After falling in love with the recently released Star Ocean Second Story R, I knew that I needed to continue seeing what this series had to offer. Figured I'd backtrack before I move forward- and thus here I am with Star Ocean First Departure R. I am happy to report that it, like its successor, is a fantastic time.
A lot of my praise for this game is pretty similar to the praise I gave to Second Story- the blending of sci-fi and fantasy, the mechanical depth, fun combat, wonderful characters and recruiting processes, worldbuilding, so on and so forth. However, this game still feels very distinct with its own flavors and spins on all of those aspects, and I found that to be really exciting. This game is such a blast from start to finish, and just emanates charm right from the golden snes/ps1 era of JRPGs beautifully.
The way this story is setup is so wonderfully told and compelling, and the early twist that truly kicks the game off had me engaged right from the start. From that point onward I was on board for everything the game threw at me. Time travel? Awesome. Four main protagonists? Wonderful. Keep it coming because I am having a ton of fun. Traveling around the world felt so diverse with its races, towns, and general atmospheres of the major areas, and every chance I had to meet someone I gladly took the opportunity. It manages to feel expansive and tight knit at the same time, and I think that is a commendable feat. I noticed a lot of little moments that really made the world shine. For example, I found a kid building a snowman and I joined in with Millie to help build more and more until we had a long line of snowmen. I figured it was just a little visual gag, but it didn’t reset when I left the town- and even showed up in a monumental cutscene later on. Everything about that encounter was completely optional, but it added so much texture and authenticity to the world that I was honestly pretty shocked by it. Little bits and pieces like that dotted around every corner are captivating, and that attention to detail and worldbuilding is always in effect.
In the combat encounters I had a ton of fun slashing away at the monsters, too. It is very simple, flashy, and depending on your outlook maybe a little dull and repetitive or (in my outlook) very satisfying and visceral. The true fun is seeing how you can build your characters beforehand and watching your progress pay off, and it is just as addicting as my previous encounter with the series. Crafting new weapons that would bump my stats up by 400+, blacksmithing new armor that could absorb elements, appraising amazing items, and nerfing my stats in exchange for higher xp rewards never got old. I probably spent just as much time looking at the skill screen as I did the combat itself, and watching my numbers grow always made me hyped. There is an endless amount of variety, customization, and stuff to unlock and play with that I feel like everyone could approach this game in unique ways and see great results. Heck, I have plenty of skills that I didn’t try out at all, and that's before all the attack techniques, spells, and character combinations I have yet to see too. Good stuff all around.
I think the true highlight for me here was, like Second Story, the characters. Not all of them are heavy hitters for me, for example T’nique felt very one note and boring to me, but everyone else I picked up was just a joy. Roddick is a great protagonist, and Ronyx and Ilia both gave such a unique perspective to everything and just were a ton of fun to be around. Watching the history of Cyuss and Phia was one of my favorite side stories in the game easily, and that serious tone is contrasted so heavily by how funny, naive, and energetic Pericci was and I caught myself always chuckling at her screen presence. Millie was my very favorite, though, since she was very emotionally fleshed out while still being so goofy and personable- something I always love- had great dynamics with everyone, and was also the party healer (my favorite JRPG class). Every time I saw the icon for the private actions I jumped at the chance to see what little flavor texts I could find just to spend more time with the cast. Some were really funny like Ronyx begging Millie not to tell how he learned Symbology, the girls only meeting in the inn, or all the times Cyuss got wasted at a bar- and like I mentioned before added such a great layer of texture to the world and cast that I always enjoyed. And the best part is I still have a huge stack of characters I haven’t met yet! I already want to replay just to see who else is out there, but I will save that for the future since I know I'll be back someday.
I don’t think this game is perfect by any means- as much as I wish I could say otherwise given how much fun I had, but there are some pretty apparent faults here and there. The beginning of the game and the setup it provides is so strong, and the ending kind of feels like it was thrown together at the last second and didn’t feel particularly satisfying to me. Not bad, but I was hoping for a little more. There are also some weird difficulty spikes sprinkled in that I felt were kind of absurd, especially at the end with the final boss who’s first phase I really don’t know how to beat without spending hours grinding or just cheesing him like I did. I also think there’s a little too much backtracking here that even I, a Metroid and Castlevania enthusiast, found to be a bit obnoxious. Those were the major flaws, but I also think that the soundtrack is just “good”. I liked it but it's not something that has really stuck with me like Second Story’s. The audio mixing felt all over the place, with the battle theme especially feeling like it was turned way down- made worse by everyone yelling their current actions nonstop. There’s a few more little things but I think I’ve made my point and they’re trivial enough for me not to really care when the game as a whole is so great.
Star Ocean First Departure R is a very short (only 22ish hours), mechanically dense, incredibly charming, addictive, and generally just fantastic little game. Second Story got me curious about what this series as a whole could offer, and now First Departure has cemented me as a newfound Star Ocean (series) fan. I had such a great time and I hope more people like me who are just getting into the series come and play and enjoy it like I did. Great time.
A lot of my praise for this game is pretty similar to the praise I gave to Second Story- the blending of sci-fi and fantasy, the mechanical depth, fun combat, wonderful characters and recruiting processes, worldbuilding, so on and so forth. However, this game still feels very distinct with its own flavors and spins on all of those aspects, and I found that to be really exciting. This game is such a blast from start to finish, and just emanates charm right from the golden snes/ps1 era of JRPGs beautifully.
The way this story is setup is so wonderfully told and compelling, and the early twist that truly kicks the game off had me engaged right from the start. From that point onward I was on board for everything the game threw at me. Time travel? Awesome. Four main protagonists? Wonderful. Keep it coming because I am having a ton of fun. Traveling around the world felt so diverse with its races, towns, and general atmospheres of the major areas, and every chance I had to meet someone I gladly took the opportunity. It manages to feel expansive and tight knit at the same time, and I think that is a commendable feat. I noticed a lot of little moments that really made the world shine. For example, I found a kid building a snowman and I joined in with Millie to help build more and more until we had a long line of snowmen. I figured it was just a little visual gag, but it didn’t reset when I left the town- and even showed up in a monumental cutscene later on. Everything about that encounter was completely optional, but it added so much texture and authenticity to the world that I was honestly pretty shocked by it. Little bits and pieces like that dotted around every corner are captivating, and that attention to detail and worldbuilding is always in effect.
