by William Schwartz | Jun 30, 2026 | 1990s, 2000s, Magazine Preview
The story of JRPG music begins in that same ironic place so many JRPG stories begin, with Final Fantasy for the NES in 1987. After initially being thrown into the game without much explanation, the four warriors of light are rewarded with a bridge to take them further...
by Matthew Owen | Jun 28, 2026 | 1980s, 1990s, 2010s, Magazine Preview
Every now and then, a truly great game will emerge, revitalizing a beloved genre and reminding us why we fell in love with it in the first place. In 2025, that game was Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, a turn-based RPG developed by Sandfall Interactive, which wears its...
by Old School Gamer | Jun 26, 2026 | 1980s, 1990s, Magazine Preview
JRPGs are a genre that didn’t always take off in popularity on the NES the way Japanese developers had hoped. Despite all this, several titles were still localized over the years, so let’s give a gander at a few of the most notable ones. For the purposes of this...
by Matthew Floyd | Jun 24, 2026 | 1990s, 2000s, Magazine Preview
People who play Japanese role-playing games, such as myself, have become somewhat desensitized to the strangeness that these games can evoke. After all, there are very few genres where pre-teen kids are frequently flung into life-threatening circumstances, and all...
by Steve Juon | Jun 22, 2026 | 1990s, 2000s, Magazine Preview
So you’re thinking about playing Chrono Trigger. Your friends and peers have already told you it’s the greatest JRPG ever made, but you were born too late to experience it in its heyday on Super Nintendo. It only gets worse if you decide you want to live that...