this on maddening probably turns into the worst fire emblem experience you could ever created

xenologue 1 is pretty bad, it's desanitized needle bad, it's roach swarm bad, it's a 20 mile car accident bad, it's falling down the stairs and hitting your toe on a metal gate bad, it's getting your wallet stolen bad, it is around as bad as filing your taxes without the irs telling you what you owe, or maybe as bad as the oil companies buying out the trains so you have to use cars in america. You can live with it, but it will make your life worse.

Xenologue 2 is alright. I would call it a doctor's appointment in the US, expensive, time consuming, and probably not going to answer the questions you have. Maybe a date where they ghost you the rest of the week, maybe a nosebleed during a presentation. It's not fun, but you'd forget about it in a few days.

Xenologue 3 is that crazy bad, it's that 60 mile per hour car crashing through your house bad, it's a sinkhole below your house bad. It's a brick through your window bad. It's as bad as using the school restroom bad. It's as bad as your school chair catching on fire for no apparent reason bad. It's a divorce where: she took the kids. It's that father left and never came back vibes. It's that 10 day old milk sitting out on your patio that someone comes up behind you and makes you drink bad. It's that IBS day where it flares up and all you can do is press your stomach down and wonder why you exist. This shit makes you wonder how they got past the gaming crash. This is the kinda chapter that makes you wonder, maybe fire emblem really is that bad. It's the kind of gameplay that got you tied down to a chair and anytime you move, hell even blink, 300 cigarettes get thrown at your face.

Fell Xenologue 4 is a little irritating, not life ruining. Maybe staring at a wall and watching paint dry and every 15 minutes, someone grabs a brush and does it again. I don't got much to say about it.

Fell Xenologue 5 is better than 3, but better in the same way where drowning in quicksand with 2 people is better than drowning alone, at least you company!

But Fell Xenologue 6. This is the kind of chapter, you know how those kindness creators always film themselves doing great things to strangers after MrBeast normalized it, if you ever wondered what those people are actually like; Fell Xenologue 6.

If you ever wonder why you exist, just remember. You aren't Fell Xenologue 6. Your demons can not be as bad as Fell Xenologue 6. Your existance is great. I love you.

Fell Xenologue birthed criminals, gangs, war, this is the kind of shit that nuclear fallout food taste like.

This is the kinda car crash where you ain't livin.

I would say this is the equivalent of going to Walmart for milk, and coming home to Jail because you got falsely accused of murder, and got that jail without parole type bad.

The story is family guy funny moments. Hey Guys Im Ash ketchum I dont like pokemon. Lol.

Please. Never play this. Never look at this. Check on your loved ones who has played this. This is the kinda shit that will ruin your life. Do you have student loans? Do you think they are paid off? Nope. No they aren't. You will be 80 and that shit will taint your family lineage. You have to break the news to your 5 year old daughter on your death bed that she has to pay for the millions of dollar that it cost for you to go to college.

That's the truth of the Fell Xenologue.

I joked to my friend about this game being the "Xenosaga Killer" and I'll be damned. They did it. And How. How did they do it? I love Xenosaga 3 to death, and this review is not about that game, this game is about Ar Tonelico 2. Also, I know the spoiler warning is here, but we're spoiling the whole game baby. DON'T READ IT UNLESS YOU'RE DONE. I AM BEGGING YOU.

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This review will mainly be covering 2 things, Party Dynamics; and Music. As I think that is what this game does the best above all. I mean yeah, the story is great, makes sense thematically, all that good stuff, but a story is a canvas for characters to grow and to experiment with all sorts of crazy ideas.

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I personally love party members being honest. I think games thrive when the party members can sit down and talk to each other about their sincere feelings about each other, negative or positive. Because that's how a real human relationship is; we fight; we love; we hate; we argue; it's just part of reality.

Luca Trulyworth. That smiling little lady on the box art, I embarked on my journey. I checked both of the Phase 1 Route splits, because I wanted to learn. I ended up going with Luca's.

But why? Why did I go with Luca. Well. I sit down in the prison and she goes up to Cloche and calls her (paraphrased) a murdering bitch, who killed her sister, goes up to the main character Croix, and tells him that she's been using him the whole time.

What goes through my mind during scenes like this; first off; Holy shit. I am like 7 hours in. How did we even get here to begin with?

