Not so Hellish after all

So, I finally beat Persona 3 Wednesday night (full review to come soon!). So, check one off the list.
So, last night I was ready for my next PS2 RPG romp, Ar Tonelico II. This game intrigued me when I first read about it on RPGGamer. It is a bit hard to explain the premise without having played it for myself yet, but it focuses a lot on character interaction, and the main character (you) getting to know your faerie/angel/songstress part members better by "diving" into their minds. Also, the battle system seems to involve you actively blocking during a "Defense" mode. So, I was intrigued, and wanted to try it out, even though I expected not to "stick it out" for the long haul like I did with Persona 3. I was quite unhappy with the next turn of events.

I put it in my PS3, and wait for the game's intro to start up and lead me through some gratuitous anime introduction with some quirky J-Pop playing over it (I've been spoiled by Tales of Vesperia and Persona 3, what can I say). But, as I busy myself with the laptop on... my lap, I notice the screen is still black. Odd. Maybe I wasn't paying attention and didn't start the game like I had thought. Restart, reload. Still nothing comes up except the "Playstation 2" splash screen. Take the game out. Some minor scratches, nothing big. Clean it anyway, try it again. Still nothing. Argh, wtf? Is the game just broken? Obviously it has been played before, so what is up. Did it suddenly go defective?

None of the above. After some searching on the interwebs, come to find out, Ar Tonelico II is incompatible with my 80gb PS3. Sigh. What the hell?
Apparently, since my 80gb model uses software emulation for PS2 games, not all games work. Earlier 60gb PS3 models used hardware emulation, so all PS2 games worked on them. But since Sony switched to software emulation, only like 80% actually works. So upset. The original Ar Tonelico works on the PS3, but not II. Ugg. I am sick of Sony's policies on backwards compatibility. At first the PS3 was, then it kind of was, and now the current models aren't at all. I understand that I do own a PS2 (it is currently residing up at Meghan's, serving as a DVD player :-p), and new ones are only $100 now, but all of Sony's SKU hopping is about the only thing I hate about the PS3. It annoyed me when the PS3 was first released, and how Sony kept introducing new models and discontinuing old ones. It is like if you were an early adopter, you get screwed in the long run for having an "inferior" model (smaller HD). And now, they drop BC. BC should be able to convenience. I love playing my games on the PS3. The bluetooth controllers, the slick interface, virtual memory cards, I love all of it. I want my PS2 games too!
I realize that was a bit of a rant, but yea, needless to say, I was a bit annoyed. So, back went Ar Tonelico II. I realize I can still play it, but this just kind of relieves some of the RPG backlog. Maybe I will try to snag the first game instead. For now I will just keep playing Tales of Vesperia, Class of Heroes, and maybe give DDS another shot.

Hell just got a little cooler.

Class of Heroes Incoming! I'm in RPG Hell

So, if you have been a faithful follower of my blog... and I know there are literally like two of you (<3), you might know that I have been anticipating the release of Class of Heroes for a while now. Class of Heroes is the newest dungeon crawling RPG from Atlus, in the spirit of Etrian Odyssey and Wizardry.

I saw the game was sent from Gamefly today, so I have been buzzing all day about it. I read the review from RPGGamer, then reread the reviewer's blog about it, where he detailed his adventures as he went through the game. I am really excited for the class system in this game. There are 15 different classes in the game, and you can only have 6 party members at a time. But, at anytime you can have a character switch "majors", as they are called in this game, which lets them keep all of their stats, but halves their maximum HP. They also carry over spells and abilities previously learned, as long as the new class can use them. The possibilities for customization seem endless, and you could presumably have one character explore every class available. That is what these games are all about, the customization and exploration. They aren't meant to tell a grand tale of adventure... they leave that part up to you.

Also.. I'm in RPG hell right now. I am about to finally beat Persona 3, but still have to push through. I have Ar Tonelico II sitting in its Gamefly sleeve on my floor, patiently waiting for me to beat Persona 3 so I can play it. I also am currently playing through Tales of Vesperia, at about the 18 or so hour mark, if I remember correctly. So that's three RPGs I'm currently playing, with Class of Heroes on the way from Gamefly. It took me an entire year to beat P3, and I rarely finish even one RPG at a time. How am I going to juggle all of this? Yes, I know, the woes of existence. Did I also mention that I have Persona 4 purchased and still in its plastic wrap, waiting to be played? And that now that I have P3 (almost) beat, I want to go back and give SMT:Digital Devil Saga (which I bought waaaay back when it was first released) a more fair chance, now that I have been introduced to the Shin Megami Tensei world? So make that six RPGs in my life. Not counting I am currently playing DAoC. Delicious hell.