As a lover of niche and Japanese role playing games, I felt a little bit heartbroken coming into this generation. It seems like all the hubbub over games like Uncharted, Skyrim, Gears of War and other Western triumphs has buried my beloved genres. But I didn’t buy a PS3, my first foray into HD consoles, to play any of those over-hyped games. After taking a much needed hiatus from video gaming, and owning a Wii for the Operation Rainfall games, I felt it was time to make the leap into the current generation.
The first few games I purchased were Star Ocean 4 and Final Fantasy XIII, among other titles. While these are good games in their own way, they didn’t quite satiate my craving for Japanese games. Coming from a gamer who played the crap out of SaGa Frontier and loved every minute of it, you might wonder if there would be any hope for such a person. After digging around though, my faith was restored in this generation. Ladies and gents, I have found my own niche. Oh yeah, I happened to stumble upon a 3DS as well, my first handheld in ages (just couldn’t get into that side of gaming until now).
After a bit of indulgence in my favorite hobby, I was able to overcome the cravings and sit down to write this article. Shaky hands and all, I decided to scribble out three niche games from my current ‘playlist’ that are my favorites.
Why did I do this? I’ll tell you why. Sometimes it’s nice to talk about good games without attaching a score to your words, plain and simple.
If you haven’t played any of these three titles, then open your mind, and strip your preconceived notions about how these games scored and what others said about them. Hell, try something new. All of the games can still be purchased on Amazon for pretty cheap; if you’ve got the extra cash and a hunger for quality Japanese games that is.
Without further ado, let’s get to those games.
