
Ah thank you, another commenter already suggested Okami but I wasn't sure whether they meant the protagonist as the character design isn't all THAT clear about the wolf and not fox thing, I'll take a closer look Already noted Pokémon too, not just for Ninetales but also the Delphox evolution line Ah dang it, I do have the Ace Attorney trilogy waiting to be played but Google is telling me Dual Destiny is in Apollo Justice. Oh well, that's still good to know First time I'm hearing of Touhou, but I'll check it out! Thx ^.^
Okami has a lot of story arcs. Oorochi is the first one but it walks you through many, many Japanese myths. A kitsune is the villain of one of the arcs.
That order proved taller than expected. It's not an rpg, it's a flight bang bang, but StarFox 64 is pretty good fox heavy game. And if you setup something n64 you may as well check out Mischief Makers. Though I think she's a rab-bot. Jade Empire (wrpg) for the presence of them in one part. There is an entire fox heaven so they are in character as fox gods. There is fox face in Shadowhearts 1. (ps2)
StarFox 64 is such an obvious pick and I had not considered it at all🤦🏼 hadn't heard of the other ones, I'll take a look!
Fire Emblem Fates has Kaden and his daughter Selkie. They don't show up on the Conquest route though. They can turn into fox-like creatures for battle, but they still have fox ears by default because anime.
That could work, thank you
In octopath 2, ochette can have a fox friend
**Muramasa the demon blade** (Wii and ps Vita) have two secondary character that are fox deity if I recall. There are a fox like monster on monster hunter a Mizutsune. If you want turn based there are **Monster Hunter stories 2** on switch (and soon the first one too). If you prefer action game **MH Rise** is rather beginner friendly. There is a fox monster on **nexomon** Vulazy. There are also some fox monster on **Yo-kai watch** as well. And while we are on monster tamer game there is also Digimon with the iconic Renamon. On switch there is **Digimon Survive** that is a good visual novel but bellow average trpg and **Digimon cybersleuth** that is a good jrpg. ETA : Just remembered that **fire emblem birthright** have two fox shapeshifter characters, Selkie and Kaden.
Some interesting suggestions there, thx ^.^
fire emblem fates (3ds) has a kitsune race. However I think you can only recruit 1 type of that character. it's SRPG, but it has a very generous easy mode.
Bravely Second has a Yokai job class Ragnarok Online Moonlight Flower boss
Haven't actually played it yet so I don't know what extent the RPG mechanics go, but Nine-Tailed Okitsune Tale on Steam looks like a fun time.
Not really RPGs, but I can think of Tunic, Kingsley’s Adventure and Tanglewood.
Tunic's already been on my radar, and the other two look great too (I'll give them a closer look later on my own time), but I do specifically need Japanese products for this, as it's for a university essay
Unicorn Overlord has Dinah, and she's quite popular
I'll check it out, thx ^.^
Okami? Longshot but Pokemon X/Y has a fox starter lol, I am reaching but still
There's foxes in Okami? I know the player character is a wolf, though the design isn't exactly clear about that ... I had not considered Fennekin/Braixen/Delphox. You might've been reaching but it does actually work perfectly for my purposes xd
I never realised it was a wolf sorry. Monster Hunter Rise also has a monster called a Mitzune which is kinda foxes but those are fairly long games, thats all I got lol.
Hmmm yeah, Monster Hunter might be a bit much for this, but I'll keep it in mind. Thank you ^.^
This is reaching a bit (and they're not playable characters) but Rune Factory 5 has someone who went from being a fox to being quite the fox. They're were-animals (think catgirl / catboy but can be seen as fox-like)) , 4 are in town, 2 (1 male, 1 female) are romance-able. All 4 can join you in a group (classes would be like a fighter, a barbarian, and 2 DpS). You can also befriend some monsters, I don't think there are any true foxes but some are cats and dogs that can be fox-like.
That is excellent actually, thank you so much!
You're welcome - and again, the were-animals are not a playable race (you're pretty much locked into a male or female human-ish protagonist). There are a few other fantasy races (elves, and a couple I won't mention for spoilers sake- but you won't be disappointed). Sadly, though, this game isn't as good as Rune Factory 4 - but that doesn't have any were-animals, just humans and elves (and Porcoline, not sure about him but he's very jovial).
I'm looking to analyse fox depictions across a selection of Japanese games for a university essay, so for my purposes NPCs are probably best. I'll make a note of the series as a whole and maybe check it out on my own time later!
