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Fate/Zero Originally a novel, but now an anime is on the works and the manga version is being published. It tells us about Kiritsugu's story during the 4th Holy Grail War. He was a mercenary magus known as majutsushigoroshi (Magus Killer). Ruthless and cold, Kiristugu was a top killer (his first kill was his own father, just get the idea). He was hired to represent the Einzbern family during the grail and developed a relationship with Irisviel, a homunculus from the noble line of magi. He was Saber's master but he never even talked to her during the course of the Heaven's Feel, except for his final order. It shows Kiritsugu as a incredibly bastard in all sense of the word. He reached the conclusion that is OK to sacrifice one person to save thousands , so he killed his own emotions. Because of it, he saw himself as unfit of Saber so he let Iria act as Saber's master while he fought on the shadows often using terrorist tactics (like blowing up an hotel to lure out a master. Like that). Saber hated him, he was the complete antithesis of everything she believed but she certainly enjoyed Iri's company. The novel also shows the relationship of the young Kotomine Kirei and his master, Tohsaka Tokiomi and how they worked together during the war and how Kotomine finally came in terms with his true self. The relationship of Rider and his Master is also a fun bromance between two opposites and while they can be the comic relief they aren't silly. Rider's easily my favorite servant of this war, I mean, he's Alexander the Great! And he likes video-games! And challenges Saber and Archer to drink wine! He's so much awesomeness. Fate/Stay Night Set in the same world as the Tsukihime games, the story takes place during the 5th Holy Grail War. It got three different routes: Fate (Saber), Unlimited Blade Works (Rin) and Heaven's Feel (Sakura). There's the Playstation 2 version with more images and no hentai, but I think this would cripple Sakura's route (I haven't played this version), but anyway. The Fate route got only one ending and is almost what happens in the anime, except that Caster appears only to be killed by surprise and it goes on right to the ending arc against Kotomine. I think this one might be the "cannon" one. Unlimited Blade Works route got two endings, and both endings are good ones actually, but the true ending is...Well, kinda sad. There's the OVA based on and is just like this, but they completely cut off the interaction between Shirou and Lancer (they picking on Rin was awesome) and the Shirou/Rin date with Saber tagging along. Heaven's Feel is Sakura's route, and also got two endings: one is incredibly sad and the other is kind of bittersweet. This route or you love it or hate it, there's no other way. I'm among the ones who hate it. It's the most sexual of all routes, with many hentai scenes and the entire route wouldn't make much sense without it. It centers around two things, actually: Shirou's struggle to remain sane after an accident and an operation and Sakura's incontrolable primal desires. Nuff said. There's also the Tiger Dojo, where's Taiga shows up with her apprentice, Buruma (Illya in P.E. uniform) giving you hilarious hints on how to proceed without dying, scolding you and making fun. Graphically is much better than Tsukihime. The backgrounds are all hand-drawn instead of photos, the quality of the character's illustration is also pretty good and every conversation got voice acting (the same as the anime). It explains lots of things that the anime don't shows (for example, what's on the Church's basement that made Shirou feel so horrified? Yeah, it IS bad) I tried to read the manga, but it's awful. It tries to have all the three routes at once and they don't match. Even stuff like the chronology is all messed up. Avoid at all costs. Fate/Hollow Ataraxia Hollow Ataraxia is Fate's Kagetsu Tohya. Bazett wakes up in a abandoned house with her memory all fuzzy and confused and is greet by an unknown servant, her servant. A guy who she hated right away for his homicidal tendencies, lack of respect and discipline. He was annoyed by his master strict behavior and being such a "goody two-shoes", but they got this contract. According to him, he's the weakest servant ever, completely useless (and he's not so far from the truth) except for one thing: they are locked in a four-days loop and as long they are killed during the night they go back to day one. No cost, no nothing. So what's the catch? Meanwhile, things are also incredibly weird to Shirou. Rin is at London taking care of some stuff and he's living with Saber, Sakura and Rider at his place with frequent visits from Taiga and Illya. Caster and Soichiro are recently wed and living at the temple and Lancer's around fishing at the pier. Both Saber and Rider warms Shirou of this feeling they have, it's just like they felt during the Holy Grail War and Shirou decides to investigate. The problem is he also is locked into a four-days loop and every time he meets a mysterious girl with golden eyes and white hair he gets himself killed. There's also strange creatures lurking around the city, killing people. Whoa, lots of stuff, huh? The fan-translation patch is only at around 43% so I had to stop playing but so far it's good. It got better effects than Fate/Stay Night, many minor characters got extra screen time and Illya's mini-game is just so fun Fate/Unlimited Codes Avaliable for PS2 and PSP. It's a 3D fighting game, and it got many characters each one with their own movesets, three costumes and unique storylines based on all the three routes and Ataraxia. There are 18 characters and 10 stages, some of the characters even got special moves for certain adversaries. It was developed by Cavia and published by Capcom, so the quality isn't surprising. It's a fast-paced game, fun to play with some cool extras. My friends hates when I play with Lancer Zero because...Well, 'cuz. Fate/Tiger Colosseum and Fate/Tiger Colosseum Upper Another fighting game. I tried my hand at it but couldn't understand a thing on the tutorial and the gameplay, so I was utterly pwned on this. But it's cute, got a wide variation of characters and huuuge backgrounds. (I wish there was Archer in casual outfit at the other games too) Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Illya It's an official manga that takes place where Kiritsugu and Iri are still alive, they adopted Shirou and the main character is Illya. It's a parody using the magical girl thing as a story. Just for laughs but meh. No, no hentai and they even make fun of Shirou's harem Fate/School Life Haven' t read yet, thanks for the link. Those three characters are Rin's classmates and they also appears A LOT in Hollow Ataraxia. Doujins Fate/Sword Dance It's a 2D fighting game by a group called Rapid Fire, got six playable characters since the start and two secrets. The control is a six-button layout and got a Last Blade-ish gameplay, with two character modes: Strong Style (Power) and Rash Mode (Speed). It's a fast-paced game and a little unbalanced, specially if you're playing with Saber. The turn starts right away after the enemy is defeated and the winner don't recovers energy. The story mode is very nice, with scenes right before each fight. But not all musics fits, the HUD is horrible and the voices are random fans, not the official thing so it can get a bit weird Fatal/Fake and Crucis Fatal/Fake I talked about those games A LOT, right? so I'm going to spare you guys. Crucis Fatal/Fake is IMO the best Fate fighting game (only lacks a story mode, but who cares with an online multiplayer mode?) Fight Magical Tag The game's is about SD fighting but it's not nearly as fun as Tiger Colisseum. You got 5 teams that fights in tag, you can't change them except the order. The sprites are OK, but the fighting itself isn't much fun. Battle Moon Wars It's a four-part Strategy RPG featuring the characters from Type-Moon, specially Tsukihime and Fate characters. I still have to play it, through. From Fate it features (as far I know): Archer, Dark Sakura, True Assassin, Avenger, Bazett, Berserker, Caster, Saber Alter, Gilgamesh, Iri, Kiritsugu, Lancer, Illya (NPC only), Rider, Rin, Leysritt, Saber, Sakura, Sella, Shirou and Zouken. Fate/Stay Night Racing Never played it either. It crashes every time I try to play it http://www.dailymoti...om/video/x4e48n Guardian Heroines Features many characters from Fate series, like Saber, Rin, Archer, Gilgamesh and Illya, it's a beat'em up with Tales-like graphics. http-~~-//www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukyNJK3U0hw I'm going to update this thread and add a review for Fate/Extra, be patient

