ZenaxPure

@Chemin: This is slightly true, the scaling in Last Remnant isn't the best but I had pretty much no problems with it and I didn't even use a walkthrough for much of the game outside of sidequest locations/late game stat boosting. I actually enjoyed the longer fights (which I assume you're talking about some of the disc 2 stuff, one fight in particular) since I really had fun with the combat.

@TopSteer: Well, my main problem with Persona 4s combat (and this actually applies to FF13 for like 70% of the game since you mentioned it) is that it's not designed to force you to use any of the battle mechanics. All the way to the final boss of Persona 4 I did the same thing in combat over and over: Party attack buff, spam whatever attack (most of the time physical), heal when necessary. The only fight I ever died to the entire game was Kanji's shadow. Otherwise I used that strategy almost the entire way and it just bored me to be honest, there wasn't much thought actually required in fighting most of the enemies. I wish they would of forced you into using the element/knockdown system more and perhaps expanded on it a bit in some ways. It's a cool idea but the game never requires you to use it outside of a few encounters.

@Brodehouse: I tend to agree, it's silly to knock the game for using RPG Maker. It's actually a very awesome tool set for making the specific game they are going after. The more recent versions are also really liberal and let you mess with tons of systems. Also it's not the easiest things in the world to use unless you really steal someone else's work and copy/paste your story/characters/art onto their actual systems.

I honestly think the (well my) problem with Xenoblade's look is the character art more than anything... The non-city environments look absolutely stunning but any time I have to look at the human NPC models (especially their faces WHAT IS WRONG WITH THE EYES!) it's off putting. Other than that the resolution is the only problem, it doesn't bother me personally (since I put all of my 65 hours of Xenoblade into my Wii version instead of Dolphin) but it's certainly really annoying when you're used to better.

@TopSteer: Unfortunately yeah, it is pretty rare nowadays but I think my biggest problem with it is that most of the time we get a "traditional" turn based game it feels like they didn't put much effort into it. Honestly the only truly turn based RPG combat (on consoles) I fell in love with this gen was Last Remnant. Really the only way I can get into that kind of combat any more is if it requires some actual thought and strategy. In Last Remnant that came from positioning bonuses (Flanking/Morale increasing damage, deadlock system, etc). Lost Odyssey did a pretty good job with it too even if I feel like it fell apart at the end and moved to slow with 5 party members (especially if 3 of them had double-cast).

On the flip side something like Persona 4 killed me. I absolutely loved the game but the combat bored me to tears with how little there was going on. I am not saying they shouldn't use it but I hope they put some thought into it outside of spamming attack over and over while occasionally healing.

@TopSteer: @Chemin: You guys should buy a 3DS, because Bravely Default is coming at some point and god it looks amazing (simply because Yoshida's art is godly and all that, but yeah turn based combat!) Personally for me my favorite part about JRPGs is how different the combat is from one title to the next, can't really relate to always wanting turn based unfortunately.

@WinterSnowblind: I don't think anyone is claiming to be professional with this specific kickstarter, right? I couldn't actually finish the video though so I dunno maybe they claimed it. Regardless I agree this project just looks kinda silly, specifically I just don't like how generic it looks. I mean seriously they are claiming everything is original and cool but the screen shots/description make it look like a C tier JRPG I can go pick up on the PSP.

I had an embarrassing moment in a Barnes and Noble where after listening to a quiet song on my iPod with the volume all the way up a song came on that I had cranked up to +100% volume in iTunes, because it was hard to hear on my PCs speakers, but was really loud on my iPod so pretty much everyone within a 30 foot range could hear the song.

Feltbadman

I never hid it, but it only came up if it was relevant. But I mean I went to school with basically the same people for 14 years, everyone knew I played games. The key is to at least not act like some crazy recluse who does nothing but play games (even if you are one like me) and talk about other things, that is what is mostly off putting to people. Or rather the thought of you being irresponsible and lazy is what gets to them, it's not much different than drug use or going out all night partying/missing tons of classes (you're a lazy slacker/failure).

I found all the way back in middle school that as long as I made good grades, stayed out of trouble, and was sociable that people didn't care if I was a gamer or not.

Also now I feel old because nobody knew what the hell Call of Duty was when I was in high school (was in college when CoD4 made it's big bang). Damn kids.

God damn, this thread was made for IGN's (Erik Brudvig's) Last Remnant review. Like holy fuck it's just... awful and so full of things that are factually wrong it's not even funny. I could probably tear it apart sentence by sentence if I wanted for the amount of factually inaccurate parts in it but given it's one of those overly lengthy 3 page reviews I'd be typing all night. The one thing I will say (that he actually leaves out of the review) is it blows my mind he did not understand the leveling mechanic.

Back on the old Three Red Lights podcast (R.I.P) he spent part of an episode talking about how hard it was and how much he had to grind. He claimed he took an entire day off work and spent around 10 hours (iirc, it's been like 3 years now since that episode aired) grinding levels so he could defeat the final boss. Hey... guess what. The game had level scaling, the higher your level the tougher enemies got. The game mentions this both in game and in the manual. Stat gain was not tied to your level. Basically what I am getting at is he spent an entire day just making the fucking game harder to beat.

I still randomly think back to that review any time Last Remnant comes up and how embarrassed I'd be if I were the one to wrote it. God there are so many things wrong in its text it's downright depressing.

P-meter is back. I guess I am OK with this.

For now, take a deep breath. Giant Bomb will continue to have Quick Looks, reviews, and longwinded discussions about Tetsuya Nomura.

Please, just don't. I don't think my heart can handle any more misinformation.

So I finished Xenoblade yesterday, first off I will say I was pretty pleased with the ending:

With that said as far as actual gameplay stuff goes I have to say I am slightly disappointed. The game is far too easy for its own good. I literally killed the final boss with 2 almost back to back chain attacks despite being very under leveled. As reference I barely did any side quests the entire game (mostly just the time sensitive stuff) so every mob in the final dungeon was either yellow or red to me but despite that I only died once because a certain boss along the way randomly one shot me and I did not have a gauge full to res.

In addition as the game continued to add layers of depth and party members obtained more abilities the combat as a whole fell apart for me. I had to resort to playing my tank myself because they refused to use their lock-on aura when a fight began even if a character stole hate, and would use multiple single target abilities before an AOE when fighting multiple mobs. It made playing as Shulk nearly impossible since I would open up with the side attack to lower defense then use back slash and immediately steal aggro. Shadow eye (threat reducing ability) sometimes wouldn't even drop threat since Shulk was a beast critting back slashes for almost 50,000 or so at level 70. All of that was solved by simply playing the tank myself and using a lock-on aura which gave me a pretty much unbeatable threat lead by the time it had worn off.

On the flip side though regulating Shulk to AI was embarrassing as he would rarely use his positional attacks correctly. I can not tell you how many times I heard him screaming about backslash while standing in front of my target. On the whole the lack of control of my party was pretty annoying, as a game that is often compared to FF12 I have to say I am really sad they didn't bring over the ability to pause combat and dish out commands on my own. Would of pretty much fixed any problems I have (other than the game being a bit easy) with the combat.

All in all though a solid game, I look forward to going back and doing some of the sidequests now that I don't have to worry about over leveling but I am not entirely sure I want to do any of the high level/hardest side bosses, I always go to those for a challenge but considering the game had very few for the ~65 hours I plunked into it I don't have high expectations of finding something that will kick my ass, but who knows.