Gaming off the Beaten Path

Last week I gave my initial thoughts on the dark, brooding atmosphere of Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne. I feel like I struggled to adequately explain just how different this game is design wise from anything else I have ever played. While I'm not sure I did the atmosphere justice, I don't think I will have any such issues with the gameplay. Lets start with the combat. For as different as SMTN is aesthetically, the combat should feel right at home to any JRPG fan. You have a party of four, with each character outfitted with a set of magical or physical special moves. It's good, old fashioned turn based combat, with just enough twists to make it feel refreshing and unique. You get one action per turn for each character in your active party. However, you can increase the number of actions you can take in several ways. Land a critical hit or exploit an enemy weakness and you will get another action that turn. Don't have anything impactful to do with a particular character? Y

Are video games art? It's a question that I think a lot of people that are really into gaming grapple with and have been grappling with for a long time now. Those of us that grew up in an era where video games were "just toys" or "only for kids" have certainly heard plenty of folks opine that they most certainly are not. But in recent years, as the industry becomes more popular and gaming becomes more mainstream, more and more people have been asked to, or forced to, view video games as a media format. I'm sure it happens with every new format, just as our parents were confused by the stupid video games, theirs were confused by the stupid television, and theirs by the stupid radio, and so on. But that isn't what we are here to talk about, it's a different topic for a different day. We are here to talk about my first foray into the Shin Megami Tensei, or Megaten, franchise. For years, I have avoided playing any of these things because their close atta