Michael: Pressing on, we've talked plenty about what we loved from E3 2003. But of course, we must do our duty to inform our fellow gamers of what we didn't like. So, panelists, after scouring the floors and halls of the Los Angeles Convention Center, which RPGs left a foul taste in your mouth?

Zachary: Whereas the shining gems of E3 stick out very visibly from the general rabble of all the RPGs on display, one of the titles that I was extremely disappointed in sat lonely and unloved in about a thousand locations on the floor. I speak of none other than Final Fantasy XI. Now, it's true that I have never been overly joyous about the transition of FFXI into the territory of MMORPGs, but the game was worse than even I had imagined it. It is extremely laggy (even on what one must assume to be at least a T1 connection from the convention center), slow, and hideously ugly. In short, it exemplifies all the things I like least about online gaming and MMORPGs specifically.

Alex: While it definitely wasn't the worst RPG at the show, I was most disappointed by Harvest Moon for the GameCube. Everything I've heard about the game has me salivating, but the build at the show was pretty bad. It's supposed to be released in Japan in August, so I hope that the Japanese version is a lot further along than the semi-localized version on the floor. That said, the game promises to be awesome, and I can't wait for both it and the GBA version to be released in October. The game that I liked least was probably Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirit for the PS2. The battles are infuriatingly slow, though they do go faster as you progress. Everything about the game smacks of mediocrity, from character design to general presentation. I do think that the set-up of the battle system is pretty neat, I just don't like its execution at all.

Michael: I guess I'll take a lesser-known title in this part of the discussion. After journeying through Microsoft's booth I came across a little game known as Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel. As someone who's never played a Fallout game, I really didn't know what to expect. First, the game was presented in a 3rd person perspective, and for some reason the camera sat at about a 75 degree angle above the ground. I must ask why? A 45 degree isometric perspective would at least give me a decent view of the action! Second, the premise just seems boring. Sure, the war-torn modern city I was thrust into isn't an RPG cliché, but it's not exactly original either. Given no plot presented in the demo, I really don't know what to think right now. Finally, the gameplay was boring. It just seemed to play like a crummy shoot-em-up platformer with acceptable-looking 3d graphics. And for those of you who've played Fallout games before, this one is not turn-based. This game is real-time. I don't want to be overly critical on a game demo, but I'm not even going to consider touching this game until some reviews of a finished product come out.

Nathan: I'd have to say that the worst RPG I saw there was sadly enough, Mario and Luigi. As fun a game as it might be to just play as Mario and Luigi in some kind of crazy adventure, it doesn't seem to be as story filled as it could be. Unless they add a lot of characters or something to it I don't think this game was very fulfilling. The battle system was also pretty horrible. You also aren't given many attacking options, hit by yourself or hit with your partner. There was a spot for special attacks but the box appeared to be very small and you had maybe 2 or 3 slots for skills. This game appeared to be more of a typical Mario platformer with random battles thrown in than an RPG. I sure hope Nintendo really gets around to fixing this title if they hope for it to stand alongside some of the other RPGs coming out on the Game Boy Advance this year.

Wesley: While the game itself isn't all that bad, the biggest disappointment at the show was Castlevania: Lament of Innocence. Konami clearly doesn't listen to it's fan base, nor does it go by their sales records, because they would have realized that the world loves the RPG style Castlevania games. All along, I have also been against Final Fantasy XI being an online game. I think Square-Enix would have made a better marketing decision if they had called it Final Fantasy Online, but they chose not to. I'm sure many will agree, the game made a very bad showing, and wasn't even slightly entertaining. Phantasy Star Online v3 was also an expected disappointment. Sega is playing off of the name, and recycling the game over and over again. The novelty has worn off, nobody is interested anymore. If Sega wanted to make an impression, they could give us a *real* Phantasy Star RPG to play, which would no doubt make RPGamers wet their pants.

Gabriel: Although Alex spread the love earlier, I feel the compulsion to disagree with him on another of the Final Fantasy titles, Final Fantasy X-2. Mainly also, on the points he liked. The tone of the game. In general, I don't mind lighthearted games which don't take themselves too seriously. Otherwise I wouldn't even touch Disgaea with its exploding penguins. Yet, from nearly everything I saw emitted from E3 and beforehand, I have gotten the distinct impression that the sequel to a title which was at least of mild quality has been transformed into a teen idol love affair with the requisite pop singing, dress up, and goth angst. That said, the game is visually impressive much like its predecessor, however, there simply isn't the feeling of wonder and joy present from seeing the same old graphics and visuals which transported you away for the first.

