I know how you feel.  I don't have a pre-order on Company of Heroes 2 anyplace because the bankruptcy turns an instant buy into a hopeful wait-and-see.

-Autistic Angel

The trouble with agreeing to disagree on this, Arclight, is that it ends with the status quo where gays and lesbians are denied the rights and protections of marriage.  Why?  Because some special holiness is created by the fact that a percentage of the legal marriages recognized by the government are performed by religious institutions?

If your opinion is that people of the same gender should not marry, I recommend you not marry someone of your gender.  No one is going to force it on you.  If we're going to continue denying that right to people who feel differently, however, the intangible sanctity of your opinion is an insufficient justification.

-Autistic Angel

Ditto on enjoying Dead Island.  I played as Xian, the bladed weapons specialist, and while she was kind of a lightweight in the hit point department, her ability to separate limbs from torsos meant she could survive the apocalypse just fine.

As for my weekend, I'm on the cusp of finishing The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks for the DS, and probably very near the end of Gravity Rush on the Vita.  It's a little hard to tell because the story in that game wanders all sorts of places you don't expect, like chasing a bumblebee through Bangkok.

-Autistic Angel

[watch at our own risk.]

Ever since the review scores started appearing, the outlier has been Game Informer's notably low 7/10.  It was written by Kimberley Wallace who, as the newest hire on staff, is something of an unknown quantity, but her full article is now available online:

Ni No Kuni features many battles, but most trying is the player’s struggle against old-school mechanics. First off, every area contains an absurd amount of random encounters, and while enemies are visible on the field, they charge instantly once spotting you. Avoiding them is next to impossible, even after upgrading Oliver’s speed.

This problem is exacerbated by limited save points in dungeons (although the world map allows saving at any time). If you die before reaching a save point, you’re transported back to the dungeon’s entrance, grinding through the same enemies again. When you perish, Ni No Kuni also fines you 10 percent of your money to keep earned XP. Death is a possibility in every battle, keeping you constantly alert and forcing you to learn the battle system. Initially, that’s what I liked the most, but the aforementioned issues made this process almost unbearable.

They've also posted a Test Chamber on the game -- imagine a Giant Bomb Quick Look but with way less contempt for the audience -- but I have not yet watched it.

-Autistic Angel

Her review seems off compared to all of the other review out there. I wouldn't put much stock in it.

Eh, we should be careful about discarding reviews just because they stray from the mean.  The initial spate of Black & White reviews were glowing with praise, too.

That said, Game Informer's executive editor Andrew Reiner has recently made several pointed comments about how review scores reflect an individual's opinion, not that of the entire site.  Now, in the new Devil May Cry Test Chamber, he's gone out of his way to remark on how much he adores Ni No Kuni.  I think he's with you on this.

Yeah, for what it's worth, there's no longer any doubt on this.  I still haven't watched the Ni No Kuni Test Chamber because I'm trying to avoid spoilers until I can gratch it for myself, but the Fire Emblem: Awakening episode opens with Reiner saying outright that he would have reviewed Ni No Kuni very differently. 

It also turns out that Kim Wallace is pretty casual about slinging around Fire Emblem plot spoilers, so watch at our own risk.

I'm starting to feel like Game Informer has replaced Phil Kollar with their very own Brad Shoemaker.  Of all the concepts they might have lifted from Giant Bomb, that isn't one I'd have picked.

-Autistic Angel

I can see where Turtle's coming from, but the combination of traditional RPG leveling with Pokemon-like monster team building, team-up attacks unlocked by your S-Ranks, and All-Out Attacks made the combat in Persona 3 and 4 a lot of fun for me.

By comparison, the phrase "generic RPG at its worst" invokes my memories of being bored to tears by Tales of Symphonia or Star Ocean: The First Encounter.  The setting in those games were so bland, no amount of real-time mashy combat could make them palatable.

-Autistic Angel

That's the plan!  I'm finalizing my Level 18 pick now.

-Autistic Angel

Can they tell yet whether the boys will share a mana bar, or will they be able to split up and earn job points separately?

-Autistic Angel

The demo leaves a positive impression, but the default button layout seems like something you'd sneak into the options menu and do to prank your friend.  Y to attack, B for heavy attack, and X for ranged weapon is a clockwise rotation of every other action game I've played in the last ten years.  It's like a modern military FPS that inexplicably mapped the fire button to the left bumper.

