I'm at the end of the Rhythm Encounter #2 and I really enjoyed hearing the main theme/overworld themes I already knew I loved, in order of my favorite:

1. FF7
2. DQ8
3. FF9
4. FF6
5. CT
6. CC
7. Golden Sun

Many of the rest of them were my first-listens and they sound like great picks.

The Golden Sun 2 Sakuraba pick motivated me to come here and give you all my favorite map song of all time, and as well, my favorite video game piece of all time:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ij03yUn2JLc

This week, I enjoyed the Ninokuni talk, and I'm kind of curious about it and might play it after I max out FF: Dimensions on my Note 2...

but I severely disliked hearing the phrase Diablo 3 again.  As for a game I absolutely enjoyed and gave like a 89%: Xenoblade was something I was hoping to not really hear in the p.c. because I'd rather avoid going back to stuff that was discussed a lot already.

I'm definitely not "the internet" but I sure didn't like Diablo 3 at all for many reasons - none of which have to do with errors.

Going back to that terrible May of 2012, when I shortly realized it was the biggest disappointment of waiting 11 years for a game, I just didn't like how it boiled down to being a Auction House based game, where all power comes from that.  Not to mention, its a money-suck for Blizzard to make money off fake video game 'items'.

This is to all the guys who do the podcast.  (And also my first post in ages):

Very favorable review of podcast 55.  I've been listening to all of them for the last year at work and it helps me get thru the day easier.  #55 is an excellent overall review of 2012's RPGs.  Fully agreed with Guild wars 2, Diablo 2 comments, also agree with all the negative comments regarding Diablo 3.  I voted for Xenoblade as my favorite game of the year as well.

Keep it going, guys.

Easy answer for me... I've been saying it for decades.

It's Final Fantasy IV (any version, really).

- An ATB battle system that forces you to act fairly quickly, giving the feeling of danger.
- A totally balanced party of fighting, white & black magic, and other skills. (Well-rounded)
- The first, best storyline that I've ever seen in a game, that moved me 21 years ago..
- Interesting aspects that gives the game flavor such as different airships and the hovercraft, three total surfaces to explore, etc.

It's no wonder why it was remade so many times.

If its a game thats UNDER 8/10 in quality to me, I can stomach 90 minutes to 2 hours average.

Anything greater than that and I like to play double that amount.  Or if its a Diablo 2 run its all day.

Only if I end up feeling like a game is 8.5/10 MINIMUM.  If its just 8.4 or lower, I don't get into it so much as to get everything, even though 8/10 is still a great score.

I concluded after many hours of playing XIII that it de-thrones FF2j as the worst FF game (except 11 and 14 which are bad, too) because it just didn't feel right.  Too linear.  I tried opening my mind to its battle system and didn't really like it in the end.  At least FF2j lets me go wherever I want and use spells like Fire 8, etc. 

I think XIII killed my fan-dom for the entire FF series.  The last handful of releases are terrible.  Since FF7, they've all gotten slightly worse.  FF7 is extremely good.  8 is a little better than 9, 9 more than 10, and so on.