Zachary: Sadly, my ire toward the showing of Square-Enix doesn't end with Final Fantasy XI. Final Fantasy X-2 was equally awful; both in general feel of the game and the atrociously awful soundtrack. Pop music never has fit into Final Fantasy games, and even this half-assed, engine-recycling, money-grubbing entry in the series is not immune. Drakengard was only marginally more impressive than the FF titles as it appears to be, from what little I played, to be almost a shooter title with random RPG elements tossed in because that's what Square-Enix supposedly does well - make RPGs. I'd also like to thoroughly second Wes in his description of Phantasy Star Online Episode III: C.A.R.D. Revolution. It was utterly awful and rehashed. Sega should know better than to pull a Capcom and recycle their every series until it no longer bleeds when stabbed.

Alex: I have to agree with Zach regarding Final Fantasy XI. I only played it for about half an hour (that was all I could handle), but it was all boring as all get out. The gameplay is very laborious, and the world is about as dull as anything I've ever seen. As for FFX-2, I think that the Square-Enix is largely at fault here for misleading gamers. They said that they were making a sequel, and they didn't. They slutted up the girls and made something totally different using only enough elements of its predecessor to justify calling it a sequel. I have no problem with this, but I can see why people who really liked the first one are upset that they are being screwed out of a true sequel. I just see a fun game, albeit with shameless titillation.

Michael: Should it have been a shame that I didn't play either Final Fantasy X-2 or XI? Give what everyone has said, probably not. I've already seen some ill-effects from X-2 though. I was lucky enough to be able to attend a day of Anime Central in Chicago the day after E3, and the number of slutty-looking Yuna and Rikku cosplayers running about was frightening. A couple girls pulled it off well, but the rest, well, I didn't want to look at for more than a few seconds. Getting off that anecdote, I'm not sure how to react to Wes's statement about Castlevania: Lament of Innocence. Castlevania games have been stuck in their RPG-style rut for a while now, so I have to at least praise Konami for going back to the action route with the series. I'm going to give the game a chance and see how it turns out. Frankly, Symphony of the Night was probably the best Castlevania we'll ever see, so we might do good to stop expecting every new game to try to live up to that standard.

Nathan: One game I was very disappointed with this year was Final Fantasy X-2. Now don't get me wrong I do like the actual game. In fact I own the Japanese version of the game and have played through it several times. I on the other hand am not at all happy with their choice of voice actor for the roll of Yuna. In the game she does a lot of "Yay!", "Hooray" and various high pitched girly voiced things. The actor they choose on the other hand had more of a dying walrus sound along with a lot more "I'm so sad". The entire game is given more of a fun, everyone party feel to it and if one of the main characters sounds like they watched their dog just die then I do not think it will be go over as well. I know everyone else here seems to think it is the worst thing since Quest 64 but it's not all that bad once you get past the hotpants.

Wesley: While it may not be an RPG, I have one more thing that simply must be mentioned. Who on earth decided it was a good idea to make an American Idol game? Haven't we been abused enough by the television series? Codemasters should be ashamed of themselves for taking on this game, when Dragon Empires looks so promising.

Gabriel: Not too much more from me, as a title has to be truly horrible to communicate its level of discontent to the home side of the E3 show. However, I would make a final discreditation of Phantasy Star III. Its almost disturbing how little praise I have seen from staffers and non-staffers alike at E3. Even those who were at least mildly interested in the series, or long term addicts, came back with nothing more than a sense of gray and disinterest. Something so not worth their time it was even a hassle to comment on it.

Zachary: Yet another game that somehow managed to fall short even of mediocrity was Shining Soul, another Atlus RPG. Essentially it takes all the things that made the Seiken Densetsu series great, throws in a touch of Lufia, and comes out with what can only be described as flotsam. The game is essentially a complete cash cow title as it will be easily playable and identifiable by people. That does nothing to make the game less unoriginal and boring.

Michael: Fortunately I'm finding it hard to think of bad things to say about this year's crop of E3 games. I will say though that it is disheartening to see so many MMORPGs. No doubt there were some fine titles there, but the sheer number displayed points to a shift in the RPG genre. I sincerely hope more companies continue to produce traditional, offline titles instead of going for the quick profit and cash in on MMMORPG subscriptions.

Nathan: All I can say is where in the world did Sega get the idea that the people that play PSO really like card games? I've never heard a single person say a good thing about Phantasy Star Online 3 and with as many users as PSO doesn't have right now I kind of feel sorry for Sega.

Wesley: One final game that really had me irked was Shining Lore. For some reason, the game will not be coming to North America, which means NCSoft translated the game (poorly, I might add) into English only for a European release. The game shows a lot of promise, but has far too cute of a premise for me to get into it.

Michael: Jeers for Square-Enix it seems. This venerable RPG titan was expected to at least impress us all, given their recent merger, but instead, disappointment abound. Let us all hope that they can rebound and produce a few gems as one big beast of a company. Also, Sega has drawn our ire with Phantasy Star Online III. Our consensus is that they need to do something original, instead of rehash and rehash some more. A brand new offline version of the game would be nice, wouldn't it?