Nooo, Breath of Fire I and II were remade for the Game Boy Advanced. I forget if those play on the DS. It's not something I think a lot about.

And I'm not a jap-phile. I really don't know a whole lot about them, cursory glances and brushes with their culture and that's pretty much it. Video games, this I do know.

And, I'm a voracious hellenophile. My dream vacation would be a month in Greece and Italy.

Crud, I have the new DSi, which has the advanced cartridge slot removed... lousy Nintendo and removing features...

Ugh, it's not just Nintendo, I got a nerfed PS3 with no PS2 compatibility. Luckily I didn't sell my old PS2 so I can still play the classics.

Yeah, Sony made it needlessly difficult by introducing certain models that DO have the emotion engine, and certain models that DO NOT have the emotion engine. Why the hell would they do that?!

Costs. What I don't get is why they also cut the software emulation.

You don't lose out on much by not getting BoF I or II though. The gameplay is average (though the town building and fusions of the second game was rather neat), the story is subpar and the characters mostly flat.

I also ended up only using Nina (holy&wind), Katt (devil&fire) and Rand (water&earth) in my party.

I'm not saying that Bioshock, Resistance, etc AREN'T plot driven. These games can have awesome stories. What I'm saying is there's usually a lot less thought in FPSes, and more action. I can't even tell you how long I spent setting up gambits, doing hordes of questing and puzzle solving in FF12 and all of that outside of battle. In contrast, FPSes throw you into the action more and force you to react instead of think. You run for the flamethrower, burn the zombies, and then read the post-it you found to learn the story. They're also usually quite linear as compared to the RPG. And since American production companies blast out an FPS for every movie, CD, and even hamburger they sell - quality FPSes are as rare as RPGs these days... and a quality RPG like Persona 3 is the Holy Grail.

Speaking of quality RPGs, there's finally a Translation of Mother 3 (AKA Earthbound 2) to English! You need a rom of the japanese version to patch the translation and an emulator to play it. I'm nearly done with it, and quite honestly it's one of my all time favorites. Up there with Chrono Trigger.

And yes, I miss Frog's accent terribly.

Sony's Software emulation was ineffective and didn't read quite a few of the games in their library. Compounded with the fact that the PS3 is ridiculously difficult to code for, it probably just made more sense to get rid of it and look forward than to run through three separate sets of code for each unsupported game for PS2.

Besides, everyone and their mom has a PS2. Sony knows this. They have tracking devices.

That's not being entirely fair to FPS games and other action games. Different games have different aspects and qualities that they shine and focus on. They cater to different groups of gamers. For action games, forcing you to react instead of thinking is kinda the point, as they are testing your reflexes and how you react under pressure.

Besides, most JRPGs are very linear, and they can be good too. Some of the earlier FF games, for example.

I sold my PS2 to help fund my XBOX 360.... which is now sitting on a shelf waiting shipping completely broken because Microsoft doesn't know about hardware, and thought that an ATI box for intense gaming with poor circulation and glitchy power modulation would be fine.

Bite thy tongue this instance. BoF I was a bit bleh, though it's still a cute story with a few backwards references in the second, the second was certainly entertaining. I enjoyed it anyways, and have played it a few times over.

Your usage of Rand in lieu of Ryu is odd, and strikes me as a waste. Ryu's final dragon form can do max damage to Saint Eva at the end, soooo. Besides. I despise that hedgehog.

Nina and Katt, though. I normally dump Nina for Bleu. Higher level, higher magic damage, etc etc. And her shed ability is just plain primo.

I dunno. I just found it ridiculously cheesy and predictable. But maybe I'm spoiled with great games like Tales of Phantasia and Lufia II, Rise of the Sinistrals.

You can't get rid of Ryu. Always gotta have him in the party. Which is good, because he's pretty well balanced. I'm miffed that you can't use any of his spells though without killing the effectiveness of his dragon morphs. I chose Nina over Bleu because, while Bleu is by far the best magician, Nina's Banish (which you get when you combine her with Holy&Wind shaman) is great for racing through dungeons without having to fight random battles. Katt's Keep is great against high-defense enemies and I use Rand because Bow is such an incredibly boring character, and Rand does at least have some kind of healing.

