Carbuncle__
2001
You are peculiar, Shadow Hearts. Really fun combat that continues on through the series alongside the Horror elements that end up blending really well with the overall JRPG theme.
But damn, if you aren't an early 2000's JRPG through and through. Not to say that's a bad thing per-se or should turn you off of giving this game it's fair shake that it deserves. But for me it's not exactly what I was looking for.
For me this is being shelved purely out of being disinterested in the overarching plot and the poorly written characters. I understand this game was translated during a completely different time period but this is pretty rough for even me, Someone that's experienced and versed in rough JRPG scripts. I mean, The Legend of Dragoon is one of my favourite games of all time and it's script is pretty awful.
If you're into horror on its own and JRPG's or if you like em' both please give this series a chance. Start here and see how you feel, It deserves it.
LOOK OUT FOR PENNYBLOOD AND PLEASE SUPPORT IT WHEN IT OFFICIALLY RELEASES I REALLY WANT THIS SERIES TO LIVE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE.
But damn, if you aren't an early 2000's JRPG through and through. Not to say that's a bad thing per-se or should turn you off of giving this game it's fair shake that it deserves. But for me it's not exactly what I was looking for.
For me this is being shelved purely out of being disinterested in the overarching plot and the poorly written characters. I understand this game was translated during a completely different time period but this is pretty rough for even me, Someone that's experienced and versed in rough JRPG scripts. I mean, The Legend of Dragoon is one of my favourite games of all time and it's script is pretty awful.
If you're into horror on its own and JRPG's or if you like em' both please give this series a chance. Start here and see how you feel, It deserves it.
LOOK OUT FOR PENNYBLOOD AND PLEASE SUPPORT IT WHEN IT OFFICIALLY RELEASES I REALLY WANT THIS SERIES TO LIVE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE.
This review contains spoilers
So this is a wild ass game for a multitude of reasons. I genuinely thought Raiden as a character was pretty cool in MGS2, Like no, you're not as cool or interesting as Snake but you're alright pretty boy. Then they make him a cyborg-samurai-ninja dude is MGS4 and I'm like πππππππ. Now we've arrived at Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (Insane name btw) and like opening this game with being the bodyguard for an unnamed Prime Minister of an African Country and getting into this big tutorial boss fight with a Metal Gear just absolutely blew me away the first time I saw it. I dare you if you have never seen the opening to this game to watch/play it and NOT be like πΈπ¦ππ π©π°ππ₯ π°π― π―π°πΈ. Raiden is just cool man. Speaking of, SENATOR ARMSTRONG. I don't know if I'd call him cool but man, What a villain. I'm not gonna get into exactly what his deal is and what he stands for but just know, A LOT of this games theme's and messages ring true today AND this is a game in which the main villain is a Senator for The United States of America as well as being one of the Candidates for the 2020 United States Presidential Election. That's just funny.
GAMEPLAY, man I've just been sitting here stroking this game for it's theme's and story and characters I didn't even bring up the fact that it's made by GODDAMN PLATINUM GAMES. If you're familiar at all you know the combat slaps. BUT I would like to just put it out there that BLADE MODE IS SOME OF THE COOLEST SHIT IN ANY CHARACTER ACTION GAME EVER. Entering what is essentially bullet time but for slicing up cyborg parts and ripping out there fake spines to heal yourself is some of the most rad shit ever thought up. So thank you.
Lastly I want to touch on an aspect of this game that has probably been touched on a lot and might feel redundant but I feel is just as important as the others. MUSIC. You could pick ANY of the 13 vocal tracks spread throughout MGRR and say their your favourite and I would hit you with a nod and say "yeah it's pretty good". Lending itself to the style of game the music is Fast and Heavy, with banger after banger after banger. Songs that I don't think I'll ever grow tired of and will remain having an impact on me in ways I wouldn't have thought imaginable. When I got into the boss fight with Mistral and the instrumental for A Stranger I Remain kicks in, I vividly remember this feeling of "Oh shit, this is gonna be a good one." AND THEN THE VOCALS COME IN. That moment will never leave me.
This is too long to even be considered a review I've just rambled in text form and am just putting this out into the world. I love this game truly from the bottom of my heart. Please play it.
