The Super Nintendo was the first console I purchased on my own. While it cost me the entirety of my Nintendo collection, it was entirely worth it. Once I saw Super Mario World running on a Wal-Mart kiosk I knew had to have one of these, though it would be several years before the upgrade would be made. Not quite sure how it happened, but Street Fighter II would be the very first SNES game I owned. I'm not a big fighting game fan, but even I can't deny it was a great game.

The rebuilt SNES cart collection

Much like the NES, the bulk of my playtime was spent on rentals or what few games I had received as gifts. While I would get my first job toward the end of the SNES era, it didn't pay nearly enough to cover the expensive cartridges and I other interests at the time as well (comics and Magic: The Gathering). But it more than covered the rentals at the nearby Blockbuster Video. And it was there, in late 1994, that a rental would change my gaming focus forever. Nintendo Power had spent quite a bit a space hyping the upcoming RPG Final Fantasy III. After playing Dragon Warrior on the NES I had pretty much avoided the genre. Secret of Mana may have been the only exception, but as a multi-player action-RPG, it doesn't exactly fit the traditional JRPG mold. So I rented FFIII first chance I got, stayed up all night playing it, and kept dozing off in school the next day. Needless to say I was hooked. With Christmas nearing, I immediately began asking for it. While I would indeed get it, I disappeared into my room for the remainder of Christmas break and my parents swore they would never get me a game for Christmas again. A promise broken only once when my ceaseless hints for Ocarina of Time actually paid off.

Thank you Atlus for many of these fine boxes

With FFIII beaten I had no shortage of other RPGs to rent. Sadly, even back then it was difficult, if not impossible, to power through an RPG in a 3-day rental period. Nor did I have access to the internet for help, not that there was anywhere to go. GameFAQs didn't even exist until late 1995. Hmm, perhaps the root of my current difficulty in actually finishing the majority of the games I start was seeded in this period of bouncing between rentals.

Kabuki Rocks, Front Mission: Gun Hazard, Final Fantasy VI, Majin Tensei
Fire Emblem: Monshono Nazo: Fire Emblem: Seisenno Keifu: Dragon Quest VI
Secret of Mana, Ogre Battle, Chrono Trigger

While I cannot recall exactly how many carts I originally had for my SNES, perhaps a dozen, it really doesn't matter because once I had saved up enough for a Nintendo 64 I gave the console and all my games to my cousin. In hindsight, I should've kept it, but at the time I had no idea years later I become a collector. I suppose the only thing I truly missed was my boxed Final Fantasy III. I'm pretty sure I've replaced all the carts I once owned and then some. The current SNES collection stands at 44 games, all pictured above except for poor Lagoon whose plastic case I could not locate until I somehow spotted it out of the corner of my eye as I leaned back to decide how to word this sentence. Weird...

Final Fantasy III. While much of my love of this old console can likely be attributed to nostalgia, Final Fantasy VI Advance showed me that this game has withstood the test of time. Hands down (IMHO), the best Final Fantasy ever. A fairly deep and mature (for the time) storyline, a well-rounded cast of characters, and a villain who actually succeeds long before the heroes manage to take him down. Nobuo Uematsu's soundtrack is fantastic. While the translation is likely a little spotty (a product of the times), I actually prefer the original over the cleaned up FFVI Advance. One of the few games I have no problem giving a solid 10.

Not terribly far behind FFIII is Chrono Trigger. The time-travelling adventures of Chrono and crew to save the future from the desctruction of Lavos introduced many mechanics that are fairly common today. Encounters were not random and did not transition to a different screen. While you could attack individually, you could hold your turn and combo with other characters in your party. The game featured multiple endings along with a New Game + option. While some would argue Cross was the better of the two Chrono games, I'll always side with Trigger.

Secret of Mana suffered from a rushed translation and quite a bit of missing dialogue, but it offered a multi-player action-RPG, a rarity even today. Despite the translation, it was still an quite an enjoyable game. With a good mix of melee and ranged weaponry, magic from the support characters that could be powered up through repeated use, and a well-designed cast of monsters and enemies, Mana managed to keep things interesting. It also managed to avoid the button-mashing effect that affects so many modern action-RPGs by incorporating a meter that takes a second to recharge after making an attack. While you can still attack beforehand, you won't pack quite the same punch. You could also charge up your weapon up to 8 times depending on your weapon level, unleashing a stronger attack with each level. Secret of Mana 2 (Seiken Densetsu 3) would improve just about everything in Mana, though it would never leave Japan and that would be the peak of the Mana series.

I'm not quite sure how Super Mario RPG came to be, but Squaresoft managed to turn it into a fantastic game. What begins as a standard Mario quest to rescue the princess results in both her and Bowser joining the party as they take on Smithy. It was turn-based at its heart, though with well-timed button presses do extra damage during battle. Something that has carried foward to the Paper Mario and Mario & Luigi games.
Ogre Battle was one of the more unique RPG franchises. Individual groups were put into units of up to 5 characters and set loose on the battle map. Control was largely left to the computer. You could point them towards a specific point, but the computer controlled their movement. Nor did you have much control over battle once the enemy was engaged. You could direct the overall battle strategy, but the actions were taken for you. The unit that deals the most damage after one round is declared victor and the other unit is forced to retreat. Sadly, the Ogre Battle series seems to have ended with Square's purchase of Quest.

