First Impressions: SINoALICE (iOS, Android, Japanese Version)

I didn’t know I wanted to see all of my favourite childhood characters turned sinister until the announcement of NieR Automata director Yoko Taro’s smartphone game SINoALICE. Partnering with successful developers of smartphone games Square Enix and PokeLabo games, SINoALICE has a lot of potential as a quick and fun RPG experience, with bite-sized pieces of dark story that are quick and easy to cycle through, along with weapon-based combat that combines familiar elemental JRPG mechanics with interesting new ones. Although it has a few technical bumps in its current form, what I’ve played so far has given me confidence that with enough support technically and events to keep it fresh, in good time SINoALICE could be the dark and unique smartphone JRPG that the smartphone world was missing.

Feel free to watch the video version here!

SINoALICE’s characters are all based off fairy tale characters that will be easily recognisable to most players. There’s Alice, Snow White, Cinderella and other familiar bedtime story characters, but they’re intriguingly different to the ones we know. They live in the Library world and share a wish to revive their creator in order to continue their story and get the ending they desire. In order to revive the creator, they must fight Nightmare creatures that destroy stories and will eventually have to fight each other. Their dark desires and tendencies were interesting to see detailed in the small bits of text displayed alongside battles, which made it easy to consume the stories little by little on the go.

Like the small pieces of story, the three round battles are also very quick to get through but are involved enough to feel satisfying. Enemies are all assigned an element and in order to deal the most damage to them, you can attack them with their opposing element and your own character’s best weapons to beat them with ease. Together with a party of 4 CPU’s, the three wave battles have all gone by for me fairly quickly so far, even with a boss battle at the end of most of them, but the higher level ones are just long enough to need strategies such as choosing the right weapon or summon to win and keep things interesting.

Challenge comes into SINoALICE in some of the later chapters of the stories. Attacking by using your weapons costs SP plus the weapon itself temporarily and in later chapters, in order to pack a punch they need to be used more frequently. SINoALICE allows you to carry more weapons into battle as you level up, but the more weapons you have, the more SP you are using, especially if you’re restoring your weapons to use them a second time round (which I’ve needed to do a few times). While the first couple of chapters I played through in Alice’s story weren't that challenging, I’m enjoying the balance between health and SP and am interested in how this will continue in later chapters.

The equipment/SP balance be better value if you level up your equipment using the experience giving rewards from battle. Since you can (and should) equip multiple weapons that are used very quickly, being able to raise the level and rank of your equipment is a good way to become stronger, aside from just grinding your characters in the unique, fun touchscreen quick Nightmare Cleaning mechanic to get quick EXP. Both work as good alternatives to replaying levels over and over and I liked the feeling of choice and involvement in these aspects instead of paying to restore things or for better resources.

Being a smartphone game, SINoALICE features a familiar gacha system to help get better equipment. Unlike some other gachas, characters aren’t won through this system, which made the system feel a little fairer than most other Gacha systems, as I wasn’t going to be that sad if I didn’t get the weapon I wanted because I could still upgrade what I got or unlock a character that better suited the equipment I won. It’s this kind of thing that makes me feel more comfortable in playing SINoALICE, as so far I haven’t at all felt the need to use real money in it to improve my experience.

While I’ve been enjoying my time in SINoALICE so far (particularly the last few days where maintenance periods have been much less), it still has a few kinks in it that make it not as easy to jump into as other smartphone games. I’ve had a few experiences where I’ve finished a battle and it hasn’t gone to the reward screen correctly unless I disconnect my internet, only to take me back to the top screen. It’s also had to boot back up while starting a few times, but this error seems to have been fixed as SINoALICE has more maintenance's. These are all problems I’m sure will be fixed very soon (possibly even by the time this is up) as it’s been pretty dedicated to fixing and smoothing things out in its first week and I’m sure that if it sees a localised release, these problems will likely be long gone by that point.

SINoALICE brings Yoko Taro’s standout unsettling narrative-sense into a bite-size form, with it’s storytelling and quick battles fitting well on smartphone. The weapon-based combat and gacha system created a unique take on turn-based smartphone gameplay and with access to plenty of characters and story apps without paying for a thing, whether or not players choose to pay for the experience, it’s easy to get into SINoALICE regardless. I enjoyed the innovative character leveling systems and branching stories and while the experience isn’t 100% smooth yet, I’m looking forward to sticking with it for awhile and hope it sees a localisation at some point to better understand these dark characters.

SINoALICE can be downloaded now on the Japanese App Store or Google Play Store.

No word about a localised version yet (but fingers crossed!)

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Do you want SINoALICE to be localised? Which character design is your favourite?

Leave a comment below, send me a tweet at @JRPGJungle, hit me up on Facebook, Youtube or Instagram and let's talk!

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First Impressions - God Wars: Future Past (Played on PS4, Japanese Demo, Also coming to PS Vita)

I knew nothing about the God Wars series when I jumped into the Japanese demo of God Wars: Future Past. Other than vaguely hearing that it was a JRPG, I was mostly drawn to it from its gorgeous animation style and its old Japan aesthetic. As usual, my limited Japanese kept me from getting any major context from the story, but it seems to be based around Japanese folklore, with a beautiful princess and a journey that had me visiting multiple places in the demo alone. Mixed with a tactical battle system with its own unique twist and pretty visuals, my look at God Wars: Future Past has at the very least made me curious about it.

Feel free to watch the video version here!

