Jrpg Jungle

Last year, I tried to make my JRPG Resolutions more realistic . I was over ending the year with a bunch of Resolutions I didn’t end up having time for, so I tried to be a little smarter and just do three. In hindsight, I ended up doing an unofficial resolution that I wanted to try keep up with new JRPG releases as much as possible in 2017 and I did that very well. However it also took a bunch of time away from my intended resolutions and while I think I had more success overall than failure for my 2017 JRPG Resolutions, I didn’t end up with the 100% completion I hoped for. In any case, I’m thankful for these resolutions that encouraged me to go deeper into at least one of my favourite JRPG franchises and fully completed or not, I’m happy to take what they taught me about my gaming time into 2018. 1) Play an old game from a JRPG series I would call my goal of playing an old game from a JRPG series fairly successful, even if I didn’t completely finish the game I was playing for this goal...

NieR Automata is many things. It’s a long game, a short game. A platformer, a JRPG. An action game, a 2D shooter. All of these things come together to make an incredibly unique JRPG like none other. With its striking narrative and story-telling method partnered with great action gameplay and other styles to keep things interesting, NieR Automata’s emotional android world is well worth diving into. Feel free to watch the video version here! NieR Automata is set in a world where humans and machines are engaged in a long running war to claim Earth, a war that has forced humanity to flee to the Moon. Fighting on the human’s side are the Androids that are the main focus of Automata, with the three playable characters 2B, 9S and A2 all being androids with their own purpose and abilities. Despite the lack of humans in NieR Automata, the three androids and their supporting cast all have distinct motivations, emotions and missions that ironically make it feel like one of the most emotional game...

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...

Tokyo Game Show last year left me with the biggest grin on my face and so much video game hype that I could burst. While I feel TGS 2016 left less of an impression on me due to the discussion of games that have been shown excessively (I'm sorry Final Fantasy XV, but I'm looking at you), there were a few games that did catch my eye and got me excited for their release. Ultimately, TGS 2016 showed quite a few games and these are some of my favourites of the JRPGs announced and given trailers this year. Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue Being honest, my hype level for Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 had really gone down since made it my top game for TGS 2015. This had nothing to do with the game itself, rather that I haven't finished 1.5 Remix so I assumed I wasn't going to play 2.8 until long after I'd finished the 2.5 Remix. This year’s TGS Kingdom Hearts 2.8 trailer may have changed that. The new trailer backed by a nostalgic, fun remix of Utada Hikaru’s Simple a...

E3 2016 was full of a lot of great surprises, conferences and games and a nice, big handful of them were JRPGs! As I mentioned last year , Tokyo Game Show is usually a better show for JRPG fans, but nonetheless E3 usually has a few major JRPGs mixed in, this year being games such as Final Fantasy XV and Persona 5. It took me about a week to catch up with all the news and announcements and that's because there's a lot to be excited about being released, which you can read about in this article. Akiba’s Beat The next game in the Akiba's Trip series Akiba's Beat was announced for PS4 and PS Vita and is set to come out later this year in Japan and North America. Set in Japan's Akihabara, Akiba's Beat is a new story about the town being stuck as a Sunday and uncovering the delusions and mysterious surrounding this phenomenon around town. Replacing the 'Strip' mechanic in Akiba's Trip is a music based mechanic, which allows the music used in battle to effe...