This mod really impressed me, this feels far more robust than the Team Forever projects. A new super form, a reworked time travel system, and more polished visuals/animations that are extremely faithful to the original all around make this easily my favorite way to play Sonic CD. Never enjoyed the game more than I did this playthrough, some of that is just me further appreciating the level design (it's much better than I used to claim) but some of it is just because of how great this fan remaster feels.

One snag I have is that after I collected all the Time Stones there was this very strange glitch where dying would softlock the game every single time so I had to manually reset the application. Haven't found anyone else talk about this thoughso it might just be me.

If you want to play this please completely ignore the "prerequisites" section on the GameBanana page and just go off of the "requirements" section later down the page, it's so misleading and way more confusing than the actual install. You'll need a data.rsdk file so keep that in mind but they're not hard to find

Been playing this on and off for months now whenever I have a chance to use my DS and only just now finished it… really enjoyed my time overall! Mechanically this game is perfect to me, it’s like a 2D Sonic Unleashed (despite predating that game) and this was one of the first to really make Sonic FEEL as fast as he is.

Unfortunately, level design ended up being a mixed bag for me. About two thirds of the levels were incredibly fun and I loved every second in them, but the rest I found to have frequent and obnoxious pace breakers through level gimmicks or one of the countless bottomless pits. It’s especially bad in a game with limited screen space because in many cases I assumed I was just progressing the level and then all of a sudden I had died because there was no way of predicting the pit beneath me.

Boss fights could actually be quite challenging but I mostly found these pretty fun and fair aside from a few questionable hit boxes. The game is definitely one of the harder Sonic games overall, but that’s usually not a bad thing.

The good levels here are pretty consistently great and replayable, I definitely wasn’t bored at all during the Blaze playthrough. It’s pretty easy to recommend Sonic Rush, although mildly frustrating that the level design holds it back a bit from its full potential. This could’ve stood shoulder to shoulder with the classic games, but what we have is still great.

It’s really bittersweet to me that this is easily the best sonic team game in over a decade, on the one hand it feels like they’re genuinely trying again which is awesome but on the other hand, this is really the best we can do now? It’s so painfully obvious that this is a mid budget game trying it’s hardest to mimic high budget games and as a result it feels incredibly unpolished and downright unfinished at points. Presentation is unapologetically cheap and you can’t go five minutes without feeling like something broke, this feels like a beta build of a game. Cyberspace is terrible, a bunch of reused level designs with the worst controls in the series, I skipped these whenever I could. But honestly the open zone was a lot more fun than I thought it would be, the speed here is fantastic and there’s something so enjoyable about just freestyling your way to a destination. It’s kinda like Mirror’s Edge but a lot faster and with less focused level design. The boss fights are as janky as the rest of the game but they make up for it with the awesome scale and intensity, these are new high points for the series. This is definitely one of the better Sonic stories as well, I think the characterization was pretty well done here (especially Eggman) and the general tone is such a departure from the previous titles in the best way. This is definitely a step in the right direction but this series still has a long way to go before it’s back on track.

This game has occasional moments of corny/awkward writing and obnoxious design, but most of the time the game’s a total blast. They took the clunky mechanics from last time and added so much maneuverability and so many offensive options that this is one of the most fun action RPGs I’ve ever played. Disney stuff still has nothing to do with the story so the pacing is weird but I still find these worlds really fun. Story is definitely a bit over-convoluted ngl but it makes for a few really great moments, especially at the end of the game. What a remarkable step up from last time in every conceivable area

Unironically pretty great, I was pretty surprised by how quickly things go completely off the rails but it was so much fun to watch everything unfold so rapidly in such an absurd way. The soundtrack here is so charming and there’s clearly a lot of genuine effort placed into this area of the game, the gameplay itself is seemingly super simple but the freestyle mechanics are pretty unique and give the game a really interesting twist. Super short but a great concentrated shot of fun with near unmatched personality and energy

