Enchanted Arms (last of the dull RPGs?)

Being a launch title for a new console is not an enviable task. Such games rarely stand the light of day, let alone review in retrospect. (Critic-developer-publisher-consoleVendor circle-jerking frequently clouds collective judgment initially).

Enchanted Arms is a by-the-numbers Japanese turn-based-battle RPG. That, in itself, is not a bad thing. Unfortunately it fails to deliver on most levels.

The "characters" are all irritating. In fact, sometimes they seem to vie to be the *most* irritating. The dialog is terrible. ("..." alone is not a sentence. Using it in every interaction does not make it more enlightening). While the English voice acting is entertainingly bad at first, the more characters are introduced, the more grating it all becomes. (It seemed to drive most critics crazy too). There's a slightly more tolerable original-spoken-Japanese option but even that cannot prevent the high pitched screeching of many of the characters...

The storyline is predictable and uninteresting. I've been waiting many hours (more than I'd like to admit) for the hook that will make me give a s**t about what's going on. I have yet to find one.

Enchanted Arms does try something a little different in its grid-based, turn-based battle system. Unfortunately battles soon begin to feel more like repetitive time-filling chores than fun.

I am officially over the standard fare from the Japanese turn-based battle RPG genre.

I'm not interested unless

1. I can customize my character appearance
2. my actions make an appreciable difference to battle outcome(s)
3. those battles are fun and not just filler/the necessary means to increase stats
4. I have some *role* in the decisions my character makes
5. those decisions make a noticeable difference to the story outcome.

or give me compelling characters and an engrossing storyline in lieu of #1, #4 and #5 e.g. Kingdom Hearts series on PS2 from Square Enix.

For some time I've considered the approach taken by most Eastern RPGs to be a (poor) excuse that was permissible only because of the limitations of the last console set i.e. PS2. With the advent of the Xbox 360 (and PS3) those excuses are no longer good enough. Strictly turn-based battles, "random" encounters with invisible enemies, party members becoming invisible while navigating dull environments and being "rewarded" for exploring every dead-end in said environments, need to become part of gaming history.

Fortunately games such as Blue Dragon and Eternal Sonata do away with some of these jaded traditions and I hope spell the end of their use in the genre. Both games allow you to see the enemies you encounter and avoid them if you choose. Also, Eternal Sonata's battles, while still turn-based, have a countdown that begins as soon as a character moves, leaving you seconds to decide what action to take - this makes them refreshingly engrossing and exciting.

Roll on Two Worlds, BioShock, Mass Effect, Too Human and Fable 2...(unfortunately several of those titles risk being trapped in Uncanny Valley...but that's a topic for another day...).