Is 2020 the year of JRPG’s?

While we have gotten our fair share of JRPG’s this year, it seems like 2020 is going to start with a big bang when it comes to Japanese roll playing games. And these are just games that are announced now, who knows what more will be announced and revealed in the upcoming months. It feels like it’s a really good time to be a JRPG fan.

And yes I must say that almost all games listed here is a port/remake or the like.
Doesn’t make it any less worthwhile, for a lot of people have not been able to play the original versions. So I still think they are worth checking in, some of them have had some tremendous work done on them, like Xenoblade Chronicles.
And I’m going to miss some titles, if you feel like something is missing give me a shout! Then I’ll consider them for a second post or a video.

 

Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore
RELEASE: 2020-01-17 —- CONSOLES: Nintendo Switch

Like many other games for the Wii U, I missed this one completely. But then again it wasn’t entirely on my radar at the time either. As of writing this is the first JRPG that will be released in 2020. It will apparently feature some new story content not found in the original Wii U version and feature new characters.
 

Final Fantasy VII Remake
RELEASE: 2020-03-03 —- CONSOLES: PlayStation 4

This new trailer actually dropped today! And it’s so gorgeous, I want to remind everyone I’m not a FF7 fan, but man I’m very hyped for the remake! Everything I’ve seen so far looks so good, This game looks fun and I’m really liking the action battle system and not to mention that both Aerith and Tifa look so good! Can’t wait to see the rest and hopefully we won’t have to wait all that long for the second part of the game to be released… And frog Cloud is precious! He must the protected!
They’ve also confirmed there will be a classic mode in the game, that will do away with all the action and you’ll be playing like the old classic turn based mode. Where you don’t have to feel the stress of the action, it’s great there is something for everyone.
 

Trails of Mana
RELEASE: 2020-04-24 —- CONSOLES: PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch

I never played the original and while I do have Collection of Mana, I feel the remake is more up my alley than the original. Fully 3D environment and more action based combat is making this look great. Glad they learned for the horrid Secret of Mana remake. Riesz will absolutely be in my team and probably Angela too.
 

Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition
RELEASE: 2020-??-?? —- CONSOLES: Nintendo Switch

The biggest and best surprise from the latest Nintendo Direct, I had almost given up hope they we would see the first Xenoblade on Switch. I’ve said it a couple of times but this game really deserved a port that would do it justice and not be stuck on the 3DS.
So I’m glad that’s happening now and from what we can see in the trailer above it looks really fantastic. New character models, improved textures for everything and rumors of them adding cut content. Yeah, you best believe I’m hyped for this!
I hope they do a nice collectors edition for this and I want the release date now!
 

Tales of Arise
RELEASE: 2020-??-?? —- CONSOLES: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Steam

The newest trailer from Tokyo Game Show, it doesn’t show much new stuff and it’s very short. But we get a tease of our third party member and what I expect to be the games mascot character. I was really hoping for more, at least get a good look and a name for this third character, oh well. I’m super hyped for this Tales of game anyways, it looks so freaking good! So looking forward to what a Tales of game with a bigger budget can deliver, so far it’s nailing it with it’s visuals.
 

Persona 5: Royal
RELEASE: 2020-??-?? —- CONSOLES: PlayStation 4

I haven’t really clicked with the Persona series and I tried the regular version of 5, but I only played a few hours of it. Thought I’d give it a second chance with this new edition.
For me this one is on the bottom of those games I’m looking forward to, I’m hoping it will click more with me this time, but we’ll see.
 

Genshin Impact
RELEASE: 2020-??-?? —- CONSOLES: PlayStation 4

A gorgeous open-world game that has some clear inspirations from our lovely
Legend of Zelda: Breath of The Wild. Holy hell I’m looking forward to play this game, I’m in love with the cell-shading style. If it’s only half as good as BOTW then I’m going to have a blast with this game, everything I’ve seen so far just makes me want the game even more. I like that they have a few different playable characters, hopefully that will add some variation to the game. Already liking the bow users.

Tags: Atlus, Bandai Namco, Final Fantasy VII, Games, JRPG, Persona, Remake, Square Enix, Tales of Arise, Xenoblade Chronicles

New trailer for Final Fantasy VII remake

I’m a few days late with these news, but about three days ago Square Enix released a new trailer from their upcoming Final Fantasy VII remake. It’s no secret that I am not a big Final Fantasy VII fan, but this remake has has really hyped for the game.
Much more than the original game ever hyped me. Check out the trailer for yourselves!

