FAN-TRANSLATED JRPGs

 

Hey everyone. As you may have noticed since last year, I've been getting more and more into fan-translated JRPGs. You know, the ONLY IN JAPAN games, but the ones that are in ENGLISH. I've done videos in the past about these but often including the popular translations like the Tales games, Valkyria Chronicles 3, Bahamut Lagoon, Princess Crown, etc... But today, I completed a long-anticipated video that I've been wanting to do for a while: a hidden gems top 10 with fan translations. Some of these have gotten their own reviews in the past, but there are also some that are brand new, as in I've never reviewed them before. 

Enjoy!

The State of Things

THE STATE OF THINGS 

On April of 2024, YouTube put a shadow-ban on my channel. My views and revenue were cut by 50%, and my subscription rate dropped to 10%. YouTube never provided me with an explanation but I assume it's because I often speak against their political narrative and have criticized and/or insulted their company, as well as others (like videogame companies). I have done a lot of research since then on what can be done and, sadly, there is nothing. YouTube doesn't even recognize shadow-banning even though there are hundreds of thousands of cases around the world with insane amounts of evidence. You can't talk to any of their staff about this because they either act as if you weren't shadow-banned or they straight up tell you that nothing can be done. You can't sue YouTube either because to become a monetized channel, you have to sign an agreement with their guidelines and also literally accept a statement that specifies that you cannot sue them for stuff like this. I have reached out to lawyers and support websites about this issue but they all tell me that nothing can be done. It's been over a year since the shadow-ban and now I am convinced nothing will change. At least not until Google/YouTube is forced into a new law in protection of free speech or something, which I don't see happening anytime soon.

I am doing this post primarily to thank all the people on Patreon that currently support me. The small amount of money I make there thanks to them is 100% indispensable for me. But I'm also asking everybody else to consider supporting the channel in one way or another so I can continue creating content such as Reviews, Top 10s and Livestreams. There are several ways to support me, so here is a list on how:

1.- Patreon. This is the best way to support me on a monthly basis regardless of the quantity. I have 4 different tiers you can choose from, which I'm sure you'll find if you decide to join. All tiers have one or various benefits so be sure to consider what suits you best. The end goal of all tiers though is to support my work so I can continue creating videos.

2.- PayPal. You can send a tip or donation whenever you want to my PayPal account: vortex.dimension@hotmail.com Any amount is greatly appreciated and it also goes into creating more content.

3.- Super Chats. Super chats and/or super thanks are a feature on YouTube (not just on livestreams but also on regular videos) where you basically tip the Youtuber with any amount you want. Keep in mind though that YouTube keeps 30% of any Super chat/thanks as a commission, but that 70% that I get is greatly appreciated.

4.- Twitch. Twitch is just as bad as YouTube when it comes to politics and guidelines, but it's nowadays the only website where I can play JRPGs live without worrying about some evil algorithm. Subscribing to my Twitch channel helps me not only to continue going live there but also to create regular videos on YouTube. I believe Twitch keeps about 50% of the revenue, which is very harsh, but still... that other 50% goes to me, remember that. Link to my Twitch channel: https://www.twitch.tv/ericklandonrpg

5.- My Books. All of my books (the ones that are in English) are available on Amazon, digital and physical. However, the revenue I get from any version is really low, it still helps, but I'd appreciate it if you bought one or more books with the intention of reading them more than supporting me. Link to my books: https://www.amazon.com.mx/s?i=stripbooks&rh=p_27%3AErick+Landon&s=relevancerank&text=Erick+Landon&ref=dp_byline_sr_book_1

6.- Watch the videos. This should be a no-brainer, no-compromise way to help me but, believe it or not, a LOT of people don't watch most of the videos a YouTuber they follow posts weekly. Or they just watch like...1 minute or 2 of them and fast-forward or something. Don't do that. Watch the video, preferably from beginning to end. It helps with the algorithm.

7.- Don't feed the haters. They'll do their absolute best and worst to convince you that I'm a piece of shit. Ignore them. Just enjoy the content and the livestreams and forget about anons and bots trying to ruin your perspective.

Those are 7 good ways to support me and my channel. Hopefully you'll consider at least the last 2 if you honestly can't support me in any financial way. Still, I appreciate the time you took to read through all of this.

Here's to more videos and more content! Help me to continue entertaining you and providing you with RPG recommendations, insight, knowledge, opinions and completely uncensored criticism!

Thanks!

 

Radiata Stories is the most underrated action JRPG of all time. It's on the PS2, exclusive to it, never been released anywhere else and the proprietor of the IP is none other than Square-Enix. The game was created by tri-Ace, developers of the Star Ocean and Valkyrie Profile series. This one is not as complex or tough as those, but it still retains a certain level of difficulty. It's underrated because reviewers weren't so kind with it when it came out, and even today there are still many detractors giving it low or medium scores. Sure, it's no masterpiece (even though it could've been one) but it's unique, charming, fun, original and with many influences very well implemented. It also stood the test of time, in my opinion. Other underrated action JRPGs I considered for this video were Tales of Legendia, .hack/G.U. trilogy and the mighty Odin Sphere (though this one does have high scores and ratings so it wouldn't make any sense). Anyways, check out Radiata Stories when you can. It's amazing.

ABOUT THE REVIEWS

 

Hey guys. Just a quick reminder that I've been doing video reviews of JRPGs lately and that I will continue to do so. Today I uploaded a double review. I covered both Yakuza turn-based JRPGs that came out this decade. The first one, also known as Yakuza 7 (or Like a Dragon 7 in Japan) came out in 2020 while its direct sequel was released on 2024, also known as Yakuza 8 (or Like a Dragon 8 in Japan). I'll never understand why it's subtitled as Infinite Wealth, but I guess it's something open to speculation.

Now, this video review comes from two older videos. The Yakuza 7 review I got it from Episode 2 of "5 RPGs I Need To Talk About" which I released on January 31st of 2023. The Yakuza 8 review was a completely brand new video I did about a year ago but ended up deleting because, for some reason, YouTube shadow-banned it. It didn't even last a week, so most of you probably didn't watch it or don't even remember it. Which means that part of today's video is basically "brand new" content. 

I wanted to explain that to you because it isn't the first time I've grabbed old reviews or clips from older videos. My Astral Chain and Grand Kingdom reviews are a similar situation; I did add some extra script and obviously the intro and outro, but most of the video content came from the first episode of 5 RPGs I Need To Talk About which I released on October of 2022. All the other reviews you've been seeing so far are 100% brand new content. But yeah, as long as I have an older review or clip that I can use, then I will. The large majority of the reviews will be brand new anyway since there's only so many older reviews or clips that I could use, so it's just better to sit down and write/edit everything from scratch. But there will still be the occasional review with re-used content. Remember that almost all of these reviews will barely get any views, which means I'll barely make any money out of them. So I don't see the point in going the extra mile for any of them. It is main content, however, not "filler" content. Please take these reviews seriously despite the jokes with the action figures. 

Also, don't forget that I'm always adding them to my RPG Scores section here in this blog so you can click on the RPGs you'd like to watch a review of, at any given time!