After comparing what I thought the story was to the press release, turns out I wasn't that far off. Future Past’s demo opens with the Queen of the story’s land of Mizuho sacrificing one of her daughters to calm the spirits that the people of Mizuho had been neglecting. Neglecting the spirits had seen them begin to give natural disasters and this sacrifice was supposed to prevent the spirits from destroying their world. After watching this go down, Future Past switches to the perspective of the Queen’s other daughter Kaguya, who has grown up since being placed in a seal as a backup sacrifice. She's saved by her childhood friend during an attack and they begin their journey together, with the demo taking a look at some of the towns and battle areas that will be found along the way.

One thing I can definitely praise God Wars: Future Past’s demo for is that it doesn't waste much time getting to the action. One of the first tactical battles is fighting to save the princess and that happens fairly early on in the demo. Thankfully, the turn-based tactical battle system will be very familiar to those who have played tactical games before and even with the language barrier, I was able to get the hang of it easily. There are a few things to make Future Past’s battle system unique, such as the Facing mechanic that makes the amount of damage you deal or receive change based on what direction you and the enemy were facing. Reading the website, there's also an interesting sounding Impurity mechanic that makes you more target-able when you attack enemies or heal your party. This mechanic sounds really interesting, although I probably didn't notice it due to the language barrier. Even so, battling was one of the funnest things to do it Future Past’s demo and is one of the most memorable parts of my time with it.

The another part of God Wars: Future Past I really liked were the gorgeous visuals. The beginning moments of Future Past are stunning and detailed anime-style cutscenes, battles look like they were painted and even though outside of cutscenes chibi-style characters are used, it all works together perfectly with the painterly look. The colourful and detailed art style is a true feast for the eyes and really brings the Japanese style world to life.

What I learned about God Wars: Future Past while playing its demo was that it's probably going to be an interesting and pretty way to experience Japanese mythology. The story of gods and sacrifice will likely make it a unique story and I’d definitely love to see more of its beautiful art style. I don't know if I'll be rushing to get it, but God Wars: Future Past’s demo was a decent-sized look at it and I’d recommend giving it a try if Japanese mythology is your thing.

You can pre-order God Wars: Future Past at Play-Asia.com!
(This is an affiliate link that helps support my JRPG Jungle content, so if you use it, thank you! <3)

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What do you think of God Wars: Future Past so far? Are you going to play it?
Leave a comment below, send me a tweet at @JRPGJungle, hit me up on Facebook, Youtube or Instagram and let's talk!

Thanks so much for stopping by!
Make sure to follow the blog here, follow @JRPGJungle on Twitter and Instagram, like JRPG Jungle on Facebook and Subscribe to the mailing list and Youtube Channel for updates on content and random musings on JRPG news and games. You're awesome! <3

How Playing Games in Japanese Made Me Appreciate English Dubs

A short time ago, I could play JRPGs in subbed and dubbed forms no problem. JRPG voice actors are high quality in both Japanese and Western voice tracks nowadays, and I was lucky to be playing subbed JRPGs at all, right? There are certainly characters I have a voice preference for, such as Tharja from Fire Emblem Awakening's low creepy voice in the Japanese version and pretty much anything Erin Fitzgerald does a cartoon-style voice for in Western JRPGs including Chie Satonaka from Persona 4, but this usually never stopped me from enjoying the other version.

My opinion on subbed or dubbed games changed after I played Final Fantasy X HD in Japanese for fun study. I chose Final Fantasy X to play because I knew the story so well and could already play the game well enough to focus on the language learning for my Japanese. I found it really interesting hearing the Japanese voice track and actually preferred quite a few of the Japanese voices, not because the English voice acting was bad (I don't even mind the infamous ‘hahaha’ scene), just because of personal preference. I got very used to trying to get some sort of meaning from the Japanese which was great for when I play games in Japanese only, but pretty much ruined subbed games for me.

I'd like to stress that subbed games being ruined for me isn't anyone's fault but my own for the most part. What's happened is that now when I play a subbed game, I'm still trying to get meaning from the Japanese and during this, there’s a chance I’ll get completely wrapped up in the concept of exact translation vs localisation. I get tied up in really small localisation tidbits, not because I know better than the wonderful people who localisation, but just hearing minor differences. I can't think of any specific instances recently as I've been strictly using dubs for a while but it could be the difference between something in the Japanese track saying ‘yes’ and the English track changing it to ‘Yes sir’ or ‘Yeah man’. The meaning is the same but the personality being displayed in the speaking style is enough to set my brain into overdrive. For a lot of people this probably is a non-issue, but for me it really pulls me out of being immersed in the game.

And that's what I've come to appreciate about dubs: the true immersion they provide. I think most people would agree that hearing, reading and seeing something you 100% understand makes it much easier to take something in. Especially in cutscenes, being able to focus on the entire screen and not the line of text lets me pay attention to the small details the make a scene go from great to amazing. A non-JRPG example I've noticed this with is the Danganronpa 3 anime dub. When I watch the dub instead of the sub, my eyes are free to look for clues to the mystery. On top of this, English voice acting is at a very high standard at the moment and the voice actors in games do a great job of doing justice to the Japanese versions, often using similar pitches and tones to create the most faithful experience to the original character. I’m a bit of a purist at heart, so being able to feel like I’m getting something as close as possible to the source material makes me enjoy dubs even more.

Despite this, it hasn't completely ruined subbed games for me. If it's the only option between not having the game and having a subbed version, I will gladly take a subbed game any day. One of my favourite games of last year, Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth, is only available in English in subbed form. Even though it had a few very minor typos here and there, the deep gameplay and fun story was enough to keep me absorbed and hearing the great Japanese voice acting was a nice bonus. An English dub would have been nice but with all the Digimon to voice alongside the main characters, it would no doubt be expensive and for a smaller game, I can see why they saved the money and just released the sub.

