A Tale of Sorrow, Vomit and Mail. Again.

Just the other day, I took a stroll down the halls of IGN and came upon a room with the letters P, S and P on the door. A network of cracks and blemishes made the door look ancient. The acrid smell wasn't helping, either. But the mysterious lettering on the door sparked a fire in me. I reached for the doorknob and hoped for the best. A blast of stale air struck my face. The smell…a cross between day-old vomit and cat urine. Still, curiosity got the best of me.

I walked through the door and into a stone hallway lit by a series of torches. I couldn't see the end. But I'd come too far to turn back. I crept through a curtain of spider webs and squeezed through a small, dark opening at the end of the hallway. The smell grew worse. By the time I crawled out of the hallway, the day-old vomit odor worsened to week-old pizza, only with cat feces as the topping of choice. No matter, I was getting close.

After three minutes of crawling and a little bit of running, I made it into a cavernous room. At the center of the room sat three refrigerator-size bags with the same P, S and P lettering I saw on the door. I ripped open one of the bags. An eruption of reader mail shot through the cavern. Overwhelming, really.

So, I took the first few letters and ran back to the safety of my wonderful smelling desk.

I've never read such a misleading and contradictory review as your review for the legend of heroes.For starters, you take all the things that ed lewis said in the preview that were good things about the game and say that those are bad things.Clearly Somebody else should have reviewed the game because you seriously aren't qualified.You call yourself a proffessional, but even I could write a better review than you. Its fine that you don't like the game, but if you are going to write such a bad review, then you need to write a more informative one.Your review was barley a page long and it was all spent moaning about how old school and unoriginal the game is,yet in the preview ed lewis said that was one of the game's highlights. thanks

I'm not suggesting you should rethink your opinion (though you probably should) I'm asking for a better review that dosen't trash the game without good reason, and contradicts what IGN has already said in the preview. You review is completely unprofessional and sounds like you have only played the game for an hour.

--Elliot

Thanks Ed!

--Ivan

I find it hard to believe that LoH is in the bottom 5% of all PsP games reviewed by you so far. Does that not seem insane to you as editors? How can IGN justify such a piss-poor review? Most of your stuff is very well done and this as been my favorite site since the 90's. I know my lay-man opinion doesn't matter much, but when one looks at LoH vs. the 40 odd games reviewed I am stuned at the placement of LoH at the bottom 10%, 4th worst! (and I've played over 1/2 the games out for PsP).

Please could IGN give a bit more reason as to why a charming, pleasing to look at, fun to play game with no real bugs or major frustration points wouldn't at least be middle of the pack for PsP games? Please?

--Stuart

I adhere to our ratings system when I review games. By definition a 5.5 is "Mediocre" on our scale. The Legend of Heroes is categorically mediocre.

I cannot speak for the review practices of other editors, nor can I speak to the quality of previously released PSP games, as I've not played them all.

--Ivan

Was this some type of joke? A few measly paragraphs, and a 5.5? Suggest you get a second opinion that review shouldn't take long to rewrite considering the first couldn't have taken more than 2-3 minutes. Guys are usually reliable sources of information and help in game playing decisions, but already having the game, all I can say is B.S

I think Ivan had plans or something, and gave some bum on the street $5 to write the review for him.

--Sean

"A few measly paragraphs."

The review was actually a thousand words long. How many thousands of words do you need in a review for it to meet your standards?

--Ivan

I have to heavily disagree with your review of Legend of Heroes. Sure the game may not have the voice overs or over-the-top visuals of other rpgs out there, but at its core, LOH is a very enjoyable and engaging rpg experience that offers a lot to the portable market. I could have understood a 7.0 or 7.5, but a 5.5 was not only uncalled for, but a misguided attempt to pile together the weaknesses of a game and pretty much forget about the strengths. I won't be surfing over to IGN any longer in the future.

Well if you and your friend say so, who are we to disagree?

--Corbie

5.5 on our rating scale translates to "Mediocre." The game is just that. 7.0 - 7.9 on our rating scale is "Good." The game is not, in my opinion, good.

--Ivan

I am very disappointed at ign for handing the review of "legend of heroes" for some amateur who doesn't know anything about classic RPGs, there is an undeniable contradiction between all your previews and the review for that game.Can I ask this "editor" how can a game that IGN proudly called in all the previews: a beautifully animated OLD SCHOOL RPG?How can he demand originality when IGN "bored" us of how it will be a classic, and "don't expect anything new"?

You didn't want us to be surprised by how it won't redefine the genre and just enjoy the package, but I sense that he was the one surprised by how much "old school" this game is, so I bet he just went on comparing it with Final Fantasy titles and such.

And how can this editor contradicts his fellow colleagues by saying that the graphics are bad, when all I ever heard from you guys (and from all the screen shots and videos) that it's has a cute sprite animations.I really need you guys to take action because I don't want to lose my faith in you. Even your neighbor gamespy (who always give low ratings) gave it an 8.

--Jin

I never said the graphics were bad, I said they were technically limited. I also don't care that it's "old school." I more care that it's a poor update of an old school game that really isn't very good.

--Ivan