Review translated (sorry my poor grammar skills +_+) Shadow Hearts Covenant After being mostly forgotten but with some good reviews, Sacnoth/Nautilus released Shadow Heart's sequel four years later. The result? An immediate success, being IGN's PS2 game of the year in 2004 (same as Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater) while collecting many awards and praise from many sites and magazines. The Story World War I is scaling with great speed through Europe, with the German Empire forces trying to invade a small French village Domremy without any results, being pushed back at every single attempt. The young Lieutenant Karin Koenig is the sole survivor of one of the massacres and reports to her superiors what they found: there's a demon at the town's church, which defeats all invaders with ease. So the Germans contact the Vatican and soon a inquisitor called Nicolai arrives to exorcise the creature with an artifact called "Holy Mistletoe". But soon is clear (for the player, at least) that the "Demon of Domremy" is no one else but our fellow harmonixer from the first game, Yuri, and soon things gets really ugly, involving a group of black arts workshipers called Sapientes Gladio who wants to lead the world into the new century with iron first. Using two DVDs as medium, the game takes place both in Europe, Eurasia and Japan with a big rooster: besides Yuri (which, by the way, is the same as always) and Karin, we also got Gepetto the puppeteer and his beloved Cornelia; Blanca the fierce white wolf; Joachim Valentine, Keith's brother, a WRESTLER vampire with a secret super-hero identity; Lucia the sexy Italian tarot reader; the princess Anastasia Romanov from Russia and Kurando Inugami, a ronin who acts as a bodyguard for the Kawashima family. The villains are also pretty cool: Nicolai and his followers like Lenny Curtis and Veronica Vera got some interesting development and good scenes. There's also many supporting characters, some of them are returning from the first game. You don't need to have played the first game to understand, but it's an even richer and complete experience if you do. There are lots of side-quests that also helps on the story, like extra fusions, duel arenas and many collectibles to enhance the characters. Some are ridiculous and utterly absurd like the Man's Festival, but some are quite tame. Again, there are two endings, the "good" and the "bad" and this time they are completely different. There's a New Game + and Theater Mode where the player can watch both endings after accomplishing them. The Game They got the first game formula and refined it. The Judgment Ring is bigger, there are now many options to customize it like extra striking zones, status effects and even auto-ring. There's also a combo system where the characters build up a sequence with increasing damage until all of them executed their attack or there's some input error. There's also the magic Crests, that while equipped provides the character some new magic to use, being able to remove and change them as any regular equipment. Only Yuri and Kurando can't equip them, but there's the Demon Fusion so it's not a big deal. Also there's no Malice to summon the grim reaper and stuff, but the Sanity Points are back. The Graphics The difference between Shadow Hearts Covenant and it's predecessor is huge. The backgrounds are pre-rendered too but they got a higher quality. The CGs and regular game models are up to pair to any Square-Enix game for the PS2. Each characters got a myriad of details, with many facial expressions and movement, nicely done textures and great hair and cloth animation. The monsters are more impressive, specially Yuri's fusion: greater the level, less humanoid it is, with various sizes and cool designs. A great deal of blood and gore was toned down, but the story is still strong and not for the weak of heart. All the designs are very creative and all characters are unique. Each weapon got their own looks end effects too and every single item got it's on artwork and description. The Sound The very same team from the previous game is back: Yoshitaka Hirota and Yasunori Mitsuda, and this time they are joined by Kenji Ito (Romancing SaGa and Mana series from Square). The new Icaro variations (Icaro Again and the piano arrange) are wonderful; the battle music are awesome, specially "Vicious 1915 ~Battle In Europe", "Glint of Light ~Mid-Boss in Europe" and "Astaroth: Battle with the Fallen Angel". The other pieces are incredible too, like "Evil Gate Opener", "Alice - Piano Arrange", "The Fate ~Cluster Amaryllis", "The 3 Karma ~Decisive Battle" and the lovely "Getsurenka - Love Moon Flower". The voice actors are very good, with the unknown (but good) Joe Cappelletti as Yuri delivering a great variety of emotions at the right times. By the way, the American acting is just as good as the Japanese one this time. Only at a certain point Anastasia's voice actress, Stephanie Sheh, gets a little too excited and her lines quite don't match the subtitles but that's not a major problem. There's more? In Japan they released a Director's Cut version with a couple new weapons, a new side-quest for the main party and another featuring the villains, some new scenes and a very important scene as re-made as a full CG. Unfortunatelly the chances of having this one translated are...Well, nil. Conclusion Shadow Hearts Convenant is one of the very best RPGs on PS2 and one of the essential titles that any RPG fan should play. The innovative battle system from the first game was kept and is even better now, one of the most beautiful graphics for the PS2, a great soundtrack and one of the most beautiful stories in any RPG. The first class cast makes the game even more interesting, you're bond to love while having fun with the fast-paced battles and an addictive story. Bellow: the new CG from the Director's Cut translated (MASSIVE HORRIFYING SPOILERS. Don't watch if you haven't played any of both games!)

