Etanks
2000
If this game scares you off from the depth of the mechanics, just think of all the people that call this game bad because they can't read, and power through with the smug satisfaction that you can in fact read and understand numbers.
If this game triggers your aversion towards Final Fantasy writing and tropes, suck it up.
The game looks beautiful, sounds beautiful, and is a solo dungeon crawl that rewards careful planning and masterful execution equally.
If this game triggers your aversion towards Final Fantasy writing and tropes, suck it up.
The game looks beautiful, sounds beautiful, and is a solo dungeon crawl that rewards careful planning and masterful execution equally.
1997
You can really feel the personal distain for British architecture through the screen
2019
I like the guns in this game a lot, so much so that I played Titanfall 2 because I would know already what 80% of the guns would do when I pressed mouse 1.
That being said sometimes the combination of abilities going off at once in a 4+ team teamfight can feel like the FPS equivalent of every Looney Tunes safe/tnt/piano falling on you at once and thems the brakes.
The most recent reason has leveling up abilities alongside armor, and I think that's fun because you are gently pushed into considering your role in the team a bit better. I'm terrible at this game but a singular intersection of planning and execution is the most fond feeling I have for multiplayer FPS, so I'll keep playing it in bursts for a bit.
That being said sometimes the combination of abilities going off at once in a 4+ team teamfight can feel like the FPS equivalent of every Looney Tunes safe/tnt/piano falling on you at once and thems the brakes.
The most recent reason has leveling up abilities alongside armor, and I think that's fun because you are gently pushed into considering your role in the team a bit better. I'm terrible at this game but a singular intersection of planning and execution is the most fond feeling I have for multiplayer FPS, so I'll keep playing it in bursts for a bit.
2002
Kid Pix for the modern creative
After Origin, I was worried that the preceding entries wouldn't be up to snuff with the well tuned and balanced boss fights. While there were some gimmicky fights, I also ended up enjoying them in general as the mechanics of each attack pattern were satisfying to solve.
Minimizing your damage on earlier phases to take the eventual victory is satisfying, and I never felt helplessly numerically outclassed from the RPG calculations in the background.
Bosses aside, I was engaged by the area exploration and side objectives.
While it's probably my last Ys for a while, I have only good things to say about it if you are in the mood for a fantasy action game with a healthy dose of camp.
Minimizing your damage on earlier phases to take the eventual victory is satisfying, and I never felt helplessly numerically outclassed from the RPG calculations in the background.
Bosses aside, I was engaged by the area exploration and side objectives.
While it's probably my last Ys for a while, I have only good things to say about it if you are in the mood for a fantasy action game with a healthy dose of camp.
2011
To love is to be changed.
This game is in a constant state of change. What sort of game is being played? What do you know, about what's happening on screen? Effortlessly flows.
Experience the highs and lows.
Fall. But get back up.
This game is in a constant state of change. What sort of game is being played? What do you know, about what's happening on screen? Effortlessly flows.
Experience the highs and lows.
Fall. But get back up.
1997
First you Silhouette. Then you Mirage.
A treasure game you'll learn to love and hate in 4 easy sessions.
This system is really well designed.
This final boss is bullshit.
This best weapon being in the first level is broken.
This game really knew what it was doing.
It's a microcosm of arcade game design sensibilities with the own-it-forever time economy of a console video game. That is to say, come for the stage spectacle, stay for the sense of mastery.
Very satisfying gameplay and characters that will make you smile.
A treasure game you'll learn to love and hate in 4 easy sessions.
This system is really well designed.
This final boss is bullshit.
This best weapon being in the first level is broken.
This game really knew what it was doing.
It's a microcosm of arcade game design sensibilities with the own-it-forever time economy of a console video game. That is to say, come for the stage spectacle, stay for the sense of mastery.
Very satisfying gameplay and characters that will make you smile.
2011
Learning more about how competitive pokemon is constructed and played should, in theory, educate me on turn based battle theory and give me inspiration in how to make strategy in a 1v1 scenario more interesting.
