The fourth (and presumably final) entry in the series, Lunar: Dragon Song for DS, has gone down in infamy for featuring some of the absolute worst game design choices ever inflicted on an RPG. Released in 1994 on the SNES, Earthbound remains one of the more unique Japanese RPGs to date. Thankfully, the appeal of walloping the monstrous Heartless (and Sephiroth) with the help of Goofy, Donald and Mike Wazowski hasn’t faded. There’s even a term for those games: “JRPG,” a designation that has developed into a catch-all describing games from any region designed in the style of Japanese RPGs. Yet in the series’ brief lifespan, it gave players plenty to chew on — both morally and mechanically. It is with knowing this fear that we learn to conquer it, for death is not permanent in Dark Souls. The setting itself was decidedly more standard fantasy, with no science fiction elements incorporated. Back to the days when video games weren’t afraid to be brutally difficult. Players take on the role of Ramza Beoulve, a man who finds himself thrust into the middle of an intricate military conflict known as The Lion War, where two opposing noble factions are coveting the throne of the kingdom. When Nintendo presented the prospect of dedicating a second screen entirely to maps as a possible use case for the DS handheld, veteran Atlus RPG designers saw it as a golden opportunity to bring back a forgotten video game discipline: Mapping out complex dungeons by hand on graph paper. The results have been uneven to say the least, but collectively the Xeno titles make for one of the most ambitious yet curiously personal set of games ever made. Strap in, it’s gonna be a wild ride to the top. Tales of Vesperia is the tenth title in the long-running Tales series of games from Namco Bandai’s Tales Studio. This time around, players can choose from two distinct stories (set on different cartridges) that tell entirely different stories with the same character, subtitled Birthright and Conquest, respectively. More than ten million copies have been sold since its release in 1997 for the original PlayStation, spawning several spin-offs and even a movie while strong calls for a remake continue to ring. Disgaea and its sequels notwithstanding, Valkyria Chronicles puts players in control of a squad of soldiers whom they’ll take with them to the ends of the earth (or at least the end of the game’s long, single-player storyline) as they participate in a story reminiscent of the events of the Second World War. The rules here are simple. Directed by the creator of Final Fantasy for Mistwalker and AQ Interactive, The Last Story is Hironobu Sakaguchi’s latest epic. Impossible challenges become suddenly manageable. More than simply fighting it out on the grids, the game forces players to make critical decisions which send you on one of several paths, with different story outcomes and supporting characters. Only the most diehard fans can even begin to explain the Kingdom Hearts narrative’s increasingly bizarre complications at this point. It retains the style and feel of the previous Persona games but comes with the new theme of restraint and liberation this time around. Japanese RPG (JRPG) JRPG (Japanese Role-Playing Game) is a subgenre of a role-playing video game genre which is typical to a Japanese Role-Playing game market. Players can take direct control of their soldiers to target and take down enemies. However, its follow-ups tend to be more of an acquired taste. Beyond its gameplay and technical elements, Final Fantasy X was notable for its story, which centered around a character named Tidus, a blitzball player who finds himself in the fantasy world of Spira after his home is destroyed by an entity named Sin. Over time, the rules of the SaGa universe have become somewhat clear, but the games make no effort to be scrutable or to lay their workings bare for newcomers. After Final Fantasy VII and VIII both went into a certain “anime realism” direction with their art style, IX is decidedly cute and cuddly and very cartoonish again. The fear of death is a constant challenge and you must be prepared to die if you wish to make any progress whatsoever. One of the games to fully utilise the last bit of power left in the Super Nintendo, this 1994 entry to the Final Fantasy series is a true classic, and considered by many to be the pinnacle of JRPG design. Konami ’ s Capcom ’ s increasingly bizarre complications at this point you don... 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