There was also a preview on the 1up Show a few months back -- looked pretty promising to me too. It's certainly on my list.

I saw that too, and it looked awesome. I love turn-based strategy games, and it's been a while since I've seen one with really good graphics.

You had me at Valkyria.....and then lost me at PS3

Ditto. Any chance for a 360 release down the road?

Stupid PS3 only. *grumble* *grumble*

It's a TRPG at heart. The actions seen in the trailers are just ways the player moves units around in this game. I'm only four missions in, but the impression so far is that the shooter-like presentation adds quite a bit of fluidity to the game experience. You are still making the decisions like you would in any other TRPG, but here, you guide your characters through routes unconfined by rectangular grids. At the press of a button, your infantries can crouch behind sandbags and hide in bushes. You have control over your units' aim, whether through lining up a head shot or determining an explosive's point of detonation. Stationary units attack any moving enemy that come too close, so as your units enter the front line, there is a sense of urgency in every move you make. I feel pretty good about the control scheme so far. Without the traditional menus found in other TRPG, the battles feel much more immediate, much more "tangible". Keep in mind, though, that I'm only four missions in.

Release date moved up to October 31st in Europe. Which is cool, because I don't want it any earlier. Seriously, you could try to hand this to me today and i'd be like "eh, thanks, but I just don't have time... Ok, gimme!" Yeah. I am Elysium's Front Page Article for Oct 2.

The demo was out yesterday on PSN. I played through the tutorial and the skirmish and I think I'm looking forward to this a bit less now.

The art style is great and I like the comic book-style sound bubbles. What bothers me is the Action Point system:

- Time passes when you're standing still, not just when you're spending APs. So you get shot while navigating the interface: trying to switch to attack mode, or trying to end your turn. It would have been much better to use an XCom like overwatch system, I think, so enemies can only shoot you if you spend action points in their line of sight.

- Being able to spend multiple Control Points on one unit is odd. It removes much of the advantage of outnumbering someone. It means that in terms of damage output it doesn't matter how many units you have: if I surround a unit in cover he could sit there and shoot ten times.

I'll wait for some reviews, anyway, perhaps the demo isn't representative.

Most of the complaints I've heard from people playing the import version stem from the game being a little on the easy side for veterans, so it might be right up your alley.

Sneaky devils. Now I'm in a quandary. I don't want to spend $3 but I do want that demo. hmmmm.

Demo is out on the American PSN store for everybody now. I think it came out last week. I enjoyed it quite a bit. I'm definitely going to buy this game now.

Where the hell did this come from?

I was playing LittleBigPlanet with Zoidberg tonight and he mentioned this game. It was literally the first time I'd ever heard of the game. So I go download the demo and I'm blown away. It's gorgeous, beautiful music, looks to have a good story from everything I've read and it's one of the more interesting SRPGs, in terms of gameplay, that I've ever played. Like, wow. Seriously. Wow. Where did this come from? This is very under the radar. Uncharted may be getting traded in tomorrow for this. I'm overwhelmed. A good next gen SRPG that actually advances the genre in a meaningful way.

The demo was great. There's a very well done mix of strategy and actual action. I'll probably hop on this when theres a dip in price, and given the limited audience of the game (and the complete lack of advertising for it) that should be relatively quickly I think.

I'm gonna pick it up today. I may not play it until later in the year but I'm willing to pay full price to support the art-style and creative direction of this game.

I feel the same way. Don't have the money right now, though. I'm wondering if it's going to be one of those short-run games that will be hard to find if I don't get it soon...

Maybe that's where I put it on Gamefly with the intent to "keep it" and use Gamefly like layaway.