One or two of you people has a 3DS, don't you? 
I got this on Saturday and have already sunk 8 hours into it. That is pretty unusual for me.
The game mechanics would be at home in a Monster Hunter or an Elder Scrolls. It's a straight-up RPG, which a story that usually stays out of the way so you can do quests and build your skills. It has 12 "Lives," which are analogous to what other RPGs call jobs. Each Life offers unique abilities: Anglers can catch fish, Woodcutters can chop down trees, Tailors can make clothes, Cooks can cook food, etc. The nice thing is, all the Lives are opened up for you pretty early, you can switch at will, and any skills you develop for a given Life persist no matter which Life you're currently set to.
The game has a colorful and cute art style and is absolutely loaded with jokes and puns. I'm not kidding, whoever did the localization of this must have had a blast. A lot of the jokes are actually funny, too, which is kind of surprising.
You can also co-op which is great fun. Have a bunch of quests and challenges you want to do, then go off together and have at it. You can't turn in quests or challenges while network linked, which is slightly annoying, but since turning multiplayer on and off is so quick and easy, it's not that bad. There's also an Ally Mode where you can chat with other players (not very practical: messages are too short and typing on the screen sucks) and receive updates about their progress and send them "applause" (this is fun.)
The game world is quite large so there's plenty to explore and find. Some of the Lives even require some skill to use effectively. I'm currently a Mercenary, which is based around melee attacks. There are very powerful attacks you can chain with proper timing.
Save points are ubiquitous so you'll never find yourself hunting around for a place to save. Not sure why they don't let you save pretty much anywhere since virtually every map has a save point on it. It's definitely a game that you can pick up, play for a few minutes, then put down again. Or, you can let the hours get sucked away, like I have...
Just thought I would give this one a recommendation for you guys. It just came out Friday and I'm definitely hooked. Not a lot of games grab me like this so there must be something to it.
I got this on Saturday and have already sunk 8 hours into it. That is pretty unusual for me.
The game mechanics would be at home in a Monster Hunter or an Elder Scrolls. It's a straight-up RPG, which a story that usually stays out of the way so you can do quests and build your skills. It has 12 "Lives," which are analogous to what other RPGs call jobs. Each Life offers unique abilities: Anglers can catch fish, Woodcutters can chop down trees, Tailors can make clothes, Cooks can cook food, etc. The nice thing is, all the Lives are opened up for you pretty early, you can switch at will, and any skills you develop for a given Life persist no matter which Life you're currently set to.
The game has a colorful and cute art style and is absolutely loaded with jokes and puns. I'm not kidding, whoever did the localization of this must have had a blast. A lot of the jokes are actually funny, too, which is kind of surprising.
You can also co-op which is great fun. Have a bunch of quests and challenges you want to do, then go off together and have at it. You can't turn in quests or challenges while network linked, which is slightly annoying, but since turning multiplayer on and off is so quick and easy, it's not that bad. There's also an Ally Mode where you can chat with other players (not very practical: messages are too short and typing on the screen sucks) and receive updates about their progress and send them "applause" (this is fun.)
The game world is quite large so there's plenty to explore and find. Some of the Lives even require some skill to use effectively. I'm currently a Mercenary, which is based around melee attacks. There are very powerful attacks you can chain with proper timing.
Save points are ubiquitous so you'll never find yourself hunting around for a place to save. Not sure why they don't let you save pretty much anywhere since virtually every map has a save point on it. It's definitely a game that you can pick up, play for a few minutes, then put down again. Or, you can let the hours get sucked away, like I have...
Just thought I would give this one a recommendation for you guys. It just came out Friday and I'm definitely hooked. Not a lot of games grab me like this so there must be something to it.
.
. It's a real bummer. Wish they would have it be available on regular handhelds as well. Not everyone games via smartphones.
