12 | March | 2012 | "DESTROY ALL FANBOYS!"

I’ve been playing this on and off for the past few days (my review copy arrived last week) and it’s quite spectacular in an old-school meets modern JRPG way. Sure, it’s packed to the gills with familiar thematic elements (an enigmatic amnesiac, two brothers separated by differing opinions and life choices, the formerly sick girl now a powerful party member, et cetera), but the fast-paced battles, tons of titles to earn for each character and the usual Tales features keep the hours peeling away. If you’re a PS3 owner and JRPG fan looking for the next big game to dive into, this one’s for you. Oh yeah, the game also lets you play with up to four friends through much of the adventure (but expect them to be spectators for a bit in some areas where the party is thinned out for plot purposes).

My full review will go up later this week (probably Friday at this point)…

Probably the best fanzine about video games and gaming culture still in print today (and I’m not saying this because I happen to have a column in the current issue), this all-new issue of DP is packed with fun articles about portable systems through the ages from the likes of Rob O’Hara, Rob Faraldi, Rob Strangman (that’s a lotta Robs, but they’re all different dudes, trust me!), Sarah Szefer, Steve Jacobs, Ian Baranofsky and more! You can get DP sent to YOUR mailbox for a paltry ten bucks a year (four issues) by clicking on over HERE and signing up. Tell them I sent you and you’ll get no big deal discount at all, but the satisfaction of knowing I sent you somewhere and you actually listened to me. Er, wait… that’s what I get. YOU just get four awesome issues of DP, but that’s a fair enough trade-off, right?