ItsJarrrd
This review contains spoilers
This will have spoilers down below.
I spent a lot of time on this game and I have a lot to talk about as an FF7 fan.
Finished Remake and started this on the same day, I was so pumped and excited. I started right around the same time as my friends were finishing, so I felt like I wanted to rush it. But the side content kept me busy, and there was A LOT.
I'm gonna start with the negatives first, because I loved almost everything else.
- Sometimes you get completely flash-banged from the lighting between dark areas to broad daylight and it's pretty bad.
- A lot of the side quest stuff, I liked, but every now and then, you have to herd chickens or you have to learn how to be a complete party animal and it can either be really boring or just completely frustrating.
- There is WAY too much Sephiroth. Do you know why he works so perfectly in the original? It's because you barely ever see him but his presence is so strong that it feels like he is always looming. In the Remake games, they always let you know Sephiroth is here and he shows up physically when there's no need to show him at all times.
- I don't hate the ending persay, but I noticeably like it a lot less than the rest of the game. I'll talk about it later.
- No playable Cid or Vincent is pretty sad :(
- I'm sorry, but I don't like how Cait Sith plays. And also, his solo segment was the worst part of the game for me
What do I love about this game? Oh just...
- The characterization of the main cast is basically perfect. I loved basically everybody. Yuffie is the cute comedic relief, Cait Sith is Scottish and I think that is really cute and he's really charming, they changed Cid in a way I do not mind and perhaps even welcome should more stuff come from him in Rebirth, I love Tifa and Aerith more than ever before. Barret gets amazing characterization. Red XIII/Nanaki is a character I still love, although I wish his sudden change was foreshadowed better before you got to Cosmo Canyon. Cloud is still an amazing protagonist and he gets broken down pretty heavily to the point that I'm pretty concerned about him in the future.
- Throughout the story, there are twists in the story that are so insane that I was still on the edge of my seat. I was so thrown back by Tifa getting eaten by a Weapon that I thought stuff like Cait Sith betraying the party would not happen or Aerith's death. I loved always doubting myself on what was going to happen, it's always exciting.
- The music is exactly as good as it was in the previous game. It's so insane how many tracks there are in this game and there's so many good ones. You even get a different Chocobo theme depending on the region you are in! It's so sick.
- Remake was a pretty boxed in game, so seeing Rebirth broaden to an open-world game with a lot to do was exciting for me. I loved seeing how the regions were changed, upscaled, made better in some ways.
- The combat continues to be addicting. Remake's was already incredible, but it did have some noticeable issues like the air combat being bad and so on. This game fixes that immensely. I always had Tifa/Aerith as my main party, but I also loved playing Barret/Red/Yuffie as well.
- Holy shit there are so many minigames. There's a few that miss like the Costa Del Sol shooting minigame, but for the most part I liked so many! My notable favorites were Rocket League w/ Red XIII, Fort Condor, and the Boxes minigame in the Dustbowl of Gold Saucer.
- I'm not good at card games, never actually tried, but learning to be good at Queen's Blood was so satisfying and I ended up really liking it in the end.
As for the ending... Zack wants to unite with Cloud once again? Aerith does in fact die, but she also speaks to Cloud when no one can see? Sephiroth wants to cast Meteor on basically every timeline, so he just repeats the same plan but on a grander scale? The gang still has the Black Materia in the end? Cloud at the end of this is so fucked up and traumatized by the deaths around him, that he ends up looking crazy and his friends are notably concerned for him? It's pretty confusing in the way it is shown and I don't REALLY know how to feel about it until the third game will eventually come out. Like I said, I did notably like it less than the rest of the game. A lot of it is fan service, I honestly wish we had less Sephiroth to make him more special, there's parts that are hard to understand unless you go in in-depth discussions about it with other people or Reddit, but overall? I'm still left wanting more and excited for what is to come in the future.
I loved this game. By the time the third game comes around, I will play this game on Hard Mode and can be a real try hard.
I spent a lot of time on this game and I have a lot to talk about as an FF7 fan.
Finished Remake and started this on the same day, I was so pumped and excited. I started right around the same time as my friends were finishing, so I felt like I wanted to rush it. But the side content kept me busy, and there was A LOT.
I'm gonna start with the negatives first, because I loved almost everything else.
- Sometimes you get completely flash-banged from the lighting between dark areas to broad daylight and it's pretty bad.
- A lot of the side quest stuff, I liked, but every now and then, you have to herd chickens or you have to learn how to be a complete party animal and it can either be really boring or just completely frustrating.
- There is WAY too much Sephiroth. Do you know why he works so perfectly in the original? It's because you barely ever see him but his presence is so strong that it feels like he is always looming. In the Remake games, they always let you know Sephiroth is here and he shows up physically when there's no need to show him at all times.
- I don't hate the ending persay, but I noticeably like it a lot less than the rest of the game. I'll talk about it later.
- No playable Cid or Vincent is pretty sad :(
- I'm sorry, but I don't like how Cait Sith plays. And also, his solo segment was the worst part of the game for me
What do I love about this game? Oh just...
