As well as reviews of over 600 games, covering a wide range of sub-genres, including strategy RPGs like Fire Emblem, Rogue-likes such as Mystery Dungeon, and first-person dungeon crawlers like Etrian Odyssey, it includes articles on the genre, its music and art. From Dragon Quest to Final Fantasy, from Megami Tensei to Pokémon, A Guide to Japanese Role-Playing Games explores the expansive history of Japanese role-playing games, beginning on 8-bit microcomputers, and following them all the way up to the heavy hitters of the modern era.Ĭreated in collaboration with author Kurt Kalata, A Guide to Japanese Role-Playing Games is an ambitious project that aims to cover the entire history of Japanese role-playing games from 1982 to 2020. Despite initial similarities to Western games, Japan’s output began diverging in dramatic ways, inspired by its own culture and art, producing a style of game that’s often wildly different from its Western counterpart.
Video role-playing games, adapted for computers from their pen-and-paper forebears, have been around since the earliest days of digital gaming. Welcome to the world of Japanese Role-Playing Games! This title will be available to order on 29th October at 5pm BST/12pm EDT/6pm CEST with shipping beginning on Monday 8th November.
