We're leaving pretty soon to get my sis! Yay!!
Unfortunately it seems she's arriving on one of the coldest days this month. Geez, it's FREEZING even inside. ;.; Doesn't help we have such big windows though, and the finishing touches haven't been done on the frames yet.
Ohoh I had the opportunity to try every one of my games yesterday, too. I have run after posting this (just got call from sis, she'll be here in 2 hours!) but I wanted to post some short impressions, and a bit about other games Jon and I want.
Also, bonus chara artwork! Mostly 'cause I think Selina will appreciate.
Rhapsody: CUTE! I would have loved this game as a girl (and still do now!) It's a really lighthearted and simple game to play. It also has significant connections to La Pucelle Tactics (same world!) which really appeals to me because I LOVED that game. I think the Goddess statues even look kinda like winged Prier, which is amusing.
Luminous Arc 2: Same system but better, pretty much. Great art, music and vocals! I have a feeling that Selina might also like the Shadow Frost Witch (here). :D Maybe not as awesome a design as Vanessa, but Fatima seems to be the 'bad' witch of this game.
Baroque: This is a freaking FUN GAME. :D Hardcore roguelike where you constantly have to keep up your vitality or DIE! meaning you have to continually be moving, killing things and hoping you'll get drops to help enhance your attacks, stats, or heal you. :P Dying actually helps advance the story though, like in Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter. I am going to play the hell out of this game when I have the time!
Nobunaga's Ambition: YES! This is actually an upgrade of the SNES game I used to play! It boggles my mind to get to play it with upgraded graphics. I'm dorking out (and also playing Nobunaga again, of course.) There's more complexity to the game than before, of course, including the option to actually design your towns and fortifications o.o and make custom officers (!!)
Other games...
There's a lot of DS games I still have my eye on, but one in particular is Dungeon Explorer. I LOVE my dungeon crawlers (especially if they're portable) and this one looks like fun!
Not sure if I will do that or grab Persona 4, though. Possibly the latter simply because I could play through it with my sis around -- she might actually really like the story for it. (The main character is a bishy that turns out to be a chick pretending to be a guy. I think she'd get a kick out of that.)
Jon and I are also on the lookout for Valkyria Chronicles, which is a PS3 strategy RPG! YES! Oh ohoh there's a chick on the evil side there that reminds me of Archana (bustier and red-eyed, but... still!) both in look and temperament (loyal and dedicated -- though she is actually more like a mix of Archa and Iria from Brigandine, in that).
Screenshots of Selvaria from the game intro (so awesome~): 1 2 3 4 5
OH MY GOD.
YOU HAVE TO GET PERSONA 4.
I'm not kidding. I thought it blew P3 out of the water, and that's nuts, 'cause I loved P3. The story is really REALLY good. And the social links this time around often had me crying my eyes out. The character interaction is just amazing. There's also a lot of humor on the off-times in the game, especially during the school's culture festival. Some of the scenes made me laugh so hard I nearly choked!
Also, the dungeons are still rogue-like, for the most part! A couple of the floors in each are fixed, but the dungeons themselves average about 10 floors.
The thing I really like is that you can choose whether you want the protagonist to get into serious relationships with the girls...so you could hook up with all of them or none (or just one, like I did!). I went with Chie my first run. Chie is awesome. :D
Also, the chick-disguised as dude (Naoto Shiragane) is one of the other characters that joins up, though she's the last one to show. She's pretty awesome, though. That's probably because she's a giant Raidou reference. Sadly, you cannot get into a serious relationship with her until your second run through. :(
The protagonist is hot though. HOT. Especially when he puts on those glasses. *UNF*
Also...
Call me crazy but with P4 still fresh on my mind, I'm horribly tempted to do some sort of related forum RP...since it's been so damn long since I did anything and I kinna miss writing. Granted, I think I'd have to do something in an original setting, or at least a new one with slight relation to the canon stories...asdf;lakjsd;flkasj!! *wrings hands*
I need to think of something to do now that I've got MMO's out of my system. Plus MJon's got the PS2 at the moment so I can't do my second playthrough of P4 for a while. *cries* I didn't get to max my social links last tiiiiiiiiime... T_T
P4 etc.
You just go through games so fast. it's rather bewildering from my POV, hehe. Jon and I are still muddling through playing FF11 for fun.
I'm not going to even have P4 for a little while. I tend to prefer RP over video gaming in general, still. ^^;
Good luck with the forum RP if you do it! I already run/play in plenty of them at this point (forum having taken over as my preferred RP medium). If it is running by the time I do get around to playing through P4, I would consider joining something like that. But I dunno how long it'll take me to get through it, I am bad at finishing games.