As part of the Anime tribute, I'm going to give reviews of Anime games I own or rented. The grading chart is as follows:

*****-the best *-the worst

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Orcs and Elves: A tried and true dungeon crawler for the DS, and not really the best out there. The graphics aren't that good compared to games like FFIII or Dungeon Explorer, and you get little to no clues as to what you're doing before you're thrust into your first fight against a Were-Rat. There's very little sound in the game, and only one 'town' consisting of a large room with a dragon, with whom you'll be doing all your trading with if she likes you. And, you only visit this room at the end of a level. So, if you used all your potions and are just in the middle of a tough dungeon, completely surrounded by lava monsters, you're screwed to a fate worse than gaming death. Overall, it's so-so, but I really wouldn't pay the $30 it goes for. I'm lucky and got a copy for less than $10, and it wasn't even worth that.
Rating: **

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Blue Rescue Team: Best... pokemon... game... EVER! I'm not lying, this by far is the most enthralling Pokemon game I've ever owned, and I was happy to pay every cent needed to get it. Basically, you are a human turned into a pokemon (which is decided based on a personality quiz), and you need to find a way to become human again. With your trusted sidekick, another pokemon of your choosing, you will crawl through amazingly difficult dungeons and convince other pokemon to join your rescue team, all the while trying to help the various NPCs out when they reach out to you. And, if that's not enough, there's even bonuses for when you actually beat the game! Definitely a huge must if you're a diehard Pokemon fanatic.
Rating: *****

Rune Factory: Do you love Harvest Moon, but miss the conventions of a typical RPG? Prepare to be flabbergasted with Rune Factory. This amazing game combines the best of Harvest Moon with the fighting of a Final Fantasy game, and the dungeon-crawling of various others mentioned on this page. Basically, the first half of your time will be spent tilling your farm, trying to make money for the shiny Small Sword you see in Leo's Armory. But, once you lay hands on that beautiful piece of non-farming equipment, chances are farming will go right down the drain as you hack and slash your way to victory. You play as a mysterious young boy named Raguna, and you must go through these perilous dungeons to discover who placed Monster Generators in them, and to what reason. As you do so, you'll be tilling the earth in these dungeons (which is required most of the time to continue), and gaining the trust of the many NPCs of the village. Can you handle farming to this degree!?
Rating: *****

Cooking Mama: Ever want to learn how to cook, but are too afraid to burn dinner to try? With Cooking Mama, she'll teach you how to make dishes without causing harm to your pans. Using the stylus (or Wii remote for the Wii version), follow the on-screen direction mama gives to slice, dice, fry, bake, and stew, and soon you'll be cooking with the best of the best! In Cooking Mama 2, cook perfectly for her friends, and you'll get a special surprise from them! In Cooking Mama for Wii, compete against her friends and you'll get prizes if you can win! Are you ready to impress mama with your skills!?
Rating: ****

NightCaster: An excellent game for people who love action and adventure without having to go through half a world-map to find it. In this game, you play as a wizard-in-training, Arron, who was sent to a world of magic when he was just a boy and spent his years in training with the help of a mysterious Orb. By the time he emerged, his town was in ruins, with none of his friends left to aid him and his parents being dead. Now, Arron must set out to uncover just why his village was attacked and where his friends have gone. With magic being your weapon (melee does no damage in this game, it merely knocks monsters back), you will need to use both analog controls on your Xbox controller, but it offers a fresh new way to fight your foes. Music isn't a big focus (there nearly is none) but the graphics are amazing and the gameplay is addictive. The only downside is that the only way to restore your health is from Health orbs dropped by random monsters. That makes for a very quick game over if you can't conserves your life very well. Recommended for people who love magic and don't mind not having a place to buy armor or potions in this game.
Rating: *****

Fable: The Lost Chapters: Ever wanted a game where you could be evil and still be seen as a hero? Fable is for you, then. You start out as a young boy whose village is destroyed by Jack of Blades, a very powerful thief who can destroy the world, and you can literally mold your character into whatever you wish. Your actions depend on how you turn out in the villagers' eyes, but it doesn't ultimately affect the plot of the game. The magic spells aren't overly impressive, and the initial world map is rather small (you'll be doing a lot of backtracking from point A to B in most quests), but this is one of the most customizable character RPGs I've ever played, with Morrowind being the only one at first. An easy-to-find and inexpensive RPG if you're looking to just get into the genre, and it's worth every cent you pay for it.
Rating: ****

