I enjoy playing Japanese RPGs. Sometimes I want to type out how I felt about a game in English, so here we are. I'll try to make my reviews as useful as possible both for people who are considering importing these games and for people who are waiting for an English localization.

If you'd like to read reviews of JRPGs written by someone who actually enjoys playing them, please check back every now and then.

Games I'm currently playing:

The Alliance Alive (3DS)

Games I have my eye on at the moment (bold means I'm definitely buying when they come out):

Nights of Azure 2 (PS4)
Tokyo Clanpool (Vita)
Castle Panzers (PS4)
Atelier Liddy & Soeur (PS4)

FAQs (I'm kidding, nobody ever asks me questions)
  • What's the point of this site?
The Reviews section might be interesting to people looking for early opinions on games, I guess. Also, everything is written from the perspective of someone who loves JRPGs as a genre - I review what I was already going to play anyway, so I'm never forced to play and review something that doesn't interest me. The Blog section is completely pointless, please don't read it unless you're really, really bored.
  • How's your Japanese, are you actually even qualified to review JRPGs?
Not that great, but your typical JRPG dialogue is not difficult, relatively speaking. I have JLPT N1, but I'm aware that's nothing special. I have to translate and deal with technical documents at work sometimes. Professional (and devoted fan) translators would absolutely run circles around me, though. Like I said, most JRPGs (not 100%, but most) have pretty simple Japanese, but in the event that I run into a game that I don't feel confident that I properly understood, I won't review it. I have a long way to go and I try to keep myself motivated to keep improving.
  • What's the scoring on reviews based on?
Gameplay, story, music, characters, and the overall experience. In the end though, it just comes down to my subjective feelings on how much fun I had, adjusted up or down a bit based on those factors (for example, if a game wasn't my particular cup of tea but I can appreciate how it might appeal to other people the score might go up a bit, or if I really liked a game despite some undeniable glaring flaws the score might go down a bit from my personal 'fun' score).
  • The scores are awfully high.
I know some people want 5/10 to mean 'average' when it comes to reviews, and I understand where they're coming from, but I go by something similar to school grades. Basically, 7.5/10 (75%) is a 'C', average, passing. An 8/10 is a B-, an 8.5/10 is a solid B...a 7/10 is a C-, just barely passing. Anything lower than 7 and it becomes varying degrees of "I wish I didn't buy this game". Since I only play games that I think I'll enjoy (I'm not assigned games to review by anyone or anything like that), I have a fairly decent spread of games that end up scoring high. Recently I added letter grades next to the scores to make the scoring system clearer.
  • How far into a game do you get before you review it?
Unless it specifically says otherwise in the review, all reviews are written after I complete the game. 'Completed' doesn't necessarily mean 'got all achievements and trophies' (in fact, I rarely go for platinum trophies), but at least that I beat the main story and usually finished any substantial post-game content (like getting the 'true ending' in games that have one) as well.