Matthew Demers - 17:39 EST

HAVE YOU TAKEN a glance at the new Dragon Quest IV DS propaganda? The stuff of dreams, my friends, the stuff of dreams.

I beat Mega Man ZX on the weekend, so Etrian Odyssey is next up to bat; Valkyrie Profile 2 is coming along in the background. It's not a bad game... but as with many tri-Ace games, it hasn't really gripped me yet because of what I consider to be bumbling interaction. Those people- they always have huge ideas in mind, and big games to go with them, but they have an awful time explaining how the fuzz it works to the player. At least the story is pretty decent so far.

Some letters! Let's march.

Hey Matt,

I thought I would chime in on your wavering antipathy towards the XBox 360. I am the kind of person who despises letting a good RPG get away from me, which is kind of an expensive habit. When the XBox was around, the number of RPGs on it was very slim, and I was able to get Fable, Sudeki, KotOR 1 and 2, and Jade Empire for PC, meaning that there was NOTHING I wanted for XBox that I couldn't get somewhere else.

As we move into the next generation of systems, I have been hoping that I could play things the same way. There is no doubt that I will be getting a Wii. My wife has promised it to me as a graduation gift. (Hopefully, there will be some available by next summer.) But, as things have progressed, games that sound interesting to me on X360, such as Blue Dragon, Eternal Sonata, Mass Effect, Overlord, etc, have started coming out. Some have also come out on PC, but I think there are more X360 exclusives that I care about than there were total XBox games that I cared about.

So I will continue with my plan to get a Wii, but it won't happen for a year. Maybe by then, more X360 games will start to make their way to the PC and my problems will be alleviated, but I have a sneaking suspicion that I will be joining the X360 bandwagon in a few years.

Your thoughts?

Draconn

It's true. Unlike the previous generation, the 360 has actually managed to grab a few interesting-looking exclusive titles. That's something that the PS3 hasn't even done, with the (big) exceptions of FFXIII, possibly White Knight Story and Disgaea 3.

My feelings are so up and down on the Wii, it's not even funny. A big part of me, I think, is influenced by the stupid message board threads that go on and on tirelessly about there not being any games for the poor system besides Zelda, and that it's a lost cause.

But then, I have to remember and catch myself before falling into that trap: Yeah, there was Zelda, but it was phenomenal. But there has also been Super Paper Mario and Trauma Centre, both of which were excellent, Wii Sports and Warioware, which are just fun to play with friends, with Metroid Prime, Super Mario Galaxy, Fire Emblem: Goddess of Dawn, Dragon Quest Swords, and Super Smash Brothers Brawl out before the end of the year. That's easily more in the way of interesting titles than I could name for the 360 or the PS3, and that includes two great-looking RPGs. No, I'm really satisfied in my purchase, and I think that Nintendo's Wii has a lot of promise, despite what a bunch of pathetic adolescents have to say on the issue.

It is my hope, of course, that no matter which systems emerge, that RPGs have a strong and healthy future. I'm becoming more and more convinced, however, as I've mentioned a few times, that that strong future is a handheld one (whether people like it or not). From the looks of it, though, you probably won't be disappointed as an RPGamer if you do wind up with a 360 one day.

Thanks, Draconn!

Here are a link to a ruliweb article on the recently anounced Astonishia Story 2 for the PSP (due out in korea). The second link is the game's banner/logo.

- Brian

PS. I think the game looks beautiful

http://ruliweb.empas.com/data/rulinews/read.htm?num=15601&main=psp
http://ruliweb.empas.com/data/rulinews/read.htm?page=&num=15563&find=&ftext=

Yes, it does look pretty nice. It has that bizarrely ultra-crisp anime look that a lot of PSP games are receiving (if you've seen screenshots of FFI or II PSP, you'll know what I mean. Worth watching for, even though RPGamer hasn't even received anything official on this title as of yet!

Dear Matt:

It's been awhile since you've had one of these in your inbox, hasn't it? I apologize, but as you must realize, I've been quite busy. My various responsibilities have been such that I haven't even been able to keep up with Q&A every day, though I have read a few columns here and there. As such, I apologize if a) I talk about something that's already been discussed, or b) if I go way off-topic.

I'm playing Brave Story: New Traveler on my PSP right now, and I can't recommend it to you highly enough. Now, last I checked, you were still debating between the 360 and the PSP for your next system purchase. Given your love of the DS, I feel comfortable suggesting the PSP. If you decide to go PSP, there are quite a few games in a variety of genres that I'd be happy to point you toward.

