February RPGs

Wow. It seems like I've fallen off the face of the earth. Not entirely true I guess, but I definitely don't have much to show for it (I was playing Dark Souls and Street Fighter IV). What I am excited for is the line up of games about to be released on the 3DS. 

Fire Emblem: Awakening was released on Feb 4th in some areas, and throughout the week in other areas. The was some confusion because Nintendo managed to mess up the shipments for the game and getting a physical copy was next to impossible. Of course the option to just download the title was available on eShop, but that seemed like a lousy way to appease folks who have been waiting for a long time for this game to be localized or get a physical copy.

I've never played a Fire Emblem. The series started on the Famicom and sequels have spanned every Nintendo console since. But this series has always been under my radar. I'm more familiar with traditional turn-based rpgs along the lines of Dragon Quest or Final Fantasy. After playing the demo of the game and hearing so much about it from the good folks at 8-4 Play, I thought it was... awesome. The cinematics for the game are incredibly animated and fit into each of the chapters nicely. The multitude of playable characters that can join your group are each unique with their own voice, which is a testament to the great writing and localization by 8-4.

Fire Emblem games are known for their incredible difficulty and permadeath penalties that can influence and shape the way the story progresses. I'm playing the game in classic mode, and hoping that no one dies.

Edit: I've switched to baby casual mode because I'm a baby and I stink at this game.

I'm very very careful to make sure that it doesn't happen, but oh well if it does. Folks all over the internet have complained about reseting their games to prevent inevitable character deaths.

At the end of the month another massive rpg, Etrian Odyssey IV, hits the shelves.

This is the fourth installment in portable rpg series which is known for the incredible length and difficulty. Another series that I've wanted to try and because the first three games have been out of print for a long time, this has made it difficult to investigate what the fuss was all about. Atlus has reprinted the first three games and they are available on Amazon now!

The demo for EOIV is long and full of features. In fact, if you buy the game, you can pick up right where you left off in the demo! That's a cool feature that I'd like to see in more games. From what I've seen, the game is a full fledged dungeon crawler. I love drawing the dungeon maps on the touchscreen, a feature found in all of the EO games. I'm kinda warming up to the game a little, I think there are some parts that seem a little weird, but for the most part I'm digging it. The game trailer below exaggerates the excitement, in reality this is a slow paced old-school rpg. Sadly, I'm not a big fan of the music. Sounds like a 70's game show to me. 

I might take a little more convincing for me to really get into this, but I'm glad I finally tried out an Etrian Odyssey game to see why people have enjoyed this series for so long.

The Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate Demo hits the eShop on the 21st. OMG.

Buy Somethin': Fire Emblem: Awakening
Preorder this: Etrian Odyssey IV: Legends of the Titan