This review contains spoilers
Well. Here we are at 48 hours of playtime. After spending more time with this game. I have to come to the conclusion that this ISN'T the greatest game of all time. Whu-oh, gripe time.
You can only overlook so many performance and overall QA bungles before you start to feel them encroach on your enjoyment of the fun RPG gameplay.
The crashes, thankfully are circumvented by frequent autosaving, and the recent update (1.03, I hope giving this context is going to will another update into existence for gripe #2)
Music cutting out for certain seasons and weather effects sucks. Detracts from the atmosphere instead of adding it because why wouldn't this song play during the winter? Makes the fields feel worse to explore when in truth they're very well paced and populated with secrets and monster variety through the seasons.
Difficulty has been strange to assess. After a certain point of getting the stronger tiers of talent trees with high damage AOE and stronger heals, nothing has really posed a lasting threat. This might be a symptom of the systems of amassing power being so open ended, that it accounts for a wide range of player skill as they progress through the main story.
Speaking of story, I got mega baiting into thinking the game had a branching narrative of characters entering and exiting the scene, I'm owned. The narrative puzzle is gradually revealing itself as a purely "what if", seeing as how Teen Psaro is existing at the same time as the fully formed team of adventurers you would experience playing as in DQ4.
This is more of an observation than a complaint. But part of me wishes our boxart trio had a greater impact in a gameplay sense. I'm reminded a lot of SMT IV Apocalypse at least as our anti-hero protagonist is pulled in a tug of war between savior and tyrant. Would players taking the role of Asahi be more likely to kill their friends kiddo if there wasn't a bar charging every battle to interrupt an enemy turn and bestow free damage and buffs? The point I'm making isn't that a character's life should be tied to their numerical benefit in battle, but maybe we would all like Toilin a little more if every so often he threw a bomb at the enemy, or Rose would help in scouting monsters. They're not cursed! What's keeping them on the sidelines?
Altogether the game is still good. Finding the next killer combination of monsters is satisfying. Amassing accessories combines the options to cover a weakness or exaggerate a strength in battle, or reap greater rewards which is a great way to scale the EXP for new monsters, getting them in the fight faster as you fuse up the ranks. Hopes and goals are to fuse a "final" team and rush the final tier of areas to see the ending. Then decide if I want to plot a new run or fill out the bestiary. Cheers!
You can only overlook so many performance and overall QA bungles before you start to feel them encroach on your enjoyment of the fun RPG gameplay.
The crashes, thankfully are circumvented by frequent autosaving, and the recent update (1.03, I hope giving this context is going to will another update into existence for gripe #2)
Music cutting out for certain seasons and weather effects sucks. Detracts from the atmosphere instead of adding it because why wouldn't this song play during the winter? Makes the fields feel worse to explore when in truth they're very well paced and populated with secrets and monster variety through the seasons.
Difficulty has been strange to assess. After a certain point of getting the stronger tiers of talent trees with high damage AOE and stronger heals, nothing has really posed a lasting threat. This might be a symptom of the systems of amassing power being so open ended, that it accounts for a wide range of player skill as they progress through the main story.
Speaking of story, I got mega baiting into thinking the game had a branching narrative of characters entering and exiting the scene, I'm owned. The narrative puzzle is gradually revealing itself as a purely "what if", seeing as how Teen Psaro is existing at the same time as the fully formed team of adventurers you would experience playing as in DQ4.
This is more of an observation than a complaint. But part of me wishes our boxart trio had a greater impact in a gameplay sense. I'm reminded a lot of SMT IV Apocalypse at least as our anti-hero protagonist is pulled in a tug of war between savior and tyrant. Would players taking the role of Asahi be more likely to kill their friends kiddo if there wasn't a bar charging every battle to interrupt an enemy turn and bestow free damage and buffs? The point I'm making isn't that a character's life should be tied to their numerical benefit in battle, but maybe we would all like Toilin a little more if every so often he threw a bomb at the enemy, or Rose would help in scouting monsters. They're not cursed! What's keeping them on the sidelines?
