Why I'm Not Ashamed of Playing on Easy Mode

Booting up most games these days, I’m met with a decision. A decision that affects important parts of my game experience, such as challenge or the time it takes to play, which has a large effect on my overall game enjoyment. This decision is choosing a difficulty mode. I find changing difficulty modes along the way distracting, so I want to get it right the first time and there’s a very easy way to tackle this decision - choosing Easy mode.

There may be a slight stigma towards playing games on Easy. I imagine some people have thoughts such as "It takes the skill or challenge out of playing", "It’s not really playing the game", "It’s for weaklings" etc etc, or at least that’s the internal dialogue I had with myself the first time I made the switch into easy town. But playing on easy mode has allowed me the opportunity to try more games by giving myself a little speed boost and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with wanting a relaxing experience in one’s gaming downtime.

Review: Fire Emblem Heroes (Reviewed on iOS, also on Android)

JRPG fans have been pretty lucky over the last few years to be getting great smartphone games. There was Final Fantasy Record Keeper in 2015, Final Fantasy Brave Exvius and Kingdom Hearts Unchained χ in 2016. With great tactical gameplay reminiscent of the 3DS Fire Emblem games and a wealth of characters and things to keep players busy, Fire Emblem Heroes may be 2017’s killer RPG app.

Fire Emblem Heroes begins with the light premise that you have been summoned to help the Order of Heroes restore other hero worlds that are regularly being invaded by dark forces. You can do this thanks to your ability to summon powerful heroes to fight by your side, with these heroes being familiar characters from the Fire Emblem series. As I’ve only played Fire Emblem Awakening outside of Heroes, it wasn’t until the Awakening chapter that I realised each chapter was based around the world and characters of a Fire Emblem game. Particularly in the Awakening chapters, it was cool to be versing teams of characters similar to the ones I would’ve formed in Awakening and the chapters with characters I didn’t know were a nice introduction other Fire Emblem games.

The tactical system used in Fire Emblem Heroes will be very familiar to those who have played the series. Battles are done on a grid map and with your team of four, your goal is to wipe out your opposing team, whether your challenge is one of the pre-made teams in Story Mode or player-made teams in the Arena. The usual Fire Emblem rock-paper-scissors tactic applies in Heroes in a simplified form and is visible on the bottom corner of the screen, making executing good tactical plays in Heroes very easy to confirm and check. Since Heroes is a smartphone game, the main difference between Heroes and the 3DS Fire Emblems is that everything is easily done through dragging characters to enemies. Battles are pretty short, usually a couple of minutes unless you’re versing a particularly difficult team or you’re under-leveled. The short length of battles may seem like it would counter the tactical nature of Fire Emblem, but I actually enjoyed being able to have a quick battle using simple tactics when I only had a minute or being able to play many rounds if I had more time and stamina.

Speaking of Stamina, Fire Emblem Heroes is a free app with in-app purchases, so the usual limitations to free players apply, but I haven’t felt too restricted yet. All players have 50 Stamina points (with no plans as of yet to expand this), which means as your party levels up and you start playing harder levels, your play time slowly decreases. In the normal difficulty mode, story levels start at 2 Stamina, while the Lunatic ones start at 11 and go up to a costly 23. Stamina can be restored with Orbs or Stamina Potions, but these are mostly available in limited quantities. Orbs can be made less limited for those who want to spend real money in Fire Emblem Heroes. I'm the type of smartphone gamer (and person) who avoids spending extra money like the plague and I'm pleased to say I could do almost everything I wanted to in Heroes without spending a cent, especially with the extra orbs and potions given to celebrate the apps launch. I always like smartphone games that make payment an option rather than a must and so far Heroes is definitely one of these.

And that's the best part of Fire Emblem Heroes: there's a whole lot to do. There's the story and three difficulty modes, an Arena that can be played three times a day for free, and events with new heroes and orbs, plus a Training Tower where you can train the many collectible heroes. There's the addictive Hero Gacha system which will probably be the main draw to buy orbs, where you select from class colours and see which hero you get, as it's the main way to get heroes. For the casual smartphone player, all this content will probably keep you going until well after there is more released and for the dedicated, there's the promise of new content every couple of weeks. As long as Heroes keeps making events that support those who make purchases and occasionally gives orbs to those who don't, there's a good reason to keep playing and I'm already looking forward to future events.

