Blue Dragon reviews so far are slightly lower than ultimate

[JKTrix]

Blue Dragon *belongs* to Microsoft, being published by Microsoft Game Studious themselves. (Unlike Enchanted Arm, which did have the 'Only On Xbox' sticker but was published by Ubisoft.) It's highly unlikely it'll be going anywhere else. Blue Dragon was/is a key part of Microsoft's effort to penetrate Japan and they pumped money into Mistwalker for their development.

Mistwalker isn't owned by Microsoft, but Microsoft 'owns' both of the 360 games that are coming out from them. They aren't going anywhere.

It's true that people who are most familiar with the names behind the game already own PS2s and such, and that's exactly what they were aiming for. It was a combination that, based on legacy, couldn't fail in Japan. And it didn't fail. It didn't do super good when compared to other franchises, but it's been the best-selling 360 game by quite a margin. In its launch week, it sold over 80,000 copies which is relatively excellent--especially considering it launched against a freakin' Gundam game (which I own, and is awesome).

So while it wasn't exactly a blockbuster in Japan, it was definitely a hit for the 360.
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As for the other games, I'm playing Persona 3 now and don't feel the need to play any other console JRPG for the rest of the year. It's fresh.
I will buy Blue Dragon. I wasn't a fan of the .hack series. I never touched Wild Arms before, but I might get V just because of this. Eternal Sonata is pretty, but the gameplay didn't really click for me. I'll probably buy it next year after I recover from the banruptcy that will happen after this 'holiday' season. Lost Odyssey looks fairly graphically impressive, but the gameplay doesn't look like anything special either.

While I may not be looking forward so much to Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey or Eternal Sonata, I do want more Japanese-styled games on the system. So, my way of telling the companies I want more of them is to buy the games. If I can afford it.

But yeah, Persona 3. Full stop. My JRPG of the year.

[Dragonsoul]

It appears you are only excited about Persona 3, not any other Jrpg this fall. White Knight Story, FF CC 2, and Dragon Quest Swords come out next spring, what other top console traditional Japanese rpg's come out next spring also?

Are you the one who recommended Persona 3 to me after I showed only slight interest? I am renting it and it is great! The strengths are the story, characters, and voice acting. The voice of one of the two main girls(not the class president but the younger one) is very good! It's great and about as good as Rogue Galaxy and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivon but since my standards are extremely high, I will not buy it or beat it, and the only two new rpgs I will buy this fall are Lost Odyssey and Mass Effect.

I'll play it for an hour or two more today and then mail it back so I can get in the mail a rental of Bioshock! I use the gamerang.com online video game rental by mail service, and it's great, it's the #1 ranked service of this type from toptenreviews.com article on the services.

Rentals each week:
Aug 14 - Persona 3
Aug 21 - Bioshock
Aug 28 - Blue Dragon
Sep 3 - Wild Arms 5
Sep 10 - .hack//G.U. Vol.3: Redemption
Sep 17 - Eternal Sonata
After this I will rent some older top PS 2 and Xbox 360 rpg's, which ones should I rent?

[JKTrix]

Persona 3...The strengths are the story, characters, and voice acting.

What do you think about the gameplay? That's one of the major things that sets it apart from the standard turn-based boring JRPG stuff. If you hit an enemy's weakness, you can go again right after. If you keep exploiting the weakness, you can go through an entire fight without giving the enemy a chance to react. The weakness isn't always a magic element, some are weak to certain types of non-magic attacks. And, if you exploit the weakness well enough and get all the enemies on the screen 'down' (but not dead), you perform an 'All-out attack' with all of your party members for some fairly big damage to all the enemies. In a game that seems so dark and serious, the all-out attack is pretty humorous.

Are you making friends with people at school and other places? Besides being an almost separate game in itself, establishing friendships and getting closer to people allows you to obtain and create different and more powerful Persona.

Naturally, more Persona means you get more abilities. Some Personas will actually resonate with each other, giving you a combination skill between them. Additionally, if you have a lot of Personas you can fuse them together to create a more powerful one. If you have Social Links that relate to the created Persona, they will receive a substantial EXP bonus--most likely automatically gaining several levels.

I can't agree that this is 'about as good' as Rogue Galaxy, but everyone has different perspectives. I've already played this game for a bit longer than I played Rogue Galaxy, which didn't do much to hold my interest.
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There aren't any other 360 RPGs worth having. Enchanted Arm was ok for its time, since it was the only RPG on the system. It's decent, but you have "extremely high standards".

I'm sure most other people on the forum can tell you about PS2 RPGs, so I'll leave it to them.

[Dragonsoul]

By the way I rented Oblivion before Persona 3, it was my first rental. I bought the game and the strategy guide actually, then realized I didnt' have time and interest to play it for 150-200 hours this fall and stopped playing it.

Those gameplay elements are pretty cool. You can exploit weakness, and do an "All out attack". This "All out atakk" shows wacky cartoon stuff like "Wham!", "Bam!" and "Kapow!", which is great! It looks like a Batman or Looney Tunes thingie.

I made friends with Kenji, who is a Magician Social Link. I want to join clubs also. I like the Persona and Social Link combination.

The story, characters, and voice acting in Persona 3, but the other aspects of the game are ok mainly. They are: Movie graphics(anime), character design, monster design, level/area designs, music, sound effects, controls.

The menus are pretty good though. The Battle system has pros and cons to it also. Sometimes seems basic but sometimes good. The game appears to be innovation and appears to have a long time that you will play the game in hours.

It has some great advantages, but I'm wondering how the reviewers appear to ignore some of the flaws of Persona 3(which I listed) in the reviews. Are they ignoring them or am I the only person who is concerned about this? For example the level design in Tartarus is extremely basic from what I've seen.

I'm really impressed by the story, characters, and voice acting mostly. Also, I wish the main character talked.

The game is pretty good, I rented it, but I won't beat it or buy it, limited time and money for me. I turned it in and will get Bioshock in the mail shortly. I'm three hours into the game and I'm supposed to explore Tartarus. Please tell me, in a spoiler tag, what happens in the next couple hours of the game as far as the story goes. I want to know more information!

Also, how come the characters commit suicide by shooting themselves in the head right before doing a magic attack? !!!

[JKTrix]

Slight spoiler, but The Evoker is not a real gun, just a device to 'evoke' or summon the Persona. The Persona is seen as someone's inner being, so perhaps having the Evoker shaped like a gun is something to help break the barrier of consciousness needed to summon the Persona. They're not committing suicide, just getting themselves in the right state of mind for the Persona to come out.

Perhaps someone who is skilled enough could summon their Persona *without* the Evoker.

Tartarus is a randomly generated dungeon. That part of the game is a dungeon crawler, but there are a few elements to it that keep it from being boring/tedious like other games of its type. Sure, the level design is a little basic (can't do too much with random generated dungeons on the PS2 I suppose), but you never spend much time on each floor. You can usually find the stairs to the next level pretty quick. Every 5 levels, there's a boss stage that changes the pace. After a little while, you or one of your party members will get tired, encouraging you to stop playing that part of the game.

Imagine if you had to play in Tartarus for hours on end, without those elements. That would be boring, despite the better-than-most battle system. The level design isn't a flaw, just a limitation of the style of game they chose. Besides, Tartarus is the school. There generally isn't too much variety in a school.

If you played until the Full Moon, you'd see some variety though...

[Dragonsoul]

Great! What happens in the storyline please in the next two hours?