Inazuma!

Well, it's one of those rare occasions I'm thankful towards the World Cup it seems. It might even be the first occasion. Inazuma Eleven has been confirmed for a release outside of Japan at long last! Perhaps more surprisingly, it's been announced for Europe before the US.

I've been interested in Inazuma Eleven for a while. It's a football RPG by Level 5, who I'm finding myself increasingly impressed with every time I get around to playing one of their games. As it's for the DS, the touch screen is obviously involved in some way, but from the footage I've seen it looks as if it'll work rather well, rather than feeling somewhat fiddly.

Furthermore, the anime is going to be aired in Europe. Doubt it'll reach terrestrial, but regardless, I'm pretty interested in the prospect of both of these reaching Europe! I assume football games have changed a while since I last played one as well, which was all the way back in 2000, which was almost purely for the career mode in ISS. Good times!

The World Labyrinth

Well, Christmas is steadily approaching. I've got the usual backlog of games to get through at this time of year, at a time when I'm most likely going to receive at least one extra (not that I'm complaining about that, oh no). Instead, what I'm going to simultaneously rejoice and complain about is the fact that another RPG I really want to play has appeared on the horizon.

For some reason I wasn't expecting another title in the series, but at long last, Etrian Odyssey 3 has been announced and revealed. I was already sold on hearing it, without having heard of the additions this time around, which look to be quite large compared to the second game. Five extra classes have been added this time, with perhaps the best ones being Pirates and Ninjas. Other additions are Princess, Monk and Phalanx, which judging from the picture will be some kind of variation on the Paladin.

The main attraction seems to be sailing. The maps look pretty damn huge for that section, along with quite a few new icons for map making. The thing that really intrigues me about that though is the setting, and what it might mean for this game's particular story. With the first game focused on descending deep down into the earth, then the second focused on ascending a tree into the sky, what could happen with a naval setting? At the moment, I can only assume it's either venturing to the ocean floor, or sailing to the edge of the world. Either sound appealing to me, but then as I said earlier, I'm already sold.

Final Remake Quest I

So, as many are probably aware, I'm really into RPGs. For some reason that escapes me, it seems to be a genre that gets more remakes than any other. Not that I'm complaining, personally I'm really keen on them. I'm not entirely sure why either, but the idea of replaying a game I've already been through with a few more tweaks, graphically or otherwise, is something that is more appealing to me than actually playing something new.

I'm not completely sure of the reason why, the main thing that comes to mind is that it's the closest thing there is to a combination of old and new. They maintain the retro feel of an old RPG, especially with a traditional Good vs Evil storyline, produced with the technology and in many instances, the improved scriptwriting of today.

The Good vs Evil storyline is definitely something that appeals to me, even with the cliches that go with it. I suppose the main reason for that is that I'm fond of the characters being clearly defined in simple black and white terms, with the rare character who has shades of grey in their moral compass. This is opposed to many modern RPGs where most characters have shades of grey in their character, and are somewhat morally ambiguous. For me, I find it more interesting when it's only a handful of characters have something suspicious in their past, rather than every character having something special about them.

Perhaps I've become somewhat sceptical over the years towards new RPGs. The more I'm writing about this topic, the more I find myself remembering the games that are particular offenders. Obviously, there are exceptions to this, my options would be extremely limited if I only played remakes. To an extent, it's probably more the fact that I enjoy the setting and feel of a classic RPG, as there's been a handful of new RPGs lately that have a retro feel to them, such as Dark Spire and Etrian Odyssey. Hopefully this doesn't mean it's just a case of rose-tinted glasses, due to them being new titles, but I'm not ruling out the possibility.

Actually, it's occured to me that most of what I've written here is essentially a side topic to what I meant to say from the beginning. I'll have to have a follow up article I think, there's potentially a lot of things I could talk about on this topic, as this post has actually proven.

The Velvet Room

Quite often, I find myself trawling around the internet for merchandise related to things that I like. It's one of the many productive ways I spend my free time. Every now and then, I learn of something that's completely passed me by and is, by that time, old news.

Which is just what happened a couple of days ago! I recently learnt of a second concert for live renditions of music from Persona. The first event was something I was completely unaware of until now. Having listened to some of the music though, I actually really like how it's done. Live music isn't something I'm particularly keen on, with a few exceptions. I guess part of it is the novelty of a different version of a song I'm already keen on.

Regardless, I'd be tempted to try and get a hold of the music from this second concert. There's a DVD of the first one floating around, which is somewhat pricey (admittedly I don't know what sort of price live concert DVDs go for), but I could be tempted.