Made in Japan - The Most Expected Japanese RPGs"

In December, everyone is vying with each other about the main games of the outgoing year and sharing their expectations for the next year. And today we will discuss the most anticipated Japanese RPG games.

God Eater 3 (December 13 in Japan, February 8, 2019 - in America and Europe)

The third part of the action / RPG about the struggle of people with huge monsters - the Arags have already been released in Japan. And in February next year will appear in the West, allowing free switching between Japanese and English dubbing. In God Eater 3 there will be not only new heroes, but also fresh mechanics in the combat system. Engage System works around the Allies and gives enhancements for the attack, and Accelerator Trigger - these are passive bonuses that are triggered when certain conditions are met.

Code Vein (2019)

Code Vein is such a mixture of design, part of the atmosphere and the storytelling of the God Eater and hardcore soul-like battles. The action will unfold in a post-apocalyptic world where people were forced to turn to vampires for the sake of survival. At the same time, many of them went crazy, the rest united in groups and detachments.

As a member of one of these units, we first hunt a certain queen, die, and then resurrect as an immortal revenant who is constantly forced to search for this queen. In the process, you will have to explore a large open world together with your partner under AI control, fight a lot, fight huge “bosses” (they promise that they will be even more difficult than in the Dark Souls series), look for resources and all sorts of useful “buns”.

Initially, you can go literally on all four sides, that is, freely explore the locations. After death (and the battles are more like Bloodborne by their aggressiveness and complexity), all enemies are revived, and the player transfers to the local analogue of the fire. Well, in general, on the mechanics of this pure "Souls-like." Only with a taste of anime and plot, served in spectacular cut-scenes. And with the vampire abilities that need to be used in battles - for this you will have to first enter a special fixed form.

Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story + Jr.’s Journey Bowser (January 11 in America and the 25th in Europe)

Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story, known in Japan as Mario & Luigi: RPG 3 !!!, was released on Nintendo DS in 2009 and was recognized by many to be the best part of the entire Mario role-playing sub-series. A distinctive feature of Mario & Luigi is the ability to change characters, interact between them and use their unique “tricks” (like a small height in the “children's” versions of heroes) to overcome obstacles and solve various tasks. But otherwise, everything is generally familiar: traveling around the global map, battles, communicating with the NPC, shopping at the most fashionable forge and magic boutiques, artistic swinging with a hammer or an ax ...

In Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story, mini-games still appeared, the opportunity to play the role of Bowser, and during the fights, the touch screen of the console and the microphone are allowed to perform special actions — the combat system was adjusted for the new management.

This December in Japan, and later, in January, and the rest of the world, a remake of Mario & Luigi will be released on Nintendo 3DS: Bowser’s Inside Story + Jr.’s Journey. Here, the players in the role of Mario and Luigi will again have to find a cure for biorbsa - a disease that threatens all living things in the Mushroom Kingdom. At the same time, they will learn the untold story of Bowser Jr., which, according to its game mechanics, will be kept in the spirit of Minion Quest: The Search for Bowser.

Shin Megami Tensei V (release date unknown)

Megami Tensei is a huge, iconic media franchise, the first game of which was released as early as 1987. It includes RPG of different genres - and tactical, and aimed at the action, and especially online. And Persona was born just like the Megami Tensei spin-off in 1996. It is clear that all games have something in common - quite complex, adult themes, including religious, mixing different styles like post-apocalypse, cyberpunk, occultism, fantasy, the ability to use the help of different demons, a strong emphasis on music and appearance, some common pretentiousness, challenging gameplay.

The previous, fourth Shin Megami Tensei was released in 2013 on the Nintendo 3DS, and now under the wing of the Atlus is the fifth in development, which will be exclusive to the Nintendo Switch. The game was announced back in 2017, but only in February of this year, according to lead developer Kazuyuki Yamai, full-scale production began.

It is known that the action of the novelty will unfold in modern Tokyo, where we will encounter a new demonic invasion. Promised both new and well-known old mechanics. At the same time, Kazuyuki Yamai intends to use all the power of the Nintendo Switch in Shin Megami Tensei, so there will be a lot of demons in the fifth part, and they are so carefully detailed that it takes three times more time to create a model than before. And earlier, I remind you, this is 2013. Therefore, we will not rush to conclusions, but the fact that the design of the demons will be all right is clear from the trailer.

Project Re: Fantasy (release date unknown)

And again about Atlus and Persona. Studio Zero, created by Persona 5 director Katsura Hoshino, is currently working on a new fantasy RPG - Project Re: Fantasy. For the first time about it became known last December, and since then the information has not increased in particular. In the first trailer we are only told about the promised land, where all the wars should stop, and about the hero who will unite all the tribes.

It is clear only that the authors of Persona 5 are preaching a very creative approach to the realities of medieval fantasy. They themselves admit that, being industry veterans, in matters of fantasy they are profane and newcomers - this, the authors hope, will allow them to look at the traditions and cliches of the genre in their own way. We do not doubt. After all, some Project Re: Fantasy trailers can compete with the work of Hideo Kojima in their mystery and “conceptualism”. In the video below, for example, we observe for several minutes how a man clad in medieval armor just eats a bird.

Persona 6 (release date is not local)

Once such a binge has gone, then let's talk about the potential Persona 6. She is not even officially announced, but there is little doubt that the sixth part will be. And in May of this year, Kazuhisa Wada (Kazuhisa Wada), a game designer from Atlus, confirmed that the company is working on new games of the series.

