The JRPG Report

We are thrilled to welcome back Jake to the podcast for this Sunday special. His last appearance was a year ago in our Cold Steel IV spoilercast. This chat won't be that long, but we'll have lots of fun. Topics include: what JRPGs are you looking forward most in 2022, games we are playing now, How big is the nostalgia factor when remembering games, and more.  For a while now on social media,...

It's hard to believe FF VII rocked the JRPG world 25 years ago, but that's where we are. Feel old yet? I'm sure we all have a story or two about this game. One that continues to push boundaries and is more relavent that ever today with it's Remake. I'll share the producers thoughts on this milestone and the series moving forward. Square Enix was busy this week in addition to FFVII happenings. We g...

We're about a month away from the western release of Monark, so NIS America has put out a demo for gamers to try. A game like this is perfect for a trial. You can check out the demo on Switch and PS4 today (sorry PC players) and see what you think. Lots of great games coming soon (see my 22 for 22 video on YouTube for a list of them all) so the media is gearing up. We'll talk some Atelier Sophie 2...

*Do not listen to this podcast if you haven't beaten the game. We will talk about it all!* I finally beat The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV a few weeks ago. So that means its spoilercast time! Jake waited patiently for us to talk and boy do we talk. So much so that we had to break it up into two parts. This episode covers everything after Eventide: Act 3, final dungeon, both endings, a...

It's Episode 201, so let me say thank you to all those support this podcast and said congrats on making it 200 shows. You all rock! Now onto the next 200 with news from the JRPG world. We've got a fresh trailer and details on the battle system of Neptunia: Sisters vs Sisters. I'll tell you everything we know so far about this April Japanese release. Also in April, Kingdom Hearts will celebrate 20...

It's time to celebrate a pretty cool milestone for the podcast. I'm humbled and honored to have recorded 200 episodes. We'll take a quick peek inside the numbers for the show then get onto the news of the week. We've got updates for Rune Factory 5, Atelier Sophie 2: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Dream, Bravely Default: Brilliant Lights, Pokemon Legends: Arceus, Rise of the Third Power, Hyperdime...

I waited a day for extra content and this what I came up with. It was such a short week of news, but I wanted to pass along all these great games on sale. SO episode 199 is what it is. Hopefully more stories coming next week. With both the E-Shop and PSN store having big holiday sales, I wanted to comb through and pick all the JRPGs out. Some great deals to be had. So increase your backlog today!...

Warning: The second half of this podcast contains massive spoilers do not listen if you have not beaten the game. However the first half, or 45 minutes, is largely spoiler free discussion of this amazing JRPG. We'll discuss everything we loved, and nitpick all the things we didn't. As two long time Tales fans, we weren't on board with all the changes. But the game shines in most departments. We'll...

Let's wrap up 2021 with a bow. Presenting the JRPG of the Year for 2021 and look ahead to all the confirmed releases for 2022. What a year for our genre it was! First some news: Relayer has a worldwide release date now. It was the original goal for the developers and they'll achieve the goal on March 24, 2022. Dragon Quest X Offline has been delayed to summer in Japan. Does this increase the small...

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you all! Its the eve of Christmas Eve show with lots of little stories to pass along to you. FF 6 getting a release window leads the show, slipping from 2021 to February 2022. I'll let you know an exact date when announced. For now you can preorder on Steam and receive some cool bonuses. We've got two stories about upcoming Neptunia games, lots of FFVII Remake...

A game I've been looking forward to for a few years now is Granblue Fantasy Relink. Well it's finally resurfaced along with some new details, including a worldwide 2022 release window. I'll share everything we learned at last weeks livestream. Lots of other JRPG news tidbits. We'll cover all these games and more this week: Sea of Stars, Pokemon Legends Arceus, Scarlet Nexus, FF VII Remake, Death E...

So we waited an extra day for news out of the Video Game Awards. And got a few stories including our lead of Final Fantasy VII Remake finally arriving on PC via the Epic Games Store. But Chrono Cross Remaster was no where to be seen. Seems the rumors will have to wait for now. The added news made for a jam packed show however! We've got new trailers from Atelier Sophie 2 and Monark as well as...

