2023 was the year of the RPG – now 2024 looks like the year of JRPGs
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February is massive for JRPGs
After the double-whammy ofPalworldand Enshrouded, February’s kicked off with a one-two punch of JRPGs. Persona 3 Reload and Granblue Fantasy: Relink dropped back-to-back, and both have reviewed encouragingly well.
Persona 3 Reload is a modernized version of the 2009 classic, just with some of its rougher edges sanded down and, in many places, a few bits of Persona 5 Royal grafted on for quality-of-life’s sake. It is anenormousgame that still stands out as an unflinchingly dour story in the Persona series, now retooled to be as good as longtime fans remember it, and to be much more approachable for newcomers. I look forward to losing another 134 hours to its cleverly intertwined combat and social systems.
Nobody was surprised to hear that the Persona 3 remake is good. Granblue Fantasy: Relink, meanwhile, is kind of a miracle. The game was in and out of various circles of development hell – and various developers – for years, but after a promising demo released a few weeks ago, is finally out. And good! The demo hinted as much, and reviews for Relink confirm what fans were hoping for, whether that’s fans of the Granblue universe or lovers of action RPGs in general. Relink is a rock-solid JRPG largely carried by an exhilarating battle system and a colorful world too good to stay confined to one impenetrable gacha game.
We still haven’t gotten to the biggest February release, not just among JRPGs but probably of all the games out this month:Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. Part two of the storied classic’s remake trilogy promises a more sprawling adventure supported by a larger playable cast, and simultaneously looks like more of the same in the best possible way. Speaking as someone who never played the original Final Fantasy 7 but quite enjoyed the first chunk of the Remake, I’m more than ready to pal around with Cloud and the gang for another 50+ hours. It’s a shame it’ll be a PS5 exclusive for some time.
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