Alien Syndrome PSP

[Willy Elektrix]

Not sure if the die-hards around here will consider this an RPG or not. It's pretty decent though. The level up system is mostly what you would expect. Experience based with attribute and skill points to distribute every time you level. The skills and equipment systems are pretty reminscent of all those PS2 hack and slash games (Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance etc.). There's a class system (sort've) but it mostly just determines what attribute is your strongest and what type of weapon is your favorite.

All the blatantly unoriginal parts aside, it's solid and it's a god damn sequel to Alien Syndrome which is great. And there is just enough statistic tweaking for me to really get into it.

Sucks that you have to play a girl though. Anyone else picking this up?

[Eusis]

Sega's parading it around as an RPG, so may as well if you ask me. It's for the Wii too so I'd just make it a general topic, but that's just. IGN gave it a pretty low score, but if it's just a hack & slash-ish game albit with, uhh, shooting and blasting instead, then I'm not really interested.

... Sucks you have to play as a girl? Huh?

[Prime Mover]

Sucks that you have to play a girl though.

Yeah, it sure ruined Metroid Prime, too. Man, that game rocked, but playing as a female really makes me feel like I no longer have a penis.

WTF?!

[Willy Elektrix]

Sucks that you have to play a girl though.

Yeah, it sure ruined Metroid Prime, too. Man, that game rocked, but playing as a female really makes me feel like I no longer have a penis.

WTF?!

What can I say? I'd rather be a dude.

[Ashtrot]

Alien Syndrome is a terrible, terrible game.

[Eusis]

Edited my original post to clean it up a bit. While I fully understand making a guy over a girl in a game, or if there's a type you want but you're restricted to a few choices like in Gauntlet, Diablo, or PSO, it just seems weird to complain about it in cases like this or, say, WA3 and PS1. I like variety in my protagonists, not simply going for teenaged boys or bald space marines all the time. This also goes for older male leads in JRPGs, mind.

[Willy Elektrix]

I finally beat this game. God damn, it's really long (at least for this type of game). I'd say easily somewhere around 20 to 30 hours. It's alright. The areas, enemies, and variety of items get a lot more exciting toward the end of the game, and the plot (I use that word extremely lightly) picks up a bit. You get to play more outdoor areas and menacing biological alien environments, and believe it or not, there are a few moments of genuine atmosphere. Plus, it gets pretty hard in a few places and it's structured in such a way that it is extremely had to overlevel.

All in all, this game would have been a much tighter, more solid package if they had cut out about half of the redundant space station levels and added a few more enemy types. Regardless, it kept me entertained throughout. Purely for grind-enthusiasts though.