Champions of Norrath: Straight from the creators of Buldur's Gate comes another RPG/dungeon crawler for those of us who love hours of exploration. Initially, you choose your race and your battle style of how you want to play, and you go through the rather straightforward quests and paths given to you. There doesn't seem to be a particular plot (mostly you save one race, head to a new chapter, and save another race, ect.), and all you seem to do is slay everything in sight. Wonderful graphics, but the character voices and quotes will eventually wear on you, and the game has its fair share of difficulty. It's also of relatively short length, and even if you begin the game on a different level, you'll initially be playing the game at least three times over to enjoy all of the benefits of it. If you have the patience for careful character building and don't mind the lack of people to speak to or the repetitive-ness of it, then you'll want to consider this.
Rating: ***

Pokemon Pearl: The fourth, and hopefully last, generation to the popular Pokemon series. Now we're heading up to close to 500 little critters for you to train and battle, and it keeps getting better as the game progresses. In the heart, it's pretty much the same "get your badges, beat the champion" stick we're all used to, but with a different move system, bigger map, and nearly 500 monsters to try to catch, you'll be incredibly busy if you plan to catch them all. The graphics are beautiful, and the game finally has a decent soundtrack, too. And don't forget the new Wi-Fi connection option. That'll make trading MUCH easier, without having to spend extra money on a game link.
Rating: *****

Purr Pals: If you like taking care of virtual kittens, then this game is a definite buy. Basically, it holds the same general idea as the popular Nintendogs series, but it's a bit more complicated than it seems. The feeding can get annoying very easily (you need to "shake" the food with the stylus, and if you stop shaking, you need to start over again), and getting money takes longer than necessary, but it's a great game considering. Just don't overload yourself with kitties, because just one kitty is enough to keep me busy for a while.
Rating: ****

Okami: An awesome game, one of the best I've played by far. Basically, in this game, you're a god in the form of a white wolf. You have to banish the evil that's all across Nippon, and you get to do it using your handy paintbrush and a variety of moves you can learn throughout the game. The game itself makes quite a few Japanese mythical references, and the plot is undeniably interesting. This is an RPG worth your time.
Rating: *****

Pokemon Fire Red/Leaf Green: Remember the old Pokemon Red and Blue versions back in 1995, and we all thought that the graphics were slammin'? Well, holy crap has Gamefreak improved! Basically, these are remixes of the old Pokemon games, but that doesn't mean they're not fun. Oh contrare, I can assure you you'll be spending hours of your life playing these remixes and just checking out all the new features. Match that up with the new graphics, better soundtrack, and the fact that you can catch Jhoto pokemon, I think this should be on any Pokemon diehard's list.
Rating: ****

Animal Crossing: A cute. but repetitive game. Basically, you move to a town where animals live, and act like humans. You can do favors for them, write to them, fish, collect bugs, and dig, right? Well, there's more to it. You also have a house that you can expand, and you'll need to pay off the debt to do it too. With great characters, and the new technology where time passes in real life as well as in the game (say you start playing at 9 PM, and stop. If you start again at 5 AM, it'll be 5 AM in the game too), this is definitely a game worth checking out, especially for the younger audiences.
Rating: ***

Blinx: The Time Sweeper: One of the only cute games for the Xbox that's rated E. What if there was a factory dedicated to keeping the flow of time using small crystals? What if a team of bandits are stealing the crystals? As Blinx, it's your job to find these criminals and save the worlds they're destroying. If not, you'll disappear for good. With a strict 10 minute time limit, this game offers some pretty decent challenges. The graphics are very child-friendly and the music is loud and fun to dance to. This is a game I recommend to little kids.
Ratng: ****

Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness: A GREAT pokemon game, probably much better than the others. Basically, an evil organization is capturing pokemon. Same thing, right? Well, this time they're sealing up the pokemon's hearts to create Shadow Pokemon to use as weapons for their plans of world domination. As the hero, it's your job to take back and purify these shadow pokemon. The graphics are awesome, however you can't catch as many pokemon and the ability to breed them was taken out.
Rating: ****

Kingdom Hearts 2: Again, Disney and Square have done an amazing job of creating a masterpiece's sequel. New characters, better abilities, different summons, and the new ability to fuse with your allies makes the fighting interesting, and the gameplay is near similar to the first KH with one exception. You can still talk and open chests in even in battle, but this time the story focuses more on Nobodies than the Heartless. Unfortunately, to me, KH2 is a bit of a flop, I prefer KH1.
Rating: *****

