JRPG Appreciation Post: Why Handheld Consoles Are Great (And JRPGs That Show Why)

After spending most of the year so far playing console games on home consoles like PS3 and PS4, I was pretty surprised how much it felt like home when I started playing handheld consoles again. The simple convenience of playing through the deep, wide JRPG worlds I love while being able to lock the console and continue exactly where I left off later felt much more right to me than relying on save points, and having extra mechanics like touch screens and second screens was something I really appreciated after being without it for so long. In the spirit of rekindling my love of handheld consoles again, here a few of the reasons I think they're great, along with some of my favourite handheld JRPGs showing why.

Unique Experiences Thanks To Hardware Features and Portability

Modern handheld consoles like the PS Vita and 3DS boast extra features such as touchscreens and motion control, giving the consoles fun extra gameplay mechanics in certain games. It’s thanks to the PS Vita’s touchscreen and motion control features that one of my first and favourite PS Vita experiences, Gravity Rush, was so dynamic. The way Gravity Rush used the PS Vita’s motion control during mini-games to control Kat’s movement was like nothing I’d ever experienced on consoles and yet somehow I was able to play this game on a train. It was a surprisingly unique experience that really helped solidify my love for my Vita early on, because I couldn’t get that experience at home (at least at the time, since Gravity Rush is now on PS4).

Another unique kind of experience I noticed has a solid place on handheld consoles is visual novels. While visual novels aren’t so much known for their mechanics as they are their stories, I always feel like they fit well on portable consoles because of the length and style of the stories, especially ones that are divided into chapters or small sections. The Danganronpa series is another one of my favourite handheld console experiences for the way it was so immersive with it’s crazy, one-of-a-kind story without any intense battling or fighting - the story is enthralling enough to shine on its own. I was so hooked on it that I was almost relieved to be able to take it with me so I could finish each chapter as quickly as possible. Visual novels find their home comfortably on other consoles and PC as well, but I definitely feel the portability of handhelds is great for the experiences they offer.

The Best of Both Worlds

Handheld consoles have their own unique experiences, but there are plenty of console experiences made for or ported to handheld consoles that are just as deep as something you'd expect to play at home. A good example of this is one of the most well-loved handheld games, the quirky and touching dungeon crawler Persona 4 Golden. With plenty of dungeons to be crawled, part time jobs to sign up for, social links to complete, a great story to explore and plenty more, Persona 4 Golden is one of the biggest games I’ve played ever on any console. I love that it’s on a portable console because it allowed me to play it at home and during my commute and I’m sure the 8+ months I played it for probably would’ve been even longer if I only played it at home.

Fans of JRPGs can find plenty more deep JRPG game experiences on Vita, such as Final Fantasy, Atelier, Fire Emblem, Disgaea and of course, plenty more. These games all have in common that they boast many game mechanics, things to do and big stories that could fit just as well on home consoles as they do on handhelds, so being able to play them on the go is a fantastic option.

Old Games Still Look Good

Playing Final Fantasy IX on my Vita is up there in one of my favourite experiences playing portable consoles. I don't know if anyone else feels this way, but playing an old game on my TV feels slow and clunky and seeing all the old graphics stretched out doesn’t look great, which doesn't really entice me to keep playing even if the game is good. On a portable console this isn't much of a problem as the smaller, sharper screen makes old PS One games and the like look sharper and much more acceptable, sometimes even making the game look legitimately good. Although a smaller screen can’t fix old school load times, I always appreciate the way that handheld consoles make this aspect of playing an old game feel much smoother.

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I almost wish every game was available on handheld consoles. While a lot of things in the world of gaming are moving towards more immersive, crazy experiences such as VR, all I want at the moment is the variety and convenience I get from handhelds. On top of this, Persona 5 and Final Fantasy XV's home console releases are creeping up and because I know they’re both gonna be huge games, there’s definitely a piece of me that wishes I could play them on the go so I could play them both as much as possible. I do love home consoles, but I definitely have a special love for handhelds so I hope that they stick around for awhile. Long live handhelds!

You can pick up handhelds like the PS Vita and 3DS and plenty of handheld games at Play-Asia.com!

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

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Which handheld console is your favourite? Do you prefer home consoles or handhelds?
Leave a comment below, send me a tweet at @JRPGJungle, hit me up on the JRPG Jungle Facebook page and let's talk!

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Review: Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair (PS Vita)

When the first game in a series is incredible, it sets very high expectations for the next one. Thankfully, Danganronpa 2 takes all expectations brought from it's predecessor and hits them with the hard-hitting visual novel mystery that it does best, with added new features partnered with the best ones from the first one. Delivering the epic battle between hope and despair back once again with just as many passionate and colourful characters as last time, Danganronpa 2 is definitely special in it's own right and is worthy of being part 2 of Danganronpa's thrilling mystery.