- The characterization of the main cast is basically perfect. I loved basically everybody. Yuffie is the cute comedic relief, Cait Sith is Scottish and I think that is really cute and he's really charming, they changed Cid in a way I do not mind and perhaps even welcome should more stuff come from him in Rebirth, I love Tifa and Aerith more than ever before. Barret gets amazing characterization. Red XIII/Nanaki is a character I still love, although I wish his sudden change was foreshadowed better before you got to Cosmo Canyon. Cloud is still an amazing protagonist and he gets broken down pretty heavily to the point that I'm pretty concerned about him in the future.
- Throughout the story, there are twists in the story that are so insane that I was still on the edge of my seat. I was so thrown back by Tifa getting eaten by a Weapon that I thought stuff like Cait Sith betraying the party would not happen or Aerith's death. I loved always doubting myself on what was going to happen, it's always exciting.
- The music is exactly as good as it was in the previous game. It's so insane how many tracks there are in this game and there's so many good ones. You even get a different Chocobo theme depending on the region you are in! It's so sick.
- Remake was a pretty boxed in game, so seeing Rebirth broaden to an open-world game with a lot to do was exciting for me. I loved seeing how the regions were changed, upscaled, made better in some ways.
- The combat continues to be addicting. Remake's was already incredible, but it did have some noticeable issues like the air combat being bad and so on. This game fixes that immensely. I always had Tifa/Aerith as my main party, but I also loved playing Barret/Red/Yuffie as well.
- Holy shit there are so many minigames. There's a few that miss like the Costa Del Sol shooting minigame, but for the most part I liked so many! My notable favorites were Rocket League w/ Red XIII, Fort Condor, and the Boxes minigame in the Dustbowl of Gold Saucer.
- I'm not good at card games, never actually tried, but learning to be good at Queen's Blood was so satisfying and I ended up really liking it in the end.
As for the ending... Zack wants to unite with Cloud once again? Aerith does in fact die, but she also speaks to Cloud when no one can see? Sephiroth wants to cast Meteor on basically every timeline, so he just repeats the same plan but on a grander scale? The gang still has the Black Materia in the end? Cloud at the end of this is so fucked up and traumatized by the deaths around him, that he ends up looking crazy and his friends are notably concerned for him? It's pretty confusing in the way it is shown and I don't REALLY know how to feel about it until the third game will eventually come out. Like I said, I did notably like it less than the rest of the game. A lot of it is fan service, I honestly wish we had less Sephiroth to make him more special, there's parts that are hard to understand unless you go in in-depth discussions about it with other people or Reddit, but overall? I'm still left wanting more and excited for what is to come in the future.
I loved this game. By the time the third game comes around, I will play this game on Hard Mode and can be a real try hard.
I played this game a second time recently, the first time was on Normal and on Wii. It was pretty surreal as it was my gateway into some of the older FE titles. I really liked it back then. Now I got to play it on Hard Mode, thinking about Maniac Mode for another time.
I think this is a complicated game for me to rank. I really like the story of this game for one, it's nice to see a Fire Emblem story that actually stands out. From an everyday merc to a hero story with Ike, to the story of Elincia and accepting her role as a ruler and being comfortable with these mercs, the Laguz and Daein conflicts commenting on racial subjects, all of that is great and I wish we had more stories like this in Fire Emblem, feels like they play it pretty safe a good amount of the time or if they do something ambitious it kinda falls flat a good amount of the time.
The units I used are pretty fun too. I got to use Brom, Zihark, Ilyana, Nephenee, all of which were fun to use. I even got some really good supports. Zihark-Brom and Brom-Nephenee are very wholesome and cute to read and it made me appreciate them more as characters. Ilyana is kind of a gimmick character, but I thought her support with Zihark was adorable and she has some cute supports with other characters like Mia and such. Ike is awesome and is one of my favorite lords/protagonists in the series.
But... there's the gameplay. I'll get to the good stuff first. I think there are good ideas here; BEXP, the base, base conversations, being able to promote without needing a Master Seal, Laguz units are pretty interestingly designed. All of that is great. That's kind of as far as it goes though.
The unit balance is kinda bad, it sucks that Ike can't promote for such a long time so you just level him up real early so that the other units can soak up all the EXP, some classes are greatly preferred over others such as Paladins and Flying classes, swords are too weak, axes are too strong, Bio-rhythm is a bad mechanic that is only specific to this game and the sequel, the late game fights between Black Knight and Ashnard are genuine RNG fights and it's not fun to play. But I think the greatest sin of this game is that it's so... slow. Everything takes too long to load, enemy phase takes forever even on speedup if you're playing on emulator and you could not skip it at this point in Fire Emblem, the maps are huge a lot of the time which makes it feel especially really long and drawn out, and so on. It got to a point where late game felt like a chore to play.
I complained a lot, but I still don't have it in me to dislike this game or even call it mid. I still like it at the end of the day, but I think this game deserves a remake or remaster that makes it faster, give it a visual glowup. I think it would be so great to play and I'd be happy.