With the already great Fire Emblem battle system, good tactical gameplay and accessibility is balanced well in Fire Emblem Heroes and it's a pocket-sized reminder of how fun Fire Emblem is. The Hero collection aspect is complemented well by the addictive gacha system and with a wealth of content and a nonrestrictive payment model, I'm happy to add it to my group of smartphone games I play on the go. If it keeps getting support like it has with its launch, Fire Emblem Heroes is a fantastic option for the casual tactical JRPG fan or the Fire Emblem fan who left their 3DS at home.

Score: 9/10

Now please excuse me, I need to gacha for my Tharja.

You can pick up Fire Emblem Heroes in the App Store or the Google Play Store.

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Will you play Fire Emblem Heroes? Which characters do you want in your party?

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!
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The Results of My 2016 Gaming New Year Resolutions - Success or Failure?

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

1. Play (and finish) a Pokemon game

Result: Played a bit of Diamond and the Sun and Moon demo. Didn't finish one.

Having just gotten a 3DS when I wrote my gaming resolutions last year, I definitely had some 3DS fever influencing my Resolutions and forgot about the fact that I'm invested in so many PlayStation series having almost exclusively played PlayStation games since I was a kid. I did however try my best to play Pokemon Diamond in Japanese without a dictionary and while it was pretty fun, I kept getting lost in a town and not playing for a bit and well, I haven’t touched it in months.

I played the Pokemon Sun and Moon demo in English and enjoyed it quite a bit, but with World of Final Fantasy and Final Fantasy XV out around the same time as Sun and Moon, there wasn’t much chance of me committing to buying the game. So while I did play some Pokemon games this year, I’d say I didn’t play as much as I intended to when I bought my 3DS. I’d like to play more Pokemon sometime, but perhaps when there are less exciting games that I'm invested in just released.

2. Branch out to some different series

Result: Successful!

While I didn’t play Atelier or a main series Hyperdimension Neptunia game like I intended to, I can happily say I did try a bunch more series this year. I tried Indie JRPGs for the first time, such as the very fun X-Tactics and the intriguing Legrand Legacy and Light Fairytale, and I also tried other notable JRPG series such as Fire Emblem, Lost Dimension and Sorcery Saga that all left good impressions on me. I still have a big list of JRPGs I’d like to play still, such as the Disgaea series and Atelier, so I look forward to getting to them eventually.

3. Play some 3DS-only titles

Result: Played Fire Emblem Awakening and not much else

I had really good intentions with this goal. I've been really excited for some 3DS titles that I thought I'd never play such as Fire Emblem and Bravely Default and when I finally got my 3DS, I thought I'd play them all immediately. I got really good at diving into my backlog in 2015 and I kept getting into my backlog this year, which counter-productively is mostly PlayStation games. I did however finally play Fire Emblem: Awakening and it was one of the most fun games I played this year. I hope to play more next year but I don't know if I'll make any promises this time.

4. Play the Tomba! series

Result: Itch not scratched

I'll keep this brief since Tomba is pretty much not a JRPG - I didn't play Tomba and I don't know when I will. I would love to sit down and replay games such as Tomba, Spyro and Sonic from my childhood sometime, but I'm so focused on catching up on the JRPGs I haven't played that I don't know when I will. Maybe I'll play them in Japanese for study sometime, but it's unfortunately not high on my priority list at this point.

5. Play another classic Final Fantasy game

Result: Should’ve done this...didn't though

I played every new mobile Final Fantasy game, saw Kingsglaive twice in cinemas and am currently playing two console Final Fantasy games. Playing a classic Final Fantasy game crossed my mind multiple times but when it did, it was at a point where I felt like something different and since I consumed so many new Final Fantasy things in 2016, I don't think it's strange that I didn't finish this one. I would still like to play my way through the old Final Fantasy games so I'll be keeping Final Fantasy VIII in mind the next time I'm out of new games to play.