Giving a new layer to the classic 'stranded on an island' dilemma, 16 students of Hope's Peak Academy find themselves trapped on Jabberwock Island alone with a strange magical rabbit. To begin their school trip gone wrong, the rabbit insists that they must travel the island to collect the Hope Fragments and become friends with one another...that is until Danganronpa's original evil bear Monokuma arrives and takes over, turning it into a tropical killing trip where the students are expected to kill one someone without getting caught. If successful, they can 'graduate', have their classmates punished (killed) and leave the island. If unsuccessful, the killer (known as the blackened) is punished and the rest of the class stays on the island.

The story runs over six twist-filled chapters, all compelling enough to have me glued to my PS Vita for about a week straight. The new cast is just as funny and zany as the last, to be expected when the talented cast of characters includes such titles as the Ultimate Team Manager, the Ultimate Yakuza and even the Ultimate Gamer. The characters aren't just amusing though, they're all complex personalities with different backgrounds, therefore reacting in very different ways. Throw in Monokuma and Monomi and you have a cast that perfectly compliments the deep, but cheeky storytelling of the Danganronpa series.

The consistent flow established in the first game continues in Danganronpa 2. Each chapter is divided into two parts, Daily Life and Deadly Life. During Daily Life, the story progresses and you are also given a chance to collect Hope Fragments with your fellow students. Once the story progresses to a climax (when a character has been killed), Deadly Life begins and it's time to Investigate and do a Class Trial to choose who is the blackened. Making friends with characters during Daily Life is encouraged to add more depth to the story, although it can be bittersweet, as you never know if they might be killed by the time it hits Deadly Life.

During the Class Trial, the group discusses at length the murder case in an attempt to weed out the blackened. The protagonist must use his Truth Bullets - facts uncovered during the Investigation - to shoot down or support his classmate's arguments. Supporting character arguments during the Non-Stop Debates hasn't been the only thing added to the Class Trial, in fact for better or worse the whole experience has undergone a revamp, along with some new additions. My favourite new additions were Logic Dive, a cool snowboarding mini-game that utilities ramps as choices when thinking out an argument, and Spot Selection, a simple new feature which presents a photo and you must choose the area being discussed or that is a contradiction.

On the other hand, the revamped Hangman's Gambit seemed much more complicated than it's original form and Rebuttal Showdown was cool, although my Vita sometimes couldn't handle some of the button mashing required of it. Initially when playing, I found the sheer amount of mechanics needed for the Class Trial overwhelming, but the way they are used add for a nice variation during the trial. Another small, but nice addition is that each trial is split into two parts, meaning it's possible to save partway through, which is appreciated when the length of each Class Trial is considered.

Outside of the main story is enough content to put most DLC to shame. There's Island Mode, an item collection cross social/dating game much like the original Danganronpa's School Mode, Magical Miracle Girl Monomi, a mini-battle game where you can fight small island enemies and Monobeasts, a digital novel called Danganronpa IF covering an alternative story line to the first game, unlockable art and movies and even your own Tamagochi like pet to raise during and after the main story is over. I was overjoyed when these features where unlocked at the end of Chapter 6, as the game had not only left me wanting more, but had willingly given me it. There's also a Japanese voiceover option and in-story collectibles that are also an excuse to playthrough the thrilling story a second time, making Danganronpa 2 highly re-playable even after the 40 hour story.

If you loved the first game, Danganronpa 2 does nothing but add to the thrilling story and world from the first game. With many more activities and a gripping story that ties in perfectly to the first one, Dangranronpa 2's mystery kept me coming back for more - and then kept giving me more. If more thrills, chills and kills is what you're looking for in a story, letting yourself become absorbed by Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair's many mysteries is completely worth it.

Score: 9.7/10

A gripping tale and new game mechanics and modes make this game beary, beary good.

Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair is available now at Play-Asia,net.

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Did you play Danganronpa 2? Are you itching for V3 as much as I am?
Leave a comment below and let's talk!

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This Week's PSN EU/AU PSN Releases, JRPG Style! (27/8/15)

Amensia: Memories

Why hello! Welcome to this week's edition of Europe and Australia's new PSN releases, which pulls each week's PSN additions related to the JRPG genre and other Japanese games into one post for your convenience.

Now that the Winter Sale is over on the Australian/European PSN store, it feels like something is missing this week - JRPGs. The PSN seems generally quiet this week, but if you enjoy otome visual novels, the game Amnesia: Memories is out for PS Vita and has an interesting sounding story about a girl who awakens without her memory one morning, with the only clue to her past being her cell phone. Other than that, there's a deal for Toukiden and some Yu-Gi-Oh! DLC and not much else, meaning I'll be continuing to grind to beat the final boss in Final Fantasy IX.

Have a good week and happy gaming!

JRPG Content

Deals

• Toukiden: Kiwami (PS4)

Japanese/JRPG-Related Game Highlights

New Releases

• Amnesia: Memories (PS Vita)

DLC

Yu-Gi-Oh! Legacy of the Duelist (PS4)

Paid:

• ARC-V Gong v. Kit
• ARC-V Sora and Dipper
• ARC-V Yuto v. Sylvio
• ARC-V Zuzu v. Julia

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Pick of the week: I've never played an Otome game, but the story for Amnesia sounds very interesting, even without the romance elements.

