The February 2022 Nintendo Direct might have lacked news about a new Super Mario Bros. game or the next Legend of Zelda title, but it was a huge show for fans of classic JRPGs. The JRPG genre really exploded when FF7 became a hit on the PlayStation, but there were lots of earlier games in the genre that never left Japan. Luckily for JRPG fans, there were other methods of playing those games that existed outside of the law.
A lot of these classic JRPGs were developed by Squaresoft, but even the success of FF7 couldn't convince the company to localize every one of its games. The fact that many classic JRPGs were Japan-exclusive games meant little, thanks to the emulation scene. There were groups dedicated to translating the games into English via fan-made patches. For many people, the only way they could play games like Final Fantasy V and Trials of Mana was due to these fan patches. This is still the only way to play Mother 3 in English, as it has yet to be localized, despite the numerous fan requests over the years.
The old-school JRPG fans seemingly had an entire Nintendo Direct dedicated to them this Februrary. It seems that Square Enix is making a huge push to remaster its old library for a new audience. Nintendo also released one of its finest RPGs in history to the Nintendo Switch Online service.
The February 2022 Nintendo Direct Was Big For JRPG Fans
The February 2022 Nintendo Direct was filled with reveals, and a sizeable chunk were JRPG announcements. It was revealed that Live A Live is getting an HD-2D remake, in the same style as Octopath Traveler. Live A Live is a classic JRPG from the SNES days that was never localized, though rumors of its remake have been spreading for years, due to name copyrights being secured in different regions. Chrono Cross and Radical Dreamers are being released as Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition. This marks Chrono Cross's first European release and it will be Radical Dreamer's first release outside of Japan. The first two games in the Front Mission tactical RPG series are being remade, with the first entry arriving in the Summer. The original Front Mission was originally released for the SNES in '95 and it has received one English language release on the Nintendo DS, but fans had to wait until 2007 to play it.
The EarthBound games are now on Nintendo Switch Online. EarthBound is a cult classic SNES JRPG that inspired many games and video game developers over the years. EarthBound Beginnings was its predecessor on the NES, which was originally released in Japan in '89 but didn't receive an English localization until 2015 when it was released on the Wii U Virtual Console. These games were some of the most highly-anticipated titles for Nintendo Switch Online and many fans are glad that they're now reaching a massive audience on the service. It wasn't just Square Enix that was releasing old JRPGs during the Nintendo Direct, as Nintendo itself got in on the action, and fans are happier for it.
The February 2022 Nintendo Direct was a great show for JRPG fans. The fact that Radical Dreamers will soon be playable on Xbox is a baffling thought to those who assumed for decades that it would never be localized. It has taken a long time, but these classic games will soon be available to a massive global audience, who can appreciate them in the same way that the diehard JRPG fans did back in the late '90s.
