tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-58193923365421722582024-03-12T18:39:52.454-07:00JRPG JungleJRPG Jungle is where I spread love, opinions and hype about the JRPGs I'm passionate about. Also on Youtube and social media!JRPG Junglehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16208032067849769634noreply@blogger.comBlogger417125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5819392336542172258.post-4531785032399820602020-04-29T19:26:00.007-07:002020-12-28T16:18:10.548-08:00My YouTube Channel!You can find my latest content on the JRPG Jungle YouTube Channel (<a href="http://www.youtube.com/c/JRPGJungle">http://www.youtube.com/c/JRPGJungle</a>) <3 :)<br />
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JRPG Junglehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16208032067849769634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5819392336542172258.post-45542341957666056662018-12-28T15:00:00.000-08:002018-12-28T15:00:02.455-08:00My 5 Favourite JRPGs of 2018<div style="text-align: center;">
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There was a big variety of JRPGs in 2018. From retro-inspired games set on making old ideas even better, to great modern narratives set in worlds full of futuristic tech, there’s something to satisfy most players when looking at all the releases this year as a whole. I managed to finish a fair few JRPGs from this year and there were a lot of enjoyable ones, but the JRPGs that were my favourite this year were the special gems scattered throughout that brought something unique to the genre. So as we look back on another year of JRPG fun, these are my five favourite JRPGs from this year.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;"><a href="https://www.jrpgjungle.com/2018/11/review-pokemon-lets-go-pikachu.html" target="_blank">5. Pokémon Let’s Go</a></span></b></div>
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I’d been hoping for an excuse to come back to Pokémon again at some point and I’m glad that Pokemon Let’s Go was the game that got me back to it, with its visual update making it easy to fall in love with the world of Pokemon all over again. Taking mechanics from Pokemon Go, in a pleasant surprise those mechanics worked well in making Let’s Go a smooth experience, with seeing Pokemon on the field making it easier to run around without all those random battles popping up, but also still with plenty of trainer battles in between to capture the essence of both training and caring for your Pokemon in a quest to become a Pokemon master. It’s really impressive how it balances the capturing focus from Pokemon Go with the gameplay parts and maps it brings in from Pokemon Yellow and I felt a bunch of nostalgia going through the gyms and caves I played through as a kid, but this time with a more modern feel that make it feel right up there with modern JRPGs.<br />
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While it technically wasn’t my highest rated monster collecting game this year if you look at my reviews, it’s the one I feel most excited about this year as it managed to give me the joy of playing a fun new monster collecting JRPG with the nostalgia from an old one I love. I’m still bringing my Pokeball Plus with me on the go with intent to go back to it and together with the way they upgraded it, I think a great job was done capturing the magic of the “Gotta Catch ‘Em All” feel of Pokemon and I truly hope the way they managed to make old Pokemon feel as smooth as a modern JRPG should will be carried onto future Pokemon games as well.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;"><a href="https://www.jrpgjungle.com/2018/05/review-yakuza-6.html" target="_blank">4. Yakuza 6</a></span></b></div>
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The Yakuza series was one I didn’t know would be for me. It’s very different from the usual colourful JRPGs I tend to be drawn to that put me off trying the series for a very long time, but when I finally tried it towards the beginning of the year, it quickly became a must have for me thanks to how it surprised me with a really deep story.<br />
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With great story and a big world, there are so many things to love about Yakuza 6. The activity-filled city of Kamurocho is the perfect backdrop to the story and can have you doing things from playing old arcade games to seeing a guy having a fight with his girlfriend that leads you to watching cam girls, and it really lets you do an insane variety of things while getting to know Kiryu more. Then there’s the great main story thats cast of twisted villains that are also very human make all the conflicts of Yakuza 6 highly compelling, topped off with Kiryu having multiple layers to his personality as well. While Yakuza 6 was my first Yazuka game even though it’s the last in the series, the game stands more than well enough on its own and its 20 hour journey felt like it never lost its heat with its thrilling story has stayed with me enough to make me want to play the series from start to finish, hopefully sooner rather than later.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;"><a href="https://www.jrpgjungle.com/2018/08/review-octopath-traveler.html" target="_blank">3. Octopath Traveler</a></span></b></div>
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I’m usually the kind of person to pick a modern style game over an old one, so when Octopath Traveler captivated me so much with its retro-inspired world with a modern polish, I was pretty surprised and it’s one of the most unique things I played all year. What makes Octopath Traveler so great is how much control it gives you to play how you want to play through its many choices. You can choose which character you want to start with, which classes they’ll use, if you’ll steal items or gain them the honest way and what character mechanics will help you most as you build your party, and with so many little choices to make in your journey, it makes each player’s time in Octopath Traveler unique.<br />
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Its beautiful retro visuals with modern touches and the unique ideas in its gameplay make Octopath Traveler like nothing else I’ve played and with eight character stories to witness, there’s a fair amount of content to make the experience worthwhile. It’s a great fit for playing on the go with everything you can do in it over its many hours and the way its chapters are divided, and for the fun I had with its many systems on the go, it was definitely one of this year’s most enjoyable portable experiences.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;"><a href="https://www.jrpgjungle.com/2018/10/review-torna-golden-country-xc2.html" target="_blank">2. Torna, the Golden Country</a></span></b></div>
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Speaking of great Switch releases, I never expected Torna, the Golden Country to wow me as much as it did. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 was one of my top picks for last year thanks to it being a big story with its mostly likable cast alongside addictive character development systems and ways to get to know its Blades, and somehow this DLC and standalone release brought everything Xenoblade Chronicles 2 did well and made it the best it could possibly be by polishing the minor flaws from the original and adding even more fun things to do. Its active battle system was cleaned up, characters I didn’t know or wasn’t overly fond of were given much more background and made more endearing, and the systems in it such as its quest-filled Community mechanic that heightened its ending made doing its enjoyable side activities feel full of purpose and gave me that same feel of wanting to come back to it to tie up as many loose ends as possible.<br />
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While a lot of people could argue that Torna, the Golden Country is just DLC, something I really like about it is that it can be bought as a standalone game or as DLC for Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and the experience felt as complete as a full game, complete with the story arcs and replayability I’d expect. At 20 hours long and as a prequel, it’s a fantastic jumping in point for anyone looking for an introduction to Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and also a great way to continue for those looking for more to do and the 20 hours I spent in it flew by as both a fun and emotional journey that captured how great Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is its story moments that add meaning to the original while being a fantastic story on its own.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;"><a href="https://www.jrpgjungle.com/2018/09/review-dragon-quest-xi.html" target="_blank">1. Dragon Quest XI</a></span></b></div>
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When I saw Dragon Quest XI was coming out and how much more modern it looked compared to its predecessors, I was determined to make it my first Dragon Quest game. I wanted to learn why this series was so special to so many JRPG fans and how this series with seemingly retro ideas would fit into a world of modern looking games that are always trying to go further and further with what can be done in each console generation. I’m pleased to say I found my answer in Dragon Quest XI and it mostly seems to come down to one thing: it’s a solid JRPG set in a very charming world.<br />
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There are lots of things in it that aren’t necessarily new, but rather JRPG systems just done well, such as its turn-based systems and towns full of shops to aid you in journey like you’d expect, but it’s those little details in between that make this world so appealing. Its towns are full of NPCs that have clearly all been lovingly designed to have some sort of personality and the special attacks in battle with flashy visuals show off the charm of its likable cast in this simple but good system. The cast’s story journey could be considered very typical of JRPGs as the story focuses on a fight between light and darkness, but the way its arc make this into an epic journey makes it feel anything but. With addictive systems that work well to the cool Akira Toriyama drawn monsters you can ride and fight in its lovingly designed world, these things give it so much to like and is pretty much a must play from this year’s lineup of games thanks to all the things that make it special and make it the game I’ll look back on most fondly as my favourite JRPG of this year.<br />
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<b><a href="https://amzn.to/2RkzK6a" target="_blank">You can pick up all of these great JRPGs on Amazon!</a></b></div>
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<b>What are your 5 favourite JRPGs from 2018? Was your list different to mine?</b><br />
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JRPG Junglehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16208032067849769634noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5819392336542172258.post-67960375558337123432018-12-27T21:17:00.002-08:002020-09-24T04:40:11.348-07:00JRPG Jungle The Blog! - Updates/Changes Going ForwardHi there!<br />
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First of all, if you’re reading this, thank you! As a lot of you probably know I’m much more active on YouTube these days and that has a much more vocal audience, so I always wonder how many people come around to my little writing area on the internet. I’m 90% sure my analytics on Blogger are full of weird bots as there’s a huge discrepancy between those stats and Google Analytics, so I pretty much have no idea how many people do or don’t come to the blog at any given time. So if you do visit here, thanks!<br />
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Being more active on YouTube is basically what leads me into making this post. For almost two years now, I’ve been crossposting my content both on YouTube and on here, with YouTube as a video version and the written version here. The idea was always that people could consume my content however they wanted - if you forgot your headphones you could come here and if you wanted some gameplay to watch along with what I’m saying you could go to the channel. It was a very simple idea I didn’t think about much, but I noticed things tilting after my first year on YouTube.<br />
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I’ve learnt over the past two years that making video content takes time, significantly more than when I was just blogging. I also work full time which takes time too and I’m grateful every week I find the time to do both. But when I’m doing descriptions, thumbnails etc for the video, it then gets to the point where I put what is nowadays my “script” for when I’m recording my videos onto this blog and unfortunately, I’ve found myself rushing and not making things the best they could be on here. Typos slip in, paragraphs aren’t properly spaced, things I’ve made better while improvising when recording don’t make it in, etc. They’re small things, but when you spend so much time on making a video just to put it on here in a rushed form, it feels a bit odd. I could take the time to read over things better and make them the best they could be, but the effort I put into the videos I think is ultimately the better version of my content - I just put more work into it and therefore it turns out better. (and I don't mean my content is great by the way, I just mean better between the two versions!)<br />
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Because of that, I’ve made the decision to stop crossposting my content here on the blog in 2019. I was going to ask you guys if there’d be any objections, but I think for myself I want to present my content in its best form and right now I think that is the video version.<br />
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IN SAYING THAT - I’m still keeping this blog! I’m about to pay for the domain for another year (which I can only do because of YouTube and I’m grateful for that too) and still have ideas for the blog going forward.<br />
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Basically, I want to bring blog exclusive content back whenever I can. It won’t be as regular as videos, but I’ve had a few ideas I think would go better as blog posts, so I’d like to keep this as a more casual and fun place I can post content for fun. Videos end up being a bit of work and feel a little more serious even though I genuinely enjoy making them, so I'd like to use this space much more like a blog and just post what more random JRPG-related things I find interesting or fun, without much pressure.<br />
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As for the channel, things will keep going as normal and this may give me a small fraction of time to get ahead on content there. Or it will make no difference, but either way nothing will change there! I have more ideas than I have time right now, but I’m always trying to make more and more as I really enjoy making videos now.<br />
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Thank you to anyone who reads this blog, watches my videos or consumes my content in any way. I feel really lucky with every comment and interaction I have with you all, so I hope you’ll stick around in the New Year too. Happy Holidays and thank you always :)<br />
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-Tara<br />
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<b>Update 8/2019 - </b>Hey again! I finally had a minute to come back here and sit down and update a little. I was gonna make a whole other post, but I think what I said in this post really still stands and since it's pretty quiet here nowadays, I don't feel the need to make a big fuss on what I'm gonna type now, but I do wanna put it here for anyone who's ever wondering (side note - my analytics for this blog are still bizarre and I still have no idea how many people ever come here and don't know if I ever will. But again, if you do, thank you :3).<br />
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I'm basically doing what is called an indefinite hiatus with the blog right. As I wrote above, I think my best content is on YouTube purely because of how much more effort it takes to make video than to make a blog post (for me at least) and all the ideas I initially wanted to do just on the blog I know how to make a videos now and would probably want to do that way so I can put the right amount of effort and quality into them. When I was just writing on here, I would read things three times because I was so nervous about putting my thoughts into the world (and would still miss typos lol) and I wanna keep that same energy going forward and not just throw things on here unfinished like I was when I was crossposting, so I think I wanna leave this blog as it is with work I'm proud of on it in a kind of "archive" of all the work I did on here.<br />
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So yeah, I will be keeping this blog up because this blog meant a lot to me and there's my first reviews and what not on here that's kind of fun to look back on sometimes. This is where I grew my writing skills and learned how to structure my thoughts on games and that skill is invaluable now and I feel lucky that even a few people kept up with most posts I made the years I was only on here. I'm eternally grateful to anyone who enjoyed even one post on this blog, shared them etc and the things I learned here and wrote here are still things I'm really happy to keep on here as this'll always be where I started and grew the confidence to be able to go onto YouTube which I'd always wanted to, but was really scared of doing until almost three years ago.<br />
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If you ever read anything on here, feel free to leave a comment and say hey as I'm sure I'll check in every now and then, but for now, thank you to anyone reading this and I hope to see you on <a href="http://www.youtube.com/c/JRPGJungle" target="_blank">YouTube</a>!JRPG Junglehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16208032067849769634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5819392336542172258.post-14862428564032692012018-12-21T15:00:00.000-08:002018-12-21T15:00:15.522-08:00Persona 3 and 5 Dancing - Some Tips For Unlocking Things Efficiently<div style="text-align: center;">
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As much as I love the Persona Dance games, I understand when people find it an odd crossover since Persona is a JRPG series. It seems these dance games sometimes present a new challenge to JRPG fans since the gameplay is not what they’re used to, which is fair enough when you consider how different this rhythm game is to the turn-based JRPG combat the Persona series usually features. When I reviewed the Japanese versions of the Dance games months ago, there were a few comments expressing concern about completing everything and unlocking all of the story content for people that are more Persona fans than rhythm game fans but wanna get the most out of everything. After playing these games a bunch over the last few months, I think the story moments and unlockables are achievable for players of all levels of rhythm game skill at a fairly quick pace as long as you play it smarter rather than harder, so here are some tips to help you experience the narrative of the Persona Dance games as efficiently as possible and unlock a fair few costumes and extras along the way.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;"><u>Gameflow</u></span></b></div>
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As a rhythm game with a story, there’s a little bit more to these <a href="https://www.jrpgjungle.com/2018/06/review-persona-5-dancing-in-starlight.html" target="_blank">Persona Dance games</a> then just rhythm game at its core. The game can be divided into three parts: the rhythm game, social events and the room exploration unlocked after playing a bit. This video will also be divided like that, with those and more specific time codes in the description, so feel free to jump around depending what you’re working on in the game or watch everything all together to try get the big picture.<br />
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<u><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Rhythm Game</b></span></u></div>
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<b style="font-size: x-large;">Understand the Ranking System and Hype Meter</b></div>
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If you happen to have tried more typical rhythm games like the Hatsune Miku games or DJ Max, you may be expecting a more traditional ranking system that gives you a percentage at the end that determines if you pass and how much you passed by. <a href="https://www.jrpgjungle.com/2018/06/review-persona-3-dancing-in-moonlight.html" target="_blank">Persona Dance</a> does show you your progress in the form of points and a graph showing your general performance, but there’s an important aspect that affects whether you pass songs that is a little different to other rhythm games and that’s the effect of its hype meter.<br />
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During songs, the hype meter at the top of the screen essentially shows how well your chain is going and how much you’ve missed. If you miss it goes down, if you hit notes it goes up and if you get a chain of notes, it goes up more steadily. It also changes colour if you’re doing well and this important for a few reasons. Firstly it affects what kind of rating you get at the end of the song, ranging from “Not Cleared” to “King Crazy” and some of these come into unlocking some social events. Most importantly though is that if it’s not in the Green by the time the song finishes, you don’t pass, so even if you did the first half the song perfectly, if you mess up the second half and can’t build your hype bar back up in time, you still won’t clear it. It’s a pro and a con system-wise, but the good thing is if you mess up the first half of the song, you can still make up for it in the second half, so I recommend keeping an eye on both your hype meter and also the song duration on the bottom of the screen if you’re slipping to see if the song is salvageable and if there’s a fever you can take advantage of.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">When and When Not to Do Scratches</span></b></div>
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During songs, aside from the note circles, there are also the blue “scratch” rings in between notes that add a little more challenge and variety to the songs. I like these scratches as I think they add more interest to the simpler modes, but in the harder difficulties it can get hard to hit them all in between the constant stream of notes and getting these scratches can come at the cost of hitting actual notes if you’re not careful.<br />
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The good news is you don’t need to stress too much as missing these notes don’t count as misses, so if you ever feel overwhelmed you can just skip them, with the first time you skip all of them even unlocking a modifier you can put on that does them for you. Despite their optional nature, I do recommend doing them whenever possible since they add to your combo and if you see the hype meter dropping close to the end of the song, it’s definitely worth trying to keep up with them as you can use the extra combo hits to save yourself from a “Not Clear”. They definitely have their place in Persona Dance if you use them right, so with the right balance of main notes and doing as many scratches as possible, your combos and clear rate should be at their best.<br />
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<b style="font-size: x-large;">Choose Supports and Difficulty Appropriately</b></div>
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It might go without saying for some, but if you want to unlock story events as quickly as possible, there is no penalty for doing everything on easy and likewise no bonus for doing everything on the highest difficulty, unless you care about high scores, but those scores don’t have a bearing on unlocking things in the end. What does unlocking affect certain characters social events at a good pace is the amount of Brilliants you’ve achieved from songs, so if you’re focused on getting story events quickly, it’s probably better to unlock everything on the easier difficulty first and save challenges for later.<br />
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On top of this, there are many supportive game modes that you can have on simultaneously that can do everything from doing scratches for you to allowing you to only press one button for all notes that can make playing the rhythm game an absolute breeze and whether you use or don’t use these, there’s no negative consequence to unlocking things this way and using them will even contribute to unlocking a couple of story events that require you use them, so it’s good to know your options (Just keep in mind you have to do a quick task to unlock them first!). Regardless of how you wanna play, whether you want to play efficiently or not, just play in whatever way makes the rhythm game most enjoyable and pick the mode that is right for you because the more you play, the faster you unlock things so you might as well enjoy it while you do it.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Combine Unlocking Goals Using Songs With Multiple Dancers</span></b></div>
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With different types of unlockables spanning from achieving certain clear ranks, changing costumes and using challenge modes, if you want to unlock everything quickly many of these requirements are possible to combine to get events done at a fairly quick pace, especially if you don’t mind doing the same song a few times. The strategy I used when I was going for the platinum trophy was using one of the last songs unlocked in the rhythm game that features all of the main cast, changing all of their costumes and accessories to whatever still had ‘new’ next to it, putting on whatever challenges or supports I needed to use, and then doing the song, often in easy or at least a consistent difficulty each time because I wanted to have a predictable rhythm pattern to make challenges as easy as possible. You can combine as few or as many as you feel comfortable with, but the main point is combining at least a couple things in songs with many dancers will make things much faster than if you did them one by one with only a two of dancers to change the costumes of.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Unlock the Velvet Room Assistant Events</span></b></div>
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If you want to feel a sense of completion from the Persona Dance games, the Velvet Room assistants’ events are the ones that will give you that. I won’t go into why too much to avoid spoilers, but just know they’re well worth doing if you’re a fan of either Persona 3 and Persona 5 and want to get the most out of your game in terms of both story and content available in these Dance games.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;"><u>Room Exploration</u></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Listen for the High Pitched Sound</span></b></div>
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During the room exploration portion where you’re trying to find hidden cards in character’s room, in some of the messier rooms it can get quite tricky to find some of these between all the colours and items scattered everywhere, especially since the cards are often hidden in plain sight in some great spots. My biggest advice for finding the more difficult ones of these is to use your ears before you use your eyes and listen. There’s a kind of glittery, mystical high pitched sound that plays when you’re near a card and once you find where it is loudest, all you have to do is stay in the one spot and look all around you and you should see it.<br />
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As I said, these cards are well hidden and this feature is designed with VR in mind so make sure you’re looking everywhere where you hear the. Look under tables, inside trash cans, on the ceiling and anywhere else when you hear that high pitched sound and you shouldn’t have too many problems finding the cards. It might seem like the card is absolutely nowhere to be found, but that usually just means it’s hiding in or under something in a very sneaky way, so as long as you hear that sound, you shouldn’t have trouble if you just keep going.<br />
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<b><a href="https://amzn.to/2SKXhtZ" target="_blank">You can pick up Persona 3 and 5 Dancing (+Persona 4 Dancing All Night!) in the Endless Night Collection for PS4 on Amazon!</a></b></div>
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<b>Are you finding the Persona Dance games easy or difficult? Are you playing them?</b><br />
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JRPG Junglehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16208032067849769634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5819392336542172258.post-85047321913441227352018-12-14T15:00:00.000-08:002018-12-14T15:00:05.435-08:00Review: Persona 4 Dancing All Night (Reviewed on PS4 via the Endless Night bundle, also on PS Vita)<div style="text-align: center;">
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When Persona 4 Dancing All Night was announced back in 2015, I was so excited. That excitement led me to buy it in Japanese right when it came out because I was worried if we’d see a localisation announcement and while I couldn’t understand the story parts much as I was a total beginner at Japanese at the time, I played all of the songs and unlocked everything enough to get the Platinum trophy, despite pretty much not knowing any of its story and just enjoy its dancing fun in the Vita version.<br />
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With the recent Endless Night collection including the Persona Dance games for Persona 3, 4 and 5, this seemed like the perfect opportunity to get to know the wonderful remixes of the songs I loved from Persona 4 and the Vita version all over again while finally getting to know its story too and after spending almost 15 hours with it, I’m glad I did. The twist on Persona 4’s world and story with an Idol mystery was a great way to see the charming characters from the original paired with some new favourites, and seeing the high quality visuals on PS4 with snappy load times and sharp visuals in its rhythm game moments made the quality of this Persona Dance game feel not far behind the newer releases. If you’re looking to experience a different mystery with the Investigation Team alongside fun new characters and involved dance mechanics that feel just as good as its more recent editions, Persona 4 Dancing All Night is well worth it for fans of Persona 4 and rhythm games, and with it being such good value in the Endless Night collection on PS4, it’s an experience that Persona fans who like more story mixed in with their rhythm mechanics can enjoy experiencing in its best form yet.<br />