What's your pick of the week? Will you be picking up anything from the PSN this week?

I love hearing your thoughts, so please comment below or send a tweet to @JRPGJungle and follow to keep up with the content we post. :) Thanks for stopping by!

Please note the content available is subject to change by region and the content listed in this post is based on the European/Australian PSN at the time of writing.

This Week's PSN EU/AU PSN Releases, JRPG Style! (13/8/15)

Why hello! Welcome to this week's edition of Europe and Australia's new PSN releases, which pulls each week's PSN additions related to the JRPG genre and other Japanese games into one post for your convenience.

With no JRPG new releases this week, it's a good thing there are a few great JRPGs and visual novels have been added to the PSN Winter Sale. If you've missed out on great PS Vita titles such as Danganronpa, Steins;Gate (I want it) or Persona 4 Golden, they're discounted significantly, so this a good time to pick them up and get absorbed into some amazing stories. I'm hoping to pick up Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair, but everytime I play Danganronpa, it sort of takes over my life because of the amazing story. Let me know what you're picking up!

On a side note, I've finally set up my consoles again, so hopefully I can pick up some new games for fun and reviews soon. I hope everyone else is having a good week too and happy gaming to you all!

Deals

• Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc (PS Vita)
• Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair (PS Vita)
• Dragon Ball Xenoverse (PS4, PS3)
• Dragon Ball Xenoverse: Time Travel Edition (PS4, PS3)
• Hyperdimension Neptunia U: Action Unleashed (PS Vita)
• Persona 4 Golden (PS Vita)
• Sayonara UmiharaKawase + (PS Vita)
• Steins;Gate (PS3)
• Ys: Memories of Celceta (PS Vita)

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Pick of the week: Persona and Danganronpa, for sure. Also Steins;Gate because I loved the anime series, but the game is meant to be even better.

What's your pick of the week? Will you be picking up anything from the PSN this week?

I love hearing your thoughts, so please comment below or send a tweet to @JRPGJungle and follow to keep up with the content we post. :) Thanks for stopping by!

Please note the content available is subject to change by region and the content listed in this post is based on the European/Australian PSN at the time of writing.

This Week's PSN EU/AU PSN Releases, JRPG Style! (23/7/15)

You gotta eat more meat!

Why hello! Welcome to this week's edition of Europe and Australia's new PSN releases, which pulls each week's PSN additions related to the JRPG genre and other Japanese games into one post for your convenience.

If you're a fan of JRPG's often wacky stories, you may be interested in the visual novel about dating pigeons, Hatoful Boyfriend. Hatoful Boyfriend boasts the chance to be a lone human in an-all pigeon school and features dating sim mechanics and multiple endings. I have the game in my Steam library, but the cross-buy feature between PS4 and Vita makes it tempting to purchase again (Yeah, what up first world problem?).

Other than a hint of Deception DLC, the PSN's pretty quiet on the JRPG front. Hopefully next week is better, but otherwise go date some pigeons!

Have a good week and happy gaming!

New Releases

• Hatoful Boyfriend (PS4, PS Vita)

DLC

Deception IV: The Nightmare Princess (PS4, PS3, PS Vita)

Paid:

• Elaborate Trap: Cube Freezer
• Humiliating Trap: Machine Gun Dancer
• Sadistic Trap: Ab Cruncher

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Pick of the week: Hatoful Boyfriend. How many games can you date a pigeon in, seriously?

What's your pick of the week? Will you be picking up anything from the PSN this week?

I love hearing your thoughts, so please comment below or send a tweet to @JRPGJungle and follow to keep up with the content we post. :) Thanks for stopping by!

Please note the content available is subject to change by region and the content listed in this post is based on the European/Australian PSN at the time of writing.

The Platinum Trophy Journey: Trigger Happy Havoc: Danganronpa

Following my time playing and reviewing Danganronpa, I quickly made the decision that seems to only happen with my favourite PS Vita game stories - I didn't want to leave that world yet and a good excuse to continue play was getting the Platinum Trophy.

About a year ago I did Platinum Trophy info posts for Persona 4 Golden and Gravity Rush that lightly touched the surface of my platinum trophy experience. Without entering 'trophy guide territory' (PlaystationTrophies and it's contributors already do a brilliant job at this), I still wanted to give a little guide to people going for this platinum because I made a lot of uneducated mistakes in my experience so I'd like to help you avoid doing the same.

How long it took to Platinum (according to psnprofiles): 1 week, 5 days and 12 hours. If you're looking for an hour count estimate, I was silly and didn't realise clicking the info button on my save file would display how many hours I had done until my post-platinum playthrough. As an estimate based on that, I would say I spent around 50 hours between my first playthrough and tying up loose ends specially for the Platinum trophy.

My Trophy Advice

The trophies I've categorized below are all the different trophies you need to receive the 'Despair's Last Reward' Platinum Trophy.

