Where have the vital Japanese role-playing games gone? If 2009 was a bad year for the game industry, it was even worse for the heart-sick JRPG fan. Game Developer magazine's production editor - and committed JRPG scholar - Jeff Fleming looks back at the past year of Japanese RPG releases in North America, and finds troubling signs of a genre in decline.]

The post-PlayStation 2 era has not been kind to the Japanese role-playing game. At the start of the decade it was easy to imagine Japanese RPGs taking over the world. Titles like Final Fantasy X and XII, Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne, Xenosaga, Shenmue, Shadow Hearts, Skies of Arcadia, Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker, and Phantasy Star Online were just some of the highlights of time when another new JRPG was added to the stack faster than we could play them.

Directional pad: Allows you to select a target.

LB,RB:Switch between party members(up or down)

B:Scrolls through party members only in one direction.

LT,RT:Switch Weapon
For Reanbell: Between Gun and Grenades
For Zephyr: Between one Machine gun or two
For Vashyron:No secondary weapon in demo

Back:Inventory screen for selected party member(I only see weapons so far and no healing items)

X before turn: Allows you to set a path.

LS:Move party member manually or use to move path. Press to invert path.

RS:Use to change camera angle. Press to view the end of your path.

X during turn: Jump

A:Attack(can be done without setting a path)

The story is pretty interesting. I don't think Serah dies, she's a key element of the plot but not in that kind of way.

I thought that was the official box art for everywhere.