It's really hard to make a review for this game. Like it has the best gameplay so far (haven't played Arkham Knight yet) and the worst story out of the first three. The visual and color grading of the cutscenes were great but some of the actions and reasons felt so bare. Like if this was the first or only Arkham game it would be fantastic but having played 2 amazing games before this kinda makes this feel meh which disappoints me. I enjoyed the overworld more here than in City, it felt bigger, more fresher. And I think I enjoy collecting Enigma's stuff a bit more than Riddler trophies because there's a story behind it rather than a bunch of text files. But aside from that I really don't have anything else to say. It makes me kinda worried since I really like this series, hopefully it just the third game curse and Arkham Knight will lock in and be phenomenal.

The Deathstroke fight was the best fight this series will ever have....probably.

The start of a journey with the Dragon of Dojima.

I played this with the Restoration Patch cause I wanted to see how this game originally was. I'll probably play the English Dub on day just see how silly it is. But yeah the combat is very poor and limited, many fights are just won by spamming square then triangle and others were annoying with constant near speed of light quicksteps and invincible frames. Some bosses were just not that fun and many of the arena fights were a slog to get through. I had to just skip Jo Amon because grinding to get the weapons to beat him took forever and I just wasn't having any fun at that point. Also I have no idea if it was the game or me but when I try punch forward it would sometimes turn me around the other way. It happened so frequently I think it was just the game itself. But there were also moments of clarity where you'd but doing your square combo and square/triangle combo and there was something soothing about brutality beating down whatever enemies were in front of you.

That's something this game is a masterclass in; the vibe this game offers. It basically is like watch a B movie gangster action flick. I know I just threw out a gargle of buzzwords but I think they all fit this game to a T. The story was good it did lack in some areas (Jingu's Scenes -_-) but there were something it did really well.

I know I mostly just complained at the battle but I'd say to give this a chance just to see what the game was originally like. I literally wasn't even planning on finishing this game when I first started I just wanted to see how different it was from Kiwami and why certain people liked this more. I just was gonna play a few chapters in but then I got into it a bit and now were here. I get it now though, personally I'm either or since I'm not that crazy about the first game.

Also why is the end credits song Amazing Grace, what a weird song to put in this game.

A Star Ocean game where the story is really good and the gameplay is pretty bad...not what I was expecting at all. Like if I told myself 3 years ago the one thing that kept me from dropping a Star Ocean game (aside from the fact that I rarely do that) was the story, I would be dumbfounded. Unfortunately it's hard to talk about this game's story without spoiling anything. So I'll try to write it out in a general sense.

This game takes place before the first Star Ocean, First Departure, and answers some questions you may or may not have had such as the reason why Earthlings decided to take to space, how they did so, and the creation of the Underdeveloped Planet Preservation Pact. While all interesting questions aside from the last one, the answers aren't really given that much depth. But that's fine this series is about space travel after all. It does both good and bad with this.

You see the universe through the eyes of Edge Maverick, contrary to his name, his personality is just being edgy or moody all the time. He's a hot headed passionate person who wants to help others without a second thought. But that leads him to do more harm than good through his journey. And with his new found friends, he is able to build the courage and strength to make the hard hitting choices and decisions. Sounds kind of plain when I write it out but I really do like Edge a lot. The cutscenes from early to mid game were just great, I was intently watching them because I enjoyed them so much. Edge’s arc in this game was great too, I seriously can’t believe people disliked it. It helped serve so much purpose that it still affected him even by the end of the game. I know a lot of people hate the models and animations in these cutscenes. But I just love how weird and unnatural it was. Like how in every cutscene Reimi literally never stops moving or having constant eye contact with whoever is speaking and that one scene where Faize is talking real fast about something and the girl who gave him the cloak had no idea what he was even talking but was smiling and shaking her head in acknowledgement (that made laugh since it was so unexpected I missed out on what the scene was even about). The voice acting was honestly great, I can't believe people were saying it was bad. Either I've heard worse or I've heard good for too long, no clue which. Don't really care for the “bad” guy all too much (like I rarely do but the final boss was interesting and surprising. I wish they had developed them a bit earlier but I get why they did it this way.

