Draza
This is how an expansion should be. It adds a lengthy story with more than enough side content while being a natural follow up to the events of the base game.
Roleplaying wise it's better than 2, but it's worse than the previous games in most ways. The story is interesting at certain points and most of the characters are decent (except Sera fuck Sera), but the antagonist is pretty weak. Exploration is now based on a bunch of big open worlds, which makes it a slog to get through. It's made even worse by most sidequests being boring fetchquests. It feels like a single player MMO, which makes it the worst in the series. Yes I like 2 more than this, fight me.
2011
The level design and the story by the endgame suffered greatly because of EA heavily rushing the development, but the characters are very well written and, rushing aside, the story is pretty good and refreshing because of its smaller scale based on hawke's life in Kirkwall instead of being about saving the world.
2009
The last tuly good RPG Bioware ever made. Later games don't even come close in terms of roleplaying.
2010
I don't care how jank and unbalanced it is, this is a fantastic RPG and I love it.
Pure kino action. As long as you skip 2 you're gonna have a very good time
It's still a pretty good game thanks to borrowing IV's combat and making it better than it already was. Sadly, this is countered by losing a lot of the atmosphere IV had and having a much worse story, with an annoying cast of characters that focus on the Power of Friendship trope which feels forced in mainline SMT. Fortunately even though the story itself is bad, the Divine Powers are very good antagonists and they will make you wish they had a route you could follow.
An amazing experience dripping with atmosphere. SMT IV gives a unique take on the recurring Tokyo post apocalypse theme of SMT by adding the Kingdom of Mikado on top of it, and the result is a very unique world which mixes a medieval-like setting with a modern post apocalyptic city and godlike soundtrack that combines Samurai themes with Cyberpunk perfectly. A refined Press Turn System and the solid core gameplay of the series is the icing of the cake. Definetly the best place to start with the series if you're curious about it.
Shelving it while I'm playing other stuff, but I'm halfway through and so far it's been a really solid game. The story is good fun and the Nemissa/Hitomi combo has a very good chemistry.
2011
The story and the characters are worse than the first game, but the gameplay is a big step up and a refinement of the Paradigm system, allowing much more freedom of builds since the beginning instead of halfway through the plot. Instead of being linear like the first game, you explore a bunch of locations in different timelines while you complete the main quest. If you prefer gameplay improvements over a better story, then XIII-2 is definetly the better game.
2009
I used to hate this game, but over time I really warmed up to it. While I still dont outright love it, the characters and the combat system have grown on me, and I actually appreciate the linearity now after having seen so much open world bullshit.
I still don't like the story or the antagonists though
I still don't like the story or the antagonists though
(Never finished X-2, this just applies to FFX)
One of the few FF I finished. Visually it's a treat, and while some of the cast can be annoying, they're generally pretty good, with Tidus and Auron being a highlight. FFX has one of my favorite battle systems in the entire series, being a traditional turn based system where turn order is dependent not only on agility, but also on the actions commited in the battle. Couple that with the unique Sphere Grid replacing traditional leveling and you have some very solid gameplay that doesnt get old.
One of the few FF I finished. Visually it's a treat, and while some of the cast can be annoying, they're generally pretty good, with Tidus and Auron being a highlight. FFX has one of my favorite battle systems in the entire series, being a traditional turn based system where turn order is dependent not only on agility, but also on the actions commited in the battle. Couple that with the unique Sphere Grid replacing traditional leveling and you have some very solid gameplay that doesnt get old.
Without mods, it's not a very good RPG. The main quest is terrible, and a lot of the sidequests are simple fetch quests. Some faction questlines are pretty decent, but all of them have the problem of making you its leader in a way that feels unearned, specially when you don't have any requirements for them (you can become the Archmage without any kind of magic skills, for example). The only really positive thing I can say about this is the same one for most Bethesda games: the world is beautiful and you can get lost in it for a good while.
The story is absolutely insane and heart wrenching in the best way possible and the main cast is, along with the story, the best in the series. Its only negative point is that the combat is so braindead easy that you don't even need to think.
Definetly dated compared to the rest, it's still unique in its own way. The combat is a slog (but easy and quick to get through), the encounter rate is too high and the dungeon design sucks, but I liked the story and the characters. It helps that, unlike the games since 3, the story is able to go straight to the point without being slowed down by normal life events.