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Acquire your taste for the jRPG.

It’s the second edition of our brand new promo format, the Weekly Staff Picks. This time around we’ve decided to highlight a pretty new, but extremely welcome, addition to the GOG.com catalogue: jRPGs. They say the genre is an acquired taste, and it looks like many of the GOG staff have it - well now it’s your turn with our Japanese Roleplay. Three noteworthy titles of the Japanese persuasion will be discounted up to 75% in this fantastic deal lasting until Thursday, January 15, at 10:59AM GMT.

Agarest: Generations of War - Collector’s Edition, also known as Record of Agarest War, is an absolutely unique storytelling concept in games: the story of Agarest spans a lengthy five generations of protagonists. The game’s Soul Breed system gives you the opportunity to influence each future generation of fighters as your offspring inherits the best of what you, and the partner of your choice, have to offer. There is no better time to check out this outstanding game than now, for a whopping 75% off.

Though Japanese in spirit only, Pier Solar and the Great Architects is quite literally a modern classic and currently available 50% off. Originally developed for the Sega Genesis, you’d think it was the oldest of our three promo titles. In reality, the game was released in 2010 on the long forgotten system and successful enough that it was eventually ported (and remastered) to nearly every modern gaming platform you can think of, including Windows, Mac and Linux. Pier Solar and the Great Architects is still an oldie at heart, and with the HD remake available on GOG.com you can even pick between a fresh new coat of paint and the original pixely goodness.

Finally The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky at a -30% discount, is one highly-rated piece of a well known RPG series which started out as early as 1989. Trails in the Sky, is just a small portion of the extensive, six chapter, Legend of Heroes saga. This one is a must-have for all jRPG fans on GOG.com.

These three unique titles are a great start for anybody looking to get into jRPGs, and must-haves for fans already among us. The Japanese Roleplay Weekly Staff Pick will last until Thursday, January 15, at 10:59AM GMT. If you missed the news last week, The Weekly Staff Picks are replacing the Monday and Wednesday Gem Promos, bringing you more discounted games each week and more time to pick your favorites.
Nice promo, too bad I'm broke. :D
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Seriously, fix your cart system GOG. Steam makes it impossible to check out if you have redundant games in your cart and warns you when you're about to buy something you already have, those should have been thing one to do when you started offering bundles along side games + DLC.
As much as I like to see a wide variety of games being promoted on GOG (as it could only increase its popularity and value as a "gaming hub"), the "J" in RPG is really not for me.
Despite being a restless fanatic of Japanese platformers, having played and loved *a lot* of eastern arcade and action titles and being a true esteemer of Japanese animation -a taste commonly connected with interest in JRPGs, it seems- I really cannot bring myself to like the genere, even if in the past I have completed many games of the kind (I guess 20+).

I have always found the combat systems too simplistic, repetitive and dull, often relying on a single, very basic but universally working tactic; considering that those games revolve around fights, it's not a suprise that I don't like them. The usually mandatory "on-rail" character developement does not help, either, and that is not considering my unsurpassed loathe for grinding, the worst time-wasting aspect of a videogame.
Also, most of the times (with several significant exceptions, like Lost Odyssey or Chrono Trigger) the fixed plot gets on my nerves, forcing me to follow the childish and nonsensical way of acting of the protagonists and mercilessly breaking any kind of immerison.
Since I struggle to see the "role-playing" aspect in them, I consider them more like "combat adventures" rather than RPGs.
high rated
As ever, I am hoping that GOG will expand the Japanese catalog. Western games are usually quite dull for me.

That said, I am reluctant to pick up Pier Solar. I already donated to the Kickstarter project and never got a reply when I asked about getting a GOG key. That makes me reluctant to further invest in the developer, considering that they failed to even acknowledge my request. If they ever had another Kickstarter, I wouldn't be interested in backing them.
Post edited January 12, 2015 by Sabin_Stargem
Yay, insta bought for Agarest........

Of course after make sure have the same the patch with Steam version. Thanks GOG
I think I'll get Pier Solar off my wishlist at last, already have the other titles. Even though it sounds like it has issues, I have a fondness for Sega Genesis JRPG titles. Will probably play it in the original game mode though, in order to retain the Genesis feel.
I now own ALL jRPGs on GOG! Love the promo :) I didn't want to buy Agarest at first because it doesn't look too promising, but at that price... Why not. Apparently, it also has the ominous DLC now that wasn't included at first.
What a pleasant surprise! I am glad to see that the GOG staff has some JRPG fans in its ranks. While I already have Trails in the Sky, I may have to add Pier Solar to my shelf. I already have Agarest on 360, but that price is tempting. We'll see.

Regardless, thanks for this promotion, GOG staffers! I hope this does well and inspires more companies to add JRPGs to the site. ^_^
I love J-RPGs. Its sad that there are so few on GOG.
Trails i own on GOG, Pier on Steam....and Agarest....no! Agarest Zero i would buy (maybe).
So again, nothing for little Schnuff *sniff*.
Hey GOG release some more games!!!! The promos should be just that: A Promo
The 5 generations concept in Agarest seems interesting but when I checked the page the reviews were quite negative.
Trails in the sky has much better reviews but it seems ( to me) a bit generic.
Any thoughts of fellow Gogers on either game would be greatly appreciated.
I have trails in the sky already but not yet played.

Agarest I was going to buy on steam during their sales recently but after reading the reviews I was put off from getting it. Basically combat isn't great and it is grindy, very very grindy though steam sells DLC to get additional points, exp, money etc to reduce that grind so it seems there is no desire by the developers to offer a less grindy game as that makes them more money. Similar thing with the prequel game they released (I noticed the same sort of DLC there).

So that puts me off Agerest, I like the concept, like the anime fan service, but don't think I'd like the gameplay.

As others have mentioned Pier Solar's HD mode from the screenshots puts me off a bit, I like the backgrounds but I think the 16bit character and monster sprites is just jarring.
I was eager for Trails in the Sky, but unfortunately it's not the right discount at this particular time.

Also, the BRL is so undervalued right now that the game is ridiculously expensive for me! So sad…

:(

EDIT: And Thanks to the Incredibly Awesome DampSquib, who took the liberty of making my Monday an Amazing Day, I now own the game. :)
Post edited January 12, 2015 by Falci
Japanese (and wannabe Japanese) games, eh? My wallet is safe, then.
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Wishbone: Japanese (and wannabe Japanese) games, eh? My wallet is safe, then.
Wow, wannabe Japanese games.
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Falci: I was eager for Trails in the Sky, but unfortunately it's not the right discount at this particular time.

Also, the BRL is so undervalued right now that the game is ridiculously expensive for me! So sad…

:(
Doesn't have any thing to do with dropping commodity prices such as iron ore does it? That is partly hitting the Australian dollar. We were on parity with the US now it costs 25% more once you put in currency conversion to buy US priced stuff.