Chibi-Robo: VERY CUTE GAME! This is a game for any kid, at any age. Basically, you play as a little robot named Chibi, and the object is to make your family happy, happy, happy! Clean up muddy footprints, take out the trash, and fight evil spiders for Moolah with over 8 unique tools and costumes. Great music, and wonderful graphics, this is one GameCube game worth getting.
Rating: ****

Chrono Trigger: For an SNES game, this one took the charts! Its storyline, which is based on time travel, is very good and the cast of characters sets it off right. So, you play as Chrono and you are sent to the fair to meet your crazy friend who likes to invent things. Well, what if that invention went berserk, sending you into a different era? What if you found something that will destroy the world? Anyway, this game is great and if you can find it, by all means, GET IT! Although the battle system is different from most RPGs, you'll get the hang of it quickly.
Rating: *****

Radiata Stories: A greatly detailed game and it has some very funny cutscenes and storylines to it. You play as a boy named Jack, who aspires to be the greatest knight in the world. You do quests, you make money, sounds easy enough, right? Anyway, there's not too much to review on yet, but I recommend this game to anyone who loves times like the Dark Ages, and if you play classics like SaGa Frontier and Unlimited Saga, I can guarantee you'll like this too.
Rating: ****

Megaman X8: Okay, I only played a demo version, but this is by far the best-graphiced Megaman I've played, though not surprising as it's for PS2. So, what's the difference? You still have X and Zero, and you STILL have to kick Sigma's butt. And you STILL need to play as Axl. What else to know? Well, you get to play as all three, basically. This'll help alot in planning your strategies against the bad guys, plus one of them can be used as bantha fodder until you know the enemy's weakness... mainly X. Erm, anyway, seeing as how I only played the demo, my opinion might be a little limited, but I'll get to renting the real version soon!
Rating: ****

Neopets: The darkest Faerie: This must be the cutest RPG I've ever played, and it's a first game for Neopets, the popular pet site. The graphics are that to Spyro the dragon, and the fighting style is like Kingdom Hearts. The music score is good, though the only problem I have is the random running back and forth between cities with no way to get there except to walk. Walking takes a long time, but other than that, this is a good game for everyone, especially little kids.
Rating: ****

Megaman X: Command Mission: Remember back when Megaman was on NES, and we all thought he was cute for a blue pixel? Well, holy Batman has he improved! And, this is the only RPG in the series. It follows just shortly after MMX7, and Megaman must stop the rebellion army from destroying, or controlling, Giga City. The good side? Actual experience and customization of characters! Downside? Not nearly as long as any Final Fantasy game, but since Zero's in it, what else did you expect? He's awesome! Anyway, this is by far my favorite MMX game, and if you love RPGs, I highly reccommend this.
Rating: *****

Morrowind: This is a very fun and addicting game, not unlike Champions of Norrath for those who like the elven times. Basically, you make a character from different races/classes and you go around the world of Morrowind, trying to stop the Ultimate evil. Unfortunately, the open-ended quest playing and potion-making can be so much fun that you lose hint of the storyline. But for those who love to customize their characters to the point of obsession, this is a game you should consider.
Rating: ****

Castlevania: Circle of the Moon: Remember the old NES Catslevanias? Well, THIS one is much better! It's for GBA, and it implies both an rpg and an action game. Okay, so we all know Dracula rises up every so often with people waiting to kill him again, right? Well, what if he flung that person to nowhere? For poor Nathan, that's the case! Battle your way through many tough levels while actually gaining levels to pound your opponents. And if that isn't the kicker, you can equip Nathan with armor, spells, and accesories to suit your need. Fun? Yes. Challenging? I needed a guide to get through the first level!
Rating: ****

Star Ocean: Till the end of Time: Ah, a great RPG! This is a good game, and oddly the only I've played from the Star Ocean series. It has excellent graphics and a nice storyline. And if that's any better, you can customize how you raise your characters by use of SP. For instance, you may still gain strength at every level up, but you can add on to how much of something you get manually. Want to make your character a total wuss? Go for it! Want to make a girl kick the bad guys til they scream? You can do that too! Of course, you do need to pay attention in battle, as it isn't a turn based battle system. All in all, an awesome game.
Rating: *****

Saga Frontier 2: Can you tell I've been pulling out my old games? This is a good game, but nothing like Saga Frontier. Instead of choosing from seven scenarios, you play out the life of Gustave, and somehow, the life of Wil Knights gets involved. This confused the hell out of me, but the fighting sequences and the explorations of countless timelines are always fun. Basically, there's tons of stuff to do, from avenging dead parents to controlling the world! Cool!
Rating: ***