I primarily fell in love with role-playing games because I love storytelling. Since I was a wee child, I would always write stories. Even in early elementary school I found myself penning fanfiction for “Peep and the Big, Wide World.” It’s always been my calling, and while, now in my late twenties, I am getting more okay with the fact that it may not be my career, storytelling will always my thing. Dragon Warrior IV really caused me to be enamored with it very quickly, and it 100% has to do with how this game not only tells its story in a non-traditional way, Dragon Quest-wise, but also video-game-wise.

The way the scenario is split up in its titular chapters is perfect. Beginning with Ragnar, and telling a simple story of a normal soldier doing his job and protecting citizens and then having the main plot creep up until Ragnar is the first chosen to be called to a higher destiny. Having the protagonist and chief antagonist completely hidden from the player as they control a cast of supporting characters that one would normally encounter as the protagonist just is perfect. It shifts the player from controlling a singular role; this installment is simulating something a little more omnipotent. In the first four chapters, you find yourself piloting four different characters and setting them onto a path that would have them eventually meet with the Hero they’ve been told, by fate, that they are to soon accompany.

You aren’t just playing as these characters, the player is almost acting as fate, as one of the goddess’ upper servants, leading and commanding the chosen ones so that they will be able to cross paths with the Hero. It still plays like any other classic JRPG, but it shifts the perspective just a smidge to contort the role the player is in, and it just makes it that much more interesting to me. And, besides how it can be used to examine the relationship between player and game, it’s also just really cool to spend extra time alone with supporting characters so that when the Hero meets them, the player gets a little more excited than how one normally might be when gaining a party member. Having a larger cast of characters along for the ride just gives it a more fleshed out fantasy story feel. Along with the episodic format, it feels like I’m reading a series of novels, or watching a show, with a larger cast of characters than the 1-4 that this series has stuck to up to this point. Which, by the way, through the last half of Chapter 5 I was mostly using the Hero, Ragnar, Cristo, and Mara as my main quartet.

I wanted to play the NES version instead of the NDS version of this game just because I didn’t want every single Dragon Quest playthrough of mine to be played on either iOS or NDS, and this one seemed like a fun venture. The classical feel was just really nice. The emulator I was using (fceux) had some really nice video settings that allowed me to give this a CRT look that just made me lose myself in the charm of NES aesthetics, which I don’t usually do! This is, of course, a late NES title, which helps it a lot, but this is easily one of the best looking 8-bit games I’ve ever laid eyes on. The party members’ sprites are so nice, monster sprites look great (EXCEPT FOR THAT ONE), it’s just a real treat. The most interesting part of this playthrough was experiencing the localization differences between modern Dragon Quest, which I grew up with, and the elder Dragon Warrior script. There are tiny differences, of course, but it made it really funny deciphering online guides because every FAQ and Wiki is up to date with script from the Nintendo DS version, which might as well be the only one that exists in the west.

It was also kind of a blast playing an old RPG. This might actually be my first RPG where the version I’m playing actually pre-dates my life. I’m so used to playing older games through newer collections with standard UI and mechanics. The command screen, at first, made it feel archaic, but that kind of thing also helps in these old school RPGs because you’re basically given a list of options on how to progress. Did I talk to everyone? Search everywhere? Try every door? Town citizens give you plenty of information, and there’s a lot of good instincts that the game gives the player that helps out.

For instance, in chapter five, you find a seaside village named, well, Seaside Village. Villagers speak of how the tide gets high at night, and that there is a special item that the town used to have in its possession. At night, the tide rolls in and covers every tile of beach except for one tile. Obviously, the next morning you search that tile and, lo and behold, there’s a little village heirloom that’ll help you access another area. Though, a problem I encountered here that is definitely just a part of this series’ overall design choice, is that once you get access to a ship, the scenario becomes insanely less linear and I did have some moments where I encountered things out of order and it caused a lot of confusion. The country of Gartenburgh is surrounded by mountains, I travel around and find a place speaking of a flying vessel! Ah! That will get me there, surely. However, the person who makes said vessels needs a Gas Canister to build it. Right, right… Travel around with no luck and decide just to look it up. Oh, okay it’s in the mine I once traveled to in another chapter. Though, when I last went there in this chapter, nothing had changed? I look up maps and something should’ve changed. Turns out you hear how it changes in… a place I’ve never been? Apparently that place is accessible once you get the master key! Wait that’s in Femiscyra, that’s why… wait… Oh, turns out an item I got already was the key to get to Gartenburgh, and I just didn’t talk to the guy in Burland who tells the player that. Fuck. Oh, and the spot where you use this item was this little nook in the mountain range that I noticed while exploring and just knew was important.

