#JRPGJuly 2025 – Week 2 Round-up
Welcome to another year of everyone’s favorite monthly gameathon. #JRPGJuly was created as a community game-along by Anne Lee @ Chic Pixel, and hosted by MDi. Once again, the RPGamer staff is showing their support for the event by playing some JRPGs. If you’re participating, make sure to use #JRPGJuly or share your feelings over on the RPGamer Discord server.
Things are heating up in week 2, and it’s not just the weather. Let’s see how everyone is getting on in their chosen challenge!
Joshua Carpenter
Well, this week was a disaster. I mentioned that last week I had some crashing issues with Sakura Wars 2: Thou Shall Not Die and I’ve become stuck in Chapter 3 with continual crashes in the original emulator I used. This led me back down the rabbit hole that is Sega Saturn emulation and it’s just as frustrating as I have always heard. I must have gone through six or seven different emulators with limited success, including a highly recommended one that doesn’t have a graphical interface and you have to run games using command line prompts. It’s like I’m eight again and playing games on DOS, right down to using text editors to modify files in an attempt to get things working. I finally got the game to play last night, but I haven’t recovered my save files so the only progress I’ve made is finding an emulator that works with the fan-patched version of the game.
When I wasn’t cursing Saturn emulators, I was polishing off Fuga: Melodies of Steel 3. I love the Fuga series. It has fun characters, really addictive combat, and an interesting story. The ending of Fuga 3 is a bit strange. After defeating the main antagonist, an earlier villain is revived and you spend another entire chapter tracking this last side villain down to finally save the world. It undercuts the cathartic release you get from defeating the main antagonist and then learning that there is one more lesser enemy to tackle, but that’s a minor complaint in what’s otherwise a fantastic game.
Jervon Perkins
Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin
Now that I’m further into Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin, the emotional core of the story is starting to come through. One of the things that surprised me most was how well the game handled the legacy of the protagonist’s grandfather. Not only is his story woven into the main plot, but he’s also customized to reflect your character. Seeing my Rider’s dark brown skin and green and pink eyes mirrored in the flashbacks was a small detail that made a big impact. It actually felt like I was carrying on my family’s legacy, not just some generic hero’s journey.
I’ve also started to warm up to the monster collecting side of the game now that some of the more intimidating and powerful Monsties are showing up. It feels more rewarding with each new addition. Another thing I really enjoy is that the game includes companions for major parts of the story, so I’m not always battling with just my Monsties. The friends I’ve met so far all come with their own anime-style quirks, but they’ve been warm and fun to travel with. I can see why people call this the “Monster Hunter Shounen” game. It has that mix of heart, determination, and big energy where everything is about friendship, bonds, and getting stronger together.
Andi Privitere
While Summer Games Done Quick has been extremely distracting and entertaining this week, I did manage to plow a few hours into Farmagia this week and have arrived at Chapter 3. I’m really digging the gameplay balance; there’s a large number of activities to do outside of combat, but each takes up a small amount of time, so time spent in town versus time spent battling in a dungeon are nearly equal. Okay, that’s probably enough farming puns for now… before I outgrow being silly.
I’m enjoying making friends with the elemental guardians, crafting materials to improve my farming, planting more monsters to battle with, unlocking research points to improve both my farming and combat repertoire, and more. The plot is also exactly my kind of humour. While it deals with some heavy topics, it balances those dark moments by remembering not to take itself too seriously — at one point, I went up against a boss who charmed my party, and only one person fell under her spell. However, he was a little too enthusiastic for her tastes, and she removed the mind control from him before flouncing off. I’m off to a third nation, so we’ll see what plot twists the story has for me in the future.
Sam Wachter
Raidou Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army
I found myself with quite a lazy weekend off work and managed to complete all of Raidou Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army. I wasn’t expecting to blitz through it as quickly as I did, but it was a rip-roaring good time. I love a game that both attempts to be very serious, and yet at the same time unserious in the same breath. The last half of the game goes into this insane Scooby-Doo plotline where the stakes are high and also the big bad guy reveal is the equivalent of a twirly mustache weirdo with… a boat. All in all, I absolutely agree with the points in our staff review, and I am looking forward to seeing Raidou 2 get the same treatment.
After completing Raidou, I bounced over to Valkyrie Elysium, which I was so hyped for the year it came out. I like it fine, the combat is serviceable, the story has some interesting points… but it also feels like it’s trying to retread similar ground within the series? I just hit the beginning of chapter six, and who knows? Maybe I’ll have this one completed too by the next update!
