Okay, since both Duderz and Error were asking about it, here's the scoop on Venus & Braves.
Basically, this is an
extremely innovative RPG.
You have a grid for your party -- three by three. Before the battle begins, you get a status screen showing you basically everything about the enemy. So you arrange your character properly, into the formation you like best, before each battle. During each round, your front row will act with a predetermined move, your middle row offers support, and your rear row will support/heal itself. After the end of the round, you can choose to keep your formation or do a rotation. Move the front row to the back, the middle row to the front, and the rear row to the middle.
In terms of its gameplay, it reminds me of Ogre Battle a lot -- in the sense that you have no manual control over your characters in battle, aside from rotating rows, and the key to winning is in strategy and positioning. The strategy is examining your enemy before the battle, analyzing his strengths/weaknesses/special abilities, picking a party of characters, and coming up with the proper formation to best utilize attacking and mid-row supports. And, of course, knowing when to rotate and when to stay still.
Outside of combat, it's... a lot like Valkyrie Profile, I guess. Time passes, different chapters progress. The main character is immortal... but pretty much everyone else who joins him dies. If you watch the intro, it's actually showing a timeline go by with different years, and the characters who are around during those years. Each character aside from the hero has an optimal year in their lifespan, during which their stats will improve the best, and after that they have a declining stat progression. The story is also geared around this immortality and passage of time. Outside of battle, you have a lot of Fire Emblem style cutscenes. The game's very, very story-heavy.
So... yeah.
Extremely innovative, one of a kind, and probably Namco's best RPG ever. Great artwork and graphics, great music (listen to the opening trailer and the battle theme to get an idea).
Opening:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=QsfUbyLSaEk
Battle:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=TyCviqWrATE