For the past few days, each of us has had fun taking stock of the twelve months that have passed. Glorious for some, moribund for others. For my part, the year 2024 has nothing to envy of its big sisters: it was the most fabulous year in my eyes. More than over-promising, the last twelve months have given me so much nostalgia that I no longer know what to do with it, and I already know that it will continue in 2025. It’s worth all the big releases we’ve been given. brag for this year!
An avalanche of JRPGs in 2024, I know what awaits me this year!
I don’t know if you felt the same way, but I had the feeling that the year 2024 flew by. Like the previous twelve months, the video game release calendar was very rich, even though not all players found what they were looking for. If some were eager to start 2025 to taste the promises of entertainment – perhaps also a little for the release of the next Nintendo console -, 2024 has been an incredible year for Japanese role-playing game fans. Last year, almost at this time, I was about to start the test of Granblue Fantasy Relink and, above all, to rest your hands on Final Fantasy VII Rebirth for a preview, a few days before starting a huge marathon which will remain one of my fondest memories of 2024. Certainly, the conditions of discovery are not the same when experiencing such productions in the private sphere, but the memories are only stronger. Given that this year 2024 had started off with a bang, it was not easy to find a balance in my personal sessions and even less to follow the frantic pace of releases!
I insist but I believe that the year 2024 was a very great year for fans of Japanese role-playing games. I have already cited two relatively strong arguments just before, but so much can be added: Persona 3 Reload, Unicorn Overlord, Dragon’s Dogma 2, Metaphor : ReFantasia (voted best RPG of 2024 at the Game Awards), The Neo Dimension of Fantasy (although it was previously released on Apple Arcade), Like A Dragon : Infinite Wealth, Shin Megami Tensei V Vengeance, The Legend of Heroes : Trails Through Daybreak, SaGa Emerald Beyond, Romancing SaGa 2 : Revenge of the Seven and many others. Anyway, all that to say that there were so many that I didn’t have the chance to try them all. In itself, a blessing in disguise because, although the program that awaits us in 2025 is very attractive overall, nothing makes me dream more than the titles that were released this year and that I have not yet had time to discover. In fact, the graphic slaps that we are being sold for the months to come enchant me less than the prospect of spending a year again filled with JRPGs. As a result, I already know that I will spend a good part of the next twelve months catching up and enjoying these productions at my own pace.
Nostalgia revisited thanks to Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
In any case, what I already remember from the year 2024 is the nostalgia that accompanied a large part of my gaming sessions. Moreover, I was absolutely not surprised, when discovering my PS5 retrospective, video game version of Spotify’s Wrapped, to note that Final Fantasy VII Rebirth sits at the top of the pile. I said it, it is one of my greatest memories alongside another that I will mention a little later. So, yes, we can obviously associate it with this category of AAA video games that want to impress, but that’s not what remains after a hundred hours spent in its company. In reality, and as beautiful as it may be, I did not devour Final Fantasy VII Rebirth under the pretext that it was going to put stars in my eyes thanks to its artistic direction and its updated visuals, even if I must admit that I did not expect to be so immersed in this world which was not than a simple world map and a succession of game screens before. And Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth has conquered my heart so much during this year, it is above all out of pure nostalgia and love for this license and this episode. Immerse myself in the universe of this opus, browse books and other websites from right to left, confront the new vision of Square Enix in relation to the original work… So many examples which prove my attachment to this opus and the emotion that it arouses in me after so many years.
Even if we sometimes view remakes in a negative light, I was more than curious to understand how, after the episode RemakeSquare Enix was going to deal with the powerful nostalgia that runs through the second portion of this episode. Here, it was the promise of an adventure that was really beginning and which would undeniably clash with deep-rooted player memories. The challenge was already tough, but it was even more so for multiple reasons. Yes, the test of nostalgia is double-edged when you decide to change so many things. In addition to taking us on a journey (in time, in our memories, arousing wonder as if it were the first time…), the teams had to push the limits of gameplay already designed with incomparable care. In the end, nostalgia did not awaken the laziness of Square Enix which, in my opinion, built the best combat system in the license. However, the principle of the turn-based combat system has marked my practice of video games for years and years.
No, really, this shot of nostalgia was more fulfilling than expected and I so enjoyed traveling through this alternative version, its universe more alive and unfair than ever, spending time with these characters who have already marked me forever but who have a new story to write and bring to life. Certainly, the course of the gameparticularly in its open world construction, could seem outdated but the exhilarating opportunity to rediscover an entire playing field, to experience all its generosity and to find those without whom this opus would not have the same flavor has, beyond taking me back years, succeeded in giving me an experience that will remain engraved in me, as much as the original.
Dragon Quest III HD-2D, an experience halfway between two eras
Beyond my hours spent on Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, another candidate that I was eagerly awaiting was none other than Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake. Even today, I remember the reveal of the game and how much I fell under the spell of its artistic direction, revised for the occasion. Rather twice than once, the year 2024 will have truly plunged me into a spiral of nostalgia. However, the approaches of the two titles that I use as examples in this article are very far from each other. In fact, this once again represents the rivalry that there can be between the two licenses. And Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake worked so well on me, that’s because it isdespite its reinterpretation, its new and modernized features or the way in which its story has been reworked, a sort of time capsulethe counter to the abandonment of turn-based Final Fantasy VII Remake/Rebirth and almost the antithesis of this remake. Anyway, it’s always been like that for Dragon Quest. The license has always wanted to keep the codes that made it successful, and that’s why I enjoyed it and haven’t let go of it since its release. In reality, this revisited third opus reminds me of the time when I discovered the license through the episode The Odyssey of the Cursed Kingfirst foray into France and 3D component.
Almost twenty years after setting foot in a saga that increased my love of turn-based J-RPGs tenfold, the year 2024 and Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake offer me the perfect object to both revive my memories of yesteryear and feel a simple and regressive pleasure but sometimes so complicated to reproduce. The simple fact of a fixed combat screen, in which I can admire the sprites of the characters and those of the monsters, of taking the time to choose each action at my own pace, of wandering around, like back then, on a large world map, hearing the iconic theme of the license and the re-orchestrated music (or even others that I didn’t know) gave me the impression of standing between two eras, in a place where I remember moments of play and where I forge new ones. Although it’s a different game, I found all my old habits there: taking the time to search each town from top to bottom, surveying the dungeons up and down so as not to miss nothing, identify as many monsters as possible to participate in arena battles, collect as many mini medals as possible to get your hands on the best equipment. Even the fact of chaining fights to raise the levels of my team members and trying to find the best farming spot, filled with metal stickies, was the source of exhilarating pleasure.
Although I had a great time on other productions in 2024, nothing has managed to match this simple happiness. What’s more, the prospect of reliving that with the release of Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake in 2025 fills me with even more joy. With what happened in 2024, I don’t want to throw myself headlong into the immense promises touted by the AAA to come. In itself, I aspire above all to catch up and take my self from many years ago to tackle the new things that I missed or to rediscover these games and sagas which shaped my love J-RPGs. Okay, come on, I am of course at risk of getting a few sprains. pour Xenoblade Chronicles X, Chiaroscuro: Expedition 33, The Sui Code I & II and other titles of the genre which, in 2025, could pique my curiosity. But here, and in the meantime, I have a little time and I say to myself that perhaps it is time to start Eiyuden Chronicles : Hundred Heroes. No, obviously I hadn’t forgotten that one!
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