Just for the sake of discussion, and because I find "don't listen to them, listen to me!" statements incredibly irritating unless they're backed up, I'll ask: what's so good about Neir?

I whole-heartedly agree. I actually found that the Dark Spire did a lot of things right. Sure it's rough at the start, but once you get into it, it's a lot of fun. It has a lot more emphasis on exploration and puzzle-solving, too, which in my opinion puts it far above the competition, and like you said, the story is great. One of my favorite games on the DS by wide margin.

Ugh, this looks more like my wishlist.=P

What I can list:

PSP:

Star Ocean: First Departure
Jeanne d'Ark
By policy anything made by Sting

DS:

Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor
Knights in the Nightmare
The Dark Spire
Chrono Trigger
Disgaea DS

That...is...awesome! :O I'd printing those ount right now!!

I know, it's a lovely game all around. One of the best games I got for my birthday last year, along with Strange Journey.

Anywho, I just found out I have a $20 gift card for Wal-Mart that I never used, so I suppose I'll ask this here while I can:

Since Wal-Mart doesn't have Hexyz Force (RAAAAAAGE), should I get:

• Z.H.P: Unlosing Ranger VS. DarkDeath Evilman
• Valkyria Chronicles 2
• Ys SEVEN
• Ys: The Oath in Felghana

Or should I just say the hell with RPGs and get Blaz Blue: Continuum Shift so I can play as a squirrel girl?

Looking back through the posts, I see that VC2 and the Ys games allcome highly recommended. I'm not so sure that they'd be what I'm looking for right now, but I'm sure they'll entertain, if not now, at least some time down the road. I'm not sure which Ys game is "better", though. ZHP has the catchiest name around, and I hear it's pretty difficult, grindy, and has a lot of customization, but I'm still not so sure about it. And after seeing Makoto on the website, I can certainly say I'm tempted by it even though it's a DLC character and I wasn't a fan of Calamity Trigger.

Heh, I know what you mean. Actually, SMT1 was the first game I really played that was challenging, and I got used to it pretty quick. Actually, it was a breath of fresh air after playing so many Final Fantasy games. Now I end up playing games like Dragon Warrior, Phantasy Star, and Wizardry fairly regularly. It's just too bad the rest of the series isn't as challenging as the original.

Okay, thank you, I'm terrible with acronyms.=P

The only games I can recommend are Eternal Sonata and Star Ocean: The Last Hope International. While I played them on the Xbox 360, they're both excellent games, and the PS3 versions have enough extra content to put them a cut above the 360 versions.

I'm sorry, but what does LF stand for?

...I guess. I suppose I just don't want to admit it since I'm stubborn and I used to insult RPGs for having no strategy before I got into them. I dunno why, I just find most Action RPGs to be mindless aside from the very best of them. Sure they require skill, but I just act on impulse and everything always seems to work out right. Even if Turn-based games don't require strategy, I still use it regardless. Maybe it's just to give me mind something to do?

More so than I've seen in an action-RPG, at least.

Personally, I'd agree and disagree with this in a way. I don't mind the evolution of the genre, as I like it when games try something interesting and unique. I'm not particularly fond of cliches, but I don't mind them too much, either, provided I didn't expect more. I always try to enjoy a game any way I can, though I don't always succeed. I just find it better to judge a game on what it does rather than lament at what it lacks, including whether or not it has change.

With that said, I don't really care for action-RPGs much either. I don't dislike them, but I do prefer Turn-based RPGs, since not only do they not require you to have good reflexes and can be played in a relaxed state, but they also offer more strategy than most action-RPGs. Luckily, I've seen plenty of JRPGs stick to the old turn-based formula. It seems like action-RPGs are mostly popping up on Consoles, which doesn't bother me much since I prefer Portable games, anyways.

...And I can't remember why this conversation came up in the first place.

Anywho, I played Chrono Cross once and I recall it looking pretty pixelated and the text was hard to read, too. It may just be a problem with the game itself. Starmongoose and ZeronHitaro, what kinda TV were you using, as in the Ratio/size/SD-or-HD, etc?

Heheh, I probably will. I got Soul Hackers for a total of $12, and that doesn't even have a remake. I'd imagine the original would be even cheaper.

Yes. It's been a while, but I know I did it. It was that snake lady, right? In the Icy part? I think I beat it before I went to the second major area. The combined levels of my party was roughly 1.5X the level of the boss, and my main was barely able to sustain two hits, while my demons were able to sustain one hit, so probably around lvl 10 or 12. I think I used a special summon to get a demon that was above my level, if that was possible. I used a combination of exploiting weakenesses and a lot of health items to keep from getting slaughtered. I think she actually went down pretty quick. I remember I spent many an hour grinding, but that's because I refused to go to the new area first before I beat her. I doubt that's advisable.

It it looks very interesting, too. For a second there I thought you were talking about a localization of Devil Summoner for the PSP, though.:P I really hope we get that someday. I already have Soul Hackers, so then I'd only need the Raidoh games.

All this time here and I never mentioned that SMT: Strange Journey was my all time favorite in the series! It's hard to say why, but I just found that it did everything just right for me. The atmosphere and story was interesting, I liked the characters and found them to be very believable, and the dialogue choices felt like I had a say in the game, even if most were relatively inconsequential. I also liked exploring the dungeons and found them to be well-crafted with something new and creative being introduced at every new area I went to. The side quests were pretty neat, too, and I liked how they kinda tied into the main story, sorta. And of course, I loved the battles, equipmentment system negotiating, and fusing demons. I'm only about halfway in, but I've already put plenty of time into it just trying to get a stronger party and obtain the data for as many demons as I can. It reminds me of why I used to love Pokemon so much. I certainly can't