Some really good games match your description, most of these I've played on the ps3 but some are available on xbox360 too:

Rainbow moon(ps3):http://uk.gamespot.com/rainbow-moon/

The most recently released game in this list, and the most open-world game here too, has some interesting puzzle elements, tons of sidequests and apparantly 100+ hours of play-time, combat involves strategic thinking, controlling up to 4 characters on a small grid-based map, against up to 10 enemies, with lots of skills and different attacks available. It's kinda grind-y if you don;t buy the dlc packs though.

Blazing souls(psp):http://uk.gamespot.com/blazing-souls-accelate/

fairly recent release, you can get it on psn for the psp and it's compatible with the psvita also. HEAVY on storyline, this game is for people that like reading, gameplay involves selecting a location on the map, and then exploring that area, while it's not really open-world each location is like a small maze, with several puzzles, battles aren't as random as other games, with a gauge that ticks down with each step or action you perform in the current area, when it hits 0 you enter a battle. Battles involve moving character around a grid, attacking or using skills. What sets games by this developer apart are the way you can combine multiple "turns" into a single attack combo, providing it isn;t interrupted by enemies in the middle. this results in stupidly-long attack combos which involve (skippable) long attack animations. The game also features a monster capture system, captured monsters are treated like ordinary characters, lvling up and learning skills and can even be bred to create stronger monsers.

Cross Edge(ps3 / xbox360):http://uk.gamespot.com/cross-edge/

can;t say much about this since I never played it, based on trailers, it's simmilar to enchanted arms (below).

Enchanted Arms(ps3 / xbox360):http://uk.gamespot.com/enchanted-arms/

One of my first ps3 games, really good game but kinda short, lots of replayability though, ps3 version has a bug that prevents newgame+ from working, xbox360 has working newgame+. Gameplay involves a lot of exploration and random battles, these battles take place on 2 3x5 grids (might not be that sie, long time since I played it) each "team" (you and the enemy) has 1 side of the grid, you can move pretty much anywhere on your side, bearing in mind different skills and attack has various ranges, so positioning where you can hit the enemy and they can't hit you is the aim of movement. while there are several human characters the main party members will be "golems" think pokemon but found rather than captured. Collecting all of these golems can take 100+ hours, which makes up most of the games' post-game content, considering the strongest ones are protected by incredibly strong guardians and they usually start at lvl 1.

The Agarest series(ps3 / xbox 360):http://uk.gamespot.com/record-of-agarest-war-zero/platform/ps3/

http://uk.gamespot.com/record-of-agarest-war/platform/ps3/

http://uk.gamespot.com/record-of-agarest-war-2/

This series' individual games have the longest play-time I have ever personally seen, I put 100+ hours into the first one and was still not even close to half finishing it. I was unable to find either of the other 2 for sale anywhere (I live in the UK though, where it's hard to get hold of non-major games), the gameplay is NOT open world, but the combat is strategic and the exploration is still there, in small doses. The game focuses on the storyline and the combat over anything else, you pick locations on a map to move to, as you progress the story you move from one "node" to the next, each one usually involves a battle or story sequence (or both), upon clearing parts of the story you can return to certain explorable areas and walk around, searching for chests, other paths and more battles. I'm told the first game in the series can be completed in under 50 hours, however this would almost certainly require you to buy the dlc equipment (available through gameplay also) which is effectively some of the strongest equipment in the game baring the end-game equipment which can take a long time to obtain. The games feature a monster capture system, with breeding and sacrificing for obtaining better monsters and equipment respectively.

About following this thread: at the top there's a drop-down box that says "Favorites", click that and click "add to favorites"

There's an account option that determines how often you receive emails about the thread then (I think)

Usually forums auto-follow threads you've posted in...

Can someone explain to me exactly how materia works? I know what it is and I use it but what does check and arrange do? How can you equip materia in both sections?

Horrorfest

I'll keep this simple:

You can equip materia on both your weapon and armguard, where 2 slots are connected you can combine a magic materia (such as fire) with an effect materia (such as "all") in this example it would allow you to cast fire on all enemies during battle. Late in the game you will find more materia that can be combined with any command, not just magic, of partuicular note is "deathcounter" which causes you to use the linked skill when you die, combined with a phoenix summon (life to all allies, damage to enemies) it makes you almost invincible in battle.

The 2 places you can equip materia represent your weapon and your armguard, in most cases(late game especially) stronger equipment has fewer slots, no linked slots, or has the "growth: none" mod, meaning materia in that equipment will not gain ap.

The growth mod is really the only reason you would place materia in 1 piece of equipment over the other, for example you can get a bangle really early on (sorry long time since I pkayed so can't remember where, but I think it's a sword for cloud) that has "growth: double" meaning the materia in it gains double ap from battles, materia in the other equipment doesn't gain ap.

The "Check" option just allows you to see your currently equipped materia without going intot he equip screen.

The "Arrange" option lets you move materia around without having to equip and unequip it.

You can get her anytime you can get to the forest she appears in.

Record of Agarest War and Record of Agarest War: Zero are also available on the Xbox Live Marketplace. I was wondering what those games were about. They sound cool.rdmrchrist3

I've not seen them on the EU store, might grab Zero if it's there.

Yeah, besides the monster catching feature there's a ton of stuff there (depending on your decisions there's actually over 80 possible resuslts for the "main" character's looks and stats by the end of the game, the battle system is unique, the game is loooonnnnggg.

Just a pity they added so much premium DLC (they sell the hardest to obtain items for a few £ each), gold, exp etc.

edit: yeah just checked, they're not on the EU marketplace.

The Agarest games (on ps3) are pretty good strategy-RPGs with monster capture/breeding elements, including the abillity to capture any animal/creature in the game (human enemies = not catchable) excluding bosses, which are only available through breeding.

The games themselves revolve around turn-based strategic battles, where position on the battlefield isjust as important as the actuall attacks used, and with good position combos of 100+ attacks are possible by using your whole team to attack 1 enemy.

the monster you capture lvl up just like other characters (though with pre-set stat distribution), can equip all the same equipment (different monsters use different types of equipment).

Though the monster system itself isn't the main aspect of the game(and indeed is easy to miss as you need to find the capture skill to even find out about the monster system) it's easy to get engrossed in trying to capture and breed stronger and/or rarer monsters.

note that the games have very different names in each region, but generally include the name "agarest" in the title.

http://uk.gamespot.com/record-of-agarest-war/

http://uk.gamespot.com/record-of-agarest-war-2/

http://uk.gamespot.com/record-of-agarest-war-zero/

As an alternative to this, a game just released on psn for psp "Blazing souls: accelerate" is made by the same company, it includes a simmilar style of combat (though with large battlefields that rely on more strategy) has a simmilar monster system, and has many identical monsters (it's set int he same "world") I don't really know many specific details about it yet as i just bought this game and havn't got far enough to captrue stuff yet.

You need to complete all of raven's requests, as well as some special ones from gaius (they stand out a mile cause they only appear after you finish certain ones for raven)

many of them require you to pass a day (or more sometimes) to make the next quest appear, it takes about a month (in-game time) to finish them all.

You "reveal yourself" to her automatically during one of the quests.

Clayfigher 63 1/3

That's about it...I never really liked fighting games much, Just that, blazblue and the super smash bros series.

I got this game free from the nintendo stars catalogue i'm still aiting for it to arrive :( the video looks cool though.

It's the other way round @_@ the person GIVING the money D/Ces without saving and the RECEIVER will autosave.