5 Japanese March 2024 games to pay attention to

2024 hasn’t exactly been quiet for Japanese game releases, with February being packed with lengthy JRPGs and fighting games. But things aren’t slowing down in March, with another huge selection of games almost ready for players to enjoy. With that in mind, here are 5 Japanese March 2024 games that you should pay attention to.

Unicorn Overlord

Vanillaware have always made beautiful games, and the console exclusive Unicorn Overlord is no exception. Offering the detailed character sprites you expect from the developer (along with lots of food), Unicorn Overlord seems them tackling the strategy genre once again.

As they already did with 13 Sentinels, Unicorn Overlord once again puts its own spin on tactics RPGs. You’ll build up parties of soldiers, giving them orders selecting strategies. But when battles start, you have no direct control over each unit, relying on their orders to see them through to victory.

It’s an interesting game that could potentially appeal to Fire Emblem fans, though there are more than enough differences to make it stand out from Nintendo’s franchise. There’s even a hefty demo that lets you try out the opening hours of the game.

Dragon’s Dogma 2

This is one I’ve been personally looking forward to for a while. The original Dragon’s Dogma is a favourite of mine, with the PC version (and later ports) fixing up many of the game’s technical issues. However, even I could see that many aspects of the game were rushed.

That’s where Dragon’s Dogma 2 comes in, attempting to fully realise director Hideaki Itsuno’s original vision. Everything has been expanded upon, from the world (which is now much larger), to the AI Pawn system that now has much more variety.

Of course, the star of Dragon’s Dogma was often its large boss fights, and the sequel aims to go even further with these. Some of the footage that has been shared depicts battles against a large statue-like foe, which you must climb on to reach its weakpoints — it almost looked like Shadow of the Colossus at times.

Rise of the Ronin

Team Ninja has been incredibly consistent in recent years (ignoring Dead or Alive 6 anyway), releasing hit after hit. Rise of the Ronin sees them teaming up with Sony to deliver something a bit grander than their stage-based games of the past, bringing a fully open world with multiple playable characters.

Taking place during the Bakumatsu period of Japan, you’ll be able to make use of a variety of weapons. Naturally due to the time period, this includes a few guns on top of melee weapons like katanas and spears.

While it remains to be seen whether the fast-paced gameplay Team Ninja is known for translates to an open world, I’m definitely looking forward to giving it a try.

Princess Peach: Showtime!

Princess Peach has always been underutilised by Nintendo, generally only appearing as a playable character in the various sports game spin-offs. Princess Peach: Showtime! aims to bring her to the forefront, through breezy costume-based platforming.

Honestly, the main reason this interests me is that it’s likely going to be much shorter than the other games on this list. While I’m down to play lots of lengthy RPGs, it’s always nice to kick back with a simple platformer every now and then.

Princess Peach: Showtime! mixes in some costume abilities, with Peach adopting a number of different outfits for each stage. Since they’re stage-specific there isn’t much room for player expression like with mainline Mario games, but it still looks like a fun time.

The Legend of Legacy HD Remastered

The Legend of Legacy was one of the 3DS’s most overlooked RPGs, and this HD Remaster likely wont do much to change things. Releasing on the same day as three other titles in this list (March 22), The Legend of Legacy HD Remastered sees you controlling seven characters throughout the island of Avalon.

Following in the footsteps of the SaGa series, there’s a lot of freedom given to the player. You have the option to tackle story events in any order, while also choosing which weapons your party will use during battles. Like with SaGa, stat gains and ability unlocks are also tied to what you use in battle, rather than a typical XP system.

The original Legend of Legacy wasn’t exactly the finest RPG the 3DS had to offer, but its novel ideas and charming pop-up book artstyle did enough to distance itself from its peers. While the release timing likely wont help the game reach a much bigger audience, it’s still nice to see The Legend of Legacy on more modern platforms.

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And those are 5 Japanese March 2024 games that you should try and check out (even if a lot are releasing during the same day… at the very least, it’s safe to say my backlog is going to increase even more during the coming month!

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