Plus, you minimize your exposure to two of the worst parts of the previous games: FFXIII's version of Hope (unbearable) and FFXIII-2's version of Serah (equally unbearable).

There are some RPGs that have really good encounter rates and level scaling, so that grinding is never required, even for optional bosses. The best examples I can think of are Shadow Hearts: Covenant, Tales of Vesperia, and Baten Kaitos: Origins, all of which prioritized a wealth of dungeons over the repetitive…

I think it was more stressful in the original Persona 4, where the time was more limited and the social links more time-sensitive. Persona 4 Golden balanced everything to an extent that made it all doable with a pretty decent margin for error, which I think vastly improved the experience. In general, I'm not one for…

Or even focus less on the end result of "sex with girl," and instead focus on finding a girl he enjoys talking with. One of the easiest ways to build self-confidence in social settings is to simply engage people in conversation, with no expectation of where it'll lead. Many times, it'll lead nowhere, and you'll move…

The interesting thing is whether they could create one game, with an episodic nature, that could have totally branching story paths. Part of the problem with choice in video games is the potentially game-breaking number of deviations possible, but what if Telltale could use the more condensed experience to allow for…

"90s Grunge Was Doing Fine, UNTIL JAZZPUNK KILLED IT"

I've been blunt, but courteous, to Toad from the beginning, but I definitely started turning on him after the Tweedle attack in Episode 1. Something tells me he's got something else going on, but he may also just be a douche.

The biggest problem is the three month gap between episodes. Unless each episode is riveting, it makes it feel cheap relative to the time spent waiting for its release. Telltale must do a better job of setting firm release dates and hitting them for this episodic structure to succeed in the long run, because as it…

I do want a Metroid Fusion sequel, but something tells me that's what we'll see around E3 time.

They never "took it away" though, the people at Retro were tired of making Metroid games. I think many people underestimate the strain (both creatively and professionally) that working on the same game series can place on developers. They wanted to do something different after six years with Metroid Prime, so they…

Is it really neglect if they've released seven titles in the series (Metroid Prime, Prime 2, Prime 3, Prime: Hunters, Other M, Fusion, and Zero Mission) since 2002? It's not maybe as often as some would like, but I wouldn't call it neglect.

It'd also be a good way to call attention to some good indie games. Since most of them are shorter, it could help keep the discussion moving from week to week without people getting too bogged down.

Or a community-play type deal, where they announce a recently-released game that everyone should try to play and finish within the following two weeks or month. It'd be a good way to get everyone here involved.

It'd be the perfect AR game for the 3DS, using the system's actual camera to look around our world for Pokemon.

Steep learning curves are my "gameblocker" (like that term a lot). While I eventually powered through the first hours of games like Deus Ex: Human Revolution,The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, and Final Fantasy XIII and found them varying degrees of enjoyable, I hate the fact that each game is horribly difficult to…

Golden Sun, without a doubt. The first two games were great examples of a classic JRPG, with a story that emphasized characters and some light political issues, while entirely avoiding the love story melodrama that many other JRPGs in the early 2000s were embracing wholeheartedly. And while Dark Dawn was fun, it…

I appreciate your response, but I do not think I have debated in bad faith. I do have a fairly broad base of knowledge in video game funding and matters of business generally, so I do take exception to your treatment of it. I tend to be a skeptic, so while I've read many of Schafer's statements and interviews…

"Please don't change the subject. I've taken issue with your assertion that this project could have been made in the traditional way, through a publisher, without Kickstarter. I have attempted to show that your claim has no basis in empirical reality. (I don't care to respond to your concerns about crowdfunding or…

I don't know how many people will buy it, but I imagine the news of the project, as well as the pedigree of Double Fine (I've loved pretty much everything since Grim Fandango), will drive a sizable number of people (myself included) to buy the game post-release to see what the fuss is all about. It'll be interesting…

Given the fact that the original scope of the idea for Broken Age was about a $300,000-400,000 investment, yes. There are a litany of publishers out there, and while many of the major companies would be unwilling to bring an adventure game to market, there's a number of smaller entities that probably could've helped…