1. Gameplay
"building" my characters and see them getting stronger is what makes the game for me.
i prefer turn based battle systems, but most important is that its about strategy and not reactions. planing carefully should be rewarded, but a time limit is absolutely fine.
2. Presentation
its basically a tie for the first place. if the style is not appealing, its a no-go.
3. Replayability
highly depending on the gameplay, but some content that requires you to get the maximum out of your character(s) is a huge + for me
4. Story
i played through disgaea 3!! and demons souls is my favorite game this gen (so far)... need i say more? ;)
games that offer lots of additional backstory for the world and characters deserve some kudos, but i can live without. main story? meh, give me an super-evil villain and some random innocent victims and i'm ready to go! (vast exaggeration, but you get the point)
5. Sound
bad voices can be distracting, luckily a lot of games offer selectable languages. for me (german), spoken english is foreign enough so that i don't get bothered if the voicing is bad.
good music is nice, but i cant remember a game with "bad" music, so i guess it really is not that important for me ^^
jrpg+1
