60 hours for ff13. i’d be pleasently surprised. i can usually breeze an ff game in 40 hours or so.

I will miss wondering around the town though. Mechanically it does the same thing as the PS2 version, but it wont have the same joy of strolling around talking to folks you spot. Mostly though it is an odd change as there is nothing in P3 that the PSP couldn’t do both in terms of grunt and storage.

Bit gutted about that change to be honest.

Did you finish Persona 3? Because it also has a muted story through a lot of it. There is always something going on in the foreground, but the story which is culminates at the end is basically built up through the 70 hours it takes to get to the final chapter in a slow and stirring way and you get more out of it the more you put into it.

I will get back to SMT3 one day, probably after I’ve done Persona 4 and Persona 1 PSP (and maybe Persona 3 PSP if that’s out before I’ve done the other two) but Persona 3 was the game that I ‘got’ the most.

Shin Megami Tensei 3 is, and probably will be for a very long, on my favourite RPGs of all time. From a pure gameplay perspective, it kicks every other title in the series out of the water.

The system is balanced perfectly. While playing well has always been a requirement of the franchise, Shim Megami Tensei 3 is such that when you die, it’s entirely your own fault. Its challenging and its hard but it’s never unfairly so. Persona and Digital Devil Saga are challenging, but SMT3 would spit them on the floor for breakfast.

Aesthetically and story-wise, the game is a work of art. It’s story is muted but compelling with lots of layers for those who appreciate the underlying mythological and religious elements, and is willing to explore them. Elements which are largely just tacked on in the later games with little or no relevance to the actual mythos of the game’s story.

The later games also got far too wrapped up in their teen angst, school girl outfits and other such generic RPG cliches for me to be able to take them seriously or maturely.

BULLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLSHIT! BULLSHIT!

I’m sorry, but nothing can be better then VC. It’s automatically better then any other RPG in the past two years.

What’s really turning me of Persona 4 is that the overworld is a little more drab and down to earth compared to 3 and whilst yes, having control of your team is much better in gameplay it sacrifices other aspects, like mastering the fusion gameplay because now you only really need one or two top line persona’s where in P3 you needed a team that could do everything but at the same time you got to know how the AI reacts with your team mates and you start to grow a bond of trust with them, praising them when they get a timely heal or cursing them when they let you get your ass kicked. Plus I prefer having one big tower vs little dungeons.

Michael, you’ll notice reading the thread that I mentioned right away about the world being in peril at the end of FF7, but it litteraly starts up right at the end.

Not to mention the whole “Sephiroth summoning a giant meteor to damage the planet in order to help him become a god” thing.

Anyway, Disgaea owns all of you.

Shadow Hearts did that very subtly, comparable to say FF7 actually. and the plot also had more than enough other stuff, like Yuri’s character development or that female officer side story.

In XG there is a giant War going on almost from the offset which is being fuelled by those nasty folks you in turn punch in the face. CT has Lavos from a pretty early stage, CC you’re probably right on, I can’t remember much of that game to be honest. Shadow Hearts has a wizzard trying to use your ladyfriend to summon a god to destroy the world.

I think the problem with Xenosaga for most people is that it wasn’t trying to be any part of Xenogears, it was using XG as a reference point and telling a new, and more awesome, yarn.

how so? I might as well say that you’re up against the Evil Corpration and Sephi almost right from the beginning.

you practically don’t even do that at all in CC, Xg plot was nothing about saving the world up until the final Deus appearance, the game is like 60% about Fei and Elly btw. Shadow Hearts was nothing like that as well, especially the first game. CT does that only in the very end as well.

Still, in most of the games you mention you are out and out saving the world after the first 10 minutes or stopping wars of something like that.

Xenosaga was awful I thought. they’ve butchered pretty much everything that made Xg so good. the first episode was somewhat decent for a ‘prologue’ but it went just completely downhill with the second game. was a nice idea though, I’d say it ‘could’ve annihilate’ the original Xg if it was made right.

Edit: nothing is wrong with them, but I wouldn’t put them alongside old Square classics. they also lack a decent combat system imho.

You failed to mention Xenosaga though, which annihilates Xenogears tbh.