I spent most of my gaming year focusing on balancing my favourite franchises with new experiences. Although I only truly completed one out of five of my resolutions, it was a nice change to my gaming life. I'm really certain JRPG series but it's nice to remember there are other great franchises that I may love just as much, if not more than ones I'm familiar with. I'm also very thankful to everyone who recommended games to me in 2016 and in my new (potentially smaller) list of resolutions I hope I can be recommended more great games.

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Did you make any gaming resolutions for this year? How did they go?

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

PS. Merry Christmas! <3

Review: Fire Emblem Awakening (3DS)

When I began my tactical JRPG kick, Fire Emblem was one of the first series I wanted to try. As a fan of the Persona series and after enjoying the fun tactical smartphone JRPG X-Tactics, Fire Emblem’s combination relationship and tactical mechanics sounded right up my alley. Fire Emblem Awakening may not be the most recent Fire Emblem game, but it doesn't take away from being a tactical JRPG triumph. With a well thought out and unique tactical battle system and twist-filled plot full of interesting characters, I was captivated with Fire Emblem Awakening from start to finish.

Fire Emblem Awakening’s story begins in the midst of a war between nations as the amnesiac Avatar (the customisable playable character) awakens in a field and is found by the royal family of the Ylisse nation, consisting of the strong-willed prince Chrom, his loyal knight Frederick and the light-hearted princess Lissa. The tactically-skilled Avatar quickly joins the nation's army and becomes a key member thanks to their ability in battle, which begins the epic and emotional story of Awakening. Fire Emblem Awakening goes beyond being a typical war story though, with an undertone of exploring the idea of fate and who can change the future adding uniqueness that style of story. Enhancing the story's biggest moments are the beautiful 2.5D style cutscenes and animation that really raise the biggest moments in Awakening to new heights and Awakening's cast of characters that strike a good balance between being likable and strong.

Complimenting Fire Emblem Awakening’s war story is its interesting and deep tactical battle system. Using Awakening’s large and diverse range of customisable characters and classes, each battle has your army and an opponent's fighting one another to either take out the army leader or the entire enemy army. Fire Emblem is known for its ‘rock, paper, scissor’ system where certain weapons and classes are better against each other, much like elemental spells in other JRPGs. It's an interesting way to decide which weapons to equip as I'm too used to in a lot of JRPGs picking the strongest weapon and dominating for a portion of the game. The new way of thinking when buying and equipping weapons was appreciated and saves some challenge for all parts of the game, whether you've been grinding your characters or not. I also liked that characters can equip up to 5 different spells and weapons, with each of them losing durability after each use making me plan carefully whether using a spell that may break completely was really worth using.

Apart from the fighting part of the battle system, my favourite aspect of the tactical system was pairing characters together to assist each other. This adds another layer to the battle system, with the relationship between the characters deciding how much of a benefit would be received from pairing certain characters. These benefits include how often attacks are stopped by a partner or having a potential extra hit or two on the enemy. It sounds like a lot to think about, but these mechanics work so seamlessly together that even new Fire Emblem players like myself should be able to pick them up easily enough.

Relationships were a big part of my Fire Emblem Awakening experience, especially since I enjoyed the Support System so much. The Support System gives a unique opportunity to get to know the characters and world of Fire Emblem Awakening through bonus dialogues while leveling up your relationship with the character to help in battle. There are many pleasant surprises to this system that I won't spoil, but the characters unlocked were great motivation to continue through the conversations and some of my favourite characters such as amusingly evil Tharja and the sweet-loving thief Gaius wouldn't have left such an impression on me without this exploration into Awakening's well-rounded characters creating different romantic and platonic relationships.

On top of the pleasant surprises found in battle and in its support system, Awakening provides plenty of replayability through gameplay difficulty, modes, a New Game Plus-like system and its various support pairing options so you can enjoy these for as long as possible. There are Normal, Hard and Lunatic difficulties to challenge yourself with, with Normal giving a significant amount more lucky evasion moments and Lunatic requiring a lot more tactical skill and strategy for each level to avoid constant character death. There's also the Classic and Casual game modes, with Casual allowing players to keep their knocked out units, while Classic implements ‘permadeath’, which doesn't affect the story but means the ‘dead’ units can be killed in battle and not used for the rest of the game. I played a combination of Normal difficulty with the Casual setting as it was my first Fire Emblem and still found enough challenge to not feel like I was being babied through the game, but I'm considering going back and trying Classic with the Lunatic difficulty for a true challenge to what most long-time Fire Emblem fans are more used to.

