I have to say, games have been letting me down recently. I realised the full extent of this fail the other day, when I was travelling long-distance and it occurred to me that there hasn't been a singularly great RPG on any of the next gen consoles in a very very long time. I was playing The World Ends With You and I suddenly wondered why the handhelds were getting so good at the genre while the consoles were falling behind.

What I mean to say is...I'm extremly passionate about RPG's, but I'm also very picky. I can count on one hand the games that suprised me and drove me to ditch school in order to reach their conclusions. When I first started out playing Final Fantasy IX I became endeared to the characters to the point where I had to play to know what would happen. When I first popped in my copy of Kingdom Hearts fresh off the new release shelves and came to the understanding that Disney characters could have a fascinating adventure with anime roots, I was in love. The moment when I noticed I was tearing up at the end of Final Fantasy X I knew that I was impressed.

There's more, but I'm impatient, the point is next-gen hasn't done this yet. The agonizing wait for Final Fantasy XIII is, unfortunately, too long. I've been ignoring all the news and screen caps in order to still be interested when the game comes to US shores, unless someone would like to import it for me, unfortunately I'm not willing to pay over $100 for a game. ;) Lost Odyssey came agonizingly close to being that epic game for me. It may have been that game, if my copy didn't freeze up about 5 minutes 'til the end of disc 2. I tried three times before I gave up, and I still haven't gone back to it. That game had all the right elements and maybe I'll go back and finish the damn thing, but not today. Star Ocean 4 had a lot of the right gameplay elements, but although it was entertaining to play through, I couldn't get over the VA for the main character, it just wasn't right. Edge was too pretty boy to sound like he still retained his manhood. Also, the fact that Squenix won't give both Japanese and English audio tracks as selectable options pisses me off. Every other RPG on 360 gave me that option, but no, Squenix is too good for that. Eternal Sonata was too easy, Oblivion didn't let me level up and become all powerful, Mass Effect felt too forcibly wordy and Tales of Vesperia is still waiting to be played...

Hm...I do like Tales games, maybe I should set aside the time for it. Anyways, my Wii is useless and I hate it right now, you know when you're more excited about downloadable games than the retail releases that something is wrong. :0

So, in conclusion to this little blurb. I really want to look forward to Dragon Age: Origins, Mass Effect 2, Final Fantasy XIII, Fragile, Resonance of Fate, Magna Carta II, Monado, Arc Rise Fantasia, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers, etc. And I'm wondering if each one is going to be a barrel of disappointment...

;_;