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J-Shop Watch January

By Heath | January 11, 2010 at 10:35 pm

RPG Land’s Shop Watch column tells you of the RPGs hitting stores across North America, but this January, there are also quite a few noteworthy RPGs going on sale in Japan.

Click on the titles to see RPG Land’s news updates, images, and reports on that game.

Already released a few days ago is Square Enix’s Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep for PSP. The game is a prequel to the whole series thus far, taking place even before the original Kingdom Hearts on PS2. Import house Play-Asia has been sending this one out like hotcakes.

Downloadable on Xbox Live on Jan. 20 will be Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgement.  This tactical RPG series hasn’t seen any love since the PSX days.  When it eventually comes to the US, it will also be available on PlayStation Network, but that doesn’t seem to be the case for Japan, oddly enough.  There hasn’t been much news on this one, lately.

Also on PSP, Jan. 21 will see the Japanese release of Valkyria Chronicles 2. The game features the same BLITZ battle system that made the original our 2008 Game of the Year.

The 28th will be a big day for JRPGs, as two new RPGs will drop, as well as an enhanced port, a remake, and two re-releases:
PS3 owners into watching girls run around in their underwear and speak in sexual innuendo for 40 hours can pick up Ar Tonelico III.

Resonance of Fate (End of Eternity) for Xbox 360 and PS3 will be released. This game is developed by tri-Ace and was previously to be published by Square Enix, but now is being handled by Sega. Janelle played this at the Tokyo Game Show and wrote this impression.

Still talking about Jan. 28 here, Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Reverie‘s DS remake goes on sale. Unlike DQIV and DQV before it, DQVI has never been remade before. DQIV had been remade for PlayStation, DQV had seen PS2 treatment, but this will be the first time Dragon Quest VI gets touched up, so it’s of high interest to traditional JRPG fans, for sure.

Shiren the Wanderer 3, previously for Wii, will be available for PSP on that day. The Wii version is coming stateside via Atlus USA early in 2010, though it’s too early to say about the PSP version.

Finally, the PSP versions of Tales of Rebirth and Tales of Destiny 2, both previously for PS2 and both reamaining exclusively Japanese, have sold well enough to be labeled as among “The Best” on PSP. Think of it as the Japanese equivalent of the “Greatest Hits” line. Like those mentioned above, these re-packaged versions go on sale Jan. 28.

And there’s your look at the RPGs coming to Japan this month.

Topics: Shop Watch