We've been hearing rumors of this for months: a remaster of Chrono Cross is in the works. What's the evidence for this and is it real? I'll discuss what facts we do know and speculate when this might happen, if it all. It was a light news week, hence the dive into internet rumors. In actual news we have some first details about last week's lead, Hyperdimension Neptunia: Sisters vs. Sisters. It sou...

Something to be thankful for: a new podcast and a new Neptunia game is coming next year. Announced for 2022, Hyperdimension Neptunia: Sisters vs Sisters is an action rpg featuring girls old and new. I'll give what little info we have about the game from Compile Heart.  It's the day before Thanksgiving here, but we still had plenty to talk about even on a short week. Two new trailers dropped f...

Atelier Sophie 2: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Dream had a recent livestream in Japan, where new a character was revealed, along with more information. We have some details about its weather system, as well as the various limited editions that will be available in February. Check out some new images and over 20 minutes of Japanese gameplay on the YouTube channel. Here are some of the other game...

A major release gets the slightest of delays as Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker has been pushed back two backs to December 7, 2021. Various reasons were cited and I'll read some of Yoshi P's comments. Overall its a good thing as no one wants to mess up the biggest expansion in the game's long history.  We didn't have a ton of things talk about this week. Game covered include Star Ocean: Divine F...

Its a light week so only a few stories to share on this episode. We start with some release dates including The Cruel King and the Great Hero coming west in March 2022. Also making the trip across the oceans is Maglam Lord, a title we weren't sure was coming or not.  Tales of Luminaria releases today but had a slight delay to November 5th so I'll give my impressions next week. I talk a little...

In a completely unexpected and welcome annoucement, Star Ocean is back! And coming next year to all platforms (sorry Switch.) During the most recent State of Play, the series I thought was dead, made a splash and left quite the impression. I'll detail everything we know as well as my impressions from the trailer.  Of course that wasn't the only news of the week. We have stories about Tales of...

I'm back after a pleasant vacation and a not so pleasant trip to the dentist. A day late but never a dollar short here's your new podcast for the week. In this episode we have news for Monark's western release date and details about Atelier Sophie 2's new characters. Lots of Final Fantasy news with FF XIV's upcoming Endwalker expansion and a possible FFIV The After Years remaster? Some other fun s...

It's that time of year! When I take a much needed vacation and leave you all with a mailbag show. Only a few submissions this time but they were excellent questions. To fill some time at the end, I wanted to talk about the future of the podcast. Some exciting changes and developments are coming. Nothing is changing about this weekly audio version. But we want to create new content, including video...

We were right this time. Atelier Sophie 2: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Dream will launch Feb 24 in Japan and the next day worldwide for PS4, PC, and Switch. I give all the details and wrap up our coverage of Tokyo Game Show 2021. At the end of the podcast I'll share an interview with Sophie's director on the influences of this game, why she got a sequel, and the Ryza effect on the game. Also c...

Oh man what a big show at just over an hour and packed full of JRPG goodies, news, and shenanigans. Not much in the way of surprised this year, but we did get new information and a ton of release dates.  Let's just list some of the games covered in this podcast. Triangle Strategy (dropped the Project), Rune Factory 5, Echoes of Mana, Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin, Final Fantasy V...

What's your favorite Persona game? Atlus is celebrating 25 years of memories over the next few months. It's begun now with a special website launched along with merchandise and hopefully a new game. I'll go over what we know so far. Seems like every major franchise is celebrating an anniversary lately. The Atelier series is also celebrating 25 years in May of next year with 6 new announcements, no...

It's a jam packed and nearly hour long show this week full of information, rumors, and opinions. The latter two reserved for the end. Here's some of the game news we have: The Legend of Heroes: Kuro no Kiseki, Tales of Arise and Monark. I'll give my thoughts on the opening hours of Arise, and wrap up the podcast with my thoughts on its DLC. We do have one rumor early in show: what Koei Tecmo's mys...

It's the perfect combination of short news week, and hectic personal week. That equals short podcast. The big news of the week is obviously the launch of Tales of Arise tomorrow. Will it live up to the hype? There were a few stories to cover including a western release for Neptunia x Senran Kagura: Ninja Wars on October 26 in North America. I wasn't 100% sure we'd even get this game, let alone 6 w...