JRPGs I Played in September 2017

During September, apart from playing some of the usual suspects and small bits of other games, I felt like I was playing the waiting game. The first new release I was picking up since God Wars: Future Past was coming out at the end of September and since I missed playing new stuff, I was really excited and spent most of the month anticipating that fateful day. But I couldn’t just play nothing until then, so I did my best to get into the games I’ve been trying to complete throughout the year, along with some DLC and demos to satisfy the need to play something new. With a mix of various series I love and new ones I hope will keep me interested, here are the JRPGs I played in September.

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!
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What do you think of God Wars: Future Past so far? Are you going to play it?
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Review: World of Final Fantasy (Reviewed on PS Vita, also on PS4)

Confession time: I didn’t know if I really wanted World of Final Fantasy when it was announced. While the idea of a cute Final Fantasy aimed at a younger and broader audience sounded interesting, it didn’t appeal to me much as a fan of the main Final Fantasy games. But World of Final Fantasy's trailers and character announcements thankfully kept my curiosity, because it ended up being my favourite game from 2016 and one of the best JRPGs I’ve played in a long time. With cute and charming characters old and new, and a surprisingly complex monster-hunting system incorporating all the memorable Final Fantasy creatures fans know and love, World of Final Fantasy is a must-play for JRPG and Final Fantasy fans looking for a fun and more traditional Final Fantasy adventure.

What sets World of Final Fantasy apart from most Final Fantasy games is that it includes new characters alongside characters from other Final Fantasy games, all in the intriguing world of Grymoire. This mysterious world is full of species called Lilikins, which are ‘chibi’ humans, and monsters called Mirages. The charming twin protagonists Reynn and Lann are Jiants from another place called Nine Wood Hills that find themselves given access to Grymoire by a woman called Enna Kros after awakening with amnesia. She provides them with assistance in the form of two pixie mirages, the adorable Tama and the hilariously dry Serafie, makes them aware of their power to wield mirages and sets them on a journey through Grymoire to capture them to get back their lost memories.

Grymoire features some of my favourite characters from older Final Fantasy games, including Tidus and Yuna from Final Fantasy X, Vivi from Final Fantasy IX and more, along with characters from Final Fantasy games I haven’t played that I was meeting for the first time. There are plenty of great moments with characters I love that often had me wearing a stupid grin on my face throughout my playthrough and despite featuring so many different characters, each character fit well into the 50 hour adventure and seeing them all talk to each other was really amusing as a fan of the series. In spite of the nostalgic cast of old characters, the characters I ended up loving most were Lann, Reynn, Tama and Serafie, the fun new cast full of purpose and banter, with the four pretty much being my new favourite comedy group. I really appreciated Reynn and Lann’s constant brother and sister bickering, Tama’s oddly endearing incorrect use of articles and Serafie’s flat line of enthusiasm for everything, all complemented by fantastic voice acting. They manage to fit in with the old characters perfectly and every new character encounter was enriched by the fun new crew, making the story an enjoyable ride with well-timed emotional twists along the way.

World of Final Fantasy features more than enough Mirages for Reynn and Lann to collect and also more iconic Final Fantasy monsters than I expected before playing. There are Behemoths, Floating Eyes and Flans; a good majority of the monsters I remember grinding and fighting in main Final Fantasy games. Rather than throwing these monsters beside Reynn and Lann after imprisming them, you get to stack them on top of each other to combine stats and create a really funny-looking stack that can pack a punch in battle. The stacking and mirage systems are a great new way to create a party to battle with and the skill trees to upgrade or transfigure (evolve) these mirages into bigger ones gave the right amount of complexity to upgrading characters. Mirages are also useful outside of battle as they can fly Lann and Reynn over ledges or push down big boulders or even be ridden on, finally giving me the chance to ride a Behemoth! For a series that doesn't usually involve monster hunting, the system fit in seamlessly with the familiar with other battle elements and I appreciated the potential for variety in my party.

