Jrpg Jungle

During June, I had a good amount of time before Ys VIII came out since it was a quieter month, so I decided to make up for lost time and catch up on all the great demos that had come out during E3, making it a surprisingly busy month for my gaming time. It was probably also made even more busy since I also continued with a bunch of my favourite experiences, including jumping into the Persona 3 side of the Persona dance spin-off games that I love, trying some Atelier DLC and getting back to Persona 2. This is before I took a much needed dive into a full, proper JRPG in the form of Ys VIII after having played a lot of spin-offs and small experiences and I enjoyed taking a dive into a new, big JRPG world. So with a mix of new, old, long and short experiences, here are the JRPGs I Played in June. JRPG of the Month: Ys VIII (Switch) As I said in the intro, since I’ve been playing a lot of less traditional JRPG experiences in the form of spin-off games, I am really, really enjoying playing ...

As much I enjoyed playing video games in May, my gaming time in May mostly didn’t go how I expected it to. I started my month playing two portable Persona games as I’d planned to, although not as much as I wanted to. Then I played Little Witch Academia: Chamber of Time and was much more mixed about it than I expected to be. Thankfully at the end of the month though, I had two games that caught my attention in the right way and put me in good JRPG spirits going into June. So although I only played a few games this month compared to other months again, here are the JRPGs I played in May. JRPG of the Month: Pokemon Quest If you’re a fan of Pokemon and JRPGs, you might’ve noticed all the exciting Pokemon announcements like the Let’s Go games and the core Pokemon game coming to Switch in 2019. There was also one more game that came to Switch right away and that was Pokemon Quest and since I wanted a good excuse to play my Switch for the first time in almost a month, I decided to give it a g...

When Persona O.A. was initially released as a part news and game app, its news features were all in tact and its gameplay ones were mostly missing. Fast forward to now and its gameplay features are all in, with dungeons to crawl, its first dungeon event and Persona 5’s wonderful characters available to spend time with in brand new story events. As a game, Persona O.A. condenses the Persona 5 experience into one that is very quick and easy to open up if you have a spare minute on the go, albeit sacrificing some of its console game immersion in the process. But if you prefer to have smartphone games that are easy to manage like I do, Persona O.A.’s condensed version of Persona 5’s relationship building and monster collecting may be worth your time if you can get past the language barrier. The main gameplay features in Persona O.A. do their best to recreate the general feel of Persona 5 but with less immersive features like the ones that are usually in console games. The focal point in ...

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...

In the period between finishing my main February JRPG and starting my March one, there was a big period of free time between JRPGs for me. This isn’t to say March was a quiet month for JRPGs, especially since the highly anticipated Ni no Kuni II that I wish I played came out, but I had my heart set on playing Atelier Lydie and Suelle that was due out towards the end of month. As I waited for Lydie and Suelle, I played catch up with many demos and experiences involving game series I love like Persona O.A., while being pleasantly surprised by series I tried for the first time like Yakuza 6. Whether it was the deep story of Yakuza 6 or the cute, slice-of-life adventures of Atelier Lydie and Suelle, there was a lot of variety in what I played, so here are all the JRPGs I played in March. JRPG of the Month:  Atelier Lydie and Suelle: the Alchemists and the Mysterious Paintings I waited most of March for Atelier Lydie & Suelle and the relaxing collection experience I hoped it would...

For a big video game franchise, Persona has had barely any presence in mobile gaming world in terms of official apps or smartphone games. Because of this, I was surprised to hear that Persona was getting its own smartphone app and mini-game called Persona O.A. featuring new dialogue with everyone’s favourite Persona 5 characters and gameplay elements from Persona 5. Persona O.A. is out now in Japan in an initial form but it’s supposed to get updated with the gameplay features sometime in the future, so I thought I’d talk about what Persona O.A. is now and what it’s supposed to be in its Japanese version with the hope that one day it will be released in the West as well. What It Will Be Persona O.A. is described as a “ Persona support app” and in its eventual form is supposed to be part news app with it giving updates on the Persona series and also part smartphone game, with it being possible to get Personas using Persona Points and to take part in dungeons with Persona 5 ’s main cast...