JRPGs I Played In October 2017

With a brand new Switch in hand, I entered October with pure excitement after an August and September fairly quiet on new JRPG releases. My main goals for October were to finish Blue Reflection and play my new Nintendo Switch, so I made sure to play any new Switch demo on the go that caught my eye and at home give my time to my new favourite JRPG magical girls in Blue Reflection. As usual, I also attempted to finish what I was playing before I dedicated myself to newer releases, but I let lots of little things use my time in between too meaning I didn’t get to focus on them much. I don’t regret a bit of it though as I wasn’t ever bored last month, so here are all the JRPGs I played in October.

Games That Changed My Life: Final Fantasy X

A long time ago, I wrote about how much Persona 4 Golden changed my life. Even now, it's still one of the most significant JRPGs I've ever played and I can safely say if I hadn't played it when I did, I don't know if I'd be making JRPG content at all. But before Persona 4 Golden, there was another JRPG that struck a chord in me that made me realise video games were much more than just finding gems and beating up bad guys. That game was Final Fantasy X. I've probably mentioned on here before many reasons why Final Fantasy X is so important to me, but I don't think I've dedicated an entire post to it. My journey with Final Fantasy X is significant enough to get its own post, as my first story-driven JRPG, my first video game addiction and the first one that moved me.

I discovered Final Fantasy X when I was around my early teens at a friend’s house. A slightly older friend was playing it and it was one of the prettiest games I'd ever seen. As someone who had mostly played kids games like Spyro and Crash Bandicoot, the world of super detailed graphics and tons of voice-acted cutscenes was pretty much new to me. Partnered with the big summons and overdrives making it visually stunning at the time, Final Fantasy X was probably the closest I'll ever get to love at first sight. I had to convince my parents (who would've preferred me to play a game that wasn't M15+ in Australia) to get it for me and thankfully thanks to the lack of blood and gore, I was allowed to play it and only got in trouble when Yunalesca showed up on screen (and I'll never like her because of that).

Whether it was the graphics, the deep story or the turn-based mechanics, I instantly adored Final Fantasy X. In fact since I was so young and impressionable at the time, I'm probably not exaggerating when I say I loved everything about it. It was different to everything I'd experienced in video games. I was connected to the characters on a whole new level, with Tidus’ outbursts catering well to the angsty teen in me and the story covering romance, life, death and friendship was what I never knew I wanted from a game. It was like a movie, except it felt like I had some control over where it went. Most of all, the characters taught me some weirdly good life lessons, such as laughing when things are hard or not just accepting bad situations. I didn't know at the time, but I'm pretty sure these things subconsciously influenced some of my high school and ultimately life decisions as there are things and values in Final Fantasy X that are still important to me now.

Final Fantasy X also was the perfect thing to set my developing completionist tendencies on fire. I'd already completed all the Spyro games to completion, but I found doing quests and finding extras in Final Fantasy X much more rewarding since completing things had the potential to reveal more cutscenes and more story. I still haven't completed Final Fantasy X 100% to this day, but the amount of things to complete and do in Final Fantasy X will probably always impress me and I know I've spent hundreds of hours trying to do them all.

Other than helping me become the completionist I am now, it was my first story-driven JRPG. If it wasn’t for Final Fantasy X, I wonder when, or even if, I would love the Final Fantasy series, which is almost strange to think about with my current Final Fantasy XV addiction. And without my love of turn-based JRPGs, would I have even been interested in Persona 4 Golden or even knew that it existed? JRPGs are such a big part of me now, so I'll always be grateful for Final Fantasy X starting my love for them.

Final Fantasy X was a standout game for its time and will always be a standout game to me. Falling in love with its world and characters are some of my fondest gaming memories and my love of it drove me to my love of Final Fantasy, which led me well down the path into JRPGs being one of my favourite things ever. It put me on the path to being a JRPG fan and for that, I'm forever grateful and can safely say that Final Fantasy X definitely changed my life.

You can pick up Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD at Play-Asia.com!

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What JRPGs have changed your life? Which Final Fantasy game was most significant to you?

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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3 Times Final Fantasy Played With Pop Music

When it was announced a few weeks ago that Ariana Grande was to be a character in Final Fantasy Brave Exvius, I was a little confused. Since when was Ariana Grande a Final Fantasy fan? Is this a marketing move? Why can I put Ariana Grande in my party and not the pop star version of Yuna from Final Fantasy X-2? My confusion was as a Final Fantasy fan, despite the fact I'm actually a fan of Ariana Grande’s music and think she has an incredible voice. Considering she’s not a story character and I think her character design is undeniably adorable, I'll live with the choice, but I definitely think it's a bizarre choice.

