Valkyria Chronicles! Did I mention I bought this and a PS3 a while back and beat it? There really isn’t much to say that hasn’t already been said unanimously by reviewers around the universe. It’s a great game and it deserves the all the praise. Can’t say I’m happy with the sequel being announced for PSP though. What were they thinking…

I’m also watching the Valkyria anime which is kind of fun to see how they diverge from the game. It could use more Edy though. And less Faldio getting in the way of Welkin x Alicia!

This should have been mentioned a long time ago, but I’m pretty happy Gust made the move to the current-gen with Atelier Rorona. Yeah, I do love the Atelier series. But that’s not what’s really significant about it. What it really means is… Ar Tonelico 3 could be next to make the jump!

I’m being serious about this – it’s not like they didn’t leave any hints at the end of 2. I distinctly remember reading something on their Ar Portal site that mentioned the staff is working on the next title in the series. So, yeah! Something to look forward to in the seemingly distant future. Also, I’m still waiting for someone to announce that they’re porting Rorona to the US. /stare @ NIS America

That reminds me, Mana Khemia 2 is out today (or rather, shipped yesterday). I could have sworn I had a little tidbit about this already when I was making the draft for this post but apparently not… Anyways, I played a few hours of the JP version back when it came out and I had fun. If you’ve played the the first entry then you know what to expect. I picked Ulrika back then and god, she gets the weirdest characters. Not exactly how I expected the characters to split but I’m still going to try that route when I pick up the NA version. I’m desperately hoping for a party merge later on though…

I’ve mentioned having played FF11 a couple of times here. Or at least I think I did. I was definitely very fond of the game – maybe too fond. Eventually the glaring flaws of the game started to claw into my brain and I started playing WoW instead. I still have fun talking about it and what was so good about it though, so you can imagine my surprise and joy when they announced FF14. There is still a lot to be skeptical about though.

For example… and I think this goes without saying that this is the most important thing that needs to be answered by Square Enix: Can we trust them to learn from their mistakes that they made with FF11?

I had a bit of a rant going about how Blizzard actually communicates with their customers that I decided to omit. The point will still be brought up – it took forever for SE to get the hint that maybe something was wrong with they way they designed certain things that made them a miserable experience. HNMs, anyone? The changes came too late, and some weren’t enough to solve anything. Then we’ve got the recent new ideas – things like Wings of the Goddess and subsequent mini-expansions. Apparently they’re nothing short of utterly horrible in terms of actual content. Will SE know what is fun and what isn’t this time around? I certainly hope so…

More to come in a few days…

From the Symphonia manga. JUST TELL US LLOYD! …I still enjoy poking fun at that.

Anyways, my time on Vesperia has slowed to a grinding halt, aside from testing out a few things here and there. Went and beat New Game+’ed and beat it on Unknown, which was pretty easy going in with pretty much the whole Grade Shop bought out, combined with stuff I learned during my first playthrough. It might have been the lack of other worthwhile games, but I can add this to the short list of games in which I easily (and happily) dumped 100+ hours into.

(I’m not sure when I started writing this post… I’m thinking September 20something. Anyways, I’ll just leave it like it is now and make a new one.)

On a completely different note, what was up with the Heroes finale? It was so…underwhelming.

Oh boy… I can only hope theres nothing to gain from beating everything on Hard Mode, because that’s a lot of work. Anyways, it was indeed unlocked when I completed the Trial Stages. Right after I finished Trial Stage 1 (I went backwards from 25) a congratulations screen showed up with three elves, then I saw what you see up in that screenshot. How hard is hard, you ask? I don’t know yet. I’m tired.

In other news, someone with a Xbox 360 needs to mail me their system RIGHT NOW. I’m pretty sure I haven’t mentioned it on the site before, but I’m really looking forward to Trusty Bell. (aka Eternal Sonata, but c’mon… Trusty Bell is just more fun to say.) Everything I hear from people playing the demo right now is exactly what I expected, it just needs to get to the States sooner. =/

Last but not least, I’ll probably be uploading the Grim Grimoire soundtrack later today since I think it’s technically out of print now, since I guess they only gave it away with the first press of the game.