I wouldn't be opposed to calling River City Ransom an RPG. Didn't it have level ups or something along those lines? I haven't played it in a long time. I'm not sure how many of the readers will be contributing, but given the ongoing hardcore love for River City Ransom, I'd be shocked if this sequel doesn't get funded. I probably won't back it (I'm very picky) but I'd be happy to buy such a game when it comes out. Dragon's Crown has me in the mood for more RPG brawlers so this River City Ransom sequel should do nicely.

I actually don't think it's cliché at all. More often you get the fake character death, or the uncertain end for a character which likely results in them still being alive. The actual death of a main character, especially one who you name and make all their choices is not something that happens often and is actually quite jarring. I was shocked by the ending of the game. Now, I don't think it was done all that well in this case, but the shock value was still there. Maybe its not necessarily shocking for a Shin Megami Tensei game given how bleak other games int he series can be, but I don't think its something that should be considered cliché even in that case.

A good group, even if I'm not familiar with a few of them. Particularly, Lenneth is a fantastic choice, and reminds me that I need to just sit down and play Valkyrie Profile (this is true of many games). I also give you a lot of credit for thinking of Ar Tonelico. The song magic in those games is incredibly powerful and I'm a bit mad I didn't think of it when putting together my team. Going to have to get to Growlanser III as well to figure out what Slayn is all about.  Finally, love the combo of characters from Grandia II as they can kick some serious butt.

It's a good question. When you look at RPGs from both the East and West it's easy to see common patterns and weaknesses as you've described. I've always (including here on Q&A) wished we could see a collaboration between prominent RPG developers, like an Atlus/BioWare collaboration on a Persona title for example. It may just be a matter of a culture, as the trends of realism vs. surrealism seem to apply to other genres as well. I think if we took a look at indie RPGs we'd find some examples were these trends don't necessarily apply, suggesting that pressures to appeal to a market are at play as well. Given the unfamiliar nature to those designing these games, they probably just don't know how to handle realism/surrealism correctly. Hopefully this will change over time.

I'd have to disagree with the assertion that Mass Effect's story is hurt by efforts of improving the gameplay. No doubt the overarching plot of the series has some issues, but the character interactions and more personal stories, which are more integral to the actual gameplay, stay great throughout the series and I would argue actually improve. I think issues with the mythos at large probably have more to do with writers changing and other factors than anything related to actual gameplay changes.

I don't know, I've still seen some recent games that do this very well. No doubt there are more generic and less interesting in games these days though. Its easy to forget how amazing a tool this can be when used correctly. I hope its a trend that somehow reverses at some point. I've seen some indy games recently like Runner 2 that use music in incredible ways so I don't think all hope is yet lost!

Sadly such a thing is a rarity in our sequelized world. I think the reason there aren't more of these is because great RPGs generally leave people wanting more, so the urge to make sequels is hard to deny. The most obvious answer for me would have to be Resonance of Fate considering it is one of my favorite RPGs of all time. That game works great as an independent story and gameplay experience, so as much as I pine for a sequel I think its best left on its own. There's also Radiant Historia but that game was so good that I'd love to see a sequel or spiritual successor to it doing the whole time travel and parallel timelines. A great question!

Excellent! I'm glad people are jumping on this. I'm looking forward to seeing what other teams people come up with.

I'm okay with that! I mean it's hard to find a leader for the group without at least one main character right?

I love this pick. It just works on almost every conceivable level. Plus Stocke could even help out your team on multiple different timelines. He really is almost the perfect leader for this kind of setup.

I forget exactly who that is, and didn't expect anyone from one of the Souls games anyway! Does he help you with one of the bosses near the end of the game? I'm going to have to go back and look now.

Haven't played a ton of Xenoblade so can't comment on this one

I've only played the demo for the most part, but the AI characters do seem great. Something that should be add to all Monster Hunter clones, and Monster Hunter itself for that matter.  Come on developers!

Any of the characters from Final Fantasy V work for this, because you can make them be almost anything you want.

A great buffer class, though I like the similar class from 7th Dragon even more. Buffs are something that are often underused by RPGs so its cool to see RPGs that can make a whole class around them. I hope this class comes back in future Etrian Odyssey games.

Well its a big party, so it would hard not to have any redundancy! There's always a place for powerful androids on any team in my book.

OK I like your second party even more! I think I'm going to have to make you do a whole writeup for them now. I mean you've got two SaGa characters in there! That's custom build for me.

I'm not sure how to deal with the problem of an MMO addiction. So long as its not an actual addiction destroying your personal life I think the best thing to do is to just stop worrying and enjoy the game. There's plenty of good reasons to be hopelessly addicted to the game. Enjoy, while it lasts! I'm sure at some point you'll run out of content and move onto something else, or some other game will distract you so just enjoy it while you can.

I finally got a character on Leviathan, so keep an eye out for Wheels Askian!