So, yeah, besides those few hang-ups, this game flows really well for an old RPG without modern-day game design’s more player-friendly trends. Dragon Quest has always charmed me like crazy, it’s easily in my top favorite series now after replaying some of my childhood games and playing other installments for the first time. It’s always been tough for me to get through Final Fantasy, I even shelved a playthrough of ‘FFIV’, the Final Fantasy game that I’ve been most intrigued in, just because I got a hankering to play this instead. I’m a DQ-head through and through, and this installment is definitely a new favorite, although I’ve yet to play the game in this series that completely enraptures me to the point that I would call it an all-time favorite. Though, I did play this in anticipation for Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince, which is my most anticipated new game of the rest of the year, and was excited to realize how much more of that game is connected to this installment than I initially realized just after that announcement trailer. Safe to say this is probably my favorite storyline in the series so far, and considering I grew up with the ‘Monsters’ spin-offs much more than the main series, I think ‘Dark Prince’ is gonna be a great time for me.

Let me set the stage: you’re me, it’s, like, mid-2012. The only 3DS games you have are Kid Icarus Uprising and Fire Emblem: Awakening because you got the 3DS early because you thought the next Pokémon game after ‘HeartGold and SoulSilver Versions’ was gonna be on the new console. It wasn’t, and you should’ve learned back then there would never be any use trying to predict what the next Pokémon game would be. You’re also into anime, and your interest in JRPGs is skyrocketing, especially after said ‘Fire Emblem’ game and you’re looking for your next fix. Enter Tales of the Abyss. It’s a port of a PS2 game but you don’t know that. It’s part of a hugely successful series but it’s only hugely successful in Japan and only one game comes out in the west about twice a decade. You also don’t know that. You buy it pre-owned from GameStop because that’s how you buy every fucking game ever. But you knew that. This game would activate something in your brain that would never turn off, but it’s also something that wouldn’t click for a while, too.

I have a bit of a soft spot for this one because it was what got me into the ‘Tales’ series in the first place. This series would soon become monumental for me, both as an enjoyer of games and a writer of stories, as some of my biggest original fiction projects are very plainly inspired by some of the stories that make up the titular tales. However, I did get this game in a time where I was very bad at games. Especially JRPGs, I was undisciplined in properly leveling and growing characters, and really impatient about discovering where to even go. It wouldn’t be until years later, while struggling with Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition, that I would finally rewire my brain in a way that would allow me to conquer any RPG I set my mind to. Back in the day, after getting stuck on one of the fairly early bosses in this game, I discovered that this game has a full anime adaptation. “Oh, well, I’m playing this game only for its story, so…” I’ve watched that anime a few times, and still regard its opening and ending songs as top brass. I have a real soft spot for this one.

Though, I haven’t experienced Tales of the Abyss in either game or anime form for quite a while. After beating Tales of Berseria earlier this year, I was really into the groove, and wanted to not only try new installments in this series that intrigued me, but also finally roll the credits on a couple of a others that sat on the shelf for a long time. After getting back into ‘Abyss’ and meeting all of the characters once again, I absolutely fell back in love.

Before I get into anything else, let’s talk about how weird it is that this is on the 3DS. It wouldn’t be the last PS2 game to get a 3DS port but in a time where Nintendo was putting only their flagship N64 games onto this little engine that could, it’s kind of wild that Namco Bandai would spring ahead a generation and put this game on this console in 2011. I’ve often regarded the 3DS as a bad piece of hardware in my reviews, because it is! Some of its best titles run like dog-shit-ass and this game is no different. It utilizes the touch screen extremely well (every JRPG should have a second screen with the world map on it, lol), and being able to set abilities to the touch screen in battles is also a very good idea! It’s a good port because it utilizes its new home well, but there were more than a couple moments of slow-down, textures acting oddly, etc. Battles run smoothly, and only when intense artes are constantly being cast during late game bosses does it ever get rickety. During cutscenes and story moments, there are only some moments of text boxes appearing in the wrong areas every now and then.

At the end of the day, they are just minor technical flaws that most don’t account for in their rating of a video game, and I only do because I like to think about all of the factors that make a version of a game perfect. In this medium where games are constantly updated, ported, remade, and remastered, I often find that the technical aspects of every version of a game are pretty important to consider. If a new version of this game comes out (extremely possible after ‘Vesperia’ and ‘Symphonia’ recently got the treatment), I’d buy it in an instant (and even a new console if I needed to).

However, while this 3DS port is touchy, technically, this game’s design is hit after hit. Combat is really fun in this game. After Tales of Berseria’s absolutely lightning-smooth combat blew me away, I was still excited to go back to something simpler, and I did end up appreciating it a lot. Having simple neutral moves streamlines the combat without making it feel any less intense, and while I can really appreciate the fully-customizable move strings in ‘Berseria’, this game’s combat had a real easy rhythm that made it always feel satisfying within its own bounds. Leveling felt really well-plotted and balanced, and I never encountered an area with oddly-high monsters or a boss that felt unfair or impossible. Some great scenario-plotting by the designers here, really.

