I totally didn't realize that

yea Attack on Titan is really good.  looking forward to the anime coming up next month

only 2 episodes of Jojo left...

*checks* .... they really are blue bottom disks.  don't know anything about the rumor though.  

my old fat PS2 is dead though.  won't read a damn thing.  got it used in the first place though.  it had a good run I guess...

The game wasn't about the combat though imo.  It is a pretty easy game unless you totally fail to understand the basic game system (though I haven't tried a zero grinding run).  It's not complicated.  It's more about the characters, relationship system, and having lots of choices to make at various triggers throughout the game.  


Millenia and Sue are the best characters.  Millenia is barely ever in your party and Sue leaves less than halfway through G1.  Overall plot is weak in all the grandia games but I do like those characters.  Didn't like any of the G3 characters.  

Also, Ryudo was a fun main character until his personality totally changed :P

Well I think it's great.  There's not really anything else like it either as far as I know.

Riviera: the forest seasons puzzle and the flooded area puzzle with the colored stones

Unchained Blades is like STHA in that you have preset characters instead of making your own from generics like most other games in the genre.  Same number of player characters even (8)

I played Gungnir on "Advanced" mode for my first (and so far, only) play of the game and it was HARD.  Certainly a challenging game on that mode, though I'm not sure how hard it would be on normal.  Keep in mind my impressions are based on this difficulty level. 

The gameplay itself is similar to other SRPGs other than the turn system.  Enemies have individual wait times/turns just like most SRPG but the player gets only one turn and can use it for any character in his party.  Your turn will come up frequently though so you will be able to get things done.  The individual characters have a wait time after being used and if you keep using the same character every time your turn comes up without waiting for that character's wait time to go to zero they will suffer a penalty to their max HP for the rest of the battle.  For example, if you choose to move a character who has wait time left they will suffer a 5%hp penalty, and then if you use them again they will suffer another 5% penalty, etc.  Sometimes it is worth using the same character over and over even though you suffer a penalty, it's up to you.  I've seen some people say they don't like the turn system but I find it to be very clever and flexible.  You can also delay your turn if you want to wait for a specific character's wait time to go to 0 and stuff.  There are some other quirky things as well like being able to knock characters out of the battlefield if they are on the edge (this is very annoying if you're on the receiving end).

The game is fairly light on customization so don't expect a robust job/class system like FFT or TO.  There aren't really any free battles (you can't grind iirc) and you can't choose where you go, it is very linear.  Graphics and music are pretty good, the sprites look quite nice IMO.  The story is weak and feels unfinished.  Not a high recommend from me but still a good game.  Not nearly as good as Yggdra Union imo, though it doesn't really play much like it at all anyway

Yeah Hexyz is not amazing or anything.  It's very streamlined and easy to get into but the battle system isn't anything special and the story is pretty average.  I really love the graphics style though, looks very cute.  Better presentation values than Sting's other games generally have. 

I love Trails but it's extremely slow paced for prettymuch the entire game so it's not for everyone. 

Mission 18 is tough.  I didn't try it too many times I just know if a big enemy touches you in that one you die.  seems to just throw waves of big enemy+ 4 tripods at you.  I kinda doubt I'll have the patience for some of the stealth based VR missions.  Couple of them seem really tough

Nah too much work.  XD I'll clear revengence mode then focus on trying to clear the VR missions.  Bet ill give up on some of them though.  Got other things to play too

Finally doing revengence mode.  I can't believe how much damage perfect parry does 0_0

killed the 2nd part of the metal gear ray fight in one hit with it.  I thought I glitched out the game

I totally forgot about him lol.  He's a boss for sure.  I actually only used HF blade on my first run of the game and got a title "Samurai" for it.  the boss weapons are all great though.

just got all the left hands.  still missing 4 VR missions and I think 7 data storage...

she probably is but she's also the first boss (besides metal gear ray) so it should be that way. I think Sundowner gives her a run for her money though.  he's such a complete joke if you abuse the evade slash and ignore the shields entirely.  he's easier to hit than any other boss, even mistral, because he can't run away from you and you can hit him nearly constantly.  he also gets staggered a lot.  I feel like Platinum kinda dropped the ball on that boss fight because they clearly intend for you to destroy his shields but most people aren't doing that because it is easier if you don't.  They should have made it so that you HAVE to destroy his shields imo

the difficulty of the game comes more from the normal enemies than the bosses though imo.  Those Mastiffs (the gorilla things) are pretty sick.  on very hard and up the sword grunts are really tough too because they abuse parry and have high atk/def

Me too.  I have basicallly been using it non-stop ever since I started my 2nd play of the game.  As for me, I'm taking a bit of a break from it to play Pandora's Reflection (which came out the same day).  will try revengence mode when I play it again.  missing some VR missions and data collection things still too