It's fantastic that a majority of JRPGs offer both a subbed and dubbed option nowadays. There are definitely people who prefer one over the other and as a person who used to not be bothered, it's nice to be able to choose more often than not depending on what I'm feeling at the time. At the moment, I'm really enjoying the full immersion I feel from dubbed JRPGs and hope for more JRPGs to get dubbed for others who feel the same. Above all, I'm just happy we're lucky enough to get all these great games localised for our enjoyment!

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Do you prefer subs, dubs or the native experience? What's your favourite dubbed-JRPG?

Leave a comment below, send me a tweet at @JRPGJungle, hit me up on Facebook, Youtube or Instagram and let's talk!

Thanks so much for stopping by!
Make sure to follow the blog here, follow @JRPGJungle on Twitter and Instagram, like JRPG Jungle on Facebook and Subscribe to the mailing list and Youtube Channel for updates on content and random musings on JRPG news and games. You're awesome! <3

3 JRPG New Year Resolutions for 2017 ~Realistic Edition~

Let’s start the New Year with some honesty - my last two gaming resolution plans haven’t been the most successful. I made resolutions then ended up becoming overwhelmed between achieving them, fulfilling my regular JRPG desires and living my everyday life, and eventually abandoned all except one or two of them. This bums me out, because I get very excited to achieve all of my goals and I set them because they’re something I actually think I should do. Not being able to do them makes me feel like something I want is missing from my JRPG life and I’d like to make my JRPG life as great as possible.

To make my gaming resolutions more achievable, I’m doing three instead of five this year. It’s a simple solution that I think will make things a lot more doable and I’m already excited about the goals I’ve chosen as they’re three things that I really wanted to do last year but I didn’t have (or give myself) the time to do. Here are my three gaming resolutions, posted with high hopes that I will stick to them!

Play an old game from a JRPG series

The one resolution I regretted not doing last year was playing another old Final Fantasy game. This was my favourite resolution to complete in 2015 when I played Final Fantasy IX as it really made me feel like I got to know the Final Fantasy series better while playing a fantastic JRPG that was totally new to me. I’d like to do this again to educate myself as a JRPG fan who mostly plays modern titles and I hope to find another great game I've missed out on.

Plan: I'd like to do this with either Final Fantasy or Persona preferably, especially since I have Persona 2: Innocent Sin (which I started a few days ago!) and Final Fantasy VIII digitally already. Some of my readers/Twitter friends have also recommended great older JRPGs such as Legend of Heroes, multiple Tales of... titles and Fire Emblem games, so I have plenty to choose from depending on my mood. Since a lot of the games I’m really hyped for have been delayed or don’t have solid dates, I’m confident I’ll achieve this goal but I'll be doing my best to start playing old titles from now on.

Finish Persona 5 in English and Japanese

I’ve talked about my journey playing Persona 5 in Japanese and it hasn’t been easy. However, I’ve probably spent 10+ hours doing this and I want to see it through to the end, even if it will take a lot of time considering it's taken this long and I'm honestly not even at the second save point. Finishing Persona 5 in English is a given considering how important Persona 4 Golden was to me, but I would love to make Persona 5 the second game I’ve completed in Japanese. When I played Final Fantasy X in Japanese, I felt like I learnt a lot and became more comfortable hearing the language for long periods of time, so playing more Persona 5 to improve my Japanese seems like a fun and productive idea, especially with a game that I still have hype for!

Plan: I already try to dedicate an hour a week minimum to playing Persona 5 and using my dictionary to understand the story. I will keep doing this with the hope that the more Japanese words I study and learn, the less I have to look up and the faster I’ll be able to get through Persona 5 in Japanese. Completing Persona 5 in English will be no problem as long as it sucks me in as much as Persona 4 Golden did, so the real challenge will be (and already is) the Japanese version!

Platinum a JRPG

Regretfully, I didn’t platinum any games in 2016. In fact, I haven’t platinumed anything since February 2015 when I platinumed Trigger Happy Havoc: Danganronpa. I love the challenge that comes with platinuming games, so I would love to get back into it. I want to play side quests, level up my party to ridiculous levels and indulge my inner completionist just a little.

Plan: To also assist my Japanese studies, every time I found a JRPG I wanted to Platinum in 2016, I internally made a note that I should buy the game in Japanese to do a platinum run. I plan to do this with a few games already, such as Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth and World of Final Fantasy, so I hope I can start buying the Japanese versions of these games and doing this soon. As I've mentioned, I already own Persona 5 in Japanese and am going through it very slowly to study from it, so it’s also a candidate as I highly enjoyed platinuming Persona 4 Golden for eight months (no sarcasm, I loved it) and I’ll have a head start from trying to complete it in Japanese.

These three JRPG resolutions I know will take time and effort to complete, but with plans in place to complete them I hope I can actually achieve them. I hope these resolutions will allow me to appreciate some 'historical' JRPGs, along with giving me a deeper appreciation of ones I already love. I also hope to open up the world of unlocalised JRPGs a little more so I can have even more games to play, with language being less of a barrier for a certain game I want to complete. Fingers crossed I can report back with success, but my track record isn’t perfect so we’ll see if my high motivation lasts. Wish me luck!

As I did last year, I invite you guys to make your own by commenting on this post or posting with #3JRPGResolutions on social media (please tag me so I can see yours! <3)

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What are your JRPG New Year Resolutions? What JRPGs are you looking forward to this year?