A big improvement from other titles is the dungeon design, which was a huge weak point in ‘Berseria’ in particular. While some dungeons had very middlinh puzzles that just were not tantalizing, ‘Tales’ dungeons never really felt like they were about the puzzles, and a lot of the times they feel almost like a formality. Because then you have dungeons in this game like the Absorption Gate, which at one point during it splits your party into three groups, having you switch between them to let each group progress through the dungeon, testing to see if you’ve been splitting your play-time between different characters up until this point (I did! For the first time in this series). It really felt well in-tune of other aspects of the series’ overall design ideas and it was a real high point for me, gameplay-wise.

Something I will say was, coming fresh off a different ‘Tales’ playthrough, I attempted this game’s Hard Mode, thinking myself up to the challenge. Unfortunately it was absolutely miserable. It not only makes battles difficult but it also affects how much gold and experience you collect with each fight, so you’ll be grinding more just to buy more items to get through the tougher battles. Absolutely struggled with it, and once I switched to Normal I was having a fun time, finally. Less of a Hard Mode or more of a ‘Not Fun’ Mode, in my opinion and I cannot imagine a fan of this game finding it an enjoyable challenge in the slightest.

One of the best thing this game does, though, is respect the player’s time. You know those moments in RPG games where they’re like “ah, shit we gotta go back to this location we’ve been before!” and they make you walk back through all that square footage of game to where the characters want to go? Well, this game just puts you where it wants you to be sometimes. I know. There were multiple times where a string of story events would take you back and forth between familiar towns and the game’s scenario just has a really good sense what to breeze over. Sometimes it worried me, especially when it gives you those “do you want to just go back now?” prompts. I usually decline those in games in order to grind along the way, but I would just let the game streamline things for me and still I never fell behind, level-wise. Just gives you the juicy morsels, so this isn’t anywhere near becoming those walking simulators that 3D RPGs risk becoming during similar moments. Tales of the Abyss’ world is small, with about only a dozen cities and towns that make up the entire planet, and you’ll go to each town about a dozen times or more, and before (and even after) they introduce fast travel, the game will very often transport you themselves and it was such a breath of fresh air, let me tell you.

The story picks up fast and thanks to what I’ve mentioned so far, it very rarely slows down. I found myself giving long play sessions to this title because I was just constantly engaged in the story and never bored of the gameplay. A story that really stands out, starring Luke fon Fabre, the son of a duke with only twelve years worth of memories, devoted to his sword teacher, Vandesdelca Grants (cool ass fucking name). Luke fawns over Van so much and it’s the crux of the entite protagonist/antagonist relationship, and while the game picks up fast, I wish we did get a little more prologue where we really see how Van grooms Luke to eventually obey him when the time would come. Luke, still, is an insanely good protagonist. A unique one, too, because while most anime protagonists are scruffy, talented, chosen ones, Luke is literally a huge brat, insufferable and unsympathetic for hours of game time, and is quite literally the opposite of a chosen one.

I just find it really ballsy and worthwhile to make your main character a gullible, pathetic moron, and then also make him have a panic attack when he kills someone for the first time. A moment that the game does not breeze over, because something this game handles very well is the weight of death and violence. Besides all the guilt that we watch Luke bear, I’ve never seen a fantasy game (outside of the actual war sims like Fire Emblem (though, even then, only the best Fire Emblem titles do this correctly)) handle and translate the violence of war like this one. There’s a certain fully-animated cutscene that depicts just a battle between two countries that involves zero characters that we know, but it feels so real, and the game makes you witness all the violence that the humans of this world inflict on each other in a gutteral fight for survival and for country. Eventually, every character has a heavy weight they have to carry, usually revolving around a death (or countless deaths, plural) that they were somewhat responsible for.

The growth that Luke goes through, and the bonds that he forms with people who didn’t believe in him at all upon interacting with him for the first time, is worth it enough for me. Couple that with an amazing story and a battle system that is in depth, but not overbearing in the slightest, and you have one of the best JRPGs I’ve ever played. One that conquers a hardware that holds it back slightly. This is easily one of the best games on this system and I will definitely be trying the PS2 version to see how it differs, and if there ends up being enough quality-of-life changes in this port to make up for its slight technical stutters. Though, despite it all, this is one of my greatests.

Maybe a game that’s making me wish I didn’t stick to whole star ratings. A high-3, if only because I still don’t love Ace Attorney’s model, It’s just a little too long-winded for my visual novel tastes (the fifth chapter’s trial had me exhausted), and a little too visual-novel-y for my adventure game tastes. For me to stay engaged in a mystery where I can start to see the beats line up along a rail, but have to wait for the trolley to chug on through them all, I just need a little more momentum. The autoplaying of dialog really saved my overall experience with this game; I even opted to use the “story mode” for the final chapter just because I didn’t have the heart to play through it all myself, and I was interested in seeing how it worked.