GAMEPLAY, man I've just been sitting here stroking this game for it's theme's and story and characters I didn't even bring up the fact that it's made by GODDAMN PLATINUM GAMES. If you're familiar at all you know the combat slaps. BUT I would like to just put it out there that BLADE MODE IS SOME OF THE COOLEST SHIT IN ANY CHARACTER ACTION GAME EVER. Entering what is essentially bullet time but for slicing up cyborg parts and ripping out there fake spines to heal yourself is some of the most rad shit ever thought up. So thank you.
Lastly I want to touch on an aspect of this game that has probably been touched on a lot and might feel redundant but I feel is just as important as the others. MUSIC. You could pick ANY of the 13 vocal tracks spread throughout MGRR and say their your favourite and I would hit you with a nod and say "yeah it's pretty good". Lending itself to the style of game the music is Fast and Heavy, with banger after banger after banger. Songs that I don't think I'll ever grow tired of and will remain having an impact on me in ways I wouldn't have thought imaginable. When I got into the boss fight with Mistral and the instrumental for A Stranger I Remain kicks in, I vividly remember this feeling of "Oh shit, this is gonna be a good one." AND THEN THE VOCALS COME IN. That moment will never leave me.
This is too long to even be considered a review I've just rambled in text form and am just putting this out into the world. I love this game truly from the bottom of my heart. Please play it.
2007
you get 1 star for being a "functioning" game and for the gift of Spider-Man 3 QTE's. Don't play this.
Having played Dissidia very sparingly in the past, Most of my time playing Dissidia in the past being NT, I was excited to go back and play this first entry and for the most part I was pleasantly surprised. For a fighting game that released on a portable handheld console in 2009 in NA, This game is really good. Tons of fun, a unique concept for a competitive fighting game that I still don't know if I completely have wrapped my head around, with a relatively simple story featuring the Heroes and Villains of the respective first 10 Final Fantasy games. Coming back to this first entry in the Dissidia series I have a slightly altered perspective to the voice cast for this game. Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Rebirth exist and are out at the point of writing this review. The majority of this voice cast I actually surprisingly liked a lot. Genuinely fun performances from most of the cast with some funny interactions in the story mode. Cloud however.. I don't know man. This is the same actor who had portrayed him from Kingdom Hearts onward in every subsequent project Cloud Strife was featured in, most of which I played and have fond memories of. This just felt bad. Normally I would chalk it up to bad VO Direction or something like that but I genuinely like every other performance in the game. That being said it doesn't really take any of my enjoyment out of playing this game or any future titles in the Dissidia series.
Every character I've touched has felt relatively easy to pick up figure out, which I think was intentional with the goal of this game being something different from your average fighting game. This one feels less competitive in nature and more so focused on just getting this collection of "Action Figures" together in one setting and trying to tell a story with all of them together and interacting and I think it succeeds in that aspect. That's not to say you can't play this like a competitive game, Dissidia Final Fantasy also features Competitive Multiplayer Versus matches through the PSP's ad-hoc. A really cool decision that I don't really remember about this game coming out back in the day but I super appreciate in retrospect.
All in all I enjoyed my time coming back to Dissidia Final Fantasy and all the ground work it layed for the eventual sequels it set up. I genuinely really hope that they can maybe bring it back at some point although how likely that is at this point with how well NT did remains to be seen. Definitely a high point of the PSP library in my opinion.
Every character I've touched has felt relatively easy to pick up figure out, which I think was intentional with the goal of this game being something different from your average fighting game. This one feels less competitive in nature and more so focused on just getting this collection of "Action Figures" together in one setting and trying to tell a story with all of them together and interacting and I think it succeeds in that aspect. That's not to say you can't play this like a competitive game, Dissidia Final Fantasy also features Competitive Multiplayer Versus matches through the PSP's ad-hoc. A really cool decision that I don't really remember about this game coming out back in the day but I super appreciate in retrospect.
All in all I enjoyed my time coming back to Dissidia Final Fantasy and all the ground work it layed for the eventual sequels it set up. I genuinely really hope that they can maybe bring it back at some point although how likely that is at this point with how well NT did remains to be seen. Definitely a high point of the PSP library in my opinion.