Thanks for reading. Enjoy the reviews!

Suikoden 1 & 2 Reviews

 

You may have watched this already, but in case you haven't... I recently reviewed Suikoden 1 and 2, in a comparative form with the originals. These games belong to my favorite videogame series of all time so I felt I had to review them despite my current reluctance of modern games coverage. 

Fortunately, I did a lot of research on them before even playing them, to make sure they were modern agenda-free with no DEI bullshit. The results were surprising. I'm still honestly shocked Konami didn't insert political crap in the translations. Especially because they re-did the whole translation of both games to -allegedly- be more faithful to the original Japanese scripts written by Yoshitaka Murayama (RIP). At least they still have some respect for the deceased and his legacy, unlike the evil bastards that are 505 Games. 

So if you want to know more, watch the video and elaborate your own conclusion. Whatever the case though, I hope you enjoy it. 

UPDATES

 

Hey, it's been a while. I haven't posted here in a couple of months so I wanted to give you guys a few updates of what's been going on. 

First of all, I have been updating the RPG Scores section for the past few months. I added more scores like Skies of Arcadia, Shin Megami Tensei IV, The Sword of Etheria and others. But the biggest update is that I have added REVIEW links to some RPGs in that section. That's right, you can now just click on the game you want (if it's in blue color with a link) and watch my full video review of it. Now, I have reviewed almost every single RPG in that section in other videos, but they're all in top 10s, top 5s or other lists. My plan is to eventually dedicate a separate video for each. It sounds crazy, considering there's over 500. But I think it's worth it, especially for people wanting to know my opinion of this or that RPG without watching an entire list, like a top 10 for example. So that's in the works for the near future: individual video reviews. 

Also, I don't know if you've already noticed (you probably have) but I haven't been streaming as often as before on YouTube. Of course, the Sunday Q&A livestreams are still a thing at 12 p.m. central time, but playing RPGs live is a different thing. As you may already know, I've been streaming on Twitch for about a year and a half now, and have been very active for the past 6-8 months or so. While both platforms are full of issues and anti-streamer policies and algorithms, it's still better for me to stream on Twitch because YouTube livestreams affect their evil algorithm and fucks us over as content creators. Which is exactly the reason why most YouTubers have a second channel dedicated to streaming. As you know, I do have a second channel but since it was literally shadow-banned by YouTube a long time ago, because that's where I upload most of the clips from the Q&A's (some of the things I say are considered as highly offensive, against their precious guidelines), there is little to no point in using it for livestreaming. If I'm barely gonna get any viewers either way, I'd honestly rather do it on Twitch. So please follow me HERE https://www.twitch.tv/ericklandonrpg to keep up with my livestreams. I stream every Tuesday and Friday at around 4 or 5 pm central time, but I also may show up any other day around the same time for an extra weekly stream. 

Another update I wanted to give you is what most of you probably also already noticed. I am no longer reviewing new RPGs, just with veeeeeery few exceptions. The reasons why obviously involve the fact that I've 100% lost faith in the gaming industry as nearly every single company has gone woke or is forced to insert DEI nonsense in their games. As a result, I decided to stay away from modern gaming and instead focus more on the INSANE amount of games I have in my backlog, including tons of fan-translated JRPGs. Making content based on that is what I've been doing for a while now. This will continue until DEI and woke agendas are completely gone from gaming (at least from JRPGs). However, if something new comes out and has nothing of that bullshit, then I'll try my best to review it. Just remember that I'm black-listed from the large majority of JRPG publishers so they no longer send review codes to me. 

And that's exactly what you can expect from Erick Landon RPG from now on. In a nutshell, more Top 10s, reviews, Q&As and Twitch livestreams, but with everything that I've said thus far. Thank you for reading and see you guys on the next video or stream!

BIOGRAPHY UPDATED

 

Hey everyone.

I just wanted to let you know that my biography has been greatly updated. I added nothing but objective facts without the influence of my own personal opinion. The articles I added are about my content creator career, my writing career, my controversies and my (lack of) political views. You can read it all on the Biography section here in this blog, or just click on this link if by some weird reason you can't find it: https://ericklandonrpg.blogspot.com/p/biography.html

Hopefully this will clarify in a more objective way what I've gone through positively and negatively as a content creator and as an author. And hopefully it will clarify a lot of things for you.

Thank you for being a fan.

500 RPGs RANKED!!!

 

FINALLY MADE IT TO 500 RPGs!!! I can't believe it myself but I did it. There are now 500 RPGs scored on a scale from 1 to 10 in my blog right HERE:

https://ericklandonrpg.blogspot.com/p/rpg-scores.html

It's been a long journey. This is something I started working on 6 months ago, to have some kind of number, in this case a score, to all of those RPGs I've played throughout my whole life. Of course, there are more that will keep being added in the future, so this isn't over. Some I need to finish, others I need to put more hours into, and others I still can't decide how I feel about. But at least I made it to 500, man.

So yeah, be on the lookout for more, check every now and then for new RPGs, simply by using ctrl+f to find the one you're looking for.

Thanks a lot for the support!

Top 100 Best Turn-based JRPGs of ALL TIME

 

Welcome to the top 100 best turn-based JRPGs of all time. No indies, no Japanese exclusives, obviously no RPGs from other regions either. Honorable mentions are at the end.

About this video...

I didn't tell anyone I was working on it. The video was planned as a surprise, but also as a follow-up to another video I did a long time ago.

On December of 2019 I made a Top 100 Best JRPGs So Far, which gained a lot of views until it practically stopped trending. This happened because many years had gone by and the video was now a bit outdated. I felt it was time to remake it, to do it again with an updated list, including JRPGs that had been released in the 20s. However, many titles have been released since then, many awesome titles I should say, and I couldn't bring myself to think of a list of just 100 again, you know? So my solution was to break it down into sub-genres, that way there would be more JRPGs added and barely any of the really good ones, that deserve to be in the video, would be left out. 

So I started with turn-based and I certainly wasn't expecting there to be more than 100 JRPGs worth including, which is why I left some honorable mentions at the end. It's incredible how people keep saying turn-based is dead, when clearly (if you watch today's video) that is definitely NOT true. And to prove my point further, a lot more turn-based JRPGs that probably deserved a spot in my list, were left out. Plus, imagine how many others aren't included just because they're indies or exclusive to Japan. A this point, only an idiot would say turn-based is dead. What about Strategy JRPGs though? Oof. That'd be interesting to see.

Well, everybody, that's as much background I can give you on the video. I hope you enjoy it. I had a lot of fun doing the list, and even editing the video. I won't do another one of these in many, many years again (probably never if agendas keep being inserted in our beloved genre), so this is it for the 100 best turn-based JRPGs ever made in my goddamned opinion.

Thanks!

400 RPGs RANKED

 

There are now officially 400 RPGs ranked in my "RPG Scores" section. Damn. It took me 2 months to come up with that list and those numbers on a scale from 1 to 10. I don't think I can make it to 500, honestly. At least not now. But of course, the list isn't over; I will continue adding more and more in the future. Several of them will be added on a daily basis, but eventually I will hit a roadblock and will have to slowly move on from there. 