I think this is a complicated game for me to rank. I really like the story of this game for one, it's nice to see a Fire Emblem story that actually stands out. From an everyday merc to a hero story with Ike, to the story of Elincia and accepting her role as a ruler and being comfortable with these mercs, the Laguz and Daein conflicts commenting on racial subjects, all of that is great and I wish we had more stories like this in Fire Emblem, feels like they play it pretty safe a good amount of the time or if they do something ambitious it kinda falls flat a good amount of the time.
The units I used are pretty fun too. I got to use Brom, Zihark, Ilyana, Nephenee, all of which were fun to use. I even got some really good supports. Zihark-Brom and Brom-Nephenee are very wholesome and cute to read and it made me appreciate them more as characters. Ilyana is kind of a gimmick character, but I thought her support with Zihark was adorable and she has some cute supports with other characters like Mia and such. Ike is awesome and is one of my favorite lords/protagonists in the series.
But... there's the gameplay. I'll get to the good stuff first. I think there are good ideas here; BEXP, the base, base conversations, being able to promote without needing a Master Seal, Laguz units are pretty interestingly designed. All of that is great. That's kind of as far as it goes though.
The unit balance is kinda bad, it sucks that Ike can't promote for such a long time so you just level him up real early so that the other units can soak up all the EXP, some classes are greatly preferred over others such as Paladins and Flying classes, swords are too weak, axes are too strong, Bio-rhythm is a bad mechanic that is only specific to this game and the sequel, the late game fights between Black Knight and Ashnard are genuine RNG fights and it's not fun to play. But I think the greatest sin of this game is that it's so... slow. Everything takes too long to load, enemy phase takes forever even on speedup if you're playing on emulator and you could not skip it at this point in Fire Emblem, the maps are huge a lot of the time which makes it feel especially really long and drawn out, and so on. It got to a point where late game felt like a chore to play.
I complained a lot, but I still don't have it in me to dislike this game or even call it mid. I still like it at the end of the day, but I think this game deserves a remake or remaster that makes it faster, give it a visual glowup. I think it would be so great to play and I'd be happy.
This review contains spoilers
My friends, my inner circles, the people who I've talked about Xeno with (whether Gears, Blade, or Saga) has told me that this is the one. This was the game that did it for Xenosaga. And I believed them, so I played through 1 and 2. I think they're not that bad of games, but they certainly existed as a way to set up the world and the characters. I was especially frustrated with 2's combat, enemy design and dungeons. They weren't really that much of my jam, but they still had great character moments and an interesting story premise. This might come off as a negative start to the review perhaps, but let me tell you. My friends, everyone who told me this was the one? They were right.
This game is full of payoff. Almost everything is improved. The visuals and art style are a massive step up, the character designs are amazing (my favorites being Shion, Jr. and chaos), the dungeons and enemies are so much better designed (it may be easier, but it's not designed in a bullshit volatile way)... but most importantly, the combat. By god, everything works here. Even the worst party members have a use, whether it's chaos and Jr. for utility or MOMO who dies by getting a lovetap from an enemy. I ran Shion, KOS-MOS, Ziggy and Jin for all of the game and I played it in a more aggressive way to break the enemy as soon as possible and cash in on damage. It's so fun the way it is designed, it's extremely addicting in a way neither of the other two were and even some of the Blade games or Xenogears did not feel this fun. I had such a blast with this combat system, I actively wanted to find every enemy and beat them to gain more SP and gain new skills to play with. God, it makes me miss it the more I type it out. One last thing I want to mention is that Yuki Kajiura does an incredible job for the soundtrack. Basically every song fit the mood, it has emotional tracks, it has foreboding tracks, it has tense tracks for the bosses, it has awesome sick guitar riff tracks when two cool anime women fight each other. It's such a massive step up from the previous two, it is actual insanity.
Then... the story and characters. First off, I truly appreciate the Xenogears references. If you played Xenogears, you'll know what I'm referring to. Second, the story has so much pay off and while it is probably backloaded with having to speedrun all the villains at once, but there were so many satisfying conclusions that I don't think it's that big a deal. Another thing I want to mention is that I love that Shion is a clear, defined protagonist. The first one is honestly slightly more of an ensemble cast and the second focuses slightly more on Jr./MOMO which is good for them, but Shion was the one that lured me in the most. This story is genuinely incredibly and the ending made me fucking sob in the end, once the title screen came up and the soft piano hit. Which now leads to the final point, the characters. I wasn't sure how I felt in the previous two, but now it's clear. I love Shion Uzuki. She's now one of my definitive favorite protagonists. She went through so much in her life, she feels like a person I can relate to, she's badass, she's strong, she's emotional, she's awesome. I always liked Ziggy and MOMO and none of that changed here, they're both still great here and got their good conclusions here. Jr. took quite a bit to warm up, I was not immediately sold on him first, but eventually I grew to love him in this game. The URTV/Dmitri Yuriev story was always interesting, but it ended on a massive bang. Jin started off as a cool addition to the cast from 2 and ended off an incredible character, his end was one of the ones that made me cry in the end. KOS-MOS has always been awesome and she's just always been this consistent and great and I hope to see more of her in the future. chaos has so much going on that it's hard to really know how I am feeling about him, but I do think he is really neat and I grew an appreciation for him more overtime. What a fantastic cast in the end. I'm happy. I can easily tell this game was made with love and care and I love all of it, even if I was not that much sold in the start.