Thank goodness they not only let you retool the controls to your heart's content, they even update the on-screen tutorials with the current settings.  Pretty nice, that.

-Autistic Angel

I've seen some people excuse the intermittent voice work as a consequence of the game having so much dialogue.  The Mass Effect games fit an awful lot of spoken dialogue into standard-sized DVDs -- is there really so much talking that a Blu-Ray wouldn't have been able to handle it?  Or are there enough high-def animated sequences to be filling things up?

-Autistic Angel

Thoughts on Kato's thoughts, AA?

There's a world of difference between USMC Kato's point about compromising physical standards for combat units simply for the sake of allowing women to qualify, and the idea that military decision making is inherently compromised by the presence of bewbs.

My thoughts are that when men statistically demonstrate superior upper body strength, women have better hand-eye coordination and faster reflexes, and they're both selfless enough to put their lives on the line for their country, I suspect there are enough roles on the battlefield to go around.

Of course, Kato has forgotten more about military tactics than I'll ever know, so if there are compelling reasons why a women can't load torpedo tubes on a submarine, pilot an A-10 Thunderbolt, or command an Abrams tank, I'll defer to his knowledge on the subject.

-Autistic Angel

Anyone still playing this? I put it down for a while after being turned off by the controls. I have about a third of game left and am trying to find the motivation to finish it. I was liking the game initially, but now I'm starting to hate it. I despise the controls, the combat is weak and repetitive, the art style grows old half way through with it's horrid view distance and washed out colors, and I've had some crazy bad framerate drops where the game comes nearly to a halt.

It's so weird: closing in on the final chapters of Gravity Rush, I've never seen so much as a hitch in the framerate.  In Assassin's Creed: Liberation, though, I found an unplayable, bug-ridden mess marked by unending framerate problems, but other people report a much more enjoyable game.

I wonder if there could possibly be differences between the downloadable and physical copies of the games.  I've only played store-bought games, for what it's worth.

-Autistic Angel

Martin Luther King and Abraham Lincoln were Republicans,  so let's not lump everyone into one big ball.  Every party has extremists. 

I want to be clear that I'm not trying to quibble about minutae when I point out that I was discussing social ideology -- Conservatism -- not party affiliation.  I see them as very different things.

Martin Luther King and Abraham Lincoln were hardcore liberals of their respective ages.  They believed, as liberals do today, that the federal government has a vital role to play in expanding individual rights for the public good; and they were opposed by Conservatives who, as they do today, threatened to inflict grievous harm on the country if they didn't get their way. 

The fact that they were members of the Republican party is a different consideration.  The political parties are *constantly* adopting different ideological positions to win over voters.  I know a great many thoughtful, well-educated Republicans who absolutely detest how the modern Conservative movement has perverted their party, and who retain their affiliation in the hope of voting some semblance of sanity back into the primaries.  My mother's entire side of the family falls into that category.

You'll find I try to be very careful to specify when I'm talking about Conservatism, the social ideology that has spent two hundred years arguing in favor of Social Darwinism where wealth, power, and privilege are definitive elements of moral righteousness; and the Republican party which has only recently decided their best shot at winning more political power is to give that contingent control over the whole kit'n kaboodle.

-Autistic Angel

I decided to pass the time waiting for Gratch by watching the Season 2 premiere of ABC's Revenge.  Now I'm holding my breath with anticipation *and* the promise of short-term memory loss.

-Autistic Angel

Emancipation, women's suffrage, desegregation, the Civil Rights Act, anti-semitism, gender discrimination, the Americans With Disabilities Act, sexual harassment law, hate crime legislation, the Fair Pay Act, gay rights -- every time America raises the idea of expanding the rights and protections for the voiceless members of society, the Conservative movement has been there to represent the losing side of history.  Many of the popular ones still do it: Ann Coulter will happily explain how women lack the intellectual capacity to responsibly vote, both Senators Paul are on record opposing the Civil Rights Act, and Rush Limbaugh's daily show has a daily three-hour show dedicated to telling "real Americans" how their moral Christian lifestyles are being endangered by the blacks, the feminists, and the gays.

