XII Stag indeed looks better than it plays.
I also thought Shikigami No Shiro was overrated, but I changed my mind later. Although visually rather poor, it has a brilliant and very addictive gameplay.

> > XII Stag wasn't so bad was it? Mind you, I would probably be more jaded if I
> had
> > paid the full PS2 import price though...
> >
>
> It's really, really bland. The scoring system gimmick is interesting for about
> the first half of the first stage, but then you realize that trying to kill
> enemies with the rear attack is totally pointless since it's so weak and that
> the dual shock is not a good pad to be using for the side attacks (either the
> "dpad" or the analog stick).
>
> The enemy attack patterns aren't interesting, there's about 1 good song in the
> entire game, the graphics scream 1993 (not really noticable in the low res
> screenshots most people see), and in the end you feel like you'd be spending
> your time better if you were playing the F3-based shmup, "Gekirindan" (which
> most people agree is rather dull and boring).
>
> Not a good game for full price, not a good game for half price, and I'd even
> think twice about paying ~1000yen for it knowing what it's like.
>
> So yea, I'm really interested in seeing how everyone reacts to it once it's
> emulated :)
>
>