I cannot deny, though, my experience with The Great Ace Attorney: Adventures was leagues more exciting than my time trudging through the first couple of games in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy a few years ago. Besides the aesthetic being enormously more intriguing, the “deduction” sections help break-up the investigation segments of the game so much better and I just found myself a lot less disengaged for half of the game. Herlock Sholmes clears, what can I say?

What also got me locked in here was the general politics of it all on display. The way this game is about the British Empire imposing on the world their own systems, looking down on all foreigners, especially non-white foreigners. I mean, this is basically a racism simulator. The over-arching story really grabbed me along with the over-arching vibe, so once again I am finding myself adoring the world and characters of Ace Attorney, but just not really able to get locked into the game. Does make me deathly curious how I’d feel about Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright, since I really love the former’s gameplay and not the latter’s.

Everything about this installment makes the synapses in my brain fire off. A lot of people find this game easy, but I am not an intelligent, strategically-minded Fire Emblem fan, so even on this game’s Normal difficulty I receive enough of an interesting challenge where I’m always engaged. The characters are all the best; Neimi is my golden star, I actually enjoyed using Colm since I took care to keep him alive for the first time. I finally got to use Cormag extensively and he was a beast. Beloved fantasy character Kyle is also my favorite Great Knight ever. So many great characters whose supports are fun to explore and who are just fun to use as playable characters.

I adore this story, too. Lyon is the most impeccably well-written villain in any one of these games I’ve played. A poor soul, eaten up by his insecurity, so insecure that he cannot see how his friends try and lift him up, so insecure that he’s formed a pact with a demon king just to feel some tiny semblance of control over his fate. He only finds out he’s truly strong of heart in time to not have his essence completely consumed by the devil he’s let in. For his former friends, it is only through becoming unflinching in their self-assuredness that they are able to undo Lyon’s awful mistake. It’s an RPG for finding out that that you can always be sure of yourself when you know your friends will lift you up however much more you need to reach your goal, but you have to have your arms outstretched to your friends as much as you have them reaching out towards your desires.

I think, besides my eternally growing adoration for this cast, what really brings me back to this reserve to drink is the job system. Simple on paper, it has just the right amount of customization that has me always thinking of the next playthrough while I’m playing it. Same with the support system, which I think is so good in this game. Limiting each character to five support conversations per save file, done so that each character will be able to gain A Support with just one other character, and C or B Support with one or two more, I’m always thinking of the combinations I should try out during a run, and I as I get to know the game better with each playthrough it makes me excited to go back and try different things, different combinations, all for the pay off of having a bunch of units that are insanely fun to use. People complain about the maps, but I think they’re cool, and what this game may lack in maps it makes up for in units. These characters and classes and weapons are so fun to use. I love this game to bits.

I got a bit of a hankering for some Pokémon Diamond & Pearl Versions for some reason and, on a whim, just started this up without much thought beyond “I wonder what this feels like after playing ‘Shining Pearl’.” These games are most definitely better, though, besides the original Pokémon Red & Blue Versions, these are definitely some of the most flawed the start of a new generation has been in this series. It is interesting to see how this game uses its ability to create a 3D space within this top-down angle to create more interesting areas (mainly the gyms are very interesting). These games do some interesting stuff with the Nintendo DS’ signature blend of 2D and 3D sprites, and I think these games’ overall look are probably the most interesting thing about them.

I didn’t finish this playthrough. The itch was scratched pretty fast, to be honest, and it was mainly due to the fact that I found it really hard to craft an intetesting team. We all know the memes about the classic Infernape-Staraptor-Luxray-Lucario-Garchomp-Bibarel joint, but I think those memes are the effect of one of the most boring regional Pokédexes fucking ever.

Look, I’m an advocate for smaller regional ‘dexes, I am. It’s one of my biggest complaints about newer titles that they jam pack regions with 400 Pokémon and it’s to the point where someone could have a full team of six that can cover all type advantages by the first gym. I admire this team’s attempt to stick to a nice, tight 151, but it is kind of hilarious the choices they make, especially considering all the ‘mons who got new evolutions that didn’t make the base game. Like, are we really cutting Ralts, but then leaving in Abra again? No Rhyhorn, but Geodude and Onix have just got to be there. It makes sense that you can’t have everyone there, and some of the cuts make sense if you think they crafted the regional dex around the actual region, but even then some of the choices are silly to me (and BORING!). Basically, I was having trouble using Pokémon that made me excited, and when I found out you can’t get Rotom in this game until after you get the National Dex, my interest shot through the floor, lol.

