This is a column by Kat Bailey dedicated to the analysis of the once beloved Japanese RPG sub-genre. Tune in every Wednesday for thoughts on white-haired villains, giant robots, Infinity+1 swords, and everything else the wonderful world of JRPGs has to offer.
It's always around July or so that I'm most nervous about an RPG's potential for release in the U.S. With the overwhelming majority of Japanese-developed RPGs getting spring releases, official announcements usually don't happen until late in the fall. Until then, I'm left to stew, fingers crossed that everything will work out.

Some franchises I don't worry about. Short of some kind of catastrophic technical problem, Shin Megami Tensei is pretty much a shoe-in for release. Same goes for Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy (Type-0 being an unfortunate exception). Even Ys seems like a good bet these days thanks to the ongoing support of XSEED.

If it's new, obscure, or otherwise untested in the market though, I find myself getting nervous. Even certain major franchises aren't a sure bet anymore, especially when they are PSP releases. So I watch, wait and hope for good news. Here are four RPGs I've been watching closely over the past year, and what I think the odds are they will see a release stateside.