In the combat encounters I had a ton of fun slashing away at the monsters, too. It is very simple, flashy, and depending on your outlook maybe a little dull and repetitive or (in my outlook) very satisfying and visceral. The true fun is seeing how you can build your characters beforehand and watching your progress pay off, and it is just as addicting as my previous encounter with the series. Crafting new weapons that would bump my stats up by 400+, blacksmithing new armor that could absorb elements, appraising amazing items, and nerfing my stats in exchange for higher xp rewards never got old. I probably spent just as much time looking at the skill screen as I did the combat itself, and watching my numbers grow always made me hyped. There is an endless amount of variety, customization, and stuff to unlock and play with that I feel like everyone could approach this game in unique ways and see great results. Heck, I have plenty of skills that I didn’t try out at all, and that's before all the attack techniques, spells, and character combinations I have yet to see too. Good stuff all around.
I think the true highlight for me here was, like Second Story, the characters. Not all of them are heavy hitters for me, for example T’nique felt very one note and boring to me, but everyone else I picked up was just a joy. Roddick is a great protagonist, and Ronyx and Ilia both gave such a unique perspective to everything and just were a ton of fun to be around. Watching the history of Cyuss and Phia was one of my favorite side stories in the game easily, and that serious tone is contrasted so heavily by how funny, naive, and energetic Pericci was and I caught myself always chuckling at her screen presence. Millie was my very favorite, though, since she was very emotionally fleshed out while still being so goofy and personable- something I always love- had great dynamics with everyone, and was also the party healer (my favorite JRPG class). Every time I saw the icon for the private actions I jumped at the chance to see what little flavor texts I could find just to spend more time with the cast. Some were really funny like Ronyx begging Millie not to tell how he learned Symbology, the girls only meeting in the inn, or all the times Cyuss got wasted at a bar- and like I mentioned before added such a great layer of texture to the world and cast that I always enjoyed. And the best part is I still have a huge stack of characters I haven’t met yet! I already want to replay just to see who else is out there, but I will save that for the future since I know I'll be back someday.
I don’t think this game is perfect by any means- as much as I wish I could say otherwise given how much fun I had, but there are some pretty apparent faults here and there. The beginning of the game and the setup it provides is so strong, and the ending kind of feels like it was thrown together at the last second and didn’t feel particularly satisfying to me. Not bad, but I was hoping for a little more. There are also some weird difficulty spikes sprinkled in that I felt were kind of absurd, especially at the end with the final boss who’s first phase I really don’t know how to beat without spending hours grinding or just cheesing him like I did. I also think there’s a little too much backtracking here that even I, a Metroid and Castlevania enthusiast, found to be a bit obnoxious. Those were the major flaws, but I also think that the soundtrack is just “good”. I liked it but it's not something that has really stuck with me like Second Story’s. The audio mixing felt all over the place, with the battle theme especially feeling like it was turned way down- made worse by everyone yelling their current actions nonstop. There’s a few more little things but I think I’ve made my point and they’re trivial enough for me not to really care when the game as a whole is so great.
Star Ocean First Departure R is a very short (only 22ish hours), mechanically dense, incredibly charming, addictive, and generally just fantastic little game. Second Story got me curious about what this series as a whole could offer, and now First Departure has cemented me as a newfound Star Ocean (series) fan. I had such a great time and I hope more people like me who are just getting into the series come and play and enjoy it like I did. Great time.
In the past half decade, I started my journey with the Persona series, and now I am making my final stop with the Persona 2 duology. I have had a strenuous relationship with the four games that preceded this, with opinions on games ranging from “fantastic!” to “that was kind of bad..”, and now I wondered what my feelings would be for this one. Luckily for me, it fell firmly on the former rather than latter- and I have been enamored and absorbed into this title deeply. It is not without some issues, but where it shines it does so so radiantly that I just simply fell in love.
The elephant in the room here is the moment-to-moment gameplay- which its distasteful fan commentary was virtually the only thing I knew going in. Now, was the gameplay of Persona 2 Innocent Sin bad? To that I say, “not really I guess”- however I can’t dance around its glaring flaws. This game plays very.. plain- and I like plain! Selecting actions and watching them play out has never ceased to be entertaining for me. That being said, I think three major things hold it back from true excellence.
Firstly, This game has an insane encounter rate. I personally love random encounters in JRPGs, but they really crank it up here. Doing anything in a dungeon will undoubtedly have you lining up to kill some demons a few times. It is made worse by…
Secondly, This game needs a redbull or something because goodness it is sluggish! Menu selections in a battle feel like you’re choosing them through molasses, the battle animations are incredibly repetitive (press start to use the skip feature !!!), and getting in and out of every battle has a little load screen to accompany it- and that was with the extra data install you can do to trim loads. If you truly lack patience, it might be worth busting out your fancy emulator fast-forward toggle. And finally you start to question the point at all because…
Finally, This game is easy. Like, you have to try extensively to fail here. I don’t want to sound hyperbolic here but I can’t think of a more accurate descriptor than “brainless” here. You can very easily beat this entire game using exclusively the story-granted Personas. I used the Velvet Room maybe two or three times to see what it was like, but never even used my new companions because it didn’t matter. I also did a minimal amount of side content (mostly due to it being kind of obtuse to even find) and never found an ultimate weapon or armor for anyone. I still could beat nearly every encounter with a nice and balanced magic-spamming autobattle. Dump your stats into magic and just go crazy- it’ll work just fine. This is the first JRPG where I didn’t get a game over even a single time. I like easy fine enough, but when it is this easy, sluggish, and prominent it can get a little tiring. However, I still don’t think it is “bad”, just kind of boring and repetitive- but there is some satisfaction to it all watching everyone level up more and just steamroll everything. It doesn’t ruin the experience at all, to me atleast.
For every gameplay misstep, however, it is made up for tenfold by the storytelling served to you here, because damn this game absolutely fascinated me from start to end. Right from the very beginning it sets up such a compelling mystery and intrigue that you truly want to unravel, and it never slows down with dull moments or loses any appeal. Persona nowadays tries to act “adult” but feverishly lacks the nuance needed more times than not, in my opinion. This game also introduces some very heavy and mature themes, but I never found it disingenuous or distasteful when presented here since it is very carefully crafted to be nuanced and treated with care- while still never losing the charm and levity of the colorful cast. Every second of it was engaging, thought provoking on occasion, and legitimately moving when it needed to be. This game has all sorts of anime craziness for sure, but it uses the surrealism to paint a very contrasting image to the down to earth and realistic atmosphere and narrative it delivers- and I think both sides of the coin are strengthened because of it.
