Following Thud’s amazing Pokemon game reviews, I just wanted to mention that Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl and Arceus Legends are now on promo (10 euro off) in MediaMarkt in case someone’s interested.
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GAME: Knights Chronicle (ナイツクロニクル、ナイクロ)
PLATFORM: Mobile (Google Play Store)
PRICE: 0 (free-to-play)
GENRE: jRPG
LEVEL: N4-N3 grammar, N2+ kanji (no furigana)
REVIEW:
Fairly standard jRPG, but with a couple of pluses which make it shine in comparison to the truckload of free-to-play RPG available on mobile:
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low-poly, but pleasing 3D battle scenes, including full animations for special attacks
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great variety of characters, each with an interesting backstory (like, actually)
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voice-over + text in story cutscenes (good for listening practice)
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clean and well-designed menu, without generic fonts like in many mobile games
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easy to get SSR heroes since the game throws SSR coupons and diamonds at you like crazy
It’s a fun light game with the added boon in the form of listening and reading practice. At least to me it made practicing Japanese way more fun 
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That sounds really interesting. 
I just have a personal hatred for f2p/mobile monetization schemes.
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Same. I’m almost allergic to them 
. Whenever I see the game is trying to capitalize on that too much, I quit. But nowadays even F2P games throw money at you for a long long while so as long you’re lucky with gatcha pulls and play more casually, you won’t run into a paywall too fast. For instance, I used to play Epic7 for several months and due to my crazy luck, I would easily pull rare heroes during limited-time events and never had to spend a dime
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For sure, I agree that there there are ways to do it that don’t detract from the experience. I’m actually fine with things like cosmetics and a paid season pass.
And I still play PUBG and Lost Ark occasionally, but it always gets to a point that I’m rubbed the wrong way. lol
Even the new Diablo was a lot of fun but the monetization immediately threw me off.
I’ll probably give ナイクロ a shot although I think I’d have to change my App Store region to get it.
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It doesn’t show up in your region? 
Mine’s set to EU or something, but my phone’s language is Japanese. Not sure if that matters. I don’t have Japan-only games in my Play Store and the ones that are in Japanese probably depend on the phone’s locale or something.
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Yeah mine is US and I see the English title available but the Japanese title link gives me a region error. I’ll try the English one and see if it has the option to change language.
I’m on IOS, but I doubt it makes a difference for the title.
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I have the English-titled app installed, actually. I tried searching for the Japanese one and it just redirects to the non-Japanese one so maybe changing the language is possible.
Good luck!
Speaking of which, my Google Play Store features many other games with Japanese titles, but I remember that when I installed one of them in the past, it was completely in English + JP voice acting, so it seems like the listing in Google Play Store sometimes grabs the phone’s language and sometimes not.
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Looks like the same dev also released Ni no Kuni Cross Worlds. Have you tried that?
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Nope, but it looks like my phone won’t be able to handle it judging by the graphics .
I have a Nokia 4.2. It plays stuff like Azure Lane and Epic7 well, but heavier 3D games are a no-go.
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I need to go and continue playing Pokémon Sword or Brilliant Diamond or Let’s Go Eevee, because I plan on playing Scarlet/Violet in Japanese this fall. I want that to be the first game I just pick up in Japanese
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I just watched the Japanese trailer for Scarlet and Violet. Like in Arceus they use full Furigana now instead of choosing between Kanji and Kana mode.
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Yeah, I also noticed that change. I looked at some screens to see if sword/shield had that, but they didn’t. Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl I covered before, that had separate modes as well. I’m sure it is the same for Let’s Go Pikachu/Eeevee and New Pokémon Snap.
I went back to my playthrough of Sword in english as well, so I can get ready for Violet when it comes out. That will be in Japanese again, no doubt. Might be the most friendly pokémon game for language learners.
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Nope, every other mainline game starting from Gen 5 had either full Kanji or full Kana. I thought Arceus had the Furigana because of it was kind of a spinoff. No idea about New Pokémon Snap.
Actually, I prefer Kanji without Furigana, because I really need to work at reading without Yomichan or Furigana.
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I have just tried Devil May Cry 5 on Steam (around 10 USD, due to 66% off). There is Japanese audio as well, but… - I can’t change display language to Japanese. - There is Japanese subtitle, but it doesn’t match Japanese audio.
- I uninstalled, change Steam interface to Japanese, then installing with Japanese version appears.
I decided to buy METAL GEAR SOLID V: GROUND ZEROES just now (around 20 USD, no discount). (While concurrently watch a clip on the game on YouTube.) But the comment says – the best most expensive demo ever?
I bought it anyway. However, Japanese games in general are expensive? I don’t even know what to try first…
Although, both games can’t make use of my ultra-wide monitor…
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20 USD for that? 
It is a really short game and only really the introduction to MGS V The Phantom Pain. There’s also MGS V The Definitive Experience which includes both MGS V games, that’s the only version I’d recommend today. And the steam summer sale is going to start soon (I think in around 10 days or so?), so I’d wait for that
If you bought it on Steam and haven’t played it for more than two hours yet, then I’d definitely return MGS V Ground Zeroes, and get the pack with the two games in two weeks. I’d guess the bundle would go for 4 to 10 bucks on sale
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Whew, 20 bucks for Ground Zeroes? That’s steep!
The game’s just one mission basically, I don’t even understand why they released it separately, it could’ve been the intro mission to Phantom Pain and nobody would’ve batted an eye.
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My issue isn’t listed. (Or I selected a wrong issue category.)
I have gone barely past the start screen (to Settings screen). Almost started (Mission / difficulty select screen), but I received a phone call just then.
Still, by a quick glimpse, it is definitely on my radar.
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Doesn’t really matter what you select, Steam lets you refund for any reason with less than 2 hours playtime (possibly within 14 days of purchase? Not sure about that)
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Yeah, as yami said, they don’t really care about the reason you list anyway as long as you have less than 120 minutes of playtime and the purchase was within the last 14 days. I’d be surprised if anyone even looks at these refund requests when those conditions are met
from Steam Refunds
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