The last thing I want to mention is... spoilers for Xenoblade 3: Future Redeemed, but I really hope the falling light that orbits near the Earth or Lost Jerusalem is either KOS-MOS or Shion's crew. It's already a perfect ending, but the idea of Xenoblade and Xenosaga being this connected fills me with glee, excitement and hope.
This game is full of payoff. Almost everything is improved. The visuals and art style are a massive step up, the character designs are amazing (my favorites being Shion, Jr. and chaos), the dungeons and enemies are so much better designed (it may be easier, but it's not designed in a bullshit volatile way)... but most importantly, the combat. By god, everything works here. Even the worst party members have a use, whether it's chaos and Jr. for utility or MOMO who dies by getting a lovetap from an enemy. I ran Shion, KOS-MOS, Ziggy and Jin for all of the game and I played it in a more aggressive way to break the enemy as soon as possible and cash in on damage. It's so fun the way it is designed, it's extremely addicting in a way neither of the other two were and even some of the Blade games or Xenogears did not feel this fun. I had such a blast with this combat system, I actively wanted to find every enemy and beat them to gain more SP and gain new skills to play with. God, it makes me miss it the more I type it out. One last thing I want to mention is that Yuki Kajiura does an incredible job for the soundtrack. Basically every song fit the mood, it has emotional tracks, it has foreboding tracks, it has tense tracks for the bosses, it has awesome sick guitar riff tracks when two cool anime women fight each other. It's such a massive step up from the previous two, it is actual insanity.
Then... the story and characters. First off, I truly appreciate the Xenogears references. If you played Xenogears, you'll know what I'm referring to. Second, the story has so much pay off and while it is probably backloaded with having to speedrun all the villains at once, but there were so many satisfying conclusions that I don't think it's that big a deal. Another thing I want to mention is that I love that Shion is a clear, defined protagonist. The first one is honestly slightly more of an ensemble cast and the second focuses slightly more on Jr./MOMO which is good for them, but Shion was the one that lured me in the most. This story is genuinely incredibly and the ending made me fucking sob in the end, once the title screen came up and the soft piano hit. Which now leads to the final point, the characters. I wasn't sure how I felt in the previous two, but now it's clear. I love Shion Uzuki. She's now one of my definitive favorite protagonists. She went through so much in her life, she feels like a person I can relate to, she's badass, she's strong, she's emotional, she's awesome. I always liked Ziggy and MOMO and none of that changed here, they're both still great here and got their good conclusions here. Jr. took quite a bit to warm up, I was not immediately sold on him first, but eventually I grew to love him in this game. The URTV/Dmitri Yuriev story was always interesting, but it ended on a massive bang. Jin started off as a cool addition to the cast from 2 and ended off an incredible character, his end was one of the ones that made me cry in the end. KOS-MOS has always been awesome and she's just always been this consistent and great and I hope to see more of her in the future. chaos has so much going on that it's hard to really know how I am feeling about him, but I do think he is really neat and I grew an appreciation for him more overtime. What a fantastic cast in the end. I'm happy. I can easily tell this game was made with love and care and I love all of it, even if I was not that much sold in the start.
The last thing I want to mention is... spoilers for Xenoblade 3: Future Redeemed, but I really hope the falling light that orbits near the Earth or Lost Jerusalem is either KOS-MOS or Shion's crew. It's already a perfect ending, but the idea of Xenoblade and Xenosaga being this connected fills me with glee, excitement and hope.
This review contains spoilers
This is going to be a long review, but if you want a TLDR, this game frustrated the hell out of me.
I'm gonna list the positives right off the bat, because this game does have good parts and after some time thinking about it, I think I appreciate Xenosaga 1 quite a bit so I didn't have that big of expectations for this game. I did want to give it a fair shake.
- The story is still great! There's especially great scenes in this game, from Juli and Ziggy wanting to keep each other alive longer for MOMO, to Jr/Rubedo basically being one of the bigger focuses of the game when I thought he was just alright in the first game, to any Albedo scene. There's one scene between Shion and Jin that is quite touching late at the game that I really like.
- Jin is a great addition to the cast. He's super cool, we needed a wiser member of this team and all of his fight scenes are absolutely sick.
- The actual dungeon design is improved on in this game compared to Xenogears and Xenosaga 1. They're all pretty short, to the point. Some have puzzles and while I did not really care for it at first, it did break sort of the... I suppose boredom of only walking from point A to B in the previous games.
- There's actual music in the dungeons and worlds.
However, there's a couple of downsides. Quite a few of them that are irritating and brought my mood down quite a bit.
- You know, Xenosaga 1's art direction wasn't my favorite but it was kind of endearing in a way. This art direction though is a massive shift and honestly looks quite hideous.