What really punctuates this story, though, is the characters it tells it with, and I think this is easily the best cast of characters this series has ever had. Every single one of them is not only likable, not only really unique, but also consistently develops throughout the story with some outstanding writing and characterization. This is a game about a group of ordinary people overcoming their past trauma by internalizing it and facing their fears with newfound courage, supportive friends, and also maybe some occult powers- and I think conceptually and in execution it is beautiful. This game doesn't hide critical character development behind optional social links, it doesn’t force in a dating sim mechanic or double its runtime by splicing in slice of life shenanigans, it just tells a story and it does it wonderfully.
Innocent Sin kind of snuck up on me. I didn’t know what to expect from it, but this level of praise and love was not quite on my bingo card. I am simply enamored by this game, and I think it is a very special experience. I will be playing Eternal Punishment soon, even though I was so satisfied by this game I don’t quite feel I “need” a continuation- but I can’t turn it down either. I hope that this game gets a modern rerelease along with P1 and EP so more people can experience and love these games like I have. Until then, my conclusion simply states that this game rules.
Final thoughts I couldn't really segway into this review naturally:
- Maya is easily the best character in the series and every aspect of her personality, dialogue, and actions made her both incredibly silly and also heartwarming with a genuine love for her friends. I found her to be the heart of the cast and really laid the foundation for why this story and cast is so good.
- The cast including someone not Japanese, someone from another school, an adult, and an experienced persona user makes this an incredibly diverse and unique cast compared to anything else and I thought it was really refreshing and cool.
- More Philemon. I love Philemon.
- More Satomi Tadashi Pharmacy (it is a crime it stopped being used after P2)
- Out of all the Persona games this has the best antagonist(s) which I’m not mentioning here since I don’t want to spoil anything, but if you know you know
- Not having traditional demon fusing was a little jarring coming from someone so thoroughly invested in Megaten, but I came to appreciate it fast due to it being different and new- even if barely necessary.
- The rumor system didn’t get as much use as something as cool as it should, but when it was an option I loved seeing how it would impact the world.
- The music is great but unfortunately to me lacks a lot of the impact and atmosphere from something like P1 and I was a little disappointed just having that subconscious comparison (but still love it anyways)
- This game still rules
The elephant in the room here is the moment-to-moment gameplay- which its distasteful fan commentary was virtually the only thing I knew going in. Now, was the gameplay of Persona 2 Innocent Sin bad? To that I say, “not really I guess”- however I can’t dance around its glaring flaws. This game plays very.. plain- and I like plain! Selecting actions and watching them play out has never ceased to be entertaining for me. That being said, I think three major things hold it back from true excellence.
Firstly, This game has an insane encounter rate. I personally love random encounters in JRPGs, but they really crank it up here. Doing anything in a dungeon will undoubtedly have you lining up to kill some demons a few times. It is made worse by…
Secondly, This game needs a redbull or something because goodness it is sluggish! Menu selections in a battle feel like you’re choosing them through molasses, the battle animations are incredibly repetitive (press start to use the skip feature !!!), and getting in and out of every battle has a little load screen to accompany it- and that was with the extra data install you can do to trim loads. If you truly lack patience, it might be worth busting out your fancy emulator fast-forward toggle. And finally you start to question the point at all because…
Finally, This game is easy. Like, you have to try extensively to fail here. I don’t want to sound hyperbolic here but I can’t think of a more accurate descriptor than “brainless” here. You can very easily beat this entire game using exclusively the story-granted Personas. I used the Velvet Room maybe two or three times to see what it was like, but never even used my new companions because it didn’t matter. I also did a minimal amount of side content (mostly due to it being kind of obtuse to even find) and never found an ultimate weapon or armor for anyone. I still could beat nearly every encounter with a nice and balanced magic-spamming autobattle. Dump your stats into magic and just go crazy- it’ll work just fine. This is the first JRPG where I didn’t get a game over even a single time. I like easy fine enough, but when it is this easy, sluggish, and prominent it can get a little tiring. However, I still don’t think it is “bad”, just kind of boring and repetitive- but there is some satisfaction to it all watching everyone level up more and just steamroll everything. It doesn’t ruin the experience at all, to me atleast.
For every gameplay misstep, however, it is made up for tenfold by the storytelling served to you here, because damn this game absolutely fascinated me from start to end. Right from the very beginning it sets up such a compelling mystery and intrigue that you truly want to unravel, and it never slows down with dull moments or loses any appeal. Persona nowadays tries to act “adult” but feverishly lacks the nuance needed more times than not, in my opinion. This game also introduces some very heavy and mature themes, but I never found it disingenuous or distasteful when presented here since it is very carefully crafted to be nuanced and treated with care- while still never losing the charm and levity of the colorful cast. Every second of it was engaging, thought provoking on occasion, and legitimately moving when it needed to be. This game has all sorts of anime craziness for sure, but it uses the surrealism to paint a very contrasting image to the down to earth and realistic atmosphere and narrative it delivers- and I think both sides of the coin are strengthened because of it.
What really punctuates this story, though, is the characters it tells it with, and I think this is easily the best cast of characters this series has ever had. Every single one of them is not only likable, not only really unique, but also consistently develops throughout the story with some outstanding writing and characterization. This is a game about a group of ordinary people overcoming their past trauma by internalizing it and facing their fears with newfound courage, supportive friends, and also maybe some occult powers- and I think conceptually and in execution it is beautiful. This game doesn't hide critical character development behind optional social links, it doesn’t force in a dating sim mechanic or double its runtime by splicing in slice of life shenanigans, it just tells a story and it does it wonderfully.
Innocent Sin kind of snuck up on me. I didn’t know what to expect from it, but this level of praise and love was not quite on my bingo card. I am simply enamored by this game, and I think it is a very special experience. I will be playing Eternal Punishment soon, even though I was so satisfied by this game I don’t quite feel I “need” a continuation- but I can’t turn it down either. I hope that this game gets a modern rerelease along with P1 and EP so more people can experience and love these games like I have. Until then, my conclusion simply states that this game rules.
Final thoughts I couldn't really segway into this review naturally:
- Maya is easily the best character in the series and every aspect of her personality, dialogue, and actions made her both incredibly silly and also heartwarming with a genuine love for her friends. I found her to be the heart of the cast and really laid the foundation for why this story and cast is so good.
- The cast including someone not Japanese, someone from another school, an adult, and an experienced persona user makes this an incredibly diverse and unique cast compared to anything else and I thought it was really refreshing and cool.
- More Philemon. I love Philemon.