This is a collection of a bunch of vignettes that all play with JRPG tropes in unique ways, and for the most part I found these stories really unique and entertaining. This feels like the predecessor to Chrono Trigger in many ways, so fans of that game will immediately see similarities. It’s mostly a very accessible game, but my one big fault is that the game lets you choose any of these chapters to start with. Certain chapters I enjoyed within the context of the rest of the game, but are particularly unconventional and could make for a very weak first impression. Aside from that tho, I honestly loved this. Combat is a big standout for me, each encounter was like a mini tactics battle with a really fun grid system. I had to thoughtfully consider how to dispatch enemies effectively, and while it’s far from a difficult game, each battle had me engaged. Presentation is gorgeous with the HD-2D Switch remake, it’s a total overhaul that still remains faithful to the original. While some chapters are definitely weaker than others, I thoroughly enjoyed the majority of my time with this game. And while I won’t spoil the final segments that come after you finish the seven main chapters, I found them to be so fun and satisfying that they elevate the entire experience. This definitely deserves to be considered a classic of the era right alongside FFVI and Chrono Trigger.

Honestly this was better than I remember! The gameplay is a pretty decent improvement off the original which I already liked a lot. I think the side content is actually better and more original, really appreciate the removal of the towers and the way the crimes are reworked. Combat wise I think Miles’s Venom abilities are great way to distinguish himself from Peter while still keeping things engaging and fun. And that’s the biggest thing I want to give this game credit for, it has a pretty distinct personality when compared to Peter’s game and I really appreciate that. Unfortunately, they really dropped the ball with the story imo. It’s pretty good on paper but in execution it’s so rushed and I found myself unable to form any kind of connection with much happening on screen, super disappointing coming off of the original game which had an emotional powerhouse of a story. Very mediocre on that front, but a ton of fun everywhere else, honestly I’d say I enjoyed playing this more than the first.

I cannot believe how insanely great this is for essentially a free demo! A beautiful artstyle with a killer soundtrack, creative gameplay mechanics that remix features from other rhythm games, and just a taste of characters that I’m already pretty interested in and can’t wait to see interact more.

I had such a great time with this… it starts out so simple but before long at all you’ll realize just how much can be done with the mechanics in this game. The skill ceiling is already ridiculously high, and I really appreciate the amount of different control options.

I saw the trailer for the full game earlier today and was so impressed by it I immediately tracked this down and derailed the rest of my day. This is unbelievable and already one of the best rhythm games I’ve ever played… if the full game lives up to the potential I see here it will be an easy 10

As the starting point to one of my favorite franchises ever, I can’t help but respect this game a ton. It did a lot for the time it released, and a lot of it shockingly well. It’s super primitive, but in a way that’s kinda charming looking back. There’s barely a story to speak of, but it’s okay bc the game is set up in a way that encourages you to imagine your own stories with your own characters, and that’s really cute in the sense that we rarely if ever get RPGs like that anymore. Still, this game has aged a LOT. Even under all the polish of the pixel remaster, this is still a 1987 NES RPG, and no amount of touch-ups can change that. Mechanically the game is BARE, very few interesting things going on here and I can’t help but feel like most people who have ever played an RPG before are gonna be on autopilot the entire game. Mindless is an understatement… the overwhelming majority of battles (including most bosses) can be beaten by spamming attack and nothing else. At least it’s short so it doesn’t have time to get obnoxious… this game pretty much exists as an 8-10 hour video game history lesson at that point. In that sense, I have a soft spot for it. But I can’t bring myself to genuinely recommend this as a standalone game to anyone who isn’t explicitly interested in seeing the early foundations of this series/genre.

This is a weird one… I find this game to be an impressively ambitious sequel especially for the time, with significantly more complicated (although flawed) mechanics, an actual attempt at a story, and a larger scope in general. The leveling system is controversial but I honestly like it, gave me lots of freedom to build my team however I wanted and I was always thinking ahead. However, I also feel like it shoots itself in the foot in some aspects and that stops me from enjoying it too much. I really don’t like the rotating fourth party member, it’s counterintuitive to the games whole design and limits your team. I like the leveling overall but it also means lots of weapon types are totally useless, and I also caught myself using magic way more than it was actually necessary just so I could use it when it was actually useful. Worst part of the game is the last few hours, horrible dungeon design and I was just wanting the game to be over already. I feel like this game is a step up from the original, but it falls short in the end and I still wouldn’t genuinely recommend this one to anyone who isn’t actively tracking the progression of the FF series.