Because of that, I didn’t get much into the game’s scenario, but it still is just so crazy how much Platinum Version improves on this region. I mentioned earlier in regards to the upcoming Pokémon DLC that I miss third versions so much. It is such a cool thing they had going on to do a pair of games that introduce people to new Pokémon and new places, and then, a year or two later, refine the edges of that first pair and add a bunch more content. I remember, back during the sixth generation, I skipped ‘X & Y’ in order to wait for the next games in Kalos, since I knew the second games in each region are better, but it was to no avail, as we know. New Pokémon games still make me excited to see the direction of this series, but I don’t think we’ll ever get something like we did during the ‘00s with the third and fourth generations.

Was wondering, during the playthrough of Fire Emblem: Awakening that I started earlier this year, “Why is this not clicking with me at all?” I was thinking that, maybe playing other titles in this series right after banging out two back-to-back playthroughs of Fire Emblem Engage was pushing it. Maybe I was feeling series fatigue. Then, after shelving my playthrough of ‘Awakening’, I boot up this game for the first time since the year it released and crank out three hours of playtime in the first session and I realize, “Oh, ‘Awakening’ is just missing a lot of how this series evolved after regaining its popularity, and is the least unique out of these modern titles, and thus is hard for me to get into.” Then my partner said, “why are you saying such long-winded sentences to yourself out loud while playing that game?”

‘Echoes’ was the first Fire Emblem game I was able to get in on the Collector’s Edition of on release. I still have the pins, the reversible cover, the soundtrack, and the wonderful art book. What really drew me to the series in the first place was the perma-death, because it raised the stakes of gameplay in a way that was lacking in a lot of media I loved, but also what I really appreciated was the story and characters of these games. Which, I’ve always been someone who valued story, since before I could remember I was obsessed with storytelling. Gameplay, level design, etc. were not things I really could consciously parse the particulars of when I was a teen, so when just looking at what was important to me back then, this game blew me away. It was only the fourth game in a series that soared to my favorites with having only played the two previous 3DS titles and what was the easiest GBA title to get secondhand at the time: Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones (which I got for $20!!! from GameStop back around 2015/‘16). I mean, you do not have to dig very much into my profile on here to see I appreciate story-centric, character-driven adventure RPGs still to this day.

The point of this is, since finishing ‘Engage’ I’ve been meaning to go back to this game. Despite adoring it after its release in 2017, I’ve only played this game once! So I dove in, and as I said before, this game stuck back to me so fast.

Though, most everyone really enjoys this game’s story. The real sore spot for people is the actual gameplay part of this game. It’s definitely a unique entry in this series and definitely threw a curveball towards a growing fandom after the pretty standard strategy gameplay of ‘Awakening’ and ‘Fates’. For me, though, and like I said, I can’t exactly parse the ‘why’ of it all, but I kind of really liked the gameplay. I hear a lot of stuff about ‘Gaiden’ and ‘Echoes’ map design all the time but I found it to be tricky in a fun way, even Celica’s maps along her route I found fun. It’s basic to start out besides terrain differences, and then you get to the Southern Outpost and that’s when it starts to pull the rug out. I also love the dungeons so much, and mini-battles as dungeon encounters is so interesting to me; for this playthrough I found myself regularly going back to dungeons in order to grind units that are recruited at lower levels or just to go back and complete quests and explore.

I was a little nervous to do the Hard difficulty for this game, since I struggled in both ‘Engage’ and in ‘Awakening’ to get through maps easily. Then I booted this game up and realized… I did my first playthrough on Hard! It is advertised as being for returning players familiar with the franchise, and by 2017, I very much was that. Though, on my first playthrough, I did lose a lot of characters very easily. I lost Faye really quickly, most of Celica’s mercenaries didn’t make it far, save for Saber. I lost Luthier during an ambush before I could even get to the sluice gate and then I couldn’t even get Delthea! Thankfully, I was able to remedy all of these mistakes, and characters I didn’t even get to use for more than a few battles were all-stars this time around (Faye, Jesse, Est, and Delthea, of course)!

Though, playthrough number two wasn’t without its losses. It never feels like an authentic Fire Emblem experience without sacrifices needing to be made, or mistakes leading to regretful losses. Different than my experience with ‘Engage’, the turnwheel offers a second chance, but never took away the tension. There were even times where I ran out of spins on Mila’s turnwheel and lost units I loved! In ‘Engage’, there were points where I had to artificially say to myself “I don’t get to use the time crystal for that mistake,” in order to keep the tensions high. Here, the game feels best balanced for the Turn Rewind mechanic than later entries do, funny enough. Though, the turnwheel can’t save you from every death. The world map ambushes are really clever, and I had completely forgotten how they work, so when Alm first got caught off guard, the enemy cavaliers made a bee line to my unit with the weakest defense: Silque. I love that girl, and I never made that same mistake again!