- More Satomi Tadashi Pharmacy (it is a crime it stopped being used after P2)
- Out of all the Persona games this has the best antagonist(s) which I’m not mentioning here since I don’t want to spoil anything, but if you know you know
- Not having traditional demon fusing was a little jarring coming from someone so thoroughly invested in Megaten, but I came to appreciate it fast due to it being different and new- even if barely necessary.
- The rumor system didn’t get as much use as something as cool as it should, but when it was an option I loved seeing how it would impact the world.
- The music is great but unfortunately to me lacks a lot of the impact and atmosphere from something like P1 and I was a little disappointed just having that subconscious comparison (but still love it anyways)
- This game still rules
2006
I struggle to think of a phrase more appropriate to describe Mother 3 than it being a “bold sequel” to what came before it. Earthbound is a wonderful game and one dripping with originality and inspiration- but going into it as someone who played Beginnings first made it very apparent where there was overlap. Mother 3 did not give that experience, constantly surprising me how different and unique this game was from the rest of the trilogy- for better or for worse. I don’t want this review to end up being a comparison to past games or fan reception versus my own, but I find this game hard to talk about in a vacuum given it is a sequel, is in a series that I adore, and has a cultural footprint unlike anything else I’ve ever seen. That being said, this game was a little bit of a tough sell for me despite the undeniable highs.
When recounting my time with this game, I have distilled my gripes with it into two (major) grievances with both the gameplay experience and the story it tells. Will these be hot takes? Maybe? Probably? But I do certainly know they are how I felt. Humor me for a bit here if you are interested, starting with the gameplay frustrations.
If you take a glance at anything about my profile here it should be pretty apparent that I am about as far away as possible from the “dislikes turn based JRPGs” crowd that I see all too often. Dragon Quest is my favorite series, I’ve played and loved all 10 turn based mainline Final Fantasies, the list goes on. That is to say my annoyance with this title does not come from a simple sentiment like that, but rather how the experience is delivered to you and executed. In other words- structure. Being blunt, I think this game is structured in a poor and not particularly fun manner. The first ~four chapters are very largely focused on a single character, one that changes per chapter, and isn’t given much freedom in the gameplay experience. Having a party of one per battle is not an inherently bad idea in turn based RPGs, but it runs the risk of repetition and monotony dangerously close- and it succumbs to it pretty harshly here. Every battle boils down to just whackin’ away at an enemy until you finally kill it. Over, and over, and over. I like simple, but when there isn’t an ounce of strategy, every challenge thrown at you is negated by simply hoarding some extra food, and the extremely linear world and dungeon design leaves no room for error- it gets exhausting. I don’t like to say statements like this typically, but it really felt like the game was just wasting my time for a lot of this game's first few chapters. What extenuates that feeling is how every chapter gives you a new character to control. I love the concept of that as it gives some cool variety and perspective on the world and story, but in a gameplay front it really kills any last bit of fun since you don’t even get the satisfaction of progressively watching stats increase and characters grow when you have to start anew so often. I get what this game was going for here, being a more focused and contained narrative in a smaller, tight knit environment, and there are elements like seeing how familiar NPC dialogue or geography changes over time that I think are fantastic- but when you squeeze that into a role playing video game it lends itself to a very dull game experience. Once you get control of Lucas and the game really ‘starts’ the gameplay experience definitely improves. There isn’t much mechanical deviation from Earthbound aside from a kinda lame timing based hit thing that I never found to be very consistent or interesting, but I think Earthbound is fun so I don’t have all that much to be cynical about. Heck, there's even a pretty solid challenge with some of the bosses too as it progresses which was neat. However, the linearity permeates this game from start to finish, and I found that to be a bummer. It just makes the world feel more like a theme park ride rather than a world, and I find that much less compelling. Ideally a story should be heightened by the gameplay, and vice versa, but I couldn’t help but feel like the gameplay was being stripped of a lot of its qualities in favor of storytelling, and when 2/3s of this series has demonstrated that it's more than possible for a healthier relationship- I think that it sticks out even more. When I played Earthbound Beginnings and Earthbound, I blasted through those games due to how much fun I was having. It was a legitimate absorption into those worlds, and it was awesome. With Mother 3, it took me much longer to see those credits, and it was due to me not really being excited to play. If you needed an anecdote to tie all my points together here, there you are.
Before I tear into a few aspects of this games’ story, I want to put a disclaimer here to ensure you keep in mind that I largely like this game and its story. I’m not trying to bully it or try and convince anyone to feel the way I do, because I know people adore the story presented here. I am simply a fan with some criticism, so bear with me here. I have a few nitpicks of varying size that span the length of this game- I didn’t really care about the small stories told in the first few chapters and wished they expressed those story points in a more natural and less padded manner, I thought the ‘mystery’ of the masked man was painfully obvious, and there are definitely some areas that could’ve used a bit more fat trimming, and the quirky Mother dialogue and silliness did not mix well on a few occasions with the more serious tone- but that is not my main gripe here. My biggest complaint comes from the end of the game in chapter 8. I will not be nice here- the twist that Pokey/Porky from Earthbound just.. shows up and is the big bad of this game is lame. Like I was genuinely really annoyed and soured by it type lame. I love the atmosphere of New Pork City and how it visually expresses the (admittedly kind of random and underbaked) themes of industrialism and its impact on people, but this reveal really took a lot of steam out of me. I don’t mind a little bit of tasteful fan service in the games I play. The sailing theme in Dragon Quest XI being the same theme from Dragon Quest IV? Cute and fun. An optional side quest in Final Fantasy Tactics where you can recruit Cloud Strife? Neat little bonus if you go out of your way. Making the main antagonist of this game abruptly be spun into a character from a previous game for no reason and expecting me to find that satisfying? Sorry, but it crashed and burned the second they pulled that rug from under me. If Mother 3 is anything, it is a game that is very creative and very much a passion project. Everything about the game is a product made out of a desire to be uniquely itself- and it resorting to violently jingling keys in your face at the end is about the worst possible way to conclude something so itself. Maybe people found this twist cool because they got to see a familiar face again, but I found it incredibly lazy and pandering- among being unsatisfying, boring, and just not tasteful. The fact that this major story thread is solely expressed to the player by a ((mountain)) of random exposition like 2(?) hours before the game is over really highlights how bizarrely out of place and uninteresting it all is. I love Earthbound to death, but having to slowly ride your way down a stream surrounded by all the famous iconography from the game while Pollyanna plays is just the laziest way to get a reaction out of a player in my opinion and I really wish they used the effort to give the games story a satisfying, original, and fitting ending that serves the actual characters better. Once Porky is out of the way though, credit where it's due with a strong final few moments.
