I can not describe my excitement that we are getting two Atlus-developed dungeon crawlers in a short time span. While the Etrian Odyssey series is now old hat and I expect the new one to be another polished and upgraded entry in the series, I'm more excited for Soul Hackers because of all the good things I've heard about the original. I do have a copy of the Saturn version, which I've played around with, but it's hard to get a good feel for the game. I'm sure a translated and upgraded 3DS version will be a far better experience. I haven't read in-depth about what changes they've made, so I just hope it has more modernized features than Innocent Sin which still felt mostly like a port of an old PS1 game for me. We shall see!

Now, as far as being as popular as Persona? I think that's be a tough feat to accomplish, especially given that other SMT games aren't even as popular as Persona in Japan. I think it has the chance to bring more people into the main SMT fold than Strange Journey did though because of the love for the original among importers and the nicer graphical look thanks to being on the 3DS. If people over here enjoy it, and assuming Shin Megami Tensei IV follows shortly after that we could see a stronger base for the main series. Of course if Persona 5 finally gets announced then that will understandably get the most attention. The long and short of it is that anyway you look at it, it's a good time to be a fan of SMT.

Well, I don't know if it was so much doom and gloom as it was perhaps end of the year blues? Besides I thought I did a lot to counter the gloom! There are certainly a lot of RPG localizations we're missing out on, but I don't think it's that bad as long as you don't remind me about 7th Dragon (just the first one, second one isn't as big of a loss).

The thing about hating Japanese development is a whole different issue not necessarily tied to RPGs that I don't really want to go into.

I don't really agree with the point that RPGs are spread out across more systems. With Japan buying more portable platforms, more JRPGs have been coming to DS and PSP than anything else. With the decline of both due to piracy, new platforms, etc. we've missed out on some titles late in the life of both. C'est la vie as they say. We really haven't missed out on very many localizations for Wii/PS3/360.

 You're missing some things in those lists. There were a ton of great RPGs on Genesis, Sega CD, PC Engine, and even some on Game Gear, so a list of SNES/GB doesn't quite cover it. PSX/GBC also skips the many RPGs on the Saturn. PS2/GBA I'll give you as GameCube/Dreamcast/Xbox were all light on RPGs. Now, you are correct there's JRPGs on all five of those systems, but we were talking about unlocalized JRPGs and those fall very heavily into the DS/PSP category given Japan's preferences.

I would be inclined to agree. We got a ton of good JRPGs (FYI Class of Heroes II didn't make it out in 2012) this year, with a good number even coming out on consoles. I'm still surprised we got as many PSP games as we did, but I'm not going to complain (even about a lack of Final Fantasy Type-0). Besides the lack of some Dragon Quest spin-offs, we even got most of the big RPGs on 3DS/Vita. So a good year all around, hopefully the Vita will pick up in sales so niche publishers can keep bringing over RPGs for it (I really want the new Ys localized!).

I don't agree that it's poor management. I still think 7th Dragon on DS could have done well in the West (especially after seeing Dragon Quest IX do well) but publishers have more sales info than we do so maybe they saw trends in the market that just didn't make it worth it. I think Square Enix not bringing over games like SaGa 2 and SaGa 3 on DS that could easily be renamed to Final Fantasy Legend is all the evidence I need as far as the DS market goes (which makes the localization of Four Heroes of Light seem out of place, but hey I'll take it!). I'm not really going to blame bad management on the lack of 7th Dragon. The second game being on PSP pretty much killed chances from the start. Plus, after Valkyria Chronicles 2 was a bust in the West I can't even blame them for not trying. It sucks, but we can always hope for fan translations (and for Sega to move the series to a different platform).

I agree that 2013 is looking great. I'm hoping for Bravely Default news because that game looks like a lot of fun.

Don't be too hard on people pining for more localized games. Remember that despite the fact we are getting a lot of localized RPGs, we're getting a lot more specialized RPG that might not be everyone's cup of tea. We've gotten a lot of SRPGs on portables. For those not really into that type of game, the list of localized games will suddenly seem much smaller. So I don't think it's revisionist history so much as pining for different types of games. We'll see how people feel after this year!

There were some games I dabbled in but didn't finish, but as far as game I'd like to try but didn't really get to spent any real time with? That would have to be Unchained Blades. I bought the game right away but never really got to it other than the first few minutes. Just too many games to play on my PSP! I'm going to try it on 3DS instead as I've always preferred dungeon crawlers on the DS/3DS two screen format. So I'll probably get to that soon. In addition, I've also got copies of Yakuza 3 and Yakuza 4 that I'm itching to play. I'm new to the series but I have a suspicion I'll find it to my liking. I think that's about it! Most other games that I want to finish in 2013 I've already dug into a fair amount. So 2013 looks to be the year of first person dungeon crawling and Yakuza for me!

People freaked out when the director of Dark Souls II mentioned something about a straightforward design. I mean who wouldn't freak out? Dark Souls excellence is actually enhanced by the open and often obtuse nature of the game itself that allows the player to discover elements of the world on their own. Let's imagine that the director was actually talking about the straightforward nature of progression, meaning once you die in the game that's the end of that run. Imagine the director is a huge fan of roguelikes where permadeath is the name of the game. Like Dark Souls, death would be a teaching tool, only this time you have to learn a larger and more pronounces lesson on how to survive instead of just how to survive what area you just died at. Imagine the obsession of completing the game and finding all the secrets that are there that require surviving in the face of pure defeat. Of course, some things about the game experience would have to be changed to accommodate this and prevent cheap annoying deaths that would ruin the experience. It could be done, and it could be an incredible and thrilling experience for those that go in with an open mind! Imagine the feeling of accomplishment at finishing that kind of Dark Souls II.

