I love this game. Although it is not perfect. It's such a unique experience. Resident Evil style exploration with a strange combo of free movement turn based jrpg combat. And there are a lot of bangers. Oh the music is good.

The story is decent. But you don't really play this for the story. It's barebones and meme worthy. On a few occasions it talks too much. When all you want to do it get back to the fun gameplay. It does have great atmosphere though.

This is a mix between Resident Evil and a JRPG. It's really unique and controls surprising well. However there are a few gripes I have. One, the upgrade system is well convoluted. It's not well explained and you can def screw yourself over. Luckily, I had someone guiding me through that aspect. But it's still a bit confusing. The other problem is there are many moments, where you just take unavoidable damage. The game simply hits you with unfair attacks or it's just supposed to be unavoidable or at least unreliably avoidable(hopefully that makes sense). But you can heal through most of it. The last thing is that the final 2 bosses are really unforgiving. Fun but unforgiving. Like they are frustrating as they are bullet sponges that take forever to defeat.

One extra note: I emulated this because I literally could not read the font and had to use a mod to patch it so I could.

But all in all, just a pleasure to play. Not a perfect game. Sometimes frustrating, but just an enjoyable experience.

Now this is how you make a sequel. This game fixes nearly everything from the first game I complained about. It went from a AA game to a AAA game.

The game is far less jank. Combat is much better. Stealth actually works. It looks better. You have more options in combat. It is simply a better game.

Story is yet again focused on character development. The voice acting is vastly improved. They toned down the cartoonish accents.

There are still a few problems. The rats give you zero forgiveness. If you touch a rat, you die. You slow down to crawl and cannot return. Also the rats sometimes don't react they way they should leading to soft locks or resets.

The biggest issue is the pot mechanic. Sometimes pots are required and you don't have one. So you are left with this oh, I guess I used my pot at the wrong time. Reset.

A few boss fights are not well signposted. And these defend your position moments are infuriating. As you die easily yet there are 30+ enemies. Sometimes it felt like I was just screwed and had to die as I no longer has a way to beat certain types of enemies.

Controls wise, it just plays better. They even vastly improved the rat mechanic from last game to be dare I say it...fun. Everything is improved except box pushing. It's still the same jank from the previous game. Maybe next time.

Characters are so much better. There are characters that are not just Amicia and Hugo that are well fleshed out and fun. Even has a great villain. You care about a lot more than just Amicia and Hugo.

Amicia this time around is one of the best voice acted characters in a long time. So underrated. Her voice actress deserves a lot more praise than she got.

Yet again, be warned, this is not a happy game. You are gonna have a bad time. It's graphic, violent, brutal, triggering and simply depressing. It's one of my favorite games I play last year(2023). It really all pays off. A great character driven story that surpasses the first in everyway.

This game has a special place in my heart. It was the first game I ever streamed. I do love it, but it's far from perfect.

This is a AA game. A game that is not Indie but also not AAA. I wish more of these existed nowadays.

The story is neat. It's different. The characters are great. Hugo being a small child can be annoying, but Amicia is a teen and can also be...dramatic. This is a game that has some heart warming moments but in general, no one has a good time. The voice acting is good but also cartoonish. As the accents are overdone.

Gameplay wise, it's jank. It's a jank game full of jank hit boxes on rats and mostly instant death moments. Puzzles are fun yet simple. Stealth is serviceable. Box pushing is simply confusing. There are some infuriating moments. The final boss is just insanely stupid and over the top. Yet is also not fun to play as it has no checkpoints and instant deaths. One last major complaint is something to do with the rats specifically. It controls extremally poorly. I have no idea why they chose to control it like that.

Yet again, this is a character driven game. Amicia and Hugo are very charming. Their bond growing throughout the game is why you play it. The set pieces are great too.

This is a good game. But it could be better. I highly recommend playing it. It's rough but still worth it. Especially because the 2nd game improves on every aspect. It fixes most if not all my grips. It will introduce a few others but it is absolutely worth playing both games. I'm giving this a 3 because I feel like the 2nd game is a 4.

If you like character driven stories where nothing ever goes right, this is your game. Just be warned, it very graphic, very triggering, and depressing.

I love this game. It's a dumb game. It's honestly not even a great game. I just love it for some reason. It is a typical xbox 360 game. Feels, plays and looks like one.

The voice acting is what really stands out in this game. Andy Serkis as Monkey is amazing. He just does a great job. Both main characters Monkey and Trip are voice acted well. I enjoy watching their story from beginning to end. I wish there was more in the universe to be honest. It does take very light inspiration from "Journey to the West".

Despite how old it is, it still looks pretty. Especially on PC. It still looks like a 360 but one of the few colorful ones.