If the gameplay and story weren’t good enough, the cherry on top of the experience would be Fire Emblem Awakening’s beautiful music, voice acting and cool 2.5-D anime style cutscenes. Because the game takes advantage of the 3DS’s 3D functionality, Awakening’s biggest moments are both visually and sonically dynamic. Throughout battles is the great music composed for the game, with epic orchestral pieces in battle making things even more exciting and I literally got tingles hearing the final boss music for the first time. Awakening also offers both the English and Japanese voiceover tracks and both use really great voice actors that portray their characters really well.

If you’re looking for a fun, complex yet intuitive tactical JRPG, look no further than Fire Emblem Awakening. The tactical battles were as fun as they were unique, especially thanks to the support system where I could make good use of my time and characters on and off the battlefield. I played Fire Emblem Awakening for 60 hours, but I leave its world greatly looking forward to the next Fire Emblem challenge I play. It's tactically great, has a great plot and is well worth pulling out of the backlog.

Score: 9.5/10

For those with a 3DS and tactical JRPG tendencies, the high quality of Fire Emblem Awakening's battle system and support systems is very satisfying.

You can pick up Fire Emblem Awakening for 3DS at Play-Asia.com!

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What did you think of Fire Emblem Awakening? Which other Fire Emblem games would you recommend?

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

Discovering the Fun of the Nintendo 3DS as an Avid PS Vita Fan

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

When I finally got my 3DS, I assumed for the most part I’d only play Pokemon, Kingdom Hearts and Persona. I didn’t think of the 3DS as a JRPG machine as that was how I thought of my Vita, but after doing some research into the system's library I quickly discovered there was plenty for a JRPG player like myself to enjoy. I first started picking up random Japanese DS JRPGs such as Pokemon Diamond to help my Japanese studies, but it was when I started playing Fire Emblem Awakening that I realised that while the 3DS may not have the same amount of JRPGs as the PS Vita, they certainly had some quality ones.

One of the things that make me love JRPGs so much is there silliness and for some reason it never crossed my mind that a brand like Nintendo would naturally put fun games like this into its 3DS library. Even while playing Fire Emblem Awakening, I noticed this silliness during the Support system and it reminded me why I was jealous of my friends who owned Nintendo 64s when I was younger. Whether in the form of chibi characters like in Persona Q or the witty lines in Fire Emblem Awakening, the games I’ve played so far on the Nintendo 3DS have featured great gameplay while not taking itself too seriously.

As much as the 3DS features a lot of fun and humour-filled games like Yo-Kai Watch and Persona Q, it does also feature serious games such as Shin Megami Tensei IV. The same could be said about PS Vita, with it featuring many fun and humourous JRPGs such as Hyperdimension Neptunia but also featuring darker ones like Lost Dimension. As a JRPG fan, having both the 3DS and PS Vita means I have access to more portable JRPGs than I can get through in my lifetime and with plenty of fun options on both systems, I definitely feel pretty spoiled (and a little overwhelmed).

While I’m taking a break from my usual JRPG time on PS Vita to play the Japanese visual novel cross third-person shooter Danganronpa: Ultra Despair Girls, I can say I love both systems and feel really lucky to have both. While new and upcoming PS Vita games such as Caligula and World of Final Fantasy have me more excited than Pokemon Sun and Moon on Nintendo 3DS, the 3DS’s popular and lighthearted franchises definitely have their place in the gaming world and I’m glad to welcome them into mine. With a lot of new releases focusing on home-console games, I hope the PS Vita and 3DS both stay around for a long time as great handheld JRPG machines.

You can pick up Fire Emblem Awakening, Persona Q and plenty more portable games for 3DS and Vita at Play-Asia.com!

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What's your favourite 3DS JRPG? Are you Team 3DS or Vita?

