Stories by: Heidi Kemps

Action/RPGs are in no short supply on portable consoles, but trying to find the cream of the crop is a difficult task. While, you can always rely on the DS to deliver titles like Zelda, the PSP action/RPG market has, up until this point, generally lacked the same sort of high-quality franchise you can bank on for a good experience.

Lufia: Curse of the Sinistrals could best be described as "uneven." It's a pretty daunting task to live up to a standard set by a genuine 16-bit classic, and it's clear that the developers behind this title had lofty aspirations. There are many points when the game absolutely shines, but there are also stretches of intense irritation. The end result is a nostalgia trip of a game that inspires some very conflicting feelings along the way.

Today's my first day in the big city of Armoroad! This place is huge! I hear they want people to explore this dungeon thing they have. There's something about a sunken city, too. That sounds mysterious and awesome! It definitely sounds more fun than baling hay all day. I soooooooo wanna go adventuring! But I can't really fight. I hope someone's willing to give me a chance...

While the remake of GoldenEye has been capturing most of the public's attention, Activision has another Bond adventure on tap for HD consoles. Read on for impressions of 007 Blood Stone, the action-shooter in the works from the Project Gotham Racing team.

Most gamers will recognise Yuji Naka for his role in creating the iconic character Sonic the Hedgehog, whose many adventures were instrumental in keeping Sega competitive with Nintendo and its plump plumber.

Arc Rise Fantasia is probably the best Wii-exclusive RPG to date. This isn't as big a compliment as it might seem though, as it wins that honour by default due to lack of serious competition.

It's hard to talk about Dragon Quest without mentioning its massive presence in Japan, where it's gone beyond a game series to become a cultural institution akin to Star Wars or Harry Potter in North America. Square-Enix knows well that DQ's massive Japanese audience has certain expectations from the games, and they're not about to risk taking their cash cow to slaughter. Thus, they rarely take risks in changing up the core game mechanics of the DQ titles, choosing instead to constantly augment its traditional turn-based RPG gameplay with different feature sets. It stands in very stark contrast to their Final Fantasy series -- a franchise known for taking bold risks to sometimes mixed results.

There's a Japanese developer called Cave whom I've long adored that has very little presence outside their homeland. They're most known for arcade 2D scrolling shooting games -- but not just any shooting games: Cave specializes in the "bullet hell" subgenre, the sorts of shooters where enemies eventually start to fill the screen with multiple, multicolored barrages of deadly fire in crazy, intimidating patterns. Well-done art design, setting, and excellent music are also Cave hallmarks. Their games are considered AAA titles in the genre; it wouldn't be a stretch to call them the BioWare of 2D shooters.

When Persona 3 first hit in late 2007, the game was roundly praised as one of the best Japanese RPGs to come out in years and celebrated as a top title in the twilight days of the PS2.

Nier is an average game at best, which is why it's so strange that I fell in love with it. It's a really strange feeling: there are numerous things about Nier that I found completely irritating, and yet, I was completely enthralled by it, becoming more engaged the more I played. Nier bills itself as an action/RPG, but really, it's a 3D action game that makes use of well-known RPG elements.