I love Celica; I love how she is not a case of a female fantasy protagonist holding herself back from violence and war because of their sensitivity or fragility that ignores their having lived in the real world. Right from the get-go, Celica is not afraid to fight, and that’s what makes her the ‘Caring Princess’. She is willing to sacrifice herself not only in the Christ-like way many ‘Fire Emblem’ protagonists find themselves doing, but also through the blood, sweat, and tears that the violence of this series’ worlds require from its leaders. Celica and Alm are the best. In fact, I love most, if not all the characters in this game. I like how, to make up for less support conversations, you can talk to characters in villages and in forts as Alm and Celica and have them confide in you, converse with you, and through that you learn enough background about them to find them all endearing. I like how Emperor Rudolf is not a psychopathic (literal) demon, and is a nuanced character with heart and humanity despite being a warlord. It is so hard to find delicately written bosses, but this game really cares to intelligently make the player come to terms with the realities of war that Fire Emblem characters routinely face. It cannot be exaggerated how special I think the writing in this game is.

I’ve always had a problem with how in newer entries in this series the protagonists were the gods, and, for lack of a better reason, I put the burden on my hate for the “chosen one” trope. Though, with experiencing this story I truly know what the problem is. Much like plenty of other JRPGs, Shadows of Valentia is a story about gods being destined to leave the world to man. Mila speaks to Alm and Celica in the final act and tells them of Naga making weapons that would allow mankind to put down the gods once they began their death throes against the fate that was sealed for dragonkind the moment they began to rule the earth. The good case of the “chosen one” trope is Alm and Celica being prophesized to kill the old gods and pave the way for man to inherit the earth. Thus, the bad cases that we see in Three Houses and Engage is that the gods are the chosen ones, and man must fight by their side to pave the way for god to continue a righteous rule over them.

It’s funny how my two favorite Fire Emblem games are the ones with split-path scenarios that follow two equal protagonists (though the series will always acknowledge the princess of the two the real protagonist), but I think, just because I adore the story and gameplay a little more, this is officially leapfrogging The Sacred Stones as my favorite Fire Emblem game.

Was going to go into a whole thing about this really being a tool meant to simulate a game’s system, and normally you wouldn’t classify that as a game, but the way this has almost replaced actually playing Pokémon games for a subsect of a subsect of this giant fandom just goes to show you that competitive Pokémon battling has evolved (long ago (also pun unintended)) into something so anti-thetical to the experience these games are supposed to create. Also, I think it’s a larger symptom as to why some modern games in this series are lackluster: that because more and more of its design is bending around the gravitational pull of this realm of Pokémon that, instead of trying to replicate the feeling of what battling in this game’s world is like, is instead just giving visuals to what is essentially a text battle that includes less skill, but more awareness and knowledge of how many dice rolls to take into account with each encounter, which, Showdown, thusly, perfectly captures the spirit of with its mostly text-and-calculations gameplay and minimal visuals. But, uh, then I thought I was getting too serious about this.

Absolutely the best way to experience the Hoenn region, though this game has it's pushes and pulls when compared to its predecessors on the Game Boy Advance. One of the reasons why I don't love Pokémon Emerald Version is because it takes away most of the contest halls in exchange for Battle Tents. Which seems weird because there's also a Battle Tower, too. Oh, and that thing called the Battle Frontier that people treat like the best thing ever to happen in this series. I like contests! So I was very glad to see how they were enhanced, but I didn't love that you can compete at any level in any hall. The progression in the original versions kind of gave you an extra reason to stick around and return to towns that you might otherwise not find yourself in a whole lot. Push and pull. Some things are better, but some are not quite there. The best thing are the interior environments. Granite Cave with its mural, each gym with its enhancements, walking into that first one in Rustboro and knowing that it's going to be an all-new game. The Cave of Origin's deepest nook being a gorgeous room for the story's climax. A story that actually feels like a true RPG story, with a cohesive plot and arcs and fulfilled characters. The UI on the touch screen using some Game Boy Advance visuals is a perfect little touch, too.

The best lesson to be learned from this game is that it doesn't need to be so spectacular for this series. Fans of Pokémon expect a lot from these games, but playing this installment and seeing them nail a lot of the presentation but still being kind of small-scale just makes me think the direction they're going in with going bigger and grander with every generation is maybe taking things too far. The battles in these games don't need to be crazy. I really like how this game still keeps the little circles where each Pokémon stands within the battle UI. I like how you can't see the trainers, either. That's a change I kind of don't really think about, but, as I played this game, I kept thinking "they could just keep it simple and give themselves less work and maybe just polish the things they didn't get quite right instead of working from scratch with each new console they work with.