Translated from my gaming blog I hope you guys don't mind my grammar mistakes, I'm out of practice on long texts The Story Crystal Bearers takes place around 2000 years after the original title. In the meanwhile there was a great war between the Lilties and the Yukes. The later tribe Crystal was destroyed and the entire race disappeared from the world. The lilty became the only united nation and prospered, being the strongest of the three surviving tribes (the clavats and the selkies being the other two). The pieces of the yuke's crystal are being used as a power source for all kinds of technology, from trains to airship made by the lilty. The liltie's military is also very strong, the clavats don't mind it very much being more focused on agriculture but the selkies are openly against the lilties' dominance but they lack the power and discipline to face them (nor are willing, they rather to take advance from the situation). Some people are being born with crystals on their bodies, they are called the Crystal Bearers. With the power of these crystals, the bearers got many different powers and are feared by the general population, being ostracized and can't use their powers on the cities because they might use it for not so altruistic means. Layle is a clavat, a crystal bearers with the power of manipulate gravity. He's a cynical person, but always pays his debts and is a mercenary together with his best friend Keiss, a selkie. Both are hired to protect the lilties' newest airship, the tourist cruiser Alexis during it's maiden flight. But of course things don't go so smoothly and they are attacked by zuus. During the mess, a portal opens up and a mysterious yuke appears, subdues Layle using a small green crystal that turns the airship's crystal powerless. That's how the story starts and you'll guide Layle through the world while he tries to make it even with the yuke, whom he calls "Goldenrod" while is chased by Jegran, liltie's supreme commander just because he's a crystal bearer. The characters are right on the spot, even the annoying girl isn't so annoying (Common at most JRPGs). You won't have to protect the girl or the lame friend that only screws up (specially because Keiss can take care of himself and is usefull sometimes). The cast is small, but the characters are strong: Layle is independent and rather to make things happens instead of waiting for it; Keiss is a selkie that tries to make his living among the lilty, much to his guild leader's chagrin; Belle is a selkie who works as a photojournalist who wants a big scoop (and win big too); Cid's back, weirder than ever; Vaigali, the selkie's leader who welcomes Layle as one of his own; the mysterious Amidatelion and his objectives; Althea, the lilty princess that wants to bring peace to her beloved kingdom, help her father and struggles with her own feelings towards Layle; and Jegran, the high commander that believes might makes right and the victory in battle is the only truth, nothing special but well-written. One of this game's weakest points is the story is too short. It's strong, well-written but it's possible to beat the game in less than 20h in the first time, 9h in the following ones. In one hand, it's not that bad if the player don't likes the battle system and there's no useless stuff. But it's easy to relate with the characters, the world is fairly interesting and the story is pretty good. I'd like to see more about Layle, but there was a missing opportunity; they also missed the chance to tell us more about the connection between Keiss and Vaigali. The love story never had any chance because Althea's position as a princess and Layle's attitude but it would be interesting to have some more about it. Most of all things are connected and solved withing along the way, there's no pending business but the ending allows the player to imagine how it's going to be. The Game Unlike the rest of the series, this game don't have a cute story and politically correct. Layle wants to make even with Goldenrod and wants some thrill, not to help anybody but for himself. Later he feels like he owe something to Amidatelion, but that's it. You'll spend most of your time walking around the world on your own, the only chance to have a multiplayer is to ask a friend to use the second controller to help with Layle's powers, but more on this later. The game is all about events and reflex mini-games, using Layle's powers as a main feature. There are just a few bosses that uses the regular battle system: only three of them (whoa!) but that's more than enough. To fight, Layle don't have any weapons besides his own power. You move around the field with the control stick, points to the target (it can be an object or enemy), press "B" to fill up the 'lock-on' meter (closer the better) and Layle can lift it when the player moves the Wii towards. With the A button, Layle's going to release the object but if you aim into something and press B, Layle will toss the lifted object. With a quick movement of the remote, Layle will create a sort of shield and will roll forward. The system is quite simple, there's no level up but you can enhance your abilities and attributes using accessories like rings. While moving around the map, the music will eventually stop and a counting down sound will be heard. At the end of it, the sky will become dark and a miasma field will open. The miasma itself won't hurt like the other games, but all the non-playable characters are going to disappear and monsters are going to appear. To defeat the enemies, Layle can toss objects or the monsters themselves. The game have many different possibilities. Toss a Cactuar inside a Malboro and something will happen. Toss a beattle into another and they'll become a ball and Layle can use them to do some bowling. But after a while, at the end of the music the miasma field will close down on it's own and all monsters are going to disappear. If all monsters are defeated, Layle can close the miasma himself and get a extra energy point (it's quite useful by the end of the game). It's fun at the start, but unless you want some more HP, get some extras or collect materials, it's more likely that you'll be running through the battles or wait the miasma to close down. It's a battle system where you love it or hate it. It's a innovative and quite creative system, but it lacks direct attacks (I find it annoying sometimes). The only way to do some direct attack is to throw yourself toward the enemies (not always possible) or