advice from you RPG experts...

[kyuusei]

No no, it does make sense after all. I've just never seen a game do that before. Sounds like it'll be an interesting experience. :)

[Yoda]

That'd be awesome if you didn't warn you and you called your friends over to show them the cool ending.

"DAMN YOU NIER! YOU BLEW IT UP! DAMN YOU TO HELL!"

[xXMelancholiaXx]

As amazing as Nier allegedly is I think I'm going to skip it. After reading and watching some reviews I don't really think I'll like it. >_>

[Yoda]

The top-down action segments are keeping me away. It looks cheap, the way your weapon just swings through dungeon walls.

[Kup]

The top down sections of the game aren't over-used at all.  They only appear during a few parts of the game. 

I shared the opinion of the last 2 posts until I actually played the game - seriously, just rent it or borrow it and give it a go.  You can't really say you dislike something until you've tried it.

If you don't like it, then you don't like it.  But you might like it.  There's nothing to lose.

[CDFN]

Back up your save before going for ending D.

[Kevadu]

Back up your save before going for ending D.

Question:  Will this still work for getting trophies and such?  I still haven't gotten ending D for this reason (god damn that horrible mind-numbing grindery needed for the upgrade all weapons to the max trophy...).

[Eusis]

Possibly since it's still marked as your save, but I recall hearing restored saves don't allow you to save, so you probably won't want to use it for achievements/trophies anyway.

[Alisha]

Handhelds like the PSP or the DS are the way to find good RPGs nowadays.

The only distinguished RPGs of this generation have been Valkyria Chronicles, Mass Effect 1 and 2, Tales of Vesperia, and Fallout 3. That's a mere five games to the virtual dozens of the previous generation. You are fine where you are, believe me.

Demon's Souls and Nier say "hi, don't ever forget me again".

Demon's Souls I'll admit to forgetting. Nier doesn't qualify for me. Nier has only one thing going for it: Old man as a protagonist. Every other part of it has been done before, better, and with a colour pallet that wasn't a grey-green smear.

Nonetheless, the idea that you can count the good RPGs on your available fingers inside a console generation is deplorable.

I do not count Oboro Muramasa or Borderlands, btw. They have RPG elements and I realise we cover them, but they don't register on my personal RPG radar, much as Zelda and Snatcher don't.

i would stay away from vesperia. especially if you have played and liked abyss. the pacing both in terms of gameplay and story blows ass.

Your impeccable logic astounds me. Pray tell, why must someone play Abyss and not Vesperia, when the second is in fact a fine and gentle game?

when ever i play a game i'm constantly comparing it to what i consider the most recent good game in that games sub genre. to make a comparison i thought fire emblem was a perfectly good series until i played super robot wars,and certainly fire emblem has not been helping itself with recent entries in the series. this is also the case with tales of the abyss and tales of vesperia. it's not so much that vesperia is a bad game it just wasnt what i was expecting after tales of the abyss.