I like jrpgs, so I decided to go check out the games you mentioned in youtube videos:
I thought Monster Hunter 3 looked like a possible 9 or better if it plays as well as it looks .
I was talking about Muramasa when I said I expected only one of them to get an 8.5 or better from IGN, and I had mixed feelings about that one after watching the video. I have Odin's Sphere for PS2, and Muramasa seemed to be doing an excellent job at the same type of side scrolling action (as does Castle Crashers on the 360 to an extent). The action seemed much faster and exciting in Muramasa than in Odin Sphere, but the graphics didn't seem much better than those in the PS2 game to be honest. They seemed more kinetic of course, but not much better. I'll still say it is an 8.5 to 9.0, but I'm not as impressed as I was hoping to be.
A Tales game. I rewatched the trailer for Dawn of the New World and it seemed good enough; however, it only received a 6.8 from IGN earlier this year. I also watched a trailer for FF: Crystal Chronicles, and it seems to me that Square is definitely trying to gear it for a younger audience or for those that prefer lighter content in such games.
I watched two trailers for Arc Fantasia Rise. They definitely seem to be going for a high fantasy tone in that game like some of the great jrpgs of the past like Lunar and some of the classic Final Fantasy games, but in a way it looked decidedly last gen in a way. And, I don't think it will give FFXIII much of a run for its money for being the high fantasy JRPG of this gen. I watched and favorited Nivek0991's first look at Kizuna because I liked the game's art work that was featured in the video and the song is one of my favorites.
I thought the worst of the games whose trailer that I watched was Valhalla Knights because it seemed to be a more hardcore type of rpg with customizations, etc, and I'm not really into that. I like to lose myself in the worlds and enjoy epic stories, but customization and hardcore level grinding gets a bit boring to me after awhile which is also one of my problems with Bioware type games.
Anyway, I thought they looked like some good little rpgs with the majority being in the 8 to 9 range and maybe a couple that could get review scores between 9 and 9.5. I do plan to purchase a Wii sometime, so I'm sure I will enjoy them when I can.
However, I'm not going to say they are hands down and away the best rpg lineup of 2009. SO4 is looking really good on the 360. I've heard that Blue Dragon II might also be coming out soon. I still think FFXIII will come out in the summer of '09 in Japan and be available in the West by Christmas '09 which would definitely give the edge to the hd consoles.
Additionally, throw in some story driven western rpgs like Bioware's Dragon's Age which I've heard is coming to both 360 and PS3 in '09. And another potentially to be announced hardcore western rpg in the Oblivion or Fallout 3 mode, the western action rpg The Witcher: Rise of the Wolf on 360 and PS3, and a strategy action rpg like the new Kingdom Under Fire on the 360 which I think is scheduled for an '09 release and is a game I'm hoping 360 gamers will give proper respect to and take to heart the way they have some other games, and that I'm very much looking forward to, and I think the hd consoles will take the best overall rpgs of '09 crown by a large margin.
Heavens to Murgatoids.
