CANUCK'S PROFILE

Wow boys.

I'd rather buy a PS3 than an Xbox360. I'm assuming in 2 years time it'll be quite a lot cheaper and a blue-ray player and all that. I hope in that time they redesign it so it doesn't look lame as well. If not, waiting three years is possible.

I really see the series in groups of 6 now. Making 13 similar to 1 and 7 in terms of what they're going for. Which will make 14 stupid and quirky, and 15 forgettable.

Underground was really good.

Now it's onto The Trial finally. I've read halfway and stopped about 5 years ago (when I was about 20).

I've said it elsewhere, but I think Final Fantasy VII was a great game and really hurt RPGs. It was the first RPG for many people and all these people expected an RPG to focus so much on story (and graphics) and usually didn't care so much about the battle system, while before Final Fantasy VII is was quite different. The Materia system was one of the things most talked about in magazines before it came out (similar to double and triple techs were just as big (or bigger) as the ability to travel through time in Chrono Trigger).

So great game, but added so many new fans to RPGs that the old fans that didn't come along for the ride had a lot less games that focused on what they liked.

I guess the positive was that there were many more game companies bringing over games from Japan and that probably wouldn't have happened without Final Fantasy VII. So good on it for bringing RPGs into the mainstream, and bad on it for bringing the focus away from what it was one before.

edit: I thought about it, and now disagree with what I said. It's not that cut and dry.

Dragon Quest IX and VI if it comes out this year.