(This was in response to me tweeting that Sega was the only company I both hated and loved with equal measure)

Well, let's start with the love part shall we? I love the RPG series they've been able to create even if they don't always keep them going. The Shining series and Oasis games were certainly highlights of my childhood. I enjoyed the Sonic games of course. I was a huge fan of the Saturn and interesting new series like Panzer Dragoon. The Sega Saturn is of course where we start to get into the hate. Sega of America wasn't exactly managed well, and the Saturn was a huge bust. Which lead to a small print run of Panzer Dragoon Saga and my search for a copy (for a decent price) that took over a decade. Then the Dreamcast came along with none of the franchises I had loved on the Saturn and new Sonic games that I couldn't get into in the slightest. Throw in a bad revival of the Shining series and I'm sure you can see where that stems from. Still, Sega despite all their troubles manages to find creative people and pump out some amazing stuff (and some awful stuff yes) so I continue to follow the company with interest. Now if they could just get their Western operations into a better working order...

Oh and you have the time to write in I'd love to know why you hate/love Capcom and Sony!

Not at all! I am always in need of questions so constant letters is actually very welcome. Keep them coming!

I love those special knight classes as well! Of course they're horribly broken, making the end game a bit easy if you abuse those characters. Final Fantasy Tactics remains one of my favorite games of all time. It's a real shame that Matsuno ended up leaving Square Enix (and also everything that went on before he left) and I hope that some day he makes some more SRPGs. Sadly I doubt he'll ever go back to Square Enix and work on any of his old series.

Alexander O. Smith and friends did a brilliant job on the War of the Lions translation, and all their other work really. I got to see him and an associate do a panel at PAX East a few years ago talking about the localization process that was incredibly interesting and enlightening. Sadly I didn't know about the panel beforehand so I had none of the games they worked on with me to have signed!

Variety is the spice of life! Traditional world maps are fine when done well, but sometimes people get annoyed simply because a game doesn't have one, without any consideration for what it has instead. The traditional world map is a fine enough way to allow for exploring a world, but it came into being due to limitations of early games so RPGs should explore as many exploration methods as possible now that technology allows it. That said I'm really looking forward to Ni No Kuni in general!

Give them a try! The second game is a fair bit different than the first, mixing in more aspects of Diablo with loot and a skill tree and less in the way of Zelda type tools. It even manages to work in some Prince of Persia mechanics. Both are worth a try. They obviously wear their influences plainly, but I can't think of any other games out there that mix gameplay ideas quite like them. Here's hoping either THQ sticks around or someone picks up the series. One final note on the Darksiders games is they take place at the same time so there's no need to start with the first one if the second looks more appealing to you.

It is way up on my list of games to play in the near future. I can assure you that at the least I will play it before I give Suikoden IV a try. Once I finish my current playthrough of Suikoden II I'll see about firing it up.

A big complaint currently is games focused on teenaged heroes for sure, but I think it's more complaining about the same kinds of teenaged heroes. If more of them were written the way Atlus writes them I doubt we'd see as many complaints. Also I agree we need way more games that focus on a smaller very well defined portion of a world. This is one of the reasons Persona 4 is so great. It clearly defines the town you spend time in and still manages to be a huge RPG despite lacking the ability to "explore". Suikoden also did a great job of focusing on smaller areas of a world. With rising development costs this approach even makes much more sense from a fiscal point of view. Persona 4 probably didn't have the anywhere near the budget of other big PS2 RPGs but manages to be just as big and enthralling.

Sorry to hear you couldn't get into Resonance of Fate, but we agreed in that tri-Ace's strength lies in their ability to make compelling gameplay. One of the great things about Resonance of Fate to me is that the game keeps the story to a minimum and let's the player focus on gameplay for the majority of the game. Cut-scenes get longer near the end, but never as long as anything in Star Ocean 4. I think the company may be working on a new engine and some other stuff behind the scenes and just doing some smaller projects. It doesn't seem like the company is any financial trouble, and given that they worked on Final Fantasy XIII-2 I don't think there's any indication they wouldn't work with Square Enix again despite working on some games for other publishers. We agreed in that it probably won't be for a while.

I agree, people sometimes seem to think the Tales series is bigger than it is. There's many series out there that would absolutely love to reach that total. I'd love to see the Shin Megami Tensei series get that big!

Yeah, Graces f didn't have the finest soundtrack in the series. Final Fantasy IX's soundtrack would likely fit the game like a glove. I should try playing it the next time I'm playing Tales of Graces f...

I think a lot of people, including me, will focus a lot of attention on these three games. I love The Last Story but my personal choice would have to go to Persona 4 Golden despite being a port. That game is even more amazing than the original release. If we take ports out of the question, I would go with Devil Survivor 2 for refining the already brilliant gameplay of Devil Survivor. I didn't like the story as much as the first, but the gameplay is the bee's knees. Can't go wrong with The Last Story or either of those two other games really.

All I can say is that I am now pining for a Harry Potter game that will probably never happen!

Thanks for the great questions and game idea!