Nanaya
Not a bad time. It's easy but I kinda prefer that over how harsh Conquest can often be. The retranslation mod wasn't the huge overhaul I was expecting but the story was fine and at least a step up from Conquest's. If I ever hear Azura's song again it'll be too soon.
2020
Great game with a strong sense of adventure. It alleviates the main issue I tend to have with crpgs in that there's effort put into the presentation and I'm not just looking at tiny sprites talking to each other with text boxes.The plot isn't anything phenomenal but the dialogue is well-written, the voice acting is top-class, and there's a lot of variation depending on your companions and character background. There's also a ton of choices to make which is always fun. It also makes for a very enjoyable co-op experience even without the fun of trying to annoy the DM. Combat could drag sometimes, especially in the early game where everything misses and at the end where every fight has 30 enemies, but overall it was fine and it's fun to play around with the massive amount of abilities to choose from.
The story is extremely generic but fun combat, high quality presentation and monhun-like endgame make it a real gem. Also luv me cag.
2024
This review contains spoilers
Great remake of a very good game. I will say this solidified P3's spot as the weakest out of 3, 4 and 5 for me after having not played it in at least a decade but it was still nice to re-experience it. The process of building social links, dungeon crawling and filling the compendium is still very enjoyable but P3 hits a few snags that drag it down a bit.
Tartarus is notably more bland than themed dungeons and goes on longer than it should but the remake at least introduces some nice additions like the monad doors for extra challenges and the giant clock to make trying different party members less obnoxious. Theurgy attacks are also a stylish addition that put a bit more flare into the combat. It also feels real good to collect major arcana to make long tartarus dives feel more and more rewarding.
Social links, particularly those for the party members, are relatively simple and a lot of the time require the player encouraging characters' bad tendencies which doesn't make for a very satisfying experience. There are still some good ones like Akinari and Tanaka but a lot of the time it's just like "hey man I wanna bang a teacher" "sweet dude go for it" RANK UP. The daily life aspect is also hampered by frequent nonsensical interruptions that only serve to annoy the player like the typhoon and having to work at McDonalds for a week. These exist in the other games obviously but the lack of fun bonding scenes with the party members just makes it feel like a waste of time.
The story is still fairly good with a strong melancholy atmosphere, particularly in the last parts of the game, but the pacing is really all over the place. Party members are just kind of casually dropped onto the team without much fanfare and while they all get their moments, Junpei is the only one that feels consistently developed throughout the entire game. Link episodes help a considerable amount, especially for Shinji, but overall it was just hard to feel a strong bond with the SEES crew. The villains were also pretty weak with Ikutsuki's betrayal ending anticlimactically right after it began and Takaya's reasoning falling completely flat so a lot of the conflict and tension relied heavily on the ominous nature of the major shadows themselves.
The visuals of the remake are a straight upgrade and it was nice getting to move around 3D spaces since I had only previously played P3P. I really like a lot of the new music as well. I do miss some of the old voice actors, particularly Aigis and Akihiko's which are just way too distinct to be naturally replaced, but the new ones do a fine job.
I guess this is just another one of my rants made up of 90% complaints but really I had a great time. It's pretty much the only thing I've been playing for like a week. Fuuka cute!
Tartarus is notably more bland than themed dungeons and goes on longer than it should but the remake at least introduces some nice additions like the monad doors for extra challenges and the giant clock to make trying different party members less obnoxious. Theurgy attacks are also a stylish addition that put a bit more flare into the combat. It also feels real good to collect major arcana to make long tartarus dives feel more and more rewarding.
Social links, particularly those for the party members, are relatively simple and a lot of the time require the player encouraging characters' bad tendencies which doesn't make for a very satisfying experience. There are still some good ones like Akinari and Tanaka but a lot of the time it's just like "hey man I wanna bang a teacher" "sweet dude go for it" RANK UP. The daily life aspect is also hampered by frequent nonsensical interruptions that only serve to annoy the player like the typhoon and having to work at McDonalds for a week. These exist in the other games obviously but the lack of fun bonding scenes with the party members just makes it feel like a waste of time.
The story is still fairly good with a strong melancholy atmosphere, particularly in the last parts of the game, but the pacing is really all over the place. Party members are just kind of casually dropped onto the team without much fanfare and while they all get their moments, Junpei is the only one that feels consistently developed throughout the entire game. Link episodes help a considerable amount, especially for Shinji, but overall it was just hard to feel a strong bond with the SEES crew. The villains were also pretty weak with Ikutsuki's betrayal ending anticlimactically right after it began and Takaya's reasoning falling completely flat so a lot of the conflict and tension relied heavily on the ominous nature of the major shadows themselves.
The visuals of the remake are a straight upgrade and it was nice getting to move around 3D spaces since I had only previously played P3P. I really like a lot of the new music as well. I do miss some of the old voice actors, particularly Aigis and Akihiko's which are just way too distinct to be naturally replaced, but the new ones do a fine job.
I guess this is just another one of my rants made up of 90% complaints but really I had a great time. It's pretty much the only thing I've been playing for like a week. Fuuka cute!
TBD
I've been playing this since launch but unfortunately some error is keeping me from logging in anymore. Pretty much everything about Eversoul is extremely generic but for some reason I'm pretty fond of it. The little love stories for each character can be pretty endearing and the models are really high quality for an autobattler. They're also so generous with the currency that it's the only gacha I've ever played where I could guarantee rolling every single character as they came out but I might also just be a luckgod. Garnet best girl btw tbh.
2024
It's true that all I asked of capcom was "more dragons dogma" but I think they took it a bit too literally. I had a great time and was thoroughly addicted up until the credits but there's just not enough new stuff going on for it to feel fully satisfying. Having a whole new world to explore is great but the enemies and bosses are largely repeats with quite a few not even making the jump from dark arisen. The story starts out a lot more comprehensible than the first game's but once you get past a certain point it becomes just as disjointed and bizarre and it lacks iconic moments to hang onto like the encounters with daimon and the seneschal. The vocations are great to play but again are lacking in fresh new content. The mystic spearhand is cool but playing it in the late-game just resulted in me getting stunlocked constantly which was pretty miserable. I guess having a good time despite glaring flaws is really in the spirit of the original game but I wish it was better.
2021
Been playing this one for years and while nothing about it is particularly special, I found it endearing. The tile-clearing gameplay is fun and fits the gacha format well and there's a lot of cute character designs. I never really got into the story but just grinding everyone up was enjoyable. Only really dropping it because I finished maxing out a couple teams for each element and there's just not much else motivation to play. Connolly cute!
2017
Surprisingly great game. Had a very good sense of progression where I felt every neuromod I installed was useful and deciding which one to get was always tough. The space station had a nice dark atmosphere and exploring felt very rewarding. Combat was fun, albeit a bit repetitive. The guns felt powerful when upgraded and the Typhon powers were fun to use as well. I did feel some enemies like the telepaths and poltergeists were kind of a pain to fight but there aren't too many of them compared to mimics and phantoms. Didn't find the story too compelling, felt like a large portion of the audio logs and emails were either there to just reveal key locations or complain about messy relationships. The twist was very cool and well-done however, so it left me with a positive impression.