It's not true? I've played a lot of JRPGs with terrible stories. Granted I don't know Japanese so I can't read what the original writers wrote, but whatever. I wasn't placating anyone, we were having a discussion. Personally I think a lack of great writers is a problem for RPGs as a whole, not just in Japan.

I'm more than happy to get off the topic. I can only respond to what people send me in, and it just so happened that a lot of people wanted to talk about Suikoden. If you want to see me talk about another topic, just write in like you've done now. I'm more than happy to discuss a large variety of topics. As far as two great entries this gen goes, it sounded last week like most of the Japanese audience would disagree with you in regards to the PSP entry. Now let's hear your favorite JRPGs on different platforms!

Being a huge Apple nerd, I'm not one of those people. Not only that, but these games come from the developer of the Wild Arms series, so there's a team of experienced developers behind them. I haven't played the games yet, but by and large they look to be a lot of fun. My only complaint would be they forced in the Japanese voice-overs, making it a needlessly large download.

Won't find any complaints from me about this one. I think this is by far the most accessible roguelike out there. The addition of NIS humor and customization make this adventure one of the best experiences available on PSP. Of course, being a roguelike, it will be tough for many to get into but I really can't recommend this game enough.

The original Tactics is still my personal favorite, but I'm enjoying this game a great deal, even if I've yet to finish it. The first Tactics Advance was a huge time sink for me, and I expect the second one will result in an even larger game clock.

Another fine choice. I haven't played it yet as I want to beet its GameCube predecessor first, but I'm sure it will continue the fine quality of the Fire Emblem series.

Another fine selection. An interesting and original experience from many of the same people who worked on Skies of Arcadia, the game didn't get nearly the attention it deserved. I don't think it would fit into my top spot for the PS3, but it would come very close.

Wait, what? I don't know too much about this particular topic, so I've tapped a former RPGamer staff member to sum it up...

Writer-In-Exile sez: I don't even have words, I devoted an unhealthy amount of time trying to play these danged things and they're just so friggin' boring. The battle system has about as much strategy as your average RPG, but due to the SRPG setup each of them takes approximately eight eternities to wrap itself up. The storyline tries to take itself deathly seriously but is the usual generic JRPG twaddle, somehow mixed in with bizarre non-sequitor fanservice. On a technical level the game's pretty much appalling, graphics that would have been rightly called pretty dated on the PS1 are shamelessly shoved onto modern platforms, but somehow not being content with merely looking profoundly dated the game for some reason doesn't run at all well with horrendous load times. Dialog, whether by fault of the translation or more likely the original material fails to convey any real sense of character, so scenes where boring things happen can't be saved because boring people are reacting to them. To put it more simply, Agarest War and Agarest War 0 have basically no redeeming qualities. They aren't even a unique hybrid at this point as Persona or Sakura Wars both do the combination social sim-RPG much better, heck Devil Survivor would also count there. Heck, if you wanted porn, which the advertisers of the game so desperately wanted you to assume the game was, the interenet's got you covered.

If Legend of Heroes Trails in the Sky is any indication, the trilogy as a whole should be quite amazing. I still have high hopes that we will eventually see the entire series on Steam, thanks to XSEED's recent successes there. Of course there aren't many JRPG choices on PC. Personally I would have gone with Oath in Felghana.

Not sure where in the world you found this story, but there is zero truth to any of this...

I don't think so either, but I was hoping for more in-depth reasons?

I don't necessarily agree, but I'm not sure what makes you say yes?

I agree that they don't hate RPGs, but I'm not about to bring up the word "love." Nintendo of America does not make business decisions about localizing RPGs based on any form of love or hate, its all simply business. That doesn't always mean they make the right decision, but it has nothing to do with loving or hating a genre.

We'll see about that, but hey it still has 8 years to go before reaching full Duke Nukem delay levels.

It's a small world after all eh? Glad to see I wasn't the only one surprised by that connection. I'm still awaiting some kind of crazy book connection to Suikoden III or something.

Such as the roar of a dragon sounding like an elephant? Yeah I'll admit it can be a bit rough around the edges. Still, I think its one of the more playable classic RPGs out there. It's a good thing they didn't go with low budgeted PS1 3D graphics for the game!

Very true. The connected nature of the games is in a sense the series biggest strength, and yet also its biggest weakness. I think I can see where you are going with this...

You know, I think that could be exactly what Square Enix was thinking after Unlimited Saga took away a bit of that series forward momentum. So they went and remade Romancing SaGa with a fresh new look, then did the same for SaGa 2 and SaGa 3. A good way to bring in new fans while at the same time pleasing long time series fans. Granted it isn't exactly the same situation, but it is similar, and seemed to do the series well (in Japan anyway)/

Exactly! Just look at what Gust is able to do on the PS3, likely with a much smaller budget than a Suikoden game would have. Just make a simple but colorful graphics engine and go with it. Focus on the gameplay aspects. Maybe even make it a cross-over PS3/Vita title to reach a nice wide audience. Or, alternatively let a western developer take a shot at it like they did with Castlevania. Worth a shot, right?

