Hey, real quick... I can't recall if I've mentioned this on here before or not (though I probably have), but I just wanted to let everyone know of the existence of an absolutely FANTASTIC Japanese RPG series for PlayStation (soon to have its first PS2 release) that's basically exactly what the people on here seem to be looking for in an RPG.

Popolocrois Monogatari (The Tale of Popolocrois).

There are currently three games in the series (Popolocrois Monogatari, PopoRogue, and Popolocrois Monogatari II), and a fourth on the way for PS2 (Popolocrois 3: Hajimari no Bouken [The Beginning Adventure]).

I haven't yet finished Popolo1 or Poporogue, but Popolo2 was the first Japanese RPG I ever played, and the whole game is fully-voiced, meaning that you can get away with playing it even if you can't read kanji at all.

If anyone's interested in finding out more about the series, you can read my extensive review of Popolocrois II on GameFAQs.com, find out more about Popolo3 on www.popolocrois.com, and buy the games from eBay (keep checking the auctions on eBay -- the games are often sold there, and are usually pretty cheap). And for those of you with little or no Japanese knowledge, a nice guy by the name of Bodi Anderson wrote some pretty thorough FAQs/walkthroughs for each game in the series, all of which are, once again, available on GameFAQs.

Oh, and just to keep this on-topic (since this IS a VERGE board and all), I've been working like a madman on Forgotten Kings lately, and almost have my first (really big) map finished. As it happens, I'm really NOT that terrible of a tile artist (I'd like better, but my own tiles really don't look THAT hideous), and I'm pretty good at concentrating on mapmaking when I'm half-asleep from jetlag. (: Anyhoo, once the map is finished to a reasonable extent, I'll work on getting movement and battles programmed (just to get them out of the way)... and once THAT happens, I'll throw together a tech demo for y'all, in hopes that maybe it'll get some people interested in working with me. (:

Anyway, that's all for now... catch ya' on the flip side! (:

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