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

JRPG Appreciation Post: Fire Emblem Awakening's Support System

I love most JRPGs that allow me to get to know the characters deeply, but I particularly love ones that have their own special systems to do this with. Some of my favourite JRPGs such as Persona 4 Golden and Ar nosurge feature brilliant systems based around Social Events and Interactions that raise the plot while giving an extra gameplay mechanic and I'm happy to say that Fire Emblem Awakening’s Support system is no different. While I’m definitely enjoying the tactical nature of Fire Emblem Awakening, its support system is done in a really meaningful way that closely ties itself to the core story. With well-written dialog featuring humour, friendship and romance, I haven’t unlocked a single scene I haven’t enjoyed yet and it’s become my favourite thing to look at after battles.

Making Fire Emblem Awakening’s Story Even Better

Photo Source: JustOneGamr

Fellow fans of fun and colourful characters will likely enjoy Fire Emblem Awakening’s Support system since all of the character dialogue is really well-done and gives a much needed insight into some of the minor characters in the story. Because the main story is quite serious and full of crucial and emotional moments, it’s rather refreshing that the Support system gives backstories to many of the characters through humour and banter, without filling the main story with unnecessary filler. Getting to know each character feels almost natural, with characters usually bringing up little details about themselves during everyday moments such as while doing the laundry or after dinner rather than in elaborate plot devices.

Fire Emblem Awakening’s Support dialogues also give an interesting look at the environment and circumstances the characters are living in. It’s never really emphasized that the characters are all living in each other’s pockets in a camp during the main story, so it's in the Support system that we're given a look into random day-to-day moments and the group's circumstances. It’s a great insight into the group’s relationship and a great way to humanize some of the strong characters such as Chrom or Frederick by showing another side of their personalities.

Battle Assistance

Character relationships play a role on the battlefield in Fire Emblem Awakening and while they only make a minor difference to the overall outcome of a battle, they can sometimes give just the required amount of luck needed to win a difficult battle. Characters fight better in pairs, so taking part in Support conversations gives higher attack and a higher chance that a member of the pair will block an attack. This can be significant, especially for players using Fire Emblem’s Classic mode which features Permanent Character Death meaning every evasion could basically save characters life. Also, on a more personal level, watching my carefully chosen pairs fight together feels much more satisfying than having them fight alone, so I take advantage of this as often as I can.

"Matchmaker"

Photo Source: JustOneGamr

What’s probably fueled my love of Fire Emblem Awakening’s Support system most is my new favourite accidental mini-game - Matchmaker. This isn't an official term, but having the ability to make platonic and romantic relationships with over 30+ characters has turned me into a strange calculating Cupid when it comes to who predicting who will have the best S rank dialogue and results. It’s certainly possible for characters to have platonic relationships as well as romantic ones and there are plenty of great cutscenes for both, but the romantic relationships gave me some of the biggest surprises I've had from Fire Emblem Awakening. I've seen amusing banter, heartfelt moments and even common anime tropes used and other than perhaps some of the final scenes when a relationship is maxed out, none of it feels corny or out of place. It's also fun to match strange friendships together as well and finding which characters have a secret rivalry or small things in common, but I definitely enjoy matching up couples most. Whether you’re interesting in playing Cupid or not, having the option to pair off so many characters is a fantastic feature and I'm really impressed with the sheer amount of quality dialog moments available to enjoy.

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Fire Emblem Awakening is many things - a great tactical game, a fun game and a fantastic social experience that somehow makes every character interesting and worthwhile. It’s thanks to the fun Support system that whenever I get a new Support dialog, I have to watch it right away because it'll bring me better battle pairs, amusing banter and an understand of Fire Emblem Awakening's roster of characters. It's because of the Support system that I carefully plan my battle with party around my pairs and I make sure to only get the right pairs to S rank. The amount of pair customisation and dialogue in the Support system is huge, which makes me think if it’s this good in Awakening, the idea of playing Fire Emblem Fates and experiencing a (hopefully) even better version of this experience is almost a little too exciting. I haven't finished Fire Emblem Awakening yet, but this is definitely one of parts of the game I enjoy the most.

You can pick up Fire Emblem Awakening for 3DS at Play-Asia.com!

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What's your favourite part of Fire Emblem: Awakening? Who's your favourite pair?