"GO,GO,GOOOOOO"
Panel de Pon aka Tetris Attack is really fun and so is PPL. There really isn't much to it beyond that. It's a fun Puzzle game now with a Pokemon anime skin circa 2000. If that's your thing you'll love it. The voicelines will be etched into my memory until I die. Whether it be anything Tracy says ever, Lt.Surge screaming "Aw, Poor Baby", Blaine's gravelly voice saying "When you're hot, you're hot". The game has iconic lines all over it.
Panel de Pon aka Tetris Attack is really fun and so is PPL. There really isn't much to it beyond that. It's a fun Puzzle game now with a Pokemon anime skin circa 2000. If that's your thing you'll love it. The voicelines will be etched into my memory until I die. Whether it be anything Tracy says ever, Lt.Surge screaming "Aw, Poor Baby", Blaine's gravelly voice saying "When you're hot, you're hot". The game has iconic lines all over it.
IT DON'T MAKE NO DAMN SENSE.
..But I kind of love it for that. My earliest memories of Yu-Gi-Oh! are of watching the anime on Saturday at 8am and this damn game. Maybe I never really thought about how much this breaks the rules because of how much the anime just constantly breaks the rules.
On a real note, if you can get past the grindy nature of acquiring cards this is a real short romp with familiar enough characters and cards. The RNG on what cards your opponent pulls is really B.S though, That's unforgivable.
..But I kind of love it for that. My earliest memories of Yu-Gi-Oh! are of watching the anime on Saturday at 8am and this damn game. Maybe I never really thought about how much this breaks the rules because of how much the anime just constantly breaks the rules.
On a real note, if you can get past the grindy nature of acquiring cards this is a real short romp with familiar enough characters and cards. The RNG on what cards your opponent pulls is really B.S though, That's unforgivable.
Pumpking? Busted.
Childhooooooood. First time playing any kind of "strategy" type of game as a kid. I didn't know why they didn't call Yugi by his name but I didn't care I had my cards and that's all that mattered to me. Returning to this game some odd 20 years later, I really appreciate what they went for with this. A super fun, creative, grid movement based strategy game while still being a Yu-Gi-Oh! card game with two sides to a story to explore.
Childhooooooood. First time playing any kind of "strategy" type of game as a kid. I didn't know why they didn't call Yugi by his name but I didn't care I had my cards and that's all that mattered to me. Returning to this game some odd 20 years later, I really appreciate what they went for with this. A super fun, creative, grid movement based strategy game while still being a Yu-Gi-Oh! card game with two sides to a story to explore.
2023
Soken is a god wtf
2024
This review contains spoilers
Still a tremendous experience, If you dig Persona as a series in any way you are missing out if you don't give this a try (AT LEAST ON GAMEPASS!) The ending still hits just as hard as I remember it hitting when I first played P3FES back in the day. Maybe a hot take? I love the OST for Reload even more than I do the original. (P3's OST being my favourite of any of the Persona's) Just tremendous work all throughout but if you've played and version of Persona 3 before I'm not sure how much there is to add. If you know it you'll love it, If you don't know it I think you should give it a try and I think you'll probably love it.
2023
I don't know how much I really needed this remake to exist but I am glad it exists. Still not my favourite Mario RPG even with "prettying" it up and adding cutscenes and cool tri attacks. Kinda wish there was an option to go back to the pixel art but I guess with the sound option having the ability to revert the graphics would kind of defeat the purpose of a remake. Unfortunately I just don't think this kind of approach to a JRPG will ever be for me but I can recognize and appreciate how damn charming this game and the original is. Music is still one of my favourites of all time tho shoutout Yoko Shimomura.
My personal favourite game of all time, the very first JRPG I remember playing at the young age of 5 years old. I don't think I really got it then but I didn't care. This cool Blonde dude in red armor transformed into a literal Dragon Knight with wings and punched a meteor. I was in awe of what I was seeing at the time. I didn't even pick up on at the time what I would realize 10 years later was one of THE COOLEST COMBAT SYSTEMS in a game for the time. ADDITIONS ARE SO RAD MAN!
Looking back yeah The Legend of Dragoon is not a perfect game, The story kind of starts to fall apart a bit in disc 3 and 4 but I really love it still.
