From Dragon Quest to Final Fantasy, from Megami Tensei to Pokémon, A Guide to Japanese Role-Playing Games explores the expansive history of Japanese role-playing games (JRPGs), beginning on 8-bit microcomputers, and following them all the way up to the heavy hitters of the modern era.

As well as reviews of over 600 games, covering a wide range of sub-genres, including strategy RPGs like Fire Emblem, Rogue-likes such as Mystery Dungeon, and first-person dungeon crawlers like Etrian Odyssey, A Guide to Japanese Role-Playing Games includes articles on the genre, its music and art. Overall, the book weighs in at over 370,000 words and contains contributions from a wide selection of fans and journalists, combining to create the ultimate coffee table book on Japanese role-playing games.