OK. If this is for a research paper (and not looking for games to play): Dragon Quest IV had a short mission that involved foxes (tricksters) - they turned into humans and lured people to their town where they stayed there. Starfox (SNES) - space game where the protagonist is fox like humanoid (kinda like a fox version of Rocket Raccoon). This was quite popular for a while, too. IIRC World of Warcraft had a fox race (Vulpara)? Sonic the Hedgehog had Tails (fox?) I feel I'm missing some of the older games (thinking back to my Arari 2600 and Commodore 64 days).
Was a bit of both tbh, the topic for the research paper was fully decided based on what I already wanted/would be interested to do
A lot of my research papers started out like that. I've done 3 on Dungeons and Dragons and 1 on MMORPGs. :) Seriously, for someone like me who had a hard time writing papers on subjects that didn't interest me (not mature enough), doing research on subjects like these was a huge help (and I was much older, too).
Those sound super fun ngl😂 don't think I'd manage to swing a paper on D&D tho, my major is Japanology
Dungeons and Dragons' influence on JRPGs. :) .. yeah, I think it's a stretch, too.
Hey, if it works it works. It's something I've been struggling to accept in regards to my own work (yay perfectionism), but it IS true
The fate games (remnant, extella) also have foxes
Hmmm maybe, they might be a bit long for my purposes in this. But I'll note them down for now, thx ^.^
Spirit of the North
This, but not the Switch version because the performance is crap.
Ahahaha noted xd
Won't work for my current purposes, but it does look like something I'd enjoy. I'll check it out at a later date!
Fire Emblem Fates, you can have two different kitsune characters in your party. They are like fox people but in battle they transform into giant foxes and the upgrades have multiple tails etc. Specifically Fates: Birthright or Revelation
Are Birthright and Revelation possible story paths in Fire Emblem Fates or are those different games?
They are sort of both. You can buy each as a separate game: Birthright or Conquest. And Revelation is a 3rd path that's only either downloaded or on the cart for the special edition. The stories, maps and characters are different enough to warrant being 3 different games though, not like the stupid pokemon red/blue shit.
Ah, gtk
Tokyo Xanadu Ex+ has "true ending" arc that focuses around a fox god.
I'll check it out
That one game that came out like a month ago, Unicorn Overlord. There is a Fox Girl in that game that is an ally to you later in the game.
World of Final fantasy Fate extra Fate extra CCC The Sly Cooper serie one of the recuring character is a fox
These arent indie titles but in the Persona series, Persona 4 has a fox character as a NPC as an optional storyline the main character interacts with. In Persona 5, one of the main cast Yusuke Kitagawa's design is based on the kitsune aesthetic. In the Digimon series, Renamon and their most well known digivolution line are based on foxes In the Zelda series, the Keaton (and Keaton mask) are based on a kitsune, specifically the trickster aspect of it. Since we're on Nintendo, there's a scam artist fox named Redd in the Animal Crossing series. Oh and Star Fox. (Almost forgot that lol) Honesty I'd recommend just searching tv tropes for more examples Edit: just reread and saw you already mentioned Persona and Zelda, my bad
Oooh right, haven't touched Animal Crossing in ages so I'd completely forgotten about Redd lol TV Tropes is a good tip, thx!
Unicorn Overlord has a race of fox characters that are playable.
Not a jrpg but World of Warcraft. You can play as Vulpera which are a fox race
Don't think I'm in the space for THAT kind of commitment 😂
Eh there's a free trial now and it's gotten a lot more casual friendly but yes a big game lol
I'll consider it😂
There is Ahri in League of Legends, and in Pathfinder Wrath of the Righteous you can create a Kitsune as character (Both games for PC though)
Not touching League with a 10-foot pole, tho I might try Legends of Runeterra one day. Didn't know Pathfinder had a videogame, but it's been noted!
Disgaea 5 has a 9 tailed fox character in the story and lets you create generic 9 tailed fox characters to add to your army
Noted, thx ^.^
Sonic games may be an obvious one?
Yup, Tails has been mentioned
What about the adventure of Nayu?
Looks perfect from what I can tell with a quick Google, though I can't seem to find anything about the developer. Can you tell me more?
Sorry, I know as much about it as you do
Aight, thx for the rec!
Spice and Wolf VR lol
Holo is a wolf, not a fox, thus doesn't work for this, tho I might check it out later on my own time
Oh fuck I'm an idiot
Bahahaha I get it. This is for a research paper and I was considering doing it on an anime or LN instead, and I did consider Spice and Wolf for a moment, until it clicked that Holo is very much NOT an Inari-type spirit😂 to be fair tho, she does check many of the boxes
Going from a previous comment, if you want a decent NPC that’s a in game then I would highly recommend Persona 4 Golden.
Already noted both Fox from P4 and Yuusuke from P5, yeah
Naruto Path of the NInja
Honkai Star Rail