Looking back yeah The Legend of Dragoon is not a perfect game, The story kind of starts to fall apart a bit in disc 3 and 4 but I really love it still.
1997
This review contains spoilers
An astronomical achievement in JRPG's that broke through the barrier of being just a JRPG and changed the course of the the genre and medium. FF7 is funny in that I remember the day I finished the game for the first time not being blown away but only once I came back to the game for the second and third time would I realize how truly excellent it was. The moments that need to emotionally hit, hit like a truck. I would not have thought that this ragtag crew of pipe cleaners with faces would have ended up being my #1 JRPG party if you had asked me back when I started. I thought Cloud a lone wolf too cool for school boring one note protagonist, By the end of the game he's this deeply layered man just trying to deal with SO much shit that's been dumped on him. My only half joking gripe with FF7 is goddamn Chocobo Breeding and Racing. Go to hell.
2012
Persona 4 vanilla was my very first introduction to SMT/Persona. I was in love immediately the moment the opening video played. I spent 100+ hours just falling into the story, world and characters and loved every single second of it. Then 2012 rolls around and Persona 4 Golden is released. I genuinely didn't think it'd be possible to improve upon Persona 4 and not only make me want to jump right back into the world and same story I've experienced already but actually make it MORE engaging. MORE fun. Persona 4 Golden was my first exposure to the Atlus classic of an upgraded version of an already existing Persona game, and for my money they've never done it better.
2023
This review contains spoilers
Did this remake need to exist? No. HOWEVER.
I ADORE this game. Is it as charming as the classic from 2005? Probably not, but I love that they were able to take that cheese and still intertwine it with a game that takes itself decently serious. Everything you remember about the original sans excessive cheese is present in this remake except in my opinion it all feels 10x better. Just a really damn fun, timeless video game experience. Voice performances are on 10, Nick Apostolides knocks Leon out of the park and I personally really love Lily Gao's rendition of Ada. Saddler is still small time and everyone still goes to Bingo.
I ADORE this game. Is it as charming as the classic from 2005? Probably not, but I love that they were able to take that cheese and still intertwine it with a game that takes itself decently serious. Everything you remember about the original sans excessive cheese is present in this remake except in my opinion it all feels 10x better. Just a really damn fun, timeless video game experience. Voice performances are on 10, Nick Apostolides knocks Leon out of the park and I personally really love Lily Gao's rendition of Ada. Saddler is still small time and everyone still goes to Bingo.
2019
This review contains spoilers
Lovelovelovelovelove this game so much man.
Mission Structure is still wholly stuck in the early 2000's but aside from that, Devil May Cry 5 does A LOT right. Story is predictable but satisfying, Combat is incredibly rewarding and cool. I personally am really attached to when a game loves its music, and this game LOVES it's music, Not all of it hits for me but a good majority of it does, So having a battle theme like DEVIL TRIGGER play every time I get into a fight with Nero feels so hype man. Speaking of Nero, When I played Devil May Cry 4 in 2008 I "liked" Nero. He was fine. I don't quite know what it is, but I love that dude this time around. I love a lot of these characters this time around. Nero and Nico are great. Dante is of course a smash hit. V is in the corner being poetic and goth and that's cool. Griffon is amazing. Vergil himself is my favourite version of himself to date. Just a great character action game. You should play please. Don't even get me started on Bury The Light brother.
Mission Structure is still wholly stuck in the early 2000's but aside from that, Devil May Cry 5 does A LOT right. Story is predictable but satisfying, Combat is incredibly rewarding and cool. I personally am really attached to when a game loves its music, and this game LOVES it's music, Not all of it hits for me but a good majority of it does, So having a battle theme like DEVIL TRIGGER play every time I get into a fight with Nero feels so hype man. Speaking of Nero, When I played Devil May Cry 4 in 2008 I "liked" Nero. He was fine. I don't quite know what it is, but I love that dude this time around. I love a lot of these characters this time around. Nero and Nico are great. Dante is of course a smash hit. V is in the corner being poetic and goth and that's cool. Griffon is amazing. Vergil himself is my favourite version of himself to date. Just a great character action game. You should play please. Don't even get me started on Bury The Light brother.