It stinks because there's no way they can go backwards in scale, but after seeing that article where some developers toil with trying to make great products within the unfortunate reality of their release schedule, it makes me think, that maybe they should regress a little. They can do a lot of cool things, presentation-wise, while still maintaining this classic feel with their worlds. I don't know. All I know is I really liked my experience with this game, more-so than any attempt at a more open world experience, that's for sure. The only reason this isn't a 4.5/5 is because this game, like every other Pokémon game on the 3DS, runs like shit in some cases. Which, makes me think, if these games were released on more modern hardware, and given a little tweaking in some areas, it would be the best game in the series by far. It's a shame a port like that is near unimaginable in this franchise.

Pretty fun as a nice challenge, as some who knows FireRed like the back of their hand, to go back to this one and try and beat it with all the first generation’s weird quirks, oddities, and limitations. Was worried I was going to need a lot of grinding, but my champion rival was a pretty easy feat, with limited healing items, to boot! Also just serves as a fun challenge because you have to account for Pikachu, a little guy with low HP and defense whose only real perks are its amazing speed and that it learns Thunderbolt naturally. I kept him leveled ahead of all the other teammates more and more as enemies became stronger and the little rodent held its own the whole way. ‘Red, Blue, and Yellow Versions’ are miracles in so many ways, and I feel like people like to dog on them, now, because it’s easy to look back at ‘Red Version’, in particular and go “wow, that game is ugly as shit and barely runs,” but isn’t that just the magic of game programming? Honestly felt like the 3DS version kinda had some porting bumps that made the game act odd (probably a result of tweaking some flashing lights and sprites when they ported this). I mean, at the end of the day I’m pretty proud of myself for actually going ahead and beating a Generation 1 game for the first time. Liked my team a lot, too, I don’t know how I keep finding ways to make the Kanto Pokédex interesting. Shout out to Fearow, the underdog MVP of my league run.

When I first gave this version a go I found it a bit underwhelming and I’m over that now, but then am also underwhelmed in different areas. The standard Tetris game feels sooo good here. Maybe the best feeling Tetris I’ve ever played, and if I’m ever getting a twitch for it I’ll definitely be coming back to this one. The thing is the other mini-games aren’t really my jam. The ‘puzzle’ game is interesting, but fuck if I’m gonna do a billion of those, lol. ‘Catch’ is really promising, but I don’t really get it. I just never cracked the nut and figured out what could be really interesting about it. I really, really liked the ‘touch’ game’s concept but it plays so poorly. Rotating and sliding pieces never feels right on the first try, it’s like actually try to move human-sized Tetris pieces. So, like, Tetris is so perfect, and it feels so good here, and I think this is just jam-packed with some extras that range from “alright” to “good,” so, what can ya say? That’s a pretty good Tetris right there, I guess.

I am not a fighting game gal, but I watched EVO with some friends and it reminded me that I own this after finding it in a thrift store. My relationship to fighting games has always been that I wish so badly to be good at them, but I’ve never gotten the hang of a single game, lol. I played a decent amount of Street Fighter IV on Xbox 360, but never won a single online match. I say all this only to preface that this game feels good to me, someone who all fighting games feel wrong to. Hits feel good, the game works well, it never felt clunky at all! Also is pretty crazy that character sprites don’t look fucking disgusting, and the background twisting when you move up and down is pretty crazy. A great GBA tech demo, I guess, but I don’t figure it as some hidden gem.

My save file got fried...

I usually switch in between playing Game Boy games on my Game Boy Advance and my GB Operator, since my GBA isn't backlit, I like to play on PC. Though, sometimes, I found, playing the same cart on different hardware can make the GB Operator a little finicky. Almost lost a Pokémon save file, too, but the Operator hadn't overwritten the cart before I took it out to test if it was really wiped. So, I think I might just take a break from this, even though I was really picking up steam and played a clean two hours just today. I was really, really enjoying this game so much, and wanted to talk about it as a way to mourn.

I played a lot of Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker on the Nintendo DS. Though, eventually, I got bored of the story and just bred slimes together to get new ones (I love Dragon Quest slimes). When I started this game, I did plan to spend a decent amount of time getting the coolest fucking slime I could get my grubby hands on, I also did want to actually spend some time and really finish one of these games.

Dragon Warrior Monsters had been on my wishlist for a bit, especially after getting back into this series a lot earlier this year. I finally got my hands on a cheapish (sub $20 before shipping) copy from a Virginia state Goodwill's eBay account. When I started it up, I didn't really know what I was getting into, having completely forgotten the premise to 'DQM: Joker', I just got into it. This game is quirky, but, it's maybe one of the most succinct and well-fleshed-out creature collectors you could get pre-GBA.

I mean, let's not pull punches, this is Enix's answer to Pokémon's insane success, and they answered well. Enix was probably a better-funded game studio than Game Freak, even with the latter heading into its mega hit's sequels, and also probably a better experienced studio, as well. The result is a Game Boy Color launch title that absolutely blows even Pokémon Gold and Silver Versions out of the water.