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As the first game in <a href="https://www.jrpgjungle.com/2018/06/review-persona-3-dancing-in-moonlight.html" target="_blank">this series of Persona Dance games</a>, Persona 4 Dancing All Night works hard on giving a solid reason why the popular JRPG Investigation Team from Persona 4 are suddenly dancing in its mostly visual novel-style story mode. Dancing All Night is centred around a rumour, much like its source material, with this one revolving around a website. The rumour states that if you look at a certain website at midnight that you can see an Idol dancing and those who watch it to the end are said to get taken to another world. As Yu and his friends prepare to help Rise with her upcoming comeback, another Idol group goes missing, so with their Personas and new dance skills, it’s up to them to dance their way to the truth while they try to search for the girls and get to the bottom of the rumour and its effect on the city.<br />
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Yu, Rise and the Investigation Team Persona 4 players know are front and centre in Dancing All Night as they should be, but some of the newer or lesser known characters introduced in Dancing All Night may be familiar at least by name to those who have played Persona 4 and serve as giving as more insight into Rise’s world. Rise’s agent Inoue is featured quite a bit, along with Rise’s rival Kanami Mashita and her group Kanamin Kitchen, with Kanami now being a proper character and taking on a lead role in this story. These newly developed characters are some of the highlights of the story, particularly with Kanami’s charming personality stealing the show in many scenes and she works well as a fun character while also having a kind and caring side that works nicely in her many moments with Nanako and the others and is a great example of the effort put into fleshing out these roles that were merely names Rise mentioned in Persona 4. The Investigation Team shines brightly in this story too, with their friendly banter brightening up the darker moments but showing growth as they’re a little older, so in the end the whole cast felt very likable in the story as its twists and turns played out and gave me many moments that reminded me why I like them so much in the first place.<br />
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As for the story itself, I enjoyed watching everything play out and was genuinely surprised by some of its twists, despite the fact that the use of a timeline to tell it all made it less straightforward then it could’ve been. Particularly in the first few chapters the narrative started to jump around a little - first you’re at Yu’s side of the story, then you jump back in time to Rise’s and then to Kanami’s with random songs in between and while there were always reasons for the jumping with characters being in different places or giving different perspectives, it sometimes felt a little unnecessary and I think would’ve felt smoother if it was done a bit more consecutively. In saying that, it’s not a deal breaker for me at all though as I thought the plot was really interesting. One of the main things I liked about Persona 4 was the gradual and sneaky way its mysteries unfold and Dancing All Night had that kind of unraveling effect that made everything feel connected at the big reveal, so despite its somewhat tangled flow I liked the story a lot and with great characters to enrich its mystery and keep it fun, all the jumping back in forth in the story and all the perspectives it gave felt like they joined together in the end to make another great mystery.<br />
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Despite its lengthy story, one of the main features of Persona 4 Dancing All Night is its rhythm game that is featured briefly in Story Mode and has a dedicated Free Dance mode where you can dance your heart out to the fantastic Persona 4 soundtrack as well. If you’ve <a href="https://www.jrpgjungle.com/2018/06/review-persona-5-dancing-in-starlight.html" target="_blank">seen the newer Persona Dance games</a>, Persona 4 Dancing All Night is basically the same system just with your hype meter in a different spot. As notes come out from the middle of the screen, once they get in the circles you hit the corresponding buttons on the controller, with linked notes that have you hit two notes at once, scratch notes you hit with the analog stick and varying levels and challenges and difficulty modes keeping things feel interesting and involved. Compared to the newer games, things felt for the most part just as smooth. Notes being hit respond quickly as they should and the similar U.I. is vibrant and easy to see and although I got a few “Not Cleared” results when I first started because I’d forgotten some of the songs, once I got my rhythm and used to keeping that Hype gauge above green I had a lot of fun replaying my favourite tracks. If you don’t mind its scoring system that goes more on consistency rather than your overall performance, playing this game on PS4 and on a big TV feels great and is so similar to the other two gameplay-wise you can easily pick up the system if you’ve played any of them before.<br />
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Speaking of the PS4 version, the reason I was prompted to get Persona 4 Dancing All Night on it was thanks to its inclusion in the Endless Night collection of the Persona 3 and 5 Dance games and it’s currently the only way to get it for PS4. It is still available for PS Vita as well, but depending where you are it may not be discounted, so at the moment the collection seems to also be the cheapest way to get it in general. As for the newer version, considering it hasn’t been made clear if anything’s been done to bring it over, it’s a pretty good port. Load times seemed very snappy both between songs and story scenes with it only stopping to save my game and while in animated scenes, some pixelation is sometimes noticeable because it hasn’t been optimised for the bigger screen, but in the rhythm game portion the high quality models of the Persona 4 characters look pretty close in quality to the ones in the newer games. I couldn’t find anything directly saying that the PS4 version has been visually updated, but I did put the Vita game into my PS Vita TV for comparison and I swear I felt a difference in overall smoothness, from button response to visuals. Perhaps this is just because the game is running on more powerful hardware, but regardless the PS4 version definitely feels like the best way to play and since rhythm games rely a lot on smoothness to have the best chance of getting all the notes, I would recommend that version if you can afford the bundle.<br />
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<a href="https://www.jrpgjungle.com/2015/08/persona-4-dancing-all-night-jp-extended.html" target="_blank">When I wrote my impressions of Persona 4 Dancing All Night years ago</a>, I said it was an absolute treat for fans of Persona and rhythm games and after playing through its story and being able to say I’ve experienced it in full, I can say I feel this even more strongly now. I adored its fun newer characters in its mystery and with how good the rhythm game feels on PS4, it’s nice to feel like the already great mechanics from this original version of the Persona Dance games is up to scratch with the new ones too. While the newer Persona Dance games are more focused on the rhythm game, if you can get past the jumpy timeline, Persona 4 Dancing All Night has an interesting story to tell with well-developed characters alongside the rhythm mechanics that spawned this spin-off series, and as a fan of rhythm games and Persona 4, I’m happy I came back to it in this smooth form and can’t wait to play to its great soundtrack again soon.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Score: 8.8/10</span></b></div>
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<i>Still bear-y, bear-y good.</i></div>
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JRPG Junglehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16208032067849769634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5819392336542172258.post-91227725648386464822018-12-07T15:00:00.000-08:002018-12-07T15:00:08.207-08:00JRPGs I Played in November 2018<div style="text-align: center;">
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November was a month of monster hunting JRPGs for me. With the main two releases I was interested in having heavy themes of catching them all in distinct ways, my month of November nostalgically brought me back to this type of JRPG I loved as a kid and the story heavy games I love now with a monster collecting twist, alongside solid turn-based combat systems. While I didn’t play a heap of games in November, but monster collecting games are big so there was still plenty to play, so here are the JRPGs I Played in November.<br />
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<b><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">JRPG of the Month: World of Final Fantasy Maxima</span></b></b></div>
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I spent the <a href="https://www.jrpgjungle.com/2018/11/review-world-of-final-fantasy-maxima.html" target="_blank">first half of November playing World of Final Fantasy Maxima</a> and <a href="https://www.jrpgjungle.com/2017/01/review-world-of-final-fantasy.html" target="_blank">remembering how much I loved it</a>. Pretty much as soon as Reynn and Lann opened their mouths in its first chapters, I was reminded of how funny they are and all the cute monsters and story moments along the way were fun to see again, with this being one of the few rereleases I’ve played the original of and it was just as good the second time. Aside from the story, there are so many systems in it I loved rediscovering; it’s stacking system is still fun to play with both to see what funny things can be put on top of each other and for combining stats, and I also loved doing skill trees for each monster and remembering the many transfigurations available to let me feel like my <a href="https://www.jrpgjungle.com/2016/11/jrpgap-world-of-final-fantasy-mirages.html" target="_blank">mirage</a> collection was always expanding. And the new Maxima content in it was great as well - I got very addicted to the Noctis fishing game even though I’m still furious I haven’t gotten 10,000 points in it yet so I can recruit him as a Champion and all of the new mirages and stronger murkrift battles have me tempted to get my mirages really strong to take them on and catch more new ones, along with so much extra end-game content in general.<br />
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It was really hard choosing between Maxima and the next game for JRPG of the month, but what made me choose this was that it’s the console game I want to come back to most now that November has finished. This is likely because I had already wanted to get back to its Vita version since its systems are so fun and there are many extra story moments I want to see to spend more time with its characters and Maxima somehow adds even more to that. I also really appreciate having it on Switch since I played the original on Vita; it’s really nice to have the option of playing on TV or taking it with me as a handheld with a bigger screen and the art style looks fantastic on both. I’m probably a long way off playing it again considering this month looks like it will be busy, but the fact I still want to makes me think this is a truly great monster collecting JRPG and I’m looking forward playing it and its content-filled world again someday.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Pokémon Let’s Go (Pikachu Edition)</span></b></div>
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Despite Maxima being my JRPG of the month, <a href="https://www.jrpgjungle.com/2018/11/review-pokemon-lets-go-pikachu.html" target="_blank">Pokemon Let’s Go</a> was still a lot of fun and was way more nostalgic than I ever thought it’d be. I knew it was going to be based on Pokemon Yellow before I played it, but I didn’t realise how close it’d be, with the quirky lines, interesting puzzles and the original 151 Pokemon I remember all upgraded to look 1000 times better the pixel-style original and made a great game somehow feel even better than I remembered it. As I tweeted and mentioned on social media, I had a horrendous cold-thing while I was playing it and according to my mum I was also sick when I played Pokemon Blue for the first time, so having Pokemon be my “sick game” again was actually really nice and lifted my spirits with its adorable moments with my chosen partner Pikachu and its familiar gameflow.<br />
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While I got through it quicker than I’d anticipated since I was home a lot, I was happy to see the inclusion of some end-game content at least, with the rest of the legendary Pokemon to find giving me a reason to keep it in mind in future, along with bringing my Pokeball Plus with me still. For now, my 20 hour nostalgia trip in Let’s Go’s upgraded Kanto area was one I’m grateful I could experience in its upgraded form and I’m happy that its Pokemon Go mechanics fit well into the familiar world and I’d love to see another Pokemon remake like this again in the future.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Dragalia Lost</span></b></div>
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To top off the monster collecting month, I’ve also been continuing to collect dragons in <a href="https://www.jrpgjungle.com/2018/11/extended-impressions-dragalia-lost.html" target="_blank">Dragalia Lost</a> and it’s become my new go to game for when I have unexpected time in my day and want to wind down for a minute. I’ve been trying to keep up with its events like I used to when I was super addicted to Final Fantasy Record Keeper, so I’ve been leveling up parties with different elemental strengths before events to try and get through them completely in a period of time where it doesn’t take over my life and enjoying what these events offer, like raids with great items.<br />
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What keeps it so addictive are the little bits of story added with each new event - I really grew to like Louise and Lowen during the Wish to the Wind event and was glad I could at least get Lowen in my party to experience more of his events, and since the current event has a heavy focus on music, I would love to get everyone if possible to see how those themes are incorporated into the extra slice of life character story moments. Dragalia Lost seems like one of those smartphone games that really knows how to keep players coming back with its regular events that come with plenty of extra story content to and while I only play it sometimes, it’s nice to know that there’s always something new to look forward to when I open it up and I’m sure that the constant new content will keep it interesting and worth coming back to for a while.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;"><u>December JRPG Plans</u></span></b></div>
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December is not the busiest month of in terms of the amount of new releases coming out, however it is an insane month of value for the JRPG collections coming out. There’s <a href="https://www.jrpgjungle.com/2018/06/review-persona-3-dancing-in-moonlight.html" target="_blank">Persona 3 Dancing in Moonlight</a> and <a href="https://www.jrpgjungle.com/2018/06/review-persona-5-dancing-in-starlight.html" target="_blank">Persona 5 Dancing in Starlight</a> finally coming out in English and there’s the Endless Night Edition that includes 3 and 5 with <a href="https://www.jrpgjungle.com/2015/08/persona-4-dancing-all-night-jp-extended.html" target="_blank">Persona 4 Dancing All Night</a> that makes getting all three of them a much better deal. While these are technically rhythm games, I love Persona and I love rhythm games, so I’ll definitely be picking up the Endless Night pack which I’m particularly excited for as I’ve only played all of these Dance games, including the Persona 4 one, in Japanese, so I’m looking forward to having an easier time with the story parts and since I also love the gameplay of these Dance games, a part of me wants to platinum all of them again if I get the time.<br />
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On top of getting three JRPG-inspired rhythm games, I also hope to dive into the Atelier series again with the Atelier Arland DX collection that includes the current Arland trilogy of Atelier games, perfect for brushing up on the series since a fourth Arland game has been announced for next year in Japan. I loved my time with <a href="https://www.jrpgjungle.com/2018/04/review-atelier-lydie-and-suelle.html" target="_blank">Atelier Lydie & Suelle</a> earlier this year as I found the collection mechanics to be super relaxing and while I have a lot of these games sitting around for older consoles and in Japanese, this deal of getting all three at once in English is hard to pass up and the timing seems to be right, so I’m excited to add these three JRPGs to my collection. With a total of six games I’m picking up in December, my only hope is that the holiday season helps me get the time to get through them all and with these great collections giving me a good excuse to play them, it seems like a good month to finally play some games I’ve wanted to play before jumping into a new year.<br />
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<b>You can pick up most of these games on <a href="http://bit.ly/AmazonJRPGJungle" target="_blank">Amazon</a>!</b></div>
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<b>What did you play in November? What are your JRPG plans for October?</b></div>
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JRPG Junglehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16208032067849769634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5819392336542172258.post-30565491143901043112018-11-30T15:00:00.000-08:002018-11-30T15:00:08.688-08:00Review: Pokemon Let's Go (Nintendo Switch)<div style="text-align: center;">
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If you like video games, chances are that at some point you’ve played one of the many Pokemon games that exist on older consoles, ranging from the Gameboy to the Nintendo 3DS and now the Nintendo Switch. The newest Pokemon game Pokemon Let’s Go manages to keep the nostalgic feeling of games like Pokemon Yellow by using similar layouts and the original 151 Pokemon, but updates visuals and everything else to make it feel much better on a modern console. With a mix of streamlined Pokemon catching mechanics from Pokemon Go, clever dungeon puzzles, all those trainer battles and a personalized-feeling gaming experience thanks to the choice of a partner Pokemon, Pokemon Let’s Go combines old and new concepts well to make Let’s Go echo the greatness of its source material while being simple enough to make it enjoyable now, and this easy-to-pick experience in my first return to the world of console Pokemon games is one I’m glad that Let’s Go made me come back to.<br />
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Pokemon Let’s Go starts exactly how I remembered a typical Pokemon game starting. You select your appearance, yours and your rival’s name and then your journey begins with you waking up on the day you’re supposed to pick up a Pokemon from the Professor’s office, this time from the familiar Professor Oak from Pokemon Yellow and the <a href="https://www.jrpgjungle.com/2018/03/5-anime-series-and-jrpgs-they-led-me-to.html" target="_blank">Pokemon anime</a>. Your first Pokemon is already chosen depending on if you bought Pokemon Let’s Go Pikachu or Let’s Go Eevee, with your Eevee or Pikachu being the first Pokemon to enter your party in an adorable series of cutscenes that’ll likely please any fan of either. Along with your goal of becoming the best Pokemon Trainer, the Professor gives you a Pokedex and true “Gotta Catch ‘Em All” spirit tells you to fill the Pokedex as much as possible as your journey of exploring and getting gym badges begins in this world full of Pokemon.<br />
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With the nostalgic goals I remembered from the Pokemon games I played when I was a kid, I had fun rediscovering the kind of Pokemon journey I had so much fun doing as a kid and seeing how it played out in this much better looking-version. There are the eight gym badges to collect just like I remembered, with little Team Rocket intervals along the way bringing in characters I knew from the anime like Jesse and James and cameos from Brock and Misty in their gyms and other things from the anime and original game made getting back into it smooth and fun. All of these familiar things have been visually overhauled so much so that you could forget that Pokemon Yellow originally all pixels thanks to how seamlessly this new visual style takes on the old layout in a colourful modern way. It was amazing how good certain dungeons like Team Rocket’s hideout felt with their puzzle-like areas that are more reminiscent of older games, but were still fun and interesting to do in Let’s Go thanks to good design and a fresh coat of paint, and is a true testament to how good the original game was and how well it’s been brought into Let’s Go that make what is essentially a refresh of an old game feel fresh and innovative all over again.<br />
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Helping Let’s Go feel fresh and modern are the mechanics brought in from Niantic’s Pokemon Go games for capturing, which I was a little concerned about initially as I worried they’d take away from the fun JRPG grind-fest that used to be my time with Pokemon games. I had nothing to worry about though, as having battles and capturing be mostly separate in Pokemon Let’s Go made both these things feel much more focused and there’s more than enough of both so I never felt like I was missing out. Rather than having random battles in grassy areas, you can visually see what Pokemon are around on the field and approach the ones you don’t have or want more of and skip whatever you don’t need, which made gameplay feel a lot better since all battles or capturing sessions were expected and with purpose. Catching is done by getting the Pokeball in the circle like in Pokemon Go, which also uses similar extra things to up your chances, with Razz Berries making Pokemon easier to catch and Lures attracting more rare Pokemon while you run on the field. I ended up preferring this way of capturing Pokemon to the old system as it’s very easy to see and understand your chances of actually getting a Pokemon and the only reason I wasn’t able to catch Pokemon at times was because I didn’t have enough Pokeballs or Razz Berries, rather than accidentally critical hitting the very Pokemon I wanted to catch in the old games. It’s a definite stray from the original system, but I think it’s a step in the right direction and wouldn’t at all mind if these systems pop up in future Pokemon games to keep the cleaner catching experience.<br />
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Since the nature of catching Pokemon is more streamlined than before, this gave me more time to strategize and enjoy Pokemon battles as I rediscovered its more familiar battle system. It’s mostly the turn-based combat I remembered from the older Pokemon games, just with cooler looking attacks and flashier looking special moves, with the simple system of choosing from your four moves and trying to attack with contrasting elements all present in Let’s Go. In a way, I found it surprisingly nice that the system didn’t explain itself too much and just let you go in with trial and error, despite the fact I had completely forgotten for the most part how certain elemental weaknesses worked, so re-learning this encouraged me to not just use my powerful Pikachu to take everything down sometimes and test what works by using Pokemon with other elements to get the most out of my team. In saying that, an overpowered Pokemon like your partner one can get you pretty far in Pokemon Let’s Go, but only if you play things smart and I liked that the basic system encouraged that. I kept my Pikachu ready with Electric and Fighting moves to take on the enemies that it was usually strong against elementally and a few more, which seemed to get me through a lot of the game, but I was also faced with a few battles that sent me to the Pokemon Center when I was careless, so the game is not without challenge. Perhaps if you’re a veteran of the series Let’s Go will be easier, but as someone coming back to Pokemon after a while, I think the difficulty was just right for getting back into the swing of things and learning the system if you’re new.<br />
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There’s a lot of emphasis on having a partner Pokemon and bonds with your team in Pokemon Let’s Go, with Pikachu and Eevee serving as your main partner Pokemon that you can dress up and pet to feel a deeper bond with them and witness some general adorableness. This bond isn’t just imaginary though, as the more I did things with my Pikachu, the more it would randomly do extremely helpful things to impress me in battle sometimes, such as doing a critical hit for a little bit of praise or getting rid of status ailments so I didn’t have to worry. Bonding isn’t just for Pikachu and Eevee; I seemed to also get similar reactions from Pokemon I had follow me on the field or ones I took with me using the Pokeball Plus, so if you’re a fan of other Pokemon, while you can’t get the exact same benefits of as Pikachu and Eevee, you can get benefits for other Pokemon you like too.<br />
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And speaking of the Pokeball Plus, it’s basically a gimmicky little controller to use with while playing Let’s Go, but since one of my joycons likes to go crazy with with analog stick since I need a new one, I really enjoyed playing with the ball during most of my time with Let’s Go and it did kind of ignite that childhood fantasy of holding and throwing Pokeballs, so it’s a bit of fun if you don’t mind paying extra for it. The only downside to it is that using the Y button to sort menus is pretty hard and some things you just can’t do like check what attacks do in battle since it’s reserved for special attacks. For sorting, I could sometimes get it to work by randomly hitting the ball against my hand, but it wasn’t ideal as this only worked sometimes. Using the Y button is mostly for optional features though, so this being an issue will depend how much you need it in your own playthrough.<br />
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While it’s hit or miss for actually playing Let’s Go, the fun part of the Pokeball Plus is being able to take your Pokemon from the game out with you in the ball to gain extra experience and raise your bond with them. After keeping it in my bag, I found it so cool to come home after my usual day of working and commuting and seeing my chosen Pokemon level up a few times just for coming out with me and although you don’t have to do much other bringing the ball, it’s a really cute idea that traveling with you makes them feel happy and gains in-game experience and candies supposedly found on the stroll. On top of just walking, you can also play with them in the ball by shaking and rolling it to make the Pokemon extra happy, just make sure to hold the analog stick down and then the top button to put it on silent, something I had to Google when my Pikachu proudly proclaimed its existence while I was walking around, which was adorable but could be a problem if you bring it to work.<br />
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Outside of permanently keeping my Pokeball Plus in my bag, there is plenty of replayability to be had once you reach the end of Pokemon Let’s Go’s main campaign. I have about 70 more Pokemon I could go and catch to complete my collection, including the ones I imported from Pokemon GO, there are new battle challenges I can do and rare Pokemon to find such as Legendary’s hiding in extra caves and areas around the map. Something I’ve always loved about Pokemon is how easy it is to jump in and out of it and choose if you want to go deep into it or not and I feel this with Pokemon Let’s Go as well - I know I won’t be able to get to it again soon, but I know when I do, all I have to do is look at my Pokedex, see what’s missing and go from there, and before that I can keep bringing my Pokeball Plus with me on the go so that when I do come back to it, my Pikachu isn’t too lonely and will be able to keep gaining EXP for the next time I’m back and I’m sure the Pokeball Plus will keep it fresh enough in my mind that I come back soon.<br />
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Combining a tradition Pokemon game like Pokemon Yellow with the Pokemon GO catching mechanics works surprisingly well in this great-looking modern tribute to the original Kanto Pokemon games. It keeps the nostalgic charm of Pokemon games in tact with its familiar game flow and maps all upgraded to work in a more modern way and compliments its gameplay that’s easy to pick up for series veterans and newcomers or people returning to the series thanks to its simplified mechanics that combine old and new ones well. I’m happy to say that Pokemon Let’s Go is the first Pokemon game I’ve finished in a long time and will likely not be the last as it was a good reminder of how fun of a series it really is and with great visuals and a streamlined approach to classic working so well in Let’s Go, I hope we see more of this kind of system again in some kind of Pokemon game in the future.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Score: 9.3/10</span></b><br />
<i>Still wanna catch 'em all.</i><br />
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<b><a href="https://amzn.to/2Pa81Qu" target="_blank">You can pick up Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu and Let's Go Eevee on Amazon!</a></b></div>
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<b>Have you tried Pokemon Let's Go? If you did, what did you think of it? Do you have any other Pokemon recommendations?</b><br />
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JRPG Junglehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16208032067849769634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5819392336542172258.post-61769868725493634302018-11-23T15:00:00.000-08:002018-11-23T15:02:28.687-08:00Review: World of Final Fantasy Maxima (Played on Switch, also on Xbox One, and PS4 and PC as DLC)<div style="text-align: center;">