Interesting thing about The Last Hope compared to First Departure and Second Story (haven't played the 3rd one yet) is that all your party members are chosen for you. I was a bit miffed about it at first but I became okay with it because at the very least each character adds something to the story/dialogue. It probably helps that I just recently finished Second Story R and was wishing the other party members interacted more in the story. But I really do like the characters in this game but only because they're in a game like this. I know that's kind of weird to say but I think if they were in any other game I don't think I would like any of them. Like Faize, Edge, Bacchus, Crowe, Sarah, Lymle, Eleyna, and Klaus just to name a few, who just wouldn't have worked in any other game. Except for Welch, I just really like her a lot more than I should for some reason. She is honestly really good in this game, every scene with her is just great. It may be really corny but it fits Welch to a T. Some designs suck though like Arumat, Myuria and Meracle, no reason to make them look like they did. It was so weird because there’s no way anyone liked it…right? But some designs were really good like Sarah, Lymle, Faize, and Welch (I actually warmed up to it, but blue and blonde are still the best combo for her). Private Actions still exist (they're great btw) and I saw a few of them but it looks like I missed a bunch since I only got one character's ending which sucks because it wasn't the one I was most looking forward to, oh well maybe next time. I will say though I think the female cast was done dirty in this game. A bit too much direction in fetishizing characteristics (something a bit different from the random mill of fanservice imo) on them and making them not too smart or too strong in the story compared to the female cast of First Departure and Second Story. But it's not like they were awful or bad, it was just a step in a different direction than I expected for this series. Which I can honestly say for this entire game to be honest.

The gameplay is not great, luckily though it's not horrendously bad either. Just nowhere near as fun as the first two games. Combat animations and hitstun/delay are way too slow for me to truly enjoy it. Bonus Board is alright but it breaks too easily since every enemy can just crit super easily. I wish being in Rush mode helped such as ignore crits but it doesn't. Quests are a bore since they're active within Item Creation which yes....is bad too. I can't believe the made IC bad like how do you make one of the best subsystems ever in the first two games and then ruin it in the fourth, that's just crazy. You can only do IC in the Calnus that require items from stores/vending machines and enemies that for some reason took forever to drop. I was grinding these mushroom enemies for at least 45 mins just to get some 10 Tasty Mushrooms. It should never take that long to get any items, especially when field skills like Botany are maxed out. Then you'll have to slowly dash all the way to the quest givers and/or Calnus between these long stretches of uninteresting terrain and enemies. No fast travel until the final areas, which is lame. Don't know why fast travel had to have a plot reason to exist; all it did was waste my time throughout the beginning. I got over 56 hours in this game and I’m sure a good chunk was going back and to the Calnus and towns.

Regardless, I still had a fun time. I’m glad I was able to experience this game. Now Square Enix please put Star Ocean 3 and 5 on Steam so I can play them, thanks!

It's been 3 long years since I first experienced this game on the PSP. I had just recently finished First Departure and was locked in for this series. And every since then I've been carving to play the rest of this series. And lo and behold we get a beautiful remake with QOL and gameplay enhancements. COUNT ME IN!

The graphic redesign of all the areas in the game were great. I never really though twice about them before but now I can't stop thinking about that. The new OST is pretty good, a few I wasn't too big on but for the ones I liked originally were done right. The new portrait art look amazing, a little bland in showing emotion compared to the PSP ver. but are objectively better looking. They made mages better and their moves look incredible. The new combat, formations and Assaults were all great additions, they made an already fun battle system even better. Also fishing.....it's ok but I liked Reef and her design.

The QOL is literally what I was wishing for when I played 3 years ago. I loved being able to see when PA were available, I missed some good one back then. Fast travel will always be a godsend. IC/Specialty made things a lot easier to understand. The new cutscenes were very good, a certain event had more impact thanks to it. The Challenge Mission and Sidequest were good additions, made me pay more attention to all the systems in the game. Being able to see FP/RP at anytime was significant better than having to go to Fun City, I could get several endings without it being a pain.

