GROWLANSER Rocks

I'm 10 hours into Growlanser 2, and enjoying things quite a bit. Given
how much vitriol I've built up over the years of playing me-too Console
RPGs, G2 gets extra special bonus points for cutting through the boring
stuff and focusing on the meat of traditional RPG standards.

No more mindless, one-finger combat. Distance and speed actually
matter with the real-time combat system. Pathfinding AI is a little
suspect at time, so you'll have to spend 1 or 2 minutes fiddling with
the nuances of movement pathmaking, if you want to use more complex
troop movements without stepping on each others toes. It's way better
than Starcraft, though

No more wandering from town to town and putting up with blind random
combat. Overworld travel is done using points on a map. The blind
encoutner rate is reasonably low so far, but there are plaenty of
opportunities to practice combat if you're willing to cirle around the
map for a few seconds.

No wandering within towns looking for one or two dudes with something
important to say. All points of interest can be reached from the map
screen. All conversations take place on the map screen, as well.
Makes searching for hidden stuff, side quests, and shops a breeze.

Like I said, fun stuff so far, with little filler. The story's
passable, and largely unskippable, so things aren't quite perfect

Terrence Briggs, who just heard about that Valkyrie Profile sequel.
Life is good.