Speaking of battles, World of Final Fantasy features the familiar Active Time Battle system, revamped with shortcuts incorporated to make switching between each mirage's and character's abilities very easy. World of Final Fantasy is nice of enough to include various modes for the system, including Wait, Semi-Active and Active modes, with Active mode keeping things extremely fast paced and wait mode being closer to the Final Fantasy X system, which I felt most comfortable with. Even though I stuck with how I usually play JRPGs, I really appreciated having the option to change between these if I wanted a challenge and I’m sure it will help every kind of Final Fantasy player find something they’re comfortable with. The battle system doesn't stray far from what fans would expect from a Final Fantasy game, but the addition of character medals incorporating old characters and Mega Mirages (summon abilities) later in the story were some fun additions to an already solid system.

Topping off the battles and roster of characters is a Colosseum full of extra battles, hours of extra quests before and after the ending, and plenty of mirages to collect to for those like myself who want to continue playing after the credits roll. There’s a gorgeous soundtrack and all the NPCs are voiced, making the quality of World of Final Fantasy feel high. Especially on Vita, World of Final Fantasy feels like a massive JRPG for the system and I had a lot of fun playing it on the go, especially with the story split into chapters. However, if you have the choice between the PS4 or PS Vita version, I would recommend choosing the PS4 one. I played the PS Vita one in full and had a great time and thought it looked gorgeous on my Vita, but some minor issues I had were noticeable load times, especially when trying to switch out Mirages using the Prism Case. Plus since I use a 4GB memory card and my copy was digital, the file was a squeeze and I couldn’t download any of the update files because my memory card was completely full after downloading the World of Final Fantasy file and my day one DLC. I played the PS4 demo and the difference in graphics and load times fixed pretty much all of my problems with World of Final Fantasy. In saying that, I’m such a supporter of putting big games on the Vita and probably wouldn't have been able to play World of Final Fantasy as quickly as I did if I could only play at home, so it's still an incredibly high quality Vita game for those who also prefer playing on Vita.

World of Final Fantasy is the most surprising and satisfying JRPG I played in 2016, both as a monster collecting game and as a Final Fantasy game. Reynn and Lann are my favourite Final Fantasy protagonists of recent times and with so many mirages to collect, characters to meet and things to do in the world of Grymoire, World of Final Fantasy has left me with all the marks of one of my favourite JRPGs: it made me laugh and cry in a way only my absolute favourite games have and I want to max out all of my mirages and stay in the fascinating world of Grymoire just a little longer. If you’re a JRPG or Final Fantasy fan, I highly recommend World of Final Fantasy’s great new twist on monster collecting, emotional story and fun gameplay for a fantastic JRPG experience.

Score: 9.5/10

I feel like I took a long time to get this review up because I was enjoying World of Final Fantasy so much that I enjoyed taking my time to catch mirages, do quests and really enjoy the story. One of the best Final Fantasy's in the last few years and I really hope Square Enix makes this a series of its own. Sequel please!

You can pick up World of Final Fantasy for PS4 and PS Vita (and a cool limited edition World of Final Fantasy PS Vita) at Play-Asia.com!
(This is an affiliate link that helps supports the site, so if you use it, thank you!)

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What did you think of World of Final Fantasy? What's your favourite of the recent Final Fantasy games?

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

Picture note: I got most of the photos for this review from the official World of Final Fantasy website and they are most likely from the PS4 version of the game.

JRPG Appreciation Post: World of Final Fantasy's Mirages

World of Final Fantasy features an interesting new concept for Final Fantasy games in the form of monster capture. While World of Final Fantasy’s gameplay is closer to more traditional Final Fantasy games, Imprisming monsters (known in World of Final Fantasy as Mirages) and using them in battle by making a stack is a very new mechanic to the Final Fantasy world. The best part of this is the Monster Stacking isn’t just visual: monsters are helpful in many ways in World of Final Fantasy and collecting a variety monsters and abilities makes the monster hunt a highly useful new mechanic. Being able to use both friendly and enemy monsters in battles serves as a fun new concept for past Final Fantasy fans and a great way to introduce the famous Behemoths, Tonberries and Moogles to those new to Final Fantasy.

