I thought I'd just give Last Ranker a whirl to see what it was like. I thought maybe I'd play it for a little while to get down the basics, then leave it for a while and come back to it once I was through with some other games I had waiting.
... Five hours later, I don't think that's happening. Perhaps I've only seen the beginning of it, but right now, I think it's a really good game.
Battles are pretty cool. You only control one character, (take off every) Zig, and you can take as many actions as you like in real-time RPG fashion, as long as you have the SP for it (you gain back used SP when you do nothing). There's a default action for every button, including guard. As well, you can bring into combat with you two of four styles, switching between them as you see fit, and can assign unique equipment setups, skills (which can be big attacks, support abilities, or stat boosts), and one Ultimate Attack to each style you have. I've seen counters in the game, too, but I haven't gotten them yet. The four styles all boil down to: twin swords (damage), sword and unarmed attacks (guard break), sword and gun (avoid counters), sword and shield (increased defense). They each have a unique style action for their intended purpose.
Certain enemies (other humans) do have skills they'll use on you, you'll learn their skills when you beat them. Some also have Ultimate Attacks, which you can interrupt with timed button presses. The kicker is, this is how you learn them: if you fight someone and stuff their Ultimate Attack, you'll get that attack when you beat them. All the humans you fight have a bit of personality as well, complete with a descriptive one-liner in both English and Japanese. Hoffman loves his family! (That one made me laugh.)
The music is awesome, composed by Yoko Shimomura, done in an orchestral style that kinda reminds me a little of .hack and Yuki Kajiura at times. Character designs and the general atmosphere of the game remind me of Dragon Quarter, always a good thing. The guy responsible for Etrian Odyssey directed the game, so those of you who liked that game might find something you like in this.
So if this game ever comes stateside, and I get the feeling it might (the English is romanized very well and not a spelling error in sight so far, though the wording is awkward at times), as of right now I'd say check it out. This could possibly go down as one of my favorite games ever, no easy feat. We'll see once I get further.