equipping a ring that allows Layle to use the dodge to cause some damage. This can make the boss fight a little longer than necessary depending on your skill level. The game is short, so it's easy to deal. There are many small things to do during the battles that can be rewarding, but they requires patience, reflexes and creativity. The entire world is connected, except for two regions that you're going to need a train. After a certain point you'll be able to use chocobos, take trains or even portals to move around more quickly, all for free. Walking around there's always some chests around (a way to make money), things to do and mini-games, like saving people falling down the hills, help people being attacked by wild bulls, harvest carrots and onions from killer scarecrows which can shoot lasers from their eyes (Cid's creations, by the way), and so on. While riding chocobos you can use the turbo (infinite) and you won't have to worry about time like in Final Fantasy XII. You can also dig items or money from the ground. There are many spots where you can find the chocobo rental services, they go away when you unmount them and it's presence scares the monsters. The train rides takes one minute and Layle can walk around the cars, being able to interact with the machinist to arrive immediately or can go chest hunting and shopping. The shops are run by moogles. You can buy materials, jewels (that costs gil), accessories (costs gils and materials) and change Layle's jacket design. The accessories asks for specific materials and you can get them by defeating monsters or buying it. The order you give them to the moogles can change the attribute of the accessory you're making. The moogles also runs a mail service, which delivers some mission rewards and story missions, telling you where to go next. If you don't know what to do, just press 1 and go to missions. There's a summary on what's happening and where you have to go on the map (which not always helps). You can also read the letters sent to you, that usually tell you how to get to the places and Stiltzkin is always around to help you. There's only one point in the game that they don't give you any info, but you're supposed to know where it is because you've been there before. The game is about small details and little things to do. You can swim along the dolphins at the selkie's territory and help a poor turtle being bullied by a jerk, a hidden pirate treasure and get the girls angry at you in two different ways in only one area! You can't talk to most NPCs, but you can cause many reactions, since a legion of fans, fear or even a mob trying to hit you. You can even steal from old people and moogles! (now that's evil) There's lot to do and the game got a medal system (somebody said "achievements"?) showing everything that you did and the revealed medals unlock hints on how to uncover the nearby ones. Good thing the game got a New Game +, or it would be annoying to get at once. Some are obvious and happens during the regular story, like riding a zuu, some you need some ingenuity (like being hit by a train) or even read the hints from the menu. The Graphics It's one of the most beautiful games on the Wii so far. 'Kay, let's elaborate on this. It's a beautiful world, rich on the visuals, with nice textures and detailed models all around. All the game areas are well-design like the characters. Alfitaria, the lilty capital, is a huge bursting metropolis, with urban trains, many people everywhere interacting with each other and objects (which Layle can interact with his telekinesis). Bridge Town is where you can find Cid, in the middle of the desert, small and highly mechanical, and a easy place to get some trouble. At the monastery you can visit the chocobo stables, go into the cemetery or steal the donations of the church. There's the cherry blossom field where you can play with the petals falling on the floor and you can see happy people relaxing, cows and sheep can be seem at the roads, children play at the beach. The selkie guild is at a sink ship and the vineyard is one of the prettiest areas in the game, and you won't see a single loading. You can see Layle's rings and earing when you move the camera, his hair transparency are very well-done. He remove his jacket and wears a short when at the beach and Belle changes her outfit when at the snowy fields. Both common and story NPCs got many details and are in perfect harmony with their surroundings. The final battle is outstanding, with many particulpes and many things happening at once, the boss is huge and got many stages to defeat it, and sometimes is hard to tell what's CG or if it's a in-game animation. Once again Square showed what it can do. The Sound Like the visuals, the soundtrack is rich. It got from rock and techno tracks to bagpipes, country and surfing music. They are hard to get tired, even if you're at the area for a long time. The monsters got generic sound, but they got good quality. There's nothing much to do on this one. The American voices are good. Layle got a remarkable voice, Amidatelion got this calm and serene voice, Jegran's is fiery and full of emotion. Some of the minor characters only do their job, nothing to write about it. If I must complain about something, getting a train ride to the Moogle Forest is one of the most cute and most irritating things ever. You're in a train, full of moogles, all coming towards you making "ku-popo!" and when you bump into them they start to go all "kupo! kupo! kupo!". All right, not really a problem, but I had to write something, right? Conclusion Story-wise, the series is at it's peak. Ring of Fates got a good story, but short; Echoes of Time tried too hard to deal with time paradox; while Crystal Bearers got a certain deep that was lacking at the others, but didn't went far enough. And it's also pretty short. The battle system could use some more work, I really missed having a weapon to attack the enemies and not only tossing stuff around or making them hit each other. Even with all those things, it's a fun game, focusing in a single player with a good story. It's worthwhile to check out and played through (specially because it's a quick game). Layle is an unusual protagonist for a Final Fantasy and he's strong enough to carry the story. The antagonists also got good motivations. The game is beautiful, rich and full of possibilities, with freedom of movement and the sound is great. If you got a Wii and like RPG, it's a good title and a good Final Fantasy.

