E3 2016 was full of a lot of great surprises, conferences and games and a nice, big handful of them were JRPGs! As I mentioned last year, Tokyo Game Show is usually a better show for JRPG fans, but nonetheless E3 usually has a few major JRPGs mixed in, this year being games such as Final Fantasy XV and Persona 5. It took me about a week to catch up with all the news and announcements and that's because there's a lot to be excited about being released, which you can read about in this article.
It honestly wasn't until I finished Persona 4 Golden that I understood I wasn't just a fan of weird Final Fantasy games, I understood there was entire genre of these Japanese Role-Playing Games I loved, I just hadn't been paying enough attention to them. I love this genre enough now to talk about it as much as possible, but there's a catalog of classic JRPGs and highly relevant series that I haven't touched yet. I always intend to get back to them, but it's not that simple sometimes because of life getting in the way and the sheer length of a JRPG, not to mention keeping up with the franchises I already love and want to continue playing. It's hard to balance both. So, as a reminder to myself of my backlog of shame, here's 5 JRPG games I definitely should've played by now and hope to play sometime soon.
Tales of... Series
The Tales of series is one of the biggest JRPG series at the moment, both in popularity and series entries, with 16 main entries in the series and no sign of stopping. I used to see Tales of Graces f in the discounted PS3 games section of my local game store and thought it looked interesting and pretty, but I never really went beyond just looking at it until games media sites like IGN started hyping Tales of Xillia. Now I own a few Tales titles, including Tales of Xillia 1 and 2, Tales of Zestiria and Tales of Graces, but I don't really know when I'm going to play them as of yet. I love a great story and the Tales of series is known for having great stories, so it's something I should probably try more of. I have tried Tales of Xillia, but I didn't finish it because I started another playing another game. It'll probably be the first one I try to concur and I hope that sparks a big love of the series that'll make me play the ones I own.
Chrono Trigger
Chrono Trigger is legendary in the world of JRPGs, so having not played it yet almost feels like a sin against my love of JRPGs. I was pretty damn young when Chrono Trigger was out, so I missed it but it's one of those must play JRPGs as it was revolutionary for it's time and has definitely had an effect on JRPGs now. With time travel and multiple endings being featured in the story, since these are some favourite features and kinds of story, I'm sure I'll enjoy it, dated graphics and all.
Suikoden Series
Yet another series I became intrigued about due to many people on Twitter and in games media being hardcore advocates for the game. It was people like them that are the reason I signed the petition to bring Suikoden to the PSN. The petition was a great sucess, with Suikoden 1-3 now in the PSN store. I bought Suikoden 1 from the PSN, so it's sitting in my backlog waiting to be played. I hear the story is incredibly touching and if the trailers anything to go off, it looks like an intriguing game that's been loved for a reason.
Wild Arms Series
Wild Arms is yet another legendary series I hear so many good things about, but I have mixed feelings about playing it. It's meant to be one of the best JRPGs of all time, but I've never been interested in Wild West themes in movies or games and that's one of the premises for this story. However, I've also never played a JRPG with a Wild West theme so maybe I'm missing something and I just don't know it yet. With a mix of puzzles and JRPG mechanics, it's probably worth checking out as an education on the JRPG genre, but if anyone could sell this to me in the comments, please do!
Which of these games should I play most? What's a JRPG you wish you'd played by now?
Leave a comment below or send me a tweet at @JRPGJungle and let's talk!
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Complete with awesome music by
Superfly, gameplay footage and anime cutscenes from the game, here is a 15-second Japanese TV commercial for the upcoming games from Bandai Namco's popular Tales series, Tales of Zestiria.
Tales of Zestiria is due for release on
January 22nd 2015 on Playstation 3 in Japan. While there
is no official US or European release dates, pre-orders are available
in both regions at this point.
Pre-order Tales of Zestiria (Japanese, US and Europe editions available): Play-Asia
Are you keeping you PS3 for Tales of Zestiria or have you moved onto next-gen? We'd love to hear your thoughts, so comment below or send a tweet to @JRPGJungle with your thoughts!
While already out on PS3 and other consoles, One Piece Ultimate World Red is due on PS Vita July 14th in North American. Europeans have nothing to wait for - the PS Vita game is already out in European regions, via the Playstation Network or Play-Asia.
Sword Art Online: Hollow Fragment will be released in North America August 19th and in Europe a day later on August 20th.
Tales of Hearts R will be released November 11th 2014 in North America. Meanwhile, Europe will receive the game on the 14th of November.
Pre-order One Piece Ultimate World Red for PS Vita: Play-Asia
Fans of the popular Tales of series will be pleased to see a new trailer for the recently announced Tales of Hearts R game for PS Vita. The game is due in Winter 2014.
During the Tales of Festival 2014 that was last weekend, Bandai Namco showed off it's first trailer for Tales of the World: Reve Unitia. The trailer shows some anime cutscenes, battle gameplay and what characters players can expect to see in the game. Check it out below!
Kotaku.com confirmed with a Bandai Namco representative that there are no plans for a Western release at this point in time. Let's cross our fingers for the future!
Shonen Jump magazine have revealed that the upcoming Tales of the World: Reve Unitia game will be released for 3DS on October 23rd. The game is in the same universe as the Tales of the World: Tactics Union mobile game and will feature characters from various Tales of games, including Milla Maxwell from Tales of Xillia and Sophie from Tales of Graces. Anime News Network has a full list of characters in this article)
You can pre-order Tales of the World: Reve Unitia at Play-Asia.com. Note that the game is both in Japanese and region locked to Asian 3DS's only. If a localisation or Western release gets announced, I'll post it here. :)
