Japanese Role-Playing Games

Bringing together some of the most insightful voices in Japanese game studies, Jérémie Pelletier-Gagnon and Rachael Hutchinson provide a roadmap to a crucial genre of games: the Japanese Role-Playing Game (JRPG). From Pokémon and Final Fantasy to lesser-known games like EarthBound, this book shows that the JRPG is a crucial lens onto global game studies and the continuing impacts of Japanese game studies on it. This volume offers an insightful set of case studies and suggests some unique vantages onto the JRPG: from platform analysis, to Japan's media ecologies, to tutorial characters, to disability. This will become a go-to resource for anyone interested in the JRPG, Japanese games, and game studies in general.

-- Marc Steinberg, Concordia University

This book is an essential addition to the role-playing game studies literature. Its focus on Japanese computer role-playing games (JRPGs) is wonderfully and deliciously broad, deep, and diverse in its authors, perspectives, and games. There is plenty here to sate the intellectual curiosity of readers interested in the staples of the JRPG canon who are also unafraid to head into the wilderness of Japanese games that have mostly escaped the critical eye.

-- José P. Zagal, University of Utah

Japanese Role-Playing Games features a diversity of contributors from established and emerging scholars who use important and representative JRPG titles as master keys that unlock doors to many of the major themes and ongoing discussions in the fields of Game Studies and Media Studies […] The editing is consistently excellent, and the curated list of references are extremely useful resources. Japanese Role-Playing Games is a powerful contribution to both Asian Studies and Media Studies that sets a strong and positive precedent for future academic work on video games.

* Asian Studies Revi