I was kinda sorta thinking about getting it, but wasn't planning to actually do so for a while... Then I went to best buy last week to get final fantasy IV, and I saw that it was $15. I bought it cuz it was cheap, and then proceeded to play through FFIV. I finished that, thought it was great, and started Ys. Then I was like "fuck shit piss pussy cock this is good.". Ys Seven is easily one of the best games of last year. It does basically everything important right. If I had to compare the game to something, it'd be Secret of Mana meets Lords of Thunder... Cuz it's a SOM-like RPG, but you have that rockin' PC Engine style soundtrack, and very twitch-heavy, fast-paced gameplay. It's absurd how fun this game is. I'm around the 13 hour mark right now, and this fucker just keeps getting better.
And as long as I'm on my rant, here's what I really like about this sort of game: it's like old RPGs from the ps1 era. The dialog segments are quick -- not lengthy cut scenes where dudes you don't care about spout a lot of shit about shit you don't care about. Thats what's wrong with RPGs today, and I don't know if it's the psp's feeble hardware or the lower budgets for games like this that prompts that sort of thing, but it's nice to have a return to what made RPGs good in the first place. And the story isn't anything great, but it's a compelling excuse to hack up fools with reckless abandon and the characters are likeable. That's all I want. It's a little like anime from the 80's vs. anime today... You look at shit from the 80s, and it was fucking awesome because it was some hardcore, manly stuff. "You're a bad dude, so Ima fuck up your program, bitch." That's what Ys is. No bullshit, no filler. Stuff by Gust or NIS... Or hell, modern RPGs in general are like modern anime... There's way too much cutesy, moe bullshit. It makes me fucking sick! You all know what I mean. Modern RPGs, just like modern anime, use cutesy characters in silly situations to try and endear the player to the characters, or attempt comedy. It always fails. It was around the time I saw a giant pink teddy bear wreaking havoc on enemies in Mana Khemia that I said "fuck this shit," and realized that I now hated what once was my favorite genre.
So if you can't tell, I've been drinking in addition to playing Ys Seven, but I'm pretty sure my rambling is comprehensible. If it's not, well... The point of this nonsense was to explain why I seem to hate so many RPGs, yet still want to play stuff in the genre. If there's really more stuff on the PSP like what I've been playing, though... Wow. I'm going to be very, very happy.