It is time of the year again to announce my personal top 10 Japan mobile games released in 2018. This has been a pretty quiet year for Jmobile games as there were more miss than hits compared to 2017.
Brave Frontier II
The widely anticipated Brave Frontier II was pretty disappointing for me. The removal of the Gacha system is a no-no for me. Although you are now guaranteed to acquire a character by directly purchasing it, it became too expensive to collect multiple characters. The game retained it’s gameplay from the first series which is a good thing as it was what made the game popular.
Brown Dust
The Japanese version of Brown Dust was played by many Paoers when it was first released. It was quite a innovate game at that time being played on a 2 x 3×6 board. The game is quite challenging as battle involves forming a party of 9 characters.
Teria Saga
Teria Saga is a side-scroller RPG played very similar to King’s Raid. Players control where you want your characters to cast their skills and adjust their positions accordingly. The game consist of characters from Fairy tales and mythic lore.
Fantasy Life Online
Probably one of the more iconic survival games in gaming history, Fantasy Life Online is one of the few games to introduce “Gathering” and “Production” as your main Job class. Also, the game supports a 4 Player co-op system to allow Players to gather your friends and different difficult raid bosses.
Digimon ReArise
Many people waited for the game and there was a lot of hype happening prior to its launch. The game was pretty similar to Digimon Linkz but had a more complicated combat mechanic. Not only that, even the breeding aspect of the game feels more complicated and it does not help that I can’t read the language. However, as a Digimon lover, I feel that the game has potential only if I could understand it.
The King of Fighters Allstar
One of the few rare fighting games I really wish it comes global. KOF Allstar is a side-scroller Action RPG based on characters from KOF94 to KOFXIII. Players collect your favourite characters from over the years and these same characters have different skills or strength. Although I’m not a hardcore KOF fan, I really hope to play this in English.
Arc The Lad R
Arc The Lad R is a sequel to the original Arc The Lad series. It is a tactical RPG played similar to Fire Emblem Heroes. The game uses tons of cutscenes to tell it’s story and is really engaging if you can understand Japanese. This is also one of the games I wish it can come to global.
Wild Arms Million Memories
Wild Arms Million Memories is a 1-tap Action RPG based on the original Play Station game, Wild Arms – released in 1996. The game is actually pretty good but was released at the wrong time. The game was released 2 days before Dragalia Lost which the latter, pretty much sweep the mobile market for that month.
Idola Phantasy Star Saga
Some may argue that this is a Fate/Grand Order clone while others are defending it, however, you cannot deny that the game looks very similar to the latter. Aesthetics aside, the game does introduce some unique gameplay mechanics. Each character in the game is divided into 2 different factions, Law and Chaos. You can form 2 parties of 4 characters based on the 2 factions and use them interchangeably in combat.
Romancing Saga Re: univerSe
Last on the list is Romancing Saga Re: univerSe. It is a old-school turn-based RPG played very similar to it’s original series. The game’s story takes place 300 years after the events in Romancing Saga 3. However, Players can also collect characters from all the past Romancing Saga series. If you like games with small damage counters, this is definitely a must try! Really hope it comes to Global.
That’s it for my 2018 Japan Mobile Games list. I would say that this has been a pretty disappointing year for Japan Mobile Games compared to the last 3 years where I did my list. Let’s hope that Japanese developers can bring us more surprises in 2019!
Stay tuned for my top 10 English list tomorrow!