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World of Final Fantasy was and still is a great journey. With its light-hearted monster collecting that evolves into an emotional big story that made me both laugh and cry, its story and gameplay is just as captivating to play years after its initial release. The game is full of many nods to the main Final Fantasy series games with its roster of familiar characters that you can now battle as in the new Maxima edition, on top of its interesting original mechanics like its size and stacking ones that are fun to play with all together, even if the frame rate wasn’t always perfect outside of docked mode. Years later, World of Final Fantasy in its updated Maxima form is still a story worth experiencing for fans of Final Fantasy who don’t mind a light-hearted story and for those who like the idea of exploring its unique, fun take on the Final Fantasy universe that now has even more to offer.<br />
<a name='more'></a>The story of World of Final Fantasy revolves around its own protagonists Reynn and Lann, two twins who discover something is amiss when they awaken in the town of Nine Wood Hills to discover an empty town and their memories blurry. They’re greeted by the adorable Tama and mysterious Enna Kros who explains that they used to command a legion of monsters called Mirages before an incident occured that left them without their memories of using them and no knowledge of how they lost them. After being led to a gateway to the other world called Grymoire, Enna Kros suggests that if they find mirages they’re likely to remember everything, so they set off into the world inspired by many Final Fantasy games to collect mirages and find out what happened.<br />
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I adored this story the <a href="https://www.jrpgjungle.com/2017/01/review-world-of-final-fantasy.html" target="_blank">first time I played it on PS Vita</a> thanks to the charm of its characters and humour mixed in to so many aspects of its world while still balancing a deep and emotional story. These kinds of spin-offs games featuring throwbacks to old characters always have the risk of being cheesy, but World of Final Fantasy gives each character a role that made everyone feel like they had a purpose outside of their humourous moments. World of Final Fantasy’s nostalgic chibi world still is a joy to experience thanks to its mix of familiarity with its smart plot twists and original cast of characters that provide continuous witty banter and despite having played it before, the story still had me emotional when it should, especially towards its great twists towards the end of the story. While there’s a lot of great new content to find in Maxima, the original story is still worth experiencing if you’re looking for a good balance of fun and serious in a story and whether you’re familiar with all of the Final Fantasy characters featured or just some of them like I am, if you like the idea of discovering them through humour while searching the world for the twins memories, there’s a good story journey to be had between mirage collecting in this game.<br />
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If the nostalgia from its Final Fantasy characters wasn’t enough, there are the many familiar looking Mirages to capture around Grymoire that include the famous Final Fantasy enemies everyone knows and loves, but in World of Final Fantasy’s adorable chibi style. This all goes hand-in-hand with its stacking system - you capture mirages and depending on their size, Reynn and Lann can either put them on their head if they’re a smaller mirage like a Moogle or ride on them if they’re bigger mirage like a Behemoth and all characters stats combine to creature a powerful unit, with extra abilities given if you make a stack full of fire mirages or with matching abilities. It’s a unique system with an equally unique look and I still enjoy how fun it is to try and find mirages that pair well together, along with ones that benefited me traveling through its world, with some able to melt ice or fly you over high areas. It puts a little more thought into just catching monsters since you have to consider their sizes, field abilities and how they’ll pair together, especially considering a stack of randomly placed mirages can even be knocked down and separated by enemies too if they don’t balance well, so it was fun to try make these all work together when creating a strategy for traversing certain areas and battling as well.<br />
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Additionally, each mirage has their own skill tree in one of my favourite parts of monster development in World of Final Fantasy. As you unlock nodes in their skill trees, you can give your mirages new skills, get bonuses for unlocking a certain percentage of nodes and also unlock different transfigurations of some mirages, including ones that are essentially evolutions into larger versions, such as a Chocochick turning into a proper Chocobo. As a fan of skill trees, having one for each of the over 200 mirages in Maxima made me feel like developing each one was its own experience and I loved completing one mirage board to find I could keep growing it in an alternative version of it until I mastered all of that mirages boards completely. These kind of party and character development aspects make World of Final Fantasy feel both like a monster collecting game, but also a deep character developing one too and being able to develop them into a stronger form while also leveling them up means that you can get a lot of power out most mirages and while some are better than others, this system makes most mirages viable enough in battle as long as you put the work into developing them.<br />
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I’ve talked a lot about the mirages, but it was also nice to remember the great active time battle system at the core of everything this is still one of my favourite to play thanks to its time-respecting nature. It features a timeline where you can see when you and the enemies will attack, allowing you to plan turns accordingly and also use tricks like defending to build up your ability points while also attacking half a turn later rather than a whole one. What I also love is how you can fast-forward between the event-less time between turns. Since the timer shows you the speed of how attacks are moving, you can fast forward that time in between while still keeping track of how your attacks are moving compared to the enemies, which is valuable when you notice an extra turn coming up before a boss does its big attack so you can prepare or brace yourself if you won’t get another. While it meant I was speeding through a lot of the battles, World of Final Fantasy has a lot of very theatrical special attacks for champions, Final Fantasy heroes who can be summoned, and boss attacks I’ve seen many times before and are shown a lot during battles with them, so skipping all of that is a good time saver and keeps battles more focused on actually strategizing and playing rather than watching the same animation over and over again to kept things constantly engaging.<br />
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World of Final Fantasy in its Maxima edition is its first time on the <a href="https://www.jrpgjungle.com/2017/11/nintendo-switch-first-impressions.html">Nintendo Switch</a> and Xbox One and it’s a little more than just a port of the original game as it features new mirages and systems, a new mini-game, a secret ending and more. World of Final Fantasy has plenty of content itself as replaying the full story with the original true ending took me about 30 hours and had a bunch of extra mirage collecting and quest-doing that could’ve easily brought that experience beyond 50 hours, and the Maxima content can make that even longer. The new content is mostly optional, sometimes hard to find and available towards the end game, although a few systems such as the Avatar Change one which lets you change chibi Reynn or Lann into one of the Final Fantasy characters featured can be used fairly early on and provides some great extra abilities to use in battle and was a cool new element to play with as someone who has played the original. While I still have plenty more new Maxima things to find and try, I did enjoy certain new additions like the addictive <a href="https://www.jrpgjungle.com/2017/02/review-final-fantasy-xv.html">Noctis fishing mini-game</a> and finding where the new mirages were hiding and even though I was happy to have an excuse to play this great game again in general, the extras added in Maxima have given me more than enough to go back in again when I need another excuse to play.<br />
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While having World of Final Fantasy on a bigger screen both in handheld mode and in docked is better than the experience I had <a href="https://www.jrpgjungle.com/2018/07/my-top-5-ps-vita-jrpgs.html">playing on Vita</a>, there are a few minor issues with the visuals that I noticed from time to time. Playing docked seemed to give me the smoothest experience, with the only issue being that some of the pre-rendered cutscenes such as the game’s opening video don’t seem to have been fully upgraded to look its best in 1080p (it looks fine in docked though), but since most of the cutscenes seem to be in-game cutscenes that look as they should, docked was the nicest way to play in general. Undocked is mostly fine to play as well and the resolution is more consistent in terms of cutscenes, although I did notice a few more frame rate issues initially, however it strangely seemed to be less of a problem towards the end of the game, so either I got used to it or it only happened in some of the mid-game areas. In any case, both methods were enjoyable enough to play on the go and at home considering I was just happy to be using the Switch’s bigger display either way and I was also pleased to see that the issues I had with long load times with the Vita version a couple of years ago were pretty much non-existent and made the experience feel smoother anyway, so as long constantly perfect frame rate and resolution aren’t that big of an issue to you, it looks and feels good to play both ways on Switch.<br />
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World of Final Fantasy is absolutely still worth playing thanks to its great story and take on the Final Fantasy series and its characters, and Maxima’s additions make buying it an even better deal thanks to the sheer amount of content in it. There were so many things I enjoyed rediscovering in its world - its great active time battle system still keeps battles quick and engaging, its amusing group of characters are still funny, its skill trees and mirage development systems are still deep and enjoyable to play with, on top of new things I love like fishing with Noctis. Even years later, World of Final Fantasy is still one of my favourite games thanks to how well it presents everything in it, especially in this content rich Maxima edition, and like other games Square Enix has rebooted recently, this game has reminded me how much I would like to see a sequel for this game in the near future thanks to how much fun I had playing with mirages in its world.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Score: 9.4/10</span></b></div>
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<i>PS. Tama is still everything.</i></div>
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<b><a href="https://amzn.to/2QdaVsf" target="_blank">You can pick up World of Final Fantasy Maxima for Xbox One on Amazon!</a></b></div>
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(This affiliate link helps support my JRPG Jungle content so if you use it, thank you!)<br />
The Switch version has no physical edition for some odd reason, but it's available digitally on the Nintendo eShop. The Maxima content is also available as DLC for the original <a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/896680/WORLD_OF_FINAL_FANTASY_MAXIMA_Upgrade/">PC</a> and <a href="https://store.playstation.com/en-us/product/UP0082-CUSA04647_00-WORLDOFFFPS40000">PS4</a> versions)</div>
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<b>Have you played World of Final Fantasy or the Maxima version? If you have, what did you think of it?</b><br />
Leave a comment below, send me a tweet at <a href="http://www.twitter.com/JRPGJungle">@JRPGJungle</a> or tell me on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/JRPGJungle">Facebook</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/JRPGJungle" target="_blank">Youtube</a> or <a href="https://www.instagram.com/jrpgjungle/">Instagram</a> and let's talk!</div>
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JRPG Junglehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16208032067849769634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5819392336542172258.post-16717666230553586252018-11-16T15:00:00.000-08:002018-11-16T15:00:07.303-08:00First Impressions: Crystar (PS4, Japanese Version)<div style="text-align: center;">
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Crystar’s trailers portray it as an emotional dark fantasy with fluid action gameplay and unique tear-based mechanics and after playing its first chapter, I’d say that’s pretty accurate. Its swift action gameplay makes running through its maze-like fields a satisfying experience and its mix of animation styles and storytelling ways the story explores make the story feel deeper than its already interesting premise. While I only saw the first chapter of Rei’s story, I still feel one thing for sure: Crystar still has the potential to be an interesting dark, story-based JRPG thanks to its gameplay and ideas so far and with good voice acting and visuals that bring everything to life in its first hours, Crystar is still a JRPG I want to see more of.<br />
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<a href="https://www.jrpgjungle.com/2018/10/what-is-crystar.html" target="_blank">Crystar’s story begins with Rei,</a> a young girl who awakens in a dark mysterious world, which is strange since she generally doesn’t leave her room at all and has no recollection of how she got there. In this world she finds her sister Mirai and they set off to find a way out but are quickly subject to a tragic turn of events. After being attacked by a few monsters, Rei discovers she can use special powers, but since these powers are new to her, she doesn’t have full control over them. As she fights to save her sister, after the battle she goes to grab her sister’s hand and ends up accidentally killing Mirai instead, leaving her shocked and distraught in this strange world.<br />
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As her tears over her sister’s sudden death create a star-like item called an Idea, she’s quickly noticed by the Reapers Mephis and Pheles and they offer her a contract: help them collect Ideas under their contract and they’ll help her save Mirai before she reaches the bottom of limbo and things are too late. Rei agrees without hesitation and her journey of reaping souls with the purpose of saving Mirai begins, with lots of hardship and trials no doubt in front of her in her journey, including dealing with the fact that the spirits she’s killing were once real people and trying to understand the Reapers’ goal. The first chapter I played through is very much just the tip of the iceberg of Crystar’s story and with the brief introduction to the energetic character Kokoro and wanting to hear both hers and Rei’s story in more detail, I’m still left curious as to where this slowly unfolding story will go, but I enjoyed seeing the premise I was so interested in learning about play out so far.<br />
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Many of the Reaper’s orders Rei must follow involve running across its maps and fighting the spirits inhabiting the mysterious world, which is done using Crystar’s active battle mechanics. Rei fights with a sword and can hack and slash enemies swiftly to open up areas and enemies so far have provided a mix of close and long range attacks that have kept me on my toes on occasion. In saying that, I haven’t had any battles that have truly challenged me yet thanks to the cool special summon attack that tends to overkill most things in its path and enemies being pretty small in its first chapter, but I like the fast-paced feeling of battles thus far. Adding a little strategy to the battles is the tear-shaped gauge where Rei can cry while on the field to prepare her summon and I liked how this gave a certain strategy to some battles as it meant choosing between using my regular and SP attacks to win or finding areas where I could cry safety in the more risky strategy of using my summon instead. Character wise, I’ve only tried Rei and I know there are at least three other characters to try, so with this crying mechanic and how quick it feels to play with Rei, I wonder if I’ll like playing with them too and if things will get more challenging.<br />
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As for the dungeons themselves, the ones I experienced were nice to look at with the houses scattered throughout a purple mysterious world with many paths. I was initially surprised at how big these areas were with their multiple floors and long twisting paths broken up with enemies to fight, with treasure here and there to keep things interesting. In saying that, while it’s neither good or bad, things have seemed pretty linear compared to other JRPGs I’ve played recently. Aside from a merchant, there aren’t really any characters or quests I found on the map outside the main story, with the only extra thing on the map being enemies to find that hold last words to help you level up and even then you’re limited to only hold ten, so there’s not much else to do rather than heading to the story goal. I don’t mind a linear experience though and it makes a lot of sense in Crystar when you consider the plot. While a lot of games throw time restraints to the wind in favour of creating a content rich world, the story revolves around Rei’s limited amount of time before her sister reaches limbo and she’s very set on saving her, so it wouldn’t make sense if she was running around and doing random things on the map on the way. Since I enjoy the combat its maps have given me, this linearity hasn’t been as issue for me, but it is worth keeping in mind if you like gameplay and story in equal amounts.<br />
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Rei thankfully doesn’t spend all her time in the limbo world, even if the time spent in her room outside of it is mostly focused on preparing to go back. One of the main mechanics Rei can perform in her room is Katharsis, a mechanic where she cries out the thoughts of spirits last words and they become a kind of thought fragment that she can equip to get a stat boost in battle, seemingly with the cool idea of turning her tears and sad thoughts into strength. This system goes a little deeper than I expected too, with other mechanics such as Metaonia and Harmonia letting you combine thoughts and unlock abilities within them to allow Rei to become even stronger and these together act as a unique crafting system that incorporates Crystar’s themes well.<br />
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There are a few other things you can do in Rei’s room that add depth to the game as well. There are the Memoirs of the Dead stories from monsters you collect last words from to read and collect which tell dark and sad three-part stories of some of these spirits, with themes such as abandonment or work stress definitely adding meaning to some of those last words enemies shout when fighting. There’s also Rei’s journal that summarises the game’s story in her own words, music tracks to listen to that unlock as they’re discovered in the game and her adorable dog Thelma to pet that really give us a good idea of Rei’s personality. Rei’s room is mostly intended as a preparation room for the next trip into the Limbo world, but I liked how little things like Memoirs of the Dead and her journal were little story elements to check out while there and things like the Memoirs in particular are things I can see myself going out of my way to collect for when I come back before each dungeon.<br />
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While I’ve only played the first chapter of Crystar, it served its purpose of showing me that with its fast battles, story themes and extra story hidden within enemies that this is still a game I want to play. Seeing the details of the beginning of Rei’s journey has me intrigued, along with the brief introduction of new characters and while I didn’t get to know them properly, I’m already curious to see how they play and control too. So far, Crystar seems like a fast-paced and story-focused action JRPG with unique systems and emotional conflict in its story that I want to see grow and I wanna see if Rei will ever find resolution in her struggle. While I’ll be putting down for now, it’s only with the continuing hope and desire to avoid more spoilers in case we get an English announcement and I hope we do because its sad story and journey is something I want to see in full someday.<br />
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<b>You can <a href="https://www.play-asia.com/crystar/13/70c4pv?tagid=1578973" target="_blank">pick up Crystar (in Japanese) from Playasia!</a></b></div>
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(The Playasia links help support my JRPG Jungle content so if you use any of them, thank you!)<br />
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<b>Are you interested in Crystar? Do you want it to be localised?</b></div>
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JRPG Junglehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16208032067849769634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5819392336542172258.post-28329390747024356082018-11-09T16:00:00.000-08:002018-11-25T15:45:47.107-08:00JRPGs I Played in October 2018<div style="text-align: center;">
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Thanks to some great new releases, I really enjoyed my JRPG time in October. I was finally able to try The World Ends With You thanks to its Switch release and in the spirit of enjoying games on the go, I also took the time to continue playing other games I’ve been enjoying such as Torna, the Golden Country and started Dragalia Lost so I can have a portable to play on my smartphone too. So with those, two platinum trophies and some new games I was finally able to try, here are the JRPGs I Played in October.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">JRPG of the Month:</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">The World Ends With You -Final Remix-</span></b></div>
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While I was tossing up between two games for this month’s JRPG of the month, I decided to give it to <a href="https://www.jrpgjungle.com/2018/10/review-world-ends-with-you-final-remix.html" target="_blank">The World Ends With You Final Remix</a> as despite spending only a few days binging it compared to the last new releases I played, it really did have an effect on me that made it feel special. I loved watching the protagonist Neku grow as his time in The Reaper’s Game went on and I really liked how the overall message of The World Ends With You had an impact on his world and the tone of the game. The whole thing was a treat to play in so many ways - the visuals make it feel like a colourful comic book, the cool music is still in my head and I found myself attached to most of the characters, both Reapers and Players, as their stories expanded more and more.<br />
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I loved Final Remix a lot and since I got it digitally, I ended up also picking up a physical copy of the Japanese DS version as soon as I stumbled upon it because I wanted to have something I could hold of it and put on display somewhere since I loved it so much, and whether I check out the DS version to see what the Japanese script is like or go back to the fun touch screen swiping I enjoyed when playing handheld on Switch, this is no doubt a game I enjoyed enough to want to play again sometime.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Dragalia Lost</span></b></div>
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<a href="https://www.jrpgjungle.com/2018/11/extended-impressions-dragalia-lost.html" target="_blank">Dragalia Lost</a> was another game I fell in love with in October and was a close runner-up for JRPG of the month for its content rich world that I got pretty addicted to once I gave it a proper chance. At the start of October I was playing it on and off as I do most smartphone games to see what it was like and loved how high quality it seemed for one with its explorable areas and small cutscenes, and the story itself seemed pretty deep in the first few parts. Towards the end of October, I finally took a day to really jump into it and found so many things that make it even deeper, with its character development systems and optional story moments making it feel like a pretty developed world, especially for one <a href="https://www.jrpgjungle.com/2018/05/7-smartphone-jrpgs-i-wish-i-had-time-to-play.html" target="_blank">that lives in my smartphone</a>. I’m towards the end of chapter 5 now and find myself having to consciously put it down since I find developing my party in its world very fulfilling, so as much as I need to play other things in November I do I hope I get at least a little time to jump into its fun world of dragons and JRPG party development in what is most likely my new favourite smartphone experience.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Crystar</span></b></div>
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I was going to try and put off playing <a href="https://www.jrpgjungle.com/2018/10/what-is-crystar.html" target="_blank">Crystar</a> until it got a localisation announcement, but its Japanese version was in my house because my boyfriend and I both wanted to play it so we bought it and seeing him play it while I edited videos had me thinking that “Maybe one chapter wouldn’t hurt” pretty quickly.<br />
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So, I played that one chapter and was able to confirm that this is still a game I want to play and see get localised. I will have a proper first impressions coming sometime, but running around its colourful dungeons was as smooth as I had hoped from the gameplay footage and I liked how much deeper its theme went - Rei’s story is the main story and its interesting enough in its own right, but after fighting monsters and seeing and reading their last moments in their Memoirs, there are some interesting smaller dark stories in Crystar I want to hear more of already and its lore definitely makes the world feel bigger than just Rei’s own problems. <br />
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I’m going to try not touch it for a good while in the hope there will be a localisation announcement, but I’m glad I tried it so I can be excited knowing that this dark fantasy JRPG looks just as good as its trailers make it look so far and I’m crossing my fingers we see an announcement sometime in the near future.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Torna, the Golden Country</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">(Xenoblade Chronicles 2, JP)</span></b></div>
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<a href="https://www.jrpgjungle.com/2018/10/review-torna-golden-country-xc2.html" target="_blank">Since I loved Torna, the Golden Country so much in September,</a> I had ordered the physical copy of its Japanese version to try in October and I did pick that up a couple of times in what became a deep dive into the many Japanese words I didn’t know as I tried to understand it as much as possible. Understanding the story itself wasn’t a problem as I’d already played it through in English, but the Japanese version also wasn’t an easy game for my Japanese level as I tried to learn from it, so I instead found certain things smaller things in between looking things up interesting like hearing the Japanese voices for the first time and hearing how different ones like Lora’s were. I also found the alternative names interesting, particularly Jin being called “Shin” in Japanese and I’m curious to see what else is different as I play.<br />
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Above all, it felt refreshing to return to this world again. I loved hearing its music and collecting little things in its world again and remembering why it’s so fun and while I’m multiple hours into the Japanese version but only very early on in the campaign thanks to having to look stuff up, I don’t know when I’ll next get to jump into it but it’s still a world I’d like to complete more of the small parts of soon as I loved the full version so much in English.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Persona 3 and 5 Dancing (JP)</span></b></div>
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Something I really wanted to do before <a href="https://www.jrpgjungle.com/2018/06/review-persona-3-dancing-in-moonlight.html" target="_blank">Persona 3 Dancing in Moonlight</a> and <a href="https://www.jrpgjungle.com/2018/06/review-persona-5-dancing-in-starlight.html" target="_blank">Persona 5 Dancing in Starlight</a> came out in English was platinum them in Japanese so they could join my Persona 4 Dancing All Night platinum before I buy them all in English, and since I just wanted to relax on my birthday last month, I figured what better way was there to do that than with Persona rhythm games?<br />
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I’ve been playing the games very briefly on and off since I reviewed them months ago, so I mostly just had to tie up loose ends like unlocking all the special modes by using some of the crazier ones and unlocking all the social events by wearing many weird and wonderful combinations of costumes and accessories. Since I love Persona and rhythm games, platinuming these was a lot of fun and I found a few tricks that made it faster that I hope to share sometime in other videos, and most of all, I enjoyed them both so much that I hope to do it all again when the English versions are finally out.<br />
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<b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">November JRPG Plans</span></u></b></div>
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It’s the beginning of November already and I spent the first week of it binging Dragalia Lost’s raids and co-op in its recent event after looking at the footage for my first impressions of it made me really want to play it. As the month gets underway, I definitely have some bigger games I’m ready to jump into: <a href="https://www.jrpgjungle.com/2017/01/review-world-of-final-fantasy.html" target="_blank">I loved World of Final Fantasy so much back in 2016</a> that I <a href="https://www.jrpgjungle.com/2016/12/5-favourite-jrpgs-2016.html" target="_blank">gave it game of the year on the blog</a>, so its Maxima edition is something I’m so keen to jump into on Switch and I’m looking forward to seeing what’s new in its adorable monster collecting world, like its new monsters and characters.<br />