An honorable mention goes out to Earthbound. Not quite enough to make my top 5 and also absent from my collection. Perhaps someday, since I doubt you'll ever make the Virtual Console.

In Closing

So ends part 2. I had intended to finish this project before my April Monthly Blog, but that plan didn't go so well. I do not wish see this half-finished like so many of my other projects, so I shall continue to publish this retrospective with a goal of 10 articles. Next up is a look at an integral part of the RPG and gaming in general, the music.

Part 1: Playstation

The Playstation was not my first console, nor would I consider it a favorite, but it was instrumental in shaping my collection and my habits. I had grown up with Nintendo consoles, and until 1999, excluding the Atari 2600, they were the only consoles I owned. That summer would see a pair of games released that finally made me say enough is enough.

Darn it Square, now I need a PS1!

FFVII and VIII had come and gone, but with the transition from high school to university, gaming was not a high priority. Besides, I had my N64 to pass any free time. But with two updates to some of my favorite SNES games and money from a summer job in my pocket, I became a multi-console owner. Final Fantasy VIII and Legend of Legaia would round out my PS1 titles for the year. But things would soon sour at university and I found myself back home. I settled into a routine of working and gaming, renting new RPGs and almost inevitably buying it the next time I saw it. It wouldn't be long until I ceased renting, skipping straight to the buying part.

I added 24 PS1 titles to my collection in 2001. A small start, but included in there were titles such as Valkyrie Profile, Star Ocean: 2nd Story, FFVII and IX, Suikoden, Vagrant Story, Grandia and the above pictured Lunar 2. The PS1 was retired in January of 2001 with the purchase of Final Fantasy X and a brand new PS2. Though I would soon see an article in the Official Playstation Magazine that listed and described the 79 PS1 games they clas(s)ified as RPGs. I made it a goal to track down every one of those games. A goal that currently stands 10 games short. That article would have another effect, but that is a part of a story for a later blog.

(Almost) Every PS1 game in collection
Click to view full-size image

Mathurin's Top PS1 RPGs

I had planned to keep it at 5, but a few extra snuck in there.

Final Fantasy IX was my favorite FF of the Playstation era. After the more futuristic VII & VIII is was a return to the fantasy setting of earlier games and the learning of skills from weapons resulted in more unique characters than the materia of VII and less annoying than the stocking of magic for the GFs of VIII. I won't go into much detail here. Love 'em or hate 'em, you know what you are getting out of a Final Fantasy title.

Chono Cross was the game the spurred my PS1 purchase and it did not disappoint. A huge and unique cast, an interesting story spanning parallel worlds, and one of Yasunori Mitsuda's finest soundtracks. With several branching storylines and a new game + feature, it offered plenty of replayability especially if you wanted to recruit all 45 characters. It didn't quite top Chrono Trigger in my eyes, though it did come pretty close.

Final Fantasy Tactics was the one of the first Strategy RPG I bought and the one I got the most enjoyment out of. A deep clas(s)-based system, an even deeper story (not helped by the translation), and a fantastic soundtrack. Neither of the two mroe recent Tactics Advance games could match Ramza's quest to protect his sister and find the truth behind the numerous factions vying for control of the kingdom.

Valkyrie Profile is fairly unique among RPGs. Based on Norse mythology, it consisted solely of story scenes and dungeons. Your goal as Lenneth, the Valkyrie, was to prepare the characters you recruit in story scenes for the swiftly approaching Ragnarok, the final battle. Oh, and you only had a limited amount of time to do this in and even the very act of seeking out your next destination used up your precious time. Battle was turn-based, but you could time each of the 4 party member's various attacks, setting up combos and possibly bonus xp. If you could get enough hits in, you could unleash a characters ultimate attack which not only inflicted massive damage, but usually filled the bar enough to perform at least another special attack or two.

Legend of Dragoon was to be Sony's answer to Square's Final Fantasy, though it would never gain the popularity of Square's flagship series. The game looked nice and had an engaging story, but combat was very difficult at times. Damage was based on how well you could time button presses and many of the most powerful moves had upwards of 7 presses which would be often be interruped by a counterattack which required pressing a different button on little notice. Enemies also hit very hard at times extending combat as you guarded for the HP regen effect. Despite this, the game's story and character's continued to push me forward. Word of a sequel pops up every few years, but nothing solid has ever materialized.

Have a favorite RPG I missed? Let me know, I'm always looking for titles to prioritize. This is the first of 8-10 entries highlighting various aspects of my game collection. Coming up next time, the Super Nintendo.

Seems like just a year ago I was posting about having hit 800, and here I am celebrating 1000. I was out with a friend seeing what the various local Gamestops were offering during their big yearly sale and didn't even realize I had hit 1000 until I was nearly back to the car. Fitting that it should end up being an old-school hack-n-slash (click-n-slash?). I had a demo for the first Diablo back when it came out, but my computer at the time just couldn't handle it. I'm pretty sure that won't be an issue now.

