Jrpg Jungle

Currently my Persona 5 hype is very, very high, probably due to the fact that it's almost April (or because I changed my PS4 theme to the Persona 5 one). Thankfully, there were a lot of JRPGs in March to keep JRPG fans busy, in fact more than I could keep up with. What I did play, I really enjoyed. There was the breath of fresh air that was NieR Automata and its amazing story, my addition to Final Fantasy XV continued thanks to Episode Gladiolus and I got a little further into my own personal side quest of catching up on the Kingdom Hearts series by playing more 1.5 HD on PS3. I might not have played all the new JRPG releases this month, but these very different JRPGs I played in March I am overall quite happy with. Here are all the JRPGs I played a little and a lot of in March, before Persona 5 takes over my entire life. Feel free to watch the video version here! My Favourite JRPG of March: NieR Automata (PS4) It's always nice when positive expectations pan out. I had the high...

Spoiler note:  Due to the nature of when Episode Gladiolus is set in Final Fantasy XV's story, mild spoilers may follow Although the core Final Fantasy XV game is Noctis’ story, Gladiolus’ small departure from the group in the main story made his character feel less complete compared to the other guys, until now. Episode Gladiolus finally gives Gladio and Cor the character development they need in the hour long strength testing journey. The Episode surprised me with the evident thought put into making Gladio's combat different to Noctis’ and switching from warps to brute force was a cool new way to tackle XV’s foes. With new story and fun challenges, Episode Gladiolus is a pretty decent experience that rounds out Final Fantasy XV's characters more and will likely be enjoyed most by those like myself who haven't moved on from XV yet. Feel free to watch the video version here! Gladiolus’ solo journey starts pretty much just after he breaks away from Noctis, Ignis and Prom...

When Loot Crate put out the idea of creating your own Dream Loot Crate ideas as part of their Dream Crate project, I absolutely had to make a JRPG Crate.  I’ve watched a Loot Crate unboxing video or two on Youtube before, and each crate seems full of fun themed items and geeky gifts , I’ve just never seen a theme that made me subscribe to getting their crates monthly, but if there was a JRPG Crate I'd probably be very tempted to subscribe. The idea of the Dream Crate is to pick a theme, the items you'd put in it and the franchises you'd include. If the theme is considered a good idea, it may become the theme of a future Loot Crate! I love the idea of coming home one day to a box of wonderful JRPG goodies, so here are five things I’d be more than happy to see in my Dream Crate (and will probably now be trying to purchase because more JRPG merch didn’t hurt anyone). Square Enix Vivi Plushie (Final Fantasy IX) It wouldn’t be a JRPG Dream Crate without something from Final Fa...

I knew nothing about the God Wars series when I jumped into the Japanese demo of God Wars: Future Past. Other than vaguely hearing that it was a JRPG, I was mostly drawn to it from its gorgeous animation style and its old Japan aesthetic. As usual, my limited Japanese kept me from getting any major context from the story, but it seems to be based around Japanese folklore, with a beautiful princess and a journey that had me visiting multiple places in the demo alone. Mixed with a tactical battle system with its own unique twist and pretty visuals, my look at God Wars: Future Past has at the very least made me curious about it. Feel free to watch the video version here! After comparing what I thought the story was to the press release, turns out I wasn't that far off. Future Past’s demo opens with the Queen of the story’s land of Mizuho sacrificing one of her daughters to calm the spirits that the people of Mizuho had been neglecting. Neglecting the spirits had seen them begin to giv...

Remember when people completed games without the motivation of a trophy or an achievement? When I was discovering video games through Spyro the Dragon and Crash Bandicoot, young little me really wanted to have every gem, every record and every level for some reason. I don't remember whether it was because my parents wouldn't buy me another game or if I just wanted to, but I have many fond memories of the joy I felt getting that final gem and the hours in between. I started thinking about this after looking at Final Fantasy XV ’s trophy list. It's my resolution to platinum at least one JRPG this year and I enjoyed the hell out of XV, so I thought it would be a good candidate considering I'm had around 70% of XV's trophies when I finished it (edit: and I finally got that platinum !). What struck me about XV’s trophies was how easy it looked compared to what could still be done in it. You can get a trophy for maxing out Ignis’ cooking skill, but you can't get one f...

Final Fantasy XV loves retro games. The boys of Final Fantasy XV are always playing the retro-style smartphone game King’s Knight and there's also the mini-game Justice Monsters Five in XV. A King's Tale Final Fantasy XV is another nod to this, but adds story into the mix to make the side-scroller a little more than just a side experience. I had fun with the short side-scroller but as a fan of Square Enix’s usual ambitious and cinematic storytelling, A King’s Tale was fun for a free experience but isn't all that memorable in the long run. Feel free to watch the video version of the review here! A King’s Tale is part visual novel and part side-scroller. It begins with an adorable exchange between King Regis and a young Prince Noctis sharing a lovely father-son bedtime story moment. Noctis requests for his dad to tell him an epic bedtime story about Regis’ own travels and Regis obliges, with the story being told through the side-scrolling adventure (which I like to think is ...

Let's get this out of the way quickly - NieR Automata is much more than just a game. It’s a work of storytelling art told in unique ways and is pretty much a must for those who love highly original story-based games. NieR Automata’s striking narrative is paired with some great action gameplay and a world that encouraged me to explore it with its multi-altitude areas and environments ranging from beautiful to creepy. There is a lot to be intrigued by in the entire experience and it's one that I'm sure will stay with me for a long time. (Feel free to watch the video version of this review!) NieR Automata predominantly follows the story of cool, collected battle unit 2B, one of the many androids made by humans that are tasked with reclaiming Earth from the alien machines that have invaded. She does this with the help of the more emotive scanner unit 9S and their fascinating journey to Earth sees them exploring the way of the machine lifeforms on it while ultimately striving to...

A week can do a lot. A week ago I added all the JRPGs I want to play to a calendar and picked out all the ones I intended to play. I had a small dilemma with March as there were three games I was interested in - Atelier Firis, Kingdom Hearts 1.5/2.5 HD and the main topic of this post: NieR Automata. Initially, I had decided I'd finally give the Atelier series a try since I loved one of Gust’s other games called Ar nosurge . Then NieR Automata came along and put its foot down with a PR push that completely worked on me. Its killer trailer, recent interviews and exclusive videos have showed off some really awesome parts of NieR, moving it from my ‘maybe later’ list into my personal must-have JRPG for March. Here are a few things that have gotten me totally excited for NieR while I do my best to wait for upcoming release. Feel free to watch the video version of this article! 2B, 9S and the Characters of Automata 2B is a pretty notable character in all of NieR Automata’s trailers. Asid...

I love the idea of Final Fantasy XV ’s timed quests, so naturally I wanted to do the first one as soon as possible. Maybe it's just me, but I was a little surprised when I saw that there was no actual way to accept the quest from the menu and I was left with a slight ‘What now?’ feeling. Turns out the timed quests aren't accepted through the menu, rather by going to them yourself. Considering I wasted 20 minutes of time trying to find the exact point where the quest would start, here is a small guide on how to activate these quests for those who had the same problem. (Feel free to watch the video version!) 1. Open the menu and look at the Timed Quests menu Pretty simple. Make sure you go to the Timed Quests menu, as they don't show up in regular Quests. 2. Find and mark the Timed Quest’s location yourself on the map It's slightly annoying that there isn't the option to do this automatically, but I digress. When looking in the timed-quests menu, you'll see a blow...