Is Zelda a JRPG? I thought one of the defining aspects of the genre was turn- and statistics-based combat. Any Zelda game I’m aware of has real-time combat where hit/miss is based on hit boxes instead of stats.

I didn’t say popular, I said mainstream. Zelda isn’t often claimed by the genre, and Pokémon was literally the only other multi-million seller in the genre in the west.

Earthbound is the very definition of a cult classic, and Dragon Quest wasn’t even getting localized at that time.