Shadow Hearts - Review There are some games that were obscured by blockbusters released around the same time. This one is a hidden gem among those forgotten ones. The Story Everything takes place sometime before World War I, in a time of political tension all over the Europe. Yuri Hyuga is a rude guy who always speaks his mind and loves to get into trouble. Guided by a voice on his head, he gets into a train with the mission to save a girl that's under the custody of the Japanese army and he doesn't even know her. A mysterious gentleman also appears on the trains with the same objective, killing everyone on his path. Then Yuri shows us his special ability: he can turn himself into a monster. Even after all his efforts, he loses but manages to run away with the girl with him. After a hard start, Yuri introduces himself to the young woman, called Alice, who always got some supernatural powers. And then both find themselves running away from the Japanese Army, the mysterious man -who got some sort of interest on the girl- and from a dangerous warlock called Dehuai. This Dehuai is also imprisoning the Four Gods and got something against the hero. What's their objectives? What sort of special powers Alice is hidding? Who is Roger Bacon? That's all I can say without spoiling anything, the story is complex and full of twists. And then everything looks like to reach an ending point, some bigger problems unfolds. There are also many side-stories, specially the player party: besides Alice and Yuri we have the Chinese sage Zhuzhen Liu; Margarete Gertrude Zelle, a famous (and non-fictional) spy; the elegant vampire Keith Valentine and Harley Brancket, the street-wise kid with psychic powers. It's a weird group, but nothing too out of the ordinary (just wait to see Covenant) The non-playable characters are also interesting: from Lieutenant Colonel Kawashima and her assistent Kato, Dehuai's followers and Albert Simon, everyone got a time in the sun. Even the minor characters like LiLi and master Xifa got some good stories too. There are two endings: the "good" and the "bad", the difference is what happens after the credits, but this small parts makes all the different The Game The exploration is pretty ordinary: we got a 3D character moving around a pre-rendered 2D background, with hidden items both in chests, shinning spots or a questing mark over Yuri's head. This game's main feature is the battle system. It's a revolutionary fighting system. It looks like your everyday one: a turn-based one alright. But there's two unique features: the Judgment Ring and the SP. This Judgment Ring also appears at some mini-games and at the shopping screen: it's a circle with colored areas with a rotating needle which moves clockwise. When the needle is over a colored area, the player must input the action command (X) to confirm the attack. For example, to attack all the characters got three areas with red ones (the critical attack areas). If you get the three areas, the character is going to attack three times, but if you miss one, all the following ones are going to miss. You also use the Judgment Ring to perform magic and to use items. The other aspect is the SP, or "Sanity Points". Each turn the character loses a single point (when Yuri turns into a monster he loses a good amount of it to transform). When it reaches zero the character enters into berserker mode, with a different music and erratic actions. It can be prevented by using items or defeating the enemies. Of course the SP also raises during the level up, so it might be a good idea to level up all the characters. At the end of the battle the SP is completely restored and the party receives items and the souls of the defeated enemies. These souls can be used to level up Yuri's transformation and when he defeat a fusion monster inside his soul (which, by the way, is a Graveyard) he can equip and turn into it, being able to equip three different fusions. But everything got a price: Yuri also builds up the negative energy born from the desire for vengeance of his defeated enemies, a thing called "Malice" and at a certain point the Grim Reaper appears at a random battle and Yuri must fight it alone (which usually means certain death). To stop it from happening, Yuri can see how much Malice he got according to his talisman and then enter the Graveyard to fight a monster which is the embodiment of all the Malice so far. Defeat it and the Reaper won't come...Until the Malice fills up again. At the shops the player can have fidelity cards and use it to have discount. How? Just win a Judgment Ring, of course. It can also be used to raise the selling price. Graphics They're not that great. The models and backgrounds are just a little better than the Playstation 1 games. Unfortunately the game was released in 2001, just a few weeks before Final Fantasy X, and this was a disaster. Even so, the designs are creative, the places are quite close to the real thing and the monsters looks like they come from a Silent Hill or Parasite Eve game. Yuri's fusions are also cool, except one of them (which becomes real kick-ass at the sequel) The Sound The game only have voice the fights, during some scenes and at the videos. Most of the time the conversations got speech bubbles to enhance the reactions and emotions (like the "Tales of" series). To compare it to Final Fantasy X is inevitable. But this game shines at the soundtrack. The composers are Yoshitaka Hirota (from Final Fantasy VI, VII and VIII, Live a Live, Chrono Trigger, Parasite Eve and Chrono Cross before this one) and Yasunori Mitsuda (Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross and Xenogears). The music is wonderful, I just love hearing "Alice", "Icaro - Song of Spirits" and "N.D.E. - Near Death Experience" over and over. Conclusion If you don't care about the visuals and want to experience a great story, an interesting battle system with many hours of fun, that's your game. But if you're those types who workships graphics, it's your loss.