Altogether the game is still good. Finding the next killer combination of monsters is satisfying. Amassing accessories combines the options to cover a weakness or exaggerate a strength in battle, or reap greater rewards which is a great way to scale the EXP for new monsters, getting them in the fight faster as you fuse up the ranks. Hopes and goals are to fuse a "final" team and rush the final tier of areas to see the ending. Then decide if I want to plot a new run or fill out the bestiary. Cheers!
This review contains spoilers
(Review at ~24 Hours of gameplay)
A game letting you think you're getting away with something while still balancing accordingly is a powerful motivator to keep playing.
DQM The Dark Prince might be the highest quality turn based battling that I've played in a new release in years, the difficulty curve perfectly compliments the progression of power as you fuse stronger and cooler monsters. I'm on the verge of 12 different decision trees all converging in satisfying ways resulting in systems that feel like cheating but the game is gently pushing you along the entire time. As a consideration, I took notes while playing the game and I feel it improved my experience immensely.
At present the game has shown me 28.8% of its 500+ monster catalog. That tells me that there is not only more content to be seen, but there are plenty of gaps in my bestiary to suggest the creation of even more monster combinations of strategic growth and battle strategies.
I've performed just shy of 100 fusions, where I'm confident over 80% of them result in original species. This means I'm in a constant cycle of making new Monsters, searching for the path of evolution to make the next higher tier.
I've won 318 battles. Between the overworld encounters, arena fights, bosses, and encounters to recruit more monsters, 104 successfully ended in scouting a monster. These are important numbers because it's showing that a third of the time I got into a battle, it was building up my strength through acquiring raw resources, and 2/3rds of the time building up the strength of my team by cultivating resources I already had.
Like all great "Number Go Up" games, it comes down to resource management on a micro and macro scale. Read my Fire Emblem post if you haven't and want to, but I kind of articulate this that if you are investing your gametime into different avenues of getting more powerful, the cohesion for replaying the game is a lot stronger. Your team is getting stronger, your skills are getting stronger. It’s very engaging as you are juggling present and future investments to create the ultimate team of strong and silly guys.
I already believe I’ll put in an embarrassing number of hours into this game. Will the game stick the narrative landing? They’ve handled this game and characters with care, even if I don’t LIKE Toilin, the themes he represents about humanity being guilty and innocent on his path to seek revenge against his father as a representation of the world. The fact that the game is giving this Monsters spinoff something to work with shows that this is both a fully fleshed out game with more voice acting that 4 Treasures stapled together, and something that will appease long term fans as they wait for more information and news on mainline entries.
So this game is an instant recommendation if you enjoy making complex decision matrices, love anti-hero stories, and can’t help but like a picture of a Slime on social media.
Next update at 48 hours or credits, whichever comes first.
A game letting you think you're getting away with something while still balancing accordingly is a powerful motivator to keep playing.
DQM The Dark Prince might be the highest quality turn based battling that I've played in a new release in years, the difficulty curve perfectly compliments the progression of power as you fuse stronger and cooler monsters. I'm on the verge of 12 different decision trees all converging in satisfying ways resulting in systems that feel like cheating but the game is gently pushing you along the entire time. As a consideration, I took notes while playing the game and I feel it improved my experience immensely.
At present the game has shown me 28.8% of its 500+ monster catalog. That tells me that there is not only more content to be seen, but there are plenty of gaps in my bestiary to suggest the creation of even more monster combinations of strategic growth and battle strategies.
I've performed just shy of 100 fusions, where I'm confident over 80% of them result in original species. This means I'm in a constant cycle of making new Monsters, searching for the path of evolution to make the next higher tier.
I've won 318 battles. Between the overworld encounters, arena fights, bosses, and encounters to recruit more monsters, 104 successfully ended in scouting a monster. These are important numbers because it's showing that a third of the time I got into a battle, it was building up my strength through acquiring raw resources, and 2/3rds of the time building up the strength of my team by cultivating resources I already had.
