THE Japanese RPG – known to all and sundry as the JRPG – is one of the most offbeat genres in the modern games industry. It pulls off the unique trick of being both huge (in terms of the size of the gaming audience which is devoted to it) and obscure – image-wise, it’s generally (and erroneously) held to be of specialist interest, rooted in a bygone era of gaming and separated from the mainstream.
Being a fan of JRPGs is almost seen as a badge of honour for gamers – JRPG aficionados see themselves as proper, committed gamers who have uncovered one of the games world’s best-kept secrets.