A slight change in plans. Since 42 is the answer to life, the universe, and everything.

So as I go further into my original plan to beat 25 rpg's in 2 years, I realized something.... only playing RPG's for the next 2 years is not only hard but probably impossible. There are other games I want to try afterall, and a few others which I have beaten since I started that aren't RPG's at all. So I thought why not update this a bit..change things around. Why limit myself to simply RPG's when I can experience games of all genres from all eras of gaming instead? With that said, here is my updated list of games that I've been meaning to beat, from many different genres and many different eras of gaming. Some are brand new to me, some are games I beat a long time ago and have been meaing to re-experience. So here it is, my bucket list of sorts made up of 42 games I want to play.

1) Star Craft (PC)

2) Rayman Origins (PS3) Playing Now

3) Diablo 2 (PC)

4) Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (WII) Beaten

5) Cave Story (DS)

6) Metal Gear Solid 3 (PS2)

7) Kingdom Hearts (PS2)

8) Kingdom Hearts 2 (PS2)

9) Super Mario 3D Land (3DS) Beaten

10) Zelda: Majoras Mask (N64)

11) Zelda: Links Awakening (Gameboy)

12) Bioshock

13) Blazblue Continuum Shift Extend (PS3, Story Mode) Playing Now

14) Bioshock Infinite


15) American McGee's Alice (PC)

16) Alice: Madness Returns (PC)

17) Devil Summoner 2 (PS2)

18) Nier (PS3)

19) Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth (PSP)

20) Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic (PC) Playing Now

21) Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 2 (PC)

22) S.T.A.L.K.E.R Shadows of Chernobyl (PC)

23) Professor Layton: The Last Specter (DS) Beaten

24) Kirby Return to Dreamland (WII)

25) Ardy Lightfoot (SNES)

26) Super Mario Legend of the 7 Stars (SNES)

27) Paper Mario and the 1000 years Door (GCN)

28) Final Fantasy 9 (PS1)

29) Suikoden 2 (PS1)

30) Persona 2 Innocent Sin (PSP)

31) Disgaea 4 (PS3) Beaten

32) Ys Seven (PSP) Playing Now

33) Borderlands 2 (PS3)

34) Pokemon White (DS)

35) Uncharted 3: Drakes Deception (PS3) Beaten

36) Penumbra (PC)

37) Sin and Punishment Star Successor (Wii)

38) Amnesia: Dark Decent (PC)

39) Mass Effect 3

40) Metroid Fusion (GBA)

41) Metroid Zero Mission (GBA)

42) Metroid Prime 2 Echos (WII)

Two down, 23 to go...sort of.

Well I beat two of the games on my list now. The first one was Xenoblade Chronicles, a JRPG that got localized in Europe but us in North America will likely never see (unless you import like i did.) It's a Wii game, and I can honestly say it's probably THE best Wii game I've played since launch. The story was fantastic, the cinamatics were fantastic, the music was AMAZING and the gameplay was fun and addictive. It's not every day you find a game that takes you 80 hours to complete but you do it without ever feeling bored, without taking any breaks to play something else... it's been a long time since I've played a new RPG like this, one that reminds me why I loved the Japanese RPG so much back in my highschool days. I can easily see myself replaying it again one day, on new game plus so I can finish all the side quests, and if you haven't checked the game out yet, I highly suggest you do.

The other game I beat, and I actually am still playing through probably another couple times at least, is Dark Souls, the new game from the creators of Demon's Souls. It's a pretty.. "hardcore" game. It actually feels more like an action game then an rpg sometimes but there are definite rpg elements with levelling up and upgrading your equipment, as well as all the options for weapons and armor, shields ect. It is hard, but only if you're not careful. A careful cautious player who thinks as he or she plays will get through the game without too much frusteration and will likely find a great sense of acomplishment after they are done. There is ONE problem with this game though.I liked it so much that i feel the need to replay it...which will possibly slow down progress with the other games but whatever.

Persona 2 innocent sin is going well, though I haven't been playing it as much lately. I did play and beat Batman Arkham City (which isn't an RPG so it doesn't count) and it was pretty good. I'm also working on Professor Layton: The Last Specter which is also not really an rpg but I love the series anyways. I'll try to update more frequently now, maybe a post per week about my progress. So until next time, happy gaming!

And so it begins.....

25 RPG's in 2 years is actually going to be tougher then I thought, seeing as I work a full time job as well, but I've worked it out to about 1 RPG per month. To start off with I chose the 2 games I got recently, one I'm about half way through, the other I just started. I'll give you a quick summary of the two now.

