Well sadly there isn't any criteria at the moment because we don't currently have anyone running the music section. You could always post in the forums about it to see if we could drum up some interest to get the section running again. In the interim, you can send me the remixes and I'd be happy to share them on Q&A if I find them to be good!

You should be more optimistic! Awakening has arrived to much fanfare from fans and critics alike so I doubt you'll find much to be disappointed about there. Soul Hackers being an update of an old game may disappoint some, but I doubt it. It has a stellar reputation with importers! So I wouldn't worry there. Of course you may be disappointed in the battery life of the 3DS, so there's always that.

Well I guess I'm as much to blame as anyone, because I've never heard of that game! Plenty of other visual novel type games have gotten attention, so I'm not sure why this one fell by the wayside. That said, the story sounds incredibly interesting and I'm going to have to check it. More games need to come up with interesting ideas like this (even if they are also soul-crushing) and of course pair that kind of story up with better game mechanics.

Well you could likely find a way to be more cookie-cutter, but you are right, Covenant of the Plume wastes what is a really cool idea. They should have spent time building up a cast of characters before even getting the power of the plume. Then, the game could have presented battles that are virtually impossible to beat without it, thus forcing players to take out characters they have probably learned to love. Now that would have been a cruel and awesome game!

Why you gotta hate on my dungeon crawlers (I kid, I understand they aren't for everyone)? I'm not that psyched for Elder Scrolls, but Project Eternity is quite intriguing. I think you should be excited for Dragon Age 3. They're clearly taking much longer with it after the reaction to the rushed out Dragon Age 2. Of course, you should probably also wait until they show more of it to get excited, but I have high hopes for it. Anyway, I hope you have a good time with both Fire Emblem and Soul Hackers and find some more games to your liking this year! Let me know what you think about Fire Emblem once you've had some time to play it.

I was hoping for one of your lengthy letters sometime soon, and as always you deliver!

The story in the Kingdom Hearts series isn't what I would call its strong suit. After a bunch of side entries the whole thing has gotten ridiculously convoluted. I do enjoy running around the various Disney worlds, but you obviously weren't a big fan of how they treated the different Disney properties. I play the series mostly for the gameplay, extracting what enjoyment from the story I can. So let's discuss gameplay!

I'll grant you the camera has issues; it's not perfect. At the very least, the game does support the Circle Pad Pro for those that have issues with the camera. The previous portable entry (Birth By Sleep) did have as many camera issues. Now as far as the drop mechanic goes, I wasn't a huge fan of it either but it didn't bother me all that much. It usually forced me into a drop just as I was getting sick of playing as that character. Can't agree on the combat impression of course. I found it to be a great evolution of Birth By Sleep's combat. The various new environmental moves also added a lot of spice to things. I play these games on the harder difficulties though, so I'm not sure how much that may effect our differing opinions. Anyway, I can see why people would be disappointed so at the end of the day I'm not too surprised it made the list.

They are but often I sought them out myself because I had so much fun with the combat. As far as weaning of RPG mechanics go, there were never that many there to begin with. Granted the removal of XP is a bit jarring, but for me it didn't kill the joy of combat. There wasn't any real meaty platforming, which is something I think the game could have used.

Yes, the using up of stickers that don't solve a puzzle was pretty annoying. That said, I loved the puzzles and the general emphasis on adventure game elements that weren't used quite as much in previous entries. It feels like a Mario take on classic adventure games, and I just had an absolute blast exploring the world and wracking my brain to figure out some of the puzzles. I get why people are disappointed, but personally I had more fun with this entry than any previous one save for The Thousand Year Door. I'll take the sticker puzzles over Super Paper Mario's perspective switching any day of the week.

I've downloaded it to my 3DS, but haven't actually played it yet. I'm sure I'll have something to say after that. We shall see!

It shouldn't be but I'm going to come with something totally out of left field. In this Grace Kelly RPG you star as the member of a collegiate barbershop group. After doing a version of the pop song Grace Kelly, you feed your curiosity by finding out who she was. Find out inconsistencies and weird fact about her life (fictional, this wont be totally based on reality) you eventually discover she is still alive and part of a strange global conspiracy. There you have it!

Yeah I'm really failing on the Super Robot Taisen front. I think I'll put the game in the GBA slot on my old DS which I take everywhere, so I can fire it up for a few battles every now and then. That video only makes me want a PS3 game we'll likely never get! I will keep a lookout for said attack in OG 2 of course.

I guess I should track down a copy of that first then. I wanted to get some of the games before they start skyrocketing in price further. They can still be had for right around $30 which isn't too bad for somewhat rare PS2 RPGs (have you seen the prices for some of the .hack games?). Then again my copy of Covenant came in so I may find it hard to resist...

I will do so. I imagine I should avoid the likely spoiler filled Shadow Hearts episode of the RPG Backtrack? The game sounds really interesting and I picked it up before the others and the World War I setting sold me on it. I may follow your advise and try the first game before I play it. It's a shame there haven't been HD collections for classic PS2 RPG series like this.

Sounds like a worthwhile experience to me! What was so divisive about it? I generally like to try RPGs in a series that are divisive because sadly fans of series can I often dislike a reason for incredibly illogical reasons (I've done so myself). The oddball elements of the story sound right up my alley so I think I'll track down a copy.

That is funny, reminds me of that one Dreamcast (or was it Saturn?) series you were telling me about that takes place in a not very realistic USA.

Oh connection challenges! It's been awhile.

The Ruling Voice was distributed by Warner Brothers -> Warner Brothers owns DC -> Ubisoft developed and publish Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu based on DC characters -> Ubisoft published Lunar Dragon Song -> Lunar Dragon Song was developed by Japan Arts Media -> Japan Arts Media developed Song Master for the Super Famicom -> Yanoman published Song Master -> Yanoman published FEDA.