Monster Capture may be a new concept to Final Fantasy, but the series isn’t a total stranger to having monsters in your party. After all, most Final Fantasy games include a Summom mechanic that involves summoning powerful but friendly creatures that are fairly well-known in the Final Fantasy community, such as Ifrit, Shiva and Bahamut. These monsters are pretty awesome, but there are many other famous monster friends and foes on the other side of the battlefield that have only served the purpose of getting beaten up so far. Whether you want to summon the epic Ifrit, an adorable and friendly Moogle or a big, enemy Behemoth in your party, all of these Final Fantasy creatures are available to be used in battle in World of Final Fantasy. Having these different types of creatures usable together is an interesting take of Final Fantasy’s creatures and although putting a Chocobo and a Behemoth in the same stack may seem strange, it’s a cool new way to use some of my favourite Final Fantasy creatures.

If collecting Mirages wasn’t cool enough, putting them in Stacks is even better. The main characters of World of Final Fantasy, the hilarious Lann and the cool older sister Reynn, are divided into a Left and Right stack in battle and each stack is comprised of a Small, Medium and Large Mirage that literally stack on top of each other to combine stats. Aside from combining stats (and looking hilarious), mirage stacking also ‘stacks’ skills. If all your mirages have Fire, they will combine to make the much more powerful Firaga. Lann and Reynn also gain a very AP cheap skill called ‘Channel Element’ with whatever element the stack is overall that makes hitting an enemy’s weakness very easy. A great part about this is also that a Mirage’s size doesn't matter when it comes to skill stacking; tiny Flan’s skill or a giant Behemoth’s stats have an equal increase, making both just as useful as one another for once.

Speaking of skills, Mirages are useful on and off the battlefield thanks to their skills. In World of Final Fantasy, certain areas are blocked off due to gaps, icy peaks or big rocks and are only accessible by using a Mirage with the right skill to get past, comparably to in Pokemon where you need a character with a certain skill to another area. I've used my Black Nakk many times to burn down big vines down to get treasure and I've used my Mythril Giant to knock down big rocks that block paths. I like how these path-blockers encourage me to carry a variety of Mirages to help me find bonus items to help me on my journey and it feels like a great reward when I've unlocked the right skill to help me find treasure or something cool.

Mirages can also be transfigured into bigger or alternative mirage forms by unlocking nodes on World of Final Fantasy's skill tree system called a Mirage Board. If you've enjoyed the evolution aspect of other monster collection games such as Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth (which I loved), the Transfiguration aspect is probably something you'll like. Since I also love skill trees, I have a lot of fun using my SP points on each monster’s Mirage Board to unlock bigger versions of my Mirages, such as making my way through the S-sized Chocochick’s Mirage Board to unlock an M-sized Chocobo. The best part is that unlocking a Mirage Board keeps the smaller Mirage’s Board too, meaning you have two sets of skills to play with to make a really strong Mirage.

Stacking monsters together may look silly, but all the different things that can be done with Mirages are really fun to play with and make an enjoyably complex battle system. Use of abilities on the field and stat stacking in battle are cool ideas that give a use to all Mirages and gives monster collecting real purpose. Although stacking will be new to Final Fantasy players, as a Final Fantasy fan I think it’s a great way to refresh the familiar battle system and is a nice way to add depth while making it accessible to those who have used monster hunting systems in other games. I'm looking forward to finding even bigger Mirages throughout my World of Final Fantasy journey and so far definitely recommend it to anyone who thinks it sounds interesting!

