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I've played my fair share of JRPGs, including stone-cold classics like Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy 7, but the one that stands out above the rest for me isn't a title that's achieved quite the same level of household recognition. Released on the Nintendo GameCube in 2003, Tales of Symphonia has had no shortage of acclaim, typically ranking near the top of the long-running and eternally popular Tales series. It's not as likely to be found in the same spot on lists of the best JRPGs as a whole, however, and it's a game that's easy enough to overlook.

The biggest hurdle for Tales of Symphonia, as I see it, comes from the fact that it's not a watershed release in the history of the genre. There's no great leap forward in technology, tone, or general ambition that makes the game vastly different from its predecessors, and a lot of its...

Elrentaros Wanderings comes from developer Hakama, led by Rune Factory creator Yoshifumi Hashimoto. The game takes place across two parallel worlds—a rural fantasy village called Elrentaros and a present-day Japanese school.

In Elrentaros, monsters plague the townspeople, so players take on the role of an adventurer exploring mysterious dungeons to help the locals. Along the way, strange things occur—sometimes the player wakes up in their other life at school, where characters resemble those in Elrentaros.

With veterans from the Rune Factory series involved, hopes were high. Players could customize weapons and complete quests, with farming and relationship elements alongside the core action-dungeon gameplay. Repetitive combat and lack of motivation to keep exploring hold it back from achieving its potential.

The two worlds introduced an intriguing concept but received little development. If the scope had matched the pedigree, it may have become something truly special. As is, Elrentaros Wanderings...

Bandai Namco and Ilca's One Piece Odyssey RPG first hit PlayStation, Xbox and PC back in January 2023, and now it has a date locked in for a Nintendo Switch port. One Piece Odyssey: Deluxe Edition is coming to Switch in Japan on July 25, 2024, followed by the rest of the world on July 26. The Switch version will include the Reunion of Memories Dlc, which is available after completing the main game. There will also be bonus costumes, including the City of Water and Traveling outfits. One Piece Odyssey Nintendo Switch Trailer Related: One Piece Odyssey Game Producer Reveals Reunion of Memories Dlc Bandai Namco describes One Piece Odyssey like so: One Piece Odyssey retains the charm, humor, and chemistry of the anime with its colorful artistic style and stunning visuals, and by starring the series’ original Japanese Vo actors. The game has been lovingly crafted over many years, produced with...

Oppenheimer was a massive success and a new milestone for filmmaking, from the cast and crew and everyone else who contributed during the production was a recipe for Oscar nominations, and wins but one aspect of any film or television that elevates the story is music and composer Ludwig Göransson deserved the win but upset the gaming community in the process.

Göransson also composed the score for other great films within the Marvel Cinematic Universe and even won an Oscar for Black Panther, he later worked on the sequel: Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, and scored the first two Creed films and his first project with the legendary visionary Christopher Nolan was Tenet, as well for the Star Wars series on Disney+ The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett. The talent he possesses is monumental, however the gaming community was offended by his recent victory speech.

Oppenheimer And The Mandalorian...

One week after making its debut in Japan, publisher Square Enix has locked down the western release date for hotly-anticipated Jrpg sequel, Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness.

Slated to hit North American and Europe on June 28 and July 1, respectively, Integrity and Faithlessness is releasing during the franchise’s 20th anniversary. But don’t let that sprawling history ward you off, Square notes that “you don’t have to play the previous games to enjoy the story of this one. It’s not like watching the third movie in a trilogy without watching the first two — you won’t get lost.”

Opening up the option of switching between the dubbed English voices and original Japanese ones, fans will be pleased to note that a Day One Edition and Collector’s Edition are available to pre-order. The details of which can be found below.

Day one edition

Two background battle music themes...

Etrian Odyssey is, if nothing else, an appreciably singular experience in RPG gaming. Well, scratch that – it’s a singular experience amongst games you’ve actually heard of. Though not the original architect of first-person dungeon crawling, Etrian Odyssey has done a whole lot since its debut in 2007 to elevate its unique brand of exploration from niche-beyond-belief to– well, its actually still pretty targeted, but less so. As a result, Etrian Odyssey Untold: The Millennium Girl is a game that has a lot to offer if you’re willing to sink your time and attention into it. And for better or worse, what you get back is probably unlike anything else you’ve played recently, thanks to the game’s unique mechanisms of delivering player satisfaction.

Untold is a remake-slash-reimagining of 2007’s original Etrian Odyssey, and though the game may not be a visual or technical marvel, the improvements to...