Mudo146
076
Total Games Played
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Played in 2024
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I finally jumped back into Trails in the Sky after beating the first game in late 2019 or early 2020. I have to say that I'm glad I did. The writing is just as good as the first game, with the story building off of the first game's cliffhanger. Estelle's quest to find Joshua has to take a backseat to helping the different regions of Liberl, but it's always there at least. And it's great to revisit all the regions and locales as well as all the characters we met there.
A big change for me this time was that I ignored the people who say you need to read every NPC dialogue after every plot point or else you're missing the game. I engaged when I wanted to and didn't when I wanted to just plow through with the story and that helped me avoid burnout and love every chapter of this game. The way the story comes to a head is worth all the hours I put into both games.
The battle system is exactly the same as the first game, but it's cool that it starts you all at level 40. It's a serviceable system, with the orbments tuning (like materia) being a fun way to customize the party. Thank god for the devs putting in the turbo option though, which makes the entire game a breeze to walk through instead of a slog of slow battle animations.
A super fun JRPG that is totally worth the time investment. I loved it in spite of some of its anime tropes.
A big change for me this time was that I ignored the people who say you need to read every NPC dialogue after every plot point or else you're missing the game. I engaged when I wanted to and didn't when I wanted to just plow through with the story and that helped me avoid burnout and love every chapter of this game. The way the story comes to a head is worth all the hours I put into both games.
The battle system is exactly the same as the first game, but it's cool that it starts you all at level 40. It's a serviceable system, with the orbments tuning (like materia) being a fun way to customize the party. Thank god for the devs putting in the turbo option though, which makes the entire game a breeze to walk through instead of a slog of slow battle animations.
A super fun JRPG that is totally worth the time investment. I loved it in spite of some of its anime tropes.
Just an absolute blast of a game. A faithful homage to Jet Set Radio, even with Hideki Naganuma coming back to compose a few songs. I had a great time moving through the city and was always looking forward to what the next area was. It was a shame that the three ride styles (inline skates, skateboard, and BMX) didn't have any differences except that there were some doors that required you to be on a bike for no real reason. I was a bit surprised that the story was as decent as it was to be honest because I don't remember any of the story from Jet Set Radio. It wasn't the world's greatest story, but I still really enjoyed it.
I actually started doing some achievement hunting for this game because I enjoyed the world and music so much, and that means blanketing a zone with all unique grafitti tags and doing score attacks.
This game is so easy to recommend to anyone just looking to jam out and enjoy some easygoing Dreamcast style gaming.
I actually started doing some achievement hunting for this game because I enjoyed the world and music so much, and that means blanketing a zone with all unique grafitti tags and doing score attacks.
This game is so easy to recommend to anyone just looking to jam out and enjoy some easygoing Dreamcast style gaming.
This review contains spoilers
Future Redeemed was an unexpectedly early surprise in April. This DLC was basically a full on old-school expansion, clocking in around 30-ish hours for me and my semi-completionist habits. First and foremost, this was the same level of polish and detail that I've come to love from Xenoblade Chronicles (a continuing and surprising trend with the DLC expansions).
This expansion (which is what I'm going to call it from here on out) delivered all the XC fan service that we expected from the base game: Shulk and Rex, Colony 9, and Trinity Processor nonsense. And the music, continuing the trend of the expansion music being jazzier, delivered fully. Furthermore, the combat and party management was like a constrained (and thus more manageable) take on the systems from the base game.
I loved the inclusion of "map completion" showing you the different activities or unique monsters that remain in an area. It made it so satisfying to hunt down all the different points on the map and encouraged you even more to explore the big, beautiful maps that Monolith Soft are now known for making. I didn't finish fighting all the superbosses, but I did a LOT more than I normally would.
This is right up there with Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna - The Golden Country as one of the best Xenoblade Chronicles experiences.
Honestly, Future Redeemed was a top-tier game and it wasn't even its own release.
This expansion (which is what I'm going to call it from here on out) delivered all the XC fan service that we expected from the base game: Shulk and Rex, Colony 9, and Trinity Processor nonsense. And the music, continuing the trend of the expansion music being jazzier, delivered fully. Furthermore, the combat and party management was like a constrained (and thus more manageable) take on the systems from the base game.
I loved the inclusion of "map completion" showing you the different activities or unique monsters that remain in an area. It made it so satisfying to hunt down all the different points on the map and encouraged you even more to explore the big, beautiful maps that Monolith Soft are now known for making. I didn't finish fighting all the superbosses, but I did a LOT more than I normally would.
This is right up there with Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna - The Golden Country as one of the best Xenoblade Chronicles experiences.
Honestly, Future Redeemed was a top-tier game and it wasn't even its own release.