Japanese role playing games (JRPGs) aren’t common in my regular gaming roster. The last JRPG I attempted was Xenoblade Chronicles. It’s a beautiful and brilliant game, but after learning about the extreme lengths I’d need to go to beat it, I had to set it aside. (A long and intensive game like that requires frequent play — one or two sessions a month just doesn’t cut it.) What drew me to Xenoblade was the success I had had with The Last Story, a really fantastic JRPG that breaks from tradition in combat but not in style. I’ve played a handful of Final Fantasy games and have happily rolled through JRPG-ish games like Kingdom Hearts and South Park: The Stick of Truth. In three decades of gaming, I’d say that JRPGs comprise around ten percent of my gaming experience.

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