Jrpg Jungle

Next to the commonly 3D and realistic animation of modern JRPGs, I can't help but feel nostalgic when playing A Story of the End - Revere. Whether it’s the sprite style characters walking around the map, emotive music or extended dialogues, Revere is very accessible to the average JRPG player. But Revere doesn’t just show more of what we already know about JRPGs, rather it adds its own unique story and battle mechanics to the mix. The intriguing story of a soldier on his quest for redemption in a unique world filled with creatures peaked my interest during its demo, even if it's missing some polish to make the experience as smooth as possible. Revere is centred around the main protagonist Troy, a Lumerian soldier who is coming to terms with the fact the Empire he works for isn’t what he thought it was and follows his journey to break away from them and do what's right. He wakes up in one of the villages he was sent to purge, being looked after by a human-like rabbit creatur...

World of Final Fantasy features an interesting new concept for Final Fantasy games in the form of monster capture. While World of Final Fantasy’s gameplay is closer to more traditional Final Fantasy games, Imprisming monsters (known in World of Final Fantasy as Mirages) and using them in battle by making a stack is a very new mechanic to the Final Fantasy world. The best part of this is the Monster Stacking isn’t just visual: monsters are helpful in many ways in World of Final Fantasy and collecting a variety monsters and abilities makes the monster hunt a highly useful new mechanic. Being able to use both friendly and enemy monsters in battles serves as a fun new concept for past Final Fantasy fans and a great way to introduce the famous Behemoths, Tonberries and Moogles to those new to Final Fantasy. Monster Capture may be a new concept to Final Fantasy, but the series isn’t a total stranger to having monsters in your party. After all, most Final Fantasy games include a Summom mechan...

When a JRPG promises curry, magic and dungeon crawling, it's hard to know whether to expect a light appetizer or a full course meal, game content-wise. So imagine my great surprise when this humorous and charming yet punishing JRPG managed to frequently amuse me with it's silly humour all while challenging me in its tough roguelike dungeons. With plenty of banter and a whole lot of silliness mixed with dungeons ready to challenge even the best dungeon crawlers, Sorcery Saga: Curse of the Great Curry God is a charismatic, engaging change from the serious side of JRPGs that balances humour and good gameplay admirably. Sorcery Saga’s story is based around Pupuru, a sweet and spunky student of a Magic Academy who just so happens to love curry. She’s not an A-grade student, but thanks to some luck she gets to go on a quest for her school, where she finds Kuu, a funny creature that eats pretty much everything, and an ancient curry recipe. When she fails her quest and finds herself su...

As much as I love video games, I don’t claim to be the best at gaming. While I can pick up most mechanics, my varying degree of skill with some games has made me no stranger to the Game Over screen and I've had to hit the Retry button in some of my most played games (such as my complete inability to complete the Omega Ruins in Final Fantasy X). Recently I’ve been playing the Roguelike JRPG Sorcery Saga: The Curse of the Great Curry God, a fun but tough dungeon crawler that has found me sent back to its town without my items on multiple occasions with a small bit of my dungeon confidence eaten away. This made me think back to some of the many fails I’ve had while playing JRPGs and while these are only a small selection, these are some of the biggest fails I’ve had while playing or more accurately, times I’ve had my ass kicked while playing JRPGs. Note: I’ve kept spoilers to a minimum by mostly not mentioning boss names and story circumstances, but there are some minor spoilers about...