 So, what I have here is the recently released Guide to Japanese Role Playing Games published by Bitmap Books. It's the definitive guide to JRPGs that has been years in the making and many fans of the hidden side of gaming have been anticipating it quite a bit. They were kind enough to send me a copy of a review so we'll be taking a quick look at this today. You can get it on their website for about 35 pounds. Now, I've been following the development of this title very closely for a while now. It's basically a book promising to be the ultimate guide to JRPGs covering the entire history of the genre. There's over 600 articles in this book written by many contributors, some of whom I actually know. Now at first glance you might be thinking that this is going to be like one of those retro gamer special issues you find in the newsstand in Barge Noble where the whole time they're just like, hey guys, have you ever heard of Final Fantasy? It's a very underrated hidden gem I just discovered. No, no, it's not like that. This is much more thorough than that. First of all, this is published by Bitmap Books. As I said earlier, they are a very reputable company from the UK and they make great books. They mostly make full color visual guides for different errors in gaming. They have a Game Boy book, a book about CRPGs, a Super Famicom art book. They're very well known for their quality. And this book right here clearly had a lot of work going into it. Like I said, I've been following this development very closely for a few years and it is just a monster of a book. It has over 600 articles and is very thorough. It's a really good value for the price in my opinion and I wouldn't say this if I didn't like it. First, just talking about the quality of the printing really quickly. It has a high quality binding with a ribbon. The pages are all full color. And when you buy it, it comes with a PDF version for your ebook which I highly appreciated. This book covers the roots of the genre and goes over every aspect of CRPG history. It has sections discussing the origins of the genre and how it developed over the years as well as what defines a CRPG. There's sections on 8-bit, 16-bit, 32-bit and the HD era as well as individual franchises. Obviously, there's going to be big sections of the book dedicated to major franchises like Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy, but that's not why you're buying this. No, where the book really shines is in the articles covering all the forgotten games over the years. That's time sort of forgot. This book is amazing for discovering a bunch of weird games you've never heard of. You're not buying this for articles on the popular stuff, but on all the hidden sides of the gaming industry. When I say it's a thorough book, I really mean it. There's articles on every single obscure CRPG ever made. I legit would just try to think of the least popular CRPG series I know about and look and see if it was in the book and it almost always was. This book is so well researched that I think if you're looking for a thorough guide on new CRPGs to try out, it's a must buy because it has almost everything you want right here. The articles give you enough information to seek out each game from the developers, platforms, the gameplay, it shows you what the gameplay is like, the reception, the influences and the general history. To me, this is just a really good book for discovering new games to play. That's the biggest strength of the book, the fact that there's so much history to explore and no stone is really left unturned. Look at these games. Have you heard of any of these games? Maybe you have, but most people definitely have it and will learn about them by reading this book, which is why I really appreciate what they've done here. This is a book for CRPG enthusiasts who want a nearly complete look at the CRPG genre and how the industry has evolved over time. There's a lot of really cool articles on localizations and common tropes found in the CRPGs among others. A really cool section I enjoyed was a section on PC RPGs from the 1980s as this has some very obscure history that I might have become lost knowledge had nobody written about them like this. It's almost like a history textbook, but for video games. All the weird little games that slip through the cracks over the years are accounted for alongside the heavy hitters and when people write about CRPGs they usually forget about these games and it always bugs me. But here they really did their research and they made this a good guide on the genre. The big sections on the popular games are very thorough and informational. There's a big section on Falcom with articles on games like Dragon Slayer, Xanadu, Ys, Trails and Legend of Heroes. These are the more hardcore CRPGs that general audiences don't know about and I'm glad they were given the spotlight they deserve here. Maybe more people will discover them this way. There's big sections on Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, Shin Megami Tensei, Tales of. These are the major attractions. There's a particular beefy section on Dragon Quest here. The articles in DQ offer a very deep historical analysis that impressed me. There's articles in each game in the series but I was mostly impressed by the article on Dragon Quest V which was very thorough and insightful. And it was multiple pages long so there was a lot to read about. The same kind of thing was done for Final Fantasy and the Megami Tensei section talks about the roots of the Megami Tensei franchise and how it moved on to Persona. After these big sections the book focuses more on the cult classic side of JRPG history with articles on games like Star Ocean, Xeno, Mother Fantasy Star. This section of the book is really really massive and just has hundreds of articles on games even I haven't heard of. Just lots of lesser known titles to check out which honestly is my favorite part of the book, discovering new things. So yeah this is why you're buying this book. Not for the articles on things you've heard about but to learn about games you haven't heard of. I mean I see articles on so many JRPGs from recent years that didn't make a huge splash in the mainstream market and I appreciate this book for giving them a little spotlight. It's nice to see. There's even some cool articles in the back on Pokemon Clones as well as Western indie games inspired by JRPGs and you should definitely check them out. Overall it's an easy recommendation for me. I'm not just being nice I was thoroughly impressed by the book as a JRPG fan. The fact that it taught me a little bit about a genre that I love so much makes it enough for me to recommend this to any hardcore JRPG fan who wants to find just new stuff to play. It's a really good book and you should definitely get it when it's available. I hope this review was helpful and I'll see you guys next time.