I'm a big fan of statistics so what better time than this momentious occasion to have my database crunch some numbers.

By Platform
#1 - PS2 22.0%
#2 - PS1 9.2%
#3 - DS 8.0%
#4 - Xbox 7.9%
#5 - GBA 6.9%
#6 - 360 6.1%
#7 - Cube 5.9%
#8 - PSP 4.6%
#9 - SNES 4.4%
#10 - SAT 3.2%

By Genre
#1 - RPG 46.4%
#2 - Action 17.7%
#3 - Adventure 6.5%
#4 - Strategy 3.5%
#5 - Platformer 3.4%
#6 - Shooter 3.2%
#7 - FPS 3.0%
#8 - Fighting 2.6%
#8 - Sports 2.6%
#10 - Simulation 2.4%

By Developer
#1 Square-Enix 8.6% (Includes Square, Enix, and SE)
#2 Nintendo 5.6%
#3 Capcom 4.6%
#4 Atlus 3.8%
#4 Konami 3.8%

By Publisher
#1 Nintendo 14.1%
#2 Atlus 13.7% (USA + JPN)
#3 Square-Enix 10.3 % (Square + Square EA + Enix + SE)
#4 Capcom 5.2%
#5 Sega 4.7%

By Year
#1 - 2007 20.5%
#2 - 2008 19.8%
#3 - 2006 16.2%
#4 - 2005 15.4%
#5 - 2004 7.8%

By Store
#1 - EB/Gamestop 54.8% (My local store)
#2 - Ebay 10.9%
#3 - EB/Gamestop 8.5% (All other stores)
#4 - Meijer - 8.1%
#5 - Unknown 3.6%

By Media
#1 DVD 35.3%
#2 Cartridge 31.9%
#3 CD 15.1%
#4 GC Disc 5.9% (Gamecube disc format)
#5 UMD 4.3%

By Region
#1 USA 94.5%
#2 JPN 5.5%

Nothing terribly surprising to me, though I didn't realize I had enough Konami/Capcom stuff to make the top 5. In May Atlus will surpass Nintendo as my top Publisher.

If you curious about anything, just let me know. This was the easy stuff and I should have enough data to do quite a bit of stuff with.

Egad! I've been tagged by Tinoshke! So I'm supposed to rattle of 10 things people probably don't know about me. Here goes... 1) Mathurin47 - A name I've used for a long time, but the origins of it are not something I go into that often. My mother was a huge Louis L'Amour fan. He wrote almost exclusively Western novels, a genre I never got into, but he did write several books outside the Western genre. One of these was The Walking Drum. Set in 12th Europe, the lead character was named Mathurin Kerbouchard. The novel remains one of my favorite books. As for the 47, it is a joke I picked up from Star Trek. 2) It is no secret that I enjoy RPGs. But this was not always the case. Dragon Warrior, the first RPG I played, I absolutely hated. The idea of level grinding was foreign to my 10-year old mind and greatly conflicted with the need to press forward since this was a rented game and back then 3 days was all you got. Even to this day occasionally find myself wondering just how strong the monsters on the other side of a bridge are going to be. I avoided the RPG genre until Nintendo Power got me excited for Final Fantasy III on the SNES. After a brief rental, complete with an all-nighter (on a school-night no less), it was confirmed, the game was awesome, therefore RPGs are awesome. 3) Alluded to somewhat in a few of my monthly blogs (around September), a recent pastime of mine has been zoo-hopping. Sometimes alone, sometimes with friends, I've seen quite a few zoos over the last few years. A chance to practice photography and see animals that you wouldn't normally see. It's interesting how they show many of the same animals in completely different manners. Since 2007 I've seen zoos in Detroit, Toledo, Columbus, Cleveland, Tulsa, Oklahoma City, North Carolina, Columbia in South Carolina, and Toronto. Chicago has been mentioned as a possible destination for this spring. I do keep a gallery of pictures, though it is really horribly out of date... 4) At the age of 17 and 363/365 I decided to stop forcing myself to eat meat and became a vegetarian. Between several bad experiences growing up and not really caring for the taste of pretty much most meat I gave all of it up. In recent years, tired of being limited to salads at some restaurants I eventually ordered a fish and found it actually tasted pretty good. My parents never ate fish, so I'd never really tried it. I do cook fish on a fairly regular basis now, so I don't really consider myself a true vegetarian anymore, though fish is the only meat I'll eat. 5) My luck can be so noticeably bad at times my friends have dubbed it "Steve Luck". If there is anything that involves luck or randomness that I need or want to go through, you can almost bank on an absolute failure. The only exception that comes to mind is when I won my Xbox 360 in a Pepsi/Mountain Dew launch contest with a measly 22 bottlecaps. I probably burnt up 10 years of good luck with that one win... I think I may have pissed off the gods in a previous life or something... 6) Cats. I like cats. There has always been at least one around the house for as long as I can remember. From Max, who spent almost 20 years with us, to the current pair PJ and Sunny who I can't believe are already 14 and 10. For many years there was always 4 cats. Whenever we lost one, we'd always seem to end up with another. And sometimes it seemed old Max would outlive them all. 7) 4 July. A day like any other in the rest of the world. But here in America it is known as my birthday, though some refer to it as Independence Day. Supposedly there was an accident around the time I was born triggering all the fireworks at Fort Hood to go off simultaneously, though I have never found any proof of this. I think my mother may have been pulling my leg on that one... 8 ) In late June, early July (right around my birthday :( ), my allergies flare up, turning my perpetually clogged nose into a perpetually running nose for a month. While some OTC stuff usually keeps it manageable, a recent trend seems to have a nasty cough popping up every other year. The kind where you can't even lie down to sleep because you are going to start coughing. Last time it was diagnosed as bronchitis (if I was reading the doctor's scribble correctly) and it was pretty similar to the symptoms two years prior. Unfortunately for this year, there was no cough last year... 9) There is a game in my head I've been working on for over 10 years now. A follow-up to a couple of fairly simple RPGs I programmed for my graphing calculator back in high school. Perhaps I've been too ambitious, sometimes exceeding the capabilities of the platform/language and sometimes exceeding my own programming knowledge. However, that recent playthrough of Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon has given a direction to take it that I hadn't considered before and perhaps simplify it enough that I can actually get decent code going. I still recall my one attempt at DOS-based graphics. All the movement code was identical, but whenever you would try to move left, the character would jump over one box and down one instead of performing the walking animation like the other 3 directions, eventually crashing the program. To this day it remains the only program that managed to blue-screen of death my friend's computer. 10) I refer to myself as being "happily single". While I haven't ruled out eventually dating again, it's been 7 years now and I've been in no hurry to change the status quo. Maybe I'll re-evaluate at 10. :P I suppose I should pull a few names out of my friend list, though quite a few of them have been hit recently, I dislike putting people on the spot, and I really need to go to bed (my shift starts in ~6 hours), so I'll do it this way. If you've yet to be tagged and you wish to put something up, consider yourself tagged by me :)