Story Trophies

You don't need to do anything that special for these. Just playthrough each chapter, complete the trials and enjoy the game!

From Zero to Hero - Finished the Prologue
One is the Loneliest Number - Finished Chapter 1
Two of a Kind - Finished Chapter 2
Three's A Crowd - Finished Chapter 3
Four by Gore - Finished Chapter 4
Five Alive - Finished Chapter 5
All's Well That Ends...Umm... - Finished every chapter

While these trophies are pretty self-explanatory, I did refer to this very spoiler-free guide if I was low on health during the class trials.

Report Card Trophies

Report Card trophies are achieved by hanging out with each classmate in any of the Story Chapters or School Mode until you finish their friendship arc and finish their Report Card (which you can access in the menu). Each Report Card is a different length, with the longest one at 9 pages long.

Psychic - Filled in every page of Sayaka's report card
Hope Peak's Confidential - Filled in every page of Kyoko's report card
Memoirs of a Fashionista - Filled in every page of Junko's report card
The Devil Wears A High School Uniform - Filled in every page of Kiyotaka's report card
The Game Hungers - Filled in every page of Byakuya's report card
Rebel Without A High School Degree - Filled in every page of Mondo's report card
Almost Almost Famous - Filled in every page of Leon's report card
Lost in Scanslation - Filled in every page of Hifumi's report card
The Sixth Nonsense - Filled in every page of Yasuhiro's report card
GoodFellows - Filled in every page of Chihiro's report card.
Mystic Donut - Filled in every page of Aoi's report card
Stranger's In A Brain - Filled in every page of Toko's report card
Lovesport - Filled in every page of Sakura's report card
The French Disconnection - Filled in every page of Celeste's report card
Mr Know-It-All - Filled in every page of every character's report card

It is impossible to complete all the Report Cards in one playthrough of the main story, so there's not much need to worry about this in your first playthrough. You can replay the story to complete them, but an easier way is to do this is while playing and leveling up your characters in School Mode.

To speed up completing the report cards it is possible to give each character presents. However, if you haven't received the 'Ooh, For Me?' trophy or 'Seriously, You Shouldn't Have' trophies (listed in the Monocoin Related Trophies in this post), I would advise saving your Monocoins as it makes those two trophies more time consuming. The presents are not an essential part of completing the Report Cards, so it's up to you if you want to use them or not.

SP Trophies

I put these near the Report Card Trophies, because you will probably achieve these as a result of filling in the report cards. You earn SP most times you spend time with a classmate (unless you receive an trial ability), so expect these to come naturally.

Skilling 'Em Softly - Cleared the 10 SP threshold
Skilled or Be Skilled - Cleared the 20 SP threshold
Ghostface Skillah - Cleared the 30 SP threshold

Trial Trophies - Standard

These are earned by playing through each trial particularly well. A quick note - despite descriptions, multiple sites (PSNProfiles and PlaystationTrophies) have stated it only takes fulfilling the trophies requirements in one trial rather than all trials. I can vouch as well that I only needed to fulfill the trophy requirement in one trial rather than all of them, so these are easier to achieve than they sound.

What's A Mistrial - Cleared every class trial without having to retry
You Must Acquit - Cleared every class trial without taking any damage
Not From Concentrate - Cleared every class trial without using your concentration skill a single time
The Color of Television - Destroyed 100 white noise lines across all class trials
Tuned to a Dead Channel - Destroyed 500 white noise lines across all class trials

If you need help with any of the trials, I again recommend referring to this guide. These trophies are mostly self explanatory, but are time consuming because of the average length of the trials, even while fast-forwarding though everything. I did most of these by replaying the first trial, as it is by far the most straight forward case.

School Mode

School Mode trophies can only be achieved after finishing the main story once. After finishing the main story, this School Mode mini-game will unlock. The trophies for School Mode do require a little more effort, but because your stats do carry over each playthrough, the mini-game gradually gets easier.

School's Out for Summer - Cleared School Mode once
School's Out Forever - Saw every possible School Mode ending

Completing School Mode requires a little more strategical planning than the other trophies. The mini-game is based around resource collection and management, along with keeping up with cleaning and making sure you keep your characters energised to avoid them entering rest mode. A strategy that seemed to work for me was constantly having 2-3 cleaners on every day that I also gave all cleaning buffs to. On top of this, after completing each of the Monokuma Spares, I would spend time gathering resources and creating 10 of each of the Processed Goods (and then 10 more if I finished that). This allowed me to be ready to easily make any Monokuma Spare and kept a good amount of materials in my inventory. Put simply, I recommend having an assigned cleaning team and stocking up on Processed Goods after completing your assigned tasks. It makes every other task a lot easier to gather resources for, because you already have a good amount of them.

As for the School Mode endings, these are obtained by taking the classmates on Trips around the school in a Dating Sim style. Each interaction involves conversation options that help determine how much a classmate likes you. For the trophy, you need to achieve each character's ending by having positive date experiences with them until they have 10 hearts on Monokuma's friendship chart. The great thing about this is it's possible to get more than one classmate's ending in one playthrough, so go on as many trips as possible in each playthrough until you get 10 hearts and then repeat the process until you've dated and done that with all still students cause you're super monogamous like that.

