JRPGs (Japanese role-playing games) are quite possibly the most polarising, contentious genre in gaming. Love them or loathe them, the genre offers a beautifully strategic style of gameplay that tends to focus on exploration, something which is loved by millions of fans worldwide.

With characters who have personality and depth, and games that give us the ability to watch these characters grow and develop, the gamer gets a greater sense of connection to the story – and, importantly, it’s often a connection that is formed from emotion. What I want to look at here is the positive side of the genre, the things that make it so great and so rewarding, and that have provided me and countless others with hundreds of hours of memorable gaming experiences.

The JRPG was fairly underground until the mid 1990s, at least here in the west. But then popular systems such as the Super Nintendo allowed some JRPGs to reach the public attention. One example was the wonderfully twisted Chrono Trigger. The game introduced a new audience to the Japanese aesthetic: it offered gorgeous visuals and a beautifully developed plot as well as a monstrous campaign that rewarded the player for devoting their time to it.

Another example, and one that has developed a rightful cult following, was the maddeningly superb Earthbound. With its glorious misplaced humour and submarine trips, the game definitely had character, and it was another SNES-based addition to the JRPG genre. Other titles for the SNES included Final Fantasy titles such as FFVI, as well as Illusion Of Gaia and Lufia 2. The SNES really had an astonishing collection in its back pocket. Looking back, it seems strange that even when household names like Mario got an RPG incarnation, the JRPG genre just didn’t quite take off. But its time would come.