Those are some big walls of text where I complained like a little crybaby- not unlike Lucas himself at the start of the game- but I think that despite those huge and frankly detrimental missteps, this game is still pretty good. I’ll be nice to it now, don’t worry.
When Mother 3 works, it really does work. The atmosphere at the very start of the game, tucked away in the log cabin as a little kid and a genuinely lovely little family is brilliant- and I immediately cared about pretty much everyone. I remember very vividly Hinawa said right at the beginning “Good morning, Mr. Sleepyhead Brende,” and while just a tiny little line of dialogue, it resonated deeply with me simply due to how endearing it was. I love Hinawa, and I think the story given to the protagonist as a result of what happens to her is a fantastic setup for a tale of growth, and it largely succeeds at its intention in a way that is compelling and moving. I also think the cast is really good in general. Kumatora is such a fun character, and her explosive but truly kind personality was a wonderful highlight of the experience. Duster isn’t quite as interesting to me, but I think he is still really endearing and I love his quirks like limping around and all his tools. The side characters are pretty great too, with the Magypsies all being a standout for me for how eccentric and silly yet heroic they ended up. Boney also gets a shoutout because he is a funny dog. While I don’t love a lot of the linearity here, they do a fantastic job developing Tazmily village and squeezing everything out of it, and I think the set pieces sprinkled around the world like the Survival Horror-esque Chimera lab or the mushroom trip are incredibly memorable. My favorite moment of the game is the dream sequence in the sunflower field after you fall off the cliff reaching out for Hinawa and land in the haystack. It is a very small, one off line of text but it states that Alec- the person who put the hay there and father of Hinawa- had a dream of Hinawa telling him to move the hay there, and it ended up saving Lucas’ life. I found it both incredibly subtle and moving, and really emphasized that warm motherly love from the beginning of the game I mentioned earlier and makes it hit harder when it returns at the end. Brilliant stuff. This game is also presented really wonderfully, especially for the hardware. I’ve always been a fan of the cartoonish art direction with the beady eyes and flat colors in this series, and this is no exception. The animation accompanying it all is impressive and expressive, which I thought was really cool given how the previous entries never really emphasized it. GBA music is notoriously crunchy, but the music here also managed to avoid that hardware quirk which was great, and it also ended up just being really great alongside it- though I think that was a given if the previous two games were any indicators. High highs to be found in this game, no doubt about that.
This is a strange comparison, but I find Mother 3 to be similar to Metal Gear Solid 4, of all things. Not in the sense that they play, look, sound, or commentate anything similar at all, but they share a lot of the same strengths and weaknesses. I think MGS4 has an incredible character story with beautiful moments and tons of creativity. Yet it also is bogged down by some incredibly unfun and annoying gameplay segments, a more linear approach and one that stumbles a little bit with the gameplay to story relationship, and some distasteful fan service for the sake of tickling nostalgia. MGS4 has been a game that has stuck with me in my head, but it has stuck there due to me constantly sorting out my thoughts and opinions on it to this day, six years after playing it. Mother 3 is to Mother what MGS4 is to Metal Gear, at least for me.
Mother 3 is my least favorite game of the trilogy. Not because it’s bad- not at all- but it is the one that I had to fight with the most to have fun with, and this is a series with two other games that I am simply enamored by. There is a lot to love about this game, and a lot of it rightfully got my approval and admiration- but it is a mixed bag to sort through to get there. I truly wanted to love this game, but I am an honest man and I felt the tugging of that two steps forward one step back dynamic this game plopped onto my lap hard. There is a good time to be had here and I am sure I am in the minority here even just being more neutral rather than actively negative, but that's just where I landed. Maybe with more time and eventually coming back to it in the future I’ll have an experience with more unconditional love, but for the time being it gets my stamp of “pretty good but also kind of confusing and conflicting on my opinions so don’t take my word as gospel”. Video games are pretty neat, and I hope any and everyone is able to get something out of this game just like I and many others have been able to. Have fun, thanks for reading, and send your regards to the next frog for me.
When recounting my time with this game, I have distilled my gripes with it into two (major) grievances with both the gameplay experience and the story it tells. Will these be hot takes? Maybe? Probably? But I do certainly know they are how I felt. Humor me for a bit here if you are interested, starting with the gameplay frustrations.
If you take a glance at anything about my profile here it should be pretty apparent that I am about as far away as possible from the “dislikes turn based JRPGs” crowd that I see all too often. Dragon Quest is my favorite series, I’ve played and loved all 10 turn based mainline Final Fantasies, the list goes on. That is to say my annoyance with this title does not come from a simple sentiment like that, but rather how the experience is delivered to you and executed. In other words- structure. Being blunt, I think this game is structured in a poor and not particularly fun manner. The first ~four chapters are very largely focused on a single character, one that changes per chapter, and isn’t given much freedom in the gameplay experience. Having a party of one per battle is not an inherently bad idea in turn based RPGs, but it runs the risk of repetition and monotony dangerously close- and it succumbs to it pretty harshly here. Every battle boils down to just whackin’ away at an enemy until you finally kill it. Over, and over, and over. I like simple, but when there isn’t an ounce of strategy, every challenge thrown at you is negated by simply hoarding some extra food, and the extremely linear world and dungeon design leaves no room for error- it gets exhausting. I don’t like to say statements like this typically, but it really felt like the game was just wasting my time for a lot of this game's first few chapters. What extenuates that feeling is how every chapter gives you a new character to control. I love the concept of that as it gives some cool variety and perspective on the world and story, but in a gameplay front it really kills any last bit of fun since you don’t even get the satisfaction of progressively watching stats increase and characters grow when you have to start anew so often. I get what this game was going for here, being a more focused and contained narrative in a smaller, tight knit environment, and there are elements like seeing how familiar NPC dialogue or geography changes over time that I think are fantastic- but when you squeeze that into a role playing video game it lends itself to a very dull game experience. Once you get control of Lucas and the game really ‘starts’ the gameplay experience definitely improves. There isn’t much mechanical deviation from Earthbound aside from a kinda lame timing based hit thing that I never found to be very consistent or interesting, but I think Earthbound is fun so I don’t have all that much to be cynical about. Heck, there's even a pretty solid challenge with some of the bosses too as it progresses which was neat. However, the linearity permeates this game from start to finish, and I found that to be a bummer. It just makes the world feel more like a theme park ride rather than a world, and I find that much less compelling. Ideally a story should be heightened by the gameplay, and vice versa, but I couldn’t help but feel like the gameplay was being stripped of a lot of its qualities in favor of storytelling, and when 2/3s of this series has demonstrated that it's more than possible for a healthier relationship- I think that it sticks out even more. When I played Earthbound Beginnings and Earthbound, I blasted through those games due to how much fun I was having. It was a legitimate absorption into those worlds, and it was awesome. With Mother 3, it took me much longer to see those credits, and it was due to me not really being excited to play. If you needed an anecdote to tie all my points together here, there you are.