Second off; I realize the game is already up my alley. Why? Because it is willing to make a party member aggressive. My party member is allowed to think for themselves, they don't need to prevent to be likable. This expression is something that I love.

So Luca. I double down, I need to understand Luca. I am now fully drawn into the situation.

Before this; Luca also tells Cloche to her face that she's privilaged princess who has never had to worry about a penny, has always had people their to support her, and that she'll never understand.

Cloche of course, defends herself. Why wouldn't you? If someone shits all over you without a tiny bit of knowledge of you outside of your position of a princess, of course you would be mad.

We have created a rivalry. A route split, if you will.

Then in Phase 2, Luca's unfiltered feelings come in to Cloche to understand, Luca being casually s***lly harassed at work, her relationships being flimsy due to Dive Therapy and feeling like she always exposes herself to people, her strained relationship with her Mom due to lack of communication, all of these issues pile up before she explodes, all on top of this is Cloche; who if she denies it or not; is adjacent to the deaths of thousands of IPDS; and more importantly; Luca's sister.

I am left in shock. The first game has some good themes, but this game is feisty. The main conflict in this game; is it better to suffer through life; or dream on in our own minds forever; and the two leads live their life suffering; all they can do is release their rage on each other.

But there's a light. A light that progresses and gets brighter and brighter. The fight of humans is what makes us closer. The only way to evolve as people is to face these issues forward and learn, why did we do this? Why do we act like this?

Are any of these people's issues invalid? Of course not. They should be mad, they should be frustrated, These struggles build us up, and break us down. When Luca looks at Cloche, all she sees for a while is class, and the blood that has stained Cloche's hands.

But Cloche has her own trauma. A caged bird, not able to spread wings, while also watching all of her fellow birds burn around here. She watches, that's all she can do. And the princess is not even what she is; Luca ends up being the one holding the Crown. So what is Cloche? A puppet to the government? Is she any better than any other person in the world?

Alice. Alice is part of Cloche. Luca is part of Luca, Cloche is part of Luca; and Luca is part of Cloche.

The puzzle starts adding up. The tension is at an all time high, but the Infel wants Luca and Cloche to learn something before all of it boils over. The sister that Luca has been fighting for; basically her whole life; is Cloche.

The fog has lifted, and the perspective has changed. Cloche who has never had any sort of family, and has been chained to the ground, Luca who's mom; who she already has a strained relationship with; had her real child right in front of her eyes. This fixes some issues, but it can not fix the IPDS, it can not fix Luca manipulating Croix's emotions, there are things that can not be fixed.

But they can be forgiven. Cloche can atone for her sins, make a real Metafalica where there is no need for warfare, where the IPDS can be cured with Dive Therapy. Luca needs to communicate; make real friends; craft real relationships with her family; including Cloche as a start to creating the perfect world.

And they do. They understand humanity at it's core; people contradict, people make terrible decisions they can't even comprehend, but do they understand them? Can they recover from them?

Jakuri; The last of the singers; feels that Humans can not recover from them.

Another caged bird, stuck to human will, demanded to do anything that people demand. If she cannot preform for warfare, why does she exist?

She cannot give people hope, the people have given her no hope to begin with; the one song that she created; has been thrown away because; it's just useless. Why would humans need to do anything other than win the fight?

She cannot fully accept humans, but she watches as Luca and Cloche create this world, this new world. She knows that it is possible for humans to work together, but she's also seen what they've done to Reyvateils, in the first Ar Tonelico, they're basically slaves to human will, they are created for power. At some point, this paradise has a chance of ending.

But paradise even for a limited time, is still a eutopia, we can be human. We can still fight, and argue, and still live in a world that we want to live in. A full life is one full of conflict and reflecting on that conflict. Croix realizes the only way he can truly reach Jakuri's heart and it is through Song. "The Heart Talks"

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Music is the secret backbone to any RPG. Sometimes I wonder if games like Xenoblade would be nearly as good without the score. And Music, music is the thing that gives Ar Tonelico 2 a real identity.

The Hymmos is something that has never really been replicated to me; They can show any emotion; Fear; Anger; Sadness; Happiness; Calm; Serene; Destruction; Death. This is all within human range. These are something that humans go through everyday. The lyrics perfectly reflect this, the composition is all beautiful. The flexability within these songs is something that I don't know will ever be matched. It's hard for me to really articulate why it is so special without just listening to it.

