Hey...JRPGs are still pretty awesome

Last year, as the two of you who read my Year in Review Blog Post know, my game of the year was The World Ends With You. I still stand by that. Anyways, over the weekend I didn't have many games to game. Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts (which I had ordered a month earlier) had still not arrived, I beat Flower the weekend before and I had nothing to do. After whining in the IRC for a few minutes, I got an urge to play Chrono Trigger. A boss fight later: I was back into the game. While Chrono Trigger's combat may not be the most fun, and the story may not be the most original, it's still an awesome game--mainly because of its presentation. As I've said before: Chrono Trigger does encounters better than any other game. The characters are instantly lovable, the graphics charming, the bosses wonderful, and the combat cinematic. I played some Burnout Paradise as well; I finally got my A liscense. It's just a great game to play while listening to a podcast.

Last year, as the two of you who read my Year in Review Blog Post know, my game of the year was The World Ends With You. I still stand by that. Anyways, over the weekend I didn't have many games to game. Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts (which I had ordered a month earlier) had still not arrived, I beat Flower the weekend before and I had nothing to do. After whining in the IRC for a few minutes, I got an urge to play Chrono Trigger. A boss fight later: I was back into the game. While Chrono Trigger's combat may not be the most fun, and the story may not be the most original, it's still an awesome game--mainly because of its presentation. As I've said before: Chrono Trigger does encounters better than any other game. The characters are instantly lovable, the graphics charming, the bosses wonderful, and the combat cinematic. I played some Burnout Paradise as well; I finally got my A liscense. It's just a great game to play while listening to a podcast.

Uggh. Don't remind me about all the JRPG's I have to finish. I love them but I always seems to drop off around the middle, or right at the end. The only games I'm able to finish have been tactic games, and CoD4. Chrono Trigger is awesome, but I hate dystopic future settings, so it kind of annoyed me when I had to keep going to the future. Plus I leant it to a friend, and he's not done with it yet. He has my Tales of Symphonia too, now that I think about it....

But yeah, JRPG's are awesome.

My interest in JRPGs have been ignited recently due to some anime I enjoyed and Valkyria Chronicles.  Shamefully, I've never played The World Ends with You, although it's been on my Gamefly queue for months now.  It keeps getting bumped down by other games, most recently, Star Ocean IV. 

Anyway, if you feel the need to jump back onto the JRPGs on DS bus, I highly recommend Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride.   I haven't had this much fun on a handheld in ages.  It was made years ago, but has been nicely refreshed for the DS and since it never made it to the States originally, what's played for the 1st time is as good as new to me.  

I'm not convinced that modern settings are the way of the future for JRPGs.  I'd like to steer out of the fantasy genre as much as anyone, but with titles like White Knight Chronicles, Dragon Quest 9, Suikoden Tierkreis or My World, My Way it seems that's unlikely to change for a while.  Still, FFXIII seems to be situated more in a scifi like world, and I'm not sure where the Blue Dragon or Kingdom Hearts franchises really fall. 

I'm not convinced that modern settings are the way of the future for JRPGs.  I'd like to steer out of the fantasy genre as much as anyone, but with titles like White Knight Chronicles, Dragon Quest 9, Suikoden Tierkreis or My World, My Way it seems that's unlikely to change for a while.  Still, FFXIII seems to be situated more in a scifi like world, and I'm not sure where the Blue Dragon or Kingdom Hearts franchises really fall. "

I can stomach one JRPG a year. And to the rest, no thanks. It's just such a tired formula. It's the same exact thing every single game. But for some reason, Japan still loves them. Whatevs.

"I can stomach one JRPG a year. And to the rest, no thanks. It's just such a tired formula. It's the same exact thing every single game. But for some reason, Japan still loves them. Whatevs.
"

Man, I'm just not a fan of JRPG's. But I won't hold that against any of you, it's just not my thing.

RPGs have never been my bag as a genre. However, I find the art style in most JRPGs to be fascinating.

"I can stomach one JRPG a year. And to the rest, no thanks. It's just such a tired formula. It's the same exact thing every single game. But for some reason, Japan still loves them. Whatevs.
"

I'm getting Chrono Trigger shipped to me by Amazon. I can't wait to play it for the first time.