I think it looks really good! I’m I am very eager to try this game, for me personally I have nothing against this being more of an Action RPG than a turn based one.
If it’s just as fluid and fun as it is in Kingdom Hearts III, I know that at least I am going to have a very good time with the battles. I’m really digging Aerith’s design, she looks really, really good. Even Cloud looks better than he did in the 2015 reveal.
Sure I’ll miss his banana hair buy what can you do? I know some people really liked his more sickly design, but it didn’t really resonate with me.

Square Enix is going to share more news with us in June when E3 is, I really hope they’ll show more of the characters. I am a bit eager to see Tifa, mostly due to me thinking she’ll get a bit of a redesign… Since I don’t think her original will work with today’s climate on the internet regarding certain designs.
It does feel a bit weird to be hyped about FF7, I wonder if this is what people felt like when they waited for the original to be released.

My biggest hope is that we’ll get some parts that are playable with Zack in this remake, since there seems to be no plans to make a Crisis Core HD. Doesn’t really seem to fit in with the whole way FF7 is going, but then again… If that erases Genesis from FF7 lore that might not be such a bad thing. So tell me. Are you looking forward to this remake?
Why? And why not? I’d love to hear your opinion on it.

Tags: Action RPG, Final Fantasy VII, JRPG, Remake, Square Enix

Tankar om Final Fantasy VII remake

Så länge jag kan minnas så har det alltid önskats en remake på Final Fantasy VII. Så fort det varit ett stort tv-spels evenemang som E3 eller liknande har folk alltid sagt, i år är det äntligen dags! Men varje år har de blivit besvikna för de hajpat upp sig för inget. Men E3 2015 var året då Square Enix äntligen utannonserade Final Fantasy VII remake. Som väntat så blev folk vilda och jag för första gången började visa intresse för FFVII.

Har aldrig varit ett fan av originalet, det tilltalade mig aldrig som det gjort så många andra. Där emot föll jag för Crisis Core: FFVII som utspelar sig innan FFVII. Mycket tack vare man fick spela som Zack, en karaktär jag gillar så mycket mer än Cloud. Plus man fick se Sephiroth i spelet innan han blev koko i skallen. Karaktärerna i övrigt har väl varit lagom intressanta, men då spelet aldrig riktigt klickat har inte karaktärerna gjort det heller. Något jag hoppas kanske ändras i och med remaken.
Barret har fått sig en liten om design och ser väl rätt bra ut tycker jag, läste det var någon som tyckte att han gick från Mr.T till Blade. Det kan jag väl iofs inte se som något negativt själv. Läste någonstans att ändringen gjordes för att han blev så förknippad med just Mr.T, hur sant det är det dock vet jag ej.
Men det ska bli spännande att se om det är fler karaktärer som designas om något.

Något jag verkligen gillade är att spelet verkar ha ett mer action basera stridssystem, missförstå mig inte nu. jag gillar turordningsbaserade spel, men jag tror detta kommer passa spelet perfekt. Förhoppningsvis betyder det också att vi slipper random encounters, det om något har jag verkligen tröttnat på i JRPG.
Ser fram emot tills vi får se mer av spelet, men det blir ju helt klart något jag kommer köpa dag ett. Det trodde jag nog aldrig jag skulle säga om FF7 det, men jag ser fram emot förändringarna mycket tack vare det inte har ett nostalgist värde av mig från början. Så jag är väl mer öppen till förändringarna än andra. Men jag hoppas på det bästa och vill se mer.

Tags: Final Fantasy VII, Remake, Trailers, YouTube

E3 2015: The show so far

Now that both Microsoft and Sony’s show is over, lets see what where some of the highlights for me. I liked Microsoft’s event this year, first time ever I think. They where focused and it felt like they finally knew what they where doing, a bunch of great announcements. The first gameplay of Rise of The Tomb Raider was awesome.
The Rare collection which includes 30 titles from Rare, that’s a lot of quality games you get there. They announced that Xbox One would become backwards compatible with Xbox 360 games, which probably was my biggest surprise and something I think is great. The Minecraft / Hololens demo was pretty fucking awesome I must say.

