First 50:
51. Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne - PC52. Starflight - PC53. Skies of Arcadia - Dreamcast54. Aliens versus Predator Classic 2000 - PC55. Super Star Wars - SNES56. Shadowrun: Hong Kong - PC57. Hexen: Deathkings of the Dark Citadel - PC58. The Catacomb - PC59. Azure Striker Gunvolt - 3DS60. Mighty Gunvolt - 3DS61. Catacomb Abyss - PC62. Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge - PC63. Strike Suit Zero - Director's Cut - PC64. Wolfenstein 3D Spear of Destiny - PC65. StarCraft - PC66. Metal Storm - NES67. Septerra Core - PC68. Metal Warriors - SNES69. Zelda II - The Adventure of Link - NES70. Anachronox - PCJust finished another selection for this year's Together RPG. Anachronox is another western developed RPG inspired by the JRPG tradition, similar to Septerra Core. But there's a big difference: Anachronox is GOOD.
You play as Sylvester "Sly" Boots, a private eye who starts the game down on his luck and in for big money to the local crime lord. You start off things by trying to find a case to try and pay off your debts, but that case quickly leads to uncovering a threat to the very fabric of the universe. You will assemble a motley crew from various walks of life as you try to uncover what's going on, and by the end you are all set to end the threat.
Then the game ends.
Yeah, essentially this game got split like Golden Sun, except part 2 was never created. The game ends with a few character arcs finished, but now you have the massive cliffhanger it leaves you with. It's not wholly unsatisfying, but it is a major disappointment Anachronox 2 was never created. Though I've heard that SquareEnixEidos is open to the idea of revisiting old franchises, so maybe they'll give it a chance.
The combat system is ATB with positioning mattering. You can move across a grid that is unique to each fight (though generally it's in the shape of a hexagon with a center node as well as the six corners) and melee characters/enemies need to be near their targets. Similarly, if a character/enemy is between you and your target and you're ranged your line of sight might be blocked (though it has to be pretty much a straight line through the three; being offset even a little is fine). Characters have both skills and magic (though that doesn't appear until later).
One way the game really shows its western influence is in the huge emphasis on exploration and dialog. Combat is definitely secondary in this game, and aside from the occasional group during exploration the majority happens in designated dungeons. Many of these dungeons have a puzzle solving component in them, culminating in a final dungeon reminiscent of Kefka's Tower. In order to aid these explorations every character gets a field skill. These include lockpicking, retrieving distant objects, or talking someone's ear off. The game will force party members on you when these skills are needed to proceed, but many times they are used to get bonus items. Executing these skills involve playing a short minigame, where success at the game means success at using the skill. Fortunately, you can retry as many times as you want on failure. The game also has a few other times it uses minigames during certain transitions that a normal JRPG might just show you going from A to B.
The game isn't perfect, though. The first thing it likes to do is be vague about the various systems, which include your stats. You don't get stat numbers; you instead get bar graphs which give you a relative notion that you are better than another character at something, or this weapon is an upgrade. Additionally, the magic system is left somewhat vague. It makes sense from a story perspective, but that doesn't help the gameplay. Spells can be used on enemies to deal damage and inflict statuses, while used on your party they heal the status (or act as a heal spell for the non-status element). This gets a passing mention but it doesn't really go into detail. Similarly, midway through you gain the ability to essentially create custom magic, but the game is absurdly vague about how it works. Since everything in game is explained by in-universe characters it makes sense why it's vague, but again, it annoys the player. The final thing that tend to annoy me is the game likes to have some enemies have way too noticeable of an evade rate. Septerra Core suffered from a similar problem. There's enough time between attacks that having those misses is a real feel bad. Most Final Fantasies either made them rare enough (or only on certain enemies that are expected to be evasive) or when it was more common gave you a bunch of attacks with every Fight command.
But those are mostly minor quibbles. The game was still engrossing enough that I played it pretty steadily. I would have finished earlier but I was intentionally pacing myself.