Quote Originally Posted by Milady View Post
I had an incredibly lovely, wall of text post to submit in response to the recommendations that have been made thus far, when I opened a new tab to run a search on EP and somehow ruined my previous tab in the process, losing all that I had written. I haven't the willpower to re-create the entire post, so to summarize:

-Star Ocean: The Last Hope International looks interesting and is actually only 17.99 on the Gamestop website. I've never played a Star Ocean title, to be honest.

-3D Dot Game Heroes looks super charming. After reading the title and knowing nothing else about it, I was rather put off. I found a quick video review, however, that changed my mind. It's 27.99 used, which isn't bad, but might result in my putting off its purchase for another time if I find a handful of cheaper games that I'm more enthusiastic about. I don't go out to pick up new games very often, so I'm almost always willing to pick up one or two more others and wait a little longer for that one, more expensive, game.

-I actually do enjoy tactical RPGs, including Final Fantasy tactics. However, my interest in the genre suffered when I went on a downloading spree for the PS2 that really caused me to altogether abandon video games for a period of time. Disgaea is one of the games I downloaded, and so I should probably play through that before I go out buying any new versions or installments.

-As for Valkyria Chronicles, I've considered picking it up in the past, but I'm not terribly enthused about the whole alternate WWII thing. I'm aware there's probably much more to the game than that, but aesthetically speaking, it's just not causing me enough excitement to want to pick it up now rather than later.

-Resonance of Fate seems like it might bore me to death.

-I can't make up my mind whether or not Nier sounds interesting, but I'm not terribly fond of having my games filled with profanity and such. Most likely, I'll overlook this one.

-Eternal Sonata looks incredibly charming, and if I'm not mistaken, I've heard Elin mention it once or twice. The only thing that would prevent me from picking it up is it's price tag, which is identical to 3D Dot Game Heroes. It's really not an expensive game, but when I'm looking at a handful of other games that are cheaper, I'm more inclined to put the extra 10 dollars toward something else.

-Dead Space sounded interesting, but I've been dissuaded from picking it up by opinions from members like Gare and Ray that it's really just an "okay" game. I apologize to those members with whom I don't spend a great deal of time speaking, but I've got a general idea of the tastes of some of the regulars, and I have a level of trust for their opinions that's developed from multiple conversations with them.

-I'd completely forgotten about DMC4. It's one of the games I first looked into when I was buying my PS3, but it got overshadowed by other games that I was much more excited about. Thanks for reminding me about it, Gare!

-Mass Effect 2 is something I'd like to get but, er, its "new" port is 60 bucks on the PS3. I think I'll wait a little bit for that one.

-I don't know anything about Riddick aside from what I just learned in about four minutes of a video review, but the game itself looks pretty neat.

-I've never really been able to get into any of the Atelier games, adorable or not.

I wish the PSN had more demos to try, but the Uncharted 2 download is currently in progress. I'll let you know, Cookie, what I think once it's finally finished. And if anyone has any more recommendations, please share them.
Star Ocean is probably more stomachable if you haven't played the previous ones. Also if you don't happen to have high standards about your RPGs. But in a toss up, I'd probably recommend Eternal Sonata long, long before Star Ocean for numerous reasons. But then again, I'm rather down on SO4 and was a bit of a star ocean fan. I also like it when an RPG doesn't try leeching off the stuff that came before it. So that could just be the bile talking.

3D Dot Game Heroes is good, aside from the fact it's a BLATANT 2D Zelda clone with a shitload of classic gaming references. Although I have a copy myself that's been collecting dust after I cleared a dungeon or two, so take that for whatever that means.

I have an incredibly hard time recommending Disgaea to anyone. There's very little strategy in that strategy RPG. And the bulk of the game requires excessive grinding and stat maintenance. The series takes the crap part of an RPG and attempts to make it a major part if it's gameplay.

There is more to Valkyria than the alternate history setting. There's also a fantasy styled backstory. The setting is pretty much a fantasy world that moved ahead in time and somehow created a situation very similar to WWII. If you can get past the Darcsens=Jewsand their occasional attempts to remind you that THIS IS ABOUT WORLD WAR TWO it's a decent war story featuring some pretty memorable characters. It also features a gameplay style that I highly enjoyed, so there's that too. The game may be horribly broken, but there's something strangely satisfying about shooting someone in the face from a mile away, then blowing up all their tanks before finally sending in a scout to capture their base.

And as someone who played Drakengard you should consider Nier. While it's rather...adult and trying a bit too hard at being so, it's also a damn fine game. The development team speaks for itself.