On My Absence and Dungeon Crawlers

Just as I was starting to make some headway on this blog, posting semi-consistently, I started to experience some significant RSI in my hands, which led to me avoiding computers and video games for almost a month. I'm feeling a little better now and will hopefully get back to working on a couple of posts I had planned, including the continuation of my series on randomness in RPGs.

My RSI was also ill-timed because I had just received the English-friendly Asian version of Demon's Souls, FROM Software's spiritual successor to King's Field. I've only played about 2 hours so far, but the game is great so far and appears to have developed quite a cult following in the West. Lovers of action-oriented dungeon crawlers should definitely give it a try.

Speaking of dungeon crawlers, The Dark Spire was released today for the DS. It is even closer in spirit to the old style of PC dungeon crawlers than was Etrian Odyssey. Isn't it odd to see Japanese developers fuel a renewed Western interest in one of the West's oldest genres? An entire generation of gamers weaned on anime and Final Fantasy are experiencing these games for the first time. I can only hope that this is a sign of even greater things to come and not just a flash in the pan.