Leave a comment below, send me a tweet at @JRPGJungle, hit me up on Facebook or Instagram and let's talk!

Thanks so much for stopping by!
Make sure to follow the blog here, follow @JRPGJungle on Twitter and Instagram, like JRPG Jungle on Facebook and Subscribe to the mailing list for updates on content and random musings on JRPG news and games. You're awesome! <3

The Reality of Playing Persona 5 In Japanese When You're Not Fluent

It's not an easy time to be a spoiler-sensitive Persona fan. If you're wanting to go into Persona 5 in February with a clear head, there are hashtags, wikis and preview videos to actively avoid (seriously, avoid the wikis!). My initial plan was to be part of the spoiler-free crowd, but when Final Fantasy XV was delayed I decided to give into my Persona 5 impatience and bear the spoilers in order to fill my September gaming void and play a great game. But as someone only studying Japanese rather than fluent in the language, I was quickly reminded that Persona isn't a light JRPG. I found Persona 5’s story getting hazier as I spent my time focusing on merely getting through Persona 5 rather than fully and easily experiencing it like I normally would in English. At its core, buying Persona 5 before release may seem like a good idea, but if you’re like me and love Persona’s story, getting it in Japanese when you’re not fluent won’t give you the same experience the English release.

It's not a complete uphill battle to play Persona 5 in Japanese though. If you've played a Persona game or two, you can probably work how to play Persona 5 at the very least. Same as the other main series Persona games, gameplay is similar enough between each edition that it’s pretty easy to work out how to play one Persona game if you’ve played another. It’s the same with Persona 5, with the added bonus of it being polite enough to put some of the basic battle controls and main menu interface in English. For dialogue heavy moments, because Persona 5 is such a visual improvement on pre-current gen Persona games, it’s easier to get context from the visuals making Persona 5 a bit easier for international players. If missing plot intricacies doesn’t bother you, mechanical knowledge of Persona and some button mashing through new mechanics is most likely enough to at least get to the end of Persona 5. This is how I played through the first dungeon of Persona 5 and despite wanting to understand more of the story, I was able to have a lot of fun with the battle mechanics and understand just enough of the story for it to be interesting. Dungeons were probably the most stress free part of my dictionary-free run because of the battles and animated cutscenes, so if you’re importing this aspect won’t be too much of a problem and they're a good way to have fun with Persona 5.

My Japanese is....(see above)

If Persona 5 was all dungeon crawler and no dialogue, it wouldn't pose as much of a problem to the non-Japanese speaking player. However a lot of Persona’s core is narrative, with some of the series best and most unique mechanics including Social Links and the new Demon Negotiation using dialogue as an important game mechanic. A lot can be gathered from visual cues, however with Persona’s characters always having well-rounded personalities and long dialogue scenes, it’s easy to miss important plot intricacies with little or no Japanese knowledge. With my lower level Japanese, I could gather a few of these intricacies but I did find when speaking to my boyfriend (who is much better at Japanese), there were still a lot of things I missed. I didn’t fully understand just how evil the antagonists were because of what I missed in the dialogue and there were developments I really wish I had been able to understand for myself. It’s to be expected since I'm not fluent in Japanese, but Persona is so largely story-based that I couldn’t help but feel like I was missing really important things. Social links are another beast, as I found myself matching words or kanji I knew in dialogue choices when I don’t understand what’s going on, with mixed success. By the beginning of Persona 5’s second dungeon, I found myself pretty nervous as I always wondered if I was missing something important I'd been told to do that was vital to the next boss and if I’d be sent to game over town because I hadn't been able to understand what to do.

There is hope though. For the patient and for those with an interest in learning Japanese, my trusty picture translator and dictionary method requires me be much more patient, but works in Persona 5. In my new save file, I’ve been able to look things up to my heart’s content and actually understand what's going on, which makes me feel way happier when I play. It is, however, taking a lot longer; I’m not at the first save point yet and it’s probably been 4 hours in my new save file. But feeling like I know what’s going on is important to me, which is what drove me to write this article. Some people won’t mind getting a glimpse at Persona 5 without understanding everything, but if you love the details of Persona’s stories, actually waiting may not be a bad idea for a game like Persona. If you want to understand how truly evil some of the characters are, you may not get that from a bunch of words you can’t read and some maniac laughter as much as you think, which is what I found in my first save file. I completely understand the impatience of waiting for such an anticipated and consistently great series, but as I said in my previous article about playing Persona 5 before release, localisations exist because of how much dialogue there is to translate and Persona 5 probably has more than ever.

Playing Persona 5 pre-dictionary was like looking at it through a glass door: I could see the coolness of Persona 5 - the gorgeous visuals, the improved battle system - but I was missing a lot of details and those details are what makes a Persona narrative so hard-hitting. I'm going to keep playing Persona 5, but I may abandon my dictionary-free save and take my time learning new words and understanding the story. I can’t promise that playing Persona 5 will be cool for people who don’t speak Japanese and for those who speak it on a lower level like mine as there will be nuances missed out on unless you approach it with patience. But I also understand for a lot of people, merely playing Persona 5 is what they want and they can live without knowing every detail and I kind of envy that in some ways. No matter when or how you play Persona 5, I encourage everyone as its load screen regularly reminds me to ‘Take Your Time’ and enjoy the intricate world that is Persona 5 in the way you can have the most fun possible.

You can pre-order Persona 5 for PS3 and PS4 in English or buy the Japanese version at Play-Asia.com!

(This link helps support the site, so if you use it or buy something from there, thank you!)

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Do you play games in Japanese before they're localised? What's your best/worst import game experience?