Brave Story is one of those games. At times it feels so like Dragon Quest that I have to remind myself of exactly what game I'm playing. I'm about a dozen hours in, and while it is fairly light (lite? Will that ever be the officially accepted spelling?) on story, the characters are quite well done.

Speaking of story-lite (gah! Did it again!) turn-based RPGs, I'm afraid I've been distracted from Etrian Odyssey. One disadvantage of being a primarily portable gamer is that it makes the decision of which system to take with me that much harder. I will get back to Etrian Odyssey, but with Jeanne D'Arc and the Disgaea port upcoming on the PSP, I'm not sure when.

Finally, I'd like to talk a bit about our most recent Final Fantasy. Now, while I was a fairly heavy gamer during my formative years, and again more recently, during my later high school years, and all through college, I barely picked up a game pad. Suffice it to say that I entirely missed Final Fantasy X. FFXII was the first PS2 FF I played (and play it I did, amassing around 99 hours of play-time). Recently I stuck a copy of FFX in ye olde PS2 and...found it completely unplayable. About 7 or 8 hours in, I thought, "You know what? I could be playing FFXII instead, and I'd actually be having fun." Maybe it's just me, but for all its failings (yes, I'm aware of them), I still think FFXII is amazing.

Not as amazing as FFIII DS, though. I love that game to death.

So, my question for you: Of all the upcoming DQ titles, which are you looking forward to the most? I'll go ahead and tell you that I am (still) anticipating the release of DQIX. As lovely as DQM:J looks, and as stoked as I am about IV, V, and VI (and of course I'll buy them all), I've been so excited about DQIX for so long that I find myself placing unreasonable expectations on it. I fully believe in the power of DQIX to protect me from vampires. DQIX's awesomeness will pay my bills. The sheer amount of greatness that will be packed into DQIX's minuscule cartridge will solve the problems in the Middle East.

Yours, until somebody else wants me,
Jeffrey

No no, you're all mine, you sexy thing you. Ahahahaha. Thanks for the letter. ;)

http://youtube.com/watch?v=bMIAp7F0wVU This is an AMAZING trailer! Don't miss it. BTW, how many games in this trailer have you played? Are there any ones that you haven't played but are interested in? *cough*trymegamanlegendsplease*cough*

Oh, Mega Man. It's funny how often this is turning up today, but I've played through a good number of them. I haven't, however, played a Mega Man Battle Network game, and in fact, I didn't even know how the battle system worked until I watched it- it always looked weirdly turn-based to me for some reason, which it evidently is not.

I know all 8 original series and X games, though, like the back of my hand. I've played through and liked to a lesser degree Mega Man Zero 2 and 3; Mega Man ZX, which I just finished on the weekend, was pretty darn good. They forgot a couple, though! Does anybody remember Mega Man Soccer? Holy crap, what a silly, random, fun game. But there were two more, and they actually FIT the theme of this site.

Mega Man: Network Transmission was an interesting platformer with heavy RPG elements that I absolutely adored. Can anyone agree with me at all? I imagine that only Mega Man fans could ever understand, but I don't care. I thought it was great, and awesomely challenging. Secondly, Mega Man X: Command Mission was a PS2 RPG that made more of a "bim" than a "boom" in the industry, but it wasn't a totally bad game either. I meant to review it, once upon a time...

Thanks for the trailer! It brought some nice fuzzy feelings up.

Y'know how FF1 was rejiggered to use an MP system, presumably because it was too "primitive and limiting"?

Now I'm thinking of DQ4. What do you think they'll do with the whole "most of your characters automatically act on their own" thing? Will they change THAT? It'd take a whole lot less thought than converting FF1 to MP, that's for sure, and thus more likely they'll miss balance issues.

I don't mean to frighten you, but it came to mind, and I was wondering what you thought would happen.

Eh, it isn't too frightening, to be honest. It is, after all, a remake, so they should be adjusting the weaknesses of the game to make things better. I'm also expecting a bonus dungeon, since it's almost a given with DQ games these days, and I'll also bet that they'll bring back the spell names used in DQVIII: Frizz, Frizzle, Kasizzle, Kerplunk, and the like, just to try and help establish some series consistency over here. It'll be good for the series, and hopefully, much like DQVIII, DQIV will have a strong enough release that North America will, after twenty years, really come to embrace one of the best series ever.