- A lot of the main voice actors have changed from the first game and that makes me sad, because I liked the original voices quite a bit. No flame to the voice actors here, but I preferred how it was.
- Since there are no shops and not interesting sidequests, I don't really see the point in travelling around anywhere and that really sucks because the world of Xenosaga can be really interesting and really cool.
- This combat system... it's a cool concept and it can be fun for some boss fights, but it's far too punishing. While you are too busy stocking up and setting up your big combo, you are getting wailed on and it's just a game of "catch-up" so you don't die before the enemy does. It's not that fun in my opinion.
- That also leads to the enemy design, which is awful in this game. They just have really irritating gimmicks, far too much HP, and sometimes ruins dungeons because enemies can be so annoying that I do not want to grind combat at all.
So while this wasn't my favorite, I do look forward to Pied Piper, a Missing Year, and eventually Xenosaga 3 which from what I hear via friends and general word of mouth, is a massive step up. Can't wait for it, as the Xeno series has grown to mean a lot to me and I always like seeing the series at its highest highs.
I'm gonna list the positives right off the bat, because this game does have good parts and after some time thinking about it, I think I appreciate Xenosaga 1 quite a bit so I didn't have that big of expectations for this game. I did want to give it a fair shake.
- The story is still great! There's especially great scenes in this game, from Juli and Ziggy wanting to keep each other alive longer for MOMO, to Jr/Rubedo basically being one of the bigger focuses of the game when I thought he was just alright in the first game, to any Albedo scene. There's one scene between Shion and Jin that is quite touching late at the game that I really like.
- Jin is a great addition to the cast. He's super cool, we needed a wiser member of this team and all of his fight scenes are absolutely sick.
- The actual dungeon design is improved on in this game compared to Xenogears and Xenosaga 1. They're all pretty short, to the point. Some have puzzles and while I did not really care for it at first, it did break sort of the... I suppose boredom of only walking from point A to B in the previous games.
- There's actual music in the dungeons and worlds.
However, there's a couple of downsides. Quite a few of them that are irritating and brought my mood down quite a bit.
- You know, Xenosaga 1's art direction wasn't my favorite but it was kind of endearing in a way. This art direction though is a massive shift and honestly looks quite hideous.
- A lot of the main voice actors have changed from the first game and that makes me sad, because I liked the original voices quite a bit. No flame to the voice actors here, but I preferred how it was.
- Since there are no shops and not interesting sidequests, I don't really see the point in travelling around anywhere and that really sucks because the world of Xenosaga can be really interesting and really cool.
- This combat system... it's a cool concept and it can be fun for some boss fights, but it's far too punishing. While you are too busy stocking up and setting up your big combo, you are getting wailed on and it's just a game of "catch-up" so you don't die before the enemy does. It's not that fun in my opinion.
- That also leads to the enemy design, which is awful in this game. They just have really irritating gimmicks, far too much HP, and sometimes ruins dungeons because enemies can be so annoying that I do not want to grind combat at all.
So while this wasn't my favorite, I do look forward to Pied Piper, a Missing Year, and eventually Xenosaga 3 which from what I hear via friends and general word of mouth, is a massive step up. Can't wait for it, as the Xeno series has grown to mean a lot to me and I always like seeing the series at its highest highs.
My start to 2024 is to now start the Xenosaga series, my final stop to the Xeno series. I heard this and Xenosaga 2 are a long buildup to a pretty satisfying conclusion, so I was wondering what to think.
First off, I want to say... the music is fantastic. I really like the battle theme, the music that plays in cutscenes, the theme for the final boss, the vocal themes at the end, they're all great... but then there's no music in the overworld and there's only one battle theme for the entire game until the final fight. I think this is a bad misuse of Yasunori Mitsuda's amazing talents.
My next gripe is, like Xenogears, the dungeon design. I did have a mod that greatly enhances the speed which was nice but if not for that, this game would be slow as hell and the designs for these enemies can be quite cringe to handle.
These are my main complaints, but besides that I enjoyed my time with this game! The story is interesting, I like that they went for a more sci-fi angle compared to Gears and Blade who lean more towards fantasy sci-fi. The characters grew on me a lot (Shion, Ziggy and MOMO are my favorites), although I wish Allen had more scenes where he had more than "lol he sucks." I hope to enjoy more of what comes next in Xenosaga 2 and 3!
First off, I want to say... the music is fantastic. I really like the battle theme, the music that plays in cutscenes, the theme for the final boss, the vocal themes at the end, they're all great... but then there's no music in the overworld and there's only one battle theme for the entire game until the final fight. I think this is a bad misuse of Yasunori Mitsuda's amazing talents.
My next gripe is, like Xenogears, the dungeon design. I did have a mod that greatly enhances the speed which was nice but if not for that, this game would be slow as hell and the designs for these enemies can be quite cringe to handle.
These are my main complaints, but besides that I enjoyed my time with this game! The story is interesting, I like that they went for a more sci-fi angle compared to Gears and Blade who lean more towards fantasy sci-fi. The characters grew on me a lot (Shion, Ziggy and MOMO are my favorites), although I wish Allen had more scenes where he had more than "lol he sucks." I hope to enjoy more of what comes next in Xenosaga 2 and 3!
