For me the best innovations are things that help games better adapt to my adult life and limited time to game. One of the biggest you already mentioned; pausable cutscenes. My wife and I have a tendency to have full-on conversations while I game, so the ability to put important story developments on hold for when I…

I guess the word "sequel" would be a bit of a misnomer. Bad choice of words on my part. It's definitely a spiritual successor though (think Dark Souls to Demon's Souls). Solatorobo takes place in the same world as Tail Concerto and contains many of the same thematic elements; cute little animal people, focus on the…

I think Harmony of Despair was the apotheosis of that. A clunky rehashing of already rehashed materials. As a series fan, I couldn't ignore it, and equally, as a series fan, I was depressed over its existence. The game isn't totally bereft of value . . . but I struggle to find a reason to even play it when I can…

You're telling me.

Their bears are weak bears.

It's pretty great. Quirky and adorable. One of the gems of my collection. But it's more of a novelty than a game that you can invest yourself in hardcore for hours. You won't find much in terms of good 3D adventure mechanics than what you don't already have with the Megaman Legends set that you mentioned already…

That's exactly what I was thinking. I'm happy to own Star Ocean The Last Hope International.

I've been hoping that there will be such a "complete" version ever since the DLC flood started. I've never been so grateful for not leaping on a game and paying full price as I am with XIII-2. I just hope my patience pays off. I think it would be against Square's best interests not to release such a product. You…

I've been saying this for a while. Castlevania is my favorite franchise, so I'm always alittle weary to shake things up. However, even I think things are getting alittle stale. It was amazing how disinterested I was with Order of Ecclesia when I finally got to play it.

That sounds just fine with me. Between my many jobs and responsibilities at home, I don't get to game much anyway, and when I do, it's rarely for more than an hour or so. As enamored I AM with Diablo, I'm not going to slave away at it like so many other people . . . I simply don't have the time, energy, or attention…

I couldn't agree more about the whole "not being suckered into midnight launch" joy you're experiencing. I debated going for all day yesterday, and decided against it. When I checked Facebook before work this morning, my best friend had a status message for 4am saying he still hadn't gotten in. And now this news of…

Hell yes 1000x for anything remotely new in relation to Skies of Arcadia. It's one of the last RPGs that I ever really and truly couldn't put down. The game perfectly combined the lighter sensibilities of the 16 bit era with modern visuals and mechanics. It was one of Sega's last great masterpieces. I take my online…

I'm sure it is. I haven't played it in at least 12 years, but I don't remember it being very forgiving on my easily frustrated early-teen self, which probably accounts for why I never bought it when it was readily available in stores. I'm starting to yearn for that grindy oldschool JPRG feel as of late though. Moving…

I've always been so bitter about the Tales games for the PS2 that we didn't get in the West. I wanted Rebirth so bad! As well as the real Destiny 2, and the remake of Destiny.

I said Beyond the Beyond, not Beyond Good and Evil. It's an old turn based RPG from Camelot and Sony. It was the first traditional JRPG that was available in the US for the PS1.

I'm with TriForce. There's alittle over 1100 games in my collection, and I've not beaten most of them. To list my true backlog would take all day. Afew titles that have really been nagging on me lately, however, are:

For me it's a matter of nostalgia. As soon as the rain starts, I flash back to rainy afternoons trapped inside playing Bubble Bobble or Mendel Palace on the NES with my mom and dad for hours. Now, when it's rainy, and I have some free time, I almost always feel an urge to get some good retro gaming in.

My vote is for either Dragon's Dogma or Max Payne. If you're only going for one game, I'd shoot for whatever is going to offer the most robust experience for my gaming dollar. DD is supposed to be pretty darn expansive, and MP's multiplayer suit looks like it'll have some legs for a long time.

Good buy! I missed both of those titles in their heyday, and have recently been thinking about doing exactly what you've just done. I share your status as a collector, and have been jonesin' to buy afew old games that I missed. I've also been considering picking up a copy of Beyond the Beyond to add to my PS1 RPG…

I'm admittedly one of those people. I associate the word "multiplayer" with more direct forms of player interaction, be it competitive or cooperative. That's why I was so attracted to the wording of this article. I see a very tangible divide between games being "social" vs. outright "multiplayer." I think alot of…