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And speaking of monster collecting on Switch, <a href="https://www.jrpgjungle.com/2018/06/e3-2018-favourites.html" target="_blank">Pokemon Let’s Go</a> also comes out midway in the month and I’m getting more and more excited for it too as more trailers come out for it - I particularly loved the Lavender Town one that came out on Halloween and each trailer gets me more nostalgic for Pokemon Yellow, so I’m sure it’ll be fun to be play with its updated graphics and systems. I’m also interested to see how the Pokeball controller plays because the analog stick in my own joycons definitely needs a little help right now as I think I need new ones.<br />
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There was one more game I wanted to try in November in the form of Persona Q2 which comes out in Japan towards the ends of the month, but I will most likely end up leaving it because with two sizeable monster collecting JRPGs out in November, I can’t see where I’d find time to play it, especially since it’s the Japanese version, but I’ll be keeping an eye on what people say about it because it’s another game I hope comes west sometime, even though I still haven’t finished the first one. So with Pokemon Let’s Go and World of Final Fantasy Maxima, November looks like a month full of monster collecting fun and with these two nostalgic games on Switch, I’m looking forward to reliving two of my favourite portable JRPGs in their updated forms on the go.<br />
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(The Amazon and Play-Asia links help support my JRPG Jungle content so if you use them, thank you!)</div>
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<b>What did you play in October? What are your JRPG plans for November?</b></div>
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JRPG Junglehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16208032067849769634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5819392336542172258.post-63679272952155105042018-11-02T16:00:00.000-07:002018-11-02T16:00:07.530-07:00Extended Impressions: Dragalia Lost (Played on iOS, also on Android)<div style="text-align: center;">
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When I first saw Dragalia Lost and the effort Nintendo was putting into advertising it, I thought it looked too good to be a smartphone game. With small areas to run freely in, gorgeous character designs and many different systems to try, it seemed like a high quality smartphone game with depth to rival some console ones and that rings mostly true after playing it. Its main story has lots of good characters that it takes time to develop in both the main story and free side content, and thanks to daily rewards giving free summons, I could level these characters and get new ones without feeling as though I needed to pay. Dragalia Lost is a quality JRPG story for smartphones so far and with its likeable characters, rewarding systems and wealth of content, it’s become my new favourite smartphone game in a while.<br />
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Dragalia Lost is centered around the nameable protagonist Euden, the seventh heir of the Alberien throne who sets out on a journey after the Holy Stone that protects the Kingdom of Alberia begins to lose its power. The Alberian royal family luckily possesses the power to shapeshift into Dragons, but Euden hasn’t formed a Dragon Pact when problems begin, so he sets out on his journey to form his first dragon pact to help protect his Kingdom. With his sister Zethia and childhood friend Notte by his side, Euden’s journey of finding dragons and protecting his kingdom takes him to many different places and the story explores the mysteries found along the way, including a mysterious masked figure met at the beginning of the story and has its share of twists and turns to keep things interesting.<br />
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With its twists and turns taking the group in many directions, the story is good at building and developing the core group of characters throughout its bite-sized chapters. Throughout the first few chapters in Euden’s journey the core party members are found who all have their own personalities, like the Paladyn Elisanne and Mercenary Ranzal who hold strong positions in the party and journey but also have plenty of moments that show other sides of their personalities in a more humorous light. As a game with so many characters available in its gacha system, I was happy to still feel a connection to the core group and their dynamic through the main story chapters and the likeable cast are something that helps me keep playing because I want to see what happens to them in the story.<br />
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Dragalia Lost’s story plays out through chapters, through a mix of story-only chapters that don’t cost any stamina, and battles and exploration-based ones with a field that usually include a boss battle or time limit. Story chapters play out in a visual novel style, while field stages are where gameplay elements come in, with your party placed into a field that you can more through by sliding your finger around the touchscreen to move in a direction. Treasure and monsters are also placed on the field and you can tap the screen to do a basic attack, along with utilising special abilities and the inclusion of these mean the mini maze like areas were more than just empty fields leading to the next boss battle.<br />
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<span style="text-align: left;">While some effort was put into keeping the fields engaging, I found bosses to be the most interesting part of the battle experience thanks to bosses getting progressively harder as chapters progressed and requiring me to think about when to use special abilities more carefully. The first two chapters didn’t provide much of a challenge since I could usually get enough attacks in to beat down the boss, with the occasional use of a special attack here and there. From chapter three onwards however, bosses started to become more powerful and aggressive, with them using more of the battlefield and doing directional attacks keeping me more engaged in running around to dodge attacks as necessary while trying to get a hit in. This element of challenge also encouraged me to use my equipped Dragons, which see the party leader shapeshift into a dragon that can do bigger and more powerful attacks and protect the leader from HP damage while looking really cool, so I’m glad these middle chapters have given me a reason to finally use them. I love smartphone JRPGs that have fields and active battles in general as it feels more engaging and with areas to run around in and fun boss battles, playing its battles is something I enjoy doing and since they don’t take too long, they’re a nice burst of quick active battle and strategy on the go.</span></div>
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To take on Dragalia Lost’s challenges, whether you have great units or the standard story ones, your unit and team can be developed through Dragalia Lost’s many character upgrade systems. It starts off with simply leveling up in battle, then crystals are introduced that can be given to level up further, then Mana Circles come in that allow you to unlock stat buffs and abilities in a skill tree, then weapon upgrades, crafting and more systems for character building come in to make it a pretty deep process, with dragons and the royal castle also having their own leveling up systems as well. These systems work together to raise your party’s Might, an overall party stat that helps determine if you’re strong enough to take on a certain stage, and in spite of the sheer amount of mechanics they were all simple enough to use, especially since most of them have an auto button that gives the optimal boost options for those in a hurry. On top of there being so many of these, they weren’t all there at the start which stopped me from getting overwhelmed by mechanics as some smartphone games do, so I liked how the gradual rate they unlocked that made me feel like I always had something new to play with without giving me too much at once. Even the morning I started writing this I opened up the game to check some stuff, got sucked into a story round and unlocked yet another system that can help me farm materials and since I’m at chapter 4, I wonder if there are any other systems waiting for me later and whether I find more or not, I’m very satisfied with the depth these systems all work together to help me develop my characters well.<br />
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As many smartphone games have these days, Dragalia Lost features a gacha system for getting new units and Wyrmprints to equip to units for stat boosts and this system uses free in-game currency, along with the option of being bought with paid currency. The game gives you a free summon at the start, with a 10-summon that guarantees one four-star or higher unit costing a fair few of the in-game currency Wyrmite earned from stages, which could take a while if you were relying only on playing stages to get it. Thankfully, there are a few ways to pick up the in-game currency and I had a bunch of gifts when I logged into Dragalia Lost for the first time that gave me enough for multiple Tenfold summons and since the game has Daily Login Bonuses that give even more currency bonuses and other ways to get more of it, I haven’t ever felt like I was lacking in units in the game yet, especially since the level caps for all the characters I have are still quite far from being hit yet and I haven’t gotten the most out of all of them yet.<br />
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To test out how much of a benefit getting a just a little premium currency, I did buy $5 worth to see if it was something I’d ever use and concluded I’ll probably just keep playing for free. $5 worth of currency worked out to be 300 Diamondite, which pretty much serves the same purpose as the free currency Wyrmite and is only enough for a couple of single summons rather than a 10, so I’ve just been using it on the Daily Discounted Summon and for very occasionally speeding up castle development that relies on a timer, but I feel I’m mostly just using it because I have it since I haven’t run out of stamina yet naturally thanks to leveling up refreshing it and still have plenty of stamina refreshing items in my inventory if I do. Unless you plan to binge the game over a few days, you can probably find enough currency for a Tenfold Summon or so through other means or upgrade the units you already have to probably do a majority of the game without issue and while I’d like more characters just to see their story moments, I still have so much to do with the units I already have that I’m satisfied with playing for free and since I play smartphone games more casually than I do console ones, I think I’ll be satisfied for a while with all the Dragalia Lost gives for free.<br />
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With multiple chapters to keep players busy with in its many stages, development systems and the limited time events that keep things fresh, you’d think there’s already enough to keep players busy in this free smartphone experience. In my opinion, there’s already plenty to do in the core campaign but Dragalia Lost kindly also provides a bunch of lore in the form of mini-comics and extra events, with plenty of extra story moments being available for the core characters alone. There’s the cute and funny Dragalia Life comic that gives short, fun moments with a wide-range of characters that I enjoy reading thanks to how quick and funny they are, and then there are also individual story episodes that are unlocked depending on who is in your party and how many story episodes you’ve unlocked in Mana Circles, with each offering free currency just for giving them a read. I have about 25 units at the moment and have more of these side story moments than I can get through in the small moments I play in and I love the effort that’s been put into fleshing out all of its core and optional units in such a deep way that made winning different units in the gacha system much more meaningful than just adding a new unit to my collection. If you enjoy the light-hearted humour that Dragalia Lost’s characters have in the story, these moments both expand the world and have more of them and knowing there are so many makes me excited for a free moment where I can binge these and get to know its characters more in the fun, generous extra story moments the game has provided.<br />
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I haven’t had a <a href="https://www.jrpgjungle.com/2018/05/7-smartphone-jrpgs-i-wish-i-had-time-to-play.html" target="_blank">smartphone game that’s excited me like Dragalia Lost has for a while</a>, but its deep systems and story that gives plenty of reasons to come back to it make it my newest go to smartphone JRPG. Its core story full of dragons, interesting plot and amusing characters makes playing its story go well beyond being a just premise for the next battle like other smartphone games and the cool character designs along with their side stories to get to know them added a ton of value to one’s I won in the gacha regardless of their rating. All in all, Dragalia Lost’s generous world building story has given me more reasons than I needed to play and with fun gameplay on top a great amount of content, I look forward to spending more time with it and seeing how it progresses as a smartphone experience and new IP.<br />
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<b>You can download Dragalia Lost for <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id1352230941" target="_blank">iOS here</a> and for <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nintendo.zaga" target="_blank">Android here</a>!</b></div>
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<b>Have you played Dragalia Lost? What did you think of it?</b></div>
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<b>Thanks so much for stopping by!</b></div>
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JRPG Junglehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16208032067849769634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5819392336542172258.post-53532809514371731082018-10-26T16:00:00.000-07:002018-10-26T16:00:11.088-07:00My 8 Favourite JRPG Music Tracks From 2018 (So Far!)<div style="text-align: center;">
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JRPG music is full of variety. From acid jazz, dance and heavy rock tracks, there’s good music of all kinds to find in a lot of games and 2018 has been no exception. In the games I’ve played this year, I’ve found myself enjoying the electronic tracks of many composers and I’ve also found enjoyment in more traditional orchestral soundtracks that sound amazing with music production quality always increasing. With lots of great JRPGs out so far this year, I can say most of them have had great soundtracks too, so these are some musical highlights from JRPGs I’ve played this year.<br />
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<b><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">"Cyber Duel"</span></b></b><br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">Composer: Masafumi Takada</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Game: <a href="https://www.jrpgjungle.com/2018/02/review-digimon-story-cyber-sleuth-hackers-memory.html" target="_blank">Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth: Hacker's Memory</a></span></b></div>
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Masafumi Takada is one of my favourite composers thanks to his work from Danganronpa and his use of a wide variety of sounds and effects really goes well with the electronic nature of Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth. The extra tracks he did for Hacker’s Memory such as Cyber Duel really captured the nature of Hudie and everything new added to the game, both fitting in well with the previous tracks while also giving the familiar looking environment a much needed fresh element. Cyber Duel reminds me a lot of one of my favourite tracks he did for <a href="https://www.jrpgjungle.com/2017/11/review-despair-dungeon-monokumas-test.html" target="_blank">Danganronpa V3</a> called Debate Scrum with its driving electronic sound that Takada does so well and having a different take on that kind of track in the form of Cyber Duel was a great backdrop to my new favourite game mechanic in Hacker’s Memory in its Domination Battles and really fit the mood well.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">"Thrill, Risk, Heartless"</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Artist: LiSA</b></span></div>
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<b style="font-size: x-large;">Game: <a href="https://www.jrpgjungle.com/2018/03/review-sword-art-online-fatal-bullet.html" target="_blank">Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet</a></b></div>
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Sword Art Online’s anime has always had great music and themes and the lively rock opening track for Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet really helped it shine before the game was released since it put itself in my head quickly, making the game hard to forget. While the song isn’t really used in the rest of Fatal Bullet, it’s driving rock guitars and passionate vocal by singer LiSA make it set a good first impression. I listened to this track a bunch when I first got Fatal Bullet and it always got me pumped to go home and play it and I can’t help but think of the song and get a little excited when I see clips from the opening video because of how well it packs a bunch as an opening theme.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">"Lacrimosa of Dana"</span></b><br />
<b style="font-size: x-large;">Composer: Falcom Sound Team jdk</b></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Game: <a href="https://www.jrpgjungle.com/2018/07/review-ys-viii.html" target="_blank">Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana</a></b></span></div>
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It’s hard not to throw the entire soundtrack of Ys VIII into this list as I really liked its overall unique sound that balanced gentle tracks and crazy rock tunes surprisingly well, but the opening theme of Ys VIII Lacrimosa of Dana really set its mysterious story tone well with its pretty melody that always leaves something lingering. When hearing and seeing the opening movie using this track, it’s easy to feel the emotion and tension laid by the carefully placed string sections and the way the track builds and manages to open Ys VIII softly while also giving a hint at bigger things to come makes it really feel special.<br />
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This track also did something I love in certain games where as I was running through one of the later dungeons, this track played in the background and really made the emotions feel heightened at the right point. I love when games put sad themes in during exploration portions at the appropriate time and with such a gorgeous theme, this track did its job of setting the soft, sad tone very well.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">"Burn My Dread (Novoiski remix)"</span></b><br />
<b style="font-size: x-large;">Game: <a href="https://www.jrpgjungle.com/2018/06/review-persona-3-dancing-in-moonlight.html" target="_blank">Persona 3 Dancing in Moonlight</a></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Remix: Novoiski</b></span></div>
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Persona 3 Dancing in Moonlight isn’t out in the west yet, but its music is something to get really excited for. Persona games always have pretty great soundtracks, but this remix of Burn My Dread reminded me how great the original song was while also putting a dance spin on it, with plenty of electronics and distorted vocals added in giving it a very modern feel. Burn My Dread was and still is a great rock track in its original form, but I can’t help but tap my foot to the beat of this remix, which is perfect for a dance game and the way this version takes advantage of the rising vocal line to create a big chorus makes this an unforgettable track from the ones used in Dancing in Moonlight and I’ll be listening to it and burning it into my memory as much as possible when they hopefully release a soundtrack for <a href="https://www.jrpgjungle.com/2018/06/review-persona-5-dancing-in-starlight.html" target="_blank">the new Persona Dance games</a>.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">"Twister"</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Game: <a href="https://www.jrpgjungle.com/2018/10/review-world-ends-with-you-final-remix.html" target="_blank">The World Ends With You Final Remix</a></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Composer: Takeharu Ishimoto</b></span></div>
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The World Ends With You is effortlessly cool and so is its track Twister, a quick rock track with plenty of other genre influences in it with its acoustic and electric guitars mixed with electronic sounds and horns. I actually prefer the original track to the remixed version made for Final Remix, but luckily both are featured in the Switch port so I can enjoy both and I loved whenever either popped up in battle, but I prefer the original version that keeps things a little more simple and think it sums up the game’s style very well. With interesting harmonies and a fitting cool vibe, this song and the many other great ones in The World Ends With You will probably force me to buy its original soundtrack so I can listen to them when I’m not playing and Twister is worth a listen if you wanna get an idea of the cool music from the game.<br />
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<b>"Bokura no Network"</b></div>
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<b style="font-size: x-large;">Game: Dragalia Lost</b></div>
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<b>Artist: DAOKO</b></div>
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I’m somewhat concerned about putting this track in here since all vocal versions of it have been ripped off the face of YouTube, but I love it so much everytime I play Dragalia Lost and hit its home screen that it felt wrong to not mention it. I find it adorable how its characters walk to the rhythm of this happy track as it loops and have found myself accidentally bopping my head to its pop beat in public on multiple occasions. Dragalia Lost is getting me into its artist Daoko in general and most the tracks she provided for the game fit it well as well as being great standalone tracks, so I hope this song gets an album feature or single release so I can listen to it both in and out of the game.<br />
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<b><span style="color: red; font-size: x-large;">Spoiler Warning:</span></b></div>
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<b><i>The next two tracks are from final boss battles, so please proceed at your own risk (and if you're watching the video skip ahead around 15 seconds after the titles if you want listen to what I have to say and not have the tracks spoiled. Thank you!)</i></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">"Battle At Journey’s End"</span></b><br />
<b style="font-size: x-large;">Game: <a href="https://www.jrpgjungle.com/2018/08/review-octopath-traveler.html" target="_blank">Octopath Traveler</a></b></div>
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<b style="font-size: x-large;">Composer: Yasunori Nishiki</b></div>
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As a boss battle theme, Octopath Traveler’s track Battle At Journey’s End track really set the tone for me after witnessing the climax of each character’s journey. It’s just the right amount of pumping for these genuinely hard boss battles, with well-used percussion and its horn section upfront that really shines in this track. It’s the perfect cherry on top of a fantastic soundtrack that fits <a href="https://www.jrpgjungle.com/2018/07/unique-storytelling-and-game-flow-octopath-traveler.html" target="_blank">its eight characters well</a> and the fact that this one track sits well at the final boss track of all its characters shows how good of a track it is and makes everything feel cohesive at the end of each journey.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">"Filling the Shade"</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Game: <a href="https://www.jrpgjungle.com/2018/04/review-atelier-lydie-and-suelle.html" target="_blank">Atelier Lydie & Suelle: the Alchemists and the Mysterious Paintings</a></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Composer: Tatsuya Yano</span></b></div>
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Atelier Lydie and Suelle’s soundtrack is overall very light, with a mix of soft, humourous and relaxing music but its boss battles always knew how to crank things up and its final boss track Filling the Shade did that in its own unique way. The operatic rendition of a melody featured in other tracks in the soundtrack such as disorder in order tied this final battle into the rest of the soundtrack and game well, and had the dissonant harmonies and tribal feel that seems to feature in many Gust soundtracks is always something I enjoy in their games. The way this motif shown at various moments in the game was played in this boss battle with all the interesting harmonies and its big chorus all came together to create an intricate boss battle track that suits its tricky boss and the uniqueness of it really makes it one of my favourites from Lydie and Suelle’s soundtrack.<br />
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<b>What are some of your favourite JRPG tracks and soundtracks from this year? Who are your favourite JRPG composers?</b></div>
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JRPG Junglehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16208032067849769634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5819392336542172258.post-68576133564143859782018-10-19T16:00:00.000-07:002018-10-29T06:54:20.099-07:00Review: The World Ends With You -Final Remix- (Nintendo Switch)<div style="text-align: center;">
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With undeniable style in everything it does, The World Ends With You -Final Remix- fits beautifully as a handheld on Switch in its updated form. While its DS trailers make it already look good enough thanks to choice of artstyle, the fresh coat of paint on Switch makes the experience play out smoothly with its comic book-esque visuals that pop off the screen, with its own control schemes that make playing with the Switch’s touchscreen a quick and fun battle experience. If you’re open to playing with different control styles and experiencing a story with colourful style and dialogue on the go, The World Ends With You -Final Remix- is a great game to discover in its Switch version for new players like myself and for those who want to see the additions to its world.<br />
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In the colourful city of Shibuya, The World Ends With You follows protagonist Neku who finds himself suddenly in an alternative version of the city with a Player Pin in hand. This Player Pin signifies he’s been entered into “The Reapers’ Game”, a seven day game where players complete missions given to them by people called Reapers and if they don’t complete them, they face being erased. To be able to fight monsters called Noise, despite his general dislike of people, he’s forced to partner up with another player to be able to fight and with his new partner and the interesting people he meets on the way, he continues in this underground <a href="https://www.jrpgjungle.com/2017/05/persona-5-review.html" target="_blank">version of Shibuya</a> to find out how he got there and to try and win the game before facing erasure.</div>
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The backdrop of this interesting setup is <a href="https://www.jrpgjungle.com/2016/07/review-kingdom-hearts-unchained-x.html" target="_blank">Tetsuya Nomura’s vivid take</a> on Shibuya, Japan, which you wouldn’t realise was on DS when first looking at it thanks to its visual upgrade for Switch and its wonderful comic book-esque animation style and world pops off the screen whether in story moments, exploring or in battle. Whether in handheld or docked, the world’s consistent visual style really brings everything together in this experience and it’s a treat to look at if you’re a fan of other stylish games like Persona, complete with a ridiculously cool soundtrack. The World Ends With You also features minimal voice acting, which I surprisingly ended up liking a lot thanks to how well the dialogue for each character and scene is written. The characters speak just as colourfully as the world they’re placed in, with the cast being teenagers meaning plenty of slang and abbreviations in their speech that make them come to life and the emotional growth of each one makes sure to mix in humour into its quirky dialogue that made them all likable in some sense.<br />
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As it was my first time playing The World Ends With You, its outlandish characters in its story and the overall feeling of world made me love this story in general. The characters aren’t afraid to throw attitude and express themselves and are refreshingly candid about all the story events as they play out. The way The World Ends With You presents deeper concepts while also not taking itself too seriously made it easy to connect with and partnered with everything else in audio, script and visuals to bring everything together, I enjoyed playing with this cast in this version of Shibuya and understanding why this game was so beloved on DS in the first place.<br />
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Style also extends into the battle system, which stands out when compared to other JRPGs thanks to the way it uses different control styles. Attacks are done by either tapping or making different motions with a cursor, which is done by either using the touchscreen or the motion control with just one of the joycons, with the use of two joycons being saved for when playing Co-Op with a friend. There are a few different styles of attacks that can be done with different attack Pins, such as dragging empty space to use most elemental pins, swiping the screen in a slashing motion to hit enemies in different ways and also hurling obstacles at enemies by picking them up and dragging them. The active system as has its own special attack system as well in the form of a fast card tapping sequence that changes depending on who Neku is fighting with at the time that requires some fast tapping to get the best damage multiplier and I had a lot of fun with the combination of the regular battle flow and the fast-paced special attacks keeping battles interesting in its own unique system.<br />