First off is Xenoblade Chronicles. It's an RPG for the Wii that was only released in Europe and Japan due to Nintendo of America being a bunch of idiots. It's actually an amazing game, made by Monolith Soft, the creators of Xenogears and Xenosaga, as well as the Baten Kaitos series (which I will be playing later) The game has a very well told story, amazing music, and some of the best graphics you'll find on the Wii. The areas you explore are absolutely massive and have a lot of interesting things to discover as well. And on top of that theres a fairly addictive battle system. I'm probably a bit over half way through now and it's honestly one of the best RPG's I've played in a long long time.

Persona 2 Innocent Sin is a game made by Atlus of Shin Megami Tensei fame. It's the first in a two part duo of games for the PS1, the latter being called Persona 2 Eternal Punishment. It's a really unique game set in modern japan. The basic premise is that a demonic presence known as the Joker is granting the wishes of those who call for it, all the while for some mysterious reason, whenever a rumor is spread it becomes reality. This actually comes up in gameplay to and you'll find yourself spreading rumors like "the ramen shop sells weapons" and then the next time you go there, they do. On top of all that is the actually battle system which is very unique in itself. You've got your standard attacks but then you've also got your persona attacks, which are used by summoning your "persona". You can gain many different types of personas to gain different skills throughout the game. Then there's the fusion skill system which activates if you use certain spells in a row, and instead takes the 2 or 3 characters and has them all attack at once for crazy damage. But even then, that wasn't enough for the developers and they decided to throw in something else. Something really unique. It's called the contact system. Basically you go into battle and instead of fighting with the demons you encounter, you talk with them. You can choose to make them scared so they run away, happy so they help you out with items or information (which can lead to new rumors) or even excite them and have them give you new tarot cards, needed to summon new persona. It adds a whole new layer of depth and also helps keep battles from getting stale because you have more then one way to do things.

Just a little history lesson on Persona 2 Innocent Sin. It is the first half of a two parter but North America never saw it before just recently as a PSP port. Until now we've only had the 2nd half, Eternal Punishment which I played before and it quickly became one of my favorite games of all time. So naturally you can see why I'd be so excited to finally play the first half of it. If you're curious why the game never came here...well.. it dealt with some interesting subject matter. The main ones being people dying in a school (the game was set to release around the time columbine happened so they scrapped it) and also..... and I don't know the context to this yet.....but Hitler makes an appearance. Why? I don't know. But I look forward to finding out, thanks to Atlus's decision to finally give us this gem of a game. I just started it, so we'll see how long it takes, and then I'll go back and see how it all ends once again with Eternal Punishment, a game I haven't played in years, and don't remember quite a bit of.

25 RPG's in 2 years

So I was inspired recently by a friend of mine to try something, something that should be a challenge but also should prove to be quite interesting. 25 RPG's in 2 years. That's essentially an RPG a month. I have a list of games, a list that may or may not be subject to change, of 25 RPG's that I have either been wanting to play for years now, are coming out in the near future and I want to play, or were recommnded to me and I figured "why not". This list is comprised of games over many different consoles, and many different generations, to try and help keep it varied and interesting. And so here are the 25 RPG's I plan to beat over the next couple years.



1) Persona 2: Innocent Sin (PSP)

2) Persona 2 Eternal Punishment (PSX)

3) Final Fantasy Tactics (PSP)

4) Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner 2 (PS2)

5) Legend of the Dragoon (PSX)

6) Star Ocean 2 (PSP, though I own the PSX version as well)

7) Tales of Eternia (PSP)

8) Breath of Fire 4

9) Suikoden 2 (PSX)

10) Xenoblade Chronicles (WII)

11) Final Fantasy 9 (PSX)

12) Paper Mario 1000 Years Door (Gamecube)

13) Baten Kaitos (Gamecube)

14) Pokemon White (DS)

15) Chrono Cross (PSX)

16 Valkyrie Profile (PSP)

17) Super Mario Legend of the 7 Stars (SNES)

18) Legend of Zelda: Majoras Mask (N64) (Technically not an RPG but I wanna play it so I'm leaving it)

19) Dark Cloud 2 (PS2)

20) Diablo 2 (PC)

21) Dark Souls (PS3)

22) Borderlands 2 (PS3)

23) Y's I and II (PSP)

24) Grandia (PSX)

25) Parasite Eve (PSX)

So that's my list. It may change a little, it might not, but these are all games I've been wanting to play or replay for quite some time, or are games I'm highly looking forward to when they come out. I'll be giving quick reviews of these games once I beat them, with progress reports as I go. Next post will be about the two games I'm starting with! I look forward to continuing this list and finally getting around to some great RPG gaming.

