White Knight Chronicles 2!

[GeeLW]

Ah, Shining Force. I loved those games for the PS2 (and their Sega system progenitors). Yes, the VOs were atrocious. Wasn't there a Shining Force arcade game not too long ago? I wouldn't mind seeing that ported to the HD consoles.

The funny thing about Shining Force Neo and Exa is that they were programmed by the same team that did Record of Lodoss War on the Dreamcast. So it's basically the exact same grind-fest action/RPG gameplay down to the crystals you collect, upgradeable gear, twisty maps designs, SWARMS of monsters that kill your party in one hit if you go into the wrong areas too soon and so forth and so on... If it weren't for the VO, long cut scenes and references to Force Frames and the like, you'd think both games were Lodoss sequels...

[Peekachu]

Never picked up the first due to the mediocre reviews. I'm keeping my close on this one.

You can't trust Western review outlets with JRPGs this gen. Nier, WKC (most of them never even played the online, that's tantamount to not playing the MP in CoD), Atelier Rorona, Trinity: SoZO. All rather well received games by the community who like the genre, that were pretty sloppily reviewed by Western outlets. The only thing that they can review is AAA/ Westernized stuff from Sqeenix (see: FF XIII). Even Yakuza 4 got a dud review from IGN and its an improved and polished version of Yakuza 3. The biggest complaint was the "been there/ done that feeling". Well that's nice. I'd like to see that logic applied to the next AAA FPS that the indusry $hits out - but it won't be. I stopped paying attention to professional reviews many years ago, as they don't accurately gauge my tastes.

[ojsinnerz]

You can't trust Western review outlets with JRPGs this gen. Nier, WKC (most of them never even played the online, that's tantamount to not playing the MP in CoD), Atelier Rorona, Trinity: SoZO. All rather well received games by the community who like the genre, that were pretty sloppily reviewed by Western outlets. The only thing that they can review is AAA/ Westernized stuff from Sqeenix (see: FF XIII). Even Yakuza 4 got a dud review from IGN and its an improved and polished version of Yakuza 3. The biggest complaint was the "been there/ done that feeling". Well that's nice. I'd like to see that logic applied to the next AAA FPS that the indusry $hits out - but it won't be. I stopped paying attention to professional reviews many years ago, as they don't accurately gauge my tastes.

Yeah, you're right. JRPGs get bad scores from western reviewers for BEING JRPGs nowadays (Unless you happen to be Persona games, for whatever reason, or made from SE).

Guess I'm getting WKC2 the moment it comes out.

[Peekachu]

Amazon has it listed for August 30th now. Kinda sucks that we get it a few months behind EU, but at least we get it.

[Dark Schneider]

I still haven't gotten around to playing the first one yet. I will if I can ever get through the massive backlog I currently have.