Ariana Grande aside, this collaboration made me remember something about Final Fantasy and pop music - they've played together a few times. From theme songs to revamped characters, recent Final Fantasy games have seen pop music mixed in both in subtle and obvious ways. Whether you like the incorporation of pop or not, the Ariana Grande collaboration isn’t the first time Final Fantasy have played with pop music and the collaboration with Ariana suggests it’s probably not the last. So in light of Ariana's appearance in Brave Exvius, here are a few of the other times Final Fantasy played with pop music.

1) Final Fantasy X-2 - Songstress Yuna

Final Fantasy X-2 was one of Final Fantasy’s most prominent ventures into pop music, a choice made on purpose by the creators of X-2 to give a lighter feel and sound to the Final Fantasy X sequel. The opening cutscene says it all: Yuna is seen dancing and singing in the Songstress dressphere to an extremely catchy song on stage in Luca, heavily contrasting the traditional-style Yuna seen in Final Fantasy X. In spite of the heavy contrast, I really liked Yuna’s change of style in X-2, probably because I played it as a teenager that loved music and seeing that reflected in one of my favourite characters made me feel a new kind of connection to Yuna. Music is tied into X-2 in multiple ways, thanks to the nature of certain dresspheres, such as the Songstress dressphere that featured abilities such as Sing and Dance. The dressphere is a big part of X-2’s biggest story moments, with Yuna singing 1000 Words in the later chapters being one of my most memorable JRPG moments when I was getting into JRPGs.

It’s also worth noting that Real Emotion and 1000 Words were both sung by pop musicians, with the Japanese version sung by Koda Kumi and the English version by Jade from Sweetbox. At the time, neither pop artist was mainstream but this shows Final Fantasy looking outward when it comes to musical talent, a trend that would continue with Final Fantasy games to come.

2) Final Fantasy XIII - Leona Lewis’ ‘My Hands’

The US Final Fantasy XIII trailer featured a notable track from well-known X-Factor winner and the singer of ‘Bleeding Love’ Leona Lewis. Her song ‘My Hands’ was chosen for the trailer and contributed by Leona as she liked how it connected with Lightning’s character. The song received mixed reviews by critics and the Japanese audience and it's noticeably different to the Japanese track used in the Japanese trailer. Personally I like the way Leona’s song fits with the trailer and I really like the way the trailer feels like a music video.

3) Final Fantasy XV - Florence and the Machine

The most recent example of Final Fantasy using music from a big musical artist is none other than the Final Fantasy XV, the most recent addition to the main series of Final Fantasy games. During the Uncovered Final Fantasy event, it was revealed that the theme song to Final Fantasy XV would be Florence and the Machine covering ‘Stand by Me’. I really like this track as the theme song of Final Fantasy XV - it fits the tone of Final Fantasy XV’s road trip journey perfectly, along with showing the importance of Noctis’ friends for the events to come. That and the arrangement is pretty magical version of an already good song.

All console Final Fantasy games mentioned in this article are available at Play-Asia.com!

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Do you like pop music in Final Fantasy? What's your favourite track (pop or otherwise) from the Final Fantasy series?

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

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A Persona 3 vs Persona 4 Comparison for the Persona 4 Golden Fan

A majority of the cast of Persona 3 and 4 (and some other characters too) together in Persona 4 Arena Ultimax

When I finished Persona 4 Golden, I was sure there was no other game in the world that was as deep, as engaging and as involved as it was. Little did I know, Persona had plenty more to offer and the series was already highly successful after Persona 3. Persona 4 Arena had introduced me to the characters of Persona 3 and since I wanted more Persona in my life, after starting the game, getting distracted by other games and then starting again, I decided to finally commit to Persona 3 to learn more about the series and honestly, in the hopes finding another game that would become high in my favourites list.

The mechanics of Persona 3 were easy enough to pick up, but I quickly noticed a different feeling in Persona 3. I definitely think both games I good, but I found I definitely had a favourite out of the two games. For anyone interested, but specifically for those who were like me and may be thinking about trying Persona 3 because of Persona 4 Golden, here is a friendly comparison between Persona 3 and 4.

Note: Since I've played Persona 4 Golden and Persona 3 FES, this article is purely based on them and not the very first PS2 releases of the games.

Story and Tone

The tone of Persona 3 and Persona 4 is probably what differentiates the two games the most. One of the main things that drew me to Persona 4 Golden was it's bright exterior and positive feeling I felt from it's music and visuals, which looked so exciting and fun that I decided I needed a Vita to try this game. Persona 4 Golden has it's own dark themes, but there's always an upbeat outlook to things that I really connected with while playing.