Sony re-revealed The Last Guardian, guess it wasn’t canceled. I for one don’t care for the game at all, but I know a lot of other folks do, so I’m happy for them. Creator of Shenmue, Yu Suzuki revealed a Kickstarter for Shenmue 3, never thought I’d see the day. But then they went and revealed something I never thought I would see ever and that was the remake of Final Fantasy VII. Yes, they are finally remaking that game. I’m not a FFVII fan, I liked the game sure, but it’s not my favorite and I liked Crisis Core more. But I still got very excited over this news. They showed a lot of stuff that doesn’t interest me as much, but we got to see the first gameplay of Uncharted 4 and it looked good.

And now for two things that was not show in any of the press events, PlatinumGames is making Transformers: Devastation and it looks awesome! Really looking forward to that.

And I just check my Twitter just a short while ago, to see them having announced that they are releasing the 20th anniversary DualShock 4 controller separately! This might not a very big deal, but damn I’m in love with that color and the colored Home button. It really gets the nostalgia in me flowing, I need this controller. I’m going to get this controller when it is released in September. I’ve also wanted a second controller for a while, so this will be my new main controller and the other will be Player 2 controller.

Some really great stuff and so far one of the better E3 in a while. And let’s not forget we still have Nintendo’s and Square Enix event to see later today. But right now I need some sleep.

Tags: Controller, E3, Final Fantasy VII, Microsoft, PlatinumGames, PS4, Remake, Sony, Square Enix, Tomb Raider, Transformers, Xbox

A few Tales of games rumor

Today I heard a rumor I really hope is true… and that is that there will be a Tales of Symphonia HD Collection. It would include both Tales of Symphonia and Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of The New World. It is rumored that it will be released.on Playstation 3.

I would like to play ToS2 with a real controller instead of the Wii-mote. For me it really brought down the game for me, I had a  hard time enjoying the fighting in the game because of it. Others say the game is crap either way, but I enjoyed what I played of  it. Everything but the controller.

In the same rumor it is also said that Tales of Xillia 2 will be translated too. So I really hope those rumors are true. They come from a Spanish site, where they’ve had an interview with Hideo Baba where he has hinted about these things.

Tags: Bandai Namco, HD, JRPG, Remake, Rumors, Tales of Symphonia

Lunar SSH, not what I hoped…

I’ve been playing RPGs now since 1999 and it all started with Lunar Silver Star Story for Playstation 1. I have said this a thousand times, that it was my very first jrpg. And love at first sight, everything was so new to me and it felt great. I had a very hard time at that point in my life, I didn’t know if I wanted to continue living… It was bad, but Lunar SSSC changed that for a bit. I found the adventures that jrpg had to be most filling, at least filling a part if me that continued to cary on. So the Lunar series helped me with some of my problems, so it is indeed a very important game for me.

That is why I am mostly dissapointed with the PSP remake, that came out a couple of years ago. I think ut was also released on IOS fairly recently. I was sad from the start that Gaijin Works (used to be Working Designs) had nothing to do with this new English translation. It really missed all the good stuff, the new voiceactors are trrible in their roles. And I do like the voiceactors, very much so. But not for the characters or Lunar, I feel like they are missing their soul, or something like that.
The PSP version is too easy, I’ve never had any trouble getting through the game. And I did it fast to, it tiok me 22hours… Now this could just have been because the PS1 game was my first jrpg, but it took me 61hours to complete. And I was about 20-30levels higher than I was when facing the last boss in the Ps1 version and I still had problems with him. While I was around level 44 now and beat him with ease.
This can be me having gained more experience in the genre, but I was so dissapointed with the clear time and how easy the boss fell. Now I only feel sad, I do not like this remake. And now I am afraid to play the PS1 version again, I rather have my memory of it being the game I love, than it ending up dissapointing me.

Maybe I have outgrown the series, maybe its just a really crappy remake. Maybe the PS1 version is equally as bad? I honestly don’t want to think so and I don’t want to find out. I’ll keep the warm memory of the game untarnished and continue to love it like I used to. I’m not picking up the PSP version again at least.
Ahh… I really needed to clear my head from all these thoughts.

Tags: Gaijinworks, Games, JRPG, Lunar, PSP, Remake, Thoughts, Working Designs

OMFG!! YES! YES!!

XSEED Games has just announced that they are releasing the PSP remake of Lunar Silver Star Story in the US! This is the most awesome news I’ve heard in awhile! Honestly I’m super hyped. Lunar Silver Star Story Complete for Playstation 1 was the game that made me love RPGs. So of course it holds a special place in my heart.
I love that game, I truly do. And I’m getting this remake ASAP. I must have it.

Tags: Awesome, JRPG, Lunar Silver Star Story, Music, PSP, Remake