Gameplay is fun and varies. Combat is pretty basic though. Shooting mechanics are fine. Boarding riding sucks. Trip controls are easy enough to understand and she really doesn't get in your way most of the time. Despite the game being an escort mission, you really don't need to worry about her.

Now, sometimes knowing where to go can be frustrating. Also trying to do any precision platforming is kinda a nightmare. Trying to walk between mines that explode even outside their radius is infuriating. There are a few trial and error moments where you just die over and over until you figure out the way to do it. Riding on the board is simply sluggish and as if you are on ice.

This is very much a character driven game. They drive all of the plot. They are the reason you keep playing. Watching Monkey and Trip grow and bond is genuinely nice. And the ending is phenomenal. The ending is so good and comes out of no where. It feels kinda of like The Last of Us 1 where you are left just with this terrible feeling. It's that feeling of "what happens now!?" except you kinda hope it never gets answered. Sometimes in life things just end like that. And I think that's why I like the game and ending so much. It feels true to life. It's too bad TLoU 2 had to completely ruin the end of the first game. But at least we still got Enslaved.

Like is it a great game? No. Does it deserve this praise? Probably not. It is honestly a mediocre game. It has some outstanding characters, set pieces and ending. It's also just a bit goofy. Although it's a serious story, they take time to make jokes. They also do this slow motion stuff that is kinda terrible but as I said, goofy.

I love this game. I understand it's not a great game. Nor will it be remembered as one. To be honest, most people have forgotten it ever existed. It is a relic from it's time. A time where game companies took chances and released AA games often. The closest thing I can think of nowadays to the AA feel is probably A Plague Tale: Innocence. I miss these types of games.

This is my favorite game of all time. I truly love this game. I got this game for my birthday. I fell in love with the world. All of it's bright colors. All it's quirky characters.

It was the first game that was mine. It was the first game I 100% completed. I have beat this game the most out of any game in my life. I have a lot of nostalgia for it.

Lets take off the nostalgia goggles for a second though. Here are some flaws.

Music note count resetting when you die or leave a world sucks. It was fixed in its sequel and the remaster released on xbox 360.

Controls can be bad. Trying to make certain jumps can be really hard due to a lack of depth. Flying controls are not great. Trying to aim a beak bomb is a bit infuriating.

Another flaw are the later levels. Even I kinda dread playing them. Especially Rusty Bucket Bay. It's a really unforgiving level.

Lastly, the final boss fight is horrendous. Still infuriating till this day. It's not a fun fight. Like every aspect of it relies on the worst controlling aspects of the game. It wants precise aim with eggs, flying, and beak bombs. Even with double max health, it is a challenge as the boss simply has too good of aim.

I recommend you play this though if you love collectathons, 3d platformers, or even light metroidvania aspects. I suggest playing the Rare Replay Version/Xbox Version as it fixes some of these flaws. Or emulate and save state often. It's not a hard game to complete or beat. Mostly a chill fun experience.

The remaster even adds the fabled Stop N Swap feature. Sadly it amounts to nothing in the end due to Banjo Nuts n Bolts being a mediocre game. One last thing the remaster offers is a bonus mini game in Banjo's house. If you like putting puzzles together, it's fun. Be warned it get stupidly hard though.

I'll leave you with this though. Banjo has a huge mod hack scene. I highly suggest if you like Banjo to find these hacks. Jiggies of Time(check out my review of it) is on par with the original and IMO better than Tooie. Banjo Kazooie is the game the keeps on giving.

The last game in the Xenosaga trilogy.

There is a lot of good. But some bad. The problem is that the bad is real bad.

The art direction has been fixed. Everyone looks great. The music is great. The menus have been improved and so have spending points. Even a lot of the voice actors from the first game have returned!

Combat is much closer to the first game. It still a bit slow and simplified but generally fun.

Story is vastly improved but rushed. There are less long cutscenes. A lot more reading and non voice acted parts. Which is sad considering it's what the other games are known for. Now there are a lot of dialog boxes with character avatars instead of cutscenes. It can make the game drag a little. But all in all, the story answers most questions. End the series well. Although as I said it's rushed.

Now the biggest problem of the game is that is painfully easy until the final area. The final area has a set of mech boss fights, like between 4-5 of them, which are near impossible. Like so intensely punishing for no reason. I played this on an emulator. I had to save state after ever move that was successful in order to win. This game broke me where I took like 8 months to a year off. I went back and grinded. And I still had to save state to win. Once the mech boss fights were over, the rest of the game was super easy as I was OP. But those mech boss fights are terrible.

And that is why I cannot recommend this game. It's a fantastic game up until that last area. The difficulty curve however is unforgiveable.

Also, the reward you get for a completed save file from Xenosaga 2 is not good. Not worth your suffering to get.

