I really enjoyed the brief time in which I was able to produce the Daily Classics series for USgamer this past spring, but they tend to be fairly time-consuming and once I switched roles to editor-in-chief I ceased to have that particular luxury — time, I mean. And self-indulgence. But I decided to bring the series back for one final engagement — OK, maybe not final, but the last for a while. The fall release season is about to kick off, so we’re going to have lots to write about that isn’t old.

This time around, I decided to tackle the role-playing genre. As ever, the premise of Daily Classics is to look at games celebrating an anniversary in the multiples of five this year and try linking them together in some way. In this case, that meant touching on 1984’s The Black Onyx, a game by a Dutch designer based on a Canadian RPG made specifically for Japan, then following up by jumping ahead five years to see how Western and Japanese RPG designs had diverged. Though as always, I do try not to force the connection.

Anyway, they turned out pretty well and I hope you’ll read them and stuff. The end.

• The Black Onyx, Japan’s Role-Playing Game Missionary
• Curse of the Azure Bonds, the Alternate Reality Final Fantasy XIII
• Drakkhen, an Ambitious Collision Between West and East
• 25 Years Ago, Mother Skewered JRPGs, and America
• The Final Fantasy Legend, Portable Gaming’s Esoteric Start