My 8 Favourite JRPG Music Tracks From 2018 (So Far!)

JRPG music is full of variety. From acid jazz, dance and heavy rock tracks, there’s good music of all kinds to find in a lot of games and 2018 has been no exception. In the games I’ve played this year, I’ve found myself enjoying the electronic tracks of many composers and I’ve also found enjoyment in more traditional orchestral soundtracks that sound amazing with music production quality always increasing. With lots of great JRPGs out so far this year, I can say most of them have had great soundtracks too, so these are some musical highlights from JRPGs I’ve played this year.

Review: Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of DANA (Reviewed on Nintendo Switch, also on PS4, PS Vita and PC)

With the promise of being a big adventure on a deserted island, Ys VIII certainly delivers. Making one island somehow feel like a large world of its own, Ys VIII encouraged me to explore the many inches of its island thanks to its story and its great mechanics that help with exploring that slowly revealed more of this island as I played. But there’s more than just exploring an island to Ys VIII, with the adventurous spirit of its protagonist and the mysterious island making the story bigger than its initial premise and its well-paced reveal made this adventure intriguing throughout its six chapters, with more things to dive into post-game. In this rich island world, Ys VIII captures the spirit of adventure well, and its mysterious world with plenty to see and explore with its smooth gameplay makes it a fantastic fit on Nintendo Switch.

JRPGs I Played in June 2018

During June, I had a good amount of time before Ys VIII came out since it was a quieter month, so I decided to make up for lost time and catch up on all the great demos that had come out during E3, making it a surprisingly busy month for my gaming time. It was probably also made even more busy since I also continued with a bunch of my favourite experiences, including jumping into the Persona 3 side of the Persona dance spin-off games that I love, trying some Atelier DLC and getting back to Persona 2. This is before I took a much needed dive into a full, proper JRPG in the form of Ys VIII after having played a lot of spin-offs and small experiences and I enjoyed taking a dive into a new, big JRPG world. So with a mix of new, old, long and short experiences, here are the JRPGs I Played in June.

JRPGs I Played in May 2018

As much I enjoyed playing video games in May, my gaming time in May mostly didn’t go how I expected it to. I started my month playing two portable Persona games as I’d planned to, although not as much as I wanted to. Then I played Little Witch Academia: Chamber of Time and was much more mixed about it than I expected to be. Thankfully at the end of the month though, I had two games that caught my attention in the right way and put me in good JRPG spirits going into June. So although I only played a few games this month compared to other months again, here are the JRPGs I played in May.

First Impressions: Ys VIII - Lacrimosa of Dana (Demo, PS4)

While I haven't played a full Ys game before, I've always heard good things about the series, but I never knew why it was good. Trying the Ys VIII demo and its highly explorable map as a fan of exploration in recent JRPGs really got me curious about the Ys series with its many collectibles and multi-floored areas. The demo doesn’t tell much about the story or its characters (probably for the best as I hear its localisation is getting an update) and it instead seems mostly focused on showing off its quick action combat and interesting landscapes. So far, these aspects made me really want to try more with smooth gameplay that was a fun peek into the full game, just like a demo should be.

JRPGs I Played in March 2017

Currently my Persona 5 hype is very, very high, probably due to the fact that it's almost April (or because I changed my PS4 theme to the Persona 5 one). Thankfully, there were a lot of JRPGs in March to keep JRPG fans busy, in fact more than I could keep up with. What I did play, I really enjoyed. There was the breath of fresh air that was NieR Automata and its amazing story, my addition to Final Fantasy XV continued thanks to Episode Gladiolus and I got a little further into my own personal side quest of catching up on the Kingdom Hearts series by playing more 1.5 HD on PS3. I might not have played all the new JRPG releases this month, but these very different JRPGs I played in March I am overall quite happy with. Here are all the JRPGs I played a little and a lot of in March, before Persona 5 takes over my entire life.