When it comes to grandiose adventures, there are few games like Xenogears. Few games' stories are as stirring, as twisty, as poignant. Few games' characters are as bizarre and entrancing.

But fans have skewered the sci-fi masterpiece for its second disc, a potpourri of cutscenes and monologues that may have been the consequence of rushed development. While the game's first 50 hours gave you access to a world map filled with towns, dungeons, and secrets, Xenogears' final act was more book than game, unfolding like a visual novel with very little player interaction outside of the final dungeon and a few boss fights.

Gamers took umbrage at this sudden shift in pace. As one GameFAQs reader points out, "Xenogears would have been great... if it had been finished."

Which is too bad, because I loved every minute of it.

The JRPG is an intimidating genre. For gamers accustomed to short sessions of turtle-hopping or soldier-blasting, it can be tough to commit to a sprawling, complex role-playing game.

It's also a gigantic genre. There are hundreds of games out there with bizarre titles like Suikoden and Ar tonelico that are as hard to tell apart as they are to pronounce.

So if you want to get into JRPGs but you've never so much as touched a Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest before, how do you know where to start? How do you know where to spend your time? How can you differentiate between silly tedium and fantastic adventures?

A few weeks ago on Twitter, user @gurpreet_kambo suggested that I write a guide for inexperienced role-players, helping you all sort through the dreck and ease into the genre one over-sized sword at a time. So I've put together a list of charming, accessible adventures that all make perfect entry points for JRPG newbies. They also make great holiday gifts (and excuses to get away from your family).

Joystiq's Ben Gilbert once bemusedly pointed out that my taste in games oscillates between "kawaii!" and "yeah bro!" This is true. Two of the games I enjoyed most this year were Radiant Historia and Madden NFL 12, which is about as huge a disparity as you can get without diving into the terrifying click fields of games like FarmVille.

But wait a minute. Are they really all that different? Sure, the National Football League athletes who lend their images to Madden might not have much in common with the anime-like sprites of a Japanese RPG, but in terms of game design, there are some striking similarities.

As Kill Screen Editor-in-Chief Chris Dahlen pointed out in a GameSpy article last year, football is, at its core, a strategy role-playing game. Each team gets several turns to move the ball down the field, during which they can select from a variety of different attacks. Competing teams match wits over field position and strategy in an attempt to wrest an advantage. At the end of the game, whichever team does the most damage -- or scores the most points -- wins.

Though it has been tweaked quite a bit over the past century, the core rules of football have remained the same since the forward pass was introduced over 100 years ago. It is America's most popular sport for a reason: it is an extraordinarily well-designed game.

Perhaps it could teach JRPG developers a thing or two about combat.