Due to the overwhelming sense of contentment provided by my beloved Atari ST during the late eighties and early nineties, I arrived relatively late to the 16-bit console party. Another fabulous Christmas present, this time a lovely Super Nintendo, would break my console duck and provide some of the best gaming I’ve experienced to date. Back then the amount of buttons on the robust pad was a marvel in itself – just enough for a game of Street Fighter 2. [...]

Although I’m a big fan of their western equivalents, Japanese Role-Playing Games (JRPGs) have always seemed utterly impenetrable to me. My attempts to break into the genre are invariably met with poorly translated Japanese memes, repetitive battles, translucent character design, and many other irksome traits that die-hard fans seem to revel in.

There is a section on my games shelf that I have dubbed the ‘JRPG graveyard’. That’s where Final Fantasy III, Phantasy Stars I and IV, Earthbound and Eternal Sonata are interred, all unfinished, abandoned after ten or so hours of play each. [...]