Upon finishing each ending, you will receive a special present (heh) from each of the students that will be worth holding on for when going for the Seriously, You Shouldn't Have trophy.

Monocoin Related Trophies

I put together all the Monocoin, present and gallery-related trophies here together because they're all essentially connected by the spending and receiving of Monocoins, which you receive in game by investigating certain areas, completing trials and School Mode as many times as you like.

Nine Coins, Nine Purses, Nine Bears - Collected 999 Monocoins
Ooh, For Me? - Collected 50 unique presents
Hey, Big Spender - Enjoyed the excitement of the Mono Mono Machine 100 times
Seriously, You Shouldn't Have - Collected every possible present
Rogue's Gallery - Unlocked all gallery items

This set of trophies isn't hard, although they're all time consuming and perhaps a little tedious, so I'll describe this set in more detail.

Nine Coins, Nine Purses, Nine Bears may pop after trying to get the School Mode trophies because School Mode gives you 200 Monocoins upon completion, so I would recommend getting as many Monocoins as possible while trophy-hunting in School Mode. A big tip is to not spend any Monocoins until this trophy pops as your coin count is not accumulative and will only pop the moment you have 999 Monocoins in your inventory at one time.

Ooh, For Me?, Hey, Big Spender and Seriously, You Shouldn't Have all tie in together, because you'll probably pop the first two while working towards Seriously, You Shouldn't Have. This trophy revolves around the Mono Mono Machine, which makes this a difficult trophy to write about because it is based around chance. While the more coins you put in the Mono Mono Machine, the more chance you get of not doubling up on presents, I would recommend putting your coins in one Monocoin at a time until you have all of the presents you can gain from the Mono Mono Machine as you won't waste as many coins this way. You'll know you have all the presents you need as you'll see the odds of getting a double of a present go to 100%, which means you're done. The rest of the presents are received by completing all of the classmates endings in School Mode and getting their special present when you talk to each of them one last time before leaving the school.

I left the Rogue's Gallery trophy for last as it includes a sneaky locked Easter Egg gallery photo for those who have the 'Man's Fantasy' present, which can be gained while playing the Mono Mono Machine. Once you own the Man's Fantasy present, to unlock the secret item you need to replay chapter 3 up to the scene where the girls go to the bath house without the boys. With the 'Man's Fantasy' present, Makoto will decide to take a peek at the girls in the bathroom, which unlocks a hidden artwork for the item gallery. Once you've unlocked that, it's as simple as spending your Monocoins on each gallery item until you have them all. If you run out of coins, you can replay School Mode or one of the trials to get more.

Finally, after all that you will receive 'Despair's Last Reward', the Trigger Happy Havoc: Danganronpa Platinum trophy! w00t!

The platinum is by no means easy, but compared to a lot of other platinum trophies, it's pretty easy as long as you know what to do. I hope this helped someone! Good luck and happy platinum hunting!

Don't have the game yet? You can purchase Trigger Happy Havoc: Danganronpa at Play-Asia.

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What's the last game you platinumed?

I love hearing your thoughts, so please comment below or send a tweet to @JRPGJungle and follow if you want to keep up the content we post. Thanks for stopping by!

Trigger Happy Havoc: Danganronpa Review (PS Vita)

There aren't many games that render me unable to be a normal functioning human being, but I'm strangely proud to say that Danganronpa is one of them. Trigger Happy Havoc: Danganronpa's positively gripping plot and immersive world took me by surprise and gripped me with it's thilling story and fun puzzle-like gameplay. If your PS Vita has been lacking a worthwhile visual novel with unique gameplay and a thrilling mystery, look no further than Spike Chunsoft's masterpiece, Trigger Happy Havoc: Danganronpa.

The world of Danganronpa is based at the prestigious Hope's Peak Acadmey, where ultimate students of their fields (brilliant examples include Ultimate Fashionista, Ultimate Fanfic Writer and Ultimate Gang Leader) are scouted to attend this elite high school that boasts guaranteed success later in life. This sounds all well and good, until protagonist Makoto and the other students find that everything isn't what it seems and are now trapped inside the school. The only way out? Killing a classmate and not getting caught will allow a student to 'graduate', but if they're caught they'll face punishment, as in, their own execution. If the wrong student is selected as the main suspect of the murder, the rest of the class is subject punishment while the killer is set free. It's a pretty dark story, but the students are next required to kill anyone – they have the option to live a communal life together. In turn, this plot characters many morality and though-provoking questions for the player and the game is filled with a wonderful cast of amusing and zany characters to lighten up the game and solve the mystery with.

Umm...