You can pick up World of Final Fantasy for PS4 and PS Vita, and a cool limited edition World of Final Fantasy PS Vita at Play-Asia.com!
(This is an affiliate link that helps supports the site, so if you use it, thank you!)

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What's your favourite Final Fantasy Mirage or Monster? If you could use any Final Fantasy creature to get around, which would you use?

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

5 Times JRPGs Kicked My Ass

As much as I love video games, I don’t claim to be the best at gaming. While I can pick up most mechanics, my varying degree of skill with some games has made me no stranger to the Game Over screen and I've had to hit the Retry button in some of my most played games (such as my complete inability to complete the Omega Ruins in Final Fantasy X). Recently I’ve been playing the Roguelike JRPG Sorcery Saga: The Curse of the Great Curry God, a fun but tough dungeon crawler that has found me sent back to its town without my items on multiple occasions with a small bit of my dungeon confidence eaten away. This made me think back to some of the many fails I’ve had while playing JRPGs and while these are only a small selection, these are some of the biggest fails I’ve had while playing or more accurately, times I’ve had my ass kicked while playing JRPGs.

Note: I’ve kept spoilers to a minimum by mostly not mentioning boss names and story circumstances, but there are some minor spoilers about significant boss battles in this article. Proceed with caution!

Final Fantasy X’s Final Boss

If there’s one thing Final Fantasy is good at, it’s bosses with multiple forms or stages. I’m not referring to the final boss battle that you pretty much automatically win, I’m talking about the true final boss of Final Fantasy X, the one with more than one stage and an overdrive gauge that can quickly wipe out any unprepared party. There are a bunch of bosses like this in Final Fantasy X but when I played the HD Remaster a couple of years ago, I was reminded of that feeling of total horror when you think you've won the boss battle, but oh no, let's put multiple status ailments on all your characters, shatter a couple for good measure and knock some out because I'm definitely out of Phoenix Downs. It was horrible, but the satisfaction I got after grinding a little more, taking advance of any possible status vulnerabilities, winning and crying like a baby to the ending was definitely worth the struggle.

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

Persona 3 FES’s Final Boss

Persona 3’s boss battle is one of the absolute harshest boss battles I have ever experienced. If Final Fantasy X was bad for bosses with multiple forms, Persona 3’s boss is just plain unreasonable. When I played Persona 3 this year, I assumed that it would be harder than the previous bosses I’d faced, all of which had been difficult but not impossible, but the absolute uphill struggle I faced was definitely beyond my expectations. The final boss really ramps up the difficulty, with over 10 different forms to fight and without a proper strategy, any party will be quickly annihilated. I can’t even begin to tell you how many online guides I read and Youtube videos I watched just to check if winning was a possibility and to work out how to defeat that thing with what I had. I must have tried it over 20 times and definitely saw a lot of Game Over screens, which are just a little more crushing when you're almost at the end of the game. It took a lot of persistence and a little grinding, but eventually I did it. I hope to never face a boss that slays me that hard again.

You can pick up the original Persona 3 FES for PS2 from Play-Asia.com* or pick up the PS2 Classic from the Playstation Network Store!

Final Fantasy IX’s Plant Brain

I think I had a lot of luck when I versed Final Fantasy IX’s Plant Brain for the first time, because I had no problem beating it. However something happened - either my Vita ran out of power or I turned it off without saving - and somehow, I lost my save, meaning I had to do the boss battle again. Fine, I said. Piece of cake, right? Wrong.

Older JRPGs are different to the standard beginning of a modern JRPG. They don’t try to make you feel like a god in the first few battles so that you keep playing. They’re not scared to kick you around and knock out a majority of your party, which is exactly what happened to me. I wasn’t expecting to use any healing items because it was one of the first boss fights in the game and I repeatedly kept getting knocked down and finding myself at the Game Over screen thinking I was a better gamer than this. Going from winning on my first try to absolutely struggling was kind of a shock, but I accepted it was going to be a tough battle, put my pride aside and healed my party. It did however let me understand that Final Fantasy IX was going to be a little more challenging than other Final Fantasy’s I played, so it served as a good introduction for what was ahead.

