2013 looks like a good year for the JRPG

2012 had some quality JRPGs – Persona 4 Golden is fantastic & I enjoyed both Tales of Graces F & Final Fantasy XIII-2 – but it was lacking in quantity. A large part of this is because we were seeing a change of the portable guard – good games for the PSP & DS were starting drying up but the new systems hadn’t picked up enough steam to make up for the decline with the older games.

JRPG fans don’t look like they’ll be hurting for new games to play in 2013 however. On the home consoles, we’ve got Ni no Kuni coming out tomorrow with Tales of Xillia (which from what I’ve heard is one of the best Tales games to date), and Final Fantasy XIII-3 later this year. Also, Pandora’s Tower (Wii) & Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate (WiiU/3DS) for the Action/Adventure/RPG lovers.

However, it’s the 3DS that looks like it’s really heating up for JRPGs this year. Next month, we’re getting the new Fire Emblem (which Nintendo is actually putting some serious marketing muscles behind) and the new Etrian Odyssey. Later this year, we’re FINALLY getting Soul Hackers (one of my favorite Atlus’ RPGs) in the US & though it hasn’t been officially announced for the US yet, we should be seeing Shin Megami Tensei IV here as well. To my great surprise, Namco has announced that they’ll be releasing Project X Zone (a cross-over RPG featuring characters from Namco, Sega, and Capcom) this summer. And of course, the big 3DS JRPG that many people are looking forward to near the end of the year is Pokemon X/Y – the first major game in the series to really go all-out with 3D visuals.

Vita, on the other hand, is a little troubling. I’d hate for Persona 4 Golden to be both the first great and the final great JRPG on the system. XSeed Games hasn’t announced any Vita games for 2013 yet which makes me worried that maybe the Vita games they did release in 2012 like Ragnarok Odyssey underperformed. I’d love to see Ys Celceta come over here and I’d love it even more to see the Vita Trails games (which is pretty unlikely since it looks like XSeed Games has abandoned the series after the first game didn’t do so hot) but even more than those, I’d love to see more original JRPGs get announced for the system in Japan. Can’t get JRPGs localized in English if there aren’t any games to localize.

What RPGs are you looking forward to this year?

7 Responses

  1. You neglected to mention that 2012 also brought us Growlanser: Wayfarer of Time (PSP), which is one of the greatest / most underrated JRPG series ever.

  3. I’m really hoping Ni No Kuni is worth the wait (and price tag), but aside from that we have Etrian Odyssey IV to look forward to, which is just–well, listen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTU-jTmWr-k

    2012 was a bit slow with only P4G, XII-2, and the brilliant Crimson Shroud that enticed me, so I’m hoping we can overcome the slow drip of RPGs in 2013.

  4. Also, I’d also like to see Bravely Default localized. That one I think is more likely than either of the DQ games on the 3DS for 2013.

  5. I was already lamenting that there really wasn’t much coming jRPG-wise for me this year. I don’t own a PS3, so Xillia and ni no kuni are out, although I’d probably get them if I had a PS3. I’ll probably get FF13-3, but I’m not really excited about it. I’ve ignored Project X Zone, but I may have to look into it. Since I’m primarily a 360/Wii gamer, nothing other than Pandora’s tower and FF13-3 that I know of are on my list. Hopefully there are some good wRPGs this year, maybe Fallout 4 this winter.

    For handhelds, I’m planning to get EO4, however I haven’t played the first 3 (Ordered them with the re-print though). Also planning to get around to trying the Fire Emblem demo, but I’ve never played FE before either. I’ve not been interested in SMT games, given that I don’t really like what I’ve heard about them. BUT I’m considering Soul Hackers and/or SMT4 because it seems like there just isn’t anything else coming. What I REALLY want is the DQ Monsters or DQ7 remake to come out here, but neither have been announced yet.

    So for me, I’m feeling like 2013 will be a disappointing year so far, and I’m considering games that wouldn’t normally be on my list just because there just isn’t anything else.

  7. Can’t wait for Fire Emblem: Awakening and Etrian Odyssey IV, personally. It’s been far too long since the last FE came out stateside (still sore that the FE3 remake on the DS never came over, especially since I’m apparently in a vast minority of people who didn’t hate Shadow Dragon).

    Etrian Odyssey II is one of my favorite games of all time, and I have very fond memories of experiencing Etrian Odyssey III alongside my small circle of friends after one of my friends and I convinced everyone to buy it on launch. Guess it wasn’t THAT long ago, but that’s pretty much the reason why the series holds such a special place in my heart. Not to mention I spent far too much money importing the official soundtracks and a handful of EO doujin CDs. Probably going to do the same for EO4, because I’ve listened to the soundtrack already and Yuzo Koshiro did not disappoint.

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