1998
Quite the end of 2023 for me.
This was a strange game to end the year for me, I normally have not tapped into PS1 games, let alone older RPGs from early to late 90's. But this year, 2023, I finished the Xenoblade trilogy. And I loved it so much that I needed more and I knew there was more. So I started with this game, knowing absolutely nothing. Only the tidbits of how this game was made and that it didn't have enough time/had budget cuts.
The gameplay took some getting used to, but I eventually understood and had my entertainment with it. It's like Final Fantasy, except more its own thing. After a few fights of getting used to the Mechs/Gears and always managing them, whether it's giving upgrades for higher health and fuel, it can be very fun and satisfying, especially in the end where they become really strong. The camera can be kinda awkward but I got used to it. The one genuine criticism I have with this game is that the dungeon design is... mmm. But I had friends with me who helped me along the way, so I will let it slide.
The story and the characters, however... masterful. I haven't had a game challenge my literacy like this ever. And by the end, I was in tears. A beautiful story about the right and wrongs of religion, the beauty in humanity and that we can always be better together, and it's so moving and compelling and full of layers. It's so good in the way it is done, it didn't even bother me with the complete shift in Disc 2. Another thing I want to compliment is the beautiful OST from Yasunori Mitsuda, who also did my favorite OST of all time from XB2. There's so many ominous and emotional bits of music that capture the atmosphere, the environments and the emotions perfectly.
Thank you Tetsuya Takahashi. It took me a while to see, but I see the vision. In 2024, I will start the Xenosaga Trilogy.
This was a strange game to end the year for me, I normally have not tapped into PS1 games, let alone older RPGs from early to late 90's. But this year, 2023, I finished the Xenoblade trilogy. And I loved it so much that I needed more and I knew there was more. So I started with this game, knowing absolutely nothing. Only the tidbits of how this game was made and that it didn't have enough time/had budget cuts.
The gameplay took some getting used to, but I eventually understood and had my entertainment with it. It's like Final Fantasy, except more its own thing. After a few fights of getting used to the Mechs/Gears and always managing them, whether it's giving upgrades for higher health and fuel, it can be very fun and satisfying, especially in the end where they become really strong. The camera can be kinda awkward but I got used to it. The one genuine criticism I have with this game is that the dungeon design is... mmm. But I had friends with me who helped me along the way, so I will let it slide.
The story and the characters, however... masterful. I haven't had a game challenge my literacy like this ever. And by the end, I was in tears. A beautiful story about the right and wrongs of religion, the beauty in humanity and that we can always be better together, and it's so moving and compelling and full of layers. It's so good in the way it is done, it didn't even bother me with the complete shift in Disc 2. Another thing I want to compliment is the beautiful OST from Yasunori Mitsuda, who also did my favorite OST of all time from XB2. There's so many ominous and emotional bits of music that capture the atmosphere, the environments and the emotions perfectly.
Thank you Tetsuya Takahashi. It took me a while to see, but I see the vision. In 2024, I will start the Xenosaga Trilogy.
This review contains spoilers
This is my Game of the Year 2023.
I had some issues with Xenoblade 3. Fakeout deaths, not very exciting first half, the second half feels kinda meh, and I really like the last few hours but it does feel very rushed in some places. The cast carried it in my opinion, Mio and Noah are such great protagonists and the gameplay, despite having a class system I did not care for, was very very fun.
This DLC has almost all of the best traits from base game and the previous games. Best side quests, best gameplay, the story is tight and wastes no time, the new characters (Matthew, Glimmer, Nikol) are fantastic, I love seeing the old-heads back (A, Shulk, Rex my GOAT), it has some cute callbacks and fan service, I get to see N again who was one of the best parts of base game, the new Battle track is among the best battle tracks in the series, and the final boss theme triumphs all the final boss themes from previous games.
I get rewarded for being a Xenoblade fan and I also get more JRPG goodness. Thanks Xenoblade, for being one of my new favorite series ever made. You make me happy.
I had some issues with Xenoblade 3. Fakeout deaths, not very exciting first half, the second half feels kinda meh, and I really like the last few hours but it does feel very rushed in some places. The cast carried it in my opinion, Mio and Noah are such great protagonists and the gameplay, despite having a class system I did not care for, was very very fun.
This DLC has almost all of the best traits from base game and the previous games. Best side quests, best gameplay, the story is tight and wastes no time, the new characters (Matthew, Glimmer, Nikol) are fantastic, I love seeing the old-heads back (A, Shulk, Rex my GOAT), it has some cute callbacks and fan service, I get to see N again who was one of the best parts of base game, the new Battle track is among the best battle tracks in the series, and the final boss theme triumphs all the final boss themes from previous games.
I get rewarded for being a Xenoblade fan and I also get more JRPG goodness. Thanks Xenoblade, for being one of my new favorite series ever made. You make me happy.
2010
It feels like... pants!
2004
This is the most honest unfair game I ever played.
It was great.
It was great.