It's a game that I'd classify as a survivor-horror-RPG. Kinda like Koudelka: it got many RPG elements such as level up, shops, and many survivor horror stuff as the ambient, being all alone and freaky monsters. The game happens in a distant future and follows Seto, a young boy who lived with an old man at a lighthouse and there was only the two of them. One summer, the old died and Seto was all alone in the world. Something happened, and he might as well be the last person alive. But the old man left a letter telling him to reach a red tower in the south, and there might have someone alive. On his way out of the lighthouse he see a girl, who got scared of him and ran. Seto decides to search for the girl too along the way. The world is filled with creatures called Malicious Thought Entities and they are invisible to the naked eye. But they are fragile to light, so all Seto got to do is to point his flashlight to make them visible and weak enough to be susceptible to regular weapons. But weapons break with use and you got a limited inventory so you got to plan carefully what to take, to keep and so on. There's a level up system and you can save your progress at the bonfires, which also replenishes your health and is a safe spot to Seto manage his items and buy stuff from a strange seller. The controls are simple enough, the only thing they use from the motion capture is the ability of using the remote as flashlight. The graphics are at the same time colorful and got many variety, using an anime style but at the same time everything is dark and there's this huge sense of decay and solitude. Music is almost non-existent, and Seto's English voice actor is our favorite Johnny Yong Bosch (you can pick between the English or Japanese voices if you like)

