I completely agree. It's a challenging game, but the battle system is fantastic, the story is great, and the audio/visual quality just make it that much better. It's one of my favorite games of all time!

Well, I said on twitter I would play devil's advocate and try and argue that Fable is great, but this may prove to be quite difficult. I was just as disappointed as you as the series went on, and it really wasted some good potential. Anyway, let's dig in!

I actually thought the first Fable was quite good, but not due to the aspects of the game that were most talked about. I found the combat to be an absolute blast, with a lot of different ways to play, and a great variety of spells to play around with. The story and morality choices were mostly underdeveloped which were supposed to be the big drawing points of the game. Without the lofty expectations created by Molyneux, Fable would likely have gotten a far better reaction.

The series lost me right away in the second game. The combat had lost all its teeth and the other aspects were that much better than the original, making it a mostly boring experience. Oh what could have been!

Oh right, I'm supposed to be playing devil's advocate! Fable works as sort of an RPG-lite, and it does seem to attract an audience less interested in the hardcore intricacies often present in RPG combat. So the audience looking for interesting moral choices and easy and fun combat gets just that out of Fable. We just aren't those people!

I did pick it up! It is actually not just more of the same as it so turns out. I can assure you for starters that you shouldn't worry about the new soundtrack. It's brilliant, and compliments the new elements and graphics perfectly. Just picture fully orchestrated versions of classic Etrian Odyssey music. As for the new aspects, the selection of classes has been revamped with some more thoughtfully designed skill trees so that even returning classes feel new. The airship travel functions as a world map, and there are smaller dungeons to explorer in addition to the classic larger ones that seem to serve as the stratum of this title. The graphics have been updated so that this truly feels like a next gen Etrian Odyssey instead of just the usual retro styled romp. Of course the classic dungeon crawling challenge is still there, just bigger and better than ever. Etrian Odyssey IV provides an amazing template by which the series can expand and grow in the future. I'm very glad Europe won't be missing out. Anyway, thanks for the letter. Sorry I couldn't provide a better defense for Fable!

I'm not quite sure what you're referring to here. Yes, the first four games provided some sense that the games were connected and possibly in the same world, but there was never anything overt about it. For the most part they were completely different stories with similar elements to them, just like many JRPGs of the time did. Dragon Quarter absolutely told a far different style of tale, but it was completely devoid of elements present in the first four titles. Also, given the underground setting, Dragon Quarter could easily fit into the continuity as a look at the past or future of Breath of Fire's world.

Well there's a multitude of issues here. For starters the full blooded dragon argument makes no sense to me. Why does that make it less of a Breath of Fire game? Ryu isn't a carbon copy of previous Ryus every time, so a non-full blooded dragon doesn't seem out of the question at all.

As for the original for games being centered around dragon form, I would say that's highly debatable. We're here to talk about Dragon Quarter though, so I will say that you are wrong and dragon form is absolutely right at the heart of the game. It doesn't actively discurouge you from using dragon form. Instead, given the danger it presents, it becomes a tool of last resort that must be managed very careful. Deciding the right times to use it is a central part of the game, and thus serves as more of central mechanic than many previous titles.

As for the idea that it should have been a side entry or different series, the Breath of Fire series was never big enough to support supplementary titles. Besides, despite being a radically different game, the heart and soul of the series is still there, and there's no way it would have sold at all as a separate non-series title. Dragon Quarter is Breath of Fire V, and not just in name.

Again with this idea. Dragon Quarter would not have done better as a spin-off. Art styles often change with new improved technology, and Dragon Quarter is no exception. While the series avoided the switch to 3D on PS1, there was no way to avoid it on PS2. This is another complaint I don't quite get. Ryu looks instantly recognizable, and the character designs aren't a giant deviation from the series past. They just aren't sprites, and thus are naturally going to feel very different. I bet with more experience with the technology under their belt they could have made an even more amazing looking Breath of Fire game possibly further capturing the spirit of the old artwork in cell shaded 3D. Most RPG series made the jump to 3D graphics when the PS2 rolled around, and this series was no exception. Fans should have been overjoyed that the end result was so fantastic, regardless of whether or not it strictly resembled the sprites of games past. Had the series stayed 2D I guarantee the series would have tanked even harder.

There are some major problems with your statements here. For starters, you say "replaying the game," which is not accurate since you're only replaying up until the point you died or chose to restart. Further, many shortcuts are opened so that there are large chunks that you don't replay. So, I don't see how this is far different from grinding. The average playthrough is only going to require maybe two to four restarts, with one at least likely to happen earlier on so there isn't much to replay. I'm not sure what you mean by maxing stats though, as there's no requirement to do so.

I am glad that at the very least you gave the game a chance, unlike many.

