The JRPG Awards 2026: Rules and Process
The JRPG Awards recognize the best Japanese role-playing games of the year. Nominees are chosen by a jury of content creators and editorial teams from JRPG-focused outlets. Winners are decided by that jury together with a public vote. The awards are organized by JRPG Pursuit and timed to The Game Awards, which rarely give the genre significant recognition. This page is the complete set of rules. It will not change once voting opens, except to correct an error, and any correction will be noted here.
Key dates
| Date | What happens |
|---|---|
| November 1, 2026 | Jury invitations close. |
| November 2, 2026 | Jury ballots open. |
| November 13, 2026 | Jury ballots due by 11:59 p.m. Central. Eligibility window closes. |
| November 17, 2026 (approx.) | Nominees announced the morning after The Game Awards announces its nominees. Public vote opens. |
| December 7, 2026 | Public vote closes at 11:59 p.m. Central. |
| December 10, 2026 | The Game Awards (Los Angeles). No announcements from us that day. |
| December 14, 2026 | Winners announced, in print and on video. |
Eligibility
- A game is eligible if it had its first commercial release in English, on any platform, between November 22, 2025 and November 13, 2026, inclusive. Games released after November 13, 2026 are eligible for next year’s awards.
- Any platform counts: console, PC, handheld, and mobile. Early-access or beta releases become eligible when the full (1.0) version releases.
- A game may be nominated in as many categories as it fits.
- Remakes and remasters compete in Best Remake or Remaster only, unless the jury chair rules that a game is substantially new (new story, systems, and content rather than a rebuilt original). Rulings are published with the nominees.
- Expansions and DLC are not eligible on their own. An expansion may be considered under Best Ongoing JRPG in years that category runs.
- Games developed by, published by, or in commercial partnership with a jury outlet are ineligible for that outlet’s ballot (see Conflicts, below) but remain eligible overall.
What counts as a JRPG
A JRPG for the purposes of these awards is a role-playing game developed primarily in Japan, or one developed elsewhere that works deliberately in the Japanese RPG tradition: party-based progression, a story told through its characters, and systems in the lineage of games like Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, Persona, Fire Emblem, or Trails. Games such as Sea of Stars or Chained Echoes are eligible under the second half of that definition. Whether a borderline game qualifies is decided by the jury chair before ballots open, and the list of rulings is published with the nominees.
Categories
Twelve categories, five nominees each (six for JRPG of the Year).
| Category | Recognizes |
|---|---|
| JRPG of the Year | The best JRPG of the eligibility window, all things considered. |
| Best Remake or Remaster | The best new version of a previously released game. |
| Best Independent JRPG | The best game from a small team without a major publisher’s resources. The jury chair decides borderline cases. |
| Best Narrative | Story, writing, and the way the two are delivered. |
| Best Battle System | Combat and the systems around it: design, depth, and feel. |
| Best Soundtrack | Original music. |
| Best Art Direction | Visual design and execution. |
| Best Character | A single character, playable or not. |
| Best Localization | The English-language script, text, and voice direction of a game originally written in another language. |
| Best Physical Edition | A physical release: standard, special, or collector’s. Judged on the package, the contents, and whether the game is actually on the card or disc. |
| Best Turn-Based JRPG | The best traditional JRPG with turn-based combat. |
| Best Action RPG | The best JRPG with action-based combat. |
| Best Tactical RPG | The best grid- or formation-based strategy RPG. |
| Most Anticipated | An announced, unreleased JRPG. The only category decided by public vote alone, with nominees chosen by the jury. |
The jury
- The jury is made up of content creators and editorial teams from invited outlets covering JRPGs: websites, podcasts, etc. The full list is published on the awards hub before ballots open.
- One ballot per outlet, per category. How an outlet arrives at its ballot is its own business; we count outlets, not people, so a large staff and a solo site carry the same weight.
- Each ballot lists up to five games per category, ranked. Rankings score 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1 points. The five highest totals become the nominees (six for JRPG of the Year).
- Ties for the final nominee slot are broken by the number of first-place rankings, then by the jury chair.
- Conflicts: an outlet must leave a game off its ballot if the outlet or any of its staff worked on the game, was paid by its publisher or developer during the eligibility window, or has a sponsorship or advertising relationship with them. Review codes and press events do not count as a conflict. Abstentions are confidential.
- Jurors are not paid. JRPG Pursuit holds one jury seat on the same terms as every other outlet.
- The jury chair is JRPG Pursuit’s editor for the awards. The chair rules on eligibility questions and tie-breaks, and publishes every ruling.
The public vote
- Anyone with a free reader account on JRPGPursuit.com can vote. One vote per account in each category. You can change your vote any time before the vote closes.
- Running totals are not shown while voting is open.
- Votes from accounts created to vote more than once, or from automated traffic, are removed. We may require email confirmation for an account before its votes count.
- There are no prizes or giveaways for voting. The vote is not a sweepstakes or contest, and no purchase or payment is ever required.
- Votes are stored with your account so that each account counts once. They are not shared with publishers or anyone else, and only the final totals are published.
How winners are decided
In every category except Most Anticipated, the winner is decided 50% by the jury and 50% by the public. Each nominee’s share of the jury’s points and its share of the public vote are each expressed as a percentage of the category, and the two percentages are averaged. The highest average wins. A tie is broken by the jury share. Most Anticipated is decided by public vote alone. Final standings for every category are published with the winners.
Announcements, embargoes, and laurels
- Nominated and winning publishers are told in advance under embargo so they can prepare. The embargo lifts at the public announcement.
- Nominees and winners receive a laurel graphic they may use on store pages, trailers, packaging, and social media, free of charge and without expiry, as long as it isn’t altered.
- Jury outlets may publish the nominees and winners at the same time we do, with credit to The JRPG Awards.
Independence
- The awards have no sponsors in 2026. If that changes in a future year, sponsors will have no role in nominations, voting, or results, and will be named on this page.
- No publisher, developer, or platform can pay for a nomination, a win, or placement, and none is consulted on the results before the embargo lifts.
- Where JRPG Pursuit received a review copy of a nominated game, our review already says so. That has no bearing on the awards.
Questions
Questions about eligibility, the jury, or these rules: contact the jury chair through the details on our About page. Rulings and clarifications are added to this page as they are made, with the date.