Leave a comment below, send me a tweet at @JRPGJungle, hit me up Facebook or Instagram and let's talk!

Thanks so much for stopping by!
Make sure to follow the blog here, follow @JRPGJungle on Twitter and Instagram and like JRPG Jungle on Facebook for updates on content and random musings on JRPG news and games. You're awesome! <3

First Impressions: Persona 5 (PS3, Japanese version)

After a long wait for Persona 5, I can barely believe that it’s out and inside my PS3. While plenty of people are still waiting for the English localisation, other people like myself have bought the Japanese version to get a peek before the slow-approaching February localised release and/or to play it out of sheer impatience (I’m in both parties). Persona 5 has plenty of high expectations to live up to thanks to the generally high quality of Persona games and after playing Persona 5 for over 26 hours (at the time of writing), I think most Persona fans will be pleased with Persona 5 for many different reasons. The gameplay, story, music, artwork and UIs shine in true Persona style and with every character design, transition screen and new game mechanic, it seems like a lot of love was put into crafting the incredibly fun JRPG that is Persona 5.

If you're a Persona fan that’s missed changing Personas on the fly, Social Links or deciding what to do with your after school time, you’ll find all of this in Persona 5 in its finest form. For starters,, as Persona’s first complete main series addition on current gen consoles (the last release was originally on PS2), everything is significantly smoother and more stylish in Persona 5. From load screens to switching Personas, everything in Persona 5 is really fluid, making getting immersed in the gameplay effortless. I’m playing on PS3 and while I’m sure there are more load screens than the PS4 counterpart, all the transition screens are not only fairly short but also tend to be related to the area I’m in some way. Seeing people on the train passing by when commuting to school or the Phantom pulling down a curtain in the dungeon is that amazing attention to detail Persona excels at and makes me feel so much better than just looking at a blank screen between scenes. The 2.5D and animated cutscenes are a huge step up from previous Persona games and are much more in line with Catherine quality visuals than Persona 4 Golden. This vast improvement in visual quality acts like a fresh coat of paint for Persona 5, with all my favourite Persona mechanics still familiar but feeling completely fresh.

Gameplay in Persona 5 hasn’t only been upgraded visually. The added mechanics in Persona 5 are what really bring the experience to another level and while the original gameplay featured in past Persona games was already great, these changes add depth that take everything to a new level. My absolute favourite addition to Persona 5 so far is the Demon Negotiation in battles. The choosing cards after battles from previous Persona games has been taken out and replaced by asking weakened enemy Personas to become your own Persona or to give you items or money through making the right dialogue choices, similar to Shin Megami Tensei. All of the demons have very amusing dialogues and trying to win them over really suits the social aspect of Persona all while adding a new layer of completing to battles. Other great additions to Persona 5 include being able to jump and sneak behind things in the expanded dungeons, with the sneaking around being a really fun way to catch enemies off guard. On top of this, I just finished the first dungeon and got presented with even more new mechanics to use and I’m sure there are more coming. Players can expect a lot to do and personalise your Persona experience with thanks to all of these enriching new features and I'm looking forward to finding more as I continue on my Persona 5 journey.

A highly important part of any Persona game is story and while my understanding of Persona 5’s isn’t perfect thanks to my lower level of Japanese, I can say the theme and characters are compelling. As Persona 4’s bright yellows echoed the positive vibe and characters, Persona 5’s red theme is equally representative of the darker tone so far. Story events seem to be more sinister, with moments details in the story and the Velvet Room in general echoing this. Despite this, there are quite few appropriately placed humourous moments and exchanges, which I was pleased to see keeps true to Persona’s balanced high school life feeling, making Persona 5 digestible to players who started from Persona 4 and making the characters feel very real. Main characters are engaging thanks to their cool mix of teenage attitude and sense of justice against the antagonists, who are so far interesting with their outlandish personalities in dungeons and their moral corruptness in the regular world. I really like the characters and the surprises the plot has presented so far and the good story pace makes things feel constantly exciting while still giving me the freedom to partake in the day-to-day Persona activities.

Speaking of day-to-day activities, returning to Persona 5 are the fun part time jobs, reading books and making friends (social links) the Persona series is known for, all set in a huge realistic Tokyo with an overwhelmingly exciting amount of things to do. This is one of the aspects I definitely have a lot more exploring to do in, but I will say there are so many people to talk to, social links to find and small places to visit. My hardest decisions so far have been whether to follow the suggestions it gives me (such as visiting the library for the first time to find or checking out a famous restaurant), or to freely explore the modern Tokyo world and its vast amount of stores and people to talk to. It’s overwhelming in the best way and I can’t wait to make friends (social links) with all of the characters that I’ve seen around town so far. Credit also is due to the incredibly accurate portrayal of modern-day Tokyo, from the train announcements down to the slightly altered place names. Being in Japan, I feel a connection to the environment whenever I see somewhere similar to real-world Tokyo (the train stations are particularly familiar) and I'm sure others who have visited Tokyo may have this too.

If you're waiting for Persona 5 to come out in English, there’s plenty to be excited about in Persona 5. As someone who has played Persona 3 and 4, the level of detail added to Persona 5 and the beautiful UI, detailed environments and put-on-repeat music are all cherries on top of great gameplay and story with a new brand new tone. I'm already gearing up to play the English version to understand the finer intricacies of the story, but from the gameplay alone, Persona 5 is worth the wait and must-try for all Persona fans and fans of high-school JRPGs.

You can pre-order Persona 5 for PS3 and PS4 in English or buy the Japanese version at Play-Asia.com!