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I apologize if this has been worded a little clunky, or a little scattershot at time, but when I feel passionate about something it just comes in waves. I just hope I portrayed how I felt about this game in a way that is easy enough to understand. It is a game that makes me love being human, and love being in this world.

"We must appreciate that the world allowed us to exist"

this review is artifically most positive as I played the entire game in 3 player/4 players

Tales seems to fall into "Decent stories, great cast." and this game falls right into the complete part of this puzzle.

The story is simple a vassel for the characters. There's nothing special here. If anything I think the internal conflict between characters should of been more of the focus than Alexei and Duke because they are pretty nothing villains.

I know people probably love Flynn but him and Estelle are definitely weak-links in this game. Flynn purely exist to conflict Yuri, and doesn't really seem to have any underlying motivations. A little too simple for me as a character. (Tales of Vesperia First Strike fixes this issue)

Estelle is just very. safe. Also them walking up to her in the orb and she's just like no u guys should just leave me here was kinda weird given her character development going against it.

But Yuri/Patty/Karol/Rita are pure gold here. Raven is great when he's serious and Judith is alright.

Karol's so raw. Destructo Pain Shot? Reaper Knot? First-Aid Smash? Rolling Revolution? what can this fucker not do. He's got a great arc as well.

Yuri's so cool he's never wrong (thats a bad thing) because they forgot the part of a two-sided conflict where Flynn should be right at some point they should have yuri kill someone whos neutra OH WAIT YAEGER oops

and you might say freelia you seem negative

i love the combat. i love karol yuri rita and patty. whos talking for most of the game.

Yeah. enough said. I win.

mad father more like clinically insane completely deranged no redeeming qualities piece of shit blood relative.

played on halloween for those spooky vibes.

it was a lil spooky. ayas a silly lil gal. i hope shes doing ok. she has a whole ass villain origin story. batman will be her next opponent.

This is a weird game. A lot of the time I feel very strong or very weak, but I finally had an in-between. The good definitely outweighs the bad, but I will list them as normal.

(Negatives)

This game is definitely more story driven than character driven, which is fine, on paper. But the villains aren't on screen nearly long enough to get that point across. It's supposed to be this large scale political drama but it doesn't feel like Vayne himself does much. Cid carries the antagonist super hard.

This game's story feels like a zelda-game at certain points. Get item to help beat bad guys --> get new item to adjust to situation --> get new item to adjust adjust to situation --> finally fight bad guys. It leads to these deadzones in the story because the characters can't hold the story together because of lack of focus towards them.

Basch has a great foundation for a character but it doesn't feel like he gets to do anything until super late into the game. He barely even feels like Ashe's "Knight" because Vaan and Balthier do all the talking for him. Was pretty disappointed in him honestly.

Penelo and Larsa should certainly get more screentime together. They are definitely trying to show the gap between classes but there's only 1 main scene that shows this. I wish there was just something inbetween.

Vaan is alright, but I do agree with the majority, I have absolutely no clue why he is the vocal point of the story. They could of done it with Penelo. She narrates the ending, and builds a connection with a super major character in the story. He actually has enough for a supporting character. He feels quite contrived at times as they were trying to force a supporting character to be a main character. It feels very messy.

The traps are just irritating. I have no clue why this game has an obsession with them. They just make progression 10 times more annoying unless you consistantly float your party. Or remove all of the AIs to make sure you don't want into them.

The dungeons are pretty weak, especially Great Crystal, Pharos. Insanely tedious. Or just mazes.

There's a ton of walking because there isn't some teleport crystals in some points where there definitely should be.

And this is more personal but I think there is a little too much status spam, and bosses that just become immune to certain moves which slow certain battles to a crawl. Since this game doesn't have the Xenoblade mechanic of enemies ignoring you if you're higher leveled.


The chest system is really, really stupid. Along with the Bazaar system, I would put them in the same catagory. Very frustrating and grindy mechanics, that are basically impossible to utilize without a guide. There are some spells that are just completely luck-based, you really have no reason to collect most chest blind because 90% of them have basic potions that scale horribly, or like 10 gold. The Bazaar not holding the items you already sold is pretty damn baffling.

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Positives:

Balthier, Ashe, and I actually think Penelo are all pretty great. Penelo got sold completely to me by the ending but I think that alone justified her pretty meager role in the plot. Ashe and Balthier are actually just complete characters. They fit under the standard that I expect from this series.

