Category: jrpgs

3-5 What Are You Playing?: Everyone’s A Gamer Now

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It seems like everyone is gaming these days. Just try and find a Nintendo Switch, good luck. I get it though, we have all this time on our hands and gaming is a great way to socialize with each other. Even if you’re not playing an online multiplayer game, there’s a sense of community because you’re playing a game that others have played. There are resources out there for you to seek out, videos to watch to learn tips & tricks, livestreams of people speeed-running the game. You’re not alone in playing a game. There’s a whole industry and community of people behind those buttons you’re clicking. And there’s a comfort in that.

I’m not super into online gaming. It’s not a thing I’ve really been about. I’m a solo gamer who likes to do my own thing. There are a bunch of reasons for this, but the main one is that I’m very idiosyncratic with my gameplay and I’ll play something for 3 minutes and decide I’m not in that mood and move on to something else. I don’t want to have to deal with another person and possibly hurting their feelings because my brain is weird and operates in its own distinct way.

I hope all of you are staying safe and surviving the quarantine. Be sure to practice safe social distancing. It does work, it does matter, and we are seeing progress.

Here’s what I’ve been playing:

  • Animal Crossing: New Horizons
  • Dragon Quest Builders 2
  • Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age
  • The Outer Worlds
  • Hitman 2
  • Detroit: Become Human
  • Divinity Original Sin 2
  • Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair

A hodge-podge of RPGs and crafting simulators. That’s just been the mood. Happy Gaming.

3-2 Drowning in Video Game Anime: JRPG4Life

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It’s been a quiet new year on the blog and for that I do apologize. I’ve been silent because I’ve been busy playing games, specifically JRPGs (Japanese Role Playing Games). I’ve been playing on the Nintendo Switch primarily and there’s no shortage of this genre: Xenoblade Chronicles 2, Tales of Vesperia, Collection of Mana, Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age, I Am Setsuna, Octopath Traveler, Valkyria Chronicles 4, Disgaea 5, and many more.

I’ve been spending most of my time going back and forth between Fire Emblem: Three Houses and Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE. While they both fall into the JRPG genre, their gameplay is pretty different. Fire Emblem: Three Houses is a tactical role-playing game, think of a kind of chess game combined with rock/paper/scissors set in a fantasy setting.

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Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE

Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE is a bit more of a straight-forward JRPG, navigation takes place both in the third-person perspective with 3D-rendered environments and a 2D overhead overworld map while battles take place from a first-person perspective. TMS#FE has story elements from two other long-standing JRPG franchises: Fire Emblem and Shin Megami Tensei.

What can I say about these games except that they’re ANIME AS FUCK! There’s something lovely about how they both lean into the best parts of themselves.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses is basically a tactical RPG set in Hogwarts. You have three ‘Great Houses’ (nations) to choose from, you have a class of students/soldiers that you teach/level up. These students will engage in combat & battle for you on a grid based map as you play through a convoluted story involving a maybe evil church and nation-states that are all vying for power and land ownership.

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Fire Emblem, Three Houses

Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE is a game where by day you are a jpop (Japanese pop star) idol, and by night you battle demons who have mind-controlled humans for some evil and nefarious purpose. You have personas, I mean performas, spirits from another dimension (and franchise) who act as your fighters and enter arenas to battle these demons. These performas are in the guise of characters from the Fire Emblem universe. I have no idea why, nor does it really matter. What matters is that it is one of the most beautiful JRPGs I’ve ever played.

So the reason I’m not posting is because I’m too busy grinding up my levels so I can venture deeper into battle. 😀