Cricket: Jae’s Really Peculiar Game
Cricket: Jae’s Really Peculiar Game is a funny and heartwarming hand animated JRPG from Studio Kumiho.
After a devastating loss, Jae would do anything to fix the past. Blast off on that quest with your newfound friends on a journey to the gates of Yimmelia, a fabled land on the moon that’s rumored to grant any wish.
This JRPG draws on ideas from genre classics, but with varied new gameplay twists. You’ll explore forests, cities, rock concerts and more, with traversal that is always fun and dynamic; there are no random encounters, while you can dash and charge into objects (and people!) for unique results. How you interact with people will influence game events and combat.
Combat incorporates timed hits, with special combinations as you team up with amazing party members. Build the meter, attack and defend, while unleashing awesome combos for better rewards!
Game Features
Traverse forests, explore cities, ruin a rock concert, and crash a fandom convention, all while throwing your JRPG expectations out the window. Experience a modernized take on the genre: no random encounters, a sprint feature, headbutting, and no grinding!
Recruit and travel with five new friends, customize your battle experience with six playable characters, and time your attacks to build your meter, ultimately unleashing powerful duo and trio attacks! The better you do in combat, the better the rewards you receive at the end: more XP, more items, more money!
Freely interact with NPCs during conversations: stand there and listen to them gab, throw items at them, or just walk away. But remember your actions have consequences—how you treat people in this world affects combat.
Consult with your party members about your surroundings, how to beat enemies, or just to check in on your pals. Experience wacky and irreverent conversations and scenarios. You never know what’ll happen next!
Full, all-new OST composed by Shane Mesa and Tomoya Tomita.
Elemelons.
Game Discussion
Steam User 2
I enjoyed this one. First off, note that the JRPG elements are mostly set dressing and cool animations, the combat is very simple. There's status effects and combo moves and gear but what 99% of combats boil down to is using your best move and/or something that inflicts Skip Turn which is a busted status. The game is 100% linear with practically no side content to speak of. It would be more accurate to call this a VN-lite or experiential story. But it is a very well-written and charming one. If you purely want JRPG combat and exploration, skip this one, but if you enjoy character-driven story with a little gamified flavor, this is a great pickup.
This game is entirely carried by its writing (and to a lesser extent its art and music, both of which are incredible). The game captures the vibe of a ragtag group of kids traveling around their locale on an idealistic fantasy adventure (compare to Earthbound or Omori). At the start, the world is quite grounded in reality minus the quirky JRPG wildlife, but it quickly goes off the rails and it becomes clear that the setting weaves classic fantasy with a pastiche Eagleland.
The plot is driven by a slowly growing group of friends all journeying to a place that will magically grant their wishes to overcome their individual struggles. Of these, I think Symphony is my favorite character personality- and design-wise while Twila and Zack have the best-realized story arcs. Both in and out of the party, the dialogue feels realistic, witty, and full of personality. Text features are also used to great effect, with speech bubbles overlapping one another to add a sense of punctuated timing and different sizes and colors of dialogue for dynamism.
The story overall was incredible; each dungeon carries a sense of childlike wonder and adventure. The two things I wish were better-paced were Acacia's entire arc being speedrun over just a couple of dungeons and then cut short by deus ex machina, and then abruptly picked up later by a different deus ex machina to be resolved, instead of being resolved on the spot earlier, and the hand-wave of the many unresolved questions caused by the sudden and complete resolution to the final boss, which could have been addressed with a longer ending sequence and/or epilogue.
Good emotional story game for a rainy weekend.
Steam User 1
This is a wonderful game. I'm so glad it got gifted to me. I have a long ways to go, but as an avid fan of Mother 2 (aka Earthbound) and Mother 3, this game is an absolute must play. Bravo to Studio Kumiho - this game deserves far more notice than it gets.
Steam User 2
The game and story are very grounded.
I won’t spoil anything, but most players will relate to the issues this game explores. It’s honest, emotional, and manages to mix that with humour in a way that feels genuine. It reminded me straight away of the South Park games – both in tone and basic mechanics.
Gameplay is fun. Hiding spots reward you with better gear, but do get repetitive. Combat works, though it could be more dynamic.
I ran into a few issues:
Two random crashes, usually after the game stops responding to my gamepad inputs.
UI and settings feel unpolished:
On launch, you’re asked to press any button, then shown three save slots where you can load or continue.
The Options menu is extremely limited – no fullscreen windowed or borderless modes, and no proper exit option (you have to Alt+F4 the game).
The resolution setting doesn’t actually change anything. I tried selecting different resolutions, but the game stayed the same.
Textures are blurry on QHD, especially in fullscreen. Clearly designed with 1080p in mind, which makes it feel a bit off on higher-res displays.
Even though you can play with keyboard and mouse, I found the gamepad surprisingly more intuitive — and I almost never prefer gamepads, so that says something.
This feels like a game with great heart and potential, but it's missing polish and attention to detail. The issues I mentioned would have been obvious with proper playtesting. Unless this free version is meant as a public test, the current state makes it feel unfinished.
That said — there's definitely something here. With more polish, this could easily become a little gem.