(This link helps support the site, so if you use it or buy something from there, thank you!)

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If you're playing Persona 5 in Japanese, what's your opinion of the game? And if you're waiting, what are you most excited for in Persona 5?

Leave a comment below, send me a tweet at @JRPGJungle, hit me up Facebook or Instagram and let's talk!

Thanks so much for stopping by!
Make sure to follow the blog here, follow @JRPGJungle on Twitter and Instagram and like JRPG Jungle on Facebook for updates on content and random musings on JRPG news and games. You're awesome! <3

Pictures note: Since I don't have any game capture equipment for PS3, most screenshots (other than the all-out attack one which is from Google) were sourced from Persona 5's official website and seem likely to be for the PS4 version of the game

To Play Persona 5 In Japanese or To Wait: That is the Question

If you've read my blog for awhile, you probably know I'm a big fan of the Final Fantasy and Persona series. I've bought, pre-ordered, played old and new games from both series, and most importantly I’ve put hundreds of hours of play time into them. So of course, I'm definitely excited about Persona 5 and Final Fantasy XV. Since I can safely say they’re two of my all time favourite JRPG series, I was quite concerned about September being the time where both Final Fantasy XV and Persona 5 were to be released. But with the recent pre-E3 announcement of Persona 5’s English release being in 2017, I can safely say that Final Fantasy XV will be getting the bulk of my gaming time in September this year.

But this leaves me with a new JRPG dilemma. As an overly keen Persona fan that wanted to play Persona 5 as soon as possible, I'd already placed a pre-order on the Japanese version in case something like this happened and to make sure I got the cool, special edition (that you can get for the English version anyway). I really hoped that I could play the English version first as I'd naturally understand it better with English being my native tongue. While I’ve been studying Japanese for about two years, I’ve had enough up and down periods with my studies to definitely only think of myself as somewhere in the beginner territory. I could maybe understand enough of Persona 5 from the visuals, but I wouldn’t understand it as deeply as I’d like to. But I love Persona and I want to play this epic game right now and being patient is difficult for me, so I created this list of the pros and cons of playing Persona 5 both for fun and for my own sanity to decide whether or not I should wait for Persona 5's English release or play it in Japanese in September.

Review: Platinum Demo - Final Fantasy XV

Final Fantasy XV has got a lot of expectations to live up to. It's been floating around for almost 10 years, beginning as Final Fantasy Versus XIII and resurfacing at E3 a few years ago as Final Fantasy XV. For almost 10 years, myself and others have been waiting to find out when it'll be out, what it'll be and will it be better than more recent Final Fantasy games that a lot of fans didn't enjoy so much. Despite this, I walked into Platinum Demo: Final Fantasy XV with leftover hype and positive expectations for the game following the Final Fantasy XV Uncovered event. The demo is only 20-30 minutes long, but it's a good teaser for the full game, showcasing some of what's to be expected from the game's combat, boss battles and interactive worlds.

Platinum Demo is a standalone story that won't be featured in Final Fantasy XV. It looks into a dream from Noctis' childhood where small Noctis is led through the game by Carbuncle, an adorable rabbit like creature that's featured in other Final Fantasy games. The goal of the demo is to get Noctis to awaken from the deep sleep he's in, so he must explore and survive this dream world in order to wake up. While there isn't any significant detail given to Noctis' character, the dream world is so incredibly stunning and the experience of just playing the game is good enough that it isn't really needed.

From the start menu to the landscapes, every character, every area and every gem is stunning in Platinum Demo. Maybe it's because I've been playing a PS2 classic recently, but I swear it's the most stunning game I've seen on my HD monitor. It's beauty makes exploring the world enjoyable from the get-go and each time a new area was unveiled, I wanted to explore all of it just to see how pretty everything was. Collecting gems from around the area have the ability to unlock coloured plates scattered around the world. These plates can do things such as change the weather or time of day, give gifts or change Noctis into something new. Because of how beautiful everything was, even being able to see the landscape go from Day to Night or from Sunny to Rainy was a little exciting, especially knowing the final game will feature these things in even bigger open world environments.

Aside from exploring the world, one of the most exciting things about Platinum Demo is finally being able to see the combat. Since I didn't play the Episode Duscue demo, I was most keen to see what kind of creatures and battle system would be used in Final Fantasy XV. Without separate screens for battles, battles are now completely active, which isn't a surprise considering more recent Final Fantasy games have been adopting versions of this style. Much like in Final Fantasy XIV or Kingdom Hearts, when you get close enough to an enemy, battle begins and enemies will begin to attack you. In this demo, you have the choice of a sword or a hammer as your main battle weapons, along with some magic items you can find as presents. Thanks to the active element of the battle, a little more skill is required now with locking onto enemies and aiming spells accurately as an important part of battle. Since these controlled similarly to Kingdom Hearts, I was able to pick this up quick enough thankfully, but this may be a surprise to some players. Another thing I really liked was the way it incorporated timed-battle buttons during the boss battle. At one point the boss was about to hit me, but I had the option of parrying his hit and making a counter attack if my thumbs were quick enough (they weren't). This reminded me of Final Fantasy XIII-2's version of this, but much better as it was apart of battle and could be used as a way to get an edge on an enemy for particularly sharp players. Even though I'm usually a fan of turn-based battle systems, I felt like Platinum Demo's combat was a breath of fresh air from previous games thanks to the way it required more skill and thinking on my feet.