A quiet month as far as purchases, but a busy one for gaming. I had intended to begin writing my Retro Reviews for older games I had beaten, but I had to write out an unheard of (for me at least) 4 reviews for this month's blog. Backloggery made a change that allows you to break down compilation games into their individual games. While great for tracking progress on the individual titles of these packages, it did not have a pleasant result on my backlog as a whole.

March Gain +900 - 46 Achievements


March Gain - Level + 0 Trophies + 0


Backlog increased by 80 in March

Rank 13 on the MyGamercard.net RPG Leaderboard -4

Game spending vs. 2008 March (-73%) Year to Date (-48%) [Much better]

40:54
Tropp Village - Planet Roak
Didn't make much forward progress, but there is so much to do. (100/1000)

Completed the second DLC. Short, but I had fun with it. Seemed even shorter than Operation: Anchorage, but the hard decision you are forced to make adds a replay value that the first DLC lacked. The two new weapons are nice, the silenced assault rifle with scope in particular. Much like Anchorage and Knothole Island for Fable II, it is hard to justify the $10 price tag for a few hours of play. At least the arsenal gleaned from The Pitt will serve me well in the future. (1200/1200)

And we did it. Insane is complete. It was certainly rough in places, but not nearly as bad as expected. Longer, but it did seem a little easier than Gears 1 on Insane. (660/1175)

See Mini-Review below for my thoughts.

See mini-review in completed section. (345/1000)

(35/200)
Holy [censored]! I beat it! I took the time to make these fancy images with an X to mark each boss as I defeated it fully expecting to continue at my rough pace of 1 boss per month. I did not expect to blow through the last 4 bosses and take down Wily... Anyway, as usual my mini-review is in the completed section.

The World That Never Was
Sora Level 48 - 30:29
The end draws near.

First a disclaimer. I did not touch multiplayer and my thoughts are based on limited single-player and co-op. First off, co-op was poorly implemented. There are no saves in co-op, forcing you to either clear it in one sitting or have the stage you want to start at cleared in single-player. Not a problem for most gamers, but it is when you bought the game specifically for splitscreen co-op. The game itself was good. The American Pacific Theatre story was fairly run of the mill, let's get our job done and go home story, but the Russian campaign's story of vengeance was far more interesting. Reznov was perhaps the best character in the game. Perhaps it was too much Gears and Army of Two, but the quick spawning, one hit kills made me feel like I was in a shooting gallery waiting for the targets to pop up, and crouching is no substitute for taking cover. It was a decent game, but nothing special. Final score, 7.6.