The show shopper for the game is Danganronpa's immersive story and atmosphere. Like a good book that sucks you in, Danganronpa has that effect with it's constantly moving plot full of incredibly interesting characters and surprises. The plot is constantly moving until the very end, decorated with wicked twists and turns that kept me guessing throughout the 25+ hours of story. What I was happy to see is that in the games six main chapters, there was only one where I was 100% sure who the killer was - each mystery is heavily veiled, requiring careful examination of all possible evidence to get the right clues to find the blackened student.

He seems nice.

Thanks to music, voice acting and quirky graphics, the game's atmosphere does a lot to keep it's mood and essentially never break character. The game's graphics are rendered in a 2.5D art style, with 2D characters placed on a 3D background. Cutscenes also look unique, combining anime art and sketch artwork to create a visual style that is distinctly it's own. One of my favourite parts of the game's graphics that if a part of the game really doesn't need crazy artwork, it instead uses a retro feel, with pixel art and sprites used on things like the map or each character's door signs. The music and visuals all have a distinct feel that fits perfectly - things like having gruesome murder scene but hot pink blood and dark looking school corridors lit by a neon light create a disturbingly dark but light-hearted feel that fits the game perfectly. Partnered with incredible voice performances whether you choose the English or Japanese voice track, the game is well-polished and stylish all at once.

Taking advantage of the visual novel format, Danganronpa's detail heavy and absorbing story is delivered in the best way possible between it's text and gameplay functions. While the game is text heavy, the way Danganronpa adds gameplay to the visual novel format is smart and fits the 'who-dun-it' vibe by using puzzle-like elements. In each chapter, the first half goes through Daily Life, where you're taken through the chapter's main story and get the chance to get to know the cast through the mini-social sim Free Time section. Once a murder occurs, the chapter switches to Deadly Life. You're given Investigation Time where you find the Truth Bullets you need for the Class Trial in the form of evidence from the scene of the crime. During Class Trial time, you literally shoot down weak ideas spoken by the class members, using the Truth Bullets you found earlier to counter against contradictions.

I was impressed at how the Class Trial takes full advantage of the PS Vita's hardware, incorporating the back-touch pad, front touch-pad, triggers and other buttons all in this one section of gameplay, which isn't something I've seen in a Visual Novel style game. Class Trial throws in timed mini-games such as Hangman's Gambit (a mini-hangman-esque game) and Bullet Time Ballet (to my delight, a mini-rhythm game for when someone is mouthing off suspiciously) to keep things interesting and finishes off with a puzzle game where you put together a chronological comic of all the events that have been proven as fact in the class trial. The whole experience, along with the story each murder and the school's own mystery unfolding really kept me on my toes and I found myself becoming as shocked as the other character when a surprising fact was unveiled.

If you like Visual Novels, are looking for an introduction or a game to lose yourself in, let me suggest one of my new favourites, Trigger Happy Havoc: Danganronpa. The plot left me entangled in it's depths for nearly 25+ hours and I was at the edge of my seat the entire time. Partnered with varying gameplay elements and styles to keep things interesting, it cannot be missed by fans of Visual Novels and rich stories for on the go. At this point in time, I call it the best visual novel game I've ever played and one of PS Vita's finest.

Score: 10/10

Just play with the crazy bear, goddamit!

Trigger Happy Havoc: Danganronpa is available for purchase now at Play-Asia.com.

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What did you think of Danganronpa? And what's your general opinion on monochromatic, deranged bears?

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This Week's New Releases in Localised and Importable Japanese Games (21/7/14)

Each week, a lot of new games come out. At the start of the week, I read through all of the new releases I can find and find the weekly new Japanese games, then I post them here for your convenience! This list includes descriptions and links to both English localised games plus the new release games you can import.

Here are this week's finds!

Localisation

Yet again, I have no new localisations to report! :( I know there's some stuff coming next week though, so look forward to that!

Import

For people who know Japanese, are learning Japanese or don't mind playing a game in a foreign language, here are Japan's new released games for this week.

July 24th 2014

Corpse Party: Blood Drive (PS Vita)

Corpse Party: Blood Drive on PS Vita is the sequel to Corpse Party: Book of Shadows. The game is set two months after Book of Shadows. Not long after being discharged from hospital, Ayumi meets a strange man who tells her that if she gets the Book of Shadows, she has a chance of reviving her friends who died in the Heavenly Elementary School.

Pre-Order/Buy it: Play-Asia

Re: Vice [D] (PS Vita)

I hadn't heard of Re:Vice[D] until writing this post and I'm now intrigued by the art style and the story concept! The story covers four Heavenly Kings from the Netherworld who are looking to find the next Demon Lord. Without knowledge of the human world and with only a book to follow, the Heavenly Kings struggle trying to find the next Demon Lord until one day each of the Heavenly Kings find a different candidate who appear to be suitable for the job. In order to determine which of the four candidates is truly suitable, the Heavenly Kings strive to investigate the candidates against the required Demon Lord qualities described in their book.

Thank you to Otome Revolution for translating the game description!