I mentioned a little the Kingdom Hearts feel of the combat, but there are shades of Kingdom Hearts throughout Platinum Demo in more ways then one, perhaps due to how young Noctis is in this game. The second area available to explore has Noctis as a shrunk down version of himself, very reminiscent of the Alice in Wonderland world of Kingdom Hearts, the music is done by the composer who also composed for Kingdom Hearts and even the way Noctis wields a sword reminded me a bit of Sora from Kingdom Hearts with his keyblade. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it was a little surprising. I didn't mind it in some senses as it made the battle system feel more familiar, but I do hope that when Final Fantasy XV is released, Noctis being an adult feels like a more original character.

Like a good bite-sized experience, Platinum Demo: Final Fantasy XV left me wanting more with it's brief teasers of what will be seen in the full game of Final Fantasy XV. While it doesn't feature a deep story or a lot to do, just seeing the stunning visuals, fighting enemies big and small and collecting gems was a nice introduction to what the game will feature. Whether or not the actual game lives up to the positive impression left from this demo and Final Fantasy XV Uncovered, I can say this demo has me excited and intrigued about what's to come, with plenty revealed in the demo but with plenty of mysteries still in tact.

Score: 8.3/10

Finding different things on my three playthroughs was really fun and was a good teaser for what's to come and everything about it was stunningly beautiful!


You can pre-order Final Fantasy XV from Play-Asia.com now!
(This link helps support the site, so if you use it, thank you!)

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What did you think of Platinum Demo: Final Fantasy XV? What did you name your Carbuncle?

Leave a comment below or send me a tweet at @JRPGJungle and let's talk!

Thanks so much for stopping by!
Make sure to follow @JRPGJungle on Twitter for updates on content and random, shorter musings on JRPG news and games. You're awesome! <3

JRPG Anime Appreciation Post: Why Persona 4 the Animation Episodes 13 and 14 Are Good Filler

I usually have mixed feelings about Persona 4 the Animation. On one hand, it's entertaining and a fast way to relive the original story of Persona 4, which is pretty convenient considering the length of the game. On the other hand, I'm a total sucker for small details in fiction and Persona games in general are full of details. Anime and TV by nature are shorter mediums, meaning some of these details are forced to be omitted just because of time. But there's one great thing about the Persona anime series and it's that it uses filler episodes really well to give extra insight into characters, even expanding on the game's detail. Persona 4's shining glory are it's characters, so building upon the complex universe made in Persona 4 is the best way to use this 

I've been recently collecting the Japanese Persona 4 the Animation Blu-Rays from my local electronics store because the first few were quite cheap. I'm always on the hunt for ways to incorporate my love of JRPGs into my Japanese studies, so re-watching the series with Japanese voice acting seemed like a great idea. While doing this, I recently came across one of my favourite episodes from the series and it reminded me of why I enjoyed the anime even though it's not as deep as the game.

Episodes 13 and 14 'A Stormy Summer Vacation' (part 1 and 2) document Yu Narakami's busy Summer Vacation, where it seems like he's grinding his social links hanging out with new friends and creating memorable bonds, just like in the game. The episode is divided into two parts, but explore the same time period from different perspectives. Episode 13 is from Nanako's perspective and Episode 14 comes back to Narakami's.

My favourite of the two episodes is Episode 13, in which the adorable Nanako could be considered the star of the episode. She's missing her big brother while he's spending time with other people so she becomes motivated and excited by her favourite TV show to find out what he's doing. There's a magical girl detective show on TV, so Nanako decides to 'investigate' what her brother is doing and the episode takes a mostly comedic tone from there, with Nanako and the main cast of Persona 4 making outlandish assumptions about what was going on with Narukami's life, causing Nanako to become even more worried.

Mixed in with the comedic stance is also exploration of Nanako's feelings of loneliness. Nanako's loneliness is explored a little in the Persona 4 game (and Persona 4 Golden), but this episode goes much more in-depth by exploring it in a lighthearted manner. Nanako begins her adventure as a cosplaying magical girl with the intention of seeing what he's up to. The episode does a great job at portraying Nanako's childlike determination and also the potential misinterpretations made when snooping, especially by a child.

While Nanako's story is a tale of loneliness, Yu's story in Episode 14 is one of balancing friendships and responsibility. The title 'Stormy Summer Vacation' is most appropriate in this episode, as Yu is so busy trying to please as many people as possible that his life could be feeling quite turbulent. Although I enjoyed the comedy more in Nanako's episode, this episode is essential as it clears up all the assumptions made in Episode 13 and shows Narukami's true intentions and endearing struggles he goes through for his friends. Episode 14 also shows most of the side Social Link characters from the Persona 4 game, a great move for the show as these characters are sometimes overlooked in favour of the main characters, but are an enjoyable and important part of the game, so it's nice to see them getting some screen time in the show.

These episodes are a high point in Persona 4 the Animated Series thanks to the extra insight into both Yu and Nanako. I loved seeing all the side social link characters mixed in with the main ones and enjoyed the comedic change of pace in the series. As filler episodes, I think they're a good addition to the series for character development. Even though they kind of reiterate qualities of Nanako and Yu that most fans would already be aware of, it's done in a chaotic and humourous way that portrays it well for the people who haven't played the game and gives a new piece of story for those who have. The balance of these things create a valuable filler episode that's worth not skipping over before moving back to the main story.

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Which is your favourite episode of Persona 4 the Animation? What do you think of the series?

Leave a comment below or send me a tweet at @JRPGJungle and let's talk!

Thanks so much for stopping by!
Make sure to follow @JRPGJungle on Twitter for updates on content and random, shorter musings on JRPG news and games. You're awesome! <3

Note: None of the photos in this article are my own screenshots from the show. All watermarks have been kept in tact to show where these photos came from originally.

