With the sole exception of Tales of Vesperia, I have tried all available 360 JRPG's from Blue Dragon to The Last Remnant, and none of them kept my interest/ or I instantly disliked them for one reason or another, this one slipped by my Radar for whatever reason. Is it easy to get into?,

i tried it and i couldn't get into it at all...to me it was pretty boring.  The dialogue takes up such a long time and you fight like a chess board which isnt that great.  If i were you i wouldnt get it, ive heard some people like it but i dont, there are a lot better rpg's out there then this.

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Well, it doesn't make sense to me... On the other hand you are very small.

Thanks for your reply!, also Thanks in advance to anyone else who reply's, I couldn't edit my original post to add that in.

The game is pretty basic but its not that bad. Like said above, the dialogue kills it, kind of like bad acting, its kinda laughable.

The game being basic isn't a deal breaker for me, bad dialogue might tho, does it have a subtitle option for the spoken dialogue?, or is it all text based?, and is what your reading making you cringe or not, that would definately make up my mind for me. thanks in advance!

Based on your thoughts regarding dialogue, you probably won't like it.

Most of the text on screen is spoken.  But the English voice acting for this game may drive you insane.  IGN recommends you listen to the Japanese language track.

I was able to look past it all and enjoyed the game.  I did find it easy to get into.  The only thing that inhibits that is the ridiculous # of meters/stats that your character utilizes in battle.  There is of course hit points, then magic level, but then also a couple other dealios.  It's excessive though some folks overthink it.  I was able to get through the game and didn't even manage my characters properly for the first 2/3s of the campaign.  Oh ... then there are the # of options you have with regard to who you have in your party.  If you DO decide to play this -- and I don't think you will -- you might want to research who you should ultimately have on your team.

Again, I still really enjoyed it.

I felt this game started fairly slow.  You don't begin in crisis, you have play for a while before the meat of the game, and your main party, develops.  After that, it paces much like any other JRPG.

As noted, the dialogue is...unique.  If you want serious dialogue, you can put it on the Japanese track and assume it's serious (I don't know if it is or isn't since I don't speak Japanese).  I actually enjoyed the English dialogue, other than one character (annoying voice), because the voice actors were blatantly hamming it up (and I grow weary of all these super-serious JRPGs).

If you like turn-based combat, the grid system may appeal to you.  I feel it permits, and at some points requires, far more tactical thought than you normally get in turn-based play.  It has a fast-forward mode too for easy fights where you don't want to deal with the specifics.  Sadly, random encounters are still used, which I think in this day and age is silly, but again, something more JRPG veterans are familiar with.

The game weighs in at about 40 hours playtime.  I feel there is no replay value, and there are next to no side quests.  It is a very linear product.  The only substantial investment outside of this is if you want to try and collect all the golems or something, but from a practical standpoint there's no value in doing so.

 I ended up buying this game after all, and while I have just begun, I'm at Yokohama City being attacked by golems, other than finding Makoto's, as well as Yuki's character voices very irritating in English ( I did change the voice option to Japanese, thank god for that option!) so far I am intrigued, Atsuma just got his first golem( I chose Tiem-Tops), and I synthesized Primrose, now it's back to the school to save Cota.
Thanks again for your input guys!

It's funny.  I kept my first golem for a long, long time because I, oddly enough, considered him like a pet.  But, ultimately, I had to pick up some other really powerful mofos.  Believe me when I tell you, they'll be lots and lots and lots of golem options down the line.  If you want to save yourself some time, find out the ones you're gonna want in the end, get 'em, and stick with 'em.  The casino, btw, will be your friend.

Sorry I can't tell ya who I finished the game with.  I'll see if I can find it.

Found it.  APO, Sasquatch (not highly powered), Atsuma, and Raigar was my final party.  Of course, I used Yuki and Karin a TON throughout gameplay.  Seen a lot of different combinations out there but that that the aforementioned one is what I won with.

Good luck and enjoy.  I really did like this game.

k, thanks for the tips, well definately be on the look out for those 2 golems (APO & Sasquatch), Karin & Raigar I guess I meet on my travels?, so I'm guessing I shouldn't have a problem recruiting them.

 gonzoXBL wrote:

k, thanks for the tips, well definately be on the look out for those 2 golems (APO & Sasquatch), Karin & Raigar I guess I meet on my travels?, so I'm guessing I shouldn't have a problem recruiting them.

Yes, they'll become people who travel with you regardless.  Raigar is pretty badass.  Gets crazy strong.  Karin ... ehhh.  She's kinda a healer, I guess ... though I didn't even use her much for that.

I stuck with Atsuma, Karin, Yuki, and Rigar all the way!  I just recently beat the game and it wasn't all that hard.  I had beat it once already, but I went through it again from a recent save point and leveled up some more and did the rest of the side missions I skipped.  My team were at level 60 or so.  A lot of their power came from upgrading their parameters though.  Around a 3500 to 5500 each I think. 

Oh, as mentioned before, the casino will come in handy.  There's a few good abilities there.  Try to wait till you get about 200000 chips before spending it all.  (it's not as hard as it sounds)  Play the roulette.

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"I said this before. The only way to live a good life is to act on your emotions." - Heero Yuy (Gundam Wing)

If you cant get into the other rpgs like Vesperia, or Star Ocean I doubt you'd like this one. Its a pretty basic rpg with limited options in battle, your HP/EP heal after every battle the only thing that decreases is VP, and it'll take several battles for that to reach zero. Its the classic story of a Main character having some sort of hidden dangerous power that he has no clue of.
 
You should try Fallout 3, if you can hold your interest until you escape the vault that is. 

Null the Vesperia mention, I read your para wrong. Star Ocean has a decent SL, addictive battle system, you might like that if you haven't tried it.

Enchanted Arms uses a 'chess' like board that you move your characters on and they can either attack with a skill, use an item, or wait. They will act in the order you set them in. After they have gone the enemies get a turn. Which you can Fast Forward through by holding Y. You can save at any point in the game, it has a slow start so you might lose interest rather quickly.
 
I rented this game on a free rental, but I just may end up buying it. But thats cause I can get into game rather easy, even ones that are outside of the genre I tend to stick to.
 
Fallout has 1st person, & 3rd person views, battles are usually fought solo unless you have a companion with you, which vary based on your alingment (Evil, Neutral,Good). It takes place in a futuristic 50's setting, after the Apocalypse (or a Nuclear War), you can use guns, or melee weapons like iron knuckles or a baseball bat, there's a targeting system that lets you aim for a particular part of the body, arms, legs, torso, or head at the cost of AP. You're pretty much free do do whatever you want but doing bad things cost you karma and wil cause you to be 'evil' in the eyes of others. Bad things are like stealing, or kiling friendly npcs, or lying, picking locks, ect. Its a pretty fun rpg.
 
Star Ocean 4, has a nice storyline to it, with several anime cliches, some of the Private Actions can be quite humorous, the battle system is addictive, you might like this one if you liked Vesperia.