A Guide to Japanese Role-Playing Games and Go Straight: Bitmap Books delivers once again

Bitmap Books should be familiar to some of you here. Bitmap Books has made a name for itself with various excellent quality gaming books in the past. And there are no signs of stopping in the future. Two of the new books by Bitmap Books prove this again: A Guide to Japanese Role-Playing Games and Go Straight: The Ultimate Guide to Side-Scrolling Beat-‘Em-Ups. After it used to be about specific systems (NES, SNES and others) or individual game series (Metal Slug), this time individual genres are coming into focus.

A Guide to Japanese Role-Playing Games

Having already covered many role-playing games, especially western ones, with The CRPG Book: A Guide to Computer Role-Playing Games, A Guide to Japanese Role-Playing Games concentrates solely on the Japanese market, as the name suggests. The result is an enormously extensive reference work with a total of 652 pages, which not only fans of JRPGs, but anyone interested can immerse themselves in.

Nowadays, JRPGs have long conquered markets worldwide, just think of Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, Megami Tensei, Pokémon and many, many others. In fact, at 652 pages, it’s Bitmap Books’ longest book to date, and another book in my collection of gaming books that could punch people with its weight – but only marginally. What I want to say: It’s not a lightweight. This is also reflected in the quality, which is once again top notch. High quality pages, flawless printing plus hardcover. Exactly what you expect and are used to from Bitmap Books.

First of all, the book gives you a little introduction to the genre of JRPGs, you learn more about their history. In individual sections, localization, soundtracks, Japanese role-playing games for PCs and other more general things are also discussed. Then it’s down to business. The Falcom, Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, Shin Megami Tensei, and Persona games are each divided into larger sections. Other franchises follow, as well as specific subgenres like action RPGs, strategy RPGs, first-person dungeon crawlers, roguelikes, monster-collection RPGs, and more.

When it comes to individual games, these are dealt with on half a page, one page or two, depending on the title. You will learn interesting facts about the respective game and also get pictures that show what is shown to advantage due to the print quality.

A Guide to Japanese Role-Playing Games at Bitmap Books.

Go Straight: The Ultimate Guide to Side-Scrolling Beat-‘Em-Ups

Much of what I wrote about A Guide to Japanese Role-Playing Games applies equally to Go Straight: The Ultimate Guide to Side-Scrolling Beat-‘Em-Ups. As the name suggests, this is about sidescrollers and beat ’em ups instead of JRPGs. At 456 pages, it’s a fair bit shorter than Bitmap Books’ JRPG reference book, but no less heavy.

And not bad quality either. The same printing and processing quality also comes into its own here. Double Dragon creator Yoshihisa Kishimoto provides the foreword to the book, which covers a total of more than 200 games spanning 37 years. From Kung-Fu Master to Streets of Rage 4, learn everything you need to know about the genre.

Of course, including an explanation of what exactly a beat ’em up actually is. The individual games are in turn divided into individual chapters that cover the respective decades, i.e. titles from 1990 to 1999, from 2010 to 2019 and so on. Here, too, at least half a page is dedicated to the games, depending on the title, but mostly there are one or two pages per game with informative text and pictures that illustrate everything well and clearly.

Aside from these small reviews, there are also hints, tips and guides for individual levels and enemies. From screenshots to sprites and entire levels you get to see a lot. What is particularly striking is the large number of foldable pages that show you artwork, characters and other things.

I’m not sure if it really needed that. Depending on where and how you’re reading, turning the pages can be a bit annoying when the fold-out pages slip a little out of place. Ultimately, that’s just a small flaw and might not bother you at all – it’s all subjective.

At the same time, it does not significantly reduce the overall impression. Also, Go Straight: The Ultimate Guide to Side-Scrolling Beat-‘Em-Ups is a great, well-crafted reference for fans, giving you a comprehensive overview of the genre and the games that make it up.

Go Straight: The Ultimate Guide to Side-Scrolling Beat-‘Em-Ups at Bitmap Books.

An easy conclusion

Ultimately, I can only recommend the two books to you if you are interested in the respective genre or would like to learn more about it. You get a superb overview of the genre and its games. And all this in the excellent quality you are used to from Bitmap Books. I found the many fold-out pages in Go Straight to be slightly annoying for my taste, but this is tolerable if the content is correct. And he does it in both cases.