After the release of the fifth part, the director of Atlus, Naoto Hiraoka (Naoto Hiraoka), argued that the next game of the series simply had to become even bigger, and say, for this, the development team would have to expand.
According to rumors, Persona 6 will be released in the summer of 2020 on PlayStation 4. Its action will unfold in the fictional city of Nisimoto, which is overwhelmed by a wave of suicides. And the main character, Mitsuro Yoichi, along with his friends and personages, has to figure it all out. Well, what a good start, why not dream up?

Final Fantasy VII Remake (release date unknown)

A remake of Final Fantasy VII - perhaps the most beloved by many games of the series (especially in Russia) - was announced at E3 2015. And they did it so early in order to play the lead and prevent the flow of rumors and speculation. It is known that Final Fantasy VII will be redone from scratch and will be released by episodes. And all together they are connected by plot ties. Significantly rework and combat system.

The exact release date of the remake remains unknown - the authors are going to release the game somewhere around 2020. At the same time, as Tetsuya Nomura, director and character designer of Final Fantasy VII Remake, says, the development goes even faster than expected - despite the fact that two years after the announcement, the game was taken away from some developers and transferred to others, namely Interior Studio Square Enix. Obviously, the developers are doing a truly epic remake, and in fact - a new game. And the trailers only confirm this, at the same time heating up our interest even more.

Unsung Story: Tale of the Guardians (fourth quarter of 2019)

Unsung Story: Tale of the Guardians is a tactical RPG from Yasumi Matsuno, director of Final Fantasy Tactics and Vagrant Story. So you can imagine the main landmarks of the game. The action will unfold in the fictional world of Rasfalia (Rasfalia), exhausted by the 77-year war between the great empires and kingdoms, and the plot tells many stories (they are presented as episodes) of the forgotten participants in these battles - those who, maybe, were not considered a hero, but created history, and then it was on its sidelines.

These stories are told from battle to battle. And if in one we can, for example, manage a group of knights - defenders of the Empire, then in the other under our leadership will be revolutionary-minded soldiers recruited from the peasants who want to overthrow this very Empire. They promise intrigue, betrayal, alliances, espionage, as well as the ability to influence their decisions on what is happening.

According to the gameplay, Unsung Story: Tale of the Guardians is a tactical RPG where in each battle you need to manage a whole group of characters. Players will be able to create their own builds of games, selecting and combining different classes. Particular emphasis in the battle is on speed and movement. And instead of squares, the tactical grid uses triangles, at the intersection of which (and not in the center), “units” will be located - this reveals to them six possible directions of movement at once.

Back in 2014, through Kickstarter, 660 thousand dollars were collected for the game. But the development was slow, with problems, and as a result, the project passed under the wing of the publishing house Little Orbit, famous for APB: Reloaded. There is still no exact release date, but tentatively it should take place at the end of 2019.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses (second quarter of 2019)

And again about tactical RPG. Presented at the last E3 Fire Emblem: Three Houses will be the first after Radiant Dawn game in the famous series (and only 16th in a row), which will be released on the home console Nintendo.

Events will unfold in the new world called Foldan, where a certain Seyros church has a great influence. After the revelation from the goddess was revealed to one of the priests, the latter herself began to observe the state from heaven and periodically send its gifts. The three main characters are Edelgard, Dmitry and Claude. At the same time in the trailer flashed and a few familiar from previous games characters.

They promise us almost a completely open world and in some locations to freely move the main character with a third-person view in order to communicate, interact, build relationships with others and gather important information. Interactive dialogues with the choice of replicas are attached. Tactical battles, AI and squad formation system will be improved and improved. There will be more strategic options in the battles, and the battles on the Nintendo Switch will be more colorful and dynamic - and the trailer convinces us of this.

Kingdom Hearts III (Worldwide Release - January 29, 2019)

It is finished! In January of the following year, after five years of waiting (and the announcement of Kingdom Hearts III happened at E3 2013), the sequel to the popular role-playing crossover comes out, where the characters of Final Fantasy and the characters of Disney cartoons act together.

The main protagonist will still be Sora, and besides him we will see Rick, Donald Duck, Goofy, King Mickey and other familiar characters. In the story of Sora, Donald and Goofy are looking for seven guards of light, and Riku and King Mickey - the previous owners of Blade-Keys. And all this in order to disrupt Master Xehnort's plan to upset the balance of light and darkness.

The game promises to be really huge, it will take 40-50 hours to complete the story (without mini-games and other optional entertainment). We will visit the world of “Cold Heart”, where the famous snowman Olaf will be able to join the party (but not Elsa with Anna!), The world of “Pirates of the Caribbean” from the time of the third painting, the universe “Rapunzel”, where we will have some musical mini-game, and even look to Winnie the Pooh.

About the gameplay is known that the basic structure and mechanics will return from the previous parts of the series, the party will expand to five characters, and in battles there will be new colorful Attraction Flow attacks inspired by Disney rides. In addition, this is the first game in the series, which will visit the console from Microsoft.

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It is clear that within the framework of one material it is impossible to tell about all the expected Japanese projects, considering also the huge number of remakes, remasters and indies that regularly appear on Steam. And what Japanese role-playing games are you waiting for?