At what point are we, as a nation, ready to agree that histrionics from the Conservative Right about how expanded rights will sound the death knell of the Republic are automatically the least credible element of any public policy debate?

-Autistic Angel

[named]

Man, forget Adventure Pony - let's talk about Gargoyles!  That show was amazing!  Most primetime series don't put a faction as much effort into mapping out their plot lines and respecting their continuity.

"Know her?  I named her!"

-Autistic Angel

Wow, those are some seriously fantastic impressions!  I sincerely hope you follow up once you've spent more time with the game -- one of the things I'm worried about is the Sid Meier's Railroads! effect where a game seems really charming and approachable, but you dig a little deeper and discover it's also childishly simplistic.

-Autistic Angel

I guess that depends on whether you consider the ability to recognize obvious patterns to be some kind of trick.

-Autistic Angel

How do you feel about the available map sizes?  Screenshots make the city limits look pretty constrictive, like they're really enforcing the need to develop and connect residential, industrial, and commerical burroughs rather than developing one big contiguous city.

-Autistic Angel

In previous cases, Conservatives have argued that military personnel are too small-minded and immature to tolerate the presence of Jews, non-caucasians, women, or gay people among their ranks.  First the objection was to allowing them to serve at all, then to allowing them into positions of responsibility or authority, and always on the catch-all grounds of "weakening military morale."

The reality is, because American servicemen are not mentally or emotionally equivalent to a locker room full of 13-year-old boys from the year 1940, the predictions of the Conservative movement have been proven false every time.  I can't imagine why anyone would assume they're onto something this time, but personally, I will believe combat roles for women represent a clear and present danger to national security fifteen minutes after the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell triggers that total collapse of military discipline we heard so much about.

-Autistic Angel

This may be a stretch, but I had a crazy idea.  What if they.... produce more copies?

Producing more Wizard Editions would mean entering into new contracts with whoever manufactured the stuffed doll, the coin, and probably the wizard book as well.  The promise of free strategy guides not only gives the appearance of contrition at a reduced cost; it incentivizes people shafted by Digital River to forget about all the other pre-order bonuses they lost out on and go buy standard editions of the game.  It's a textbook loss leader.

I think Namco is seriously underestimating the level of incompetence at Digital River, the level of antipathy people have to being repeatedly lied to for days on end, and the number of ways there are to enjoy Ni No Kuni without either company ever seeing a dime.  Buying used, renting, borrowing from a friend, unfurling a bedroll on Gratch's living room floor where you can eat his food and offer frank advice on how to be a better player, bread-winner, and son-in-law -- the possibilities are as endless as they are appealing.

Obviously, I will not be trying to drag any of the consolation prizes out of the corporate swamp at Digital River.  Free or not, I won't ever be mistaken for a customer of theirs again.  As for anyone here who wants to give it a go, I'll just repeat something I wrote back when this whole thing was just kicking off:

I have Ni no Kuni ordered from the Namco store, but standard shipping through Digital River means I might as well have bought a scratch ticket.

-Autistic Angel

IGN has an official statement from Namco Bandai about the Wizard Edition debacle:

We understand the $20 clubNamco voucher that has been offered to our affected fans may give little solace in place of an actual Wizard’s Edition package. It is unfortunate that we are unable to produce additional Wizard’s Edition units to fulfill all the extra orders; with that in mind, NAMCO BANDAI Games America will be giving the affected fans a 400 page hard bound copy of the Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch strategy guide which includes an exclusive code to unlock a Gold Hurly Familiar in the game in addition to the original $20 clubNamco voucher. Our E-commerce provider will be contacting the affected customers in the coming days with instructions on how to obtain their copy of the Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch strategy guide.

I would not make use of a Ni No Kuni strategy guide even if I owned the game, which I don't, because Namco's E-commerce provider operates with a level of professionalism seldom found outside of a preschool Christmas pageant.  There's no reason to believe Digital River has the foggiest idea who the affected fans are, much less how to contact them.

Seriously, if anyone here wants a free strategy guide, ring up the Digital River support line.  Their internal tracking system is little more than a series of Lite-Brights handed from one station to the next -- odds are better than not they won't even attempt to track your eligibility.