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As for the controls, since there’s a choice between playing with one joycon or using the touchscreen, it is quite different to other JRPGs I play with a controller. I started off trying to use both joycons as usual, but then realised the game was only using one, so I then played with the joycon and wrist attachment for my first 10 hours while I was getting footage and found it surprisingly enjoyable after a few hours of getting used to things. Dragging fire onto enemies while pointing with the joycon was an interesting new experience and I liked how the pointer could be adjusted so that I could play with my wrist at any angle. It isn’t without problems though - I specifically avoided using slash pins as the pointer doesn’t give the right amount of precision to use these well and this became particularly hard when playing with character’s like Joshua whose sole special attack relies on being built up with this kind of attack.<br />
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After my 10 hours I switched to touchscreen and found it much, much better and think this is how The World Ends With You should be played on Switch. With finger tapping, getting combos in is as fast as is needed to get a good multiplier going and I could finally use all my pins properly for every dragging, slashing and tapping pin I needed and wanted to use and although I didn’t hate the other method, it was generally a better fit for anything fast needed to be done in its active system. So with that in mind, while docked isn’t completely unplayable if you use the right pins, the handheld mode gives the precision needed to play the harder battles and was much more fun in this unique battle system and with my joycons off the console playing in tablet mode, I was able to enjoy swiping enemies and tapping in special attacks at home and on the go and had no issues with the control scheme going forward.<br />
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Pins are the beginning of some of the interesting systems in The World Ends With You and I really enjoyed discovering these and the way they customise the game for the first time in Final Remix, along with the extra content included in this edition. The Pin system serves as a unique skill system for battles as well as a great collectible with over 300 pins to collect in total through finding them in stores, evolving them, in the story or in battles. Battle difficulty includes its own level of customisation for gaining goods or making things more challenging thanks to being able to change the difficulty mode along with Neku’s current level, with the level changes also resulting in better drops if you put the level low enough and was a fun way to try get different games for Reaper quests and otherwise. Shops also have a leveling up system, with some item abilities being locked until you become friendly with the staff and there are other systems such as feeding characters, giving them clothing and affecting brand ranks in town with what you wear and use that made customisations available in almost every part of the experience and it was fun to play with these both at my leisure and for different story quests that played with these. Although the main story campaign including new content was around 20 hours long, with all these different systems of collectibles and new ways to try playing, I’m sure there’s plenty more I could do the next time I explore its world.<br />
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And for players who want more time with the game or those who have already played The World Ends With You and want something new, the post game of Final Remix is important as it features the new story episode ‘A New Day’. A New Day is an extra mystery featuring a cute-looking new character Coco that added extra battles to the combat system while showing off the fun characters I grew to love in the main story again that left me hoping we see more of this game and series someday. The extra content doesn’t really add anything crazy to the main story other than some more fun gameplay, but as a new player of the series it was a nice small experience to leave me excited for more and with its enjoyable story and cool looking world is something I hope we see more of sometime.<br />
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As a DS Classic on Switch, with a modern feeling story and <a href="https://www.jrpgjungle.com/2017/09/five-visually-appealing-jrpgs.html" target="_blank">stylish world</a>, The World Ends With You -Final Remix- made its gameplay and characters feel fresh, fun and new in its unique and cool world. The touch mechanics were a new way to use my Switch and if you can get past the different control style, its pin system and others are worth diving into with the way it lets you customise playing in its colourful world. This stylish game full of sights and characters that pop off the screen and had me engaged in their growth throughout the story is clearly a DS favourite for a reason now that I’ve played it and if you’re like me and had been putting off trying it until this Switch release, I think its mysterious version of Shibuya is well worth trying if you think it looks interesting and don’t mind playing it undocked.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Score: 8/10</span></b></div>
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<i>Controls aren't perfect, but if you enjoy touch mechanics in other games this is definitely worth playing if you like the look of it!</i></div>
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<b><a href="https://amzn.to/2J8d824" target="_blank">You can pick up The World Ends With You Final Remix on Amazon!</a></b></div>
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JRPG Junglehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16208032067849769634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5819392336542172258.post-61007226601203278052018-10-15T16:00:00.000-07:002018-10-15T16:00:15.073-07:00What is Crystar? (Premise, Gameplay and More!)<div style="text-align: center;">
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With tears, death and limbo as themes in its trailers and premise, Crystar’s pretty but dark aesthetic and story themes have had me intrigued since months ago when I saw its trailer on YouTube. Since that day, Crystar has received plenty of coverage in Japanese magazines such as Famitsu, more trailers and its publisher FuRyu’s continued promotional support for it has kept me in and wondering if the title will be worth the hype. Although nothing has been said about it coming west yet, with interesting mechanics that incorporate its crying theme well, action gameplay and a story full of an intriguing use of sadness, after looking more into Crystar, I still really want to try the unique mechanics in its pretty, dark world.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnXafCtH914bLvJbbLde5Ea_sZchWdU3n2Zd0PN7NdDEvRaaouxInpqSfHX7PCD0aCmaMKJJ6j2sqRCApDmOX-52SFi29etWc188OjT6i3RabtddKChmvzJrur3i6QJEMVdD3Mb32BlA8t/s1600/CrystarStory1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnXafCtH914bLvJbbLde5Ea_sZchWdU3n2Zd0PN7NdDEvRaaouxInpqSfHX7PCD0aCmaMKJJ6j2sqRCApDmOX-52SFi29etWc188OjT6i3RabtddKChmvzJrur3i6QJEMVdD3Mb32BlA8t/s640/CrystarStory1.png" width="640" /></a></div>
Crystar’s story revolves around its tearful protagonist Rei and an accidental journey into a new world that quickly turns tragic. Rei doesn’t usually leave her room, but she somehow finds herself waking up in a dark and mysterious world with her sister Mirai trying to find a way out. Shortly after Rei discovers she has mysterious powers when she fights to protect her sister from a spirit, and when calming down from the battles with her new powers being out of control, as she goes to grab her sisters hand she winds up tragically killing her instead.<br />
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Distraught over her sister’s death while still in this other world, Rei is offered a contract by a devil that might help save her sister. Her sister is supposed to only truly be dead once she passes through limbo, so the limbo manager devils Mephis and Pheles seem to take advantage of Rei’s will to save her sister and she makes a contract with them to become their proxy to reap the souls of the spirits floating through limbo and to sacrifice her tears, with doing the being a way to potentially save her sister. With the only goal in her mind being to save Mirai, Rei pushes forward with her new powers at the whim of the devils and with her new friends of other agents working for their own causes. Where this dark story will go and what Rei will endure both working for the devils and going through so much sadness is something I’m curious to see, and with a more selfish premise as opposed to something like saving the world in other JRPGs, I’m curious to see how this theme will grow in the full game.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Tear-filled Mechanics and Action Gameplay</span></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp42-v3RT4MIDEyXNjKduYtQQasczQTSiPZJPRV5Z_0ZC5ZBi9dcsLQucMDnhZ_sdzqtTDfc3dnkkOe2jxDLJo9xzKPzLgIaqSQq6r__GTSjsk7BkEPsYjC0c5KPOCsTWmjJwpR58dfXQm/s1600/CrystarBattle1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp42-v3RT4MIDEyXNjKduYtQQasczQTSiPZJPRV5Z_0ZC5ZBi9dcsLQucMDnhZ_sdzqtTDfc3dnkkOe2jxDLJo9xzKPzLgIaqSQq6r__GTSjsk7BkEPsYjC0c5KPOCsTWmjJwpR58dfXQm/s640/CrystarBattle1.png" width="640" /></a></div>
The use of Rei’s powers and sadness seems to be realised in the action gameplay of Crystar in its dark world, with the mechanics looking to combine typical action gameplay with its tear-filled theme. At the core of Crystar’s battles is a fluid-looking active system where you can switch between Rei and her friends to take down the spirits-residing in Limbo. I don’t know too much about the intricacies of the active system since I haven’t played it, but its special attack system incorporates the game’s theme in a way that looks interesting. As you attack enemies or take a moment to cry while standing on the field and using up SP, you can build up a tear-shaped gauge that makes characters go into a stronger MAX mode like an overdrive, where the girls gain access to special attacks and abilities, including being able to summon a Guardian to help fight.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsBR_8FpUZc0FKUL1kV1mytH4wyyO-auBlpStr_w6OiDavIdvUE74jHbTDR4_XRME7m4by3MuZPTz25GoCSHdZ4Qku59lTsdjkqUMMMfAVpgHDRtnmRE10vKkSenptVh80ODdvLgjXAgdW/s1600/CrystarKatharsis1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsBR_8FpUZc0FKUL1kV1mytH4wyyO-auBlpStr_w6OiDavIdvUE74jHbTDR4_XRME7m4by3MuZPTz25GoCSHdZ4Qku59lTsdjkqUMMMfAVpgHDRtnmRE10vKkSenptVh80ODdvLgjXAgdW/s640/CrystarKatharsis1.png" width="640" /></a></div>
On top of this, since Rei is portrayed as being full of tears and sadness, outside of battle in her room on her own her crying is also incorporated into making her stronger. As part of her killing spirits for devils, since these spirits and ghosts were at least once the souls of people they shout final words as they die and these final words are said to effect and stay with Rei. To deal with this, she can cry these words out with the Katharsis mechanic to help gain new skills, seemingly as a version of either skill points or experience. She can also be affected by things like books as well and all of these incorporate the idea of crying and using sadness in a way that makes Crystar seem very unique to play.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Extra Stories</span></b></div>
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Aside from making Rei cry and gain skills through Katharsis, since she’s dealing with a lot of souls who were once human, some of these spirits are also said to have memories you can explore in the form of their memoirs. I’m not sure how they’re obtained as of yet, but it seems like an aspect of the game that will add lore to Crystar’s world and the spirits you meet in it. There are said to be over 90 of these Memoirs of the Dead to find and I’m very interested to see how deep they’ll go and what kind of stories they’ll tell.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Character Design, Visuals and Music</span></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnMpj3TwpQJG6LbouQS0ddAgNVGBH67FPdRE9mx7lU-MOKjXYKa3WauaSs6QCWPv7HbdBspdb6hOPD68Vg-Dos2Pelx5txxA0RouT8C5-XWR7G02MTMnNv8ILKwdU_4lkemBmHEwQdVXBr/s1600/CrystarSketchstyle1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnMpj3TwpQJG6LbouQS0ddAgNVGBH67FPdRE9mx7lU-MOKjXYKa3WauaSs6QCWPv7HbdBspdb6hOPD68Vg-Dos2Pelx5txxA0RouT8C5-XWR7G02MTMnNv8ILKwdU_4lkemBmHEwQdVXBr/s640/CrystarSketchstyle1.png" width="640" /></a></div>
It was Crystar’s first trailer appearing in my sub feed that got me curious about it in the first place and this was definitely at least partially because of its pretty visual style. Its character designs all have a <a href="https://www.jrpgjungle.com/2017/10/review-blue-reflection.html" target="_blank">doll-like anime style</a> to them, with especially big and detailed eyes making them an appropriate focal point when you look at these characters and partnered with a softer take on gothic and lolita styles when it comes to costumes and the game’s general colour scheme, its dark-style is fairly eye-catching. While Rei and Mirai make up the characters that create the premise for Crystar, there are other party members that are other girls fighting all for different reasons, including the loss of children and, justice and while all of these characters have their own look, they have in common that they’re fighting for their own, very different goal.<br />
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The trailers have also been very good at capturing the emotion and lonely feelings that will likely be prevalent while Rei searches for her sister. Especially in the first trailer, most of the shots have the characters by themselves and with movement usually being with characters running away or falling alone, it’s easy to get a feel of the tone of the story. What also caught my eye in the trailers are some of its different animation and storytelling styles in some scenes. While most of the story seems to be told in 3D cutscenes in its dark but colourful world, there’s an almost visual novel-like other style that features a messier 2D art style in a sepia tone that seems to tell the story of Rei and Mirai’s home life. Since Rei is said to not leave her room, I’m hoping this is where we’ll find out why and the choice of seemingly using a different art style adds a nice bit of visual diversity while still fitting in with the game’s overall style.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyPGwnIhdcoHBh8XHO_D4SdSzQRbanKwDEDikIa4ejRNmuYwtlZHxpPoGhB6TWJDkm0PUvNCKT1knIopZejODcGP7Iui4z6V0PPQxH2LALMRz8BRN9oIXXZQ6PEqB9v7lDmMwQGTLGCFDX/s1600/CrystarTrailer1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="729" data-original-width="1600" height="290" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyPGwnIhdcoHBh8XHO_D4SdSzQRbanKwDEDikIa4ejRNmuYwtlZHxpPoGhB6TWJDkm0PUvNCKT1knIopZejODcGP7Iui4z6V0PPQxH2LALMRz8BRN9oIXXZQ6PEqB9v7lDmMwQGTLGCFDX/s640/CrystarTrailer1.png" width="640" /></a></div>
Finally, to compliment Crystar’s visuals so far have been music tracks that have a mix of gentle mysterious music and a rock vibe, with its rock moments reminding me of some of my favourite anime openings <a href="https://www.jrpgjungle.com/2018/03/5-anime-series-and-jrpgs-they-led-me-to.html" target="_blank">such as the one from Mirai Nikki</a>, making me instantly like its theme song. The only real track showcased so far has been the one from the trailer called “Can Cry” and I really like it so far, but there’s also been some tracks with a classical influence shown in the gameplay previews on its website. While the two tracks I’ve heard are quite different, I think both fit the emotional tone of Crystar well and I’m looking to hearing the rest of its music, along with everything else, in the final game.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Why I’m Excited</span></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKpXod5xsIFH7NAsXsRoyUR2GRfgTfRCvMnigH4PyDRPKx6JYVzAT5q80BB8zFc_8CBRDGwAQllGCVnobD8zV4FexVQFV1Yyj3vazxEzA4h3T8SASQ2Nhzx34G9GjuNSm6RxXeKXDuB8zE/s1600/CrystarTrailer2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="681" data-original-width="1600" height="272" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKpXod5xsIFH7NAsXsRoyUR2GRfgTfRCvMnigH4PyDRPKx6JYVzAT5q80BB8zFc_8CBRDGwAQllGCVnobD8zV4FexVQFV1Yyj3vazxEzA4h3T8SASQ2Nhzx34G9GjuNSm6RxXeKXDuB8zE/s640/CrystarTrailer2.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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Although there’s been no localisation announcement for Crystar as of yet, the way it uses its theme of crying both mechanically and in the story has me very intrigued so far. It’s also had great trailers with music and visuals, and with these alongside its interesting ways of using its theme in its gameplay, I’m hoping everything comes together well in the final game. Crystar comes out October 18th in Japan and I’m looking forward to seeing if it does well and if it’s a good game and if they decide to put out <a href="https://www.jrpgjungle.com/2018/09/the-crazy-concepts-of-zanki-zero.html" target="_blank">any demos as well</a>. Whether I try it sooner or later, I hope it’s good so that we can see its interesting take on sadness and tears as mechanics in this interesting emotion-inspired JRPG world.<br />
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<b>You can <a href="https://www.play-asia.com/crystar/13/70c4pv?tagid=1578973" target="_blank">pre-order Crystar (in Japanese) from Playasia!</a></b></div>
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(The Playasia links help support my JRPG Jungle content so if you use any of them, thank you!)<br />
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<b>What do you think of Crystar so far? Do you want it to be localised?</b></div>
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Leave a comment below, send me a tweet at <a href="http://www.twitter.com/JRPGJungle">@JRPGJungle</a> or tell me on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/JRPGJungle">Facebook</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/JRPGJungle" target="_blank">Youtube</a> or <a href="https://www.instagram.com/jrpgjungle/">Instagram</a> and let's talk!</div>
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<b>Thanks so much for stopping by!</b></div>
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Make sure to follow <a href="http://www.twitter.com/JRPGJungle">@JRPGJungle on Twitter</a> and <a href="https://www.instagram.com/jrpgjungle/">Instagram</a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/JRPGJungle">like JRPG Jungle on Facebook</a> and <a href="https://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailverify?uri=JRPGJungle&loc=en_US">Subscribe to the mailing list</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/JRPGJungle" target="_blank">Youtube Channel</a> for updates on content and random musings on JRPGs and the JRPG world. You're awesome! <3</div>
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<b>Sources and More Information!:</b></div>
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<a href="http://www.cs.furyu.jp/crystar/"><span style="font-size: x-small;">http://www.cs.furyu.jp/crystar/</span></a></div>
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<b><b><span style="font-size: x-small;">Trailers:</span></b></b></div>
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kp2BBtypQ2E"><span style="font-size: x-small;">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kp2BBtypQ2E</span></a></div>
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LFFEafLjCM"><span style="font-size: x-small;">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LFFEafLjCM</span></a></div>
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<b><b><span style="font-size: x-small;">Gematsu:</span></b></b></div>
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<a href="https://gematsu.com/2018/06/furyu-announces-action-rpg-cry-star-for-ps4"><span style="font-size: x-small;">https://gematsu.com/2018/06/furyu-announces-action-rpg-cry-star-for-ps4</span></a></div>
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<a href="https://gematsu.com/2018/06/furyu-action-rpg-crystar-teaser-trailer"><span style="font-size: x-small;">https://gematsu.com/2018/06/furyu-action-rpg-crystar-teaser-trailer</span></a></div>
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<a href="https://gematsu.com/2018/06/crystar-first-details-gameplay-screenshots"><span style="font-size: x-small;">https://gematsu.com/2018/06/crystar-first-details-gameplay-screenshots</span></a></div>
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<a href="https://gematsu.com/2018/07/crystar-details-rei-mirai-mephis-pheles-and-heraclitus"><span style="font-size: x-small;">https://gematsu.com/2018/07/crystar-details-rei-mirai-mephis-pheles-and-heraclitus</span></a></div>
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<a href="https://gematsu.com/2018/07/crystar-details-story-world-and-keywords"><span style="font-size: x-small;">https://gematsu.com/2018/07/crystar-details-story-world-and-keywords</span></a></div>
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<a href="https://gematsu.com/2018/08/crystar-details-kokoro-fudoji-sen-megumiba-anamnesis-777-and-systems"><span style="font-size: x-small;">https://gematsu.com/2018/08/crystar-details-kokoro-fudoji-sen-megumiba-anamnesis-777-and-systems</span></a></div>
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<a href="https://gematsu.com/2018/08/crystar-full-length-trailer"><span style="font-size: x-small;">https://gematsu.com/2018/08/crystar-full-length-trailer</span></a></div>
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<a href="https://gematsu.com/2018/08/crystar-reveals-777-as-fourth-playable-character"><span style="font-size: x-small;">https://gematsu.com/2018/08/crystar-reveals-777-as-fourth-playable-character</span></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>Magazine:</b> Famitsu magazine 2018/08/02 (Japanese)</span></b></div>
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JRPG Junglehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16208032067849769634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5819392336542172258.post-15046053510300205592018-10-12T16:00:00.000-07:002018-11-27T06:45:30.908-08:00JRPGs I Played in September 2018<div style="text-align: center;">
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When thinking about my JRPG time before and after September ended, one thing was always for sure: I was going to play Dragon Quest XI. And thankfully I did, with a majority of my playtime for September being dedicated to it, although I did find a little time to try a couple of other things, such as the DLC for the ever addictive Xenoblade Chronicles 2. While it’s a shorter JRPGs I Played addition, September wasn’t lacking in gameplay time since I found myself taking time to appreciate detail in the well thought-out world’s I played through that really made me love everything I played. So in a true month of quality over quantity in my JRPG time, here are the JRPGs I Played in September.<br />
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<b><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">JRPG of the Month: Dragon Quest XI</span></b></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAGx7-UeWTZCWNZDUlVDFCc5jwEvtiX27RomyEwrYjr2XD2DvUCpp2tbNHkkVIP66N8Y9mOzlf_qi2-WtcJ8UBHliBXMc2gneLGNFz3p1O1Vmi-mCx-jM8MBYVy96lfeppIqVhHIzM24gc/s1600/DQXIPep1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAGx7-UeWTZCWNZDUlVDFCc5jwEvtiX27RomyEwrYjr2XD2DvUCpp2tbNHkkVIP66N8Y9mOzlf_qi2-WtcJ8UBHliBXMc2gneLGNFz3p1O1Vmi-mCx-jM8MBYVy96lfeppIqVhHIzM24gc/s640/DQXIPep1.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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In September, I was finally able to complete my goal of playing a Dragon Quest game and I’m happy I was finally able to do it with <a href="https://www.jrpgjungle.com/2018/09/review-dragon-quest-xi.html" target="_blank">Dragon Quest XI</a>. I had a feeling Dragon Quest XI would be a good one to start with thanks to its more modern visual style and while the visuals style helped in making it more accessible, there were plenty of things to love about it overall. The detail in its world was what struck me the most - I love the amount of small things that made me want to stop and appreciate them, such as <a href="https://www.jrpgjungle.com/2018/09/interesting-subtle-details-of-dqxi-world.html" target="_blank">Erik being left-handed,</a> the little ghost guy and its equipment crafting system, making me hope that a lot of the series overall charm comes from details like this because it would definitely make me want to play more of the series. I still have the rest of the post game left to do that I’d like to do sometime soon to see what happens, so the next time I think of Dragon Quest I will have to decide whether I want to continue with Dragon Quest XI’s post game or <a href="https://www.jrpgjungle.com/2018/08/six-dragon-quest-games-i-want-to-try.html" target="_blank">start one of the older games</a> in the series, but either way I’m very glad I tried the series and look forward to diving more into it sometime.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Torna, the Golden Country</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">(Xenoblade Chronicles 2)</span></b></div>
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I knew there was a good chance I’d like <a href="https://www.jrpgjungle.com/2018/10/review-torna-golden-country-xc2.html" target="_blank">Torna, the Golden Country</a> since I enjoyed Xenoblade Chronicles 2 so much, but I really didn’t expect to love it as much as I do. I probably should’ve known since many of the reasons I love it so much are the same reasons I enjoyed the original game - on top of a great and interesting story, there is so much to do in it and with plenty of story and world development in some of its side activities like its quests, I’m itching to get back to it already.<br />
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At the size of a <a href="https://www.jrpgjungle.com/2017/10/review-blue-reflection.html" target="_blank">smaller JRPG at around 20 hours long</a>, it tells its story in a length of time that goes into the detail it needs to without overstaying its welcome and knowing all this new backstory about Alrest in more detail has made me really want to go back and play <a href="https://www.jrpgjungle.com/2018/02/review-xenoblade-chronicles-2.html" target="_blank">Xenoblade Chronicles 2</a> in its entirety again with this all of this in mind and my new opinions on some of its characters. Until I do that, my physical copy of Torna, the Golden Country in Japanese arrived so I can play it more as I study the Japanese in it and with a large amount of things to do in it, but relatively less than what I have left to do in its full game I feel less overwhelmed, so I’m looking forward to indulging my completionist tendencies with this DLC again at least a few times in October.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Persona 2</span></b></div>
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By the time I finished Torna and Dragon Quest XI, there were only two days left in September leaving me with not much time to really dive into something. I had planned to try Dragalia Lost on smartphone, but couldn’t download it in time for work one morning after having to clear space on my phone, so I picked up my trusty Vita instead and spent some time with Persona 2. I was only able to spend a day with it and found myself mostly in its Velvet Room making Personas for my next dungeon crawl, and although I didn’t get around to the crawl itself I did enjoy myself. I was finally able to remove some Personas under level 10 from my roster and add in some ones I’ve <a href="https://www.jrpgjungle.com/2018/06/review-persona-5-dancing-in-starlight.html" target="_blank">met in other games in the series</a>, such as the adorable Jack Frost. I’ve still got a lot things to do in Persona 2 with a few dungeons still waiting for me, so I hope I’m able to get more time into it in October.<br />
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<b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">October JRPG Plans</span></u></b></div>
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Speaking of October, there were two definitive editions of games I wanted to play this month in the form of Disgaea 1 Compete and The World Ends With You Final Remix, with both of them coming to Switch and being released in the same week. While <a href="https://www.jrpgjungle.com/2016/06/5-tactical-jrpgs-id-like-to-try.html" target="_blank">I’ve always wanted to try the Disgaea series</a>, I’ve also really wanted to try The World Ends With You that little bit more and I love the look of its art style and the idea of its themes in its trailers, so I think I’ll play it in October to see what it is as I don’t think I’ve played anything like it.<br />
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Aside from The World Ends With You and hopefully putting time into Persona 2, I also hope to get <a href="https://www.jrpgjungle.com/2018/05/7-smartphone-jrpgs-i-wish-i-had-time-to-play.html" target="_blank">some time with smartphone games</a> like Persona O.A. to see how it’s changed since the last time I played it, and also Dragalia Lost to see what it is as a few of you guys have recommended it to me. Despite October being a quieter month for JRPGs, my month doesn’t feel quiet at all and I’m curious to see which of these portable JRPGs will give me the most fun in October.<br />
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<b>What did you play in September? What are your JRPG plans for October?</b></div>
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JRPG Junglehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16208032067849769634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5819392336542172258.post-15688474180590927282018-10-05T15:00:00.000-07:002018-10-05T15:00:02.546-07:00Review: Torna, the Golden Country - Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (Nintendo Switch, DLC/Standalone)<div style="text-align: center;">
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Whether you want to think of it as DLC or as a standalone game, Torna, the Golden Country captures some of the best parts of Xenoblade Chronicles 2 in a small, but still content packed form. Its prequel story to Xenoblade Chronicles 2 serves well as both as something that gives more insight into the world and history of it, but also as its own complete story, featuring its own new characters alongside ones that had development that helps me properly understand them as characters. Beyond that, Torna, the Golden Country also boasts the great quests and blade development systems that made the original game so addictive and the way some of these quests tie into the story and character development made doing them feel very rewarding and the world richer for it. As an expansion on an already great world, Torna, the Golden Country feels like more than just DLC with its 20 hour story campaign and with plenty left to do after, it’s a perfect addition to enrich Xenoblade Chronicles 2’s world while standing more than well enough on its own.<br />