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

JRPGs I Played: Spring 2016!

Spring was a season full of more games than I expected. Much like in Winter, I had planned to crank out Persona 3 after being distracted by games like Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth. But playing the same game for two seasons left me pretty prone to being distracted, so distracted I was by smaller experiences like Platinum Demo: Final Fantasy XV and X-Tactics. In hindsight, I'm pretty glad I tried other experiences in between, because even without these it still would've taken me a few months to finish Persona 3, so the variety broke up the experience well and some of these smaller experiences were my favourite games from Spring. So, here's my mix of tactical, quirky and fantasy JRPGs I played during Spring. Let me know what you played in the comments!

Fire Emblem Awakening (3DS)

Status: Now playing and enjoying!

I only started playing Fire Emblem Awakening this week, but I'm already excited to keep playing. Playing Tactic JRPGs is a very recent thing for me, but it's cool seeing JRPGs done in a different way than the usual turn-based or active battle style I stick to. I'm really enjoying how the social part of the game benefits the battle and improving my skills as a Tactician.

Another thing that feels fresh to me is playing a portable console again, especially since I'm not fully familiar with playing 3DS. It's nice being able to have more options for where and when I play and to be able to play even when the TV’s being used! Seriously forgot how much I love portable consoles and I honestly hope they don't ever go away.

You can pick up Fire Emblem Awakening at Play-Asia.com!*

X-Tactics (iOS, also on Android)
Read the full review here!

Status: Ongoing. Finished all non-event missions, so now I'm playing through events and GPS missions

X-Tactics was a pleasantly enjoyable surprise to me. It was my first tactical JRPG from recent memory and since I'm very loyal to the other two games I play on my phone (Final Fantasy Record Keeper and *shock horror not a JRPG* Hearthstone), I was wondering how it would fit into to my lunch time mobile game time. I'm pleased to say it fits really well with it's fun touchscreen combo making, quirky characters and regular updates that keep making me want to come back.

My main goal in the game right now? Getting the XCoin to buy Kuku.

You can pick up X-Tactics from the App Store (iOS) or Google Play (Android)!

Pokemon Diamond (DS, Japanese Version)

Status: Now playing….kind of.

I was very happy to find a bunch of pre-owned Japanese Pokemon DS games for really cheap and I thought they'd be good for Japanese study. While it's super fun to play with Pokemon I've never played with before, Pokemon Diamond and it's child level Japanese is surprisingly difficult for me to understand. I've gotten lost multiple times because I haven't understood something and because I was planning to play it before bed in place of reading a book, it usually melts my brain so much I just end up sleeping early.

I really want to keep playing it, but will definitely need to find more time to play it or adjust my Japanese study schedule to include it and pull out that dictionary if I want to get through it. Without voice acting and kanji, it's possibly more difficult for me than Final Fantasy X was. Definitely something I will come back to for a good challenge and monster catching fun!

You can pick up Pokemon Diamond at Play-Asia.com!*

Persona 3 FES (PS2 Classic)

Read the review here!

Status: Finished 'the Journey' portion of the game, will play 'the Answer' at some point

I enjoyed this game, but I played it for five months, so I think I'm officially burned out on Persona until Persona 5, which is something I never thought I'd say!

I liked Persona 3, but I didn't love it as much as I expected to. Since Persona 4 Golden was my window back into JRPGs, I had pretty high expectations for Persona 3 which probably killed some of the magic. I enjoyed the dungeon crawling and the story, but would have preferred a better balance between the two. Now that I've finished it though, I'm excited to venture into the world of Persona 3 movies. I know one released recently, so I'm hoping to catch myself up on those and finally play the Persona 3 parts of Persona 4 Arena and Ultimax that I've been avoiding because I didn't want the spoilers. And of course, I'll have to eventually play 'The Answer' part of Persona 3 FES. Persona 3's universe is huge!

Platinum Demo: Final Fantasy XV (PS4)
Read the full review here!

Status: Proudly completed it three times!