Pre-Order: Play-Asia

Soushuu Senshinkan Gakuen Hachimyoujin Ten no Toki (PS Vita)

Not a lot of English information about this one, although I can tell you it is a visual novel. The game before this one (Soushuu Senshinkan Gakuen Hachimyoujin) according to vndb revolved around a boy and girl with lucid dreams who become stuck inside a dream that actually affects history and has the ability to kill people in real life.

Pre-order/Buy it: Play-Asia


Tokyo Shinseiroku: Operation Abyss (PS Vita)

Yet again, not a lot of English information on this one, although apparently the gameplay is similar to Demon Gaze.

Pre-order/Buy it: Play-Asia



Under Night In-Birth Exe: Late (Playstation 3)

Under Night In-Birth Exe: Late is an anticipated fighting game by Arc System Works and French Bread that originated as an arcade game. The game sports the kind of 2D anime fighting characters you know and love from Arc System Works and also boasts many unique characters with different moves and weapons. The PS3 version will also include a new character called Nanase who is described as a high school warrior!

Pre-order/Buy it: Play-Asia

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Did I miss something important? Or maybe you found one you think fellow JRPG fans would enjoy? Comment below, send a tweet to @JRPGJungle or email jrpgjungle@gmail.com to let me know!
Want your JRPG style game included in this list? Email jrpgjungle@gmail.com with a link to the game and anything else you'd like to tell us about for consideration!

Review: Narcissu Side 1

Be prepared and bring tissues because Narcissu is up there in the 'saddest things I've ever read' department. I should have been prepared from the start - after all, a story about people with terminal medical illness will never be a happy story. Emotions aside, Narcissu is an artistic and thought provoking story that should not be missed by visual novel fans, especially since it is free-to-play on Steam.

Since this is a JRPG blog and not a visual novel blog, I'll briefly explain what a visual novel is. A visual novel is basically a novel that you would read in a book except with photos, voice acting, narration, music and usually choices you can make that influence the story. The last part is what interested me in visual novels as I always chase different endings in RPG and if I hear a game has multiple endings, I'm in. Narcissu is not a story with choices or any gameplay elements whatsoever but it does have art and voice acting. It is more 'novel' than visual novel, but still a visual novel nonetheless.

The story is told by a nameless male protagonist who is admitted into hospital due to terminal illness. He is admitted to 7F, where patients are looked after while they wait to die. Here he meets a girl called Setsumi, who doesn't say much other than 'Not particularly' initially. It is revealed by Setsumi that she is about to be allowed to go home for a little bit for the third time. But that's not a positive: the patients on 7F have a history of dying before either coming back to the hospital again or before their next trip home. In short, their is no fourth trip home. The story really sets off when the pair end up running away from the hospital in a stolen car, motivated by the fact that neither of them want to die at 7F or at home.

One of the things I found brilliant about this concept is even though it's a boy and girl running away together, Narcissu is by no means a love story. In fact, the protagonist and Setsumi are barely friends before they leave 7F. The story is about two people with a shared point of view and similar fates enjoying freedom in their lives for the first time. A lot of what is interesting in the story is wondering where they will end up and how long their trip will last rather than their relationship, at least until Setsumi starts to become more open.

While the characters are slowly displayed to be a little more complex, not much is explained about how and why both characters react the way they do. There were a few things I would have loved to know. What made the protagonist so impulsive - did he just crack after being oppressed for so long? Why is it suddenly okay for him to steal when he has never mentioned doing anything like that before? He only acknowledges once in the story his actions are selfish. This doesn't make him unlikable, but I had to assume a lot of things about him, such as his reasoning to steal the car was because his family never ever considered letting him use theirs and his other stealing actions are just out of pure desperation. I also had to assume that no one came after the pair who stole the expensive car because they felt sorry for them. Things were explained a little more about Setsumi, but I do wonder about the things that were left out - like why she became so quiet in the first place and why she had money saved up. Making assumptions again, I feel like maybe these were left out so that they could be addressed in Side 2.

The intriguing Setsumi

The emotional story is boosted by it's soundtrack and minimalistic visuals. A majority of the visual novel's music is filled with a subtle, sad and melodic piano that really help set the tone of each chapter. The visuals usually involve a small photo that relates to or shows something for the scene. I loved this art style as it gave enough of a visual to show you what was happening, but still allowed the reader to think of the rest.

Narcissu's menu provides you with two different translations. I tried bits of both English translations and both are well written and polished. What you like will be personal preference - I personally liked the flow of gp32's translation better, although Aiglis' translation is to be commended for being artistic and well written at the same time. Also provided is a voiced or unvoiced option for the story. This will be pure reader preference. The writing is certainly good enough without the voice acting but I rather enjoyed being able to hear Setsumi's tone while she spoke.

Lastly in the menu, I found that the save function didn't work at all. Definitely not a game breaker, but it's worth mentioning. Luckily the visual novel does remember what chapters you have unlocked, so I just chose to read chapter by chapter.