Please continue checking the list often for more updates. Maybe it's time I started adding segments like filtering them by console. But you can always press Alt + F to look for the specific RPG you want. If it's not there, it means I haven't played it, or I don't know how I feel about it yet and probably need more time with it, maybe even finish it. 

About having finished the games, well... I have finished about 80% of the RPGs in the list. Others I made it very far in but rage quit at some point, or simply abandoned. There are some I need more time with to decide on a number, and others I don't need a single extra minute with since I have 0 plans of ever going back to or playing them again. 

One thing you may have noticed is that I might seem a bit generous with some rankings. You have to remember how I rank them. I consider 5 things: story, gameplay, music, graphics and battle system. So some RPGs that have bad, mediocre or troublesome gameplay/combat may still be an 8 out of 10, which is a bit high, but that's because probably the music, story or graphics were great. Keep that in mind.

Anyway, off to continue making more content, videos and livestreams, as I keep making progress with the list. Thanks a lot for reading this.

 

Trails in the Sky Remake announced

Suikoden I & II Remasters release date

Fate/Extra Remake is still alive

Tales of Graces F Remaster announced

Black Myth Wukong sells 15 million copies worldwide and destroys the wokies.

Sounds like great news so far, right? 

Or should we be worried that the mafia and/or the wokies will destroy the translation for the upcoming games? 

I don't know. Something to think about. Nothing, however, changes the fact that BMW is a phenomenal success and that should speak fucking volumes in the game industry. FUCKING VOLUMES. 

 

Versus episodes will now be uploaded on my second channel. Why? Because all of them were a failure in views on my main channel. I wasn't expecting many views in the first place but I certainly wasn't expecting some episodes to be a huge flop. Lack of interest from general viewers + the YT shadow-ban I still have equals these results. Anyway, it was just extra content with no real purpose than to make a few extra bucks a month but there was also barely any revenue from them, and since editing each takes a couple of hours (thumbnail included), I just didn't see the point. 

So yeah, they'll continue as video clips on my second channel, with your opinions included of course, but without gameplay footage. They will definitely fail harder in views now but it's my second channel, a place I pretty much treat as some kind of archives or clips, without worrying about the stupid evil algorithm from YouTube. And yes, this means we will still do one episode in the Q&A livestreams, obviously. So see you there.

Laters.

Terra Gaiden and The Revenant Army

 

Today I'm celebrating the 10th Anniversary of two of my most beloved books out there. Terra Gaiden and The Revenant Army. Both were heavily inspired by JRPGs, most specifically by the Suikoden and the Fire Emblem series, two of my favorite videogame franchises of all time. 

A little bit of history:

Terra Gaiden was planned in 2013 because I wanted to move out of Mexico and try my chances as an author in another country. For some reason I chose Canada. So I started writing the book with the idea of moving there in 2014 and take it to publishers. So I applied for a visa (they were required back then, not anymore nowadays) but, unfortunately, it was denied. So I couldn't go and my plans were ruined. On top of it all, the book had already been 80% completed in ENGLISH... So despite being a terrible idea, I still finished it and had it printed out on a mere whim. 

I was going to start attending anime/gaming shows where I live and I had to had something other than Prelude to Oblivion, which was in Spanish, and Terra Gaiden, which was in English. I needed another JRPG-inspired book, but one in SPANISH, so I wrote The Revenant Army right after finishing Terra Gaiden. No, it wasn't rushed. I did take my time writing the book without any pressure, so it wasn't a desperate attempt at finishing it before my first gaming show. 

So long story short, I did well in anime/gaming shows back then, Revenant sold well while Gaiden struggled a lot because of the language barrier. But by then I had revived my old YouTube channel back and started creating content for it. Of course, I'm talking about those slide-show videos that for some reason got hundreds of thousands of views. So I started promoting Terra Gaiden in those videos and it slowly started selling more. Today, it's a fan favorite and tons of readers have marked it as a great book.

So in February of 2023, I released the English translation of The Revenant Army and have also been promoting it in my videos and livestreams. It hasn't sold as well as Gaiden because it's only been available for a year and a half, but it's been doing alright. 

So now, both books are available in English on Amazon and you can surely find the links in the "books" section of this website. If you decide to read them, I hope you enjoy them and appreciate the passion for JRPGs that I had when I wrote them.

Thank you!

The Versus Episodes

 

Check out the latest versus episode: Grandia vs Wild Arms (first game on each series only).

I've been having a blast making these episodes live every Q&A for the past several weeks. I know a lot of you even look forward to them every time, so I'm happy for that.

So far we've done 6 episodes, 5 of which have been edited and uploaded as videos on my main channel. The sixth episode we did (Octopath Traveler vs Ys VIII) is coming soon...

No, this isn't the direction the channel is going to. It was never intended. Keep reading...

As I've stated before in previous livestreams, this episodic series will definitely continue. We will still do one episode in every Sunday Q&A. As for editing them and uploading them as videos on my main channel, well, I haven't decided if I'll continue with that. I probably will. The episodes are barely getting any views and failing miserably, but I also understand they aren't the type of content most viewers want to watch. That's alright, I never expected the episodes to make it past 5k views each, and I never made them to replace regular content or regular videos on my channel. This is just some extra content like the live let's plays I do every now and then. So yeah, I'm not sure if I'll keep turning them into videos, but if I do, you'll notice. The point is that the episodes will continue at least live every goddamned Sunday!

For those who don't know what the hell these are: I'll leave every episode below so be sure to check them out. Basically, I pick 2 JRPGs that I think would be a good match and start a poll during the Q&A livestream. Fans get to vote for their favorite game for a limited amount of time, but they can also write down their arguments in the chat. I read every argument and it makes it to the edited version of the video. At the end, I close the poll, mention the winner, then I pick my own personal winner and explain my reasons why, breaking down every category: gameplay, music, graphics, combat, characters, etc... 

ALL the episodes in order HERE:

Tales of Arise vs Star Ocean 6: https://youtu.be/25waVm5xqMg

Xenoblade Chronicles vs Nier Automata: https://youtu.be/JWK1lzJeuYc

Suikoden II vs The Legend of Dragoon: https://youtu.be/wsVFD-icSHw

Dragon Quest VIII vs Final Fantasy XII: https://youtu.be/YMYbD5g4uSA

Grandia vs Wild Arms: https://youtu.be/AauPUJy1_lk

So far, my favorite episode has been Suikoden 2 vs The Legend of Dragoon for obvious reasons. Anyway, enjoy the videos. Thanks!

Third Time Wasn't The Charm...

 I'm sad to announce that the 10 Things You Didn't Know About video-series is officially dead. The views are incredibly and absurdly down and, as a result, I no longer have any motivation whatsoever to continue. 

I first cancelled this series in 2021 after making an analysis on several episodes that were deemed as a failure (Star Ocean 2, SMT Nocturne, Trails of Cold Steel 1&2) Sure, if you check some of those right now, they may be doing alright, but that's because they've been out there for years. 

The second time I cancelled the series was in 2022. I revived it after a year or so, 3 episodes were released: Radiant Historia, Tales of Berseria and Wild Arms. Sure, the last two are doing alright nowadays but, again, that's because they've been out there for over 2 years. 

