FMW

I finished FF XII Revenant Wings! It was indeed very decent. That's exactly how I would describe it. It's problems are: 1. The story is very clearly a hastily thrown together excuse to return to the world of FF XII and it doesn't even approach the qualities of the original work. 2. It's a Square Enix game, so it's not actually going to reveal how the mechanics all come together to make it fun until 7+ hours in. Those are appreciable problems, but the good qualities too which include: 1. RTS for the DS that's actually well designed from the ground up for the hardware. It's not that RTS doesn't work on the DS, it's that PC RTS doesn't work on the DS. 2. Steals the awesome soundtrack from FF XII 3. It's a Square Enix game so the production values for absolutely best in class. Looks great, sounds great, there are tons of abilities and characters, there's a whole looting and crafting system that can occupy no small amount of time, there's a ship's log that updates with different character's perspectives on events throughout the game, sidequests to do... there's just an awful lot of game here. 4. Is fun from hour 7 to hour 35

@TheFlyingGerbil - yes, the release of a new Animal Crossing (and I really do mean all new, not the weird "Wild World Console Edition" thing that City Folk did") is one of my most anticipated entertainment releases this year. It outstrips Luigi's Mansion, Shin Megami Tensei, and Mario and Luigi in my anticipatory esteem. @Deanb - Wild World on the DS is superior to the Gamecube original, but Nintendo kinda coasted on Animal Crossing City Folk for the Wii. The vast majority of the items in the world, animals in the town, and even the gosh darn music is identical. The art style of Animal Crossing games makes it that (in my opinion) the graphical upgrade from DS to Wii is negligible City Folk really isn't significantly better or worse than Wild World, it really comes down to what sort of screen you would want to experience the game on. For my money, I think Animal Crossing is much more convenient on a portable system. If that's your only option to try the franchise, journey forward without reservation. You aren't getting a stripped down or inferior experience in the slightest. @Everyone - new Animal Crossing, new music! This is why I've already paid this game off:

Super minimalist in the beginning at least. I've started getting to some more traditional "plot" stuff recently. I'm kinda bummed about that. I mean, maybe it'll be really good... but my experience tells me that the more gross the design of the anime girls, the worse the storytelling is going to be. Since this ranks a neat 8.5 on the gross anime girls scale I'm not optimistic.

I've been falling deeper and deeper into a love for niche, weird JRPGs. So I decided to stop fighting it and buy the new Etrian Odyssey, even though the shopkeeper is an 8 year old girl wearing a sports bra with cutouts over the nipples that are covered in turn by overalls straps. Okay I didn't know about that exactly, but I knew that the character design fell outside of my comfort zone. But character sketches are only one, relatively minor aspect of a game. Other things about Etrian Odyssey appealed to me immensely (first person dungeon crawling, grid cartography, and random battles that are difficult enough to be engaging). So I took the plunge, and all those things were as good as advertised. I have slight issues with the controls, but since everything is turn based it's nothing I can't work around. But I've discovered things to love in this game beyond the obvious bullet points. Specifically: Minimalist Narrative I fully expect the story to be terrible in this game. Anime storytelling is not to my liking. But so far this game hasn't troubled me with any such thing... the story so far is "You are a group of explorers. There is a new frontier near the city of Tharsis to explore, and dozens of your ilk have congregated in the area. Recruit a party and go do your thing." This isn't a JRPG story, it's a Dungeons and Dragons story! This is great! The strong art direction of environments and enemies as well as the narrow escapes caused by the difficulty make their own story. Skill Progression This is a game with a lot of grinding. Grinding happens. What makes this game remarkable is that it gives me proper incentive to grind. I want to grind! This is because of the skill tree - each character class has a skill tree with about three times as many opportunities to invest skill points than there are skill points to invest. The game is hard enough that every small advantage I can gain is precious, so making these choices is really key. I feel like if I choose unwisely, I could really mess up a character and I absolutely will be punished. So far I only really regret one skill point placement, but it really says something that they're so precious a resource that I know exactly the one skill point I misused. Music I had no idea that these games have good music, but they totally do. Let me share the track that plays during the biggest bosses. Yes, it's the norm that boss battle music be particularly exciting, but this one is a little different. Bosses in this game are scary. They're big, they're hard to reach, and you have no way of knowing if you're ready to tackle them yet or not beyond just jumping in. Since I'm not playing on Casual mode, all my character growth since I last saved stands to be lost if I don't make it. This boss music really well captures the notion of fighting something so dire: So I really like this game, but that said: Fuck you why is there no left handed mode!

I too am a 3DS owner who can help you WaS. I wouldn't worry about getting the original model 3DS unless you foresee yourself playing many DS games on it. I am not a huge fan of the D-pad on the system. It's very small, and it's tucked away way down in a corner. So for playing D-pad based games (any virtual console games, any DS games) I find myself either using the analog nub for digital controls (not ideal) or totally changing my grip on the system. I've finally gotten used to it... after upwards of 50 hours of D-pad play. Acclimating myself to an input shouldn't take that long. That's my only reservation about the hardware I own though, so if you see yourself primarily playing 3DS games on your 3DS that were designed for this hardware, then you should not hesitate. Take the deal.

Well that may or may not exactly happen either. Yes, Professor Layton games have been reliably localized... by Nintendo. They handle all the overseas publishing duties for that franchise. Level 5 has been dabbling in self-publishing outside Japan recently with some of their 3DS eShop content but they may or may not be prepared to localize and publish a large retail game stuffed with text and voice. If not, a crossover between these two franchises on a handheld isn't exactly the sort of project other publishers are going to be falling over each other to take over. So if Nintendo of America is helping out with Ace Attorney X Layton as they have with the regular Layton games, then we wouldn't know it yet. Their normal schedule is to announce 3-4 months before release and release about a year after Japanese release. I would expect to hear about a Nintendo release around E3. But I haven't read anything suggesting that Nintendo has any involvement with this project at all... and I don't know who else would do distribution.