-Autistic Angel

My copy is currently sitting at home on top of my PS3 (Mrs. Gratch sent a picture just to rub it in)...while I spend the next 3 days out of town.  

God, this anticipation is *killing* me!

Remember what it was like back when the first season of ABC's Revenge was wrapping up?  That feeling going into the big finale that the stilted performances, absurdly static characters, dead-end story twists and impossible plot holes were all building to a climax of such thundering stupidity that you thought, surely, it couldn't possibly be as bad as you were expecting...and then they had the scene where Emily VanCamp pretends she's a blackbelt and has a stumbling axe-fight with James Morrison?

This is like the exact opposite of that!  

In fact, if Gratch ever does do that videocast, I think that should be the tagline.  "Better Off Gratch: Nothing Like Revenge In Any Way!"

-Autistic Angel

Try calling Digital River and telling them the Wizard's Edition you ordered and paid for, but can't provide any tracking information for, arrived without the hardcover book inside.

Chances are pretty good they'll e-mail you an order cancellation, an order confirmation, an abuse warning, a $20 coupon for a Naruto game, then you'll get two new Wizard Editions in the mail about six days apart, your Namco store password will be reset, and finally you'll receive a refund for 4d20 dollars with a heartfelt apology that there's simply nothing they can do.

-Autistic Angel

My email just went the "oversold" route:

Dear Customer:

Digital River is very sorry for the problems you had ordering NAMCO BANDAI's Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch™ - Wizard's Edition. Regretfully, we must inform you that because of an error in our ordering system, the available inventory of Wizard's Edition was oversold by mistake. As a result, we were unable to fulfill your order because it was placed after the stock was depleted. You will receive an official order cancellation notice within 24-48 hours.

Yup, ditto.  It's especially frustrating when you check on some of the other threads on the internet and find people boasting about calling Digital River, making a big stink about orders they never actually made, and recieving immediate shipping confirmations.  The company didn't oversell the Wizard Edition -- they reallocated reserved copies to people who figured out how to scam themselves one -- or more -- post-deadline copies.

I just got off the phone with a Digital River rep who tried to explain that the order still shows as Processing and that the e-mail was a warning that it *could* be cancelled.  She also had to correct herself multiple times, adjusting her assurances from "it will be shipping soon" to "it will ship at the earliest availability."  In other words, look for my copy of Ni No Kuni on an auction site near you.

Oh, well.  If Namco won't sell me a copy of their game for $110, I can always buy one at $20.  Or not.  I've maintained all along that Gratch's playthrough is the most important, and apparently we've only got three more days to wait!

-Autistic Angel

*Very* interested in this.  It isn't as exciting as a new Zelda game, of course, but if they can find a way to improve the inventory management that plagued the GameCube version, I'll be all over this.

Wasn't there problems with the camera as well??,I seem to remember this when i tried to replay it a year or two ago

Not that I remember, but it sounds like you've played it more recently than I have.  Some people think of Wind Waker and remember the vibrant world or the tedious Tingle appeasement, but my dominant memory is of having to rejigger my readied items every time I entered a new room.

Then, when Twilight Princess came out, the Wii's control scheme allowed you to have four face button items instead of just three.  It sounds like a minor change, but combined with some improved design decisions, I enjoyed the flow of that game much better.

Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks only let you have one item available at a time, but switching between them with the stylus is so fast that I don't mind at all.  Maybe they can create something similar using the touch capabilities of the Wii U gamepad, though I'm not sure if refocusing from the TV to the touchscreen and back again would feel like much of an improvement.

I think it's in part because most people consider Wind Waker to be the best Zelda since OoT and also because the art style is very distinct. Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword aren't nearly as distinguishable.

That seems to be a common sentiment, but for me, the way Twilight Princess contrasted the dreamy, homespun fairy tale designs of Link's world with the asymmetric quasi-tech growths of the twilight realm was every bit as evocative as the cheerfully sinister cel-shaded design.

I haven't played Skyward Sword yet.

I have mixed feelings on this remake. If it's just a graphical update I have no interest, but if they use it to test some of the gameplay changes they are planning for the new Zelda, I would be willing to try it.

