#jrpgjuly

Day 2: Monsters

Well, here we are. Another month of community game along, and the first anniversary of my off and on appearances with this spectacular group. Back in JRPG July 2025, I streamed a forgotten DS RPG which I’ll talk more about further down as one of my titles this month is a discovered follow up game. Since neither game I played is one with childhood J.P. background, this one will likely be written more in the essay-ic fashion of, “what I played is…”, and my thoughts from playing them for the first time first hand. But first, an unfortunate news detour.

As I started on my plans for this month, Nintendo Japan pulled a fast one on us, bringing their last exclusive JRPG, and one requested (though not as strongly as a certain other one), Alpha Dream’s first GBA JRPG before making the Mario & Luigi series, Tomato Adventure. Granted, we, in turn, still got a requested Game Boy title on our NSO, Wario Land the 1st, bringing all but 2 now to a modern available platform. Whether or not you consider it fair trade, I’ll leave to your personal opinion. All that said, on to my JRPG July content, an unintentional common theme basis of GBA fanlation titles, starting with that other RPG I mentioned. The one everybody and their MOTHER have been pleading to get a legitimate localized release.

As my pun indicates, my first JRPG title is none other than the holy grail of, “please, nintendo”, amidst the internet’s outcries that achieve nothing but stronger spite, Mother 3. And yes, I have been in the trenches, aware of this game’s existence for years, fascinated by it after a friend hooked me up with earthbound, and made me a mother series fan. Last year, my patience paid off as a retro video game store my brother took me to while visiting Portland, also sold fanlation cartridges of unreleased Nintendo games exclusive to Japan.  With all the right reasons to pull it out and finally give it a go, I went to go see dear Mother for the third time.

I decided to play each game via its first acts, the set up, tutorial, and adventure trigger arcs. For the opening act, the game gives us control of the first protagonist, a cowboy named Flint. Gee, I wonder who that could homaging…Then again, there’s also a character who’s smithy and acting sheriff named Bronson, so somebody clearly knew some western/action names to draw from for serious business. Knowing the premise from this game, I am aware of what’s going on as the set up threat. And I gotta say, it’s a narrative with a timeless message and dangerous effect on humanity, modernization and human zombification from a technology reliance. Now, of course, there is also the magic writing touch of Shisato Itoi’s senses of childish wonder, and humor along the way. But hey, for the first, and only time, we have a Mother protagonist with an entirely seen immediate family, and most of them sharing a greater narrative purpose to the plot aside from operative and off screen assistance. So what’s up with the evils of man’s modernization plot? I have to say, if you can, play this game yourself and find out if you’re intrigued. The fanlation is available as a free acquisition as well, seeing as Nintendo Japan has left our region no choice but to be a syrup pirate, download it if you’ve a GBA emulation set up. You can also play it legitimately if you have a complete Japanese switch account with NSO and the GBA classics, but that also comes with the necessity of knowledge in reading Japanese. Okay, time to shift gears and head onto vacation with the other game.

As previously mentioned in this, last year, I did a sorta late night JRPG July stream of the forgotten launch window JRPG title, Magical Starsign. This year, while browsing online markets, I came across an interesting find, Magical Vacation on GBA. Having no idea what it was, I did my homework. Lo and behold, I learned it’s actually the prequel to the lost DS JRPG nintendo chose to localize and treat as stand alone. One order and delivery later, I got everything ready, inserted into my GBA, and started up the opening chapter. The gameplay felt completely similar to what I experienced playing Starsign the year prior. The biggest difference I noticed was more innocence portrayed with our heroes of the tale compared to all the shenanigans and goof balling our more adolescent characters got up to in the DS sequel. Even the self-fulfilled prophecy of dark revenge from a lost student came across as something much more from the corrupted inexperience of a lost child. As I’m less familiar, and more curious, I do plan on returning to this game with available free time.

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/697135229

Day 1: Favrouite