Steam's latest mega-sale celebrates Japan's Golden Week, with several of the big Japanese publishers participating.
I somehow missed this until today because the individual sale pages are hidden behind obscure banners, but there are a ton of great deals to be had until May 8. Square Enix (opens in new tab), NIS America (opens in new tab), Bandai Namco (opens in new tab), Koei Tecmo (opens in new tab), Spike Chunsoft (opens in new tab), Sega (opens in new tab), and Capcom (opens in new tab) have a lot of games on sale, and I've pulled out 18 that really stood out to me and my coworkers.
- Bravely Default 2 - 50% off at $29.99 (opens in new tab): One of the best JRPGs to come out in the last few years, and the only perfect score that I've personally assigned in the last five years – check out our Bravely Default 2 review for more details.
- Persona 5 Royal - 35% off at $38.99 (opens in new tab): A better version of arguably the best JRPG you can play today.
- Dragon Quest 11 S - 35% off at $25.99 (opens in new tab): One of the few games that can actually rival the above lineup in the battle for greatest JRPG. A classic polished to a mirror shine.
- Scarlet Nexus - 75% off at $14.99 (opens in new tab): Great combat, bleak but beautiful world, weak side content – the perfect $15 game.
- The Yakuza Collection - 75% off at $35.00 (opens in new tab): Get a curb-stomping, bike-throwing, pile-driving seven Yakuza games for an average of $5 each, and prepare to play nothing else for about 1,000 hours.
- Atelier Trilogies - 51% off at $58.48: I don't know exactly why, but these crafting RPGs almost never go on sale, so getting half-off on the Mysterious Trilogy (opens in new tab), Arland Trilogy (opens in new tab), or Dusk Trilogy (opens in new tab) is a rare and solid deal. Pick your favorite bundle and get three (long) games for the price of a new one.
- Zero Escape: The Nonary Games - 70% off at $8.99 (opens in new tab): The one-two punch of Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors and Virtue's Last Reward hides one of the best puzzle games in one of the best visual novels.
- Danganronpa 1 + 2 - 64% off at $14.38 (opens in new tab): Another unforgettable visual novel wombo-combo, this time with competitive murdering.
- Nier Replicant - 60% off at $23.99 (opens in new tab): A hefty discount on the modernized remake of the open-world RPG that started it all, sort of, if you don't read the Deep Nier Lore, and I can't recommend you do without doctor approval. (Nier: Automata is 50% off (opens in new tab) too.)
- Chrono Trigger - 50% off at $7.49 (opens in new tab): About as close to required reading as JRPGs can get.
- A whole lot of Final Fantasy - 50% off: Square has 14 of these things on sale and they're averaging 50% off. Knowingly chucking a live grenade onto the floor of a debate hall, I asked the GR team to pick their favorites in an extremely calm and reasonable manner, and we collectively recommended basically all of them, but especially 10 (opens in new tab), 12 (opens in new tab), 15 (opens in new tab), and 7 Remake (opens in new tab).
- Disgaea 5 Complete - 75% off at $9.99 (opens in new tab): Spend upwards of 100 hours breaking an impossibly dense strategy game that was explicitly designed to be broken.
- Ys 8: Lacrimosa of Dana - 55% off at $17.99 (opens in new tab): Just a gold-standard, utterly classical, charmingly retro action JRPG.
- The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel - 50% off at $19.99 (opens in new tab): The first in a four-part series of more modern, turn-based JRPGs (all on sale) that require a high tolerance for anime high schoolers but deliver slick combat.
- Triangle Strategy - 50% off at $29.99 (opens in new tab): Remember that beautiful strategy game with the awful name and threadbare marketing? It's really good!
- Resident Evil 7 & Village Gold Editions - 50% off at $39.99 (opens in new tab): Get all the bells and whistles for the two latest mainline Resident Evil games, which are both great in their own right.
- Devil May Cry 5 - 67% off at $9.89 (opens in new tab): One of the defining character action games of our time.
- Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy - 50% off at $14.99 (opens in new tab): The lawyer-turned-detective visual novel that's so good the world finally bullied Capcom into putting it on PC.
For the next big JRPG on the calendar, here's everything you need to know about Final Fantasy 16.
