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Last May, I finally got around to finishing the original Mass Effect. This was mostly so I could do a write-up on the game for WingDamage.

Boy, am I ever glad I did. As I mentioned in that review, I was very interested to see how things were going to shake out in the sequel. Bioware had mentioned that you would be able to transfer your save file from the original game into Mass Effect 2. What I thought that meant was that your character would look the same and maybe a few key decisions would carry over. The reality blew my mind.

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Broke again? Just plain don’t like paying for things? You’re in luck! We’re giving away a free copy of Nostalgia, a steam-punk RPG with heavy “old school” inspirations. You’ll be able to take a rag-tag group of kids on an exciting adventure. Airships, monsters, mustaches; Nostalgia’s got them all! Follow the contest rules below and you can too.

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From the re-makes of Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy to the more obscure Shiren the Wanderer, the DS has become one of the best places to find old-school RPGs. Nostalgia is no exception to this trend. Matrix Software even did the programming and 3D graphics for the Final Fantasy III & IV remakes before their work on Nostalgia.

Nostalgia is set in a Steam Punk version of Earth, complete with giant airships and an adventuring based economy. It is clear right from the outset that this is a throwback to a time when not every RPG focused on a character whose main motivation was angst.

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"A new JRPG developed by a dream team."

Sands of Destruction is a JRPG that has been very high on my watch list for awhile now. The reason for this is the people involved with the game. My personal favorite composer, Yasunori Mitsuda (Chrono Trigger, Xenogears), is responsible for the soundtrack, Masato Kato (Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy VII, Xenogears) is the game’s scenario writer, and Kunihiko Tanaka (Xenogears) is the character designer. Each of these people have several renowned JRPGs already under their belt, so it’s needless to say that the game is created by a dream team.

Unfortunately, a short demo in a crowded and noisy room is a terrible way to experience an RPG. To make matters worse, I only had a single party member when I jumped into the demo which appeared to be close to the beginning of the game. In spite of this, I gathered what info I could in my short time with it.

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On a very special episode of “Barrel Roll! A Video Game Podcast”, we are joined by special guest Randall Johnson… er.. Smith… Portman… Guy. You know, from the JPAG.

In What We’ve Been Playing, Randall kicks us off with “Battlefield: 1943″ and also super nerdy D&D talk. We talk about the second episode of “Tales of Monkey Island”, Jonah is in the Beta of “Champions Online”, while Jesse talks “Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance” with a focus on the games’ story and has also finally finished “Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time”. Brittany gives her thoughts on “Tomb Raider: Underworld” while Wesley reports on the iPhone game “Hysteria Project”, the original “Half life” and the XBLA hit “Shadow complex”. We also all give our takes on the “Batman: Arkham Asylum” Demo.

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You might say I’m a little late to the party, having just now finished a game I started when it first came out in December 2001. I would say, “No, you are!” in a childish manner and then run away. As it turns out, I have a very bad habit of starting games, getting really far in the them, but never getting around to finishing them.

Around the time I got my PS3, I decided to pick up “Final Fantasy X” again. I debated starting over, but the last time I had done that, I found that I was only a few plot points from the end, and this save file was even farther than that one had been.

So how does the game hold up by today’s standards?

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Sometimes I am very surprised when certain games make it outside of Japan. Sure, we live in an age where what will get localized is on the rise and what must be imported is steadily decreasing in comparison to times past (thanks to companies like Atlus and XSEED), but sometimes the choice of which games make it over still surprises me. What I mean to say is, Super Robot Taisen OG Saga: Endless Frontier (or Sir Togsef as I like to call it) is VERY Japanese. In fact, there are even cross-over characters in it from the Japan-only Namco x Capcom.

Though a spin off of the Super Robot Wars series (most of which DID stay in Japan), the game makes several large departures from its predecessors. First off, rather than focusing on giant mechs like Gundams and Veritechs, the characters you control consist of people and people-sized androids. The second key difference is that the game is a JRPG rather than an SRPG.

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Bioware has a history of making very deep role playing games in a variety of settings. Ever since Knights of the Old Republic (KOTOR), many fans have wanted to see what they could accomplish in a science fiction world of their own creation.

Mass Effect is the result. Here they have created their own sci-fi mythology, complete with political intrigue, cool alien races, space ships, and the imminent end of the universe.

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"Does anyone remember where we parked?"

“Secret of Mana” is an action RPG by Squaresoft for the Super NES that came out in 1993. It is from a 3/4 perspective and plays a lot like “The Legend of Zelda”. One of it’s most unique features was that it used the multitap adapter to allow for three players simultaneously.

These are the facts, and they are all well and good. But this isn’t really a review in the traditional sense. This is more of a recounting of my experience surrounding Secret of Mana and why it is one of the games that means so much to me as a gamer.

It all started with a friend of mine in Junior High, Chris. In shop class he would spin tales of this crazy new game he was playing. Tales of epic battles against hordes of unique and interesting sounding monsters, a flying dragon you traversed the world on, and of teamwork in doing so thanks to the game’s multiplayer components. Chris and his dad were playing through this grand adventure together. I had never heard of this “Mana” game he was talking about, but after his stories, I had to play it.

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Being a college student, the idea of portable gaming is extremely attractive. I chose a PSP over a DS because I prefer story and graphics over “innovative gameplay”, and RPG’s are my poison of choice.

One of the first games I picked up was Xseed Games’ “Brave Story: New Traveler”. This is a JRPG (Japanese Role Playing Game) rated E, which took me about 20 hours to beat, which is a decent length for a hand-held dungeon crawler.

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