Jrpg Jungle

When I was a kid, before there were JRPGs in my life, there was anime. And while JRPGs eventually became the thing I loved more, I loved anime for similar reasons when I was most into it. Its inspirational characters, gorgeous animation and stories I couldn’t find anywhere else kept me coming back to it at different times in my life, whether it be for the childhood inspiration magical girl anime provided or the darker side of the genre I found as an adult. As much as my relationship with anime has changed, I’m sure it led me on the path to JRPGs in different ways, from making me drawn to its visual style in games or introducing me to story styles that are some of my favourites regardless of the medium. Anime might be a smaller part of my life now, but these are five of the anime series I enjoyed watching that I can link a few of my JRPG choices to at different points in time. Sailor Moon, Magical Girls and Blue Reflection Sailor Moon had a profound impact on my life in my childhood, pr...

E3 2017 wasn’t amazing for JRPG fans this year, but that doesn't mean it was without a few great JRPG announcements inserted between the usual E3 stuff. There were a few good surprise announcements in Nintendo’s show and other trailers for big titles sprinkled through the week of E3 that still made it a fun week to be looking out for game news. There are certainly some JRPGs deserving of hype that had me either excited for their story, gameplay or long off releases that I’ll be keeping in mind for awhile, so here’s a list of what I was personally excited by during E3 this year. Code Vein Code Vein is absolutely one of my top picks for E3, which is surprising since Microsoft’s conference usually isn't something I usually leave hyped. Code Vein has been described as ‘Anime Dark Souls’ by a few and I am completely okay with that as someone who hasn’t played Dark Souls despite being interested in it. Code Vein seems like the version of this game style that will get me in, with its ...

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...

There's a special feeling that comes with making New Year's Resolutions. The main reason I like them is because it's promising yourself you'll be better next year, which can't be anything but positive even if the resolution isn't always kept. The Gaming Resolutions I made at the beginning of this year were in the back of my mind all year and somewhat guided my gaming choices in 2016. But with only so much gaming time in my life thanks to working full time, my successes and failures with these Resolutions mostly came down to what I was most excited to play. While my overall success with these resolutions may be questionable, the ones I did the best with did had a positive effect on my gaming life and that's all I can really ask for. Here are the results, successes and failures of my 2016 Gaming Resolutions, hope you enjoy! 1. Play (and finish) a Pokemon game Result: Played a bit of Diamond and the Sun and Moon demo. Didn't finish one. Having just gotten...

Fall marked the release of three long-awaited games: Persona 5 released in Japan and is now my main Japanese study tool, the delightful World of Final Fantasy and the very recently released Final Fantasy XV. Other than having some of my most anticipated games come out, I'm also really pleased with the amount of new JRPG worlds I explored in Fall. I had a silly curry adventure with Sorcery Saga, deferred moves and made relationships in Lost Dimension and tried multiple Indie JRPGs that all were very different. All these games left me with a really optimistic feeling coming into Winter, particularly with the release of Final Fantasy XV. Here's my list of what I played in Fall, feel free to let me know what you played too! Final Fantasy XV (PS4) Status: Only a couple of hours in as of writing this. Hoping to sink A LOT of hours into it! I've barely scratched the stunning surface of Final Fantasy XV, but what I've played was certainly satisfying. I'm amazed by its gian...

PS Vita has been my favourite portable console for awhile. I've had some of my best gaming experiences on it, such as Persona 4 Golden bringing me hardcore back into gaming and JRPGs, playing Final Fantasy X HD as my first game experience in all Japanese, going deeper into the Final Fantasy series with Final Fantasy IX and getting heavily sucked into so many stories that had as much depth as that ones I play on home consoles. Because I was having so much fun on my Vita, I initially had a very low level of interest in the 3DS for a long time. The only thing I was missing without a 3DS was the childhood nostalgia of Pokemon games that I never truly felt like I was missing out because I still had a Gameboy Advance. What finally got me properly interested in the 3DS was when Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance came out, which I was initially annoyed about as it was the first Kingdom Hearts game I couldn't play on Playstation. As much as it annoyed me, when it happened again w...

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...