JRPG Christmas comes early as Persona 3 Reload and Granblue Fantasy: Relink both break street date

Persona 3 Reload and Granblue Fantasy: Relink have broken street dates, as physical copies are in the wild a week before their proper release dates.

Over the past day, posts such as the ones below began to emerge from players who received an early copy of the games before their release dates later this month. Granblue Fantasy: Relink officially comes out on February 1, with Persona 3 Reload following just a day later on February 2.

A tad early, can’t wait! from r/PERSoNA

I got lucky and received the game early! from r/GranblueFantasyRelink

Needless to say, spoilerific details will surely be circulating around the interwebs as we inch closer to release. Though for Persona 3 Reload, which is pretty faithfully remaking a 2006 story, spoilers probably won't be too drastic. Regardless, should you want to savor the experience with fresh eyes, it's best to avoid online spaces before any potential surprises crop up. Granblue Fantasy hopefuls have less reason to be worried since the recently detailed post-launch support should continue to keep the surprises coming for a while. 

I'm now comfortable declaring that JRPG Christmas is in full swing, following the release of old-school homage Crystal Story and the absolutely mammoth Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth, a game that our review called a "sublime RPG." 

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth then hops into the party on February 29, before Dragon's Dogma 2 enters the ring on March 22. That's about five 50+ hour RPGs coming out in the span of a few weeks, which is giving me untold levels of hype anxiety. 

Will any of the contenders break into our best JRPGs ranking? We'll know soon enough.