While I didn't play Persona 3 because of it's trailer, it's easy to see that the trailer of Persona 3 is a bit darker, feature more blood and fighting scenes in the trailer. Of course, when next to a game that uses a bunch of bright neon colours like Persona 4 Golden, Persona 3's blue colour palette will naturally seem darker, but I can confirm that throughout Persona 3's story, I've definitely felt a somewhat sadder feeling. Both games feature the theme of loss as a story theme at points, but it's much stronger in Persona 3 and therefore the overall tone of it is darker. Both games also feature a lot of humourous and light-hearted moments, but with less loss and death evident in Persona 4, it feels very different.

Personally, when it comes to the two games, I much preferred Persona 4 Golden's story. Possibly because the game keeps a more upbeat tone most of the time, dark moments in the story felt deeper to me and hit me harder. In Persona 3, the story is definitely compelling as well, but the characters seem to go through hardship after hardship, so the feeling of contrast and surprise isn't as distinct. Both stories are extremely interesting and worth playing though and I think people's feelings on which story they prefer will probably stem from if they generally prefer a darker or more positive story.

Characters and Social Links

With Social Links as one of the most important gameplay mechanics of Persona games, good characters are an essential part of the mix and thankfully Persona 3 and 4 have these in spades. All characters are based off the same types, the Persona Arcana cards, so there are definitely some similarities between characters but all have their own unique stories to tell. The purpose of the Social Links is mainly to improve your relationship with each Arcana to unlock the most powerful Persona from that Arcana, but each Social Link adds it's own bit of depth to the story because it helps the player understand where the characters are coming from.

Persona 3 was actually the first Persona game to feature Social Links, a fact that surprised me considering how vital they are to Persona 4 Golden. Persona 4 Golden's Social Links definitely improve on what was done in Persona 3, adding more voice acting, longer cutscenes and player choice. Also when related back to the tone of each game, Persona 3's Social Links are again centered around loss and a lot of hardships, although it's also apart of the game where softer and light-hearted sides of characters are seen a bit more too. Since Persona 4 Golden is more about finding inner strength, the characters deal with a bigger variety of struggles and I just found that generally more interesting and relatable, so I felt more of a connection with the characters in Persona 4 Golden than I did in Persona 3.

Dungeons and Battles

The base mechanics of Persona 3 and 4's dungeons are the same, but the execution makes certain parts feel quite different. In both Persona 3 and 4, each dungeon section features climbing a bunch of floors and then fighting a sub-boss. Persona 3 doesn't usually have any main bosses inside it's dungeons because it saves them for the full Moon, whereas the goal in Persona 4 Golden is to get to the top of the dungeon in order to fight the boss and save whoever is stuck inside the TV world.

What's interesting about the difference between Persona 3 and 4 is that you must complete Persona 4 Golden's dungeons otherwise it's a one-way ticket to game-over town. In Persona 3, if you don't play through the dungeons, the only real consequence is being highly under-leveled for bosses or having a lot to do towards the end of the game. This is one of the reasons I actually preferred Persona 3's dungeons. Dungeons in Persona games are not short, so having them be more optional was something I definitely appreciated. I could choose to either have a challenging boss battle and higher stats or slowly building my stats and beating bosses easily. Grinding your characters stats is an important part of Persona as well, so feeling like I had more of an option to not to grind at every possible time was a good way to avoid getting fatigued and bored of the slightly repetitive dungeon areas, especially considering how much there is to do in Persona games anyway.

Persona 3 also has a few extra mechanics in it that makes overly easy dungeon levels, like being able to split your team up to explore a floor or fight enemies and having enemies who are clearly a much lower level than your party be easier to critically hit. I don't know why these features weren't added in Persona 4 and Persona 4 Golden as I really enjoyed using them in Persona 3 to make my dungeon time easier. However Persona 4 Golden does feature the benefit of your characters not getting tired, meaning you can crank out a dungeon in one in-game afternoon and then be free to Social Link. Both have their pros, but I liked the extra functionality of Persona 3's dungeons.

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I'm getting close to the end of Persona 3 and while I'm enjoy the experience, it reminds why Persona 4 Golden was such a special game to me with it's positive outlook and it's emotional depth. I do enjoy that they're both different though, as it makes going back to playing Persona 3 FES as a PS2 Classic much more interesting and as much as I love Persona 4 Golden, 300 hours was a good amount. Playing both of these games and seeing their differences also makes me curious as to what will be different in Persona 5. With it's red theme and dark first trailer, I wonder if the game will lean darker or more positive in tone, or even somewhere in the middle. Only time will tell, but for now, Persona 4 Golden definitely still holds a very special place in my gaming heart.

