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Still plugging away at Radiant Historia (looking near the end though so ...yay). Very much an under-the-radar hit game and kind of sad I put it off until now, if only for the fact it's caused me to neglect finishing Dragon Age 2 and starting TitS.

Kind of feels like they tossed Final Fantasy VI, Chrono Trigger/Cross, and Suikoden into a blender and pureed it. And then threw it out because that's an awful, awful puree and made something else but now this metaphor is going places I didn't intend.

Anyway, rambling without spoilers.
[spoiler]Charming game with a well-written lead (read: not emo, not sad, not an oaf; you can seriously see Stocke as a competent individual) and a fairly decent supporting cast. Though, the supporting cast is more "starts with a well thought basis" and then they don't really develop over time, per se, but they're still well done. Well, Aht may be pushing it for some but since she's borderline useful* I don't care so much. [hide]That and the hints at what she knows making her less of "random beastgirl loli" to "random beastgirl loli who knows Vader's your dad dawg."[/hide]

Since time travel is involved there's a ridiculous amount of backtracking but I think it's done fairly well. For most the chapters, the nodes are placed well enough that you're a few skip scenes away. Chapter 4+ is where it looks like they forgot how to place nodes or something and you find pivotal points that have a boss fight and two dungeons and 17 scenes in between them (seriously, returning to Alistel in one part is a chore with the boss fight before it).

Backtracking is prevalent but I personally like that it's mostly for sidequests and not main plot and many of the sidequests are just nice to do, even if minor. Progressing to find a soldier dead on the battlefield and having the option to go back and rescue him is a small thing that enriches the whole experience. Plus, some of the sidequests give you BAD ENDs and those are always worth a view, if only for your dynamic duo in Historia to berate you for sucking at not getting everyone killed.

Anyway, lots of backtracking but they're not huge timesinks and they're primarily optional. There's a few sidequests needed to be done for the true ending and a few that seem like sidequests that are required to beat the main game (but they're typically marked off with an obvious link to the timeline).

And the story does a good job of being both time travel and giving a sense of urgency to the plot. The game teeters on a political tale that forgoes using battles of the war purely to link events. I mean, yes, you're in the Army and many of the endings and events revolve around your decisions but political clout and those dealings drive the plot more than battles connecting battles; many of the BAD ENDs even show your military success as the reason of your downfall.

*She's great for small/medium enemies, terrible for large and unmovable enemies. And her traps aren't ridiculously better than Raynie or [hide]Eruca's[/hide] G-level spells besides cost, though I haven't played with her Star traps too much. Dancing Death, however, is sick for building combo for maximizing EXP and money from fights. Though, on that note, what the fuck is up with boss fights giving me 90 EXP when random encounters are 350-500.[/spoiler]

tl;dr: Buy Radiant Historia and play it. There's a reprint coming in April (without the OST*) but it's not supposed to be big and it's already sold out in a variety of places.

*The OST is limited and there's really not that many tracks. A shame, really, as the music is more good work from Yoko Shimomura. Well, when you can hear it over KLOPKLOPKLOPKLOPKLOP.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgXn_E4XUF0[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tG-puk2mFvU[/youtube]

I've been playing Warriors Orochi 2 a bit lately (the PSP version). Finally got around to finishing off the Story Mode campaigns and now I'm just going through Orochi-1 over and over to max out all the abilities. Once I've done that, I'm going to go get all the treasures I missed the first time round, then do all the Dream Mode stages and go reclear everything on the remaining difficulties. After that I think all that will be left will be to give all the characters I like ideal weapon builds and, for those I haven't already, get them to Lv 99 - Pro 50.

I played as Sun Wukong for the first time last night, and holy shit that monkey can move. Unless you are using another character who shines in horseback combat, he pretty much makes most horses completely redundant. Also, <3 his C4. I'm not normally one to stick to one attack, liking to mix it up, but damn is that move good at clearing peons.

I really like this game, and it is definitely the most polished game in the series out of the ones I've played, but I don't like how they added the whole three man team thing without making your opposition much harder. Most stages are pretty easy even on Chaos, unless you are using some of the worst characters. I'm also wondering if they even play-tested Orochi. He is ridiculously overpowered and I understand that in the canon he is supposed to be that way but... come on. His C1-2 string is one the most broken attacks I've ever seen in any game, and his other attacks are all stupidly powerful as well. It also helps that he is a pretty hardcore tank. Even with just the weapon build I have on him now, he makes any stage on any difficulty horrendously easy. I am a little scared to see how strong he will be once I start putting Upgrade Skills on his weapon and max out his Elements.

... Aren't you just a tad young to be mourning and reminiscing about that golden age?

I dunno. I grew up with a few arcades and, while fun and atmospheric, I feel a lot of descriptions are romanticized and made to be these lofty pinnacles of the gaming sphere.

Or maybe I just missed the cool kids arcades filled with orgies of awesomeness.

[spoiler]Though, it'd be awesome to have that "place" to go to for meeting other local gamers and such instead of internetz forums. Now you go to "arcades" to meet pedophiles.

...though, you meet them on the internet too.[/spoiler]