So that's the Xenosaga series all reviewed. I can only recommend the first. I have great nostalgia for them. But I recognize their massive flaws.

The 2nd and worst game in the Xenosaga Trilogy.

This game is a mess. It works. But it just is a major step down in most ways from the first.

A way that it does improve things are the menus and points system. One of the few complaints from the first game. I feel like there is more music as well.

Now as far the story, it's fine. It explains some very important info needed for the third game but also answers some questions from the first. The problem is that most of it takes place in the past. It doesn't really move present day forward much. Also, a much improved sight, Momo is a much better character. Far less annoying.

Now for why the game isn't all that good. Firstly, it's ugly. The change in art direction is simply bad. Very few character benifit from the art direction change.

Secondly, a lot of the voice actors vanish for this game. So the voices you knew are gone. The game is worse off for it.

Thirdly, the game's side quest system is just terrible. It's a lot of fetch quests. A lot feel extremely necessary to get good equipment. The problem is that they are boring, take forever and stack on each other. Meaning in order to unlock certain ones you must beat others. It's so much padding in what is already a slow game.

Fourthly, the main reason why this game is bad, is it's combat. Combat consists of poking the enemy to find it's weakness. The guarding until you have max combo(3 guards per character), then unloading your max combo. Repeat. It's super tedious and slow. It just is not fun. Not to mention everything is tanky. And worst of all, certain character cannot do certain types of combos/attacks. If an enemy is out of their range, they simply cannot attack. Which thus makes some characters not viable. It's not a fun experience. It's a very grind heavy game as well. The game is much shorter too. But that is probably a positive considering how tedious it is.

This system lack depth. It makes it much harder to time defeating enemies for extra exp. In general, an improved version of the Legend of Legaia combat. Which is fun at first but then becomes very tedious and slow. Ultimately ruining what could have been a unique experience.

Another positive is you do get some cute benefits if you have a completed save file from the first game.

So all in all. This is not a broken game. It's just a bad game. Although I love Xenosaga as a series, I cannot recommend this game. It's not as terrible as Secret of Mana though. See why I think that in my review of it.

One of my favorite games and the series that introduced my favorite game character KOS-MOS. This is the best game in the trilogy no contest.

The story although very vague but maintains your interest. I gives you more questions than answers. But it's also the first game in a trilogy. The character are all great except Momo. A child character that is just annoying at every moment she exists.

The combat is simple yet satisfying. Learning weaknesses and planning the right moment to defeat an enemy to earn extra exp.

However the game is not perfect. There are too many types of points to spend and menus can be overwhelming. If you don't plan out how to spend your points you miss out on some good late game stuff.

One other issue is that it loves to waste your time. A lot of back and forth. Too long of cutscenes that do nothing to move the story at all. Long periods without combat.

The other major issue is it's lack of music. The game relies a lot on ambient sounds. When there is music, it slaps doe. Esp the final boss music.

It also has stupid difficulty curves and some annoying gimmick bosses.

But all in all, a fantastic JRPG with a great art style, story, world and characters. I fully recommend people to play it. The only problem is that the other 2 games in the trilolgy I cannot really recommend. So you won't get a conclusion unless you are will to suffer greatly.

This is by far the worst example of Nostalgia Goggles I have ever seen for a game. It functions as in it does not crash. But literally every aspect of the game is built on terrible decision making.

I don't think you are wrong for having good memories of it. I also don't think I'm wrong in my experience with it. But I'm going to explain why mechanically, I hate this game and how it's built on layers of terrible decisions.

I'm going to make a compliment sandwich for the review. So I'm going to start out with a good thing then tell you all the bad followed by another good thing.

Firstly, the music is fantastic. It is the best aspect of the game. Maybe only one or two stinkers in the OST. One being the boss music which gets grating after some time.

Now onto the bad. First the story is just so bland. So cookie cutter, so just forgettable. It barely matters. At moments they literally solve problems seconds after they are introduced. There is nothing about this story that is memorable. The game also just doesn't signpost itself well. Sometimes gives you hints on where to go, other times you just gotta magically know where to go and what to do.

Secondly, the circle menu system is horrendous. Not only is it tedious but confusing. Nor do they tell you how to properly use it. It took me hours to understand that Y opens the menus for Player 1 and X opens it for your CPUs. This happened because all my characters were stack onto of each other when I interacted with the menus. Making it look like Y and X did the same thing. That is a huge flaw. Not only that but sometimes you plug in commands and it just decides, "nah not doing it." So you gotta do it again.

Thirdly, lets talk about interacting with the world outside of combat. In order to do certain actions Player 1 must have a certain weapon equipped. Axe breaks rocks/crystals, sword cuts grass, and whip helps you cross gaps. Not only is this tedious menuing but also prevents you from using the weapon you want to use. But the worst part about it is that they simply don't tell you whip helps you cross gaps. And even worse, crossing gaps with the whip sometimes just doesn't activate for reasons unknown. Imagine finding a gap for the first time that you must cross, using every weapon and the whip not working. That's exactly what happened to me.