So now that the last three episodes of this year (2024) were MASSIVE failures, like the worst 3 ever in terms of views, I am forced to shut the show down for good.

I know some of you are big fans of this series but there's absolutely no reason for me to continue making it. As you already know, YouTube put a final shadow ban in my channel after the Eiyuden Chronicle Localization video (it pissed the shit out of them badly) and my views/subscribers/revenue started tanking considerably after that. Because of this, they aren't recommending any of my videos and aren't notifying a lot of my subscribers when I upload them. So of course a video-series that died 2 years ago was gonna get the worst treatment, as viewer interests have shifted to something else entirely.

It saddens me to see the huge lack of interest in the series. People are way too obsessed with new games, modern JRPGs, dramas, news and political warfare, that they have abandoned any love for retro, history and development. But the worst of it all is that barely anyone looks at me when it comes to those topics. Most viewers aren't interested in me covering the background, history and development of retro JRPGs. Not anymore.

If the episodes had gathered at least 10k-12k views each, like the FFIX episode did, I wouldn't be here writing this post. I would continue making them just for the fans. But the Valkyria Chronicles and Tales of Xillia did horribly, and have killed my desire to continue. 

Sorry for this, but I'm sure at this point you'll understand why I have to shut this one down for good. Probably forever. 

JRPGs That Surpassed My Expectations

 

This video series has been doing well since the beginning. Episode 5 just came out and you can watch it right here (above) or on YouTube. 

The point of the series is to cover JRPGs that I didn't think would be so damn good. I highlight my stories with them, how I got a hold of them, what I expected of them, and how they surpassed my expectations. So I'm not really reviewing these games at all, or explaining them to you. I'm just sharing my experience with them. 

There are a lot of JRPGs that surpassed my expectations but let's not confuse them with the ones that MET my expectations. Like, say, Eiyuden Chronicle for example. I was hoping it would surpass them but the initial glitches and the politicized translation kinda ruined that. However, I still knew the game would be great somehow and, well, it was. So it's an example of a game that I was expecting to be great and it met those expectations, it just didn't "surpass" them. 

So yeah, in case you've watched through all 5 episodes and wondered "why didn't he include this game?", that might be a reason. Or it could be that I merely haven't included it. I haven't told my story about it. 

Maybe one day there will be an episode 6...

10 THINGS YOU DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT TALES OF XILLIA 1 AND 2

 

Here's the latest episode. This time I took 2 of my favorite Tales games ever, Xillia and its controversial sequel. Long episode. There was just so much to talk about them...

Please help this 10 things video-series grow. If you could share this with other fans or friends, post it in your socials or anything at this point, I'd appreciate it, the series would continue. I gave up on it 2 years ago quite easily but not this time around. I want to keep making more episodes in the future and cover more JRPGs. Hopefully you can pitch in by merely watching the videos and posting them anywhere you can.

Enjoy the episode!

Thanks!

10 Things You Didn't Know About Final Fantasy IX

 

NEW EPISODE!

This time I made an episode based entirely on the masterpiece Final Fantasy IX. As you may already know, this is my favorite FF ever and a very special game to me, personally. One of the first RPGs I ever played. 

It was very interesting to learn about its inception, its history and development. Many things were written in Wikipedia but I had to confirm every single one of them to see if they were legit. I was surprised to see the sources were mostly straight out of the horse's mouth. Click on the video and check the description where you'll find these sources, of course. 

I had a lot of fun creating this video. And while I am aware that this is a heavily documented game, and some of the things shown in it might already be part of your knowledge, I still feel like I added my two cents in most of them. So hopefully you'll learn more about it.

Enjoy the video!

10 Things You Didn't Know About

 

Hey guys, as you may have already noticed, I recently revived the "10 Things You Didn't Know About" series. This is content I started creating all the way back in 2019. There's been 18 episodes so far, including the most recent about Valkyria Chronicles.

In the playlists section of my channel, you'll find the playlist with every single episode. Or you can just click here to get there right away. 

In the series, I cover the background, history, development, trivia and controversies about the JRPGs we all know and love. So they're a good video series to watch to learn more about them. Sources of information are often credited in the description of each video, which lead to even more knowledge. Be sure to check the videos out and also the sources. And thank you for supporting my channel. 

The Irony of Viewers

 Wanna know one of the biggest ironies of modern YouTube viewers? They barely watch the videos but are always ready to share their opinion about them in the comments. I don't read comments nor do I interact in that section, but seeing the numbers can be very ironic. My community section is a perfect example: often I post my videos or my clips from my Q&A's (I upload these on my second channel) and there are more comments than likes. Some of them have hundreds of comments from people that didn't even watch the video and say something only based on the topics I mention or merely the damn thumbnail. 

Watchtime has been decreasing for every single content creator over the past few years. Subscription rate also went down. Not only because YouTube started deleting accounts that have been inactive for more than just 2 years, but also because people have lost interesting in subscribing to channels. There are many reasons why, of course, everyone's got their own. But the watchtime decreasing hurts every youtuber out there. Which is why I'm always telling people to watch the whole video or if they don't care, just leave it running in the background in another tab or something. People are so quick to click away nowadays that sometimes we feel like making videos is pointless. It's like they want to turn YouTube into TikTok. And they still have the nerve to express their opinion (be it positive or negative) about it? When they barely watched anything? Pathetic. This is the pathetic situation and the biggest irony of modern viewers in this day and age.

Don't be this type of entitled loser. 

Eiyuden Chronicle

 

Here is my full review of Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes. I'm pretty sure you've already noticed I uploaded it recently, or probably you've already watched it. But just in case, there you go. 

There were a few things I didn't mention in the review though; a couple of complaints I have with it. I left them out because they were only going to drag the review but, most importantly, they would give it a very negative connotation. It's about the recruitment of characters and about the wokenized localization. Unfortunately, this game's another victim of the horrendous DEI bullshit that's been destroying translations recently. I'm honestly still debating whether I do another video about the controversial release of this game, or if I should just move on and rant about it in my next Q&A. So, don't be surprised if you see another video dedicated to it, with me attacking the localization, or if you see nothing at all.

Thankfully, the DEI shenanigans didn't go too far like they did with Final Fantasy 16 or Fairy Fencer F 2, where there IS actual forced inclusion and a translation that's extremely woke. However, and sadly, it did affect several dialogue scenes in Eiyuden Chronicle and it shattered the humor. Still, major events, important scenes and context in them all never felt politicized to me, so at least it got saved from that.

But yeah, Mio saying "are you sure it's a he?" about a freaking golem, is a good example. A cross-dresser character named Momo is voiced by some dude in English, but at least the translation shows that Momo admits himself to be a boy, instead of something ridiculous like "I'm a guy but I feel like a girl, so I'm a girl and treat me as such". At least they had the decency to respect that. But I wouldn't be surprised if the character in Japanese was actually female and they just changed it to a boy cross-dressing just for the sake of wokeness. However, I doubt it because the Japanese actor who voiced Momo is also a dude, so... I'm very confused about this character and I wonder of Murayama himself wrote it. Whatever the case, a character like that in 2024 is pretentious if nothing else. But yeah, the Mio dialogue, Perrielle's slightly excessive display of feminist behavior, Lian's dumb jokes and stuff like that... is part of the motherfucking piece of shit localization team behind the loser that is Brian Gray. Fuck that guy and fuck the system nowadays for trying to "americanize" everything nowadays. 