Before I tear into a few aspects of this games’ story, I want to put a disclaimer here to ensure you keep in mind that I largely like this game and its story. I’m not trying to bully it or try and convince anyone to feel the way I do, because I know people adore the story presented here. I am simply a fan with some criticism, so bear with me here. I have a few nitpicks of varying size that span the length of this game- I didn’t really care about the small stories told in the first few chapters and wished they expressed those story points in a more natural and less padded manner, I thought the ‘mystery’ of the masked man was painfully obvious, and there are definitely some areas that could’ve used a bit more fat trimming, and the quirky Mother dialogue and silliness did not mix well on a few occasions with the more serious tone- but that is not my main gripe here. My biggest complaint comes from the end of the game in chapter 8. I will not be nice here- the twist that Pokey/Porky from Earthbound just.. shows up and is the big bad of this game is lame. Like I was genuinely really annoyed and soured by it type lame. I love the atmosphere of New Pork City and how it visually expresses the (admittedly kind of random and underbaked) themes of industrialism and its impact on people, but this reveal really took a lot of steam out of me. I don’t mind a little bit of tasteful fan service in the games I play. The sailing theme in Dragon Quest XI being the same theme from Dragon Quest IV? Cute and fun. An optional side quest in Final Fantasy Tactics where you can recruit Cloud Strife? Neat little bonus if you go out of your way. Making the main antagonist of this game abruptly be spun into a character from a previous game for no reason and expecting me to find that satisfying? Sorry, but it crashed and burned the second they pulled that rug from under me. If Mother 3 is anything, it is a game that is very creative and very much a passion project. Everything about the game is a product made out of a desire to be uniquely itself- and it resorting to violently jingling keys in your face at the end is about the worst possible way to conclude something so itself. Maybe people found this twist cool because they got to see a familiar face again, but I found it incredibly lazy and pandering- among being unsatisfying, boring, and just not tasteful. The fact that this major story thread is solely expressed to the player by a ((mountain)) of random exposition like 2(?) hours before the game is over really highlights how bizarrely out of place and uninteresting it all is. I love Earthbound to death, but having to slowly ride your way down a stream surrounded by all the famous iconography from the game while Pollyanna plays is just the laziest way to get a reaction out of a player in my opinion and I really wish they used the effort to give the games story a satisfying, original, and fitting ending that serves the actual characters better. Once Porky is out of the way though, credit where it's due with a strong final few moments.
Those are some big walls of text where I complained like a little crybaby- not unlike Lucas himself at the start of the game- but I think that despite those huge and frankly detrimental missteps, this game is still pretty good. I’ll be nice to it now, don’t worry.
When Mother 3 works, it really does work. The atmosphere at the very start of the game, tucked away in the log cabin as a little kid and a genuinely lovely little family is brilliant- and I immediately cared about pretty much everyone. I remember very vividly Hinawa said right at the beginning “Good morning, Mr. Sleepyhead Brende,” and while just a tiny little line of dialogue, it resonated deeply with me simply due to how endearing it was. I love Hinawa, and I think the story given to the protagonist as a result of what happens to her is a fantastic setup for a tale of growth, and it largely succeeds at its intention in a way that is compelling and moving. I also think the cast is really good in general. Kumatora is such a fun character, and her explosive but truly kind personality was a wonderful highlight of the experience. Duster isn’t quite as interesting to me, but I think he is still really endearing and I love his quirks like limping around and all his tools. The side characters are pretty great too, with the Magypsies all being a standout for me for how eccentric and silly yet heroic they ended up. Boney also gets a shoutout because he is a funny dog. While I don’t love a lot of the linearity here, they do a fantastic job developing Tazmily village and squeezing everything out of it, and I think the set pieces sprinkled around the world like the Survival Horror-esque Chimera lab or the mushroom trip are incredibly memorable. My favorite moment of the game is the dream sequence in the sunflower field after you fall off the cliff reaching out for Hinawa and land in the haystack. It is a very small, one off line of text but it states that Alec- the person who put the hay there and father of Hinawa- had a dream of Hinawa telling him to move the hay there, and it ended up saving Lucas’ life. I found it both incredibly subtle and moving, and really emphasized that warm motherly love from the beginning of the game I mentioned earlier and makes it hit harder when it returns at the end. Brilliant stuff. This game is also presented really wonderfully, especially for the hardware. I’ve always been a fan of the cartoonish art direction with the beady eyes and flat colors in this series, and this is no exception. The animation accompanying it all is impressive and expressive, which I thought was really cool given how the previous entries never really emphasized it. GBA music is notoriously crunchy, but the music here also managed to avoid that hardware quirk which was great, and it also ended up just being really great alongside it- though I think that was a given if the previous two games were any indicators. High highs to be found in this game, no doubt about that.
This is a strange comparison, but I find Mother 3 to be similar to Metal Gear Solid 4, of all things. Not in the sense that they play, look, sound, or commentate anything similar at all, but they share a lot of the same strengths and weaknesses. I think MGS4 has an incredible character story with beautiful moments and tons of creativity. Yet it also is bogged down by some incredibly unfun and annoying gameplay segments, a more linear approach and one that stumbles a little bit with the gameplay to story relationship, and some distasteful fan service for the sake of tickling nostalgia. MGS4 has been a game that has stuck with me in my head, but it has stuck there due to me constantly sorting out my thoughts and opinions on it to this day, six years after playing it. Mother 3 is to Mother what MGS4 is to Metal Gear, at least for me.
Mother 3 is my least favorite game of the trilogy. Not because it’s bad- not at all- but it is the one that I had to fight with the most to have fun with, and this is a series with two other games that I am simply enamored by. There is a lot to love about this game, and a lot of it rightfully got my approval and admiration- but it is a mixed bag to sort through to get there. I truly wanted to love this game, but I am an honest man and I felt the tugging of that two steps forward one step back dynamic this game plopped onto my lap hard. There is a good time to be had here and I am sure I am in the minority here even just being more neutral rather than actively negative, but that's just where I landed. Maybe with more time and eventually coming back to it in the future I’ll have an experience with more unconditional love, but for the time being it gets my stamp of “pretty good but also kind of confusing and conflicting on my opinions so don’t take my word as gospel”. Video games are pretty neat, and I hope any and everyone is able to get something out of this game just like I and many others have been able to. Have fun, thanks for reading, and send your regards to the next frog for me.