The first Fire Emblem finally makes it overseas and with it a chance to finally see Marth in non-SSB action. While some of the more recent additions were not added, many of the Fire Emblem staples such as the weapon triangle and a pre-attack results box which were not present in the original were added. It felt no different than playing the GBA games with the top screen provided useful information on the fly. The story was certainly the weakest I've seen, and the cast largely forgettable. Even the ending seemed to come out of nowhere. The difficulty seemed milder than normal, which led to far less frustration and resets than normal. Not quite on par with the more recent games (perhaps due to the age of the source material), but still a good game regardless. 8.3

Stripped of the bells and whistles of modern day, Mega Man 9 is a game that relies on old-school charm and nostaglia to succeed. And it does. Through trial and error, what once seemed impossible slowly becomes possible (although quite a few of those challenges and achievements are close enough to impossibe). I tried to clear it without using energy tanks, but Wily forced my hand. Nine tanks proved to be overkill and what should have been the climatic final battle turned to a cakewalk. Mega Man 9 is several steps ahead of its previous titles. Going back to the series' roots was problably the best thing they could have done for Mega Man. 8.4

When I played the demo, I wasn't terribly impressed. Sure, it looked nice, but the stop, aim, and shoot mechanics, along with the A.I. turned me away. Thankfully, a friend was intrigued by that same demo, and bought it. Much like Army of Two, I think this is a game best played with a human partner at your side. Even on amateur, loaded with ammo and healing, death never seemed that far away (usually mine...). But the last checkpoint was never that far back and the ability to revisit your inventory and switch items in and out lightened the burden considerably. With everything the game gives you, especially as the game progresses, those 9 inventory slots quickly fill. Having never played any Resident Evil, the story never seemed beyond understanding. In fact, it would seem to have tied together much of storyline of previous games. Capcom has crafted a fine game that always has you wondering what lies beyond the next corner. 8.8

Kalafina - Oblivious
Kalafina was put together by Yuki Kajiura to perform the songs for the Kara no Kyoukai movies.

"one thing that I like about monthly blogs is that each one is different and each member puts its personal touch in his/hers, i know you like rpgs and this time I can really feel your personal taste in this mblog."
-jesus_knight

3 Pickups, 6 Additions

In the interest of conserving space and not having another two-post blog, this section has been removed. Suffice to say, if it is an Atlus title it is here. The new additions mostly consisted of turning to Amazon for the remaining Atlus titles Gamestop refused to allow me to preorder and Dragon Age to replace the Steal Princess SKU they deleted.

More Monthly Blogs Here

Still cold, still snowing, but spring draws ever near. And with it, Atlus season. For a small, niche publisher they sure have been busy. Spent a little bit of time this month in Photoshop whipping up a few images to spruce the blog up. I might tweak them a little, but I'm happy with the way they turned out.

February Gain +185 - 12 Achievements


February Gain - Level + 0 Trophies + 0


Backlog increased by 6 in February

Rank 8 on the MyGamercard.net RPG Leaderboard -0

Game spending vs. 2008
February (-26%)
Year to Date (-32%)

~10:00
Woodley Village - Planet Lemuris
Been looking forward to this for awhile and it hasn't disappointed yet. Good old-school action JRPG with a fresh coat of HD paint. Just the way I like them. A completionist's nightmare though, I'll be playing this long after I've beaten it. (20/1000)

Next goal is to climb Mt. Vackel and reach Undelwalt. But first a ton of side quests, including The Fallen who absolutely destroyed me on my 1st attempt. Will likely become an off-and-on title as I grind while focusing on Vesperia and Star Ocean 4.(320/1000)

The insane run continues. Nexus is clear and we are heading back down to the conclusion. It's been a rough playthrough, but I know we can do it. (435/1175)

Completed Knothole Island DLC. Some interesting quests, and some nice new items. Much like last month's Fallout 3 DLC it kept me busy for a few mornings, though I do wonder if it was worth the price of admission. (1070/1100)

Working on the last set of achievements. Run 3 (Speed-Run 2) has begun. Approaching the desert, still in early Act 2. (860/1000)

Still trying to decide what I think of this one. A by-the-books hack-n-slash dungeon crawler, it lacks a cohesive story. Combat is alright, but does little to stand out from other games in the genre.

(0/200)

Agrabah (2nd trip)
Sora Level 37 - 24:27
I knew things were going a little to easy. The difficulty sure jumped a few notches for the return trip to all the worlds. Still enjoying it though. I expect to have it wrapped up this month unless Vesperia/SO4 keep my PS3 off.

Chapter 4 - Meena and Maya and the Makabala Mystery
Battle Party Level 1 in Laissez Fayre - 008:23
The last of the character introduction chapters begin. Didn't get to it in January.

13:28:29 - 97.0% - LV.47 - Glyphs 97.27%
Castlevania has never been an easy game and even "Metroid-vania" games require significant effort, timing, and skill to complete despite the addition of XP, save points, etc. Order of Ecclesia has given me the most difficulty of any portable Castlevania since the early GBA titles. Despite the difficulty, I still had a blast with it. Each death spurring me harder towards the next save. While the game would eventually lead to Dracula's Castle, a good chunk of the game took place in different outdoor areas. A pleasant change of pace. I score it 8.9 out of 10.

schwarzweiβ -Kiri no Mukou ni Tsunagaru Sekai
Atelier Iris 3's opening theme and the 1st piece I looked for when I came across an Atelier vocal collection early this month.

3 Pickups, 5 Additions

Atlus and NIS America

RPG

Non-RPG

More Monthly Blogs Here

And seemingly in the blink of an eye, January passes by. Seemed like quick month. Not that I'm minding. Spring and Fall are my favorite times of the year, and I'll be looking forward to spring moreso this year than most others. I'm sure at least some of those reading this are located far enough north to know what I'm talking about. I don't mind a little snow, you don't spend 20-some winters in Michigan without getting used to it, but this is getting ridiculous. We're at 47 inches so far, and they are calling for another 10 in a few days...