And I still say Lufia has both Chrono Trigger and BoF beat. Erim rocks!

I'm sorry, I always found Lufia to be a terrible series of boring games. You're right, you can't remove Ryu (I've been playing Chrono Trigger all day, I'm spoiled with being able to remove my lead). Yes, but his spells are pretty weak anyways, and with the EmperorSD, his attack is better than magic anyways. Rand is boring. Nina is better than Bleu in the long run, I think her magic skills pump higher at late endgame levels, but most people hit Eva around level 38-45, so they don't get to see it. Banish is weak! A real man kicks the crap out of the monsters.

The ultimate setup is the normal village (with the chef), Nina, Bleu and Katt. Throw Katt into Devil Feline mode, Nina into Angelic Princess Bride, and you've got yourself a monster team - Katt's physical defense seems to suffer, but her attacks are rad and she's able to throw in an emergency spell or two when you need her to. But with Nina and Bleu pumping out some mad magic, and an inventory full of WiseBLs, Saint Eva (What's his final name, Death Evan?) is like kicking preschoolers at a daycare while the caretaker lies unconscious from an overdose of migraine meds.

I tend to end up relegating Nina to the back spot (lacking Bleu's shed ability) and just using her to constantly throw WiseBLs at Ryu and Bleu while they tear through whatever pops up in an utterly lolworthy display of self-indulgence.

I think I might need to go do a Death Evan run, now.

And, as an addendum, Chrono Trigger is THE best RPG game for any console ever made. I'm sorry, it's simply not up for debate. For it's time it was disgustingly advanced, with so many options and sidequests and characters.

I never played Chrono Cross (don't shoot me), but I heard it took it even farther.

Chrono Trigger, however, was simply amazing. Magus ftw.

Chrono Cross was a terrible game, and an utter disappointment to how long I spent waiting for a sequel and listening to the rumors.

Chrono Trigger is awesome+win combined, gameplay wise. The thing that for me makes it lose out to games like ToP is because the story sort of falls apart towards the end, such as the jarring plot-hole that is Schala. And Chrono Cross does not exist. Schala does NOT have blonde hair! A real pity, because up to that point, CT has awesome story.

And everyone knows that Lucca is coolest. Wondershot is tons of fun.

I'm curious how Lufia are boring games though? The story of Erim has always been one of my favourites, and I love how the whole series manages to add depth and mystery and the second game, Rise of the Sinistrals surprised me. Because even though you knew how the game would end, it managed to keep on surprising you. The ability to do special attacks as you took damage was also fun. I'm not quite sure if I prefer how they did it in the second game (where the abilities were tied to items) or the third game (where the abilities were tied to the new Spirit Force mechanic).

And the reason I chose Rand over Bleu is because I'm absolutely terrible at using items. I think the only games I've ever used items on a regular basis are the Mother games and the Lufia games. Otherwise, I end up as a terrible packrat who never uses any items. I think that I went through FF VI for the first time using less than ten items in total. Hence I needed Rand because he has some basic healing spells. That, combined with DevilKatt/Ryu's ability to tear through stuff with their physical attacks and Nina's Banish allows me to get through large dungeons without ever having to use any Wise... what was it, acorns? That's all you have access to without picking the chef. And I still consider Bleu's magic to be better. I prefer her spell-selection, and while Nina can Angel-morph, Bleu's Shed grant her an incredible survivability that adds to her "a spell for each occasion" spell-list. It could be that my memory is all off, but I still consider them both to be great characters.

I played Lufia for about twenty minutes once, and never came back.

What system is it for, and is it a port of the N64 one they were trying to put out?

It's for GBA, and an alternate version of Earthbound 64.

You should get it though. Sure it's only accessible through a ROM or learning Japanese, but that's their own fault for not porting it.