Going back to this after playing golden was interesting, the PS2 version definitely has a different atmosphere. The low resolution and 4:3 aspect ratio fit Inaba incredibly well, and I’m a big fan of the original assets as well, aesthetically I actually prefer this version. However this was also kinda a wake up call to make me realize that I never gave Golden enough credit initially for being a fantastic refinement that makes the game a lot smoother. That being said, no matter how you play it P4 is one of the best RPGs ever made, plain and simple. Incredible cast of characters, super fun combat and dungeon crawling, a super well written story, unparalleled vibes, a killer soundtrack, and the ability to bring massive emotions out of me every single time I play it. I love this game so much

Honestly way better than I remembered from when I first tried this out a few years back, it’s still a Famicom game at heart so it’s nothing too crazy but this is a massive improvement from the first two. Everything is filled with so much more personality than we ever got before, so even though the story is basic it’s so much more entertaining than previous installments. The job system is pretty cool, takes what worked with the party formation system in the first game and expands on it a ton. Makes for some fun customization opportunities as well as cool puzzle solving that feels good most of the time. Final dungeon is unfortunately a pretty huge difficulty spike and it’s ridiculously long for no good reason, but thanks to the QoL improvements from the pixel remaster it’s nowhere near as egregious as it could’ve been. This was a big leap forward for the series in every way and I regret putting it off for so long

Mixing two genres like horror and RPG probably didn’t sound as strange back when this game first released, as playing Parasite Eve made me realize that the two genres, specifically in the PS1 era, used to share a lot more commonalities than they do now. The pre-rendered backgrounds, the heavy focus on music, the amount of times spent in menus managing inventory, the constant scavenging of every last room to find items, there’s a surprising amount of similarities I wouldn’t have expected. SquareSoft in the 90s was probably the perfect company to take a crack at the idea, and what they came up with is definitely good, but I can’t help but feel like there was potential for a lot more.

The strongest points of the game are without a doubt its horror elements. Super intriguing atmosphere, cool story, awesome creature design, checks all the boxes there. The FMVs are especially grotesque and the aged animation only adds to the horror in my opinion, can’t imagine these working as well or feeling nearly as dreadful with hyper realistic graphics like we see in the modern Resident Evil remakes. Special shout-out to the final day of the game which was very exciting.

The RPG mechanics, while leaning on the simpler side, generally work well for a game as short as this. There’s no real character building so these mainly revolve around the weapons, but being able to consistently upgrade and swap traits between them is interesting enough to hold my attention.

Where the game tries to implement those survival horror gameplay elements though… that’s where I start wishing more had been done to flesh this concept out further. You’ve got some genre staples like inventory management, limited ammo, etc, but none are nearly as effective as they usually are. Ammo is so abundant you will never run out, and the inventory is large enough that you’ll probably never have to really consider what you’re carrying, but it’s just small enough that you’ll probably be cramming it with countless potions that just go unused until the endgame difficulty spike.

Combat is generally fine, but never really had me engaged. It’s mainly focused on avoiding any attacks while waiting for your ATB bar to charge, fitting considering the emphasis on avoiding damage in horror games of the era. However, unlike those games, Parasite Eve has a strict encounter system where you’re forced into killing those enemies. This isn’t a problem in and of itself, but it places a higher emphasis on enemy attack patterns which are usually not very interesting or fun to avoid. Some are flat out unavoidable (yes I checked online to confirm this, it’s not a skill issue), which makes sense for an RPG but doesn’t feel great in a game that feels like it encourages you to avoid everything that you can.

All in all, there’s really not much to dislike about Parasite Eve. I certainly enjoyed my time with it and it’s a pretty easy recommendation, the presentation alone makes this worth playing. But I just feel like there’s so much more to explore with this concept that holds it back from being something that really clicked with me. A more skill focused combat system with more consistently tense encounters and less materials scattered everywhere (or dropped from enemies) could’ve made this something really special.