<a name='more'></a>Torna, the Golden Country is set 500 years in the past of <a href="http://www.jrpgjungle.com/2018/02/review-xenoblade-chronicles-2.html" target="_blank">Xenoblade Chronicles 2’s</a> story in the same world of Alrest, but one that is different enough thanks to the time difference. Instead of following the story of Rex and Pyra, we’re greeted with new protagonists in the form of Lora, a driver and mercenary, and her blade Jin, who many may recognise from Xenoblade Chronicles 2. Despite having many characters we know from Xenoblade Chronicles 2 such as Mythra, Torna, the Golden Country elaborates on the story of the Aegis War, an event mentioned in Xenoblade Chronicles 2 that involves protecting Torna from Malos, an antagonist from the original game, but this time explored much more deeply to show the effects this event had on the characters and world in both the DLC and the main game.<br />
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The <a href="http://www.jrpgjungle.com/2018/01/dlc-review-episode-ignis.html" target="_blank">story DLC</a> is about 20 hours long and tells its story well through a mix of main story events like in Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and also its side quests. The first portion of the story plays out much like in the original game by using main quests, with the story itself adding a bunch of history and lore to the Xenoblade Chronicles 2 world while also giving insight into characters we don’t know so well such as Lora and Addam, along with a deeper look into the other characters that play a darker or different kind of characters in Xenoblade Chronicles 2. The second part of Torna’s story plays out a little differently by requiring the use of side quests to continue, which tell the story in a different way through smaller bits of character development in each quest developing the main cast, and also the world and people living in Torna. The mix of bigger plot development coupled with the smaller quest based ones mixed in in the second is something I’d usually think would slow down pacing and the momentum, but instead helped to create a connection to the characters and world of Torna that made the ending of its campaign much more impactful and although its story flow was different to what I was prepared for, it really gave that feeling of connection by the end of it.<br />
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Aside from the main story quests, the smaller quests in Torna, the Golden Country all link to the new Community system, a system that gives you a rank based on how many people you help through quests in its city. The ranking is mostly for fun, although unlike the optional nature of quests in Xenoblade Chronicles 2, you’ll need to rank up a few times for some main story quests to be able to continue. I found this interesting as it strays a little from the feeling of freedom in the original game, but as I said, these end up giving an amount of character development that helps the story be more impactful, so I can understand why the quests are like this, but I’m sure at first glance this might be hit or miss for people who like to save quests until the end. I usually prefer my quests to be optional, but I think this DLC managed to have a balance of decent amount that let me get to know its characters well and stopped short of making me sick of doing them and thanks to the amusing character development featured in the story, it still had the Xenoblade Chronicles 2 effect of making me want to go back and play with more of them after completing its main story.<br />
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As for the story content itself, I was impressed with how this DLC flipped my perspective on certain characters such as Mythra and Jin who I didn’t really care that much for in Xenoblade Chronicles 2, but was able to understand and genuinely like much more through the quests and scenes of Torna, the Golden Country. I also like how the story explored this important chapter of Xenoblade Chronicles 2’s history in much more detail; it shows enough to give insight needed into this Aegis War that makes certain things in Xenoblade Chronicles 2 make much more sense, but since it’s so far back in Alrest’s past, it seems like it could also be accessible to the newcomers to the Xenoblade Chronicles 2 world who may want to try Torna, the Golden Country to see if the style of story-telling and gameplay. Since I haven’t played the full story of Xenoblade Chronicles 2 in a while I’m not sure if it’s totally spoiler-free, but if you don’t mind hearing about story lore before you play the full game, Torna, the Golden Country is fine to play by itself in my opinion and for those who have already played Xenoblade Chronicles 2, it only enriches the world more.<br />
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Many of the core mechanics of Xenoblade Chronicles 2 are present and at their best in Torna, the Golden Country on top of some interesting new ones. There are new Blade Affinity Charts that have me tempted to complete them, there are many quests to find both in and out of the story, secret areas hidden on its map waiting to be found and an updated version of its crafting mechanics. The new camping and updated crafting mechanics I found particularly fun since I like finding recipes in JRPGs. Crafting is done at camps where you can also chat to get even more insight into the personalities of your party members somewhat like Heart-to-Hearts from the original game, along with leveling up like you would do at inns. The crafting mechanic resembles the cooking one, but with more item creation options - some characters can cook, but other characters like Lora can make charms among the other crafts shown in its cute icons, with all of the crafting methods matching each characters personality. These serve mostly as Pouch items for characters, but there were also a few items that would unlock new collection points as well, so if you get caught up in the item collection and completionist aspects of Xenoblade Chronicles 2 like I do, you may find yourself spending a lot of time finding these recipes. A lot of these recipes are found in community events that tie the new mechanics together well, with fun moments like doing a quest involving collecting fish and then having one of the characters come up with a fish-related recipe being a nice little touch to enjoy while exploring the new and updated places in its world.<br />
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Along with adding new mechanics and areas, Torna, the Golden Country also takes the time to update and refine its core ones. If you enjoyed Xenoblade Chronicles 2’s combat system, the streamlined version of Blade Combos and being able to control blades up front act as small but good additions to clean up combat and make it more enjoyable. Rather than the UI showing your combo options in the top right corner, it instead lets you figure out your options by using the attack names when choosing elements, which makes things a little easier to keep track of everything all at once. On top of that, being able to switch from Blade to Driver Swiftly adds a welcome new piece strategy into the mix considering the auto-attacking nature of the combat system in general. Being able to switch who’s on the frontline meant keeping an eye on HP more to get the most out of each character while keeping everyone alive, along with making finding the right element for elemental attacks more involved. With these small but impactful changes, the combat is easy to pick up if you’ve already played Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and with quick tutorials that get you into the fully developed combat system much quicker than the original game, it’s also more accessible in general in this entry.<br />
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Since it has a mix of its original mechanics and new ones, Torna, the Golden Country’s playtime features the same insane amount of replayability that Xenoblade Chronicles 2 does and I’m sure I’ll be playing it will beyond its original 20 hours since I want to get to know its enjoyable group of characters as much as possible. There are at least over 50 side quests to do for the Community mechanic and while you do a majority of these as part of the main story, I still haven’t found everyone I can make join my Community circle. On top of all these quests, I’m sure I have more unique monsters and secret areas to find, charts to complete and recipes to collect, with these making me think Torna, the Golden Country really captured the essence of its full source material as I have the same feeling of wanting to go back and do everything. And with beautiful visuals in its cutscenes, great music old and new and an activity-filled world to explore, as DLC Torna, the Golden Country is about as generous and high quality as it gets and I think will be satisfying to fans old and new in this content rich experience.<br />
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For those like me who enjoyed Xenoblade Chronicles 2 for both its story and extra activities, Torna, the Golden Country is a real treat. It did a great job in telling this story that shaped Xenoblade Chronicles 2 through its scenes and quests that made the experience one I felt emotionally invested in by the end thanks to the character development they feature. And I’m pleased to say I’m <a href="http://www.jrpgjungle.com/2018/04/4-reasons-xenoblade-chronicles-2-is-addictive.html" target="_blank">just as addicted to</a> Torna, the Golden Country as I was to the original Xenoblade Chronicles 2 game. I’ve ordered a physical copy of the DLC in Japanese so I can use language study as an excuse to play more and I’m so ready to dive into the deeper, time consuming parts of blade development, finding crafting recipes and getting to know its characters even more now that they’ve grown on me in this experience. In short, Torna, the Golden Country is a great example of how good content rich DLC expansions can be and I’m sure I’ll be playing in its fun world of things to do and characters to get to know again very, very soon.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Score: 9.7/10</span></b><br />
<i>Now let's try get this hour count the same as my Xenoblade Chronicles 2 one.</i><br />
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<b><a href="https://amzn.to/2y2ZzwH" target="_blank">You can pick up Torna, the Golden Country as a standalone* on Amazon!</a></b></div>
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*If you already have Xenoblade Chronicles 2, you can get Torna, the Golden Country digitally in the Nintendo E-Shop as part of the Season Pass</div>
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JRPG Junglehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16208032067849769634noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5819392336542172258.post-2655732634352936972018-09-28T15:00:00.000-07:002018-09-28T15:00:05.739-07:00Review: Dragon Quest XI (Played on PS4, also on PC)<div style="text-align: center;">
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Dragon Quest XI has a lot of what makes a JRPG a great one. It has a big story journey with captivating moments of accomplishment and struggle, a refined battle system that takes the best part of classic JRPG ones, great character designs in both art style and personality, and a meaty playtime that can easily go beyond 100 hours if allowed to. All of these things are placed in an unfolding world full of plenty of things to find and discover in its journey that create a big difference between everything you can do at the start and end it, and with noticeable story arcs reflected in the world mixed with the humour and charm the series is known for, it really did feel like I’d been on an epic quest by the end of it. As my first step into the Dragon Quest series, I’m pleased to say I was charmed by its story and characters as I had hoped to be and I was also pleasantly surprised how its unfolding mechanics and story made each hour in its world feel meaningful and fun with how well it showed off its polished traditional JRPG mechanics in a modern JRPG world.<br />
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Dragon Quest XI follows the story of an adopted boy raised in Cobblestone who possesses a unique mark on his hand. This mark signifies that is is a reincarnation of a hero of past, known as the legendary Luminary said to have saved the world previously, which he finds out on the day he comes of age after his powers surface when he protects his childhood friend. With that knowledge and a special necklace he’s given that day, he sets out to the city of Heliodor to tell the king to find out more about his destiny, but is treated as if he is evil, quickly branded as The Dark One and sent to the dungeons instead. With a rough start, he carries on to find his destiny and his journey of making allies, discovering his powers and proving himself as the saviour of the world begins from there, with many struggles that lead to great triumphs and losses as well on the way keeping the story engaging throughout.<br />
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This is a very basic summary of the start of the story and it’s interesting summing it up like this as the story grows well beyond the protagonists humble beginnings. With my main story playthrough spanning around 80 hours, these hours were full of plenty of development in characters and world, clear story arcs and changes that make that beginning feel far away by the end of it. The pacing of the story is a little on the slow side, but I didn’t mind as I found the pacing to feeling almost like episodes of an anime in a way, complete with a mid-story arc. There were moments of the story that took the time to look into the game’s very different characters, like the mage sisters from Arboria the kind Serena and witty Veronica or the colourful circus performer Sylvando, with each having their own episode-like moments to shine in the story, on top of the clear arc halfway through the story that serves as clear change in the world that ripples into the tone of the story and gameplay going forward. This structure of having moments big and small that always added meaning to the plot made Dragon Quest XI’s story a pleasure to experience and I can say that despite having a very typical story premise of a battle of between light and dark, there wasn’t a moment that felt typical or boring in its exciting story journey.<br />
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The Luminary’s story is set in Dragon Quest XI’s world of Erdrea, a world of full of many different regions, monsters and ways to traverse it. The game quickly introduces its turn-based battle system, which will no doubt be easy to pick up for those with <a href="http://www.jrpgjungle.com/2018/08/six-dragon-quest-games-i-want-to-try.html" target="_blank">experience with the Dragon Quest series</a> or turn-based JRPGs in general. After finding enemies on the field, you’re given the options to use physical or magic attacks, along with your typical JRPG stat buffs and ailments, which while it doesn’t bring anything too different to the system, it does deliver it in a smooth, easy to use way with its simple UI and adds a little variety thanks to the challenge given by some of its enemies and boss battles. There is one unique aspect in battles in the form of its Pep System that sees characters that have achieved certain conditions such as taking a lot of damage enter a charged up state that can allow them to team up with the Luminary and other allies to unleash some cool, stylized attacks that break up the regular turn-based system nicely and were fun to watch as I gained more characters. Ultimately, Dragon Quest XI doesn’t reinvent the wheel when it comes to combat, but what it does it does well and with cool-looking animations to add a bit of style, I found the combat enjoyable since I’m generally a fan of turn-based games.<br />
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Although its battles are typical of most turn-based JRPGs, I liked how it gave you a reason to fight certain foes since some can help traverse its big, open fields with certain areas on accessible by using certain steeds. The game gives you a horse fairly early on in the game, but this is just the start of what the protagonist can ride - at different points of the game, you can ride things like jumping robots, skeleton beasts and even flying dragons to help get to different spots in its detailed areas. While you can’t ride all of its foes, I was still finding these late into the second part of the story and was always excited to find a new one. The designs of Dragon Quest XI’s monsters were already cool, but being able to beat them then use them to explore made fighting them feeling much more rewarding and was a great way to add variety into exploring its world.<br />
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These many ways to explore are however only the cherry on top of an already detail-filled world, both in and out of its many cities with a clear amount of thought put into many finer details. There are materials to collect, books to read on shelves and doors locked with mysterious keys and each house visited in its world usually had one or two things in it to make me glad I took a look inside. Whether in quests or hiding in plain sight, <a href="http://www.jrpgjungle.com/2018/09/interesting-subtle-details-of-dqxi-world.html" target="_blank">there are lots of small details that make Dragon Quest XI’s world</a> feel full, but beyond that there were multiple times in the story I thought I’d finally found all the places on the map just to be delighted to get more in the next part of the story. I had some expectation of towns full of charming NPCs and lots of small things to find from what I already knew about the series, but Dragon Quest XI definitely did exceed my expectations of that and the amount of little things I kept finding in my first playthrough makes me absolutely sure there are more things waiting to be found when I come back to it.<br />
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Beyond many things to explore and find, there are also mini-games and other gameplay system to fill the world up even more. From casinos to horse-racing, there’s a good amount of mini-games for those looking for a break from the JRPG aspects of its world for a minute or hours depending on how deep or addicted you get to them. As a more useful one, I found myself pretty into its satisfying equipment forging mechanic that felt like a mini-game, with the use of different forging skills gained based on your characters level and story progress affecting how successful your created or upgraded weapon is and playing with the temperature and hit strength was oddly satisfying to try and get right as I tried to make the equipment recipes I’d found on bookshelves in my journey. Whether you try its mini-games, quests with amusing NPCs or just explore the detailed world, there’s always something to do in and out of the story in Dragon Quest XI and even though I only scratched the surface of these in my 80 hours with it, I can see at least another 50 hours with the game if I decided to platinum it or spend more time going deeper into it.<br />
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Part of what makes Dragon Quest XI really feel like its own world is the wonderful art of Akira Toriyama brought to life in 3D form. I’d seen Toriyama’s style in anime like Dragon Ball Z and love how it looks in a 3D world, with it really creating a consistent visual style that I couldn’t help admire with its great the character and monster designs. While the visuals serve as a great upgrade to Dragon Quest’s past visuals, I had a small concern before I played Dragon Quest XI about the music for this entry, considering it doesn’t have an orchestrated soundtrack which is generally standard in JRPGs these days. During my first few hours with Dragon Quest XI, the midi soundtrack honestly did stick out a little for the wrong reasons, with the midi making the corny moments of its tracks really obvious at times. But if it’s something you’re also worried about, I do want to stress that I did get used to a few hours later and it didn’t diminish the great parts of the game once I got used the seeing and hearing the audio and visuals together and it kind of gave its own audio and visual quality that is very distinct so it definitely grew on me by the end of it. While I would prefer an orchestrated soundtrack in the next entry because it did make me like it enough to play the next one, Dragon Quest XI is a good enough game for me to forget about this for the most part and should by no means be a reason to pass on everything else done so well in this great JRPG experience.<br />
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With a world full of plenty of thought from how to explore its world to the way its story unfolds and ripples throughout, Dragon Quest XI is a detailed and fun world to explore whether its your first time or not. I loved the way its world grew mechanically and visually as its story progressed and that each of its story moments always added something to its growing world, whether it be with new detailed areas to explore or giving me new things to use in my journey. While I’ll be moving onto other experiences after it, I love that I’m walking away from Dragon Quest XI feeling like I really went through a journey seeing everything in it grow and change, with all the turn-based mechanics and world-building aspects making it feel like a pleasure to explore and leaving plenty left to discover. If you’re looking for a classic-inspired JRPG with the smoothness of a new one, Dragon Quest XI is one I definitely recommend and have a feeling will be up there when looking back on the JRPGs of this year.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Score: 9.2/10</span></b><br />
<i>From dominant hands to jumping robots, Dragon Quest XI's detail world is one I'm sure I'll be back to find even more about sometime!</i><br />
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JRPG Junglehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16208032067849769634noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5819392336542172258.post-68461297960197996462018-09-21T15:00:00.000-07:002018-09-21T15:00:00.847-07:00The Interesting Subtle Details of Dragon Quest XI (Erik is Left-Handed?!)<div style="text-align: center;">
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On a Monday morning, I was playing Dragon Quest XI and scrolling through Erik’s weapons to switch from Boomerang to Sword when something finally dawned on me after 26 hours of playing. You see, usually when I do this weapon switch with a character like Sylvando it also involves putting a shield back after using a two handed weapon, so I’m in the habit of checking the other non-dominant hand is equipped with what it needs to be regardless of what kind of weapon I’m switching. For Erik, this usually involves me being told I don’t have anything to put in his right hand even though I have a few spare shields, which made me realise something. His character holds his dagger on the left and he can’t hold the shields that the other right handed characters can hold in their left. It was then I had the realisation that the Dragon Quest team probably make a conscious decision to impact gameplay with Erik because he is left-handed, a tidbit I found pretty amusing.<br />
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There seems to be enough evidence to support that Erik is left-handed, despite the fact I couldn’t find anything directly confirming it. When you equip a dagger, it clearly says its going into his left hand and when the game tells me I can’t give him a shield, it tells me I have nothing to put in his right and although he can get abilities that involve using both of his hands later, his left hand usually deals more than his right from what I’ve seen. Whether or not there’s a reason he can’t equip a shield is something I wonder about, such as if it’s because he’s a thief or otherwise, but overall discovering and being overly amused by this little fact made me realise how much I love the subtlety of many little things in Dragon Quest XI.<br />
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It might not be a useful fact and I’m not even left-handed myself so I’m not sure why this was the fact that made me appreciate the detailed world so much, but I do think it’s a good example of the thought and love put into making Dragon Quest XI and I’ve only come to find more little things like that as I continue my journey. While looking for books I could read on the shelves in random houses, I found there are also clothes in the closet to pick up, and while charging through fields while using the horse, I noticed you can not only speedily bash down small enemies in front of you, but that the game is also smart enough to know that a horse probably can’t speed charge into big, strong enemies like dragons or ones stronger than your party and expect to get away safely. This isn’t to mention that most of the NPCs in the world all have something interesting to say - whether it’s commenting on the story content or telling you about their interesting little lives, the NPCs might look similar, but each feels memorable and like they have their own personality. Partnered with already <a href="http://www.jrpgjungle.com/2017/01/jrpgap-discovery-in-final-fantasy-xv-open-world.html" target="_blank">deep world-building</a> aspects such as weather, day and night cycles and the distinct visual styles of each area, Dragon Quest XI’s world has many small touches that make it feel like a deep world.<br />
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And with my recent discovery of Erik’s dominant hand, I’m wondering how the world will give me more things to be awestruck about as I continue my journey in it. I’m about 30 hours in as I make this and I’m still finding more things sprinkled around the world that make me curious. Being able to look at books on the shelves was only a recent discovery in my journey, I keep seeing this cute little ghost guy running around things like treasure that is yet to be explained and I’m sure more cool things will pop up as I continue my journey since it only just told me how I can use the medals I’ve been finding since a few hours into my journey. All in all, I love how much thought seems to have been put into the little details of Dragon Quest XI and I love how not all of them need to be explained; they’re just little touches that make the world feel deeper. I’m excited to keep playing through <a href="http://www.jrpgjungle.com/2018/04/4-reasons-xenoblade-chronicles-2-is-addictive.html" target="_blank">its fun world</a> and as I do, I wonder what little surprises it will show me next.<br />
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<b>You can pick up <a href="https://amzn.to/2QKrKsf" target="_blank">Dragon Quest XI on Amazon!</a></b></div>
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<b>Are you enjoying Dragon Quest XI? Did you know that Erik was left-handed?</b></div>
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JRPG Junglehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16208032067849769634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5819392336542172258.post-66749265575245450042018-09-14T15:00:00.000-07:002018-09-14T15:00:02.477-07:00The Crazy Concepts of Zanki Zero<div style="text-align: center;">
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If you’re like me and have played the killing game visual novel that is Danganronpa, you could be forgiven for expecting the same kind of death-filled thriller from Zanki Zero. While Zanki Zero does carries similar ideas in its own way, it also brings in its own set of outlandish ideas that set itself apart from the Danganronpa team’s previous work as a unique game of its own. In a post-apocalyptic world that touches on immortality and cloning tied together with characters representing the seven deadly sins and a new duo of quirky mascots, the concepts introduced in its Japanese demo got me very excited for when it comes out thanks to how it took the concepts I loved from Danganronpa and turned them upside-down to make what looks like a new story like nothing I’ve played before.<br />
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The way Zanki Zero introduces its concepts starts with the story messing with our perception of how death actually works. The story begins with the shocking moment of a character jumping off a building, but what’s shocking about it isn’t just the fact someone is jumping off a building, rather that the result we expect never comes. Rather, the character awakens on Garage Island, alive and seemingly well, with something instantly amiss in the story. <a href="http://www.jrpgjungle.com/2015/12/review-danganronpa-2-goodbye-despair.html" target="_blank">Like the masterful way Danganronpa unfolds</a>, through these twists and turns Zanki Zero reveals its premise: the world full of buildings like the one our starting character jumps off has been destroyed and this Garage Island is inhabited by the eight remaining survivors of humanity.<br />
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This idea alone was enough have me surprised, but then through a few more surprising moments, it reveals the second part of its premise: these eight survivors are clones and on top of that, can have their lives extended when they die. It turns out their bodies have a 13-day lifespan in which they experience their lives as children, adults, middle-aged adults and finally as an elderly person and after they die, they can be reborn using a machine called the Extend Machine to essentially give themselves a ‘1-up’ in life (game’s words, not mine), with their memories all in tact. As a story concept, the idea is unique enough by itself, but what makes things even better is the concept of extending life through a machine is one of the main game mechanics in Zanki Zero.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEMEGNzrosYjBaqxcLRTNidEX2hjANIAb1IB-0NpS8R9nD5-SwUmxX69y4h4_BW8hFQKggwX7uzlVGojZh7buqh8x65NRWCeN0Dptufteyqy60VIIOC3qhJwYJEe3_y1Jd66q-C2Z0r0vk/s1600/ZankiZeroCombo1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="899" data-original-width="1600" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEMEGNzrosYjBaqxcLRTNidEX2hjANIAb1IB-0NpS8R9nD5-SwUmxX69y4h4_BW8hFQKggwX7uzlVGojZh7buqh8x65NRWCeN0Dptufteyqy60VIIOC3qhJwYJEe3_y1Jd66q-C2Z0r0vk/s640/ZankiZeroCombo1.png" width="640" /></a></div>
While there are plenty of big, long story sequences that give a nod to the visual novel-style gameplay we already know from the Danganronpa team, Zanki Zero is actually an RPG with its own action combat and skill mechanics and these mechanics link to the clone’s life cycle into a few different ways. As you travel through dungeons to gain materials and complete missions to help survive in its post-apocalyptic world, each floor you explore uses up one in-game day of time once you hit the next one, consequently aging your clone a day older. Depending on the age, this can mean your character physically age, with your characters able to move and fight differently depending on if a character has the body of a child or that an elderly person. For example, a child’s body is physically weaker, but has the benefit of being able to fit into small spaces, whereas elderly bodies are also physically weak, but know how to charge attacks quicker. All of this has the fun, extra benefit of being able to see what each character looks like at these ages and being able to see what these characters looked like while also learning how they played made it interesting to get to know each body type.<br />
