Though many of the most innovative RPGs are being created outside of Japan these days, the land of the rising sun is still seen as the development center for RPGs. It’s heritage in weaving dramatic storylines with typically turn-based combat is virtually unparalleled, but the (Japanese) RPG formula devised in the ’80s has been left largely unchanged.

The Star Ocean series, does in fact discard a few of the staple features of a typical JRPG. Specifically, there are no random encounters or turn-based battles, which are often the aspects of gameplay specific to the genre. But, in some cases, Star Ocean: The Last Hope (and it’s upcoming “International version”) reconfirmed that the JRPG industry is stuck in bit of a rut.

A prequel to the rest of the Star Ocean series, this Xbox exclusive gives players the insight to the events before the long story-arc of the rest of the series. The clichéd JRPG hero, Edge Maverick is on a mission to discover a new human homeland after the eruption of World War 3 on Earth, along with the usual type of cast including the must-have cute girl, annoying child and androgynous metrosexual (by the way: The voice acting is so embarrassingly typecast to these roles, that I even had to put the game on mute when others were in the room). All in all though, the story’s not all that bad, it’s just presented really badly and to progress through it, you need to sacrifice hours and hours on endless dungeons.

The problem lies in the fact the game doesn’t engage players. After a few hours playing the game, I realised “this is as interesting as it’s going to get!” and with a good 50 more hours to go, I wasn’t sure the ride was worth the 45+ hours of repetitive combat strung together by a really badly paced story line. It’s typical JRPG, level up, beat up monsters, then level up and beat up monsters again. This is not to say the combat isn’t good, there is just too much of it – in fact the combat engine is perhaps one of the best I’ve seen in a JRPG. The likes of Mass Effect and even the more recent Final Fantasies have conditioned me to expect perfect storyline execution in a game now, and Star Ocean: The Last Hope severely under-delivers.

As you can probably tell from the post so far, pacing is the key complaint that underlies all of the criticism here. The story doesn’t develop at the right times for it to be rewarding, XBOX Live achievements are few and far between, dungeons are far too long and lacking in any problem solving to be interesting and the prolonged story gives you more than enough time to hate the characters by the end.

We’ll see how the updated “International” version pans out in the new year, but unless it’s an overhaul of the overall story execution, I’m not sure it will wow non-Japanese gamers this time around either.

The game that converted me from casual Tetris-player to hardcore gamer has to be Legend of Zelda, Link’s Awakening on the Game Boy back in 1993. I was seven years’ old and was bought the game by accident by my mother before we jumped onto a flight to see relatives in the US. I asked for Super Mario World, but some how that request was lost in translation between the generations.

So, sitting there on the plane to LAX at seven years’ of age, something clicked for me – I discovered that gaming could be deeply involving, delve into your imagination and allow you to do things that are impossible to do in real life. No plane journey since has felt as quick as that one that day, however the effects of it have made me a life-long videogame addict.

The beauty of that game in particular was the fact it didn’t only allow me to pick up massive boulders, slash monsters into shreds and scuba dive to my heart’s content, but it gave me a story to read. It was great transition between childhood books and videogaming.

The embarrassing thing is that it eventually took me three years to complete Link’s Awakening, but every one of those times I picked up the game I just loved discovering more of Koholint Island – even though often described as “small” the game world was absolutely huge in its time.

I’m not the only one who thinks the game’s environment is compelling; Eiji Aonuma, director of all the 3D Zelda games, has actually called Link’s Awakening the “quintessential isometric Zelda game”, in a 2004 interview about the evolution of the Zelda series.

The controls have drawn some criticism over time, taking a rather simplistic two-button sword-and-one-other-item approach, but with this issue aside, the range of weapons remains arguably one of the most balanced in the series to date and the pacing between obtaining each of them is spot-on.

Link’s Awakening was my first realisation that gaming could inspire my imagination, teach me new things and pass time at a rate of knots. It became my drug of choice for entertainment and escapism and I have been a complete and utter junkie since.

Ubisoft Montreal has done a great job of fixing most of the issues with Assassin’s Creed in its second installment – actually, it’s done more than that, it has improved the whole gameplay to make it one of the year’s best games.

The game is set in the Italian 15th and 16th century and is focused around a new character, a charismatic Florentine named Ezio. Unlike the robotic Altaïr before him, the protagonist breathes life into the game’s storyline and injects a little human touch to otherwise cold-blooded missions. The visual flair also adds to this vibrant feel of the gameplay; from carnivale in Venice to the beautiful reconstruction of Florence, everything looks stunning and really add to the game’s overall appeal. With five of these highly detailed and expansive city states to explore, you’ll find it even more fun to leap from roof to roof, stalking, stabbing and sneaking around in the environment’s cinematic style.

Like the first game, at times you find yourself controlling Desmond – a character set in the modern who uncovers that the Templar Knights from the first game still exist and are trying to take over the world. Ezio is a member of The Assassins – as the name of the game clearly suggests – the medieval version of the Inglourious Basterds, if you like, and is trying to stop them and expose their global conspiracy.

The game starts off slowly as early missions involve running errands for your family, but quickly picks up the pace once you finally don your assassin’s outfit. Both the nature of the missions and Ezio’s character give the beginning of the game a light-hearted and human touch, which, despite the slow pace, is very much fitting for story that unfolds later.

Cutomisation options are broad, with many different combinations of armor, weapons and outfits to collect. The game also boasts a (very) loose levelling up system, as this armor and other collectables increase health, attack and defence powers. Though it could perhaps be argued that the wide range of collectables is almost too large, as finding each and every feather, statue and codex page can prove somewhat tiresome and a needless extension to the game’s already 20-25 hour-long gameplay.

Apart from this and a few niggling graphics glitches from time to time, the game is very worthy of its place in any self-respecting XBOX or PS3 owner’s game collection.

Metacritic score: 91