We have an interesting rumor about Xbox Game Showcase for this year.
“Shpeshal” Nick Baker made this tweet a few hours ago:
“If what I’ve heard is true, fans of Xbox 360 era JRPGs will have something to look forward to at the showcase.”
Of course, the PlayStation 3 is the console gamers think of before the Xbox 360 when it comes to JRPGs. Sony is a Japanese company, they have close relationships with Japanese game studios, and they have made some JRPGs themselves.
The PlayStation 3 is where players went first to play games like Dark Souls and Demon’s Souls, Final Fantasy, Yakuza, Persona, Kingdom Hearts, Sony’s own title, Folklore, etc. But as a result, Microsoft put effort in convincing Japanese studios to bring their own RPGs to their platforms too.
And the results of these efforts are eminently fascinating. Microsoft wasn’t able to ultimately turn the narrative so that people thought of the Xbox 360 as a JRPG platform too, but they got a lot of new and original games, many of which were bold ideas that those developers didn’t bring to PlayStation.
For example, Blue Dragon brought together two of the key creatives behind Dragon Quest, developer Hironobu Sakaguchi, and the late, great Akira Toriyama, to make a completely new RPG idea, with huge appeal for a new generation of gamers.
Blue Dragon was published by Sakaguchi’s game studio, Mistwalker, and they also brought another original RPG to the Xbox 360 in Lost Odyssey. Lost Odyssey was a reunion of Sakaguchi and Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu, but Sakaguchi had loftier goals than piggybacking on his reputation as a former Square Enix company man. For this one, Sakaguchi worked with novelist Kiyoshi Shigematsu, to create a scenario around a magic-based industrial revolution, and an epic, but also serious, sci-fi fantasy storyline.
And then there’s The Last Remnant. For many years considered a hidden gem until Square Enix finally rereleased it on the PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch, many fans consider The Last Remnant the greatest RPG of its generation. Square’s first Unreal game featured an all-original storyline, and a battle system that could be epic in scale.
All three of these games turned out to be complete Xbox 360 exclusives, but there were other JRPGs that arrived to both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. For example, the Fabula Nova Crystalis / Final Fantasy XIII trilogy, Resonance of Fate, and Tales of Vesperia all came to both platforms.
I’m sure RPG fans agree any one of these games would be wonderful to see brought back as a remaster or a remake of sorts. Or maybe Microsoft pulls a real coup and revives the cancelled Level-5 MMO True Fantasy Live Online. Honestly, that last one is probably not happening, but given we don’t know all that much about this, it’s as good a guess as any.
Unfortunately, we have no choice but to wait a little over two weeks for the Xbox Game Showcase in June 9, 2024, to find out if this rumor is true and what game it is.
