Jrpg Jungle

I think in 2017 I played more new releases in one year than I have any other year. I made a conscious decision to try play more of the many new releases I get hyped for and it was a decision I don’t regret as I found some really great games to add to my personal favourites. The year started out with a bang with strong titles like NieR Automata and Persona 5 and the JRPGs kept coming. While some were hit or miss, there was something for every kind of JRPG fan this year. But there were five great JRPGs that particularly stood out to me thanks to their quality stories and endless amounts of things to do that have made me really glad I played them. These are the five JRPGs I loved the most in 2017 and the five I will look back on fondly and remember as my favourite JRPGs of this year. 5. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 After putting Final Fantasy XV high up on my list last year, Xenoblade Chronicles 2 may just be the kind of open-world game I’ve been missing a little this year. I’m 45 hours in an...

A big four-games-in-one experience like .hack//G.U. Last Recode has the potential to fall down at some point in its long journey. As a package of three games that were released separately when they first came out with a brand new experience on top, I initially wondered if they’d work well played back-to-back, as well as how a much newer addition to the series would feel beside the older ones. Luckily for Last Recode, each volume contained plenty of new things and variation to keep things interesting, with each feeling like a new chapter for the characters and story growing in each one, building to a big story journey that felt very complete. With engaging reactive combat on top and a story with plenty of character growth, Last Recode’s smoothness makes .Hack//G.U. pass the test of time well and is an old story I’m glad I could experience in its upgraded form. .hack//G.U.’s story is based inside an online game called The World R:2, a popular MMORPG that the protagonist Haseo is trying f...

After a year full of JRPG brilliance with titles like Persona 5 and NieR Automata being released this year, 2018 has its work cut out for it already. Thankfully we live in a great age where great games are coming out at a rate pretty much impossible to keep up with and looking at the JRPGs coming out in 2018, it will likely be no exception. I’m already having trouble deciding what I want to play in January next year with multiple great JRPGs coming out, let alone for the entire year. With plenty of great JRPGs on the horizon next year, this is a list of the ones I’m most excited for so far, with no doubt that more releases will keep getting me keen from now until the end of next year. Kingdom Hearts 3 Kingdom Hearts 3 has been floating around for a long time as ‘now in development’ and this year was finally given a 2018 release window. Despite finally actually having a release time-frame though, after being super impressed with how its gameplay looked during E3 and other conferences...

Usually when I sit down to write about the JRPGs I played over the past month, I’m a little surprised at how many games I managed to play and how distracted I managed to get from whatever JRPG I’ve been supposed to be focusing on most. In November however, it appears I was very true to my goal of playing a lot of .Hack// G.U. Last Recode  as I only played a few other experiences on the side. Thanks to this, I made a bunch of progress in G.U. and I’m thankful for that, although I did occasionally get distracted by my new favourite JRPG mini-game ever and the time I wanted to put aside to get back to Persona 2 got completely eaten by the Alchemist Code’s surprise release . Even if it makes for a shorter video, I feel very satisfied with my JRPG progress last month, so here are all the JRPGs I Played in November. JRPG of the Month: .Hack// G.U. Last Recode .Hack// G.U. Last Recode probably would’ve qualified for JRPG of the month purely from how much I played it, but it deserves it a...

Have you ever been stuck at a point in the story of a JRPG and needed somewhere you can level up quickly but all the random battles are giving either too little EXP or are frustratingly difficult? I know it’s happened to me too many times. In .Hack//G.U. Last Recode though, this is an issue I haven’t experienced once, thanks to its convenient and forgiving dungeon creation system through Area Words that create custom dungeons tailored to the parameters of the words you used. Whether I’ve been under leveled or wanted to be safe before going into battle, .Hack//G.U. Last Recode’s innovative way to unlock dungeons both in and out of the story have been incredibly useful for leveling between story moments and I’m appreciative of how they’ve kept Last Recode both challenging, yet frustration-free. In .Hack//G.U., Area Words are used to create dungeons and other areas based on the combination of words, whether it be for story moments, quests or for leveling. After I noticed characters freque...

Before I got my Nintendo Switch, I was utterly determined to keep my feet planted firm on Vita Island. The PS Vita is a handheld I’d spent hundreds of fond hours with and on a sentimental level, I didn’t want to throw them away for another portable console . But the idea of a bigger screen, the total ease of switching between home and portable, and a more powerful handheld console had all been things I wanted to see for a long time, so with these in mind I eventually got a Nintendo Switch. I’ve spent less than a few months with my Nintendo Switch, but I already feel quite positive about it, with the portability and convenience of it already feeling superior to another portable console I loved for so long, I can see the Nintendo Switch already becoming a big part of my portable gaming life. When the Switch was first announced, the main thing that appealed to me was the seamless ability to take a handheld from home to on the go instantly and without restrictions. I was always happy I cou...

Spoiler Warning: This is a video related to content in Danganronpa V3. It will contain no story spoilers, however it is related to end-game content unlocked after completing V3’s story. If you want to keep these features a surprise, you honestly probably shouldn’t watch this video. But these features and mini-experiences don’t tie in with the story, so it’s up to you if you want to proceed at your own risk! A Danganronpa JRPG with characters from all three main Danganronpa titles is almost a dream come true for me. I’ve been a fan of the Danganronpa series since the first one and because it’s generally a visual novel rather than a JRPG, it’s always been a guilty pleasure of mine in my spare time. To my delight, Danganronpa V3’s mini-game Despair Dungeon: Monokuma’s Test is a retro-inspired mini-game that boasts what you should expect from a dungeon crawler JRPG, with its many floors to dungeon crawl through and a unique class system, along with its unique leveling and stat-raising syst...