Excellent, I'm always up for some rapid fire hot topic responses, have at it!

An interesting choice, I'm guessing most would respond with Persona as the best sub-series. Having experienced a fair amount of the first Digital Devil Saga, now I can see the appeal. Taking the demon collecting out of the equation and focusing on simpler character advancement, the series provides a more traditional RPG experience while keeping with the great story elements of the series. That's not even mentioning the great art style and music. I'd go with Devil Survivor myself, but this is a fine choice!

I agree. Valkyria Chronicles got a lot of word of mouth buzz and appeared to sell a good amount after its release. Of course this likely means it was selling for a lot cheaper, but I still feel there was enough buzz there to easily justify a sequel on PS3. I mean, they had the engine in place already! Instead it got shrunk down onto PSP and the results were not as good. With some kind of browser card game based on the series now out, it doesn't look like Sega has abandoned it. Here's hoping we see a PS3/Vita Valkyria Chronicles in the future.

Well you'll get no argument on that here. Final Fantasy VI is one of the finest RPGs of all time. Who's your favorite character?

As good an answer as any. With many other HD collections and updates coming out, Final Fantasy X seems to be taking much longer than any other HD updated before it. At this rate the Final Fantasy XII HD I'm hoping for wont show up until the PS4.

A fine choice, and a collection I would love to buy. I haven't played these games, but have heard many good things. Sadly, they're way too expensive these days. An HD collection would be a prefect way for people who missed out to give them a try, and give the developers some money instead of random ebay sellers.

Thanks for answering the hot topics!

Setting phasers to "massive response" mode.

Kingdom Hearts 3D is probably the worst place to start the series on. Sure it has some text that goes over the previous games, but to me that feels more like a way to remind those who have played them and not a way to completely explain the games. Kingdom Hearts has gathered a rather convoluted back story. I can answer some of these questions. You shouldn't care about Organization XIII overly much and I don't even recall what their point was. t was largely covered in that 358/2 Days (a game I hate). Mickey is a King from the start of the series and it is never really explained! No, Sora never really gains other character traits. Earlier games didn't exactly take beasties from the Disney sources, though they did offer some heartless more tuned to each world and bosses taken from the source material. The Keyblade mastery level idea was actually from Birth By Sleep! I have no idea why the characters suddenly need to do this. Finally, no the camera isn't always that bad -- it can be mitigated if you have a circle pad pro for your 3DS!

That's a shame, I would recommend you at least give the original game a shot on PS2. The older games had more enemies that fit in with the various locations, and plenty of battles against classic villains! The newer games have gotten a bit away from that and switched the focus too much to original characters. Even though I'm having a blast with KH3D, I can get why you couldn't get into it. Then again, there's nothing like sitting down and watching Fantasia so I can't really say that you shouldn't just do that!

Also. my brain is fried from Mugen Souls so I will save that challenge for later.

Oh, artificially extending game length is essentially a long running Tales series staple. I don't know if the developers think their games need to be a certain length or they'll hurt sales or what, but it certainly hurt the overall quality of Abyss. You know I greatly enjoyed that game, but if it were at a minimum 10 hours shorter with a tighter design for the end of the story it could have been a true classic. Someone needs to tell the Tales developers that not every RPG needs to be sixty hours long.

Oh it is, by leaps and bounds. Not just in the battle system, but in characters, story, and dungeon design as well. Some of the story elements in later games can be as derivative as Tales of Phantasia, but never as bad as that game was. I don't think the GBA version is that bad for the record -- I think every version of the game is awful! Not sure how you put that much time into the game, but glad you had a much better time with the game than I did.

Sadly (as often happens), I got distracted by newer, shinier games. In this case, I got really into Devil Survivor and played the heck out of it. With that filling my tactical needs, poor Super Robot Taisen got neglected. I'll get back to it though! I didn't stop playing it because I disliked it, I can guarantee you that.

Sadly, I know absolutely nothing about that series. With many of the titles now relatively expensive, I could never justify giving them a try. I'm hoping they'll show up in an HD collection, or at least as PS2 classics on PSN so they can be had for less.

Thankfully, with a decent computer PS2 emulation is quite easy and generally speaking all on the level, especially given that you do have a PS2. I wont go into detail here, but a quick Google search for PCSX2 will find you all the info you need to get going. If you want to try some other methods to get the disc working on your actual PS2 I can probably help you there as well!

I haven't gotten that far yet, as like SRT other games have distracted me from this effort (like that retroview of Lunar Sega CD I keep forgetting to work on by actually playing that game). It's on the short list of older games to play. I'm close to finishing another PSP RPG and will probably focus on it next.

Oh, I can understand not liking Suikoden I a huge deal. The game hasn't aged tremendously well. Still, I found it to be a very interesting and original game with concepts that are further developed in the immediate sequel. It is much better served as a companion title to Suikoden II than it is on its own.

That could have been one of the many plot threads intended to be resolved later on in the series that never was. Suikoden I was a bit rough around the edges in many respects, this being one of them. Again, this game works best as a companion to the next one, if for no other reason than you get to see the origins of some characters that show up again in II.

That would have been nice. I don't know if there's anything different about the Saturn version, but I would have loved to play it on that system. Of course that would mean I wouldn't have a save file to import into II!

Oh my, is there more to come. Suikoden II is an incredible game in a number of ways, and really fulfills the promise of the first game. I think I've said many times that I spent a huge amount of money getting a copy of that game, and don't regret it one bit. I wont go into further for fear of spoilers, but you should enjoy the villains in this one quite a bit more. I hope you enjoy it!

Outside of the original Dark Cloud Level-5's signature has been fantastic graphics. Doesn't sound like you exactly loved Dark Cloud 2. It would have to work hard to be worse than the first game! I'm still going to ignore it, because I just don't think it'll be my thing. Strangely it didn't make it to greatest hits status like the first did. I wonder why that is?

Well seeing how she was in a Lassie movie, let's cast here in some kind of Harvest Moon type Lassie RPG as the main character. The player would go on adventures with the dog and help out around the farm. Depending on how the player progresses, Lassie could die at the end of the game or it could end in some kind of heartwarming fashion.

No, avoid it like the plague! It is boring and largely derivative of a lot of RPGs of the time. The battle system is especially boring and takes forever to get you anything to use outside of regular attacks and items. Yet somehow it still tops sales on PSN. I don't get it!

I haven't played it, but my brother loved it! Apparently it has a battle system that takes a lot from fighting games? Might not be a must-play, but something interesting to try at the least.

OK, adding CIMA to the list of games to never buy no matter what.

Well they did the whole reboot of the series on HD consoles, which was a good game but I guess not RPG enough for us to cover (it wasn't Metroidvania). Fear no though, as a 3DS entry is headed our way and appears to be more in that style. Hopefully this will fill your needs! I could never get into them much past Symphony of the Night but respect that style.

I shall ... at a later date!

You should know that you travel between locations by playing a top down shooter. I can't make this up! It's a good game, though not BioWare's best effort by a long shot. Find it for a decent price and I'm sure you'll be able to extract plenty of enjoyment from it.

Oh, feel free to jump into it right now. The hoopla has pretty much died down. Even if it hadn't, I would still say to jump into it. Mass effect is all about the amazing journey and how personal it becomes for each player. That's why there was so much anger over the ending, because everything before that point had been so good (note that I liked the ending despite its issues). You really shouldn't worry too much about how it all comes to a close. Mass Effect may not have all the stats and skill trees we often love in RPGs, but it makes up for that tenfold with player choice. You will not regret playing this series!

See you next time, and as always thank you for the great questions!