I see myself playing this game several times throughout my life. This remake is perfect.

My first Mana game ended up being a lot more fun than I expected. The gameplay was so much fun, luckily hard mode wasn't extremely annoying like most are. My party consisted of Kevin, Riesz, and Hawkeye. At first, I wasn't sure if I would enjoy playing them but as they got more and more abilities and stat upgrades they become more fun. Though I did use Kevin the most.

The story isn't really much to write home about, so I won't bother. But I definitely enjoyed Kevin's side for than the others. Probably because I get to see more of the deep turmoil with him, his father, and Goremand. Kinda wish they allowed you to do the same with your party members but I guess they have to be my MC for that to be possible. But I just felt so blue balled after seeing Riesz's and Hawkeye's dialogue with Belladonna just for it to end on a nothing note.

The OST is great but isn't one I'd listen to a bunch. The voice acting is awful, straight up. I still found the dialogue to be endearing but not as enjoyable to listen to like Kingdom Hearts or Star Ocean. The lock on system is also trash like geez it's bad, honestly better to never use it.

Either way, I'm all on for the Mana series. I'll most likely play the first one next to see how the series was originally.

Actually incredible game. Like goddamn, man what an experience. The gameplay and OST absolutely beautiful. Seriously this OST gives me life, it's so damn good. The glow up from DonPachi to this has to be studied. Now this is a game I'd replay constantly if I had an actual arcade.

But there's one problem....and that's the second half of the game. Which you can only get to if you not lose a single life not use a bomb, and score of 120 million points. Then I have to beat Ura Loop which has more red bullets and blue suicide bullets. And finally I have to beat the True Final Boss without dying once.

This is my SECOND SHUMP EVER...I literally can't do this. I'm still bad at this genre. Though I will say I was dodging a lot better in this game than in DonPachi. No clue if that was because it was "easier" or because the gears in my head are starting to turn with this genre. But it sucks that I can't see the second half of the game nor fight the True Final Boss unless I beat those conditions. Obviously I want to do it at some point. Unfortunately not now but hopefully and eventually later!

This is my first SHUMP game and yeah.....I get it now. I understand, I comprehend, I see, I follow....

I...can keep going on but yeah this was so much fun even though I died a lot. It's really hard, no clue how one could go through this deathless seriously. There's way too many bullets on the screen at one time, the game literally had a few slowdowns because of it and they're so fast. I encountered many situations were I could not dodge so I just died. My heart goes out to the poor souls who had to spend a billion dollar just to beat 10 levels.

Music is ok, you aren't really paying much attention to it. Since the shooting sfx is so loud, it's basically just background noise. I mostly used the blue ship/jet because....it was blue and I like blue...yea. I accidently choose the green one once and I didn't really like it but I was so used to the blue one by that point so that could be one reason.

Regardless, I'm excited to go through this series and see how it grows and adapts through each proceeding entry.

I hadn't really had an itch for arcade games since I thought I couldn't play any of them. But then I say a video talking about this game and it looks so cool. The fact that the gameplay was similar to fighting game controls, the gorgeous spritework, and the pleasant looking character designs. I became so infatuated by this immediately and decide I wanted to play this game. After several tireless effort, I finally found a way to play this. Did it live hope to the greatness I felt when I first say this?

Well kinda...to be straight with you. I enjoyed the game as you can see. But some of the controls and movement are pretty rough imo. I know it's an old game and was not made with and Xbox controller in mind. So obviously, it's my privilege coming out a little when I say this. There's a few things I wish was a bit better though. Such as being able to running, block and/or dodge, choosing when to reload the gun, picking up weapon by accident not eating my inputs, and depth perception being a pain in my butt. A good chunk of my deaths would have been avoided has I had to ability to move fast enough or not forcefully stopped in my tracks.