My first reaction was, "Fat chance!" because I don't usually think of Nintendo as investing much effort in enhanced remakes, but after thinking about it, there's some good precedent to back you up.  Pokemon HeartGold & SoulSilver, Ocarina of Time 3D, and Metroid Prime Trilogy all came with a bunch of game play adjustments to better suit the systems they were on.

Maybe this really will be the definitive version of Wind Waker.  That would be a hell of thing to look forward to!

-Autistic Angel

*Very* interested in this.  It isn't as exciting as a new Zelda game, of course, but if they can find a way to improve the inventory management that plagued the GameCube version, I'll be all over this.

I wonder what it is about this specific vision of Zelda that Nintendo is willing to revisit again and again.  Wind Waker, Phantom Hourglass, and Spirit Tracks form a direct chronology that feels more and more distinct from the rest of the franchise.

-Autistic Angel

Ever since the review scores started appearing, the outlier has been Game Informer's notably low 7/10.  It was written by Kimberley Wallace who, as the newest hire on staff, is something of an unknown quantity, but her full article is now available online:

Ni No Kuni features many battles, but most trying is the player’s struggle against old-school mechanics. First off, every area contains an absurd amount of random encounters, and while enemies are visible on the field, they charge instantly once spotting you. Avoiding them is next to impossible, even after upgrading Oliver’s speed.

This problem is exacerbated by limited save points in dungeons (although the world map allows saving at any time). If you die before reaching a save point, you’re transported back to the dungeon’s entrance, grinding through the same enemies again. When you perish, Ni No Kuni also fines you 10 percent of your money to keep earned XP. Death is a possibility in every battle, keeping you constantly alert and forcing you to learn the battle system. Initially, that’s what I liked the most, but the aforementioned issues made this process almost unbearable.

They've also posted a Test Chamber on the game -- imagine a Giant Bomb Quick Look but with way less contempt for the audience -- but I have not yet watched it.

-Autistic Angel

Her review seems off compared to all of the other review out there. I wouldn't put much stock in it.

Eh, we should be careful about discarding reviews just because they stray from the mean.  The initial spate of Black & White reviews were glowing with praise, too.

That said, Game Informer's executive editor Andrew Reiner has recently made several pointed comments about how review scores reflect an individual's opinion, not that of the entire site.  Now, in the new Devil May Cry Test Chamber, he's gone out of his way to remark on how much he adores Ni No Kuni.  I think he's with you on this.


On the game itself, I have not received so much as a whisper from Namco's website about my Wizard's Edition, but some friends were kind enough to bring over their copy for a little while last night.  It's the first time I've seen the game in action.  Yesterday afternoon, I would have said that The Witcher 2 remains the best looking game I have ever seen, but if those opening moments are any indication, Ni No Kuni is a serious contender for that top spot.

-Autistic Angel

Ever since the review scores started appearing, the outlier has been Game Informer's notably low 7/10.  It was written by Kimberley Wallace who, as the newest hire on staff, is something of an unknown quantity, but her full article is now available online:

Ni No Kuni features many battles, but most trying is the player’s struggle against old-school mechanics. First off, every area contains an absurd amount of random encounters, and while enemies are visible on the field, they charge instantly once spotting you. Avoiding them is next to impossible, even after upgrading Oliver’s speed.

This problem is exacerbated by limited save points in dungeons (although the world map allows saving at any time). If you die before reaching a save point, you’re transported back to the dungeon’s entrance, grinding through the same enemies again. When you perish, Ni No Kuni also fines you 10 percent of your money to keep earned XP. Death is a possibility in every battle, keeping you constantly alert and forcing you to learn the battle system. Initially, that’s what I liked the most, but the aforementioned issues made this process almost unbearable.

They've also posted a Test Chamber on the game -- imagine a Giant Bomb Quick Look but with way less contempt for the audience -- but I have not yet watched it.

-Autistic Angel

I've made a couple comments recently about what a dull and petulant character Assassin's Creed III's protagonist is, but in the interest of clarity, let me say that if Connor were to launch into a full-on temper tantrum, lying on his belly and beating his fists against the ground like a squalling three-year-old, he would still be a more appealing character than Hawke.

Hawke remains the most detestable character I have played in at least ten years.  I can only pray Dragon Age III concludes its tutorial by having your new hero lop her smug, condescending head from her shoulders.

