Lunar 3, Valkyria Chronicles 3 (on console rather than a handheld, and in English), Sakura Wars VI, Eternal Sonata 2, and a Wii U Kid Icarus.
I think the game I'd like most, however, would be a follow up to Ni no Kuni, but not necessarily a sequel. Ni no Kuni wrapped everything up beautifully in one game. I would like to see another collaboration between Level-5 and Studio Ghibli.
A lot of it, honestly, is that we've learned a lot more about neuroscience than we used to know. The human brain doesn't reach full physiological maturity until well into your 20s Teens are very vulnerable to exploitation, and even back in the 1800s and early 1900s, frankly, most of those teens going out into the world ended up the way too many teens trying to go out into the world too early end up now - involved in drugs, crime, prostitution, shackled to abusive partners, or dead. Many girls died in childbirth. They really weren't any better equipped to handle the "real world" back then than they are now, and they suffered just as much for it. Back in the good old days, life was simply cheaper than it is now. If one kid died, oh well, you had six others to fall back on.
In the 1960s, a teenager was "old enough to kill, but not for votin'" in the words of Barry McGuire (from the song "Eve of Destruction"). And that was true. Teenagers not considered mature enough to drink or vote for public officials were given high-powered assault rifles and sent over to kill people and break things in Vietnam by Robert McNamara. Since we had active conscription, they weren't even given a choice in the matter. The only options these kids had were to get on the bus to Basic, go to jail, or escape to Canada. The ones that went came back with PTSD, little to no help from Uncle Sam in dealing with what they'd seen and done in Vietnam, and no adulation from the American public, indeed, they were often greeted as "baby-killers." Vietnam vets made up 25% of the total homeless population as recently as 2007. The Vietnam tragedy and subsequent advances in our knowledge of human brain development are a big part of why things are different now.
Well, happy birthday, in any case. Tales of Symphonia is a great birthday game. It didn't take me long to get the Penguinist Gloves, but I totally went blank on the solution to the Ice Temple sliding puzzle! Thankfully, I still have my original ToS strategy guide.
Yaaay, Tami! Good call! :)
Seriously, I like to think of myself as the Gray Hair of Tales games. :)
I really enjoyed Symphonia. Xillia has finally managed to put out a better Tales game, but Symphonia is still a great experience, and no, that's not because it was virtually uncontested on the Gamecube. Most of us Gamecube owners also had a PS2, ya know. :) I liked the whole cast. I'd have to say my favorite is either Sheena, Lloyd, or Presea. Lloyd because he was the best character to actually control in battle, Sheena because of the summons, and Presea because of her delightfully twisted backstory.
I'm thinking about trying out Inazuma Eleven, more because I'm a fan of Level-5 than because of any feelings I have about soccer. I just like to support them because their games range from fun stuff like The Guild games to fantastic experiences like Dragon Quest VIII and Ni no Kuni, and I want to see more from them.
Check your characters' titles. The title that changes to a "classic" costume is at the bottom of the list. I own both Xillia and Graces f in addition to Symphonia, but apparently you only have to have save files from one game or the other on your HDD registered to the same PSN ID to unlock all of the costumes. They'll also be unlocked in New Game + if you don't own either Graces or Xillia.
Lloyd: Guy from Tales of the Abyss
Colette: Rita from Tales of Vesperia (title "Researcher")
Genis: Luke from Tales of the Abyss
Raine: Pascal from Tales of Graces
Kratos: Ludger from Tales of Xillia 2
Sheena: Judith from Tales of Vesperia
Zelos: Alvin from Tales of Xillia
Presea: Elize from Tales of Xillia
Regal: Malik from Tales of Graces
The only PS4 I've ever seen is the one sitting under my TV, because my wife preordered and bought mine on launch day. They are waitlisted here. Meanwhile, piles of Xbones including the much-touted Titanfall bundle, and plenty of Wii Us, the latter of which I also have.
I'm in Heimdall, so if this were the Gamecube I'd be close to the end of disc 1.
I still like Square Enix, but I wish we'd get some of their better games. Who knows when Dragon Quest will ever be seen in the US again. I'd love to have Dragon Quest VII and I'd give Dragon Quest X a shot, seeing that they did a great job with FFXIV: A Realm Reborn. Yeah, I know it was a do-over but at least they didn't give up on it. Bravely Default was quite awesome, but it took Nintendo's marketing muscle to make that happen in the US. Hopefully now that Bravely Default has been a success here Square Enix will be less reticent about some of its non-Final Fantasy RPGs. And Final Fantasy XII was my favorite Final Fantasy other than VII.
I don't really see why all the Internet rage about Capcom. Yes, their business practices suck, but it's not like this is anything new from them. How many versions of Street Fighter II did they release on the SNES, and that's nothing compared to how many revisions they did for Street Fighter on the PS1.
Plus, the entire industry is saddled with bad customer service practices like heavily crippled "free to play" cashgrabs games that actually want you to pay NOT to play them, and always-online tethering, and then game companies crying persecution when people call them out for it. If Capcom truly were the worst offender in gaming, the industry would be in healthy shape. As it is, the thing I'm most irritated with them is them teasing Breath of Fire 6 and then making it a F2P browser/mobile game.
Gamingwise, I played Tales of Symphonia on PS3 and Leisure Suit Larry: Reloaded on iPad. I bought the latter because it was 5 bucks on the App Store and I still had money left from a prepaid card, so impulse buy. Tales of Symphonia is as awesome as I remembered it to be, and LSL is funny.
