This is kind of a follow-up to my Final Fantasy topic.
I haven't played a good console JRPG for a while, and I'm looking at my current options.
I wrote in the earlier topic that I was somehow tempted to play Final Fantasy XIII-2, but I wasn't sure if it would hold up well. I suddendly had a flash from an era mostly gone by now: game demos! I loaded up the Playstation Store, and sure enough, a trial version of the game was available! A quick download later (almost 2 GB o.o), I was able to play through a scenario from the game. It handles quite well, I must say. The series definitely evolved since the last FF I played, but I could still recognize some elements. Battles are fun, and the quick Paradigm Shift system does a great job to allow one to change strategies at any time without needing to assign specific actions for each character. The demo area wasn't as linear as I was fearing, which was one of my main concerns with the game.
Moving on, there are two other games that I'm also considering: Xenoblade Chronicles and The Last Story. These have been a long time coming, and they're apparently some of the best titles in their category released this generation. They were both scheduled to take a pass on North America, but repeated fan requests finally turned things around. Nintendo will be taking care of Xenoblade, while XSeed will be the force behind The Last Story. Buying one (or both) of the games would not only leave me with something probably enjoyable to play, but also send the signal to the publishers that we want more great games released around here.
So, which of the above should I go with? Do you have recommendations? Or perhaps you'd like to ask questions of your own? Let's use this topic to talk about those Japanese RPGs that so many of us played over the years!
Topic: RPG selection, Which are worth it, which to avoid?