And about the character recruitment, I have a big rant about some characters being unbelievably ridiculous to recruit like Celia or Reid, forcing the player to play through some really hard mini-games just to get them. It's extremely annoying and frustrating, to be honest. 

So will I make a second video about this game? Probably, yeah, just don't know yet if it'll be on my main channel to address these issues, or on my second channel as a regular rant with other topics from my Q&A livestreams. I'm sure you'll see something but don't be surprised if you see nothing. I just don't know what to think about this situation anymore since fucking liberals control the entertainment world nowadays and it's hard to find something, including a JRPG, that's not under their disgusting modern nazi rules. Are we to stop playing every JRPG with political nonsense and DEI? Are we to play nothing but Stellar Blade then? You see the dilemma now? 

I'm still trying to gather my thoughts on this. In the meantime, watch the review and share your thoughts in the comments if you want to. 

Thanks for reading.

THAT JRPG PODCAST #2

 

The second episode of That JRPG Podcast is up! It's a deep analysis of Chrono Cross which includes its history, development, background, and a review of everything: story, characters, music, graphics, pacing, gameplay, battle system and ending. 

Spoilers are there but only at the end of the podcast. I give a fair warning before I talk about them.

It took me many, many years to come up with some form of proper review for this game. I've covered it to death in my channel, I know, but never reviewing it in an entire video of its own. A 15-20 long minute review felt pointless for a game as important to me as this, so I always felt if I ever reviewed it, it would have to be in a 1-2 hour long video. I couldn't think of a better opportunity than to make it an unscripted and uncensored podcast. 

Enjoy.

Top 50 Best PS3 JRPGs Ever

 

Today I posted a Top 50 with the best JRPGs ever released on the PS3. This is part of an on-going series I actually started 4 years ago. I've covered a few consoles already and will continue to do so in the future. Keep in mind not every console's gonna be here. Some, like the SNES, don't have 50 JRPGs released outside of Japan. Remember that these tops are based on games that got an official English release. The SNES could easily be done including fan translations though, so maybe one day, but I doubt it. And there are other consoles that don't even reach 50 JRPGs even counting the ones that stayed in Japan. Finally, there are consoles that are still releasing games such as the Switch. I wouldn't want to do a "Top 50 Best So Far", these are "Ever" or "of all time" so the Switch is definitely out of the question, despite already having way more than 50 JRPGs released outside of Japan. PS4 is getting there though, I really do believe this year will probably be the last one we'll see JRPGs on it. We'll most likely just get a few next year. So maybe in 2025 I can finally do the top 50 based on PS4. But for now, check out the PS3 one. 

One small trivia I found interesting while making this video is that a big chunk of the console's JRPGs have already been ported or remastered for modern systems. It's incredible to see how many we are lacking when it comes to more retro consoles, like the PS1, PS2 or even SNES, but the PS3 got a lot of glory on modern consoles. Maybe because it was just easier to port them or remaster considering they aren't that old and run also easily on modern hardware. So if you don't have a PS3 or care for one, it might still be very worth watching the video.

Consoles I've already done a Top 50 on:

PS1 https://youtu.be/-GknCXJJr50

PS2 https://youtu.be/KKD-ic4PsV4

PSP https://youtu.be/ZzqHcJnAt34

PS3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_leqPgnzgw

NDS https://youtu.be/rVxIqXLRViY

3DS https://youtu.be/P5O4pE9naNU

Next will probably be GBA or PS Vita. Just remember I only do these once or (max) twice per year so I can't confirm yet if there will be another one this year. 

Thanks for reading and enjoy the videos!

 

That JRPG Podcast: Persona 3 Reload is up.

I deleted the previous post because, after all, I did end up using the title it now has. I think the video works much better as a podcast. Now that I've personally watched it a couple of times since I started editing it, I believe the video definitely works better as a podcast. Still, I used a lot of gameplay footage, especially during the intro and the gameplay mechanics/combat (NOT in the characters' segment, I used only screenshots and wallpapers for those), because I had already recorded a lot, so it felt like a waste not to use it. But I'm repeating myself...

Anyway, as of the making of this post, the podcast isn't doing very well, but it's hanging in there. Obviously it's not the type of content the majority of my viewers care about, but it's still something that I wanted to do. I'll give it about 3 weeks and then decide if it's worth continuing with the series. I ask that you don't downgrade on Patreon or cancel, at least not until I've made my decision. Let's give this podcast time to pick up a bit, but I'm honestly not expecting it to surpass 5 thousand views because of the type of content it is, its length, and YouTube probably shadow-banning it due to my rant against the game's censorship.

So yeah, we'll see how it goes on the long run. I'm still interested in doing more episodes in the future.

Thanks.

 

Hello, everybody. I'm about to launch a brand new video podcast on YouTube . In every episode, I will cover a new RPG in a full, deep analysis, meaning they're basically going to be super long reviews. Sometimes there's just so much to say about games, that I feel simple 15 minute long reviews don't do them justice. Surprisingly though, these video-podcast episodes will go between 1 and 2 HOURS long. So yeah, it's gonna be fun to say the least.

Now, I have edited all tiers on my Patreon page. Steel Sword members are now officially funding this podcast. Silver Sword members are funding it too but also have access to Erick Landon Uncensored (my private podcast that I started last year). But there's a brand new tier called Platinum Sword; in this one, you are greatly funding both podcasts but there's two extra benefits: you will get access to the video-podcast before it is posted on YouTube and you will also have a special thanks mention in the podcast itself. Note: If you are already paying 10 dollars or more per month on Patreon, you don't have to do anything. You'll get access to everything in this tier automatically.

The first episode of the show is going to cover Persona 3 Reload (but actually, I'm comparing it to all previous versions so you could say it's a full review of ALL versions). It will be uploaded as soon as possible, but I think Tuesday 26th would be the ideal release date.

Here's a little FAQ I've created for this upcoming podcast.

Q: Is this the direction the channel is going to take?

A: No. This is just new content that I'll be introducing to my channel. This is NOT the direction it'll take. I will still continue to upload regular videos (reviews, top 10s, lists, etc...).

Q: How often will this podcast be?

A: Unfortunately, I don't have a straight answer for this because this is going to be the first episode and I need to see how much funding it gets on Patreon, and how many views and revenue it gets on YouTube. The podcast is going to be public, after all, and I need to see how it does before I can commit to making a certain number of them per month. HOWEVER, I am dedicated to making at least ONE per month. I will commit to TWO per month if it does well. But I couldn't do more than 2 per month because then it would actually feel as if that is the direction my channel would take. I still want to make regular videos, so doing more than 2 episodes sounds crazy right now.

Q: Why do you need funding for this?