In the span of a week or so, I went from an apathetic “I should try that out sometime” stance on Star Ocean into a giddy little man grinning ear to ear with love because I took that plunge after all this time and was rewarded handsomely. Star Ocean Second Story is such a wonderful video game and I couldn’t be happier.
It’s been a while since I have played a game with a story that feels so vividly “golden age of JRPG”. The main plot kicks off and is so endearing and exciting, in large part due to the outstanding and incredibly lovable dual protagonists. I love the story setup, and even just in my first play session was fully on board with everything being presented, but that momentum just continues for the entire game. It paints an incredibly vibrant and detailed picture of the world of Star Ocean, yet is simultaneously paced brilliantly and always serves to grow the characters just as much. Midway through the game has a twist that brings it all together and really cemented this as an all time great for me. Such a great time.
The beginning couple hours were a bit confusing due to the wealth of mechanics tossed to you to play with, combined by battles so easy I was finishing them within seconds- not allowing me the breathing room to comprehend the aforementioned mechanics. However, once the game kicked into full gear and my learning increased alongside it- I had a blast. Combat leans a little bit into the “mashy flashy” side of things, but the depth in its systems and leveling don’t make it feel mindless. You are given an absurd amount of agency into growing your characters with different skills and abilities, and finding a way to use the many tools given to you effectively is where the game really shines. I love the battles- they’re fast, exciting, and still give lots of tactical decision making- but even more so was doing things like leveling up Rena to be an author so other characters could bypass using skill points on other skills, making characters good at pickpocketing and stealing amazing gear early, or giving everyone the option to nerf stats in exchange for experience boosts. Combine that with the character recruition (which allowed me two entirely different parties by the endgames for my two playthroughs) and I just think it's pretty damn cool that everyone can adopt their own ways to play and still be validated, challenged, and rewarded for it. I found it to be just as addictive as it was mechanically dense, and I did go out of my way to fight every superboss and reach max level.
Structurally the game is a little more linear than the rest of the mechanics might make you think, always having a destination you need to go to for progression, but it still gives plenty of agency in a way that feels liberating. I found myself wandering around the world map constantly, and finding extra hard enemies that rewarded me with extra experience and skill points was really cool- along with chests, new towns, new characters, and party dialogue. The world feels very lived in and has tons of lore and history going into its details, and the lovely characters you can recruit go a long way into making it feel as such, which is just a lot of fun. The towns often have interesting NPCs to talk to, architecture, and generally feel distinct and dense. Being a part of this universe is simply captivating, and it is tied together by the excellent soundtrack and wonderful visuals of this remaster and in the pre-rendered backgrounds of the original too.
There are a couple little nitpicks I could scrape together if I wanted to, but I see no reason to given how much I enjoyed this game. I have the platinum trophy on my Playstation- obtained simply because I was having fun and not due to a previous intention. The story is great, the world is exciting, it's incredibly fun, it's presented beautifully, and I want to go on adventures with Claude and Rena in real life. I love this game and will continue to love it for a long, long time. Great stuff here and an easy recommendation to anyone who loves PS1 era JRPGs as I do.
It’s been a while since I have played a game with a story that feels so vividly “golden age of JRPG”. The main plot kicks off and is so endearing and exciting, in large part due to the outstanding and incredibly lovable dual protagonists. I love the story setup, and even just in my first play session was fully on board with everything being presented, but that momentum just continues for the entire game. It paints an incredibly vibrant and detailed picture of the world of Star Ocean, yet is simultaneously paced brilliantly and always serves to grow the characters just as much. Midway through the game has a twist that brings it all together and really cemented this as an all time great for me. Such a great time.
The beginning couple hours were a bit confusing due to the wealth of mechanics tossed to you to play with, combined by battles so easy I was finishing them within seconds- not allowing me the breathing room to comprehend the aforementioned mechanics. However, once the game kicked into full gear and my learning increased alongside it- I had a blast. Combat leans a little bit into the “mashy flashy” side of things, but the depth in its systems and leveling don’t make it feel mindless. You are given an absurd amount of agency into growing your characters with different skills and abilities, and finding a way to use the many tools given to you effectively is where the game really shines. I love the battles- they’re fast, exciting, and still give lots of tactical decision making- but even more so was doing things like leveling up Rena to be an author so other characters could bypass using skill points on other skills, making characters good at pickpocketing and stealing amazing gear early, or giving everyone the option to nerf stats in exchange for experience boosts. Combine that with the character recruition (which allowed me two entirely different parties by the endgames for my two playthroughs) and I just think it's pretty damn cool that everyone can adopt their own ways to play and still be validated, challenged, and rewarded for it. I found it to be just as addictive as it was mechanically dense, and I did go out of my way to fight every superboss and reach max level.
Structurally the game is a little more linear than the rest of the mechanics might make you think, always having a destination you need to go to for progression, but it still gives plenty of agency in a way that feels liberating. I found myself wandering around the world map constantly, and finding extra hard enemies that rewarded me with extra experience and skill points was really cool- along with chests, new towns, new characters, and party dialogue. The world feels very lived in and has tons of lore and history going into its details, and the lovely characters you can recruit go a long way into making it feel as such, which is just a lot of fun. The towns often have interesting NPCs to talk to, architecture, and generally feel distinct and dense. Being a part of this universe is simply captivating, and it is tied together by the excellent soundtrack and wonderful visuals of this remaster and in the pre-rendered backgrounds of the original too.
There are a couple little nitpicks I could scrape together if I wanted to, but I see no reason to given how much I enjoyed this game. I have the platinum trophy on my Playstation- obtained simply because I was having fun and not due to a previous intention. The story is great, the world is exciting, it's incredibly fun, it's presented beautifully, and I want to go on adventures with Claude and Rena in real life. I love this game and will continue to love it for a long, long time. Great stuff here and an easy recommendation to anyone who loves PS1 era JRPGs as I do.
1996
I try not to let expectations dictate anything before I play through a video game with eyes unclouded- but Wild Arms is a strange case. On the surface, it seemed to be a game that I’d absolutely adore. Classic simple turn-based PS1 era JRPG with a unique aesthetic and lots of fanfare? Sounds right up my alley! In execution, however, Wild Arms fell apart little-by-little and resulted in something less than favorable overall. I don’t despise this game by any means, but I am confused by what it had to offer.