You can pick up Persona 4 Golden, Persona 3 FES or the Persona 4 Arena games which feature the cast of both games from Play-Asia.com!

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What's your favourite Persona game - is it 3 or 4? Do you think Persona 5 will have a dark or light-hearted story (or something completely different)?

Leave a comment below, send me a tweet at @JRPGJungle, hit us me up on the JRPG Jungle Facebook page and let's talk!

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

JRPG Appreciation Post: Final Fantasy X-2's Unique Soundtrack

Music takes an interesting, more dominant role in Final Fantasy X-2. With Yuna now somewhat famous after the events of Final Fantasy X, she seems to be a pop star figure in of sorts, especially if we're judging from the game's opening cutscene where she's singing and dancing to a pop song. Much like the different tones in their opening movies, Final Fantasy X's more sentimental feeling is replaced in X-2 with a mix of mostly fun upbeat funk, rock and pop pieces, but also a wider exploration of genres when needed for more humourous and dark scenes that are quite different to what was heard in X. The composer for X-2 isn't the same composer as Final Fantasy X and doesn't feature any compositions from Nobuo Uematsu, Final Fantasy's regular composer, which could have a lot to do with the different feeling of the music in X-2. While I'm a big fan of music from other Final Fantasy games and Uematsu's music, when X-2's is placed aside other Final Fantasy soundtracks (which I noticed during the recent Final Fantasy Record Keeper FFX-2 event), it's almost refreshing how different it is. Although it's not my favourite Final Fantasy soundtrack of all time, it's probably the most unique Final Fantasy soundtrack and it creates it's own sound while also balancing the Final Fantasy feeling from other soundtracks.

Real Emotion

Contrasting Final Fantasy X's emotional opening track To Zanarkand is X-2's Real Emotion, a pumping pop track full of all the catchy hooks you'd expect from a chart hit, a music video like feel and a dancing Yuna. Much like how To Zanarkand set the tone for the journey ahead in Final Fantasy X, Real Emotion does the same for X-2. The music sets the lighter tone for the game, while the lyrics of the song are a good indication of how the current Yuna feels two years of from her last journey. This opening is rather strange for a Final Fantasy game, but it's fitting for the fun filled journey ahead and for fellow fans of pop music, I'm sure the pop number was a welcomed way to open the sequel.

Battle Theme

When playing Final Fantasy Record Keeper during the Final Fantasy X-2 event, I immediately noticed how different X-2's battle theme was from every other Final Fantasy battle theme. Instead of using a string section as the main instrument of the track, it's replaced by an electric guitar solo-ing like crazy. Another instrument that stands out in the track when compared to other Final Fantasy games before X is the use of an electric drum, which makes the track sound more modern rather than orchestral. The track still uses an orchestra, but mostly for support, but I'm glad it does as it's what makes the track maintain it's Final Fantasy feel.

1000 Words

I was obsessed with Final Fantasy X-2's main ballad 1000 Words when I played the game for the first time and I still think it's a beautiful song. Because one of the game's themes is music and singing, it's no surprise this scene and song together create one of the most powerful moments in the game. Other than the stunning cutscene that plays along with the song, the song is truly made powerful by the lyrics and the amazing performances from Jade from Sweetbox for the English version and Koda Kumi for the Japanese version, with both woman belting out this track with the right amazing of emotion. If you pay attention to the lyrics of the song, it sums up the story of Final Fantasy X and X-2 really well, so when you finish the game and hear the orchestral version playing while the credits are rolling, it's a perfect way to end the series.

Exploration of Genres and Styles

While most of the main pieces in Final Fantasy X-2 are on the fun, rock-pop side, for moments like boss battles and enemy encounters, the music is chosen very well to fit the situation. If it's an encounter with a cheeky boss, an exotic Eastern style is used (such as Anything Goes For Leblanc!). If the crew are on their way down into a dungeon, a very dark orchestral piece is well (such as Bevelle's Secrets). If the story is exploring Yuna's softer side, a beautiful piano piece is used (like Yuna's Ballad, one of my personal favourite tracks from FFX-2). The best part is that the music is so appropriate for each situation, which is important since X-2's dialogue is fairly light-hearted most of the time. The music never fails at giving the right tone to show how the characters may really be feeling or at least how the player should feel.

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Which is your favourite track from Final Fantasy X-2? Which JRPG do you think has the most unique soundtrack?

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