A: Obviously these episodes are not going to get much revenue, or even views. Hell, some might even be shadow-banned. There will be a bit of swearing, after all. And in this pilot episode, I'll be criticizing the censorship Persona 3 Reload had so... yeah, you see where I'm going. You also have to consider several things: one, the previous post I made in this blog (you've probably already read it). Two: the length of every episode. I know there are many YouTube videos and deep analyses of games with hundreds of thousands of views, but I highly doubt my podcast is going to be one of those. Which leads me to three: it's a podcast; it WILL have gameplay footage and work as a video but let's face it, most people are only going to listen to it, not watch it. So in conclusion, there's barely going to be any revenue from this. Which is why I'm asking for funding on Patreon.

Q: Why a podcast and not a full regular video?

A: It works better as a podcast (unscripted) since it's meant to be a 1-2 hour long experience. HOWEVER, I will add some gameplay footage, screenshots and wallpapers to make it watchable. But the highlight of these episodes is going to be mostly an audio-only experience. Editing a 1-2 hour long video would just take days and days of work.

*EDIT: I just finished editing the entire video and I did add a crap-ton of gameplay. I just had a lot of it already recorded so it felt like a waste not to use it. Sure, the editing is not like in my usual videos, you're gonna see entire long sequences of one recording session, be it a battle or a certain early scene, but it's there; its gameplay footage through and through, and I think that's gonna make the video just that: a video, something worth watching. Although I'd like to point out that I also added a LOT of screenshots and wallpapers for some parts. I'd say it's 70% gameplay, 30% screenshots. Of course, it's still a podcast meant to be listened to, but if someone wants to treat it as a video, it's still gonna be very entertaining to watch.*

Q: What kind of RPGs are you going to cover?

A: Popular, Classics, Mainstream, Triple A, Double A, but it also depends on how much I think I can say about any of them. Sadly, most obscure/hidden gems type of RPGs won't make the cut because there just isn't going to be a lot of interest in them. Persona 3, for example, is a very popular game and I think there'll be enough interest, relatively speaking. But say I do an episode based on, I don't know... Redemption Reapers... I'm 100% the episode would fail miserably. And not every single popular RPG or JRPG is going to have an episode. I need to leave some for my regular reviews too.

That's it for now. Hopefully you continue or start supporting me on Patreon so I can successfully launch this new content. And, if you're already a patron, hopefully you'll consider upgrading your tier if you want to fund it. If you can't financially support me, that's fine, just make sure to watch or listen to the whole video and preferably, disable your adblocker, at least for this one. 

Thanks for reading. 

The Future of Erick Landon RPG

 

Hey guys, I wanted to give you a long and important update for my channel. I've talked briefly and vaguely about it in some of my last Q&As, but I don't want to make a video about it or a community post on my channel. Doing that would probably create concern or perhaps even panic. So I think this website, while it currently doesn't have a lot of readers, is still a better place to elaborate on the future of my channel. 

You see, I've been somewhat depressed for the past several months. Since March of 2023 I started noticing some bad changes in my analytics, my revenue and my fanbase. I realized that inflation got the better of the USA economy, of which I depend since Google, a USA corporation, pays me my monthly revenue. So this hit YouTube harder than I thought and therefore revenue went down. It also went down because the US dollar came down hard, it devalued. I also noticed a ridiculous increase in gaming channels, including JRPG channels or pretty much hundreds of new Youtubers making JRPG top 10s and similar topics. This caused a massive drop in interest from viewers because now they've seen anybody can make them and therefore there's nothing special about them anymore. And that's what I want to focus this topic on.

The biggest reason for my depression was because on October of 2023, I made a video called "Top 10 Mature Rated Hidden JRPG Gems" which went viral... but only for a few days. Upon reaching 48,000 views, YouTube demonetized it. There's a video about this on my second channel if you want to look up what happened. Long story short, YouTube straight up refused to give me an explanation and nothing I could do brought back the monetization. From there, I started noticing an even bigger decrease in revenue, views and subscribers. I should've reached 100k subscribers last year but because of this incident, I got blacklisted on the website and my channel is nowadays shadow-banned. Fortunately, not that much, but most of my videos are only getting views from my usual viewers. They're barely getting recommended to new viewers, sadly.

As a result, I started trying different things to see if anything worked, but nope. Even videos like the one I did yesterday (Top 10 Best Modern JRPG Remakes So Far) which are usually the types of videos that would've gotten A LOT of views a year or two ago, was a MASSIVE failure. And that was the last straw for me. There's just no way to continue making the same content I've been doing for years anymore. The several issues I've been explaining so far have been, all at once, the cause for my current sad channel state. Being blacklisted and having to compete against hundreds of idiots that do nothing but rip-off any JRPG channel they see, has forced my hand. I need to take the channel into a different direction.

What direction, you ask? Well, I've been thinking hard about that for the past few months and I've decided on trying out different ideas for the channel.

What kind of ideas? They'll mostly be surprises, I don't want to spoil anything but I don't want to get you excited either. It's just something that's gonna happen in my channel pretty soon and you're just gonna have to wait and see. If you like it, that's great, if you don't, that's okay, not everybody likes change.

Will I still cover JRPGs? Of course! I wouldn't have this audience if I didn't cover JRPGs. I start covering other genres or topics and my YouTube career would be over. So of course the channel is still going to be RPG focused. But I've learned my lesson the hard way on certain things. It's now crystal clear to me that certain RPGs, or certain topics, or video ideas, are of no interest to most of you, sadly. Which is another reason why I need to reinvent myself.

Will I still do Top 10s and reviews? Reviews yes, for sure. In fact, one of the things I want to focus on is actually better reviews; I need to improve the quality and the scripting, but I also feel I need to cover only the games I am legitimately interested in. Top 10s, however, have been decreasing since last year on my channel and this one will be no exception. They will still be there, don't worry. But I think it's about time I got rid of certain topics that are considered as generic, or that everybody and their mom are doing nowadays. I feel that my Top 10s need to start being more original, more specific and more thematic than ever. Also to avoid repeating myself and covering the same JRPGs over and over again, which is also a big problem in my channel. 

Will livestreams (let's plays and Q&As) continue? Yes, they will. Though I believe the Q&As are gonna have to evolve into something more interesting, entertaining and unique. But yeah, I'll keep playing games live and appear on camera to answer your damn questions every Sunday. Things might change in those departments but I've yet to figure out the best course of action. 

I think that covers most doubts, but of course feel free to show up anywhere you want to to ask more if there's anything you didn't quite get. 

That's all I wanted to say, just basically give you a heads up that I will be taking the channel into a slightly different direction, and that the content might change to something less stressful for me. One of the major reasons why I got depressed was because I kept expecting certain videos to succeed, only to see them fail miserably. The last Super Obscure RPG Gems video was also a HUGE failure and it broke my fucking heart. So I think creating content that makes me remove that fear, and those expectations, whether it succeeds or not, is the best course of action right now. I'm basically trying to say that I'm going to be true to myself more often and only create the content that I really and genuinely want to create. 

Thanks for reading and take care. 