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While I wasn’t able to explore the size mechanic deeply in the demo I played, the team said in a Zanki Zero panel that there are places that only characters of child size will be able to explore, meaning you’ll need to have very young clones to be able to explore them and possibly need to shamelessly kill off some of your older characters to rebirth them as children, which the game happily presents in its rebirthing system in the form of its Extend Machine. Zanki Zero’s Extend Machine also has another system for using death positively in the form of its Shigabane system. The Shigabane system gives benefits to a character’s next body based on how they die, with ways to die including from old age, eating a food they’re allergic to or from getting killed by a monster, with the game proudly proclaiming there are over 100 ways to die in it. The type of Shigabane benefit given is usually a resistance or buff based on the way they died, with an example given at the Zanki Zero panel being if a character dies from being poisoned, they’ll have a better resistance to poison in their next incarnation.<br />
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I got to see a little of this mechanic in action towards the end of <a href="http://www.jrpgjungle.com/2018/09/jrpgs-i-played-in-august-2018.html" target="_blank">my time with Zanki Zero’s Japanese demo</a> - after playing its generous eight hours, I decided to keep exploring to see just what would happen if I let one of the clones die to extend its life. I went one floor too high, which made my older party member Minamo become 14 days old and being one day beyond her 13-day life span, she consequently became “dead”. When I reached the Extend Machine, Minamo had gained two Shigabane - one a general stat boost for dying of old age and since she died in elderly form, the other was an extension to the middle-aged portion of her life to give her more time in a stronger form. Despite that fact that I’ll have to have her in child form for a few days before I can gain the full benefits of these Shigabane, her temporary death ultimately made her more useful. So in a bizarre fashion, rather than making me sad, Minamo’s death makes her a better party member and feeling this way about a character dying is definitely something unique that I can’t recall from any games I’ve played recently.<br />
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As a final note, I also find it interesting <a href="http://www.jrpgjungle.com/2017/11/review-despair-dungeon-monokumas-test.html" target="_blank">as a big fan of Danganronpa</a> that this is the game they chose to make after Danganronpa. The potential death of characters was something constantly looming in each chapter of Danganronpa as something emotional and fearful, ultimately as something I hoped wouldn’t happen. Meanwhile death of characters in Zanki Zero is also constantly looming and inevitable as clone lifespans are only 13 days long, but the life expansion mechanics removes the fear and makes it a good thing. The death of characters means getting stronger with your next Shigabane and with certain areas being accessible to certain clone body types, it’s basically an essential part of the gameplay in a way that I can see making it shamelessly necessary to kill these characters at many different times in the story. Zanki Zero sees Danganronpa’s team turn death into its own mechanic and with the twists and turns in its story and world partnered with the dark humour surrounding this concept and world in a way I’ve come to expect from the games this team create, Danganronpa’s team have somehow managed to turn something I used to fear in their games into something I’m really oddly excited to play around with.<br />
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I knew there was a good chance I’d like Zanki Zero because it was by the Danganronpa team, but the life-extension concept, its world and the way it ties into game mechanics have made it one of my anticipated games for next year so far. From what I saw in its Japanese demo, these concepts are combined with exploring its interesting characters stories and despite how often I’ll probably watch them die, I’m looking forward to learning more about them, their world and how they’ll tie in with its ideas. While Zanki Zero is a long way off, I’m glad this unique game with intriguing concepts is coming to the West next year and whether it’s through a demo, more trailers or otherwise, I hope other people come to enjoy what looks to be a fascinating new IP.<br />
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JRPG Junglehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16208032067849769634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5819392336542172258.post-10217112007125492472018-09-07T15:00:00.000-07:002018-09-07T15:00:02.017-07:00JRPGs I Played in August 2018<div style="text-align: center;">
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As expected, August was a pretty free month for JRPGs. I didn’t pick up any new releases, although I did manage to find the time to try newer experiences in demo form and left each one feeling fairly positive. I also kept true on my promise of playing Persona 2, found a new IP I’m super excited to learn more about and rearranged my gaming time a little to help me enjoy JRPGs even more and as much as possible going forward. While August wasn’t full of releases, I had no shortage of things to play in my JRPG time, so here are all the JRPGs I played in August.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">JRPG of the Month: Zanki Zero (JP Demo)</span></b></div>
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I walked into Zanki Zero knowing nothing more than that it was done by the team <a href="http://www.jrpgjungle.com/2017/11/review-despair-dungeon-monokumas-test.html" target="_blank">who made one of my favourite games Danganronpa</a>, so when I found myself infatuated with its story and its incredibly unique mechanics, I was pretty surprised. Since I had no background on what the story would become, I slowly found myself in Zanki Zero’s story of clones, constant death and rebirth and the stories of its sinful characters that continued to fascinate me throughout its generous eight hour demo. What surprised me and interested me most was the way the team has turned death, which there was a lot of in Danganronpa, into something bordering on positive and with this interesting take on a theme from this teams other series and the rest of its unique premise and the way it explores its characters left as the game I was most excited about during the month.<br />
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I was actually so excited about Zanki Zero that I couldn’t wait to write about it for a video about it which will be coming sometime soon, but it felt good to write about this game because I’m so excited to see what will happen in its interesting world. So while it’s not coming out until next year and it doesn’t have a demo in English yet, this unique story is something its demo made me feel most excited about and I can’t wait to talk more about it soon.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Valkyria Chronicles 4 (Demo)</span></b></div>
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I was lucky enough to finish Octopath Traveler right around the <a href="http://www.jrpgjungle.com/2018/08/first-impressions-valkyria-chronicles-4.html" target="_blank">Valkyria Chronicles 4 demo</a> released and since I haven’t tried a Valkyria Chronicles game at all yet, it was good to try the few hours of this one. With its more active take on tactical combat, I was very impressed with its battle system and how it blended the two styles. I always thought this kind of blend would end up feeling easy like active combat sometimes can, but I found myself making more strategic decisions instead like trying to avoid things like sudden cannon shots or making a wrong move and really liked it how the activeness kind of became what needed strategy. I don’t know if I’ll play Valkyria Chronicles 4 right away when it comes out because next month is a busy month, but I hope that it’s as good as its demo made it look, because with its story and its gameplay so far, it looks like a really good game.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Yakuza Kiwami 2 (Demo)</span></b></div>
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<a href="http://www.jrpgjungle.com/2018/05/review-yakuza-6.html" target="_blank">Since I loved Yakuza 6 so much</a> that it made me want to go back and play the other games in the series in order, I decided that despite wanting to start from Yakuza 0, I’d at least allow myself <a href="http://www.jrpgjungle.com/2018/08/first-impressions-yakuza-kiwami-2.html" target="_blank">to play Kiwami 2’s demo</a>. I’m glad I did, as seeing another world with the fun mini-games and atmosphere that I liked from 6 was a good motivator to go more into the series. On top of that, the demo’s story portion managed to show one of the villains in the story in a way that made the story look exciting but also didn’t spoil too much of its previous games or the rest of Yakuza Kiwami 2, which I really appreciated since I haven’t gone back to the other games in its series yet. I hope people had fun with the full game in August and while I probably won’t be playing it until after I play Yakuza 0 and Kiwami, it did its job of making me even more interested in the Yakuza series.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Octopath Traveler</span></b></div>
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With the extra time I gave myself with Octopath Traveler in August, I managed to beat the endings of all the characters in my party and then the remaining four, which was a challenging but very rewarding experience. I had fun fighting their final bosses and while a few definitely took me more than one try, I also enjoyed checking out dungeons hidden around the map as well to help me out and I’m pretty sure there are even more I can still find post-game. <a href="http://www.jrpgjungle.com/2018/08/review-octopath-traveler.html" target="_blank">I really enjoyed Octopath Traveler</a> and definitely thinks it adds something unique to the JRPG library on Nintendo Switch and while I haven’t picked it up since I finished it and made my review, I really would love to go back and fight its secret boss and collect its extra classes sometime and with so much to do, it really captures the spirit of old-school and modern JRPGs in its own way.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Record of Grancrest War</span></b></div>
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With interesting art and promise of strategy gameplay, Record of Grancrest War was a tactical JRPG I was curious about mostly because of its art style. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to find out too much about its story due to its more difficult Japanese, but I was able to sample some of its tactical gameplay which did look interesting. Instead of dragging individual characters across the field, it was dragging an individual and a group to then fight together and while I never totally got the hang of it (because again - language barrier) it did look like a potentially deep tactical system that I’d like to know more about.<br />
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I think since I couldn’t understand its finer details, I wasn’t really able to get properly excited for it, but it does sound kinda interesting after researching the game a little. It was originally a light novel and tabletop gaming series, along with an anime and while I’ve never seen or tried those, a JRPG-inspired by a tabletop game isn’t something you see all the time. I don’t know if Record of Grancrest will get localised, but if it does, I’d be interested in learning a little more about it.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Persona 2</span></b></div>
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I said last month I wanted to put a few days to a week into Persona 2 in August and while I definitely didn’t put a whole week into Persona 2, I did put a bit of time into it and feel better for it. I actually spent a lot of August making content for this month that will be coming soon and reorganising my JRPG time to help me enjoy the extra JRPGs I play like Persona 2. I’d been doing this thing where I forced myself not to play games that weren’t JRPGs for awhile because I wanted to keep up with everything coming out and while this meant I was able to play a lot between reviews, it did affect my enjoyment of certain titles like Persona 2 because I felt a little like I was forcing myself to play at times.<br />
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In August since I had some time off my day job, I tried not to do that anymore and still of my own volition played extra titles like Zanki Zero and the English demos I played. I also found myself picking up Persona 2 by choice and not because I’d set that August goal for myself and my time with it in August is the most enjoyable time I’ve had with it for awhile, not to say I wasn’t enjoying it other months but August felt a lot better. I found myself remembering the reasons I picked it up and appreciating little parts of it such as going to a Chiropractor to get healed and raising and summoning new Personas with all the tarot cards I’ve had just sitting in my inventory because I wasn’t spending enough time with the game to remember I had them. I did also make progress in it too - I got out of the dungeon I was stuck in into a new part of the game I can’t show because of spoilers, but I think thanks to making my gaming time more free I’m able to both play and enjoy Persona 2 more and I hope this mindset helps take me to the end of the game.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;"><u>September JRPG Plans</u></span></b></div>
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Even with Code Vein delayed and out of the way, September is still a big month for JRPGs and video games in general. The big ones I’m most interested in are Dragon Quest XI, Valkyria Chronicles 4 and the Xenoblade Chronicles 2 Torna DLC, all of which I’m hyped for, but I know completing them all, even if I really try, might be a bit of a stretch for one month. The one I’m most hyped for is Dragon Quest XI and it’s something I plan to pick up day one. <a href="http://www.jrpgjungle.com/2018/06/e3-2018-favourites.html" target="_blank">Ever since E3 this year</a>, I started to get curious about it and the series as a whole since I’ve never tried it, so I’m excited to make Dragon Quest XI my first look <a href="http://www.jrpgjungle.com/2018/08/six-dragon-quest-games-i-want-to-try.html" target="_blank">into the Dragon Quest series</a> and while I’ve been avoiding reviews about it, the positive reception I have seen about it gives me a feeling it’s going to be a lot of fun.<br />
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As for Xenoblade Chronicles 2’s DLC and Valkyria Chronicles 4, I will probably end up settling on the Torna DLC at this rate. I think the price isn’t too bad for how much game will likely be in it and I haven’t touched Xenoblade Chronicles 2 for a good few months now since I’ve been busy playing other things, so I wouldn’t mind getting back into its world full of many things to do again. I do also really like the look of Valkyria Chronicles 4, but I have the first game of the series sitting in my backlog and was hoping to play that after Persona 2. I may pick it up sometime because it looks good and I really enjoyed its demo, it just might not be this month. With a jam-packed month of JRPGs and video games, I’m excited to see which games shine most and am looking forward to playing some new JRPG experiences that look really good in what looks like a fun September of playing games.<br />
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<b>What did you play in August? What are your JRPG plans for September?</b></div>
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JRPG Junglehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16208032067849769634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5819392336542172258.post-62417034944717056772018-08-31T15:00:00.000-07:002018-08-31T15:00:00.534-07:00Six Dragon Quest Games I Want To Try<div style="text-align: center;">
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Somehow, I’ve been writing and talking about JRPGs on the internet for a few years and I’ve still never played a Dragon Quest game. This might be because one of the first JRPGs I fell in love with in high school was Final Fantasy X since Final Fantasy is much more popular in Australia and since Final Fantasy X is a more of a modern-looking RPG, it definitely influenced the kind of aesthetics I like in JRPGs. Despite being a big fan of what some consider to be its rival series, Dragon Quest seemed interesting the first time I heard of it. Akira Toriyama’s art looks great in it which makes its aesthetic more appealing, it's got a cute slime mascot, turn-based battles and I’ve always wondered how its fantasy stories and worlds compare to others in the genre. With the English release of Dragon Quest XI coming up soon, I’m strongly reminded again that I still haven’t touched this series, so here’s a list of games in the series I want to try to help me get into this classic JRPG series.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Dragon Quest VIII</span></b></div>
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A lot of the games in the Dragon Quest series I know about are often because of what I’ve been recommended and Dragon Quest VIII is one I’ve been recommended a few times and seen people talk about fondly and it stood out to me because it looks newer. Looking at its trailer, it looks like it could be enjoyable with its battle system that looks familiar enough to pick up and I like the look of the characters with their designs that aged well since this game was originally on PS2. Also appealing that it has a 3DS version that has extra challenges and characters, so not only is playing it portably a big plus, getting the most out the game while on the go sounds like a pretty good way to start one of the big JRPGs. With Dragon Quest VIII is being a game I see pop up in a few best JRPGs both in Japan and in the West, I’d like to see what the hype is about sometime.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Dragon Quest IX</span></b></div>
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With a world record for its Chance Encounter mode and critical acclaim, as another of the somewhat more modern Dragon Quest titles, Dragon Quest IX’s aesthetic with more of what looks to be a retro feel makes it feel like it could bridge the gap between old and new Dragon Quest for me. You can make your own Dragon Quest style character in it which looks fun with its animation style and although I’ve read that the character development isn’t as deep due the game being designed to be played with others, it looks like a lighter Dragon Quest I could use to get to know the series before going deeper. Dragon Quest IX is another one that looks like it could be good to play on the go with it being on DS and although its multiplayer features may not be like they used to be, it would be interesting to check out since they did so well.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Dragon Quest IV</span></b></div>
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When I was reading up on Dragon Quest as a series, Dragon Quest IV sounded like it could be accessible for a newcomer like me going further into its library of games. Its story is divided into chapters and each chapter explores the story of a different character, <a href="http://www.jrpgjungle.com/2018/08/review-octopath-traveler.html" target="_blank">which since I just played Octopath Traveler recently</a> sounds like a more linear version of a multi-protagonist story. The only thing about Dragon Quest IV is that while it appealed to me most out of the older ones, it does have that old school JRPG look and feel from what I’ve seen so far, which there is nothing wrong with, but there are times when I get tired of that aesthetic in favour of going back to something more modern looking as that’s what I usually play. If I do play Dragon Quest IV, I think I’ll have to make sure I’m not experiencing that kind of retro fatigue and can enjoy the game for what it is, but I like the idea of its story flow so far.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Dragon Quest V</span></b></div>
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Dragon Quest V is another in the series that’s been recommended to me before and like Dragon Quest IV carries that more retro aesthetic. A few things appeal to me from it, such as the introduction of a monster collection mechanic in this addition, which as a fan of monster-collecting titles like <a href="http://www.jrpgjungle.com/2017/01/review-world-of-final-fantasy.html" target="_blank">World of Final Fantasy</a> and the Digimon games I appreciate. I also recognise some of the characters from this game like Bianca, so I wouldn't mind getting to know characters like her more since they seem to be used in spinoffs and artworks and I don’t really know much about them.<br />
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I watched the smartphone version trailer for Dragon Quest V and it didn’t look like a bad smartphone port, which makes me consider getting it on my phone since I once played most of Final Fantasy I on iOS and got really addicted to it, but it’s also available for DS if I want to use a portable console instead. With what looks to be a world full of important Dragon Quest characters and fun JRPG mechanics, Dragon Quest V seems to definitely have a few things going for it and will be one I’ll be keeping in mind.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Itadaki Street 30th Anniversary Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy (JP)</span></b></div>
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While it’s a spinoff game rather than a part of the core Dragon Quest series, I think Itadaki Street’s 30th Anniversary game could be a great way to ease myself into the Dragon Quest series since I found its demo to be light-hearted and fun <a href="http://www.jrpgjungle.com/2017/11/jrpgs-i-played-in-october-2017.html" target="_blank">when I tried it last year</a>. Since I know Final Fantasy much better than I do Dragon Quest, not only does seeing characters I know in an adorable art style in a fun looking board game already appeal to me, this could also introduce me to the iconic characters from Dragon Quest’s world in a more simplified way where I could get to know its characters and which ones I like through its relaxed party game experience. With over 11 core games in the Dragon Quest series, despite my efforts to make this list it is hard to know where to start, so Itadaki Street might be a way to get to know the series a little better before fully choosing a game if I ever go into the series backlog of games.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Dragon Quest XI</span></b></div>
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While it feels a bit like cheating putting this in here since it’s coming out so soon and I’m pretty sure I will be picking it up on day one, Dragon Quest XI received great reviews when it came out in Japan and its modern graphics and systems would mean I wouldn’t need to worry about anything looking or feeling dated while playing what looks like a fun new JRPG to play in September. On top of that, <a href="http://www.jrpgjungle.com/2018/06/e3-2018-favourites.html" target="_blank">Dragon Quest XI looks really cool</a> with a more polished version of the art style that has been used throughout the series and it looks like a fun world with your typical JRPG mechanics in its turn-based system, but also other extra things like being able to fly dragons and the game having plenty of fun-looking minigames. I’m planning to try Dragon Quest XI this month on PS4 as my first step into the series, although I do want to go into its backlog at some point still and I hope Dragon Quest XI acts as motivation to do so. As I prepare to try the first of these Dragon Quest games I’ve been wanting to try, I hope it lives up to the hype and makes me when to try the other games I mentioned in what seems to be an important and iconic JRPG series.<br />
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<b>You can pick up most Dragon Quest games on <a href="https://amzn.to/2C1SmS8" target="_blank">Amazon</a> and <a href="https://www.play-asia.com/search/dragon+quest?tagid=1578973" target="_blank">Play-Asia</a>!</b></div>
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(The Amazon links help support my JRPG Jungle content so if you use any of them, thank you!)<br />
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<b>Have you played any of these Dragon Quest games? Which game from the Dragon Quest series do you recommend?</b></div>
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JRPG Junglehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16208032067849769634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5819392336542172258.post-30370249920683186572018-08-24T15:00:00.000-07:002018-08-24T15:00:02.643-07:00First Impressions: Valkyria Chronicles 4 (Played on PS4 and Nintendo Switch, also coming to Xbox One and PC, Demo)<div style="text-align: center;">
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While stories about war aren’t typically something I enjoy, Valkyria Chronicles 4’s complex tactical battles and characters may have found a way to make this one interesting for me. As someone new to the Valkyria Chronicles series, I was pleased to see its tactical battle system that combines turn-based and action gameplay well felt as smooth to play as it looked in trailers and combined the two styles well, along with its artstyle and many deep mechanics making the experience stand out from other tactical experiences. Topped off with a narrative that keeps things feeling light-hearted enough in a story with a serious premise, Valkyria Chronicles 4 is a great tactical experience so far and left me much more keen to try its full game next month as a new player of the series.<br />
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Valkyria Chronicles 4 is set in what it calls the Second Europan War where the Imperial and Federal Armies are at war due to the scarcity of a rare material called Ragnite that both sides of its continent of Europa rely on. The Imperial Army’s numbers see them coming out ahead in the war, so in a final attempt to put things in their favour, the Federal Army plans a mission called Operation Union Cross. This mission is where things begin and the story follows the Federal Army’s Squad E, a group of regular young soldiers who enlisted to protect their homeland.<br />
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From that description, Valkyria Chronicles 4 sounds pretty dry and serious, but what keeps this war story feeling fresh is its cast of characters and its mix of light-hearted moments and personal relationships into the more serious premise. The cast of characters are surprisingly easy to relate to for soldiers - the group’s overall dynamic and small humorous moments quickly make it obvious they’re not hardened war soldiers, rather a group of friends that have grown up together. The Squad Leader Claude is a talented strategist and leader, but he’s also more playful with his friends like the loudmouthed Raz and the relationships between the characters and the way they talk to each other with humour and friendly jabs made me feel more invested in what was happening in a story premise I wouldn’t normally be interested in.<br />
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What I was looking forward to in Valkyria Chronicles 4’s demo was its tactical battle system and the way it combines two styles of combat I liked and I’m happy to say that with the smooth way it manages to combine the two, it didn’t disappoint. I like <a href="http://www.jrpgjungle.com/2016/06/5-tactical-jrpgs-id-like-to-try.html" target="_blank">tactical battle systems</a> generally even though they’re usually a slower way to play, so I really liked how Valkyria Chronicles 4’s active twist on this style of gameplay made things feel much faster. You place units on the battlefield and take turns towards completing goals, like capturing enemy bases like in other tactical JRPGs, but instead of placing them on a grid, everything is done on a 3D field where enemies can attack you while you’re making your turn if you’re within sight of them. For example, if you place a unit directly in front of an enemy unit, they’re not just going to wait until their turn to attack you like in other tactical games; they’re going to attack you right now because you’re in front of them, so there’s much more strategy in placing your unit somewhere smart and attacking from there or trying to get the first hit in so they can’t. These instant consequences to a wrong move made every move feel like it mattered and I found myself thinking about my turns more and being overall more engaged and while I still enjoy traditional tactical combat systems, I feel like this one made a lot of sense and is something I’d like to play with again sometime.<br />
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On top of its system being well done, there are also other bits of it that make it good. It uses classes like in other tactical systems, with some being simple classes like Shocktrooper and Lancers that can deal damage to different types of enemy units. Then there are also classes like Grenadier which allows your to shoot grenades to enemies far away and up high, along with Snipers and Tanks that provide a different way of using the field due to how they move and attack. These classes mixed with other things like random buffs and debuffs that can happen based on how the battle is going, along with mission goals changing based on story events mean that this active system was constantly engaging and whether it was thinking of how to use a unit properly or adjusting to something that suddenly happening, there’s an intricate system to master in Valkyria Chronicles 4 and I’m already excited to learn what other mechanics will appear in its full game that will make battles even more interesting.<br />