I will counter these point by point:

- Not in a way that impacts the average player. Getting a higher D Ratio was mostly optional and not essential to beating and enjoying the game. From my experience hard saving doesn't make the game harder and didn't affect my playthrough in any negative way at all.

- Except that nothing hampers the player's ability to save, it just uses saves in a different manor than other games. There are suspend saves (unless you have the PAL edition), limited hard saves, and the option to restart thus providing a hard save. I understand why it can frustrate people given the challenge, but saying the game hampers your ability to save is actually not true.

- What's your point here? Changing cast size is not a new thing for JRPGs. A small party fits the story and world more than an a huge cast would so I don't see the issue. The cast should fit the game's style and story, and not be large just for the sake of being large. I think previous entries fell into this trap, with some superfluous and underdeveloped characters.

- The fishing game was actually original in Dragon Quarter, but was cut near the end of development. No one plays these games to fish though, so who cares?

- The ant farm was a far better diversion than any fishing mini-game.

- Complaining about the lack of world maps is a major pet peeve of mine. There a nice feature in games with large world to explore, but not every game needs them, nor should they be expected to have them.

- It may have, but it would have been a worse game for it.

- Again with this "start over" stuff. Starting over in Dragon Quarter is not the same as starting over in other games and that's the whole point of its systems. I again need to point out that the number of "restarts" required for most players wont be a huge amount. It is also mitigated by the extra story sequence that can be discovered, alternate paths that can be taken, and the shortcuts that allow for skipping many areas.

Beloved series? Sorry, but "beloved series" don't fade away due to one entry that suffers poor sales. Breath of Fire was never huge, or beloved. I don't buy that a traditional Breath of Fire wouldn't have killed the series all the same. Dragon Quarter is a Breath of Fire game and removing the series title would have doomed it to absolute and completely undeserved obscurity. I mean, you make it sound like they Shining Force Neo-ed the series or something.

It holds a candle to the original series, and even offered glimpses of how new and old could be meshed together in the future. In fact it completely eclipsed them by creating one of the best and most unique RPG experiences of all time. If fans can't get past the fact that a game is both radically new, and still at its heart a Breath of Fire game, then frankly the series deserves to die.

Ah Metal Gear Rising, another game in a good year for action titles! I'm going to have to try that at some point. Anyway, let's talk about Final Fantasy XIII-2 and such

Yeah, DLC in some cases that is very tough to access or complete can feel like a waste of money. It's especially bad in FFXIII-2 because they provide characters you can add to your party, but obtaining those characters isn't always feasible until the end of the game. At that stage, what's the point of getting new characters even if one of them is the amazing Ultros? I was very disappointed.

No, It's not just you; the DLC bosses were far too hard.

Graphical consistency is something more games need to achieve. Remember the old Final Fantasy manuals with art of the characters that didn't look anything like their in game designs? You're right on the money here. There are many amazing artists involved in JRPG development and too often their art doesn't properly translate in-game.

Matsuno is not even currently working on anything! I would absolutely love some HD remakes of Ivalice games, and I think there's an audience there to support them. Come on Square-Enix, nevermind that HD update of Final Fantasy X!

Yeah, there never seem to be resolved romances in most RPG romances for that matter. For example, Locke and Celes, for instance, appear to have a romantic relationship, though it lacks resolution. These relationships don't seem to be mature. Who's writing this stuff?

I don't know if I'd even qualify Catherine as a dating sim, but yeah -- that's about the closest thing we've gotten.

None of those games have anything approaching a pronounced dating sim. Ar Tonelico gives the illusion that it does, but mostly it's a way to explore the sub-conscious personality of characters and doesn't have any real choices. None of these games approach the subject with much in the way of maturity.

I wonder if we'll ever even see another Valkyrie Profile game!

Assuming we're still talking about the dating sim elements, I do not know of any such games. Maybe see if the romances in Dragon Age Origins suite your tastes? You may also find the Ar Tonelico games to your liking regardless of the dating aspect.

I'd just like to be able to play that game! We've been teased with it for so long, I hope this E3 finally gives us all the details and a firm release date. I wouldn't be surprised if it gets pushed to next-gen consoles at this point. More importantly, I hope it's good.

The Final Fantasy XIII storyline lost me as soon as it starting delving into nonsensical time travel in XIII-2. XIII had some very interesting lore behind it, so where the heck did they go wrong? I hope Lightning Returns has some different writers on it, but by the sound of the description you just gave me, I'm not holding out much hope.

This is actually a bit easier than I expected! Fire Emblem: Awakening is published by Nintendo -> Nintendo made the N64 -> Red Storm made Rainbow Six for the N64 -> The CEO of Virtual Heroes. Inc use to work for Red Storm -> Virtual Heroes Inc. makes the NASA published Moonbase Alpha game -> NASA operates the Mars Land rover