*The criteria used for the selection of the five JRPG titles in this article is as follows: Any game that was scored under an 80 out of 100, but above a 60 out of 100 in its review ‘overall’ tally on the Never-Ending Realm is considered average. Games that appear on the list that have…
Tag: PlayStation 1
Five RPGs from the 90s That Should be Remastered on Switch
The 90s decade, the golden era of the Japanese RPG. In those wonderful days it seemed like SquareEnix (Squaresoft at the time) could do no wrong. Good to great JRPGs were a common sight on (what seemed to be) a monthly basis on the PlayStation 1. Even the Nintendo 64 with its Zelda games (and…
PlayStation’s SaGa Frontier Will be Remastered in 2021
SaGa Frontier, is a somewhat strange Japanese Role-Playing game that found critical success in Japan in 1997. The 32-bit era RPG is getting the ‘remaster’ treatment despite the fact that its critical reception stateside was mixed to say the least. The title was not a hit with American audiences, as its 71/100 Gamerankings’ meta score…
My Love Letter to Dark Cloud: One of the Greatest RPGs Ever
With the sad news that developer Level-5 is leaving North America and my hopes for Dark Cloud 3 dashed, I wanted to take a look back at Dark Cloud. Sharing my love and experience with this game, I highly recommend it to fans looking for a classic RPG, which was my favorite PS2 game. Despite some heartbreak during…
Throwback Bit Thursday: Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete
Our weekly Thursday ‘Throwback Bit’ section has gathered a good deal of popularity over the past few months. Remembering old games is always good – if nostalgic – and today’s chosen game is no different. Lunar: Silver Star Story is a monumental RPG that some presentation standards in place, standards that have been attributed to…
Throwback Bit Thursday: Star Ocean The 2nd Story
Enix’s Star Ocean series is one of the few J-RPG franchises that originated in the 16-bit era that remains, to this day, somewhat relevant on home consoles. While the latest entries have been disappointing as SO: The Last Hope, and Integrity and Faithlessness, have for the most part been fairly average RPGs. One thing that…
Throwback Bit Thursday: Chrono Cross
Chrono Cross (2000) isn’t as widely beloved (or remembered), as its predecessor; the incomparable Chrono Trigger. This, despite being released at the climax of the JRPG golden era, and to stellar amounts of critical reception. The game still holds a 94 Metacritic rating, which is a higher rating than any FF game (only FFIX has…
Remembering the PlayStation (PSX) on its 25th Birthday
Today, is the PlayStation’s 25th anniversary (and the Dreamcast’s 21st), apart from feeling a little nostalgic and perhaps even a tinge of sadness (I am getting old); there is much to be excited about. Rumors have been floating around for a few weeks now that today is the day that Sony will announce both the…
Throwback Bit Thursday: The Legend of Dragoon
The Legend of Dragoon has been one of the strangest titles that I have ever reviewed. The Playstation Japanese Role-Playing game, released in the year 2000, isn’t a really a special RPG, but it is the one game that I felt was the definition of “Pedestrian” when I first reviewed it, and yet, somehow, it…
Throwback Bit Thursday: Thousand Arms
The Golden Era of Japanese Role-Playing Games during the original PlayStation days produced many a great RPG on a consistent basis. It seemed then, that every month a new JRPG AAA title would arrive at store shelves for players to buy and immerse themselves for dozens of hours. During this period, in between the Final…