Like all great "Number Go Up" games, it comes down to resource management on a micro and macro scale. Read my Fire Emblem post if you haven't and want to, but I kind of articulate this that if you are investing your gametime into different avenues of getting more powerful, the cohesion for replaying the game is a lot stronger. Your team is getting stronger, your skills are getting stronger. It’s very engaging as you are juggling present and future investments to create the ultimate team of strong and silly guys.
I already believe I’ll put in an embarrassing number of hours into this game. Will the game stick the narrative landing? They’ve handled this game and characters with care, even if I don’t LIKE Toilin, the themes he represents about humanity being guilty and innocent on his path to seek revenge against his father as a representation of the world. The fact that the game is giving this Monsters spinoff something to work with shows that this is both a fully fleshed out game with more voice acting that 4 Treasures stapled together, and something that will appease long term fans as they wait for more information and news on mainline entries.
So this game is an instant recommendation if you enjoy making complex decision matrices, love anti-hero stories, and can’t help but like a picture of a Slime on social media.
Next update at 48 hours or credits, whichever comes first.
This game is like PaRappa the Rapper 2 of numbers go up gameplay to me. I know what is going to happen to a degree that I can plan and prepare in advance to the timing and requirements of the game that I can start to deviate in planned execution for imaginary stylish points on combos like "Used an Archer 4325 + A Healer got Mag on Level Up 1356 + Sent the Flier down mid 3693".
The plot is just as engaging as PaRappa the Rapper 2's plot as our lordlings do battle with an ancient evil in a medieval setting where once again a red haired boy must become a red haired man through watching those closest to him die. In some cases, this refers to the story, in all cases. I hate giving experience to Eliwood.
Let's talk about the logo and North American Box Art. Strong start as it shows us an axe, a sword but then, a staff? Not a Lance? What were they thinking??? Also we have some of our aforementioned characters, none of these characters matter unless your names are Hector and Lyn. They forgot to add Mark! These two hit on a good cadence of dialogue as Lyn is just constantly dunking on him for being a big slow guy. Well guess what Lyn, Hector gets the last laugh because they made a character that feels like playing as Sundowner with reactive tank armor shields, therefore, Axes (as a stat block of a weapon) are BACK BABYEEE.
Sadly, the only axe units you'd consider have to compete with Raven holding an axe. Doubly unfortunately for Axe stocks, the only woman that can use axes in this game is Isadora, which just doesn't hit the same as Echidna's hero sprite. Also, the number of cool special axes is lacking. High ranking Axe units now have the exciting options of: Hand Axe 2: We fit 6 Might in 2 Weight, Look Mom! Dorcas can Double! But wait there's more, connect your copy of Mario Kart Double Dash and we'll throw in these Emblem Weapons absolutely free! So it turns out axes aren't back, but Hand Axes are good and Hector having 20 Def with relative ease is good. Bust out the hammer for hard mode, or train any of the multiple viable magic units in the game oh thank god Pent showed up.
The support conversations in this game allude to various past events that while they hold no relation for the main plot, fill out the world with systems of power that make their moves in the shadows. You also get the strongest sense of character driven vignettes as they talk about their present on the battlefield, their pasts laden in conflict of one another or their circumstances, and the future which they hold within themselves or others It's really funny when Hector tells Serra she's annoying. It's really sad when she cries about having to hope she has a noble loving family looking for her, and Hector clumsily tells her she already found one. I originally thought to make a jokey joke in this text dump about the game not having voice acting, being outdone by Namco in August of the same year with that glorious GBA sound quality. But I held out, typed that part about the healer girl and realized that this game's script is being refreshingly sincere with relatively simple presentation of talking heads against a background. I'm glad the series got a period of this tone where a game for game boy advance audience could get a swords and sorcery setting adventure. So no, it doesn't need voice acting. Do the voices in your head you bitch.