Robert Sinclair
This week has well and truly been a side quest kind of week in Metaphor: ReFantazio. I’ve done so many optional things that I almost didn’t advance the story at all until the last minute. I finished up several optional dungeons with some decent fights and some lovely gear, saved up a ton of cash, and bought every good item on the store discount day. Then I trodded off to the well in search of some kidnappers. There’s been a lot of things hinted at, so I was looking forward to actually progressing a bit.
There’s been some emotional threads thrown around and a really hilarious moment when both the game and I thought the same thing about finding a giant sand worm’s butt hole. I literally asked that question not two minutes before the screenshot I took. It gave me a good chuckle. But the boss fight waiting at the end of this dungeon was absolute nightmare fuel. Honestly, it was a kind of horror that made me draw very direct comparisons to things like Attack on Titan. Almost all the story that happened this week has been horrible and I’m really feeling like these stories are starting to take a proper shape. I’ll be looking forward to next week and hitting up the next big city.
Ryan McCarthy
This last week didn’t go as well as I expected. Final Fantasy IV‘s final dungeon is surprisingly brutal, especially if you’re not careful going through it. The extreme difficulty makes it useful to have as many healing items as possible. While not a maze by any means, there’s still just enough small detours to treasure chests to distract from the trek to the end. It doesn’t help that opening quite a few of these treasure chests forced me into encounters that are impossible to run from and risk having my entire party wrecked if unprepared or underleveled. This led me to trial-and-error my way through the dungeon several times as I had to be careful to keep track of which chests I should avoid altogether, especially as others gave me some useful items like elixirs and new equipment.
The good news is that I’ve managed to reach the final boss Zeromus and it seemed like I had reached the light at the end of the tunnel. The bad news is that several attempts at fighting Zeromus ended in abject failure, which unfortunately made me realize that I will have to grind my party to gain a few levels if I’m gonna have any chance of defeating him. I’m hoping that by next week’s update to have all this taken care of and finally finish the game.
Cassandra Ramos
Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time
I’ve only managed to spend about five hours total on Fantasy Life I: The Girl Who Steals Time, but it feels like a lot has happened. We had a few false starts with getting Skelegon the bone dragon to take us back home. To my (non) surprise, we didn’t wind up in another world, but rather another time period, about 1000 years in the past. There does seem to be some otherworldly business going on though, as shortly after returning to the present, we were sent to an alternate world called Ginormosia. I’m not entirely sure what this place’s deal is yet, but we’ll likely be coming back at some point. While we were in Ginormosia, we came across a talking dresser that’s actually a transformed person, and we were able to change her back by taking her to a statue of the Life Goddess. As I had previously been playing Date Everything, this felt almost familiar. She wasn’t the last Strangeling I rescued, as I just found a miner turned into a mine cart and was able to turn him back after setting up my new base in the present.
I’m definitely still going through the game’s tutorial, but I don’t mind that at all. Combat is a bit deeper now, as I am able to use my shield to block attacks. I can dodge, too, but I tend to doge roll into enemies rather than away from them. I’m also learning new skills to vary up combat a bit. For the most part, a three-hit combo is enough to take care of regular enemies, but having options to dish out more damage is nice. I will likely try out other Lives soon, as I can’t really level up the Paladin rank any further for the time being. I’ve noticed that the dialogue is less cheeky in this game compared to the original, but the story does take itself a bit more seriously while still being charming and lighthearted. I hope to be able to spend more time on this game, as I am quite enjoying it.
Stream Team
The stream team was on fire for the second week of #JRPGJuly, playing a mix of classic and new titles. We are so close to 2000 followers – will you be the one who takes us over that coveted goal? If you missed any streams this week, you can still catch up with our recent streams of Final Fantasy IX, Super Robot Wars OG, Persona 3 Reload, Metal Saga, Visions of Mana, and NieR: Automata by visiting our channel and choosing Past Broadcasts.
Of course, Scar continues to spin the Wheel of Super Nintendo RPGs every Tuesday and Friday evening. Catch Q&A Quest recording live on Monday evenings, and celebrate the return of RPGCast on Saturday, July 19th at 11am Central Time after a two week hiatus. Thanks to everyone who subscribed this week – these subs go directly towards both important hardware updates and games for our stream team! Be sure you’ve given our channel a follow and turn on notifications to know when we’re going live: [twitch.tv/rpgamer]
That’s all for this week. Let us know what sort of progress you’re making in your #JRPGJuly game in the comments or on social media!
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