Before 'Pokemon GSC' could even hit shelves, Dragon Warrior Monsters had released in Japan with a mechanic that is the reason I think this beats 'GSC' anyday: link cable breeding. The breeding mechanic in this game cannot be overpraised; it is well explained and is core to crafting a strong team of elite monsters. You breed monsters and they basically take on one parent's monster "pedigree," and then inherits both parents spell and ability trees. The result is you getting new monsters you can't find in the wild through breeding, with a toolkit that you can craft by breeding monsters with a good pool of spells. The game even keeps track of a monster's parents and their masters, so if you breed through multiplayer, you'll have a record of which friend you got your monster's mom or dad from!

This level of experimentation and mystery when it comes to monster breeding is just something that isn't even found in modern Pokémon games. When you breed Pokémon, you know exactly what you're getting and exactly what moves it will learn (even if you're aiming for an egg move). They never even made it so you might get either the mother species OR the father species. Breeding in Pokémon is basically just there for shiny hunting, these days, because there's not really any incentive to breed Pokémon during a playthrough! They even stopped making baby evolutions, and made existing baby evos available in the wild to even more invalidate this mechanic's existence within that franchise.

The satisfaction of breeding a Healslime with a weird flower bird that I'd never seen in a Dragon Quest game beforehand and getting a Wing Slime as a baby that had a buttload of support and healing spells that it could learn and also was a cute and cool ass slime species that I'd not seen before beats anything I could get from discovering new species of Pokémon.

It's a real shame this series got kind of kneecapped in the west by releasing a month and a half after Pokémon Gold and Silver Versions over here, but, gosh darn it, does it just make me so excited for the multiplayer potential of a new installment in this series getting released outside Japan for the first time in, like, ten years.

Wini the Wing Slime... I will come back for you... I will come back to this game and reclaim my save.

Ten years ago, this game was mine and my friends’ Minecraft. We would play for hours and hours, and out of every game I own on Steam, ten years on, this game was the one with the most hours logged at 114 (low to many others, I’m sure, but a lot for me). I finally had an urge to go back and play this game, and when I did, I found myself intensely addicted. There is something to the exploration loop of this game that really tickles my ape brain to the point where, out of all of the games I’ve grown to love, this one has eaten up the longest play sessions. The way the caves are designed to be half-naturally forming allows for you to easily discover a path underground as you dig. With a small-sized world, too, a single player will find lots and lots to discover. For better or for worse.

I definitely appreciate this game’s exploration loop a lot more than its combat/campaign progression loop. It is so satisfying to be digging and discover another natural clearing in the map that leads you to different biomes, watching your map fill with the different colors of the different areas. There’s just something off about how one obtains better materials, etc. and how not-inuitive-at-all it is to craft things outside of the normal building/equipment that one might need during everyday gameplay. At first it’s simple but as soon as you see all of what you can craft you realize you’re dealing with a game with nearly 15 years of extra content inside of it. Once I found the first chest with a bunch of potions and bombs I realized how quickly this game can make you feel in over your head. Then I summoned the last boss on accident as I was exploring the lower depths of the world and that just made me feel a little intimidated. That was, until, after defeating only a few more bosses, I found myself in posession of items that made me feel incredibly powerful.

I guess something I didn’t remember from my youthful days of playing this is that the world of Terraria is incredibly hostile. While I didn’t have a lot of fun tracking down boss fights, there are enough surprises within the caverns of the depths of this world that even if you completely ignored every boss battle, you will still accrue a large collection of ways to die. Something I thought about a lot while playing this game is the fine line between a game that offers a difficult and sometimes-frustrating, but rewarding and sincere challenge, and a game that has at least the slightest disdain for its player base. Does a game you’re playing ever feel like it’s laughing at you? Does that make you have less fun?

Terraria is definitely having a chuckle to itself, especially when you activate the billionth boulder trap and find yourself hiking back meters and meters to wherever you lost all that coin. There is something to say about creating new scenarios and adjusting the entire game around the power creep caused, naturally, by years worth of new additions. I found myself constantly cycling through different weapon options throughout the game. Magical staves, muskets, maces, lances, lasers, yo-yos, bee shooters. That doesn’t even scratch the surface of all of the different accessories and equipment that you’ll cycle through, as you explore different biomes each with their own hazards and own personal hells.

I do have to wonder if the overall design of this game is a failure since the driving force of my play was revealing as much of the map as possible until it looked full enough that I was satisfied, and once I had I found myself a little tired of it all. Just for now, though, I do kind of find myself curious in playing an older version of this game on an older console without the latest updates. Though, for now, I definitely need to cut out this timesink from my life so I can focus on better things.