As if I weren't distracted enough already, there are a few more things I'm keeping an eye out for.
Distraction #3
I'm a Nihon Falcom fan, particularly of their 英雄伝説軌跡 (Legend of Heroes Kiseki) series. The newest installment in the series, 閃の軌跡 (Sen no Kiseki) is coming out at the end of the month (September 26th), and I'm picking up the PS3 copy.
 | For the most part, from a combat perspective, it looks like things haven't changed <em>too</em> much from the previous games (or at least from 碧), with the AT battle system, Craft/Attack/Arts/Move/Item options, and the Master Quartz system for customization. |
 | But then there's this, which they've added this time around: 戦術リンク機能 (the Tactical Link System), allowing for a few more options during combat (even though they seem to be somewhat QTE-like in the timed button pressing, although at least it's only a single button... unlike elsewhere, where they do have full-blown QTEs). This is built on a relationship model, which looks to be considerably extended from what existed in 碧 (where it only affected which character's events/ending you would see and possibly what items you might get), since they've also added a counter to limit how many events you can get during each phase. Boo. |
Nonetheless, I look forward to getting the game. Whether I wait for the strategy guide this time, who knows?
Distraction #4
I've also been keeping an eye on and off on Project Phoenix. The staff on it is fairly interesting, although I'm not 100% impressed by all of the work they've done as some of it's not really to my taste (even if it is a lot of AAA-level stuff).
 | That said, combat does have some promise. To a certain extent, it looks like an RTS derivative of the Langrisser/Growlanser (although Growlanser seems to have gone in the action RPG direction?), which could be very impressive. Other comparisons could include Studio e-go!'s キャッスルファンタジア〜エレンシア戦記〜 (Castle Fantasia History of Elencia) and トキノ戦華 (Tokino Senka) (warning: both 18+ games, although links are to Wikipedia), although both are squad-based tactical games, rather than real-time tactical RPGs). But, given that it's only just now finishing up its fundraising, I'll need to wait to see how it turns out. |
That, and it's hilarious (at least to me) to see Donna Burke listed there. But that's just me!