The two best RPGs on PS2. End of story The games got this unique battle style, called Judgment Ring which adds some interesting dynamic : you'll see a circle with different-colored areas and you got to press "X" when the cursor goes over it to attack. Miss one of them, you screw up. There are two endings for both games, and the story is awesome. The characters are interesting, the side-stories are well-developed and there's all sorts of tiny little details that are pretty interesting to look at, like all items, armors and weapons got a picture and a detailed description. There are two other games in the series: Koudelka (PS1) and Shadow Hearts From the New World (PS2), but they aren't so good. The first one was released in US one week before Final Fantasy X and had some ugly graphics for the time, it was like a PS1 game, but it got a good story and this innovative battle system. The second (Covenant) was IGN's best PS2 game of 2004 (yeah the same year Metal Gear Solid 3 was released). So I really don't have to go into details unless if you guys want a full review XP Oh, yeah. One of the characters is a blond gay vampire wrestler who can turns into a golden glittering bat or a superhero. Yeah.

Translated from my gaming blog After having a great time with Persona 2 duology I decided to check out Persona 4. Which, by the way is the "lighter" of all SMT series (except for Demikids, of course). The protagonist (named Seta Soujin in the manga) moves to this uncle's place at a small Japanese town called Inaba after his parents left to travel abroad because of work-related stuff. At first glance, it's a nice town, but there's something...Uncanny. Soon mysterious murders take places when there's mist after a rainy period. There's also rumors about a TV channel called Midnight Channel: they say if you stare at your TV at midnight on a rainy day you'll see your soulmate. When the hero and his friends try this Midnight Channel they find out that all people that appear on the TV end up dead. And as if it isn't enough, the protagonist have a newfound power that allows him and the party to enter the TV, in a twisted dark place full of monsters. Then they start investigating: how to stop new victims? Who's the murder? What are those Shadows? The true self? Of course we are in a SMT game, so there's lots of turnarounds, betrayal, secrets, tension and psychological background. The system is a better version of Persona 3: outside the dungeon you got to maintain an academic life and make new friends to get new Personas through the Social Links, and with it you can learn more about the other characters and understand some sub-plots. Some status like Courage can affect the decisions the player can make and just a few of them matters. Persona 3's random dungeons are back and there's an artificial inteligence that allows your party to get out of your way during the exploration, helping to avoid unwanted battles. And unlike the original Persona 3, now you can directly control all the characters during the battles instead of trying to trust a brain-dead AI (this system was later used on Persona 3 Portable). The enemies are more of the same, but the dungeons are a little more interesting, because they are usually about some character, focusing on their fears and reprimed feelings. So they are incredibly weird sometimes, from an Enchanted Castle to Underground Laboratories, video-games and even a gay sauna. The graphics aren't too bad and it got one of my favorites soundtrack. The only downside is the voice acting of the female members of the party, for some reason I didn't like them. This game also features many endings, with lots of bad endings if you don't rescue a potential victim in time and some false endings. There's also an huge ammount of Personae, so you might want to collect many of them. It's a incredibly fun RPG, but not too serious, with many memorable parts and some cool characters. It's really worth trying. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYVJcdwpcnQ

