Vagrant Story

Following an “incident” at the Duke’s manor, Riskbreaker Ashley Riot is sent to the ruined city of Leá Monde to hunt down the mysterious Sydney and discover the intentions of the Müllenkamp cult. However, he isn’t the only one moving within the city; and Leá Monde has a life of its own, which means Ashley is unlikely to escape his sojourn unchanged.

( I think I'm the last person left who wanted to play this; I'm pretty free with spoilers here. )

Overall: I think I’ll sum this up as “What if Square made a Castlevania game?” because that’s the overall feeling I got from it. The systems are far too complex for my taste, but the web of a plot is fascinating and there are a lot of good ideas. And I’m shocked that no one seems to have done a screenshot Let’s Play of this yet.

Three Completely Unrelated Reviews

Lessons After Dark, by Isabel Cooper* - The sequel to No Proper Lady, it has a weaker concept but is comparable in execution. A fast read, with the "zestiness" you'd want in a fantasy romance. And as I've noted in other instances, I like Cooper's approach to magic. My one critique: A big fuss is made about Gareth sitting in on Olivia's classes, but given that the school is brand-new, there are only four instructors and no one has any lesson plans written up, and they're supposed to be learning from each other because their knowledge doesn't overlap: Everyone should be sitting in on her classes. And each other's. Seriously. Oh, and as a random note, I highly doubt it's what was intended, but in my mind, Olivia was played by Gina Torres.

Phantasy Star 0 - Two centuries after the devestation of the great war, the forgotten ones return from space. However, while I'm sure you might care about that eventually, right now you need to join the hunter's guild and start your generic jrpg fetch-questing. The combat style has a real-time MMO vibe to it (and doesn't pause when you go to the menu), and you have the ability to chain attacks if you can figure out the button-pressing rhythm that I could not. Travel between repetitive 3D screens where you need to kill all the monsters (that spawn in waves) to open the gate to the next area. Don't forget to pick up all the vendortrash. While there does seem to be a real plot, your nameless, faceless, player-insert character might as well be watching the anime of it. This was aparently intended to be a variant of Phantasy Star Online for a new audience. I'm unenthused.

Gypsy Grill in Jersey City, NJ - We got catering from these folks for my birthday party, and it was apparently a great idea. We got two big sampler platters, one of pretty much every meat they serve, plus falafel, on a bed of rice. The other was hummus, babaganoush, tabouli, stuffed grape leaves, etc. Both were really good, though the babaganoush disappeared fastest from the veggie platter and the beef and falafel were the hardest to find seconds of on the meat platter. (Also: Everything was soy-free, and therefore aispaniel-safe.) I suspect we'll be getting from them again.

*Disclaimer: I'm internet friends with Isabel Cooper.