PixlBit

I actually played this, in the 80s, on my Atari 130XE computer. I played the arcade version on Midway Arcade Treasures on PS1.

I got almost all the way through Vesperia before my 360 decided it couldn't take life anymore. :( I really liked it, it was one of the best looking games in the series and Troy Baker was great as Yuri. My favorite game in the series is still Symphonia. I do have Berseria but I got sidetracked on that one.

As far as losing progress, that happened to me the first time I played Final Fantasy VI on SNES. It was in the Cultists' Tower. It takes a really long time to get through unless you have the Moogle Charm (I didn't), you can only use magic and half the time you're bouncing spells off of your party members because the enemies have Reflect on them, so the battles are really slow, and at the top, you have to fight a boss that, when you kill him, he blows your party away with an Ultima spell. You're supposed to use Life 3 or drain away all of his MP (I did neither.) It took me an hour to get to the top, 45 minutes to beat the boss... and I died. I was really mad. The strategy guide I was using didn't warn me about the Ultima spell for whatever reason. And there are no save points in that dungeon, either. So that was two hours gone. If Samuel L. Jackson were there, he would have washed my mouth out with soap.

Victor Ireland, of Working Designs and Gaijinworks, put it best: "Saving your game is your best, and only, friend."

I didn't necessarily hate it, but I bought Final Fantasy Tactics when it was on sale at Target in 1998. I had just finished Final Fantasy VII and wanted another RPG to play. So I picked up this one. At first I found its gameplay very confusing and strenuous. It was my first real experience with SRPGs. I missed out on earlier games like Ogre Battle and Shining Force. And it was easy to get killed by one mistake. So I rage quit it for about 3 days then tried it again. This time, I got the hang of the game's mechanics and I was hooked. I almost rage quit for good when I got into an unwinnable situation with Wiegraf at the end of Chapter 3 and had to start all over, since you couldn't backtrack and I had saved my game. I learned to keep two save files going especially before going into boss battles. But I played it through all the way to the end.

Not only did FF Tactics go on to be one of my favorite games of all time, it was my gateway drug for SRPGs. Since then, I've played Disgaea, Fire Emblem, Tactics Ogre, FF Tactics Advance, and then I played my two favorite games in the genre, Sakura Wars, and Valkyria Chronicles, which was my favorite 7th generation game and one of my top 5 games of all time. But FF Tactics is where it started for me with SRPGs, and it is still one of the best out there.

Pak Watch: I played a little bit of Dishonored, but it got buried under other games. So I don't have much here.

I remember that, too, and I know what you mean. I remember the same thing when the ports of Pole Position II in Namco Museum had the Dentyne billboards taken out and replaced with generic Pac-Man and Galaga billboards. The different versions of Tapper I've seen had interesting product placements. The original version of Tapper was licensed by Budweiser, but some of the home versions, including the PC version and the Atari 8-bit version which was actually ported by Sega, replaced Budweiser with Mountain Dew.

That said, I'm generally not in favor of in-game advertising. I don't want to see Link shopping for bows and fishing rods at Cabela's outlets or staying at Best Western motels in Hyrule, and I'm not interested in seeing Mario in Dickies overalls and Justin workboots.

What Machocruz said is the context in which I used those terms, since that distinction was more apparent in the 80s than it is now. I actually hate the term "JRPG" myself, but it's probably the simplest way I could describe the aesthetic Origin employed in the NES version of Exodus, as far as the graphics and sound, when compared to the Apple II and PC versions.

FFXV had product placements from Cup Noodles (there were was even a Cup Noodle truck in the game), American Express, and Coleman camping products every time your party made camp, among other things. I do remember seeing Japanese Coca-Cola commercials promoting Final Fantasy games on YouTube. Speaking of product placement in games, one of the earliest  placements I can remember is that the billboards in the US arcade version of Pole Position II advertised things like Dentyne gum and Marlboro cigarettes.

When my lady friend and I went to Vegas on my birthday, I saw quite a few Pac-Man slot machines in casinos. I think I saw some at casinos here in Arizona as well. The Arizona Lottery also sells Pac-Man scratch-offs, and I've seen them doing that off and on. I'm surprised I've never seen Nintendo-based slot machines, since Nintendo did get involved in gambling in the past and a lot of Mario and Zelda games have casino mini-games, but Nintendo is also kind of careful in how they license out their properties.

Oh, and one other thing that was interesting. You talked about how Nintendo games tend to let you know when you have low health? Wizards and Warriors, which was made by Rare and published by Acclaim, had a memorable little tune that played when you were low on health. Despite the fact that the tune is repetitive, it's pretty catchy.

Stage Select:

I wouldn't mind a painting of the Gallian Army from Valkyria Chronicles raising a Gallian flag, kind of like the famous picture of the Marines raising the American Flag on Iwo Jima.

I also wouldn't turn down a portrait of Tifa in a bathing suit, though I'm sure my GF would roll her eyes really hard at that one.

Pak Watch:

I got nothing, I never played Mega Man IV. I might have said this earlier, but most of my experience with Mega Man revolves around Mega Man Legends and its sequel and spinoff on PS1. I never was into the series otherwise.

I loved Ni no Kuni. On a list of my favorite 7th gen games, it would be number two, behind only Valkyria Chronicles. It's awesome that both series are getting new installments this year.

I also really want Shining Resonance Refrain, although it is not going to be anywhere near as spectacular as Valkyria Chronicles. Most of my experience with the Shining series is with the Shining Force games on the Genesis and the Saturn, which are SRPGs that play like Fire Emblem. I never played Shining in the Darkness or its Saturn sequel, Shining the Holy Ark. Resonance looks like it's a straightforward JRPG rather than a SRPG. I've been wanting it ever since it was on PS3. I'll probably get it on Switch.

I'll admit I do enjoy arguing politics to a certain degree, but in the social media age it's over the top, what with all the usual insults and the odd threat of civil war here and there. For those who have scrubbed their timelines of stuff like that, good for them. I mostly keep up with my family and with 1UP alumni on social media. I actually deleted my Twitter accound and have no intention of making another account on Twitter. I think it's probably the worst non-pornographic site on the Internet, and there are a lot of porno sites that are more respectable than Twitter is, LOL.