First blog, where I'm at right now.

I've been gaming for as long as I can remember. One of my earliest memories was playing Super Mario Bros 3 with my Dad on the NES, and leaving the system on for a month solid just so we could actually finish it. Ever since then, I've owned a system every generation (sometimes more then one per generation) and I've experienced a whole ton of different games. The problem is, this current generation things have seemed just.... off somehow. So I suppose I am just trying to figure out why. It's not as if there are no good games coming out, since there are, and it's not like I'm just not playing video games anymore because I am, but something doesn't seem right... maybe writing about it will help me figure out what it is.

Okay so here's generally where I stand. Back when I was younger, I'd pretty much just play platformers. Mario, Donkey Kong Country, Super Star Wars, I actually had quite a few. Then one day a friend brought a game over that just sucked me in, I couldn't believe how different yet fun this game was to me. That game was The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past for the SNES. Yep I'm sure everyone whos ever played a Super Nintendo has at least seen this game. For a lot of gamers it was a real milestone in our gaming lives, and really set the bar for what a game could be. After that game I seemed to hunger for more from my games. I played Pokemon endlessly with my friends trying to catch them all, exploring every corner of the map, trying to get to that truck so I could push it aside and catch Mew (an exercise in futility) but still I started to wonder if more could be done with these games. Around that time the PS1 and N64 era was beginning and I had to make a hard choice. Playstation or Nintendo?

Despite being a Nintendo fan all my life, never owning anything else, I chose the Playstation. Why? Because it had what I thought I was looking for. Games with stories of epic proportions. My first game of this kind was Final Fantasy 7. At the time I questioned how I'd missed the first 6 of these games but I got the game anyways after hearing about it from a friend of mine. I got home and as I started playing more and more I became absolutely captivated by it's story. It was like something I'd never experienced, a story telling medium that movies or books couldn't match for me. Not only were you watching these characters lives unfold but you were also helping them along, nurturing their strengths and helping them build towards their eventual goal. The Playstation was the system that changed who I was as a gamer. I still enjoyed the platformers from time to time, but they didn't have the same impact anymore. I needed story, characters, emotions. I needed to get that extra level so I could beat that dragon that had been kicking my ass for 2 hours. And the thrill of beating a game that took me over 60 hours was unmatchable. After 60 hours I became so attatched to those characters that I just didn't want it to end, but it always did, and I always found another game to get attatched to.

Then the PS2 came along and kicked it up another notch for me. While the PS1 games were classics and always will be, the PS2 was able to tell its stories just that bit better with it's graphical capabilities. Characters could have emotions on their faces, epic battles could unfold right before your eyes and things that you could only see in cutscenes before were now playable. There's a reason I own more PS2 games then any other system. I was in highschool and I still feel like this was the prime of my gaming life. If I were on a desert Island and could only bring one system and 5 games with me, it'd be a PS2 for sure. The games were more complex, the graphics were gorgeous, and genres were being redefined. Action games like Devil May Cry and Zone of the Enders, Metal Gear Solid 2 and 3 redefining the way a shooter could be played, RPG's like Shadow Hearts and Xenosaga taking the traditional RPG elements I'd grown to love and expanding on them, while delivering movie like cinematic stories. It came to a point where I started to wonder, what could PS3 possibly do other then make things prettier? What could be done with these new games that a PS2 couldn't do, other then graphics and more explosions on screen?

And that's sort of where I am now. There are barely any RPG's to speak of, definitely no Japanese ones worth mentioning. Storytelling in general seems to have gone down the tubes, barring a few exceptional games. I look at my PS3 collection and I ask myself which games I'd replay and to be honest, there aren't that many. I look at my PS1 and PS2 games and I see tons that I'd love to replay but replaying a game isn't the same as experiencing something new. The problem is, nothing new has seemed to quite live up to the past. There are some fantastic games don't get me wrong, but a lot of them are barely 10 hours long if that, and for every 1 good game theres 20 that shouldn't have ever seen the light of day. What happened to gaming? Why am I having such trouble finding new things to get excited about? I've been playing a lot of fighters lately, because they're the only thing that I've been able to keep an interest in.

I've rambled for long enough, so I'll end it like this. Am I just an old retro gamer complaining that things aren't like they were in the old days and I just need to accept that my beloved hobby has changed, or are my fears founded? Has the market been way to over saturated with Call of Duty and Halo clones? Or is the JRPG better off dead? Sometimes I can't tell anymore and I'm not sure where I stand. So maybe after reviewing some newer and older games I'll be able to figure it out.