Oh man, I've been loving the music in the game so far. Not to mention that the game itself plays quite well, and includes an option to turn off perma-death for those that are scared of it. Good to have this series back in the US after my prediction powers horribly failed and we didn't get the previous entry! Highly recommend people click that link to sample the soundtrack.

I have yet to play IV or Tactics myself. IV is of course regarded by many as the worst in the series, but if you've been following Q&A you'll know I had several people write in to refute this fact. I have a feeling that while it probably isn't the best entry by any stretch, it's badness may be somewhat exaggerated considering that other games in the series are just that good.  Tactics has a somewhat better reputation despite being associated with IV. As far as V goes you should know that it gets off to a considerably slow start. Stick with it, and it quickly becomes a fantastic game. The battle system is a fantastic throwback to that of the first two games and the audio and visual elements are equally engaging. Just be aware that it has some annoying load times.

Perhaps they do, but I think I correctly predicting we would get Tales of Xillia? Project X Zone was an absolute shocker of an announcement. I guess Namco is serious about their commitment to RPGs. I'm hoping they'll bring over Tales of Innocence for the Vita but I highly doubt it. OK enough rambling, let's predict!

Super Robot Taisen Original Generation 2 - I don't think there's any chance for this one

Tales of Xillia 2 - I would say this one is highly likely unless Xillia bombs in the West.

Summon Night 3 - I would call its chances dubious at best.

Shining Ark - I don't think we'll be seeing this one from Sega of America.  I'm really annoyed about the jerk behavior by Sega related to this game, so I'm not sure I'd buy it even if it did come over. Actually that's a lie, you know how I am with Sega.

There you have it! We'll see in about a year how I did.

I actually could call this one a "defend the defendable". Front Mission 4 very clearly was a bust. The series in the few entries that have come out here has never been able to find much of a fanbase. I'm not sure why given that Mechwarrior seems to have a sizable fanbase that would enjoy them. I think Square Enix should keep trying with that, but Front Mission 5 was likely too soon. There were other PS2 games that should have taken a higher priority as far as localization resources. So awful as it may be for fans, it was the smart thing to do (financially).

I actually was not familiar with the story of To Kill a Mockingbird so I had to consult the plot summary on wikipedia. I would create an RPG that lacks combat and such and just focuses on character relationships. You can explore the world of the story, interacting with the characters and eventually get involved with the trial that serves as the main part of the plot. Depending on your interactions and what selections you make you can influence the outcome of the trial and create a better or worse ending to the story. Leveling would involve making good choices in conversations to improve your social skills which would open better dialog choices.

BioWare are masters of the RPG craft but I would make a Sonic RPG that focuses far less on dialog and more on exploration and combat in classic styled Sonic areas. Exploration would be similar to the Mario RPGs but with a greater focus on speed. Combat would play out in real time in a system similar to the Tales games. Play style would vary depending on whether you choose to control Sonic or one of his friends in combat while the other party members would be controlled by highly customizable AI. The story would be light hearted and simple, but include plenty of opportunities for comedy similar to the funny moments in Sonic Colors and Sonic Generations. Finally, the game would not feature Shadow the Hedgehog at all.

That's pretty cool! I think I usually managed to save him in that fight. Moments like that in the first entry of course felt hollow for the most part because we never got to see what they led to. I really need to get on to my playthrough of all three entries using the fan translation by Shining Force Central. 

Now that's a fight I can't wait to take part in. Scenario 1 had lots of interesting battles. As this story and others you've told me have shown, Camelot seemed to only get more creative the farther into the three entries you get. Thanks for only giving us part one Sega (yes I'm still bitter)!

Yikes, that sounds incredibly tough. I think I remember a fight in Scenario 1 where you climb a tower that has several sub-areas but you didn't have to chase down some fool to keep him alive! I'd imagine that fight may take a few tries.

I thought that was the case. That's good to know! I wish they had just continued with region free consoles so I could be importing a certain slime focused Dragon Quest game right now. Oh well, good to know that imports (unless they're DSi enhanced games like the previous Fire Emblem) are still playable on the 3DS for those who don't want to keep their old system around.

I did not see the review initially but I've since checked it out. Sounds like a classic case of great idea, terrible execution. It's a shame!

As always, thank you for the tremendous content!

Good old vaporware, always good for an interesting read (even when such games actually come out like Duke Nukem Forever). I was interested in Sword of Legendia as well. I hate it when companies announce games like this, including no information or even concept are. Who knows how far it ever even got into development, or what kind of game it even was?

That is pretty odd. Tough to say what happened to this game. Torturous development cycle? Never really put into full scale development? Was only ever in planning stages? It's tough to say. I'd love to find out the real story about this. Based on the fact it was canceled, I'm guessing there was never much of a game there for us to be disappointed about not getting.

That's ever the sad story of true vaporware, never knowing what the game could have been. In recent years some publishers have had a propensity to announce titles way too early, or before they've even been assigned a development team (I'm looking at you Final Fantasy X HD). In the internet age when often see and hear about a game for long stretches before release, announcing a game too early seems dangerous. Why waste the publicity a game announcement brings if there isn't anything to show yet?

The obvious answer would of course be Final Fantasy Versus XIII which was clearly a case of announcing something too early. The one that disappointed me the most though is the announced remake of Landstalker for PSP that never happened. It was one of my favorite games as a kid so I was excited to see how they freshened it up. Nothing ever came of it of course, which was deeply disappointing. The only other one would be the rumored Wii RPG from Camelot, but I don't think that was ever officially announced, so not sure if that counts. I'm still hoping we see a new RPG from them sometime in the near future.