Episode 22 - An Ode to the JRPG

The Joy of Gaming Podcast, Episode 22:

An Ode to the JRPG

On this episode of The Joy of Gaming Podcast, we (Rich, Tim and Jordan) talk about a subject that is near and dear to our gamer hearts: Japanese Role-Playing Games. With recent games like Fire Emblem: Awakening, Persona 4: Golden, and Ni No Kuni in our gaming consoles, and Fire Emblem X Shin Megami Tensei and the next Final Fantasy announced and on the next-gen horizon, now seems like the perfect time to sing an ode to one of our all-time favorite genres.

First, of course, we talk about the games we’ve been playing recently, which include, Crysis 3, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, Halo 4’s Spartan Ops, and Fire Emblem: Awakening. Then we delve into a few updates to news stories from last episode, most importantly Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag. That’s right – no Assassin’s Creed 3: (Insert Ridiculously Self-Important Subtitle Here), as Ubisoft is moving right along to the official fourth installment in the series, which is probably a good call.

And finally, when you think of JRPGs, what games and series do you think of? Well for us, the list is as follows: the Tales series, Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Suikoden, Xenogears, Xenosaga and its sequels, the Mana series, the Megaten games, Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross, Ogre Battle and Tactics Ogre, Fire Emblem, the Mario and Luigi games, the Paper Mario series…and the list goes on. We discuss these games and more, and innumerate the many reasons why we love them, as well as their individual contributions to the genre as a whole.

So whether you play JRPGs for the story, or always skip through the cutscenes to get back to the grind, you should find a lot to love here. This…is The Joy of Gaming!