Awww, how completely gorgeous, from the setting down to the pose itself! Wonderful game, that. :3

I was especially impressed with how the starry night sky came out. :) And speaking of the game itself, I've actually been playing through it again (via downloadable purchase on the PSN Store) from time to time in the past few months, and I'm just about to beat it again for a 3rd time. I think I must've clocked in about 70+ gameplay hours on it so far...it is a very long (but enjoyable) game.

Thanks, BHawkes!

Not a problem, K-Dog! I really should get it for the PSP/PS3 eventually, but at the moment it isn't happening. I have a few other things I'm interested in in the meantime! :D

But yeah, what a most epic game. I grabbed the artbook from Kinokuniya in NYC years ago. I'm pretty proud of it and everything therein. It's just one of those things that drops the jaw, along with a Genso Suikoden Encyclopedia I have. Now I pine for the old, glory days of PS1-era RPGs. ^^

You have an official art book of Xenogears, as well as an Suikoden encyclopedia? Dang, you're more hardcore in collecting game art books than I am. I've only got an official complete works art book of the original Okami game for PS2 (which I'm still proud of owning to this day; just the concept art of the characters and enviroment settings within its pages is just mesmerizing in the amount of detail that's been put into them before finalizing design decisions for the final product of the game, for instance).

Speaking of Suikoden...I've got pretty much all the games for that series (including the first game from the PSN Store) except for the second one. Last one I played was the fourth game, I think, from a year or two back. I'd really like it if Suikoden 2 came to PSN one of these days, because I don't particularly feel like spending between $90-150 or beyond that for a PS1 game at Amazon or E-Bay, lol. XD

Well, I mostly got those two because I adored those series and I saw them on sale. If only I could fully read them, however! That would be nice! Sounds like you have a few worthwhile books of your own, though, so that's a fine collection right there!

And yeah, the PSP revamp of Suikoden 1 and 2 was passed over in the US since that was during Sony's "we don't want any ports!" period. Which was funny because a few months later they made a huge to-do about their bringing out Parappa for the PSP and that was nothing ~but~ a straight port! Oh well, what is one to do at times? Suikoden 2 was quite excellent, though, and Suikoden 5 as well. It's a shame that most of the people who were behind the series are now long gone and all Konami is doing is trying to start off titles in a similar vein but not yet taking place in the same world as the original series. Shame, that. It was far too robust to just leave behind.

I mean, at least 8 games worth of world building and tossing all of that away? Pretty shameful. Oh well, one can hope for more entries proper in the future, but I'm not holding my breath any longer!