I am not the smartest man ever born, let's just say that. Last night, I recorded a lengthy video blog on this very subject, but in my infinite wisdom, forgot to set the microphone settings on the camera so you all could actually HEAR what I was saying, as opposed to simply seeing my facial inflections, hand gestures and breath-taking good looks.

So, in honor of my now borked laptop (the only place I can do video blogs off of, unless I get a new camera, and that's not happening), I suppose a written summary of the events of the ill-fated video blog is in order.

Eternal Sonata

This game is the JRPG for players that want to love JRPGs, but hate the grinding that sometimes comes with the territory. With many JRPGs, at least in my experience, you can kill every enemy, look for every nook and cranny, etc., but at some point, you will reach a boss that will completely flatten you and your party straight the hell out, forcing you to do monotonous grinding. Monotonous grinding is for MMOs, thank you. With Eternal Sonata, I never experienced at boss characters that were tough enough to make me feel like I had to turn back and grind. In fact, I died only once during the entire game, and that was due to me not healing my party members properly, and the second try was much easier after I learned that valuable lesson.

I believe that I did end up grinding during some of the time I played, because there are certain "puzzle" (I use quotes because they're very, very light) elements to Eternal Sonata, sending you back and forth into rooms you've already visited, filling each room back up with monsters in the process. If you so choose, you can simply walk by most of the monsters and not even bother with leveling your party. But for me, I found it rewarding enough to continue to clear out rooms multiple times on many occassions, simply on the strength of the combat as well as the high experience rewards for defeating each set of monsters.

I'm glad I finally decided to take Eternal Sonata off my shelf and slide it in to my 360. I've had the game sitting for a number of months after I purchased it at a local Meijers along side Thrillville: Off the Rails, (for a grand total of $24 for both) but I suppose I wasn't really ready to start it at the time of the purchase. Either way, if you have not purchased this game yet--please do. Tremendous combat system that's fun and rewarding, graphics that still hold up 18 months after the game has been released, superb music, and a worthwhile story. (Moreso for the characters than the plot)

Because of Eternal Sonata, I've gone on somewhat of a JRPG kick, acquiring the following games:

Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII
The World Ends With You
Blue Dragon

I have only played Crisis Core so far, but I have been enjoying it. Apparently it does have its "boss fight that knocks you on your ass" moments, but hopefully I'll learn the battle system well enough that it won't be a problem. Storyline is interesting enough. (I suppose it should be, for all the splurging I hear about FFVII, which I have not played.)

Don't have a whole lot to say about either The World Ends With You or Blue Dragon, other than I believe I'll be picking up a DSi either today or tomorrow, trading in my old DS to GameStop, which is giving a $50 credit towards the purchase of a DSi. Decent deal and is about as much as I could hope to get selling it on eBay, Amazon or Craiglist, so we'll see how that goes.