What I Learned: Finishing A Native Japanese RPG For The First Time

If you've been following the blog for over a year, you'll know I made 'Play a native Japanese RPG from start to finish' one of my New Years Resolutions for 2015. I didn't completely finish any during 2015 despite trying to play a few, such as Ciel no Surge and Omega Quintet. However, as of February 5th 2016, I finished the Japanese edition of Final Fantasy X!

I've played Final Fantasy X in English a bazillion times, so my experience is probably quite different to playing a completely new story in another language. It was still challenging but it was also an interesting and enjoyable experience, thanks to the interesting differences between the import and localised versions. Because I initially found it challenging coming from it with a "I must learn all words and sentences for my Japanese" perspective, my strategy for enjoying and completing this kind of game changed a lot along the way. I hope this can help anyone trying to do the same thing!

Playing a game in a foreign language is only as difficult as you make it!

While difficult gameplay crosses language borders, a language barrier is only a barrier if you let it be. Before I decided to play Final Fantasy X in Japanese, I had tried to play a few games in Japanese, including Ciel no Surge, Persona 4 Dancing All Night and Omega Quintet. I'm a story fiend, so I tended to make them all more difficult for myself because I wanted to understand everything. Dictionaries were used, notes were made and I was overwhelmed at the extra work I had to do while trying to have fun. Learning to play a new game's mechanics is enough for me, especially long games, which is typically what JRPGs are.

I played Final Fantasy X using what I already knew about the game and Japanese, and after awhile it became easier to match regularly seen and used buttons and words to the visuals and dialogue. It took a lot of trial and error at first, but I forced myself to only pull my dictionary out when I was curious about something rather than when I needed it. Eventually you learn 'these symbols will take me to the sphere grid' and 'this part of the menu is usually casts fire'. This made my experience much more about playing and exploring the game than studying or having a foreign language in front of me.

You might learn some really random words anyway, whether you intend to or not.

Repetition is a funny thing and a great tool for learning. After playing Final Fantasy X, I now know that random words like 'shoukan' means summon and 'wairo' means bribe. They're probably words I won't use a lot in daily conversation with Japanese people, but I know them because I've seen and heard them so often. I found it really fun remembering really random Japanese words like this and attack names. It's not only useful for getting through the game, it's kind of fun if you have an interest in languages or playing similar games.

(Side note: and after looking up the kanji/reading for the word summon, I've noticed it in other JRPG trailers which is kind of cool. Thanks FFX!)

If you've played the localised version of the Japanese game you're playing, expect some interesting voices.

I was highly entertained by hearing the voices and mannerisms of some of my favourite characters' Japanese voice counterparts. A big difference I noticed was the high voices of female characters like Rikku and the baritone voices of characters like Auron and Seymour. The English version of the game does it's best to echo this (and voice actors like Tara Strong for Rikku definitely do a great job of it), but hearing what these were based was an experience nonetheless. For Rikku, I felt like I really understood her young age a bit more (she's 15 in Final Fantasy X) and for Wakka, it was almost beautiful not to hear him say 'ya' about everything. It made me appreciate English localisers for the care they usually put into localising things accurately and also gave me a new appreciation for the talented voice actors on the Japanese version too. I definitely still like the voice actors in the English version, but I did find some characters, like Wakka and Seymour, that I preferred as the Japanese voice actors.

You may notice some dialogue differences from the localised version (depending on the game).

I've played Final Fantasy X on PS2 more times than I can count, so my memory of the game's dialogue was my little secret weapon for if I had a point of total confusion. Because of my memory of the English dialogue, it was extremely interesting to see small little dialogue choices in the Japanese version. I don't want to spoil anything, but a certain key dialogue change in a certain goodbye scene (If spoilers aren't an issue, you can read about on the Final Fantasy wikia) was quite surprising to me until I read into it and other little changes like that in scenes made me stop and think for a second about why they chose to change it for the English edition. I can imagine most of it's just nuance and culture differences, but it makes me interested in the little changes that have been made to some of my other favourite series, such as Persona or Danganronpa, that I may not have ever known about otherwise.

It also really made me realise why localisations exist.

Localisations make these Japanese games much easier for us to understand and consume. Although it's definitely possible to play through a Japanese game and still have a relaxing, fun time, it's also much easier and faster to absorb the dialogue and story in your native language and requires less brain work and trial and error. I really enjoyed trying a native Japanese JRPG, but I also realise why there's no harm in waiting for a localisation and for the English voice acting. Reading subs or trying to understand a language you don't know as well your native language does require more patience, so I have a deeper respect for the people who make playing Japanese RPGs much easier for those who don't speak Japanese.

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In the end, my experience playing a game in a foreign language was defined by the way I approached it. I didn't understand everything, but I understood enough from context and the Japanese I already knew. If you're studying Japanese, it's a great way to reinforce words and a fun way to learn some weird JRPG specific words. If you're just playing for fun, if you can get past the foreign language, it provides some new entertainment from the wonderful Japanese voice actors, story changes and the universally fun gameplay (if you're playing a good game of course). If you're up for a challenge or you're a patient person, I recommend giving it a try if you're interested!

Whether you're looking for a localised or import game, you can find both at Play-Asia.com.

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Have you tried playing an imported game? Do you prefer playing native or localised JRPGs?

Leave a comment below or send me a tweet at @JRPGJungle and let's talk!

Thanks so much for stopping by!
Make sure to follow @JRPGJungle on Twitter for updates on content and random, shorter musings on JRPG news and games. You're awesome! <3

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