Once upon a time there was an HD console named the Xbox 360 and everyone in Japan hated it. Well, practically everyone, except some developers like Capcom and Square-Enix, who loved the money that making Japanese games for the American otaku would bring.

And so it came to be, in the year of our lord 2008, that the Xbox 360 saw several JRPGs announced (and re-announced) for it, at Microsoft' press conference in Japan: The Last Remnant, Infinite Undiscovery, Star Ocean 4, and Tales of Vesperia among them. IGN has a decent live-blog they ran of the event, and Joystiq also covered it.... but I gotta say, the most amusing coverage was from James Mielke's blog at 1UP.

The Last Remnant seems to have some sort of timed exclusivity deal, with the 360 version coming out first. Vesperia and Star Ocean are probably 2009 titles, but the rest of them are due in the fall of this year, so if you need some JPRG love for your 360, September is your month.

It's an interesting strategy by Microsoft, like a last-ditch attempt to woo some more Japanese gamers before the system slips under the waves forever. Or maybe these are in fact designed to appeal to western JRPG fans? Who knows, either way, the selection is great. It's weird seeing the Microsoft console get all these RPGs before the PS3; most if not all of these games will land on PS3 at some point, but obviously MS is passing the green hat around to get a jump-start on the Sony versions.

Mistwalker was strangely absent from the event.

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