Last month was a little more JRPG-heavy for me! Here’s what I played:

• Xenoblade Chronicles 2 - Torna: The Golden Country. I was quite disappointed with this one. I wouldn’t call it outright bad or anything, but I had sky-high expectations going into it after enjoying XB2 and seeing tons and tons of positive word-of-mouth for Torna over the years. A big part of the problem was side questing was not what I enjoyed about XB2 (I actively avoided it, really), and it’s mandatory in Torna. Between that and those main story quests that essentially were side quests, there was surprisingly little story-centric content when all was said and done. I was enjoying the new characters and wanted to know more about one of the old ones, so I felt kinda cheated in the end.
• Atelier Meruru. My fourth Atelier, and my favorite so far! The big cast was a lot of fun, and I got a kick out of the kingdom development. There were components of each of the Arland games that I really liked, so between that and being told that time limits are less of a thing as the series goes on, I think my favorite Atelier game is still ahead of me. Exciting!
• Sword of Convallaria. I shared my thoughts on this in an earlier post here. I can’t get the game out of my head despite my anxieties over the format. After talking with some friends about how they enjoyed stories in gacha games, I think I’m gonna give this a shot when launches. Hopefully it’s not a disaster.
• Terranigma. Played this for my Discord’s game of the month. Still such a delight. Near the top of my list of “games I want to see re-released.”

This month I suddenly don’t have anything particular in mind. I’ve softened on Unicorn Overlord a bit after playing the demo. Unless I get some big recommendations I may actually wait for a sale? Not sure. Otherwise, I’ll keep nibbling at Tokyo Xanadu and Atelier Ayesha.