100,000 Subscribers on YouTube

 

I just wanted to post here this, something that happened a couple of days ago. I finally reached that milestone and I'm happy to share the news. I can't believe it's been so long since I started uploading content on YouTube. I'm actually on my way this very same year of celebrating my 15th anniversary on the website. But as a content creator, a gaming channel dedicated to RPGs in general, it'll be only 10 years. Regardless, it took me over a decade to reach this number: 100,000 subscribers. 

Thanks a lot to everyone who has remained subscribed throughout the years. I certainly wouldn't be here without you. 

Rest in peace, Akira Toriyama...

The man who created the anime series millions of people grew up with. Dragon Ball is one of the most popular cartoons of all time, and Goku is one of the most recognizable characters world-wide. He was always the artist of every Dragon Quest game. And, of course, the artist of the beloved Chrono Trigger. The last game he worked on was Sand Land, an upcoming action RPG based on his own book. It's devastating to see that, just like Yoshitaka Murayama (creator of Suikoden/Eiyuden Chronicle, died last February) he didn't live to see his latest game. No matter what though, his legacy will live on forever. 

Super Obscure RPG Gems

This is a series I started last year (2023) where I cover games from all over the world. It's refreshing because I usually have to stick to JRPGs, especially the ones that were localized. That's always been the focus of my channel, to cover those types 90% of the time (or more). But since last year, I've been getting more and more into other regions, including the Japanese exclusives. Indies have been my second focus now. The reason why I'm doing this is because both me and my audience have grown tired of the same type of coverage throughout the years. I feel a lot of people see my channel as repetitive, covering the same 100-200 JRPGs over and over again. Especially what I call the "usual suspects". Sure, the amount of new releases help keep my channel fresh but I don't have access to some, and with the horrible politicized agenda nowadays, I've kinda lost interest in others. So I need to keep looking elsewhere to find more and more interesting RPGs to talk about. Hence why this little series was born. Here is episode 3 (I'm sure you've watched the previous 2 and you haven't, you can find them easily on YouTube):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LLNHCDf93Y

REVIVAL

 I can't believe it's been almost 5 years since I last posted here. Last one was on April 29 of 2019 when I was just celebrating my 15,000 subscribers achievement. Now I'm close to 100,000 subs, I can't believe it.

Honestly, the reason why this blog died is because back then very few people cared about it. I barely had any readers and I just didn't see the point in continuing with it. Also, it just felt unnecessary; a place to write what I could also write on YouTube, Patreon and other websites. Now, however, I have no social media at all. About a year and a half I started closing all my accounts at Facebook, Twitter and Discord. Never cared for other social media. I'll do a post some other time on why I quit. The point is... while I don't regret my decision of quitting, I do believe I need some form of writing blog that's not part of those websites. I need a place to write whatever I want publicly. I can do that on my podcast at Patreon, but that's a recorded spoken podcast, I need to write. I can write posts too there but I charge people for reading, so I need a public, completely free place. I also don't want to do it on YouTube cause I use the community section to promote my videos. So I'm left with one choice and this seems like a good place to do that. After all, it's been here for several years, ever since I was living in England trying to promote my books. I've come a long way.

So what can you expect from this blog? Well, it's still owned by the ultra politicized Google, so writing freely against any sort of politics could get me shadow-banned. Fortunately though, this blog isn't what I do for a living and, just like with my second YouTube channel, I don't care that much if they decide to hide me from search results or if they don't want to promote my posts. Therefore, I'm going to write whatever the fuck I want. But really, what can you expect besides my usual free speech? Well, I'll be using this blog to promote my videos, of course, but also to write about things that don't merit a video, or topics that I don't mind writing in public about. Every now and then I'll share some background about my videos, or about my YouTube career or even my writing career. So take this blog as extra content, but in the form of writing. 

So let's celebrate the revival of this long-forgotten blog. Pretty much my official website now. Hopefully, you'll find something of interest to read about in the future. Meanwhile feel free to delve into the past with any of the previous posts that I've done here. 

Thanks a lot for reading, and thanks for the support! 

15,000 SUBSCRIBERS!!!

Hello, everyone.

Today, I reached 15k subscribers on my YouTube channel. That made me so happy. I just want to say thank you to everyone who has been watching my videos, reading my books and, of course, following this blog. Without your support, I wouldn't have made it this far and Erick Landon RPG would certainly not exist today. So thank you once again. Here's an old bad-quality video to commemorate the occasion; it's from when I was starting to make videos in English about RPGs. I can't believe what I said at the end of the video with the honorable mention, hahaha. Enjoy!

STREAMING ANNOUNCEMENT

HELLO, EVERYONE.

I'm here with a BIG announcement to make! I'll be streaming my first RPG, LIVE, on YOUTUBE. This will take place on Friday 18, at 4 p.m. CENTRAL TIME.

Things to notice (PLEASE READ):

I will only be able to do this whenever I can, so no schedule for future livestreams of that game, for now. I'm very sorry for this, but I live with my parents and our neighborhood is a little noisy at times (including dogs barking frequently in the afternoons), besides I have two jobs, something you already know. So I can't comply with a schedule or promise any hour/day in particular. If you're lucky, you might attend the livestreams, if you don't, you can still watch them later at any time you want. Sorry again about this but that's the best I can do right now.

Second, I will be accepting donations for the channel. You can donate any quantity you want right below the chat section in YouTube. If you don't know how, feel free to ask other users or even me. Donations will be used to improve my equipment (new laptop, new camera, etc...) eventually. They're also a great motivation for me to keep streaming RPGs.

PLEASE help this channel grow with this!

First game is going to be a surprise and I'll try my best to beat it all the way till the end!

Thanks for reading. See you then on the livestream!

SEE YOU IN 2019

HELLO EVERYONE.

2018 is almost OVER so I thought I'd come here to write a little farewell to everybody who's been reading this blog over the past few months or years.

It's been a GREAT year for me, my little breakthrough in YouTube not only helped me grow as a creator, but also as a writer. I am very proud to say that this is currently my day job (or rather my part-time job) now, and I hope very soon I can make it as my full-time job. Regardless, I'm just happy this year seems like it's going to end pretty good and I wanted to say to everyone who has been following this blog: THANK YOU! Without you, this blog would be dead! So writing stuff here every once in a while and keeping you updated is something I enjoy doing as much as I hope you enjoy reading it.

Anyway, that's it. I'll be going on a little vacation starting today and I'll be back until January 1st, which is tuesday, probably with a new video!

Remember that the marathon is over so starting next week, I'll be back to normal with videos every tuesday, friday and sunday. Said marathon, December Madness, was AWESOME. I hope you guys enjoyed it, and it's all thanks to you that it went through with no issues whatsoever. So, again, thank you very much for that.

That's that.

THANKS!
SEE YOU NEXT TIME!

DECEMBER MADNESS

HEY GUYS, WHAT'S UP?

I just wanted to let you know that, starting tomorrow (december 1st), I will be starting a marathon called December Madness, meaning I will be uploading ONE video EVERY SINGLE DAY until Christmas. Then, I'll take a break from YouTube and return until January 1st, 2019.

There's really no other reason for this than to share more with you guys. Of course, not all videos are going to be well produced and edited Top 10s or well investigated What the Hell Happened to, but I'll try my best to create cool stuff involving RPGs and all.

