Jrpg Jungle

July was a very simple month in terms of my gaming time. I’ve been trying my very best to conquer the difficult tactical JRPG God Wars: Future Past and have also been trying not to get distracted so I actually finish it because it's taking a bit of time. I touched a few of my favourite console games when I needed a break and I also logged into some new and old mobile favourites to get some character rewards and be reminded I’ll never have enough time to truly conquer them. Although it was a straightforward month of JRPGs, I mostly enjoyed what I played and at the very least having a solid gaming direction, so here are all the JRPGs I played in July. Feel free to watch the video version here! JRPG of the month: God Wars: Future Past Fun fact: While putting footage in the video version, I also noticed the PS4 version of God Wars is much prettier than the PS Vita version Being honest, God Wars: Future Past mostly gets my JRPG of the month by default as I played it almost daily for the...

When it was announced a few weeks ago that Ariana Grande was to be a character in Final Fantasy Brave Exvius , I was a little confused. Since when was Ariana Grande a Final Fantasy fan? Is this a marketing move? Why can I put Ariana Grande in my party and not the pop star version of Yuna from Final Fantasy X-2? My confusion was as a Final Fantasy fan, despite the fact I'm actually a fan of Ariana Grande’s music and think she has an incredible voice. Considering she’s not a story character and I think her character design is undeniably adorable, I'll live with the choice, but I definitely think it's a bizarre choice. Ariana Grande aside, this collaboration made me remember something about Final Fantasy and pop music - they've played together a few times. From theme songs to revamped characters, recent Final Fantasy games have seen pop music mixed in both in subtle and obvious ways. Whether you like the incorporation of pop or not, the Ariana Grande collaboration isn’t th...

My favourite games this year were surprisingly easy to choose. While there were a lot of good games I played in 2016, after many months have passed there are five games that stand out as truly great JRPGs to me. There are games I would've loved to include on this list that were supposed to come out  in 2016 (Hi Persona 5!), but there were some major delays in 2016 that mean certain games will hopefully make the list next year. Regardless, I had a lot of fun gaming experiences in 2016 and this list represents the best parts of my JRPG year. In order to keep things fair and to show why I included certain games, here are some rules I gave myself when making this list: The game must be a full game or at least a full experience (no demos or DLC, but finished mobile games that get updated are okay) Since this list is based on what I've played, JRPGs from any year can be included as long as I played it in 2016 Games from previous year's lists cannot be included unless they were re...

The Final Fantasy series has really made its way into the mobile gaming market. With a majority of the core Final Fantasy games available as paid apps on smartphones alongside free Final Fantasy apps such as Final Fantasy Record Keeper, there’s an experience for Final Fantasy fans of all budgets and tastes, ranging from the old school JRPG Final Fantasy style to the more modern 3D style seen in recent Final Fantasy games. The Brave Frontier inspired Final Fantasy Brave Exvius take inspiration from the classic Final Fantasy games with its turn-based battle system, pixel art sprites and town exploration that will be familiar to fans of the series. But it isn't all classic Final Fantasy. Final Fantasy Brave Exvius balances bringing a new Final Fantasy experience to the smartphone space featuring an interesting story with witty dialogue reminiscent of the classic games and also brings in the fun collection and turn-based systems featured in other mobile and core Final Fantasy series ga...

I’ve spoken about smartphone games a lot recently, mostly because of the release of new Final Fantasy mobile games like Final Fantasy Brave Exvius and Mobius Final Fantasy. My previous smartphone gaming habits involved only one game - Final Fantasy Record Keeper , one of Final Fantasy’s first quality original smartphone games that incorporated familiar RPG and Final Fantasy mechanics into a light experience on the go. I downloaded Record Keeper on the first week of its release so I was able to keep up with its main quests, events and limited edition characters for a good period of time (especially before I dropped my phone two months later). But all good things must come to an end, because recently I’ve stopped playing Final Fantasy Record Keeper completely to the point where I may delete it. For most smartphone games, deleting one is sadly a mere a necessity most of the time, whether it be for clearing memory or just getting an icon off your home screen. But to be deleting Final Fant...

Ever since I started playing Final Fantasy Record Keeper last year, I’ve noticed mobile games becoming more and more a standard part of my gaming life. This is somewhat surprising to me, since when I used to bring up the topic of mobile games to my friends, they were regularly talked about as lesser experiences when compared to console games. Despite this, when the port of the original Final Fantasy became my first venture into the world of mobile games, my expectations of them became very high very quickly. I was completely addicted to the old school JRPG and the best part was that it lived in my pocket. As much as I love my portable consoles, there's a lot to be said about having everything on one device, so this Final Fantasy experience carved out the beginning of my enjoyment of smartphone games. I had paid money to play the original Final Fantasy game on iOS, so when I saw Final Fantasy Record Keeper was free, I was ecstatic. With a majority of my Final Fantasy experiences on...