ACQUISITIONS

PROGRESS

January Gain +550 - 22 Achievements


January Gain - Level + 0 Trophies + 0


Backlog increased by 11 in January

Rank 8 on the MyGamercard.net RPG Leaderboard -4

Game Spending vs. '08 - 40%
Not bad, but I can do better. I'd like to see half if not 66% less.

Nothing like some mindless hack&slash after 100 hours of turn-based dungeon crawling. Came across some Romance of the Three Kingdoms stuff while randomly web surfing and couldn't resist popping in Dynasty Warriors. (90/1000)

Near the beginning of disc 2 at the 6 bases. Things took a turn for the nasty, both in plot and challenge. Surviving, somehow. (320/1000)

After finishing Gears 2 on casual and surviving 50 rounds of the Horde, my co-op shooter buddy and I are back at the first gears on Insane. It was been smoother than expected, though certain sections definitely gave us fits. (520/1250)

With Gears 1 Insane complete, we've moved back to Gears 2 on Insane. Currently escorting Betty to Landown. It's going to be a rough play playthrough, but I know we can do it. (425/1000)

Completed the first DLC. Short, but I had fun with it. I had always wanted to play a sniper, but the lack of ammo for the sniper rifle had me depending on other guns. It was nice to finally have sufficient ammo to snipe for an extended period of time. I liked how it felt like a simulation with visible walls at times and the fading enemy effects. (1100/1100)

Reached Jewel Man, but he has yet to fall. Standing at 3 bosses defeated. (0/200)

Port Royal - Sora Level 21 - 12:05
With some upcoming Kingdom Hearts portable games later on this year I thought it would be a good time to finally pop in KHII considering I finally beat the first one last year. Been fun so far and definitely seems an improvement over the first one which was already good. Currently on the Interceptor on the trail of the Black Pearl.

Chapter 4 - Meena and Maya and the Makabala Mystery
Battle Party Level 1 in Laissez Fayre - 008:23
The last of the character introduction chapters begin. Didn't get to it in January.

5:28:29 - 43.5% - LV.24 - Giant's Dwelling - Glyphs 39.72%
Castlevania has never been an easy game and even "Metroid-vania" games require significant effort, timing, and skill to complete despite the addition of XP, save points, etc. Order of Ecclesia has given me the most difficulty of any portable Castlevania since the early GBA titles. I expect to see the end of this one, but it is going to take awhile and the playtime will be show nowhere near the number of hours I've played.

COMPLETED

118:33
True Ending Achieved - 95% Persona Compendium
Protagonist 93/Yosuke 90/Chie 86/Yukiko 82/Rise 90/Kanji 79/Naoto 80/Teddie 84
One of the few games I can say I enjoyed every minute I played. Persona 3 was a great game, but one I never played too deeply into it. P4 has rectified everything that kept me from fully playing through 3 (though I do intend to return to it). Great characters, hilarious comedic relief, full control over the rest of the party's battle commands, a well-crafted story, a great localization, and even a few references for the fans. Well done Atlus, this is how you do a sequel. A 9.3 out 10. Now how about SMT4?

Utada Hikaru - Passion
Starting Kingdom Hearts II reminded of how much I enjoyed a lot of Utada's work. Just learned she's releasing another English-language album at the end of March. I do hope it does better than her last album.

PREORDER LIST

2 Pickups, 3 Additions

Atlus and NIS America

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I have a fairly large game collection and the pride of this collection is certainly my complete set of Atlus USA published games. However since I acquired the final missing title last March their release schedule has been downright crazy. 21 games (Well, 19 if you don't count the Wii/PS2 Baroque and Dokapon Kingdom as two games). Considering Baroque released in week 15. That is ~20 titles in 37 weeks, or a game every two weeks. Only the GBA-heavy 2006 came remotely close with 17 releases.

So after such a hectic year, it was quite surprising to see the trend carry into 2009 with 9 releases already planned for February - May. So imagine my surprise when I read about another leak of forthcoming Atlus games, this time from Amazon.ca.

While it is likely legitimate, it has yet to be confirmed (nor denied). The titles, save one, are viable Atlus pickups, though the release dates are far too soon to be realistic.

Devil Survivor is not a surprise, nor is the dropping of the Megami Ibunroku prefix for the far more recognizable Shin Megami Tensei. It has been awhile since an Atlus Japan game wasn't localized by Atlus USA and I did call for it as well as the just announced this week Raidou 2 in my last post.

Knights in the Knighmare is not a surprise either. Atlus has published all of Stings recent games except for this one and...

Dokapon Journey. While I don't think Dokapon went over that well last fall and the reviews were quite mixed, Atlus may very well have picked up the license for the DS version at the same time as the Wii/PS2 version. All 3 were released on the same day last July in Japan.