So what kind of videos will I make? That's a surprise and you're gonna' have to wait and see!

That's all for now, I hope you enjoy this marathon!

THANKS!

HIDDEN GEMS OR MOST UNKNOWN?!

Hey, guys.

Ever since I got my PS Vita, I've been literally playing JRPG after JRPG on it, sometimes 4-5 at the same time, deciding which ones are worth as hidden gems or just pretty much unknown. I've also been playing some mainstream titles latley; I'm about to finish Tales of Hearts and I think I'm going to move on to YS VIII Lacrimosa of Dana after that.

Anyway, the point is that I am not so sure about the PS Vita with its JRPG library because most of its unknown/not mainstream RPGs are just dungeon crawlers in first person with absurd quantities of fan service, most of them exploiting lolis, and others are just plain mediocre. I didn't know this when I first got the Vita, of course, but I remember I stood up for its library when I made the video about the Vita vs the 3DS, saying that the Vita had a much more solid catalogue of JRPGs. Now I'm not so sure.

There are a lot of great titles, yes, most of them being mainstream like the YS games (not THAT mainstream, of course) or Tales of, or Muramasa, Trails of Cold Steel, Atelier or Final Fantasy, etc... But the truth is that there's a lot of shovel ware when it comes to JRPGs in this system. I can't believe it. However, I have managed to save a bunch of decent, kind of unknown titles for the next hidden gems video, although some of them are just not convincing me enough.

I had planned for this video to be released the last tuesday of November, which is due next week. But lately I've been dealing with these doubts about some of the games I had chosen as candidates for the Vita. I gathered 13 titles but some are just not good enough to be called hidden gems. But hey, I've included other titles in the past, in other consoles, that I now kind of regret, however there must be some people out there who will truly enjoy them and probably would never have found out about them if it wasn't for my videos. So including games that don't have me 100% convinced might not be such a bad idea, although I'd prefer to get my picks straight.

Both hidden gems and most unknown videos will happen for this console, the question is which one will be next tuesday?

Join my Patreon community to participate in the poll, which will be available until Sunday 24.
CLICK HERE TO JOIN: https://www.patreon.com/ericklandon

HALLOWEEN SPECIAL

HAPPY HALLOWEEN, EVERYBODY!!!

Here's a special video I made for you all to celebrate the occasion. Don't forget there's yet ANOTHER one coming up for next friday!!

Also, my books have a discount and will keep it for the entire week, especially The Reaper's Thorn! Check out the Amazon link for it, right HERE: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07HBZYN3F

SEE YOU NEXT TIME.

1ST ANNIVERSARY PLAYLIST!!!

Hey, guys. Today it's my first anniversary in YouTube as Erick Landon RPG. My channel has been around since 2007 but it has had other names, there's a video I made called "the history of this channel" if you want to watch it for the entire background. But on September 29, 2017, I uploaded my first video in English. So today it technically is my 1st anniversay since I started taking this channel seriously in a more, let's say, "professional" way. Here is a playlist that I created to celebrate it, which includes 10 fine selections, some of them being my favourite videos and some being just plain funny. Enjoy!


CLICK HERE: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLyqqf05_GMTabRw0dnusLmJWdfUjqMwqG

THE REAPER'S THORN IS OUT!!!

You can now purchase The Reaper's Thorn on Amazon!!! :D :D

LINKS:
Printed edition/physical copy:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1720248567
Digital edition/e-book:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07HBZYN3F
Become my patron NOW get other books for FREE:
https://www.patreon.com/ericklandon

THE REAPER'S THORN -RELEASE DATE-

Hey, all. The cover of my new book is almost ready. All editing process has been done, so the book is just around the corner. On September 16, it will be published. Available on Amazon!

You'll be able to purchase it on a physical or digital format on amazon.com. A printed version in Mexico will be available on Mercado Libre until October.

Here is a video with a more detailed explanation:

DON'T FORGET: SEPTEMBER 16, SUNDAY!!

THANK YOU!!

FOUND AN ARTIST!!!

Of course I had to come here and write about this excellent news! I had lost contact with the artist who drew for me one of my covers almost three years ago. I decided to search for him and offer the possibility of working together again for The Reaper's Thorn. It was a good decision. He agreed and now we're working on its cover!!

This is the cover he first drew for me (all rights reserved):

Oh yeah, he's THAT talented, so imagine what The Reaper's Thorn cover will look like. I love his style and his work so I'm glad he and I are working together again. So it won't be long before my new book is published, ready for you to read it! This was just a quick news and I obviously wanted to share them with you.

Thanks!

THE REAPER'S THORN UPDATE

It's been a while since I last posted anything here, but the truth is that I've been busy with the channel, and also STILL looking for an artist for the cover.
Sad news is, I haven't found one. All the people that I've seen in Deviantart, or personally contacted me on Facebook or YouTube, have all amazing artwork. Problems are... the ones with decent prices, are very, very talented but their style is not what I'm looking for. And the ones I'm looking for are very, very expensive (or perhaps I should say "way out of my economical possibilities" instead).

The book is ready. It has been ready for a while now, but all that's keeping me from publishing it... is the cover. I could find a very cool free wallpaper and an awesome font that might look victorian/gothic, I know I can do this (did it with another book a long time ago), but would it really help me sell the book? If I was a little famous, internationally, sure; my sole name would sell. But I am not. I may be slightly famous in my city, in Mexico, but outside my country? Not one bit. I think the guy who lives next to you is more famous than me. But fame is not the issue; covers sell, they help a lot to catch people's attention. And I know you guys have my back; I know a lot of you will actually buy it regardless of the cover, since you want to support me, because you already read one or two of my books or simply because you want to help me. I GREATLY appreciate this, I seriously do and you know that. Thank you very much for that. But what about the rest of the world? They don't know me or my channel, so how am I going to make the book visually appealling to them if it doesn't have a great cover?

Now, I have no problems with humble covers either. Like I said, I did it once with a free wallpaper and a free font, which is this:

And it was successful; it caught A LOT of people's attention because it really looks cool. But how much does it tell you? Would you know what kind of book it is just by looking at that?
I've got a few ideas, of course, about fonts and wallpapers, but I'd really like to see a cool anime cover with gothic/victorian style all over it. I know it's gonna cost me a lot of money, but I just hope it doesn't surpass my possibilities. Am I asking for too much? I know I am. However, I'm running out of time. The book has been more than ready, pretty much since this year started. I recently changed some stuff and edited it a little bit, but that was over a month ago (before I made the video on my YouTube channel). I would love to have the book ready as soon as possible. If I had a cover ready I would publish it right now, but I know that's not possible if I really want a great cover for it.

Will having the book ready for Halloween be ideal, considering it's a horror/dark fantasy novel? I guess, but artists usually take 2-3 weeks, or an entire month, to create my covers... so yep... I'm running out of time.

Again, if you're an artist, with dark/gothic style, even if it's not anime/manga oriented, CONTACT me. It's pretty much urgent. I want to have this sorted out by the end of this month (august). Or if you know someone, please do so as well. I will keep you updated.

Thank you for reading me.
See you next time!