Review Policy

At The JRPG Pursuit, we review JRPGs along with games that we consider to be in their orbit: think adventure games, visual novels, story-focused action games and the like. The game itself doesn’t necessarily have to have been made in Japan, as we believe the address of the developer is the least interesting and useful piece of information about a game. JRPG is a genre, it indicates particular traits present in a game. Feel free to disagree on the use of the term, but that’s how we use it here.

This explanation goes over how we review games, how our scoring system works, and what each score means.

We finish what we review – and if we can’t, we tell you

Every scored review on this site is written by an actual human being who played the game. Typically, this means playing until the end credits or the point at which the game’s story is complete. If there is some reason we did not or could not finish a game, we’ll let you know. We will always prefer publishing a late review to doing subpar work. If we publish a review-in-progress, we won’t provide a numerical score until we have completed the game.

How scoring works

We score on a 10-point scale, in half-point steps. We use the whole scale. A 7 is not our floor, and a 5 is not an insult, it’s the middle. Your favorite game of all time might be a 5 for one of us, and that’s okay. It’s not a bad game, it just didn’t work for us on the same level.

10 – 9.5 · Masterpiece. A landmark of the genre. Play it, full stop.
9 · Exceptional. Among the best in its class, with minor flaws that don’t matter all that much.
8 · Great. An easy recommendation for anyone who likes this kind of game.
7 · Good. Worth your time, but with real caveats worth considering.
6 · Decent. Enjoyable if the premise already appeals to you.
5 · Mixed. As much working against it as for it. Could be someone’s diamond in the rough, but you have to dig to find it.
4 · Flawed. Moments of promise buried under real problems.
3 · Poor. Hard to recommend to anyone.
2 – 0 · Avoid. Broken, cynical, or both.

The score is assigned by the reviewer, not by committee. We don’t average the hosts’ opinions into one number, and we don’t adjust scores after the fact. When other hosts have played the game, their perspectives appear as their own clearly labeled takes with their own scores alongside the main review. We may disagree from time to time, but that just serves to give you more information to make a decision.

Scores are final at publication. We don’t revise them under pressure from publishers, developers, or readers. The exception: if a game is substantially changed after release (through a major patch or re-release… think No Man’s Sky), we may publish a new, clearly dated re-review rather than editing the old one.

Where the games come from

We review games we purchased with our own money as well as games provided by publishers or PR. When a review copy was provided, we disclose that fact. Beyond providing the code, publishers get no input on the text, no preview of the score, and no guarantee of anything, let alone a positive review. We honor review embargoes; embargo timing never affects what we write.

We do not accept payment for reviews. If we ever accept payment for any content on this site (sponsorships, for example), it will be labeled unmistakably and it will never be a scored review.

Corrections

If we get a fact wrong, we’ll fix it and note the correction on the review. Opinions stay as written.

Contact

Questions about this policy, or a game you’d like us to review? Reach us at info@jrpgpursuit.com.