-Autistic Angel

I have not used Amazon for many release-date purchases, but when I have, they've never disappointed.

-Autistic Angel

[Spoiler]

Wow, this game goes *much* faster when you don't have to spend upwards of ninety missions on every story mission.  I just reached the point where Connor enters into an uneasy truce with

Spoiler for Hiden:

Haytham, and Holy Christ, do I wish I was still playing as that guy.  Hatham shows a more likable character in the way he squares his shoulders than Connor does whole reams worth of churlish whining.

-Autistic Angel

Try Spirit Tracks. I liked it better than Phantom Hourglass because you don't have to go wandering through the same temple over and over, and while there are less tools, each of them remains useful throughout the game.

Yeah, I've already played up to the start of the second temple.  I don't usually play direct sequels back-to-back this way, but Phantom Hourglass left me wanting more portable Zelda and I was curious to see what refinements they made to the formula.  It's really neat so far: the Spirit Flute is a cool addition -- definitely better than the Wind Waker baton -- and rolling with a double-tap of the stylus is infinitely more precise.

And who knew Princess Zelda was so funny?  Her dialogue is great!  Personality-wise, she might be the best sidekick in the series

I know Spirit Tracks was a fairly unpopular entry, though.  Andrew Reiner famously considers it the worst Zelda outside the CD-i trilogy.  It'll be interesting to see if it takes a weird turn at some point because, so far, I'm really enjoying it!

-Autistic Angel

I have Ni no Kuni ordered from the Namco store, but standard shipping through Digital River means I might as well have bought a scratch ticket.  Still, this thread isn't titled "What are you getting this week...."

Otherwise, I'm considering Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance since it's $20 on sale at Best Buy.  I'll probably pass though: the reviews speak well of the gameplay, but all concur that the story is downright impenetrable to all but the most dedicated Kingdom Hearts fans.

-Autistic Angel

Alright, I'm calling it: I am officially finished trying to get the "constraint" objectives on the story missions.  I got a 100% sync in Brotherhood and Revelations, but AC3 can go to hell.

I should have stopped sometime in Revelations.  They were already poorly implemented there, either set up with little gotchas to ensure they couldn't be accomplished without some serious trial and error time or designed in ways that assumed the game mechanics were far more precise than they actually were.  Still, I thought it was a fluke.  The Brotherhood bonus objectives were almost universally fun and rewarding to pursue, and I believed a full-fledged sequel might have been worth a similar degree of play testing.

Nope.  Instead of providing an incentive to explore all of the tactics at your disposal, the constraints in AC3 exist to reward people who wish to spend hours replaying every mission four, five, six times over until a combination of rote memorization and random luck puts success within reach.

I was doing it, too.  Even if they aren't skill-based any more, that alone doesn't make them into miserable chores.  Some, like the challenges to run a particular gauntlet within the time limit or without touching the ground, were plenty satisfying to complete.  I had 100% sync on every mission through Sequence 6.

The mission that finally broke me was near the end of Sequence 7 where you have to infiltrate a ship without being detected.  That isn't a spoiler since this is the third game in a row where Ubisoft is recycling the exact same stealth mission.  The big difference here is you have to do it twice, perfectly, while also executing an air assassination against one particular guy, and the rules for what alerts the guards are incredibly arbitrary *and* erratically enforced.  Yank a dude off the deck while his buddy is looking right at him?  Fair game.  Shoot an arrow into a guard's neck while the next closest guy is on the opposite end of the ship, behind a stack of cargo, and the cannons are going off?  No, his Spidey-sense tingles and he zeroes your position like that gun from The Fifth Element.

I'm sure someone here ghosted through that mission on the first try, and good on them.  Me, I reloaded that checkpoint two dozen times until I'd disabled the first ship, completely cleared the second except for the last guy who had to be air-assassinated, climbed the rigging to a perfect vantage point, and watched Connor's straight shot get blocked by invisible geometry and send him tumbling to the deck.

If I were ten years old and this were the only game I had to play for the next six months, maybe this sort of "challenge" would hold some sort of masochistic appeal.  Fortunately, I'm upwards of thirteen, a holiday season of end-to-end discounts has left me with more games than time, and I don't have to grind out these awful bonus objectives any more.