I adore both Xenoblade 1 and 2. I was really excited to try this game and it's still going strong. There are some things that bug me a little bit, but it was not enough to get me to rank it lower.
The Cast: The other two games' casts are pretty up and down. But this game's cast is consistently great. I love all the girls w Eunie Mio and Sena, I really enjoy Lanz and Taion and Noah are great. The supporting cast is fun as well, since it's a mixture of worlds between games.
The Gameplay: This game next to Torna: The Golden Country has the best gameplay in the series. Everything is so clean and fun and fluent. Fusions, Chain Attacks and combos feel really fun and satisfying to do. Another thing to add is that this game has the best side content in the series. Getting additional lore and characters through Heroes and different colonies is genuinely fantastic. I will complain that this game has my least favorite environments in the series though. IT's a mixture between the worlds of the first two, but the first few hours are just green fields and a desert.
The Story: This is personally my least favorite story out of the three games. It has a good start that I feel takes a little too long to REALLY start. There is a high moment and that moment is genuinely incredible. I like late game a lot better than early game. The villains also are my least favorite here. I don't like most of the Consuls (a select few are good) and the main villain is a concept villain who has to contest with villains from the previous games who outshine him by quite a good amount. It does have a beautiful message though, about life going on.
Another great RPG to add to my series of RPGs. I'm happy to have played it. :)
The Cast: The other two games' casts are pretty up and down. But this game's cast is consistently great. I love all the girls w Eunie Mio and Sena, I really enjoy Lanz and Taion and Noah are great. The supporting cast is fun as well, since it's a mixture of worlds between games.
The Gameplay: This game next to Torna: The Golden Country has the best gameplay in the series. Everything is so clean and fun and fluent. Fusions, Chain Attacks and combos feel really fun and satisfying to do. Another thing to add is that this game has the best side content in the series. Getting additional lore and characters through Heroes and different colonies is genuinely fantastic. I will complain that this game has my least favorite environments in the series though. IT's a mixture between the worlds of the first two, but the first few hours are just green fields and a desert.
The Story: This is personally my least favorite story out of the three games. It has a good start that I feel takes a little too long to REALLY start. There is a high moment and that moment is genuinely incredible. I like late game a lot better than early game. The villains also are my least favorite here. I don't like most of the Consuls (a select few are good) and the main villain is a concept villain who has to contest with villains from the previous games who outshine him by quite a good amount. It does have a beautiful message though, about life going on.
Another great RPG to add to my series of RPGs. I'm happy to have played it. :)
I think this DLC would genuinely be a perfect prequel DLC chapter. It has a good cast (Jin, Lora, Mythra and Addam carry), the combat is enhanced and it feels REALLY good, it's a gorgeous looking game. And then we have to grind side quests. It feels like they wanted us to be closer connected to Torna which is a fine idea, I just wish it were excecated better.
This review contains spoilers
I wanna explain why I love this game.
Does this game have flaws? Yes it does. It has really bad tutorials that don't effectively tell you how to play the game properly, it has terrible descriptions for things in the game where it might be misleading or not clear enough, it has Field Skills and having to switch Blades constantly which is really irritating, it has... Tora. I will not tell you it is a perfect game.
But it's a game that I will adore and keep close to myself always. This has my favorite world in a video game, one of my favorite worlds in fiction. Alrest is a beautiful place with amazing areas, Gormott being an amazing starting areas, Uraya being one of my favorite areas in a video game, Mor Ardain is sick, Leftheria is beautiful and peaceful, Tantal is beautiful but sad, Morytha is creepy and echoes a past of what used to be, and the World Tree is so hype in how it builds up. Everything about it to me just works.
Despite Tora and a small select few characters, I love so much of the cast. Morag is a great character, Zeke is one of my favorites, Nia is one of my favorites, Vandham is awesome and does so muchdespite the little screentime he gets, Aegis and Rex are some of my favorite protagonists ever. The shaky voice acting doesn't bother me, as I've been with a group of friends for quite a long time that played more obscure RPGs also with shaky voice acting so it wasn't a big deal for me. Malos and Jin are some of my favorites, and Amalthus does an incredible job as a way to show the evil wants we have in our hearts that make the world worse.
Once you come to understand the gameplay for a little bit, even if you don't really optimize with Blades or arts, it's still really fun to play with the combat. I loved fighting random enemies, having closer Affinity for the Blades that I liked messing around with, unique monsters with the really cool and unique challenges to them, I loved exploring the world I was in.
The OST is one of my favorites. Tomorrow With You, Counterattack, so many battle themes, a lot of the area themes (Uraya, Tantal Night and World Tree are some of my favorites). I think orchestrated music + electric guitar should be in every fantasy RPG.
This game will have constant debates and discourse and there's no stopping it. So I don't really bother, moreso just keep to myself on what this game does for me personally. When I play this game again, I will have a longer more in depth review that will replace this one.
Does this game have flaws? Yes it does. It has really bad tutorials that don't effectively tell you how to play the game properly, it has terrible descriptions for things in the game where it might be misleading or not clear enough, it has Field Skills and having to switch Blades constantly which is really irritating, it has... Tora. I will not tell you it is a perfect game.