Crimson Gem Saga (Garnet Chronicles) is not an expected title. It is not, however, a surprising title and fits well with Atlus' recent portable focus and just came out last fall in Japan. I'm not very familiar with this game expect that it is also know as Astonishia Story 2.

The only real surprise is Super Robot Taisen OG. Known in Japan as Mugen no Frontier: Super Robot Wars OG Saga, it doesn't follow the SRPG format of the other two SRW games to make it stateside. Instead it uses timed button presses and is similar to Namco x Capcom. Which should be no surprise since it was co-developed by Banpresto and Monolith Soft (which did NxC). Several issues would make this game an unlike target for localization. First, Banpresto was acquired by Namco Bandai and this was often cited as the reason for the long delay on NISA's Ar Tonelico II. How often does Namco Bandai let someone publish their property. It's why we'll probably never see a Tales game Namco doesn't want to publish. And second, the game includes both KOS-MOS and T-elos from Xenosaga and several original characters created for Namco x Capcom (likely a lesser point). Atlus has previously avoided crossover titles. And like why only the OG titles of Super Robot Wars as they (until now) did not include the crossover characters that appeared in the main series. Perhaps with O3's publishing of Chaos Wars and NISA's forthcoming CrossEdge, crossover games aren't quite legal mess of licensing they once were.

Or the leak is a hoax. Time will tell on this one. Either way my wallet is still hurting.

Love you anyway, Atlus. Do keep up the great localizations and I'll keep buying.

EDIT: 29 January - Found this link from last September saying Namco Bandai had trademarked Endless Frontier (Mugen no Frontier) clearing the way for a English localization and stating Atlus owns the rights to Super Robot Wars. I no longer have any reason to doubt the veracity of this leak.

I had originally planned to accompany this list with a "State of the RPG Report", but time, work, and Persona 4 caught back up with me and I had to shorten my plans down accordingly. My original goal was to have this up on 2 January. 2 weeks ago. A compromise then. State of the RPG, the short version. More RPGs than ever!! Good RPGs with some noticeable flaws. Reviewers come down harshly on said flaws. Bias? Apathy? RPG-hating? Who cares, I'll play and enjoy them anyway. On to 2009!

Here you will find a list of a few games from each platform that I most look forward to this year. The ones I'll be most likely to purchase Day 1 in a year when I'm trying to keep my game costs down.

I apologize in advance for the 360 bias in "box art". I plan to keep my high ranking on the RPG leaderboard over at MyGamercard.net so achievements come before trophies and the images I had laying around for editing are all 360 covers.

Alpha Protocol
I'm not entirely sold on the concept yet, especially since it seems to be even more of a shooter than Mass Effect. The biggest reason this stays on my radar is because of developer Obsidian who has taken two Bioware properties and put out sequels that came close to, but not quite matching, the originals. They don't seem to be straying too far from that here, as Alpha Protocol has often been called modern-day Mass Effect with spies instead of space marines.

Marvel Ultimate Alliance II: Fusion
I've always been a big fan of the X-Men, though I stop collecting the comics years ago. Though I wouldn't mind a return to the all X-Men lineup in the X-Men Legends series, the recent Ultimate Alliance game did not disappoint.

Dragon Age: Origins
Bioware returns to it's fantasy roots with what is being called the spirtual successor to Baldur's Gate. Currently slated for a spring PC release with the console versions shipping in the fall. I'll likely wind up waiting for the 360 release later on. Especially considering my fine PC game clear ratio of 0%.

After the fall RPG lineup the 360 had, I expect 2009 to be much quieter. What remains to be seen is if sales justified further 360-exclusive JRPG development, a shift towards the PS3 or Wii, or more multi-platform development.

Mass Effect 2
I greatly enjoyed the first one, even if did seem more shooter than RPG at times. While little has come from Bioware about it, perhaps they are focusing on Dragon Age for now, I expect to see plenty around mid-year with a late '09 release, especially if they are still planning to get their entire trilogy out in the 360's lifetime

Star Ocean: The Last Hope
tri-Ace fires their big gun this spring with the 4th Star Ocean. A series I've long enjoyed, though I never played through SO2 fully.

I hope to use this more as a PS3 instead of a PS2 in 2009, but beyond these two titles the future looks a little dry. Heavy Rain looks interesting, but I'm not feeling a Day 1 purchase on it. I've a feeling my PS3 will see another year working on the PS2 collection.

White Knight Chronicles
Level 5 has been working on this one for awhile, which just saw a Japanese release. While combat seems to move a bit slow, that might be a nice change of pace from the fast-paced Rogue Galaxy.

Cross Edge
I honestly didn't expect anyone to pick this up, but with the Disgaea and Ar Tonelico characters present NIS America makes sense. While I'm not expecting much of anything out of the game and doubt Famitsu 23/40 was that far off the mark. As long as it is on par with last years Chaos Wars (hopefully with a better English dub), I'll be happy.

Ever since Sony introduced the Playstation back in '95, Nintendo has only had a few RPGs each generation. The Wii does not appear to be changing this. Perhaps Dragon Quest X will change this, but that is still a few years away. And I must admit there seem to be more in development than for the Gamecube and N64.