Don't worry Ky! But if it fails (and it WILL fail) The Cactuar I got for my birthday this year, and the last picture was last year's.

I used to love this game for some reason. It was great fun to play and you need some strategy to know when was the best moment to go to the beast form. The one I played for the PS2 wasn't half as fun Played it again a while ago to rip the portraits. Aaaah memories

Maybe the graphics are low-quality so the hardware could handle the multiple accelerating objects and sfx during the races, I think It have been a while since I haven't tried a racing game

MKT, Tomb Raider 3 and FFVIII were my first PS1 titles http://mugenfreeforall.com/public/style_emoticons//tongue.png Love this one.

Never played it As a Phantasy Star Online fan (the type who writes articles for sites trying to uncover the mysteries of Ragol) I should.

I loved this game back then and I still like it a lot. Got it to play on my PSP This game is considered a part of Ivalice, of FF Tactics and FFXII world. In a short official story pre-FFTA2 Montblanc asks his younger brother Hurdy a wine from Lea Monde and some stuff from the game is mentioned in FFXII info files

Indeed You need to fix the contrast on the Alices, but the others aren't bad

That's just enough.Much better

Try 500. Mine is 530 for example. Laharl's 450

By one of the Treasure's founders no less (Gunstar Heroes, Alien Soldier, Mischief Makers, Sin and Punishment among others). Then I think I might try this one

TIME-TRAVELING EVIL SCIENTISTS OF DOOM! Let's all go kill Hitler next!

Still big. Usually a 600 signature is considered big already

And that's a kiddies anime! Now what it's doing in 1580s---something? LoL

Heck, they created FFXIII based on the American FPS. What the Hell, Japan??? My reaction halfway the video was "I might not be a pokemon specialist but... Wasn't Mewtwo created in a lab? Thanks to modern science or somethin'?"

/----- that's huge signature. Almost mistake it for a old computer wallpaper.

That was lock and loaded http://mugenfreeforall.com/public/style_emoticons//tongue.png But once I left my ipod at the living room and the next thing I know is that regular battle music 'shouting' across the entire house cuz my dad is a curious person when it comes to electronics and general tech http://mugenfreeforall.com/public/style_emoticons//TrollFace.png

Pokemon it's one of the most popular franchises in Japan and Nobunaga's story is also pretty popular. So...Uh... "SHUT UP AND GIVE US YOUR MONEY!!!"

...The HELL?