One final hurrah for the Stars of Destiny came out of Konami, though it wasn’t officially intended as such. Then the DS got a game which didn’t deserve all the negativity it received, but as a spinoff couldn’t do everything fans wanted. There isn’t much left to talk about after that one, unfortunately. (Suikoden, Part 3)

The post RPG Backtrack – Episode 123: “Konami’s Trail of Tears” appeared first on RPGamer.

BioWare wanted to convey the ineffectual nature of the human race when compared to other species populating the galaxy. This naturally took the form of having a human lead others into combat, while undertaking decisions that might one day have galactic consequences. Perhaps the human race doesn’t deserve all the scorn it receives if that’s the case. (Mass Effect 1)

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Ah, Sony, holder of many now-dormant IPs. One of those was a pretty good tactical series that hasn’t been seen for a number of years, but did a lot of interesting things along the way. Not all of those things were successful, but the effort makes for a substantive chat. (Arc the Lad)

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Blizzard once had an idea to send players through the realms of the afterlife, beating up the locals and grabbing whatever desirable things they happened to drop. The setting may change, but this mechanic has proved enduring through the years, making its origination even more fascinating to remember. (Diablo)

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Falcom has a storied development history, and one of its larger series saw multiple versions before ending up on the PSP for a few installments. Many things can be said about these particular renditions, but the majority of them are not overflowing with praise. (Legend of Heroes: Gagharv Trilogy)

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The ruins of the central Atlantic region of the US are open to in-depth exploration, as Bethesda takes a crack at the post-apocalyptic future. Thinking too hard about one’s surroundings may strain neurons to the breaking point. (Fallout 3)

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Hironobu Sakaguchi, Nobuo Uematsu, and Akira Toriyama got together again to inaugurate Mistwalker as a studio. The results were unfortunately not up to the standard set when they first collaborated, but nevertheless spawned a series. (Blue Dragon)

The post RPG Backtrack – Episode 117: “The Shadow Knows” appeared first on RPGamer.

Gust makes a long-running, plentiful series that doesn’t adhere to many of the usual RPG stereotypes. Here’s a trilogy of them on the PS3, sporting a love for pie and relatively few instances in which killing things is mandatory. (Atelier Rorona, Totori, Meruru)

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After the first Fallout, eight decades passed before a new hero had to undertake a quest. That quest involved meeting a number of strange new people in interesting places. Dealing with these people could take place in any number of ways, but the stark effectiveness of blowing them away was a tempting option.

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It’s Yasumi Matsuno’s vast Ogre world, but the game format for this bunch is rather different than March of the Black Queen. Just because things look more like conventional tactical models doesn’t mean there are no gameplay depths to describe, though. (Tactics Ogre)

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