Of course, a story and setting aren't enough to completely carry a game; the interactive bits have to work just as well. I'm happy to report that beneath the tear-jerking idea of the little boy's adventure and the magically whimsical land he explores, lays a solidly constructed combat-driven RPG

That sounds fantastic.

I mean, horrible violence and grittiness and inflicting mass death on humans/monsters alike has it's place on my gaming palette. But I'm feeling incredibly burned out on all these gritty/realistic games starring a cast of frowny faced grumbly groaning manparodies.

I've been itching for a game like this for awhile. Good to hear it's combat mechanics are great too. What really drew me to this was the appearance, and it's semblance to old jRPG's.

But-but-but this is a JRPG and its being animated by a anime studio. That means it sucks. WHY ARE YOU COVERING IT?!?!?!-82% of Escapist users, 99.9% of the internet.

All joking aside, I'm really hoping this is good and it succeds.

I'm REALLY REALLY surprised the lead isn't a female, it just doesn't seem 'normal' for Ghibli.

I can't imagine a better animation studio to be doing a JRPG. The childlike wonder from movies like Spirited Away are an absolutely perfect fit for the standby adolescent saves the world plot. Who gives a damn about it being cliche if it's done right?

I don't have any of the current gen consoles except for a 3DS (the DS being a great place to find throwback RPGs, some of which are even good) but I am strongly considering picking up a PS3 just for this and Journey. Pity it's the tail end of this console generation and it's really hard to justify spending money on one.

The more I hear about this and the more I read the more excited I am for this PS3 exclusive. If I do not preorder it will either be day 1 buy or day 2 to give some reviewers time to check their gameplay videos out.

Was I the only one who read this as 'wrath of the white b*tch?'

...

What?

OK, don't get all Freudian on me people.

This is probably the game that has me most interested of all the games I've seen from E3 so far.

Im loving the look of his punky Tomberry friend, even if he does look abit to much like... this guy...

Slycne:

Tanis:
I'm REALLY REALLY surprised the lead isn't a female, it just doesn't seem 'normal' for Ghibli.

Not all of Studio Ghibli's work is primarily female leads, though it is a pretty heavy ratio.

Maybe not ALL, but it's probably like 10:1 or something close to that.