But it's a game that I will adore and keep close to myself always. This has my favorite world in a video game, one of my favorite worlds in fiction. Alrest is a beautiful place with amazing areas, Gormott being an amazing starting areas, Uraya being one of my favorite areas in a video game, Mor Ardain is sick, Leftheria is beautiful and peaceful, Tantal is beautiful but sad, Morytha is creepy and echoes a past of what used to be, and the World Tree is so hype in how it builds up. Everything about it to me just works.
Despite Tora and a small select few characters, I love so much of the cast. Morag is a great character, Zeke is one of my favorites, Nia is one of my favorites, Vandham is awesome and does so muchdespite the little screentime he gets, Aegis and Rex are some of my favorite protagonists ever. The shaky voice acting doesn't bother me, as I've been with a group of friends for quite a long time that played more obscure RPGs also with shaky voice acting so it wasn't a big deal for me. Malos and Jin are some of my favorites, and Amalthus does an incredible job as a way to show the evil wants we have in our hearts that make the world worse.
Once you come to understand the gameplay for a little bit, even if you don't really optimize with Blades or arts, it's still really fun to play with the combat. I loved fighting random enemies, having closer Affinity for the Blades that I liked messing around with, unique monsters with the really cool and unique challenges to them, I loved exploring the world I was in.
The OST is one of my favorites. Tomorrow With You, Counterattack, so many battle themes, a lot of the area themes (Uraya, Tantal Night and World Tree are some of my favorites). I think orchestrated music + electric guitar should be in every fantasy RPG.
This game will have constant debates and discourse and there's no stopping it. So I don't really bother, moreso just keep to myself on what this game does for me personally. When I play this game again, I will have a longer more in depth review that will replace this one.
I love Shulk and Melia's redesigns and I am glad to see they brought back their VAs. Nene and Kino are very cute and make Riki better as a character. The Bionis' Shoulder is pretty cool. I just kinda wished there was more. The gameplay loop is not as fun too.
Most of the Fire Emblem DLC sucks, they're clearly bad at this. Why do they keep repeating it
2023
This review contains spoilers
I had massive burnout with the Fire Emblem series after playing basically every mainline entry besides Judgral and Archanea era. And then I saw my friend groups play this game and recommend it to me. And then I played it and it's the best Fire Emblem game up to this point. A massive step up from Three Houses in my opinion.
The Cast: It's a bit more on the silly, goofy side where everyone has sort of a gimmick layer one. But most of the cast has a compelling layer two when you get past most of the C supports. I greatly enjoy this cast. It's honestly very consistent compared to most FE games. Among my favorites are the Fell Children (Alear, Veyle, Nel, Rafal), Lapis, Alfred, Zelkov, Citrinne and so on.
The Gameplay: The best in the series, zero contest. I thought it was Conquest for quite a long time, but even this game beats that. A lot of fun units to mess around with, the Emblems are a really fun new mechanic that makes every unit even more fun to mess with, this game has actual map design which is really nice. Even the Somniel is a big upgrade compared to the Monastery from 3H. The last thing I want to say is that this is easily the best looking Fire Emblem game, it absolutely slaughters Three Houses.
The Story: This is the biggest problem people have with the game, that the story is bad, the dialogue is cringey, there are some comical deaths and twists like Marni, Zephia wanting Sombron's kid, and Sombron having a tragic backstory dumping just before he dies. Are they incorrect? Not entirely. There are FE stories better than this (PoR, Sacred Stones to name a few), but I am willing to forgive this one because this really is a loveletter to the franchise and it plays kinda like a sentai show which if you see it that way, it has a good amount of cheese that is kind of endearing. I also actually really like Alear as a protagonist, which I never thought I would say.
The Cast: It's a bit more on the silly, goofy side where everyone has sort of a gimmick layer one. But most of the cast has a compelling layer two when you get past most of the C supports. I greatly enjoy this cast. It's honestly very consistent compared to most FE games. Among my favorites are the Fell Children (Alear, Veyle, Nel, Rafal), Lapis, Alfred, Zelkov, Citrinne and so on.
The Gameplay: The best in the series, zero contest. I thought it was Conquest for quite a long time, but even this game beats that. A lot of fun units to mess around with, the Emblems are a really fun new mechanic that makes every unit even more fun to mess with, this game has actual map design which is really nice. Even the Somniel is a big upgrade compared to the Monastery from 3H. The last thing I want to say is that this is easily the best looking Fire Emblem game, it absolutely slaughters Three Houses.
The Story: This is the biggest problem people have with the game, that the story is bad, the dialogue is cringey, there are some comical deaths and twists like Marni, Zephia wanting Sombron's kid, and Sombron having a tragic backstory dumping just before he dies. Are they incorrect? Not entirely. There are FE stories better than this (PoR, Sacred Stones to name a few), but I am willing to forgive this one because this really is a loveletter to the franchise and it plays kinda like a sentai show which if you see it that way, it has a good amount of cheese that is kind of endearing. I also actually really like Alear as a protagonist, which I never thought I would say.