This is a really tough question, because the answer to this could easily change based on my mood. I'll do my best though. Let's see here...

Dancing Mad - The last boss theme to end all last boss themes. This song has a little bit of everything, and does a superb job of making Final Fantasy VI's final encounter one of the most memorable moments in gaming. This song still gives me chills when it gets going.

Taking the Field - The essence of Tactics Ogre distilled into one composition. This thrilling track sets the mood for the long and amazing journey that is Tactics Ogre- Let Us Cling Together.

Termination - A fantastic track from Ys Origin that manages to capture the essence and action of the series and fit in some classic themes from the series. I wanted to only pick one song from any one series, so I'm going with this one for Ys.

Suikoden II opening theme - It took only this song playing for me to know that my $118 had been well spent.

Expectations for the future - You may find the inclusion of this one surprising, but it's just such a crazy Vangelis-like surprise from Sakuraba on the Star Ocean Last Hope soundtrack. Whatever the quality of that game itself, this track is brilliant.

So there you are. This list will probably be different if you ask me again next week. In fact, feel free to ask me again next week!

Well OK, here you go in no particular order:

Tales of the Tempest - The first game I ever imported. Whoops? This Tales game is so bad that Namco actually removed its designation as a main series title post-release. It was a bust and I was a fool to ever import it. Based on what I could get out of the story from my translation guide, the story was quite terrible as well. Please people, don't ever import this game!

Tales of Phantasia - The game that started it all, finally given an English release! I rushed out to buy this on the day of its release. I was clearly ready for this masterpiece! What I was shocked to find out is how much I ended up hating just about everything about this game. The pokey battle system that lacked any really finesse or fun. The story that was like a weird mix of ideas from the great JRPGs that came before it. So yes, indirectly or directly tri-Ace is responsible for 3/10 of my most hated games.

Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology - OK make that 4/10. Why on earth would you make a game whose selling point is making your own dream team of Tales characters and taking them into dungeons, if you're going to make actually doing that a complete pain to do? Instead you have to take boring generic characters into the game's many bland dungeons over and over until the Tales characters actually like you enough. This would have been better left untranslated.

Zelda II - Wait, how could this possibly be on my list? Listen, bear with me for a second. Zelda II infuriates the heck out of me, not because it is vastly different from the previous games, but because it's tedious and difficult. I'm all for a good difficult game, but the way this game accomplishes it is not good. I think there's a very good reason this title is not remembered as fondly as other Zelda games, or even as fondly as other similar side scrolling games like Metroid. Zelda II, if done right, could have been something special. It is not a bad game, but I hate it because it could have been amazing (and I also hate it because I've given it dozens of second chances).

Legend of Dragoon - Mostly hate this one because I forced myself to keep playing it, hoping it would get interesting and it never did. Normally I wouldn't put a game I had only played one disc of on this list, but it just seemed appropriate.

As you can see it is not on the list, because a) I haven't played enough of the game and b) I like the battle system a lot so it's unlikely it will make the list. Regardless of that, yes a goodly number of staff members did not like Star Ocean 4, so what? We're all free to our opinions. Plenty liked the game and that's perfectly fine.

Glad to see you understand. Seeing how I have since played and enjoyed Radiata Stories, which has a similar battle system, I might be able to get into that element of the game more now than on my initial time with it. Of course, the story would make it hard to do so. It's a shame tri-Ace didn't just take the opportunity to say that 3 was in a different universe. It would make the stories of 1&2 less troublesome, as it is now tough for me to separate those games form the twist of 3. I mean, those games don't even build up to it as far as I can tell. Based on the stories I've heard of Star Ocean 4's director, he didn't really have much interest in even making a game in the series. Could be that most of the company feels the same, even if the games do sell well. In that regard the attitude could be similar for other sequels. I'd love Resonance of Fate and Radiata Stories sequels, but only if the developers are actually interested in doing them. They like to do weird things, so just let them create and hope they produce some more interesting content!

Now as for your mentioning of Final Fantasy related stuff, tri-Ace was hired to help with the game, which doesn't give us any indication of what sort of creative involvement they had. My guess is their involvement wasn't huge. There's indication tri-Ace would be involved in future XIII sequels, and given their most recent output they seem content to do smaller projects like Frontier Gate. You know what, while tri-Ace is working with Konami, how about a tri-Ace developed Suikoden? That would be ... strange.