Aside from all of that, I still had a blast playing through this. And I glad I actually was able to even play this in the first place. The music was great. The story was very miniscule but that was fine, I don't really know anything about this series so I would have been very confused had there been more. I do wish the game was a bit longer but I get why it wasn't. BTW I mostly played as Linn Kurosawa, she looks so cool so I had to try her out. Which isn't very surprising hearing as she influenced Lyn from Fire Emblem design. And she was very fun to play. I played a little of Predator Warrior and it was good. I might run it back with them at some point.

One day I want to play this on an actually arcade system. If those even exist anymore. I feel like I would enjoy it even more.

A beautifully pixeled action rpg game using characters from a comedic show that I like? SIGN ME UP!

Honestly it was pretty fun, can't believe I slept on it for almost a year. All the major boss fights were so good and well crafted.

The OST were just banger after banger. But that shouldn't be too surprising since Team Ladybug is the developer. You might remember them from Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth (I did a review on it) or Luna Nights (which I haven't played yet but heard some track from). They're just master class at the pixel art work and music. I hope they make more games down the line and I intend to play all the ones that are out now.

Anyways if you looking for a good 2 hour to spend on a game, freeware btw, this is the one!

I think I like the idea of it but.....I-uh.....have no idea what exactly I just played.

I barely know anything about Street Fighter and within seconds I could tell this was a whole ripoff of it.

Nice Try, Data East. But I not that stupid. Unless I'm wrong but I don't think so...

Game kinda fun tho, so I'm interested in trying out the older Street Fighter games.

Fire 'n Ice or Solomon's Key 2 is a spectacular puzzle game for the NES. It surprises me that this is on this console, it's look amazing; something I would expect from an SNES.

You play as a young upstart Ice Wizard named Dana who is given the task to save their home Coolmint Island from the dreaded Fire Wizard Druidle.

You go through 10 worlds each having 9 levels and 1 boss battle using the power of ice to defeat fire enemies. But not inn the conventional way.

The fire enemies are in odd locations so you create the ice blocks to use them as platforms and attack from above or the sides. It similar to tactical games where you need to pinpoint how to set up your ice blocks without getting yourself stuck or making it impossible to defeat the enemy.

It's pretty difficult (for me) the farther you get into the game mostly because it doesn't come with a tutorial. Certain stuff I didn't know I could do with the ice blocks until I consulted a guide. But once you understand the puzzles become fun and addictive.

I recommend giving it a shot if you have NSO. Rewind helps if you make a mistake since movement is a bit wonky. Never played a puzzle game like this before but it was great. But it makes me sad that we never had a full on series with this game. Hopefully it gets a remake or sequel eventually because I believe this game was made ahead of it's time and deserves to basking in the light once more.

Played this with a friend via Steam Remote Play and it was pretty fun.

It's essential a Zeldalike and Metroidvania and I think it does it well. Exploration was fantastic, we got 100% for the Map, and fighting enemies wasn't awful.

It's storytelling is similar to BOTW and I think it did it every well. I liked the relationship between Raquel and Alma. It didn't feel forced or unearned, it was cool. We played with the timer on and it wasn't a bad experience. Sure some Automatons died but we...kinda killed some of them on purpose.

Mechanics were ok. Hookshot was pretty janky, chips were just another thing to spend money on, Stamina system was bad but that isn't surprising, Parrying was good, the way double jump worked sucked, Spinner was fun and it was nice how elemental weapons affected the environment.

I will say multiplayer is pretty rough in this game. The camera only follows player 1 even in boss battle. You even teleport near player 1 if they're too far a way which can cause you to take damage for no reason. The models looks way to similar, only the hair is different which caused my friend and I to keep getting confused with each other a lot. But aside from that it always ran smoothly.

All in all, a good Steam game for anyone looking for some.

This is a pretty good game held back by the lives system. Seriously who thought adding lives to Pool was a smart idea...?

The music is enjoyable and the sprites look great. The challenges are really dumb, I have zero clue how you're suppose to do those and they don't feel interesting or worthful at all.

All I want to do is just play some regular old Pool with those nice jazzy tunes. And it does give that vibe off really well. So if you're into that this is for you.

This is the most disjointed game I've ever had the pleasure of playing. Never again.