Now lets move on to how your CPUs interact with the world. They have collision, thus getting stuck and then getting you stuck because you can only be so far away from them. Imagine this, your CPU get stuck but you can't get them out and thus have to reset. Now, I know what you are going to say, "Press Select" to control the CPU. Great idea, too bad the games doesn't tell you that you can do that. I found out about that 2/3 of the way through the game.

Fourthly, lets talk about combat. Like the 100% meter thing isn't my fav and it's greatly flawed but fine. The problem is that it makes you wait to attack but a lot of the time you simply cannot wait or you will be severely punished. For the sake of the argument lets say it's good. The biggest problem how the game calculates everything is terrible. You will be nuking a boss with spells, it's doing aprox 250 each hit for it to randomly say, "nah this time only 50". Same with a full 100% meter physical attack.

Now lets talk about evasion stats. The games just decides if you can hit something with no feedback. You can be directly infront of it. Watch you weapon clearly go over the enemy and its hitbox. Miss. Keep in mind, you are attack at 100% meter. You move to the side, you still miss. But it can sure hit you. Then you land a hit for them to play an animation of it dodging or my fav just saying 0 damage. You and your CPUs keep doing this song and dance until it magically say, "okay you can hit me now". This can last 30 second to a minute on one enemy that normally you would kill easily because you have done it many times before. Now add this same issue to the multitude of enemies that duplicate forever until you kill them all at once. It can be infuriating. Oh right, also all magic is unavoidable.

Fifthly, lets take about the world map. There is no mini map. It's impossible to know where you are. It doesn't tell you the names of the place you are above either. It's very precise where they want you to land.

Other bad design decisions for the map. Controlling your height is unnecessary and tedious. To land you actually have to lower yourself. Another bad decision, the world map once the the final dungeon shows up, flashes every 20-30 seconds. Turns out the the flashing is coming from the final dungeon teleporting randomly across the map. So not only is it hard to find because it's teleports but it's hard to land on because you gotta get above it before it teleports and land. And as explained earlier, the map control are terrible.

Sixthly, let's talk about your inventory and MP. The only way to heal MP is by sleeping at an Inn, using a walnut, or using a late game MP drain attack that only works for 1 character and I don't think is ever successful on bosses. What makes this worse is that you can only hold 4 of any item. That's not enough for late game areas or early game when your MP is low.

Seventhly, lets talk about the UI. No item description. Now way to know if equipment is better than what you are wearing until you buy it. Equipment stats are just numbers that mean nothing to you. It literally is just, this number is higher and equip it. No clue as to what stat it's raising.

Lastly, the finally boss has only unavoidable attacks. It's a gimmick boss that takes way too long to beat. Doesn't really explain the new gimmick. Just expects the player to figure it out. Let's hope you have MP items and you CPUs don't die. You need both alive the whole or I guess you just can't win.

Compliment sandwich end. The art style is nice. however other games do it better.

Nearly every aspect of this game is built on terrible design. Things that were solved before this game came out. Other games told you equipment stats, if it is better, what stat it raises, item descriptions, etc. An Action RPG is literally Link to the Past combat with numbers. They literally could have copied LttP combat and gave it rpg elements and it would have worked. Even add in the meter system to change it up. But no, they made a combat system that literally doesn't work. Other games had mini maps. This game released after other Action RPGs and ignored every single good design decision from them.

I'm going to leave you with 2 examples of how much the devs simply did not care or were terrible at their jobs. Obvious mistakes that are just baffling as to why they exist.

First, a late game boss, it's gimmick is that it expands every time you hit. You have to hit it in the center. Turns out, if you are not positioned right, you can be prevented from ever hitting it with physical attacks because it expanded too much. Then your only option is magic which doesn't do much as it's nearly immune to it. Bad game design.

Second, I cannot stress how much the devs simply did not care. Your characters walk in order of when you got them. But the UI at the bottom of the screen, goes 1, 3, 2. So the third character you earned is in the middle of the UI and your second character is in the last spot. Simple fix. But no one cared to fix it or any other flaws.

This is Secret of Mana. A terrible game made on terrible design. Supposedly the 2nd best or by many THE BEST the Mana series has to offer. I'm not playing any other game in the series if that's the case. You can like what you like. I'm not saying that. I think at the time when the game came out, it was novel and well regarded. I also feel like most people have not played it since it's release. But take your nostalgia goggles off and see what the game actually is. It's easy to tell someone how "it's not that bad" if you know what you are doing. But as a first time playthrough it is a miserable experience.