For me, the humble RPG will always be held close to my heart. I’ve wiled away many hours advancing through magical worlds, meeting mystical people and fighting barbaric struggles between good and evil, all just using a controller and many castings of Fire. They can have stories so rich in content that you sometimes forget what time it is until you’ve killed a monster and realised it’s 3 in the morning and that you’re working 6 hours later, usually involving a very important item of business.

Seeing Eternal Eden (preview elsewhere on the site) made me realise just what’s kept me a part of this genre for so long. Indeed Blossomsoft’s upcoming blast from the past is one to watch out for, as well as many of the new commercial bad boys like Final Fantasy XIII, The Last Remnant and Star Ocean IV. My only regret is that we never got to see some of the truly great games of this type make it to British shores. Classics such as Chrono Trigger and Super Mario RPG we missed first time round. There is rumour of a fair few of these hitting either the DS or the Wii virtual console (Mario RPG already has) and this is a truly wonderful thing, as it gives a lot of us a chance to rediscover just what made these games great.

Where we stand now though, the barriers have been smashed and the army of role playing fans grows by the day. The day of the region free games have also made it easier for us all to receive them worldwide, with companies now free of long and unwanted conversions for other territories. Let’s hope this trend continues, as it’s a genre we simply can’t do without.