Happy #JRPGJuly

It's #JRPGJuly - the time of year to really focus on those JRPGs in your playlist or backlog and share some screenshots, anecdotes and (quite possibly) rants.


I've been nursing along several JRPG play-throughs recently but without any strict focus due to travel, other things on the go, and my crippling inability to focus ;)

 Here's a quick list of possibles and probables:
  • I have my umpteenth play-through of Suikoden II [PSX] nearing the end - 30+ hours in and with all 108 characters recruited.
  • I've also spent some time re-playing Grandia [PSX] with the (relatively) new and complete un-dub patch.
  • Feeling nostalgic, I started a replay of Lunar: Eternal Blue [PSX] last week
  • Lufia II [SNES]. I'm several hours in but stopped playing for a while due to how formulaic and "samey" things were feeling. Might be worth going back for another look.
  • Phantasy Star [SMS]. Holds up incredibly well for a Master System game. Warrants some more hours of play.
  • Phantasy Star IV [SMD] - I've put some time into this one over the years, spread of different re-releases/Mega Drive compilations.
  • My thousandth (possible exaggeration) replay of Final Fantasy VII. I should say "replays" here, as I'm 30-odd hours into the PS4 re-release but also 5 or so into the re-translation patched PSX game.
  • Yet another replay - Final Fantasy VIII (Windows) with some nice graphical mods that make it look a bit prettier. 6 or 7 hours in at the moment.



As for the backlog, some titles that I've been wanting to play for years and have only half-heartedly poked at:

  • Super Mario RPG (SNES). I've only played for 30 minutes or so, hope to get back to it some day...
  • Breath of Fire (any of them - I think I was leaning towards 4).
  • Finally finishing Chrono Trigger. I've started and played for a few dozen hours but over both the SNES, DS, and PSX versions.
  • Wild Arms. Similar to Chrono Trigger, a couple of restarts, plenty of time put it but not finished.
  • Albert Odyssey (Saturn). Couple of false starts, I haven't seen a lot of it but I feel I'd like to.

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