You can pick up the original Final Fantasy IX for PS One from Play-Asia.com* or pick up the PS One Classic from the Playstation Network Store!

Sorcery Saga: the Curse of the Great Curry God’s Chapter 4 Dungeon

Ah, my week long dilemma. Every dungeon in Sorcery Saga is a little punishing, but with the amount of potential enemies that can surround you, surprisingly strong bosses and devastating traps in the 25 floors of this fourth dungeon, Sorcery Saga is definitely working against me in my quest to win this dungeon. Since Sorcery Saga is a Roguelike JRPG, I’m also starting fresh each dungeon run so if I lose, my next run is even tougher because I may not have my best sword anymore. And even if I go in with the best equipment in the world, there’s potential for it to get cursed or eaten by an enemy or Kuu (your friendly dungeon pet) if he's super hungry. It seems like I need a lucky run and to use Kuu and the area as perfectly as possible. For now, my dungeon crawling confidence is waning, but I will not give up!

(Fun fact: before this article went up, I won the dungeon through excessive grinding on each floor and risking dungeon collapse. Yay! Currently slowly going through the last dungeon so I don't you know...die.)

You can pick up Sorcery Saga: the Curse of the Great Curry God from Play-Asia.com*!

Persona 4 Golden’s ‘Legend of Inaba - Max Out All Social Links’ Trophy

I’ve spoken mostly about getting my ass kicked in battle in this article, but there are plenty of ways JRPGs can make things hard for the player, such as the simultaneously heartwarming and patience-testing Legend of Inaba trophy from Persona 4 Golden. Social Links are an enjoyable part of Persona 4 Golden, but to max them all out in one playthrough requires thorough planning and execution, something I failed at multiple times. This trophy pretty much took me three playthroughs, and with a playthrough of Persona 4 Golden being over 100 hours on average, I don’t need to tell you it was hard work. I had to make sure I said the right things to each character or else I may not be able to fully get them to the next Social Link rank in the next interaction, which would cost more time. Memorising what days characters were available, on top of keeping the dungeon crawling part of the game afloat was a true challenge, but at least it was a fulfilling one as it's probably the most immersed I've felt in a story. Persona 4’s well-written characters thankfully made this worth it and I’m forever happy about the 300+ hours I spent with Persona 4 Golden, even if it was tough.

You can pick up Persona 4 Golden from Play-Asia.com*!

Some JRPGs might be ruthless difficulty-wise, but I never think it’s a bad thing. It’s the persistent battling and desire to beat challenges that make completing a JRPG so rewarding, like I truly worked for the experience I gained. I honestly think sometimes the persistence I’ve had encouraged in JRPGs has also become apart of my everyday life, as I look to be challenged in real life situations and in a weird way I enjoy the struggling challenges presented to me in JRPGs as working them out feels truly satisfying. Knowing that all the challenges in JRPGs are conquerable keeps me going and I’m looking forward to whatever the next JRPG struggle I face is, even if it's a temporary kick to my confidence as a player. In the end, it's worth it.

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Have you had a memorable JRPG ass-kicking? What was your biggest JRPG challenge?

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

Any link marked with * is an affiliate link that helps supports the site, so if you use it, thank you!

Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair Trailer

A beautiful island and the promise of a "lovey-dovey heart throbbing school trip". Yeah, that was never going to be the case in Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair. Your task is to solve the mysteries of Jabberwock Island, but beware: "Sometimes the truth can be it's own despair...."

I didn't play the original Danganronpa, but dammit I wanted to. After my 9 month love affair with Persona 4 Golden, another high school, murder mystery Vita game was right in my ball park. Now the sequel has been given a trailer and a September 2nd release. I really need to get onto playing the first one. So many J-RPGs, so little time. </3

Pre-order Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair at Amazon.com!

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