Connor (The spanish named guy..sigh) is a twat with zero likeability - I find myself rooting for the Templars, which surely cannot be the intent?

Also, this.

I'm going to finish this game, but man: Connor sucks.  At what point in the scripting process did they decide it was a good idea to center on a main character whose only outward emotion is sullen peevishness?

-Autistic Angel

some more of the Shin Megami Tensei games would be nice too.

Well, this isn't a Vita port, but it might be close enough:

Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers has a release date on the Nintendo 3DS, revealed this morning by Nintendo of America. The game is slated for release on April 16th.

As previously reported, Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers, originally released on the Sega Saturn, has been updated with voice-acting, faster battles, the ability to change difficulty setting mid-dungeon, and an auto-mapping feature on the 3DS bottom screen.

They say this is the first time Soul Hackers will be available in English, previously having been a Japanese exclusive.  Sadly, my attempts to engage with the Shin Megami Tensei franchise outside of Persona 3 and 4 have been short and brutally disappointing, so I don't expect to get much mileage out of this one.

-Autistic Angel

My biggest problem is that the overworld random battles were absolutely brain-dead easy, and apparently there are tons of them. I prefer my random battles to be like Persona or Nocturne, where there is a slight chance to die at any time. In Ni No Kuni I didn't even need to look at the screen.

I know excessive easiness was a major complaint against White Knight Chronicles, but I generally consider Eurogamer to be pretty discerning:

Ni no Kuni is not afraid to test you, either. Boss fights are abundant and the regular battles between them are far from thoughtless chaff. After establishing the basics, the game stretches its legs and offers consistent challenge, regularly stepping up the toughness of the monsters you face and offering some thorny tactical combinations. Mana is a precious resource that's expensive to refill and this is one JRPG where you'll actually need to use and restock your items, where the sight of an inn brings relief.

The difficulty and levelling curves have been tuned with such care that as soon as the fights in one area become easy, you're on to the next. You'll rarely, if ever, need to grind; the game is comfortably padded with fun side-quests and challenging monster bounty hunts instead. Seldom has a console role-player been so perfectly paced, or side-stepped the onset of ennui with such sure footing.

The review also specifies that Ni No Kuni takes a bit to unveil all its battle systems, so I'd assume the demo is only presenting the most basic elements of game play.

-Autistic Angel

Is it pillar-boxed or stretched?  I've never attempted to play a PlayStation game on a Vita, so I don't know if those are options or preset.

I really hope they offer some kind of option to play Final Fantasy XII on the Vita.  Remastered or a straight port -- I'd take whatever I could get.

-Autistic Angel

How does it look on the Vita?

-Autistic Angel

You need to go out and get the GBA version of A Link to the Past. It's one of the best (if not the best) Zelda games ever and works perfectly on a handheld.

+1.  Its the only Zelda game I've every completed.

You know, it never occured to me before reading this, but I've completed *almost* every Zelda game I've played.  Link to the Past, Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, Wind Waker, Minish Cap, and now Phantom Hourglass.

The only exception is Zelda II: Link's Adventure which I played all the way to the final dungeon -twice- only to have the save data go corrupt and destroy all my progress, both times.  Frankly, I consider that "finished," even if I was denied my chance to beat the final boss.

Never played the original Legend of Zelda, Link's Awakening or Oracle of Ages / Seasons, though.

I was also pleased to see that they fixed the "economy" issues that plagued WW and TP.  Eliminating the wallet was long overdue and lots of items were so expensive that I could quite easily go from flush to cash to almost broke.

Yeah, I forgot to mention: the economy was especially well done.  I'm obsessive about cutting grass, smashing pots, and dredging up treasure, and I was saving up for items and upgrades right up through the end of the game.  Some of the capacity upgrades are admittedly pretty optional, but it was refreshing to have a Zelda game where rupees retain their value throughout the adventure.

-Autistic Angel

I have all three Xenosaga games waiting in my backlog, but my backwards-compatible PS3 is down for repairs...hopefully.  It might be out of commission permanently, but at least I still have my PS2 if it comes to that.

Never played the .hack games myself, though.  I'd be interested hearing how they hold up.

-Autistic Angel