Even with it's imperfections, Narcissu's emotional story hooked me in and when the ending hit, the story gave me a one hit KO directly in the feels. Although it lacks in background story sometimes, the novel is powerful enough to still get it's story across and keep the reader intrigued for the whole three hour experience. If you're a fan of a good story, I recommend going on the minimalist, emotional trip that is Narcissu.

Score: 7.7/10

I read this over a few nights in a little under 3 hours and cried like a baby when it ended.

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You can read Narcissu Side 1 and 2 for free on Steam.

Chaos;Head Dual coming to PS Vita!

From 5pb. (the creators of Steins;Gate), Chaos;Head Dual will be coming to PS Vita on one cartridge. This will feature the original visual novel Chaos;Head Noah and also Chaos;Head Love Chu Chu. The bundle is due out in Japan August 21st, with a standard and limited edition at HMV.

Chaos;Head is a story that revolves around an otaku who accidentally stumbles upon evidence for murders that are happening in his town - and that's barely touching the surface. Expect delusions and lots of mystery if the anime is anything to go by!

Note: No English released announced so far.

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Don't have a PS Vita or you're impatient? You can find Chaos;Head Noah and Chaos;Head Love Chu Chu at Play-Asia.com. Both games are in Japanese.

Sunday Musing's: I finished Child of Light!!! Back to Final Fantasy X HD

Welcome to my Sunday Musings!

This week was a good week - I only worked three days, I played more games and I feel more relaxed then I have for the last two weeks, even though there was a lot of JRPG news to cover on here. I actually have to be careful about feeling relaxed - I start to become lazy and find it hard to focus. I need to balance my work and play. But I love playing!

Since I don't really have anything 'social' to talk about this week, here are the games I played. And good news: it's a lot more than previous weeks!

Child of Light (Played on PS4. Also available on PS3, Xbox One, Xbox 360 and PC)

Can you believe it took me over two weeks to finish a twelve hour game? I need to get my priorities straight.

I won't spoil too much of my review right now, but I feel very positive about this game and I felt a little sad to finish it. Child of Light is a stunning experience, I'm so thankful that it exists to give such a fulfilling story to the people who play it. Seriously, just go play it - It's $20 and if you're reading this blog and love a good story, I don't think you'll regret it.

Oh and I got 100% in trophies. #justsaying

(You can read my somewhat more structured feelings about Child of Light in my First Impressions post)

Blazblue: Continuum Shift Extend (Played on PS Vita. Also available on PS3 and X360)

This week I finished Rachel and Jin's story modes and began Makoto's. And I still haven't unlocked the 'true' ending! I'm really enjoyed Jin's story, so far I feel his showed the opposite side of the story and even involved some battle handcapping which was challenging. Makoto will be interesting as she's one of the characters that were new to Blazblue in Continuum Shift Extend. But I really want to get to the end and see the rest of everyone's stories - Arc System Works' story modes are very good at creating suspense!

Conception II: Children of the Seven Stars (Played on PS Vita. Also available on 3DS)

I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this game! Before downloading it, I truly thought the game's concept (no pun intended) of a dungeon crawling dating sim with classmating (Atlus definitely did intend for this pun) and giggly girls to be crazy. Too crazy, even for a JRPG! Conception II so far isn't a groundbreaking game, but it is fun and humourous and I want to buy the full version. Try the demo on PSN if you haven't already!

(You can read more about my feelings on Conception II at my Demo Review/First Impressions post...complete with screenshots!)

Steins;Gate (iOS)

Barely worth mentioning this week, but I thought I would anyway. I got through one line of translating and finally got up to Okabe saying something. This will not be a short playthrough, that's for sure.

Cherry Tree High Comedy Club (PC via Steam)

Alright, here's where things get slightly more interesting. I had a crazy urge to read a Visual Novel yesterday! I have no idea where it came from but it was there and it was powerful. This also resulted in my finding the Visual Novel Database this week.

Anyway, I began the free demo of Cherry Tree High Comedy Club and played for about 15 minutes. It reminds me a bit of Persona with it's activities - you have lunchtime, afternoon and the evening as the time periods of a day where you choose what you can do. The things you do during these times either raise stats or help get someone to join your club. Your stats are basically what you can converse with other people about (music, video games, fashion etc.), which will ultimately help you get more people to join the comedy club. So far it's a cute concept, but I'm only 15 minutes in so I probably can't give a professional opinion yet. :)

Narcissu (PC Via Steam)

I daresay this is my first proper Visual Novel. I've played games with Visual Novel elements (Blazblue's story mode and a lot of the dialogue in JRPGs are good examples of this), but never just a pure visual novel. Narcissu is free on Steam and is a very moving story. The tale is through the perspective of a sick person who is admitted to hospital with not a lot of hope of living. However, instead of being constantly grim, the story is moving in another direction. I have no idea what's going to happen, but let's just say I'm hooked for now.

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What have you been playing this week? Did you play any of these games?

Next week I'll be back to Final Fantasy X HD. Maybe even tonight - I'm excited to get back to it. I love me some Final Fantasy! Have a good week everyone!

-Tara

PSN: guittaraxx