Nice little write-up. What I've read about Odin Sphere got me interested, hopefully someday I'll be able to buy it from PSN. $10 for quality, lengthy games seems too good to be true.
I'm guessing you'll play GrimGrimoire next? Regardless, looking forward to how your list will evolve! I wonder how many games will be in it by the time you're done with your RPGathon...
Man, Odin Sphere was pretty rad. Glad to hear they fixed the frame rate issues (why did you have to fight Odette like every chapter, jesus) for the PSN release, might have to check that out.
Well that's a darn shame considering how appealing its visual style is. It looks as though you're playing an interactive anime, I thought they'd use that fact to have fun with their storytelling methods and tell a good story in the process. Oh well. And unlocking useful features only after completion of a game has always been retarded.
It's interesting that the first 2 games in your list can be compared and contrasted, it allows the scores to be easily comparable because of similar game types. Looking forward to what'll be next!
I'm going to enjoy seeing you go through this. Obviously, that much JRPG would be too much for my system, but I'm sure you can take it, especially since you're starting on stuff that really isn't that JRPGish. Those vanillaware games sure are pretty to look at, that's for sure.
Ohh, didn't realize you wrote up something for Destiny of an Emperor as well.  Man! That game is old. Lu Bu is such a badass though... *sigh*... Hiding objects invisibly on tiles is fine, but having to choose search from the menu each time totally drove me crazy.  Anywaysss, Valkyria Chronicles. I swear that game was hard, I remember it being sorta tough and heard many stories of people being stuck on bosses and shit... so I dunno! You're just too good at videogames or the reincarnation of a famous general from World War 2. Hopefully a hot female general, being all strict in a short black skirt and maybe a cute top with lots of cleavage and a sports bra on. That was in WW2 right? Rhetorical question, I'm sure it was.  Anyways again, I'm glad to hear about the romance stuff, I really wasn't expecting it to have very much and never played far enough to really get to it. Its also surprising that the game ends without one or both of them dying, considering it takes place in a war. The romance more than any other part make me want to revisit the game and play through it again, or at least watch all the cutscenes.  Looking forward to Atelier Totori and... Rune Factory if that qualifies/ if you manage to continue playing it. I imagine part of that decision hangs on when Totori arrives though hahaha.
I remember when my brother downloaded the demo for Valkyria Chronicles, I never really gave it a chance-mainly because of how much I usually sucked at strategy games, despite the fact that I adored VC's visual style. Things have changed since then, I've been wanting to branch out and judging from what a few of my friends have been telling, VC is welcoming to beginners in the SRPG genre.
Now go watch the Valkyria Chronicles anime while you wait for Atelier Totori to finally arrive!
You're gonna elaborate on Atelier Rorona in a blog post? I would recommend editing in a link to that blog post in your list when you're done writing about it - while at this point in time it'll be pretty easy to read the post about it, as your blog expands it'll be difficult finding the relevant post for anyone who stumbles upon this list in the future. I'd recommend doing that for Muramasa as well.
Oh wow 6/10 for Rune Factory. I'm very surprised it managed to do that well.  Its too bad this game ended up being so disappointing, sure it suffers from many of the same flaws of previous harvest moon and rune factory titles, but it also seems like it went out of its way to make many aspects a lot worse than they have been.  It just sucks because like you said, there's a really cool potential in those games, and I think that's part of why I (and probably most other fans) continually buy each iteration, hoping that they will finally make those improvements we all want and make that really amazing game that they have the potential to be. Sigh... Its disappointing but by now I doubt any fans are surprised. Its unfortunate they're making them worse and not better though :P  Oh well! Onwards to new and better games! Like Mass Effect 2! and Bahamut Lagoon! and Front Mission for the SNES!
Oh man, Skyrim as your Game of the Year is really awesome. I know how much you enjoyed Disgaea 4, so seeing it beat that is pretty great, if only because that means there were at least 2 amazing games for you this year.  I think Skyrim is going to be my Game of the Year too, though I'm going to have to think very very very hard about it... Dark Souls was so amazing, but Skyrim is just such a huge game. Not looking forward to those games battling it out once the dust has settled on Skyrim.
Well, wasn't expecting that. If nothing else it means you got two absolutely terrific games nominees this year, and I'm glad to see that they fixed the mistakes of Oblivion! The game does seem to have made a number of people who hate Oblivion pleasantly surprised.
Anyways, I'm really looking forward to when Xenoblade and hopefully some other Wii games will make it in the list. Here's to 2012!
Apparently we are on opposites ends when it comes to RPGs :o I fucking loathe Amalur. Everything about it was just felt so lazy and like something out of a bygone era. The combat was only fun for the first maybe 6 hours, before it soon dawned on me that to win, all I had to do was just mash the square button. I still gave it maybe 30-something, but the last 10 or so was me trying to have fun with it and purposely mixing things up to drown out the tedium. Eventually I was dead set on completing the thing just so I could post a fair user-review... but then I gave up. I never even completed the main story.
Dark Souls on the other hand I thought was incredible! It stepped up out of Demon's Souls shadow and was still highly addicting, despite essentially being the same game just bigger in every respect. Your complaint towards the frame-rate seems harsh, though. The part during Blight Town was a nightmare, but that's about the only area where it really dips to a noticeable degree. Or at least for me on the PS3 it was.
The lack of an upfront story and endearing characters are totally valid criticisms, even if I personally preferred the mystery and how the story was scattered around in small bits and pieces. Besides it was all about the gameplay and exploration for me; usually I always prefer some thin line of story to guide me along no matter what game I'm playing. Yet I enjoyed Darks Souls gameplay so much, it was more to do with sort of crafting my own story; not exactly roleplaying or anything, but by exploring the environments and just making my own path throughout this incredibly dark and grim world.
I haven't played Tales of Grace F yet, because I can't, but I'm looking forward to it mostly because there are so few Tales games that I never count my blessings (or is that I always count my blessings... blah, I've had far too little sleep for me to care). Even if I'm sure that highly generic and cliche story is going to eat at me =X I'd still rather they finally port over Tales of Abyss and Legendia in the UK... via some HD collection or something.
Also is Dragons Dogma going to appear on this list in the near future? There's another I'm personally eagerly excited for. The gameplay reminds me of Dark Souls in some respects, though the key difference is narrative has a strong focus, or at least when put against Dark Souls.
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