Lotta fans will tell you this the "worst" of the series, or an uninspired end...do NOT listen to them crybabies dude. Like most games it does stretch the game out a bit more than it should in the middle, but also there's just so much side content that if you're doing a completionist route it slows the narrative even more. Rean Schwarzer, I do this for you. Juna Crawford, you are the second coming. I got Erebonia on my back man. Crazy send off for class 7 and boy did they pull out everybody for their goodbye party.

30 minutes of (mostly) jolly, simple and straightforward 3D platforming. It ends right when the gameplay needed more variety, which this 1 dollar game won't give you. I don't think the weirder elements of the game added anything substantial, would prefer them to not be in the game instead of disturbing a perfectly cheerful experience. But it's nothing too fatal, the vibrant low poly aesthetics are too hard to beat.

Also, this is just a tangent but this game makes me nostalgic for a penguin platformer game that was preloaded on my old Linux EEE PC back in the late 2000s. Images of that game were just flying all over my brain during this playthrough. And I don't think I have thought about that game for years.

(9-year-old's review, typed by his dad)

This dog caused the fallout of Chernobyl. This dog owes the family $100,000,000. This dog is the devil himself.

It's cute but short. Buh-bye!

Alas, people won't make all the right choices in their lifetime... Though luck always seems like it's on your side.

You will keep winning, having never lost before. But why you? Why... must it be you?

If all your luck is built on the pain of someone you love, on the loss of dozens more - if these windfalls, these jackpots aren't a gift from Gaiathra- if all they are is a long string of meaningless deaths...

[Archived Forum Discussion: Adol vs Kratos]

" Kratos is a literal god vs some guy that is a traveler lol nah Adol gets bodied ez "

" Shield Staff negates any damage at the cost of mana, so if Adol keep eating pears to regen all MP he would never take damage "

" I feel kratos with spartan rage would still body him tho? "

" Shield staff negates any damage "

" so your saying a guy that can negate damage wins against the guy that literally two series worth of GODS and is immortal "

" Shield staff negates any damage "

Edit: NEVERMIND I HAD A GOOD NIGHT'S SLEEP THIS IS THE BEST SETUP GAME BESIDES UTAWARERUMONO 2, HOLY SHIT SOME OF THE MOMENTS IN THIS WERE EMOTIONAL AND HIT HARD, AND WE EVEN HAVE BETTER DOROTHY

I had no complaints with Zero until the last chapter, which was a bit of an underwhelming payoff, but until that point it was basically a perfect "setup game" with no dull moments. None of my issues from Sky FC are in this.

Aside from the mildly underwhelming finale, the "BRO WE'RE A CINEMATIC UNIVERSE BROOOOO" issue that I've been fearing with this series rears its head. In some aspects, it's really cool, what with the payoff for a character's arc in SC and 3rd (I started crying from it, it was so emotional). In others, you have the corny MCU thing of "heh, looks like I got here just in time!" and "wow [Crossbell character], you remind me of [Sky character]!" happening multiple times. I expect it to get both better with the payoffs, and worse with the corniness. But you take the good with the bad, I guess.

Otherwise, this is definitely one of the best JRPGs and videogames I've played. The combat system, characters, music, improved visuals from Sky, the Crossbell atmosphere, all of these contributed to a very fun experience. Can't wait for what Azure has in store.

Peak Fiction, this game is so incredibly good.
Van is such a fantastic protagonist, and he has definitely become one of my favorite protagonists. But not only Van, the whole Kuro Cast is great, in my opinion. I also really loved Risette and Agnès. Especially Risette is great, I absolutely love her.
This was also, in my opinion, certainly the best start to a new Arc from any Kiseki/Trails game, I don't think it could've been much better as a start to a new arc.
In addition to that, I also really liked the new battle system. I at least think the action/turn-based hybrid system was really fun.
Besides the great story, the game also looks beautiful. It's certainly the best-looking Kiseki game, and I enjoyed just looking at all the areas in the game.
The only major criticism I have with this game is probably that the music placement isn't perfect in some cases. I love the whole soundtrack, though I think in some cases the music didn't fit perfectly in the moments it played. But all things considered, that didn't bother me that much.
But overall, this game has become my favorite Kiseki/Trails game and one of my favorite games in general. With the Sky trilogy, Zero, Azure, Hajimari no Kiseki and now Kuro no Kiseki, the Kiseki/Trails series has definitely become one of my favorite series, and I'm already looking forward to playing Kuro II next.

Among all the different approaches Atlus has had to Megami Tensei since 1987, Digital Devil Saga has to be the most interesting one, it already differentiates itself from the mainline games heavily and builds its own identity by focusing the teological themes and references on Hinduism, everything from the architecture, names to even in-game systems draw heavy inspirations from those beliefs, and the more well-versed you are on that, the more meaning Digital Devil Saga will have, the game makes really intelligent parallels and references to Hindu religions.

But a game can't live on just symbolism, and it's in the gameplay part that Digital Devil Saga starts to show its flaws, they tried a different take on levelling and demon summoning, here, you no longer fuse and summon different demons, but instead, each party member has a set entity they can transform into, which in and off itself is a interesting idea, but the effect it had on levelling up is massively negative, because you no longer change demons (or magatamas) they had to implement a new system for skill learning, or the game would become very staple and with little variety if you could only learn pre-set skills to those entities, and this system comes in the form of Mantras, which is kinda like the magatama system from Nocturne, as in both revolve around different "equipment" that you can equip on the human characters and each one will have a type of skills for the player to learn while they level up, the problem is: in DDS, it becomes very grindy, especially if you want to defeat the optional bosses, in Nocturne, you still needed to grind if you wanted a specific skill, but as long as you had a general idea of how you wanted to build the Demi-Fiend you could just equip Magatamas that teach the types of skills you needed and have almost no need to grind, but in this game, if you want to make every party member you use somewhat decently strong, you must grind different mantras for each skill you want, and it quickly becomes tiresome.

The other major gameplay factor in Megami Tensei games are the dungeons, and i like the ones present here, they aren't as complex as the ones in Strange Journey or as trap-filled as the ones in Nocturne, instead, they have a more puzzley approach, and are pretty well thought out, i understand the criticisms some have towards them, but i personally like it.

It's hard to write about only DDS1's story without taking the second game into consideration, since everything seen here is just build up and character development for the REAL events that take place in the sequel, but for what it does, the world building is quite interesting, you get to see a bit of each faction of the Junkyard and how they operate, and the characters, both main and side, are very good and don't take long to capture your interest, it's a good story as it is, but i don't like the idea of making a whole game just to build up the sequel.

The soundtrack here (as usual in Atlus games) is amazing, super atmosferic and distinct, i think this duology's OST might be my favorite works from Shoji Meguro, and that's saying a lot, considering i really like most of his music, the visuals are also very good for the PS2 and the art direction is one of the best in gaming.

Overall, Digital Devil Saga is a solid game and a respectable attempt at a new take on Megami Tensei, even if it has major flaws, it's still an experience i enjoyed a lot, my rating is a 4/5 for the reasons i mentioned above, but i can easily see it being a 4.5 or even a 5.