In addition to making me cry when Wil makes Rath laugh, something he's forgotten through a traumatic childhood of exile, the game is also fun to play. It's a decently sized campaign of resource macro and micromanagement. HP, Weapon Durability, War funds, turns before the thief escapes with the treasure. The game gives you a gratuitous numerical gap with which to slide between objectives to make your army stronger and thus make future encounters less daunting. It becomes a very engaging song and dance by which you are investing into your future success by weighing the benefit against the immediate risk of failure. And then you send Florina at the problem and win.
In summary. This series established a very strong title to warm up audiences to the idea of actually doing math in an rpg. As the series branches out in novel directions. This will always stand as "the one you start with if strategy games are not your wheelhouse". Give it a try if you haven't, but more important than seeing the ending is seeing the cool crit animations.
The plot is just as engaging as PaRappa the Rapper 2's plot as our lordlings do battle with an ancient evil in a medieval setting where once again a red haired boy must become a red haired man through watching those closest to him die. In some cases, this refers to the story, in all cases. I hate giving experience to Eliwood.
Let's talk about the logo and North American Box Art. Strong start as it shows us an axe, a sword but then, a staff? Not a Lance? What were they thinking??? Also we have some of our aforementioned characters, none of these characters matter unless your names are Hector and Lyn. They forgot to add Mark! These two hit on a good cadence of dialogue as Lyn is just constantly dunking on him for being a big slow guy. Well guess what Lyn, Hector gets the last laugh because they made a character that feels like playing as Sundowner with reactive tank armor shields, therefore, Axes (as a stat block of a weapon) are BACK BABYEEE.
Sadly, the only axe units you'd consider have to compete with Raven holding an axe. Doubly unfortunately for Axe stocks, the only woman that can use axes in this game is Isadora, which just doesn't hit the same as Echidna's hero sprite. Also, the number of cool special axes is lacking. High ranking Axe units now have the exciting options of: Hand Axe 2: We fit 6 Might in 2 Weight, Look Mom! Dorcas can Double! But wait there's more, connect your copy of Mario Kart Double Dash and we'll throw in these Emblem Weapons absolutely free! So it turns out axes aren't back, but Hand Axes are good and Hector having 20 Def with relative ease is good. Bust out the hammer for hard mode, or train any of the multiple viable magic units in the game oh thank god Pent showed up.
The support conversations in this game allude to various past events that while they hold no relation for the main plot, fill out the world with systems of power that make their moves in the shadows. You also get the strongest sense of character driven vignettes as they talk about their present on the battlefield, their pasts laden in conflict of one another or their circumstances, and the future which they hold within themselves or others It's really funny when Hector tells Serra she's annoying. It's really sad when she cries about having to hope she has a noble loving family looking for her, and Hector clumsily tells her she already found one. I originally thought to make a jokey joke in this text dump about the game not having voice acting, being outdone by Namco in August of the same year with that glorious GBA sound quality. But I held out, typed that part about the healer girl and realized that this game's script is being refreshingly sincere with relatively simple presentation of talking heads against a background. I'm glad the series got a period of this tone where a game for game boy advance audience could get a swords and sorcery setting adventure. So no, it doesn't need voice acting. Do the voices in your head you bitch.
In addition to making me cry when Wil makes Rath laugh, something he's forgotten through a traumatic childhood of exile, the game is also fun to play. It's a decently sized campaign of resource macro and micromanagement. HP, Weapon Durability, War funds, turns before the thief escapes with the treasure. The game gives you a gratuitous numerical gap with which to slide between objectives to make your army stronger and thus make future encounters less daunting. It becomes a very engaging song and dance by which you are investing into your future success by weighing the benefit against the immediate risk of failure. And then you send Florina at the problem and win.
In summary. This series established a very strong title to warm up audiences to the idea of actually doing math in an rpg. As the series branches out in novel directions. This will always stand as "the one you start with if strategy games are not your wheelhouse". Give it a try if you haven't, but more important than seeing the ending is seeing the cool crit animations.
2018
Functions perfectly fine. Could not be less interesting if it tried.
You can't buy the stands in bulk at the store
2021
here's a list of cookie run girls i want to have as a Mom someday & here is a copy of that list in case you accidentally throw it in the gabarge