Nope. All that's been confirmed is that any Western release would be handled by Level 5 instead of Capcom. Ball's in their court.

I just finished Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box! It wasn't quite as good as the first one, and the plot ended up being kinda not great... but it wasn't offensively not great. Just kinda corny and I felt like some of the extra elements weren't good. Like the tea making - that was a little too arcane I think. The plot didn't actually make a ton of sense either, if one were to get worried about that. I think that picking at nits in Layton logic is a poor way to approach the franchise personally, but I know there are many people who struggle to accept that telling a story that's internally consistent and plotted isn't always so important. But none of these problems were systematic, they were all unique to this title. The bummer pacing in portions and iffy extra content didn't change the fact that the puzzles were great, the animation and music were both pristine, the euro-anime art remains endearing and unique (in my experience at least). And this Layton didn't spike it's difficulty quite so bad in the last few manditory puzzles, which is a good fix from the original. Really killed my momentum when I needed to Gamefaqs the last door lock in the middle of that super exciting finale to curious village. The Unwound Future is on it's way to me as I type this. I look forward to it greatly. Also... guys, I need Layton X Ace Attorney. I need it badly.

Whoah wait what? You are leveling fast. I'm on chapter 11 right now and I don't have anyone above level 13. And I'm on hard! I think that's probably the issue here - you've outpaced the game.

Are they still gaining experience points if used? Maybe you need to hit level 21... That doesn't sound quite right though. Maybe you actually do need the item in this one. I confess I'm not so far in the game yet - my semester schedule has dictated that my video gaming be mostly limited to bejewled. If they're still getting xp then keep going! If they aren't then you've just gotta find some money to buy 'em I guess. Weird. No automatic transition upon max level? That would change the dynamic of the game considerably. I'll make sure to stock up on more class change items. Thanks for the tip off!

You have options. Obviously, if you push them all the way through to 20 then they get those extra stats. If any of these characters seem to be getting consistently great level ups, go ahead and push that luck for all it's worth. However if you have a character that you really want to get out of his/her current class or is too high level to receive reasonable experience from your current battles, don't be afraid to go ahead and turn them. This Fire Emblem is MUCH more generous with class upgrade items than most others. Obviously you've gotta ration them still, but don't let yourself get paralyzed into not using them. I'm not sure the game makes this clear, but if you get a character to 20 then they class up even without any sort of special item. If you have a character with just one key statistic that's important for them and it's maxed out, it might be a good idea to level up earlier so they can get to growing that stat again. The big mistake you don't want to make is leveling anyone up to a new class before level 15. You've gotta get at least that far both for stats and also because that's when the character will pick up the last skill within the class.

Wait, so now you've done a dramatic public exit and exit message both here and Kotaku? Geez, you're tough to please.

It's a good thing then that this game includes an option to deactivate that potentially alienating feature

This game is amazing. I say this because is simultaneously reaches out towards a wider audience by adding a casual mode, improving the interface a ton, and juicing up the production values and it appeals to franchise enthusiasts with unprecedented tactical options offered via support relationships, unit pairing, and new classes. The harder difficulties are absolutely insane (there's a reason it's called "lunatic") so that's also there for those who want to go there. It's awfully rare that a game can go broader and deeper all at once, this is something special. It's also worth noting that I'm playing this on hard mode and oh my GOD this difficulty is no joke! There's a pretty brutal difficulty spike in Chapter 5 on hard, but even aside from that just surviving is all I can manage most of the time. Optional objectives, building supports between characters I like... that's all for normal mode. I've had to abandon all but the most basic goals on most maps. Also, strangely enough, the paralogue chapters have been all harder than their main story counterparts. I've had to leave those for a couple missions after they pop up, because when they first appear I am absolutely not yet ready for them.

I am playing Crimson Shroud! I like it! I am increasingly frustrated with how it's menus are laid out, but that is a small price to pay for honest to god innovation in game structure and in how the narrative is presented. Actually the only thing that I can think of that's at ALL structured like it is Riviera The Promised Land.

God DAMN! Well actually, when I first read the headline about Shin Megami Tensei X Fire Emblem my reaction was more to the tune of "Holy Fucking FUCK!". But let's not split hairs. Although Nintendo collaborating with Atlus is no big surprise (that's what they do now, collaborate with mid-sized and large Japanese developers for hardware exclusives) that they're going with a console JRPG and it looks like they're LOCALIZING it... that's a little bit different. And great. See, with Bayonetta 2 Nintendo was saying "We're gonna invest in partnerships and publishing deals to make sure that there is great hardcore game content on our hardware" to which I responded "Pfff, right. It's a nice idea, but I don't see it ever happening. This will be a failed 1 shot and then Nintendo will get back to making games that sell millions." But now Nintendo's back saying "No no, I really mean it. See? We're ALSO investing in getting SMT on our platform, which is super hardcore and dark and not Nintendo-like." ...I am still skeptical. I will require 1 more big third party announcement to actually believe in this trend.

Yeah! I went 2 for 2 today! Everyone I wanted to win won. Which team will I root for in the Super Bowl? ...Ravens I think. Joe Flacco has earned this. He's played well consistently for a long time now. He had a super bowl trip stolen from him last season when his receiver couldn't catch a ball planted on his damn chest. He's been maligned by pundits constantly despite always being good. This new Kaepernick kid, he doesn't deserve it. You don't get to jump in half way through a season and win a super bowl. You've gotta earn your stripes. Go Ravens!