Best Current-Gen JRPG: The Skirmish of Now

[Aphrah]

Spoiler:

Do the light novels ever explain why the random dude becomes the Shadowlord? It just seems rather like they shoved him into the role without explanation beyond he wants to save his daughter and was the initial experiment.

Spoiler:

What light novels? Do you mean the grimoires? If so, then yes, I think they do. I'm sure there was something about his compatibility with.. something, but again, I can't remember.

[PringlesXD]

Spoiler:

Do the light novels ever explain why the random dude becomes the Shadowlord? It just seems rather like they shoved him into the role without explanation beyond he wants to save his daughter and was the initial experiment.

Spoiler:

I think it's because he was the first sentient Gestalt.

[Neon01]

Edit 2: Derp, forgot Xenoblade Chronicles. Wrt that, I would like to play it, but Wii. D:

http://dolphin-emulator.com/ completely free and legal (as long as you buy the games you want to play) If not, wait till the system is <$100 used (won't be long now, if my guess is right) and pick it up just for the game.

...even though I prefer Lost Odyssey (I'm old fashioned, and the Thousand Years of Dreams still make me cry)... that game was in its own way the defining game of the generation in terms of jrpgs... I am glad that we all agreed FFXIII didn't deserve a chance though, lol.

completely agree. I loved LO, especially the 1000 years of dreams. If I'm critical, I would admit that they were a bit too maudlin for my tastes, but poignant nonetheless. Unfortunately the game was saddled by a somewhat cumbersome battle system. It's pretty much the only thing that prevents me from going back to replay it; other than that the game was awesome in virtually every way.

I loved FFXIII, but I agree that it doesn't deserve the title of best JRPG of this generation.

Another great title was Magna Carta 2, but then I'm a sucker for Korean art direction

[SaturnineTenshi]

I actually tried it, Neon. :< No dice. The sound is utterly broken on my PC, and I spent a few days tinkering with it and trying various versions/patches. Thanks, though.

[Clephas]

Considering how incredible the writer is behind Xenoblade, I wouldn't be surprised if it really was the best jrpg of the generation... but I refuse to purchase a Wii before it is below a hundred dollars new. lol Motion controls lower the value of a system in my point of view.

[Neon01]

Considering how incredible the writer is behind Xenoblade, I wouldn't be surprised if it really was the best jrpg of the generation... but I refuse to purchase a Wii before it is below a hundred dollars new. lol Motion controls lower the value of a system in my point of view.

I hear you, but (not strangely) most of the games I prefer on the wii are best played with the classic controller anyway. In fact, I play XC on a Dolphin emulator (though I do have a Wii) because I can use this controller instead (not to mention so I could play it in glorious 1080p at 4x internal rendered resolution and full antialiasing): http://www.amazon.com/Snakebyte-Final-F ... 655&sr=8-1

This lets me switch the button mapping, which is handy since Nintendo seems hell bent on using the right-most button (O on PS3) for accept and the bottom-most button (X on PS3) for cancel, instead of the other way around, which is the way both Xbox and Playstation 2&3 have done it for a decade now. It's tough retraining my muscle memory.

I completely understand your aversion to picking up a Wii. I've played maybe 3-4 games on mine in the 2-3 years I've had it. I mostly bought it because I'm a big fan of Metroid, but now that we're getting all of the Operation Rainfall titles (at least, really strong rumors point to Gamestop carrying Pandora's Tower, but it's not officially confirmed), it's all gravy.

[Ringwraith]

This lets me switch the button mapping, which is handy since Nintendo seems hell bent on using the right-most button (O on PS3) for accept and the bottom-most button (X on PS3) for cancel, instead of the other way around, which is the way both Xbox and Playstation 2&3 have done it for a decade now. It's tough retraining my muscle memory.

That's also because that's still how controls are set up in Japan, O is accept, X is cancel.
The buttons get flipped for international release.