Jrpg Jungle

As expected, August was a pretty free month for JRPGs. I didn’t pick up any new releases, although I did manage to find the time to try newer experiences in demo form and left each one feeling fairly positive. I also kept true on my promise of playing Persona 2, found a new IP I’m super excited to learn more about and rearranged my gaming time a little to help me enjoy JRPGs even more and as much as possible going forward. While August wasn’t full of releases, I had no shortage of things to play in my JRPG time, so here are all the JRPGs I played in August. JRPG of the Month: Zanki Zero (JP Demo) I walked into Zanki Zero knowing nothing more than that it was done by the team who made one of my favourite games Danganronpa , so when I found myself infatuated with its story and its incredibly unique mechanics, I was pretty surprised. Since I had no background on what the story would become, I slowly found myself in Zanki Zero’s story of clones, constant death and rebirth and the stories o...

Somehow, I’ve been writing and talking about JRPGs on the internet for a few years and I’ve still never played a Dragon Quest game. This might be because one of the first JRPGs I fell in love with in high school was Final Fantasy X since Final Fantasy is much more popular in Australia and since Final Fantasy X is a more of a modern-looking RPG, it definitely influenced the kind of aesthetics I like in JRPGs. Despite being a big fan of what some consider to be its rival series, Dragon Quest seemed interesting the first time I heard of it. Akira Toriyama’s art looks great in it which makes its aesthetic more appealing, it's got a cute slime mascot, turn-based battles and I’ve always wondered how its fantasy stories and worlds compare to others in the genre. With the English release of Dragon Quest XI coming up soon, I’m strongly reminded again that I still haven’t touched this series, so here’s a list of games in the series I want to try to help me get into this classic JRPG series. ...

I’ve always been a fan of portable consoles and for a long time, the PS Vita was my favourite. As I transitioned into work life, the PS Vita was what helped me keep my gaming time in tact and introduced me to some of my all-time favourite immersive JRPG series during small moments of free time in my day and for that, it holds a special place in my portable console collection. Unfortunately, the world of PS Vita has grown quiet as of late, particularly in the west with Sony’s announcement a few months ago of the end of physical Vita cartridge production, along with the innovative Nintendo Switch providing current-gen console game quality on the go and eliminating the need for Cross-Buy as a portable and home console hybrid. But that doesn’t mean the PS Vita isn’t still a useful console with its library of amazing JRPGs new and old and its ability to play PS One Classics and PSP games meaning there is still a big library of great games for portable gamers looking to experience classic ga...

Choosing between Persona 3 Dancing in Moonlight or Persona 5 Dancing in Starlight is mostly a matter of preference. Where Persona 5 brings the acid jazz, Persona 3 Dancing in Moonlight brings more of a funk, hip hop flair in terms of soundtrack, which is reflected in the tracks featured from the original game and also in the remixes based off its tracks. Dancing in Moonlight features the same polished rhythm game experience that Dancing in Starlight does, but with a Persona 3 makeover and its characters. Setting it apart is that Moonlight features the most high quality 3D models we’ve seen of Persona 3’s characters in years, so playing this game and seeing the updated versions of these characters felt special as someone who has played the original Persona 3 game as a PS2 classic. Whether you’re here for the dancing or here for more Persona 3, Persona 3 Dancing in Moonlight delivers the polished rhythm game and visual experience that fans of Persona’s Dancing games expect while being a ...

With its great acid jazz soundtrack, it’s no wonder Persona 5 works so well as a rhythm game. Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight features the already great involved rhythm game mechanics from its predecessor in a familiar form with an updated UI alongside the characters of Persona 5 showing their personalities in dances. While it’s new event-based story mode sets it apart from the last Persona Dance game, there are many events to unlock, on top of costumes, fun challenges and ways to shake up both its core gameplay and its social aspects to keep Persona fans busy. If you like rhythm games and Persona 5’s characters and music as much as I do, Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight is worth a look for story and rhythm game fans alike. If you’ve played Persona 4 Dancing All Night , you’ll recognise and pick up the rhythm game system in Dancing in Starlight quickly since the core systems are almost identical. It features the familiar circular rhythm system from Dancing All Night that uses a combinat...

April was a very focused month of JRPG playing for me. I managed to beat two decent-sized JRPGs in series that are new to me largely thanks to not straying much from them, which makes for a somewhat shorter video but means I completed two JRPGs, which is pretty satisfying. I did fit in a couple of extra things though, with my addiction to Xenoblade Chronicles 2 needing to be catered to and my daily Persona O.A. sessions exploring its recently added gameplay keeping my Persona 5 urges at bay. So although it’s not as many games as usual, here are all the JRPGs I played and got really into in April. JRPG of the Month:  Yakuza 6 I’m still a little surprised that Yakuza 6 is my JRPG of the month , but with the way I raced through its chapters because of how into it I was, it really truly was my favourite JRPG of April. When I played its demo, I was brought in by its story and how deep and detailed its characters were and this continued in its full game: its characters balance being seri...

January was a very good month for JRPGs and also a month where I had to quickly accept that it would be impossible to play everything. After all, I started the month on the tail end of December’s Xenoblade Chronicles 2, and while I had a solid game plan in the form of Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth - Hacker’s Memory for January, various experiences from betas to demos to indies kept popping up and all I could do was try stick to my plan while playing what I could in between. I did manage to try a lot of the experiences I wanted to try in January for varying lengths of times and feel positively about most of them, so here are all the JRPGs I Played in January. JRPG of the Month:  Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth - Hacker’s Memory Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth - Hacker’s Memory has been the JRPG I wanted to start 2018 with ever since it got given a release date thanks to the first one making me fall in love with my PS4 . Armed with my PS4 again, I entered Hacker’s Memory with not much knowle...