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With battles being on a 3D active field rather than a grid, between battles and story moments, it was great to finally see Valkyria Chronicles’ distinct canvas animation style in action and it looked just as good as I expected. On PS4, the style looked sharp in both cutscenes and on the field and the watercolour feel of it combined with an anime style works surprisingly well together and fit the idea of Claude documenting the journey in his notebook well. I also gave <a href="http://www.jrpgjungle.com/2018/06/e3-2018-favourites.html" target="_blank">Valkyria Chronicles 4’s demo</a> a quick try on Switch to compare the graphics and performance and performance wise I didn’t find much difference - load times were similar and I didn’t have any problems while playing one of its missions. I found I preferred the Switch version undocked though, as I found on TV it lacked some of the sharpness the PS4 version had on a bigger screen, but looked very smooth while playing in handheld mode. The portability of the Switch is always attractive, but I also prefer the sharpness of the PS4 version, so this will come down to personal preference for most people. For me, I think I’ll stick with the PS4 version because I want to see its unique aesthetic look its best, but I always appreciate these kind of experiences being on the Switch as well.<br />
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As for the rest of Valkyria Chronicles 4, with lore in the form of news articles and options to get to know its characters better in the rest of the story and in events offered in its menu, the experience looks good so far. There’s equipment upgrading systems along with training ones that were easy to use that I’d like to get to know more and I’m sure the full game probably has a few more mechanics hiding up its sleeve as well. In saying that, the demo showed its fair share of mechanics and so far the world of Valkyria Chronicles 4 looks well thought out and interesting even just from playing a few hours. I definitely recommend giving the demo a try if you’re curious about the series since it has a bonus mission as well and with it being a few hours long, I’m glad I could get a good feel of how deep this tactical JRPG experience will be and that I left it feeling fairly positive.<br />
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As my first look at Valkyria Chronicles 4 and its series, the deep nature of its battle system and world has me intrigued so far. Its take on tactical battles kept me on my toes in its detailed battlefields and with characters that are more relatable than your average soldiers, I was left wishing this demo wouldn’t end. As my first taste into a popular tactical JRPG series, Valkyria Chronicles 4 didn’t disappoint thanks to its depth and the relatable characters and I hope that in its full game it continues to impress me by showing me more of how deep and strategic action battle can be in what seems to be a great take on tactical JRPGs.<br />
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<b>You can try Valkyria Chronicles 4's demo on <a href="https://store.playstation.com/en-us/product/UP0177-CUSA11082_00-BFVALKYRIE000100" target="_blank">PSN</a>, the <a href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/valkyria-chronicles-4-demo/c2x6vr15vn1c" target="_blank">Microsoft Store</a> and the <a href="https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/valkyria-chronicles-4-switch" target="_blank">Nintendo E-Shop</a> and you can <a href="https://amzn.to/2Kg26Ll" target="_blank">pre-order the full game on Amazon</a>!</b></div>
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JRPG Junglehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16208032067849769634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5819392336542172258.post-39017199289939053512018-08-17T15:00:00.000-07:002018-08-17T15:00:08.401-07:00First Impressions: Yakuza Kiwami 2 (Demo, PS4)<div style="text-align: center;">
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If you’re like me and enjoyed the outrageous combat, outlandish villains and wide-range of mini games available in Yakuza games like the recent Yakuza 6, Yakuza Kiwami 2’s version of these things in its demo makes it look like an intriguing experience. With a new city to explore, Kiwami 2 features a lot of what’s made more recent games in the series feel good mechanically, along with a stylish visual flare that make it easy to forget that Yakuza 2 was originally a PS2 game. With a few new mechanics that save it from feeling too similar to the last Yakuza game and a wealth of new activities in this demo alone that keep the charm of the Yakuza series while adding plenty of new things to play with, Yakuza Kiwami 2 seems to be a satisfying new take on an older game in its series that is easy to pick up for those who’ve played the newer games in the series.<br />
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Yakuza Kiwami 2’s demo begins in the second chapter of its story, scratching the surface of what will no doubt be a bigger narrative. The demo begins with series protagonist Kiryu on his way to Osaka with Dojima, and eventually introduces one of the story’s antagonists Ryuji Goda, the rough son of the Chairman of the Omi Alliance. This meeting serves as an introduction to both Kiwami 2’s story and what looks to be an important antagonist - Ryuji is shown to have plenty of power how he puts fear into the people around him and being known as the Dragon of Kansai, there’s a clear feeling of rivalry between him and Kiryu. This rivalry is only just touched on as the story portion of this demo is quite small: if you play just its story you’re barely looking at half an hour of the story campaign including battles and running to places, compared to <a href="http://www.jrpgjungle.com/2018/04/how-yakuza-6s-first-hours-surprised-me.html" target="_blank">Yakuza 6’s one that showed about an hour.</a> I ended up appreciating the shortness of the demo’s story portions though; not only did it give more time for gameplay, it also avoided spoiling much from its previous games that I haven’t played yet, so if you’re looking for a taste of Kiwami 2 to see if you want to continue with the series, you can play its demo without fear of significant spoilers. The small bit shown was enough to interest me with its plot and looked to be the same quality of story that I came to expect from the last game, so although I still need to play its previous games to get a full understanding, it did make me intrigued about what would happen in this chapter next.<br />
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Although Yakuza 2 is an older game, the Dragon engine makes it look and feel similar to its recent games, particularly in the combat that felt quite similar to what I played in Yakuza 6. It features a battle system to very similar to what’s in 6 - in both random and story battles, it combines beating up enemies with things like button combos giving it a slight fighting game feel and stylish special Heat attacks depending on what kind of weapon Kiryu is carrying that make it feel flashier and more interesting to look at. Kiwami 2 adds another layer to its combat at least with Kiryu go beyond just picking up weapons around him and also being able to store and carry some of his own. Some are your typical weapons like swords and poles, but in flashy-Yakuza battle style there are crazy ones like tasers and even pliers that make for some pretty wild Heat attacks. With weapons being accessible using the D-pad, it seamlessly fits into what was already a good system and although it doesn’t seem to be an essential addition, it’s still nice to have something new to play with in battle <a href="http://www.jrpgjungle.com/2018/05/review-yakuza-6.html" target="_blank">if you’re coming from Yakuza 6.</a><br />
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Where the battle system felt very familiar, a majority of the mini-games I tried in Kiwami 2’s demo were brand new to me. The demo shows a big handful of mini-games such as Crane games in its arcade, golf practices, card game, a karaoke rhythm game and more that all boasted different mechanics and systems that made each one have a layer of depth that makes taking time away from the story to check them out pretty worth it. I only played a little of each one I could find, but each seemed like big, full experiences that you could really sink a lot of time into trying to get good at them, taking my half hour story experience and making it a two hour one with plenty of variety while playing this demo. What’s even more amazing is that this was only a selection of what will most likely be available in the full version. This demo doesn’t feature the mini-games from Kamurocho which was packed full of things to do in Yakuza 6 and probably will be in Kiwami 2 as well, and with stuff like the Clan Creator and being able to manage your own club being other features said to be in Kiwami 2, along with side stories, restaurants and Goro Majima’s story that wasn’t shown in the demo, I’m sure the cities will be as full of a vast variety of things to do and check out in the full version. This preview of them definitely lived up to my expectations of it being an activity-filled world so far and with this just being the tip of the iceberg, I can’t wait to see what other experiences will be in the full game.<br />
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My couple of hours with Yakuza Kiwami 2’s demo showed me enough to get me excited for when I eventually play it. It features a new kind of twisted, powerful villain that fit the theme of what I became intrigued by in Yakuza 6, and although it uses the same visuals and gameplay style as 6 as well, Kiwami 2’s big, activity-filled city showed plenty of new things to do that have me ready to explore this one. So far, Yakuza Kiwami 2 seems to take a lot of what makes its other more recent games good and convincingly turns Yakuza 2 into a modern feeling experience very reminiscent of them. If I didn’t want to check out more of the beginning of Kiryu’s story in Yakuza Zero and the first Kiwami game first, I would gladly be jumping into what looks to be a fun-filled city of stories and things to do like I enjoyed in 6 and as an interesting introduction to the second chapter in Kiryu’s story, I hope to check it out again someday.<br />
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<b>You can <a href="https://store.playstation.com/en-us/product/UP0177-CUSA11713_00-YAKUZAKIWAMI2DEM" target="_blank">try Yakuza Kiwami 2's demo here</a> and you can <a href="https://amzn.to/2lqAvcf" target="_blank">pre-order the full game on Amazon</a>!</b></div>
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JRPG Junglehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16208032067849769634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5819392336542172258.post-37990198388430456982018-08-10T15:00:00.000-07:002018-08-10T15:00:04.149-07:00Review: Octopath Traveler (Nintendo Switch)<div style="text-align: center;">
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In a world of modern graphics and one track story paths, Octopath Traveler is unique. With its premise of telling eight different stories in one world, Octopath Traveler gives you the opportunity to choose the order and flow of how you want to play through its interesting seperate stories, with the choice of playing as many as you want at a time offering a custom gameplay experience. While having to level up your characters each time you want to try a new one from its eight can make the experience run a little long, it makes each experience feel like a journey of its own in this world harboring its own lore that leaves a connecting thread to each story if you play them all, but also has each one stand well enough on its own. All of its unique storytelling partnered with a great battle system that makes finding and exploiting weaknesses a rewarding process and its class actions that make each character useful in different ways make Octopath Traveler a satisfying JRPG with no shortage of things to do and a great world to play in.<br />
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Octopath Traveler’s story begins with choosing a character from its eight, a choice that will influence the starting tone of your personal playthrough. There is a big variety of characters to choose from - from your typical JRPG Warrior and Cleric types to unique ones like Merchants and Apothecaries, the starting choice influences your introduction to Octopath Traveler’s world. I started my journey with <a href="http://www.jrpgjungle.com/2017/10/first-impressions-project-octopath-traveler.html" target="_blank">the Dancer Primrose</a> and had my journey start with her darker story and motives, but the main story flow is, on a base level, the same no matter who you choose, with an introduction, conflict and boss battle conclusion being a common thread in all of Octopath Traveler’s chapters that works in keeping each one interesting and moving. While the choice doesn’t have much impact into the rest of the Octopath Traveler journey, it does serve as a good introduction to how you can play however you choose, as this is the first choice of how you want to play out of many more along the way.<br />
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These choices are necessary as it’s not exactly easy to go through one character at a time as I had expected to. With Primrose’s second chapter having a level requirement of 21 on the map after I finished her first chapter at level 4, I quickly realised that playing through one story at a time wasn’t the best way to go for me unless I wanted to solo grind a lot, so in a way Octopath Traveler encourages making your own journey by playing in whatever order you like, whether it’s full of more grinding or story. <a href="http://www.jrpgjungle.com/2018/07/unique-storytelling-and-game-flow-octopath-traveler.html" target="_blank">All the characters stories are available to access anytime on the map</a> and to have a full party, it’s necessary to play a few. It’s with this I came to appreciate the stories of other characters - I expected my journey to be full of Primrose and her path of revenge, but very different characters like the caring Apothecary Alfyn and the curious Merchant Tressa were characters I came to know and love that I had little interest in when I started. Although for me it seemed like a necessity to get other party members, it never felt like a chore to play through their chapters and while some stories are naturally better than others at different points in each one, all the characters growth in their journeys in each one were interesting to get to know overall.<br />
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In saying that, the thing I like most about Octopath Traveler is the fact that you don’t have to play all the stories. I ended up getting all the character endings for my review and had a lot of fun doing it, but you can definitely play this game as little and as much as you like and still feel a sense of accomplishment. Because each story is an individual story and the other characters don’t link into each one, it’s more about completing individual stories rather than all of them. There are little common threads in a few of the story that link the stories to the world that are cool if you play multiple or all of them, as well as quests that lead to a true final boss battle, but they’re mostly just bonuses for those who choose to do all of it. I felt accomplished when I finished Primrose’s story and saw the end credits roll and I also felt accomplished when I finished the last of the eight stories and I like that Octopath Traveler leaves everything on your map so you can come back to it at anytime when you want to try another one of its stories.<br />
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While Octopath Traveler allows you to play the stories in any order, there are a few things that might influence your decision of which order you play in, such as character jobs and path actions. Each character has a class that corresponds with their character for use in battle, with classes like Warrior being your typical physically strong class and Cleric being your healer, but then there are other classes like Merchant that allow you to spend your in-game money to summon the right thing you need at the time or Hunter that allows you to summon beasts you’ve captured. All of these classes have their own different useable weapons and attack types that become essential to balance well when trying to take advantage of the Break mechanic which allows you to gradually cut down enemy shields to leave them defenseless for one turn in battle where you can pile on attacks, so it was enjoyable trying to strategically balance which characters were best against a certain boss both weapon and attack-wise, along with the characters I liked. Also in battles is the boost mechanic that allows you to choose whether to do a stronger attack or save the boost point for later and also findable secondary classes that make battling with a party of whoever you like much more balanced. All these things together make Octopath Traveler’s battle system a joy to play and is one of my favourite turn-based systems in recent times thanks to its balance of strategy and decision-making.<br />
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Outside of battle, your party affects which Path Actions you can use while exploring the big world of Osterra and can be incredibly useful for story moments, quests and gathering rare items to aid you on your journey. There are a few different actions to use, with some allowing you to challenge villagers to a fight and others let you have someone follow you and aid in battle. A cool part of these is the Rogue and Noble Paths that change these actions depending on a character’s personality. For example, the Thief Therion can Steal items, whereas the Merchant Tressa buys them instead, which not only suits their characters better but also offers a choice: take the time to level up Therion more to get things for free or buy them for currency that is not always easy to come across. I like how these actions make Octopath Traveler’s party building more than just about battle and while some actions and party members are more useful than others, the battle and path actions made the choice of who to use much more engaging than just picking your favourites.<br />
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A notable aspect of Octopath Traveler is its presentation, with its nostalgic retro aesthetic mixed with modern effects and elements giving it a look of its own. The sprites running across lovely, pixelated kingdoms contrasted with gorgeous, flowing, real-looking water and deserts and caves with dirt that shimmers and glitters gives Octopath Traveler a real beauty that pops off the screen. These beautiful visuals partnered with a big soundtrack with stunningly orchestrated battle tracks and boss themes, and voice acting that expressed character’s emotions well make Octopath Traveler really live up to its 2D-HD idea and I would happily play another game in this aesthetic again even though I generally prefer games with a more modern visual style.<br />
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My over 70 hour playthrough of Octopath Traveler’s eight stories was full of lots of big boss battles, interesting stories and getting to know each Traveler and I’ve definitely left the experience feeling mostly positive. There was one small wish I had after completing my main party’s stories though and that was that your reserve characters also leveled up while they’re not in your party, or at least had the option to. Perhaps this is because I played Octopath Traveler’s eight stories all in one go, but after feeling the satisfaction of finishing my four main party member’s stories, it felt strange to go back to the other four I hadn’t used much and have to really level them up to be strong enough to face some of the challenges and Path Action events in their stories. I’m guessing they probably don’t level up in order to emphasize the separate feeling of the stories and characters, but if you’re like me and leave half your characters on low levels until you come back to them 50 hours later, there may be some extra grind sessions that may pad out the experience more than expected.<br />
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But in saying that, there were so many fun boss battles with every character along the way and in bonus caves and areas that I didn’t mind so much. In fact, with many quests and secret jobs and areas to find, there’s probably a whole other playthrough worth of content that I can go back and do and the custom nature of Octopath Traveler means I can do it at any time. I love that thanks to having so many different ways to play, I can go back and do these things now, but I also had the option of doing them during any of the stories and whether I want to get more secondary jobs or do more quests will be the next choice I make in how I want to play.<br />
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Octopath Traveler stands out against other modern day JRPGs with its take on a retro-aesthetic and storytelling, and really succeeds in giving each player a custom journey. The ability to play one story or any of its eight gave a real sense of freedom in choosing how I wanted to play in its world and I love how this is reflected in its battle system, its quests and world overall. While I’m sure doing the big task of finishing all eight of its stories won’t be for everyone, I think it’s really great that you can decide whether or not to do so at anytime in one playthrough and with a stunning world, I know I want to come back to it someday. Octopath Traveler might not be for everyone with the way it tells stories, but if you like the idea of having many journeys in one world, I’d absolutely recommend trying this unique, retro-inspired world for the way it does things differently.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Score: 8.6/10</span></b></div>
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<i>Keen to go back and get all the jobs and spend another 70+ hours!</i></div>
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<b><a href="https://amzn.to/2KdhWX2" target="_blank">You can pick up Octopath Traveler on Amazon!</a></b></div>
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<b>Did you pick up Octopath Traveler? If you did, what did you think of it?</b><br />
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JRPG Junglehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16208032067849769634noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5819392336542172258.post-14152181046492173692018-08-03T15:00:00.000-07:002018-08-03T15:00:02.988-07:00JRPGs I Played in July 2018<div style="text-align: center;">
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With eight story paths to follow and a mid-month release, my July went exactly how I expected it to and was full of a lot of Octopath Traveler and time with my Switch. I began the month on the tail end of Ys VIII and immediately jumped over to Octopath Traveler, so my PS4 hasn’t seen that much love this month but I’ve enjoying playing the Switch both on my TV and with me on the go and the extra time I’ve been able to get into my games. The only other games I played were a few smartphone JRPGs for times like being at work where it would be inappropriate to pull out my Switch and for some special collaborations, but I only put a small bit of time into these because I was into already big games on the go and didn’t feel the need to play much else. So in what was a month full of portable goodness, here are the JRPGs I Played in July.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">JRPG of the Month: Octopath Traveler</span></b></div>
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Like many other JRPG fans with a Switch, I spent most of my July enamored with the big world of Octopath Traveler. As I talked about in my <a href="http://www.jrpgjungle.com/2018/07/unique-storytelling-and-game-flow-octopath-traveler.html" target="_blank">recent post about Octopath Traveler’s storytelling</a>, I was expecting to be playing mostly with my chosen protagonist Primrose, but I ended up spending time with all the characters thanks to the nature of the game and my experience with it is better for it. My main party of Primrose, Alfyn, Cyrus and Tressa all have stories I’m invested in after seeing their first few chapters and as I come up to their fourth chapters now, I’m looking forward to seeing how they’ll end and plan on also going back to complete to the other character’s stories after as well.<br />
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<a href="http://www.jrpgjungle.com/2017/10/first-impressions-project-octopath-traveler.html" target="_blank">Octopath Traveler</a> could easily be my JRPG of the month from story and branching paths alone, but I also adore its battle system. Breaking enemies by exploiting their weaknesses, then trying to blast them before their next turn is really addictive, especially in turn-based form, so as I find the later bosses more challenging and satisfying, the fun system makes the grind not so bad. So with tough boss battles coming up in its final chapters, I look forward to finishing Octopath in early August since I’m taking extra time to finish it properly and get all the endings before my review and I hope that all its paths make a good, full story in this unique JRPG style.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of DANA</span></b></div>
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I realised at the end of last month I wouldn’t finish Ys VIII until the start of this month, but its last couple of chapters were a great start to the month since they were so interesting. Learning more about characters like Dana made the Isle of Seiren much deeper and the way its last chapter played out made a very exciting conclusion to its story. <a href="http://www.jrpgjungle.com/2018/07/review-ys-viii.html" target="_blank">Since I finished Ys VIII</a> at the beginning of the month, it’s been a while since I’ve picked it up but I have a lot of fond memories and still would like to someday come back to it to pick up the rest of its castaways and do more of its quests because I loved the idea of the village expanding and more mechanics coming in as you find more people. All in all, I’m really glad that Ys VIII came to Switch so I could play it and I hope more big JRPGs like this one get ported to the system because it’s a great way to play these big RPG worlds.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Pokémon Quest (iOS)</span></b></div>
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I had no intentions of starting the smartphone version of Pokemon Quest this month since I had two big JRPGs to play in the form of Ys VIII and Octopath Traveler. However, my boyfriend got it on his smartphone and I was watching him have so much fun with it so I decided I had to at least download it and give it a try. On smartphones, it’s as adorable and fun as ever, although just as a first impression I’m wondering if it doesn’t run as well on my phone as it does on my Switch. I noticed it being a lot more jumpy than it ever was on my Switch, but that may be because my iPhone 5S is kind of old and janky in general so since my Switch is newer and probably more powerful, that may be a better way to play. In saying that, I haven’t spent that much time with it compared to everything else I played this month, so I look forward to coming back to it and giving the smartphone version a real chance in the near future.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">The Alchemist Code</span></b></div>
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I also didn’t intend on playing <a href="http://www.jrpgjungle.com/2017/09/why-im-excited-for-alchemist-code.html" target="_blank">The Alchemist Code</a> this month, but I saw on Twitter that the <a href="http://www.jrpgjungle.com/2017/09/pros-and-problems-final-fantasy-xv-universe.html" target="_blank">Final Fantasy XV</a> collaboration that was the reason I downloaded the Japanese version in the first place was finally out on the English version, so I had to jump in to try get some of the units I left on my Japanese account. I got Prompto back just from logging in which was good, and I tried a few of the gachas to try and get Ignis or Noctis, but haven’t had any luck yet. The event only has a few days to go and I haven’t played any of the story content yet, so I’ll have to jump in early August to see those in English and finally understand what this spin-off with the guys in The Alchemist Code’s world is all about.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">August JRPG Plans</span></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFGyniHQDeIvt8uUl8Co7KBro_Yg2M5dxLoBZeo5sOF2Z6XONhAmC9d9gSZjuu2XE50WHV0gA4jsJtqqJzXkl9Sq_rsqcg-UbKi2DAL3ULgzYOAwyU-UG2HBqBWMylljTE2BdipZX5DQxp/s1600/2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="623" data-original-width="1137" height="350" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFGyniHQDeIvt8uUl8Co7KBro_Yg2M5dxLoBZeo5sOF2Z6XONhAmC9d9gSZjuu2XE50WHV0gA4jsJtqqJzXkl9Sq_rsqcg-UbKi2DAL3ULgzYOAwyU-UG2HBqBWMylljTE2BdipZX5DQxp/s640/2.png" width="640" /></a></div>
August is a quieter month for JRPGs in general, with the only thing I was really interested in being Yakuza Kiwami 2, which luckily has a free demo out that meaning I’ll be able to try some of it. However, since I haven’t even started with Yakuza 0 yet, I don’t plan to pick up Kiwami 2 just yet because I’d like to begin Kiryu’s story from the start after being so surprised with <a href="http://www.jrpgjungle.com/2018/04/how-yakuza-6s-first-hours-surprised-me.html" target="_blank">how good 6</a> was, so since I won’t be playing Kiwami 2 I’m left with a pretty free August in terms of new releases. Since August is so free and I have a lot of games sitting in the backlog, I’m considering taking either a few days or a week to try and finish Persona 2. A lot of you have suggested that I need to focus on it like I do new releases and that is probably the only way I’m going to finish it at all this year, so I hope August can see me get into it and finish it so I can start a new JRPG side game to play in my free time because I’ve definitely been playing it for too long. So with no new releases but a solid goal to finish Persona 2 in mind, I’m sure August will be another worthwhile month for my JRPG time.<br />
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<b>You can pick up most of these games on <a href="http://bit.ly/AmazonJRPGJungle" target="_blank">Amazon</a>!</b></div>
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(The Amazon links help support my JRPG Jungle content so if you use them, thank you!)</div>
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<b>What did you play in July? What your JRPG plans for August?</b></div>
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Leave a comment below, send me a tweet at <a href="http://www.twitter.com/JRPGJungle">@JRPGJungle</a> or tell me on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/JRPGJungle">Facebook</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/JRPGJungle" target="_blank">Youtube</a> or <a href="https://www.instagram.com/jrpgjungle/">Instagram</a> and let's talk!</div>
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JRPG Junglehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16208032067849769634noreply@blogger.com0