The guest party members are fantastic. Hell, even better than most of your actual party members. Most of them have at least a few scenes that are genuinely impactful, and stay for quite a long time. I think being able to do side-content with them really adds to them feeling like main-stays. I would love to see more games experiment with guest party members like this.

The writing really gets it together in the last 2 dungeons. It feels like it regains the direction that it is periodically messing throughout the game. The definition of a slow-burn.

The ending sequence is fantastic.

The Gambit system and class system are both pretty incredible. I do have a few minor issues here and there, as I think the AI relies too much on gambits sometimes (They will just keep spamming shit if the enemy is immune to it or absorb it, and there's no real gambit around it unless you set a new guide in-battle.) But it's definitely a highlight of the game and you can be pretty exact about what you want the AI to do. It sets up for a ton of really good optimization and it's entertaining to watch builds (the building is super flexable) just absolutely desimate the main story as it is piss easy.

The music and world are both pretty damn solid.

The hunts can be pretty fun, and are a great challenge. I will note a lot of them have really annoying requirements and gimmicks in mid-game that are definitely not fun though. But the late-game and early game ones are pretty great.
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In-all, pretty good game, but it definitely can overstay it's welcome sometimes.

(I am sorry for my terrible formatting I just write what is in my brain oopsies)

Hello my name is freelia back at it again with breath of fire 2

this game is very special as it brings a new thing to the breath of fire series. it isn't shit.

the writing is actually pretty decent for a snes rpg. I remember things that occur. Which is better than the first game.

I could not auto-battle through every battle in the game. This is a good thing.

But wait. Freelia user on backloggd.com you may say? this sounds so positive, shouldn't the game be higher.

Fundamental Flaw Number 1:

Why are my fusions removed at low HP and during some cutscenes? That is stupid. More backtracking. Fuck you.

Why did they remove switching my party from breath of fire 1. when breath of fire 1 does something better than you. that sucks.

No party autolevel? when the other game had it? are you stupid?"

The dungeons went from shit to not good. hooray. party confetti

Lin is baller or kat or whatever the f her name is. Rand u a real one. halla to my boy. Monkey guy. i hated your first impression. but u a real gangster.

It's alright. I like the township idea.

The dungeon theme is possibly the worst song ever made. You could a song better than the dungeon theme of breath of fire 2. You could. Please. Do.

The soundtrack is trying its hardest to be as good as it can while only having 2 seconds loops. it did ok i guess.

I think my final review is shitty ff6/10 please just play ff6. better writing. better mechanics.

I like how dark this game is willing to get as I think it will make the later-games in the series very good.

Ryu is more raw in this game cus he went up to GOD literally GOD and slapped his ass with his sword and said "i believe in my friends" and defied god. mfer thinks he's demifiend.

it's ok. peace breath of brothers.

I was absolutely shocked by this. About as much as I was shocked by Bug Fables being better than Paper Mario, I yet again reach another JRPG that took what they were trying to be, and absolutely went for the stars.

The lead dev on r/jrpg said that his favorite JRPG was xenogears. this is very, VERY abundantly clear with the writing, and the story. Obviously I'm not gonna drop xenogears spoilers in a review for another game entirely, but that game has an incredible story.

And although this game has its own two legs to stand on, it does feel like the xenogears plot with some massive refirbishing, some different plot twist, and condensed to 30 hours instead of 60. Along with the game actually being finished, though it did seem like they are very clearly hinting towards a sequel.

The main thing I'll say about this game specifically is that Kylian is a very great realized character and somehow feels earned after all of the shit that he did throughout the game.

And Lenne is a very refreshing female lead. They literally say it themselves in game. She isn't a damsel in distress. She is a very well-rounded badass stern female lead.

The writing of the cast is also a lot better than xenogears, they were actually given screentime to do shit.

The sky armor combat is the only bone I have to pick in this game. It's nothing terrible but it feels incredibly limited compared to the on foot combat, along with some of the balancing of the fights being a little too annoying or bullcrap.

The on foot fighting is almost perfect turn-based. Fluent. Fast. A ton of room for optimizing and customization. Everything I'd personally want from an rpg is here.

An incredible experience, and an incredible homage to all of the SNES rpgs and others that this game was inspired by. I could go on for hours but just go play the game yourself. Deal? Deal.