During the Uncovered: Final Fantasy XV event, I was absolutely thrilled when it was announced there was a new demo for Final Fantasy XV. I didn't play Episode Duscae, so the idea of playing Final Fantasy XV at all was pretty exciting. Platinum Demo: Final Fantasy XV was incredibly stunning, even if it only gave a glimpse into the gameplay of Final Fantasy XV. I'm really keen to play more when it's finally released in September. In fact, this just reminded me I need to put a pre-order on it, so I'll probably do that sometime soon!

Disgaea 5 Demo (PS4)

Status: Played a mere 10 minutes of...but liked it!

Being completely honest, I played only 10 minutes of the Disgaea 5 demo with the intention of testing the video capture of the PS4 in case I ever try make video content or reviews for the blog. I really liked Disgaea 5’s wacky humour in the demo, but 10 minutes in nowhere near enough time to properly preview Disgaea 5’s gameplay, so I didn't end up using any of the footage. Despite that, my brother's a big fan of the Disgaea series and it was nice to see a peak at why, so it'd definitely love to come back to the series another time and spend some real time with it.

Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth (PS4, also on PS Vita)

Read the full review here!

Status: Complete and platinuming on occasion

I finished Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth early Spring, but I definitely still have great memories of playing it. Cyber Sleuth has opened my life back up to the world of Digimon and monster capture games, their cute creatures and their silly stories, to the point where I now have an Agumon pillow and it makes me happy. I loved the Digivolution mechanics in Cyber Sleuth, which makes me want to try other Digimon games like Digimon World or Re:Digitize to play similar systems. For now, I really recommend the game to any past fans of the series - it's great!

You can pick up Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth from Play-Asia.com!*

Final Fantasy Record Keeper (iOS)

Read the full review here!

Status: In a strange on and off relationship.

So, I've been having a weird time with Record Keeper. I'll play an event to win a character I like, play the next two events to win characters I usually don't know so well, then bail. Then it hooks me right back in with either a character or event for one of my favourite Final Fantasy games and the cycle begins again. A perfect example of this is that I'd previously written here that I was on an 'off cycle' with the game, but recently they put up a Final Fantasy IX event where you can recruit Kuja and I think that's a ridiculous enough reason to return to the game because I clearly need to have him. It's a weird cycle, but it's pretty enjoyable still.

Final Fantasy X HD (PS Vita, Japanese Version. Also on PS3/4)

Read the full review here!

Status: Platinuming like a snail

These days I’ve been having to find a lot of compromise in my gaming time, mainly because there are so many games I wanna play and replay. I feel the need to make really good decisions about which  game I'll play next because JRPGs are pretty long.

I tried to continue my Platinum journey with Final Fantasy X this season, but I was also really determined to finish Persona 3. Because of that, I mostly left Final Fantasy X (and my Vita) untouched during Spring. At this point, I'm not stale on Fire Emblem yet so I have no reason to use trophy hunting as a means to break any potential lost game enthusiasm yet. I definitely still want to get this platinum at some point though, but I'll probably wait till next time I feel like going for it.

You can pick up Final Fantasy X HD Remaster at Play-Asia.com!*

Summer Game Plan

I’ve mentioned it multiple times in this article, but after playing Persona 3 for so long, I’m ready to check out something new. I’ve started playing Fire Emblem Awakening which has been a really nice change of pace since it’s much shorter than Persona 3 was and also quite different, so it’s giving me a much needed new experience.

With Final Fantasy XV and Persona 5 coming out in September and Danganronpa 3’s anime being released, I’m debating whether I should stick to those series or take this in between time as a chance to play other games. There’s Danganronpa Another Episode which I’ve had sitting on my Vita’s home screen for awhile and I bought Final Fantasy Type-0 recently. But, there are also the Atelier games that sit in the back of my mind and I'm reminded of my huge backlog everytime I open my CD folder or look at my PSN downloads, so I definitely have a lot to keep myself busy with.

As much as I like planning my gaming season, I think after having my plan be 'finish Persona 3' for so long, I’m gonna play whatever I feel like playing for a bit. I will likely end up playing Danganronpa Another Episode because I feel like it will heighten the anime, but otherwise, I’m gonna keep things fairly free and hopefully pick the best game I can play.

I'm always accepting suggestions though, so feel free to leave anything you think I should play sooner rather than later in the comments below!

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What’s your game plan for Summer? And what did you play in Spring?

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