Fragile: Sayonara Tsukino Haikyo
tri-Crescendo newest game. Due out in January for Japan, Namco Bandai has not yet announced a US release. Considering that both Baten Kaitos games and both the 360 and PS3 port of Eternal Sonata were localized, I would not be surprised to see this towards the end of '09. While it seems to lean away from the traditional RPG elements, the use of the Wii remote as a flashlight seems well integrated into the game as opposed to the normal tacked on just because we have motion controls approach.

Throwing this out here as joke more than anything else and a serious lack of other standout Wii titles announced for this year. Appearing in a list of possible 2009 titles by Lazard Capital Markets' Colin Sebastion, I seriously doubt 2009 will see a Zelda title. The more likely scenerio is the title is first announced this year followed by Nintendo SOP of at least a year of delays.

The system that refuses to go down without a fight. While its best days are certainly over, there are certainly a few titles of note in the coming year.

Ar Tonelico II: Melody of Metafalica
Gust's innuendo-laced RPG finally gets its US release. An RPG/Dating Sim hybrid, the first game felt a lot like Atelier Iris 3, a game I enjoyed greatly.

Mana Khemia 2
No official release date, but it should be out sometime this year. Should play a lot like the first Mana Khemia with some minor changes.

Devil Summoner: Kuzunoha Raidou tai Abaddonou
No word from Atlus USA yet on a release date, but they've only announced the spring titles so far. Chances of getting a plus edition with SMT: Nocturne Maniax Chronicle Edition... 0%.

Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon
The latest Fire Emblem game is a remake of the very first Fire Emblem. Like a lot of Nintendo franchises, the formula hasn't changed much over the years, but there is no need to fix something that isn't broken. Looking forward to seeing Marth in a game that doesn't have "Smash" in the title.

Megami Ibunroku: Devil Survivor
Recently released in Japan, I've a feeling this Atlus Japan developed game will be out in the states before the end of the year. Save Tokyo from annihilation by recruiting demons with a high-school aged protagonist. Sounds like Atlus all right.

Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days
Honestly haven't looked too much at this one. Should be done this spring with a US release not too far behind. Though leading character Roxas tells me I'll probably want to give Kingdom Hearts II a playthough before I start this one.

While most of the RPGs have been ports and remakes, there has been some original games here and there. Here's hoping Monster Hunter Freedom 2's success in Japan sparks a new wave of PSP development.

Dissidia: Final Fantasy
A Final Fantasy fighting game? I had my doubts, but it looks like it fared far better than Castlevania: Judgement.

Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep
The other portable Kingdom Hearts game with a brand new trio of characters.

Another year is in the books and it is time for the year in review. Another purchase-heavy year, though not quite as bad as last year, but still a significant spike from 2005-06.

2007 totals are in ( ) and grand totals are in [ ]
2 (1) [7]
4 (18 ) [69]
6 (17) [44]
8 (6) [59]
1 (3) [20]
8 (9) [31]
26 (22) [74]
5 (7) [32]
6 (11) [92]
24 (40) [211]
5 (3) [8]
11 (22) [43]
4 (9) [42]
0 (2) [2]
1 (1) [2]
15 (8 ) [25]
39 (6) [78]
32 (17) [59]
197 (206) [977]
Avg. 2008 Cost $21.73

27 (34) [167]

On to my selections for the Best of the Year. Selected from my favorites of the year, so it will be dominated by RPGs.

The latest game to the long-running Tales series made the jump to HD in a year when many other JRPGs just came up short. A well-crafted story, even if it ends up deviating into a cliched "save the world" plot, fast-paced, but rarely overwhelming combat, and a great cast of characters.

I was tempted to give this to Valkyria, since I haven't gotten to Metal Gear Solid 4 yet. But I'm only a few chapters into Valkyria and if the general consensus is to be believed I'm in for a treat when I do get to MGS4. I'm a sucker for a good cutscene to cutscene based story.

Who would of thought a game about Nintendo characters (+ a few others now) beating each other up could be such a blast. While the single-player game is nothing special, Brawl is at its best with a roomful of friends. A worthy successor to Melee, indeed.

I have a confession to make. A long-time Atlus fan, I've never actually beaten a game in their flagship Shin Megami Tensei series. Not even close. That all changes in a few days once I topple the final dungeon and obtain the true ending. In much the way Tales of Vesperia consumed my September, so went December. I couldn't wait to get home from work and clear another dungeon, or advance another social link. Nor did I expect the hilarious dialogue.

With perhaps the best story I've seen in game this year, and a catchy soundtrack, TWEWY manages to pull a massive 180 every time you think you've got a handle on where the plot is going.

In a slow year for the PSP, Crisis Core stood out with its story and soundtrack. Never mind the ending is well known, the important part is always the journey to get there.

An honorable mention of sorts. It's not often you see a new release for a nearly 20 year old system. While I've yet to break out the Genesis and give it a try, I've heard it's pretty decent.

Yep, in perhaps the best year the current generation of consoles has seen yet, and not just in the RPG department, my pick for Game of the year is a PS2 title. While it is certainly not a game for everyone, it is pretty much everything I want out of an RPG.

So ends a look back at the year that was. Next time, a look at the year that will be.