The peak of Wild Arms- funnily and disappointingly enough- starts before you even begin the game. The 90’s anime intro movie combined with the frankly outstanding music is perfect. Watching that intro on Youtube years ago was the biggest advertisement that got me curious about this game, and it worked because it looked so.. unseen? The PS1 era of JRPGs is famous for bursting with creativity. Final Fantasy VII, Chrono Cross, Parasite Eve, Persona- decades later and I struggle to think of any games since that feel like any of those. Wild Arms seemed like it would be another on that list. A blending of Fantasy, Sci-fi, and the Wild West? Just on paper that seems like a Pandora’s box ripe with ideas. In practice it lent itself to a game that felt dull, derivative, and worst of all dissatisfying.
Being blunt, I think Wild Arms is boring. I don’t like to toss that term around much, but I found this game to be just that. More than any JRPG I’ve played in recent memory I can recount many times where I was just standing still or drifting off on my phone because I didn’t find what it offered very compelling. The combat mechanics are very straightforward- which is not a criticism as someone who’s favorite video game series is Dragon Quest- but lacks any real agency or depth. The first half of this game I just turned on autobattle and watched me win every fight no problem. The second half when I unlocked strong multitarget magic turned into me using one thunder spell and reaping the rewards. Every boss fight is buff Jack > have Jack do strong sword techniques > have Rudy shoot gun > heal when needed. I described the game to a friend as being “babies first JRPG'' because it is absolutely pathetic in terms of difficulty and holds your hand so much that nothing scratches any itches this genre provides. Even the superbosses of the game, which I fought out of curiosity, are effectively impossible to lose to if you just equip a certain item. I don’t have a problem with easy games, heck, a lot of the JRPGs I love are easy- but when it’s presented so sluggish and with so little agency, I found myself spamming the invisibility spell every second I could just to avoid getting into fights entirely.
I also think the game is borderline broken and unbalanced as all hell when it comes to your very few bits of player agency. The notable example for me is the magic system, which gives a surprising amount of freedom in your choices of what spells you learn. About halfway through the game though, you are given the option to learn advanced magic. It costs the same amount of resources to learn as basic magic, and you can undo your spells at any time and reallocate those points. So basically, halfway through the game you can just undo the progress you made and choose a lot of options that are just.. objectively better. Cecilia the mage gets exponentially stronger at this point if the game in the span of like 10 minutes of menu fiddling. I liked that I had the choice to redevelop the character, but it makes an easy game even easier. The EXP balancing is also all over the place. In one of the dungeons I fought a regular random encounter that netted me 10k EXP. The boss at the end gave me 4k. The satisfaction of fighting a strong enemy- like a boss encounter- is ruined when the rewards aren’t even close to proportional. I can think of even more examples like how strong Rudy’s ARMs are to use versus the price to refill the ammo- but I think it’s emblematic enough of how thoughtless the game feels already with the current examples.
The overworld is also just.. not very fun to explore. The drab colors fit the story and themes of the game well, but it lends itself to a very homogenous world that feels clunky to navigate as a result. The map is near useless and shows the bare minimum amount of info possible, along with needing to be found first entirely rendering a good chunk of the game map-less. And most annoyingly is the use of teleporters sprinkled all around that disorient your location and make (the prevalent) backtracking convoluted and slow given the long repetitive animations of using them. By the time you reach the advanced magic and can finally fast travel, it feels like a godsend- and while satisfying in that regard, feeds into the frustration even more retrospectively.
Finally, I think the story is just whatever. None of the side characters stood out to me at all and the main cast is decent enough if only for the fact that I just like the trope of a trio on an adventure. Plus you get a talking mouse companion which is just objectively awesome. I wish the world and story used the barely prevalent wild western themes more given it was one of the things drawing me here, but the fantasy and sci-fi elements were interesting enough to be passable. The melodrama didn’t really work for me given how uninvested I was most of the time, but there’s some good stuff to be found in this department here and there so I don’t think it’s quite as flawed as the gameplay- even if still pretty bland.
Where the game shines is the dungeon design, which I thought was pretty consistently great. Not everything is a winner, but combining Zelda-esque puzzles, a great balance of labyrinthian exploration, and a perfect length made them really fun, and seeing how the tools you unlocked worked in a puzzle context was neat. None of them are hard or push the mechanics very far, but they are enjoyable. In terms of presentation, the game visually is just ‘pretty good’ or ‘solid’ but in a simplistic way that I like. The music, however, is definitely the strongest part of this all and has some excellent and memorable tracks.
By the end of Wild Arms as it got goofy with the Sci-fi, ramped up stakes, and gave you a more full (albeit shallow) gameplay experience- I warmed up to it a bit more and had some fun with it, but probably the most important anecdote I can give here is that I actually shelved this game for a while because I was so unimpressed by the first half of it all. I never do that, and I think it speaks volumes to how middling this game is to have me go that far in avoiding it. Like I said, I don’t think this game is bad, but a lot of the elements of it are underwhelming or poorly implemented in a way that- even with the good- culminates in an experience that is somehow lesser than the sum of its parts.
I don’t love Wild Arms as much as I desperately wish I did. This era of JRPGs is so, so incredible- but this one is a reminder to me that not everything is a heavy hitter. Maybe someday I’ll revisit this game to see if my mind changes at all, and in doing so I’ll huddle up with it on original hardware to give it that charm, but until then I am not impressed with this game. I got the platinum trophy in an effort to really make sure I wasn’t missing something here, but this will be one I don’t think about all too often in the days to come. A shame, but whatever. Can’t win ‘em all!
The peak of Wild Arms- funnily and disappointingly enough- starts before you even begin the game. The 90’s anime intro movie combined with the frankly outstanding music is perfect. Watching that intro on Youtube years ago was the biggest advertisement that got me curious about this game, and it worked because it looked so.. unseen? The PS1 era of JRPGs is famous for bursting with creativity. Final Fantasy VII, Chrono Cross, Parasite Eve, Persona- decades later and I struggle to think of any games since that feel like any of those. Wild Arms seemed like it would be another on that list. A blending of Fantasy, Sci-fi, and the Wild West? Just on paper that seems like a Pandora’s box ripe with ideas. In practice it lent itself to a game that felt dull, derivative, and worst of all dissatisfying.
Being blunt, I think Wild Arms is boring. I don’t like to toss that term around much, but I found this game to be just that. More than any JRPG I’ve played in recent memory I can recount many times where I was just standing still or drifting off on my phone because I didn’t find what it offered very compelling. The combat mechanics are very straightforward- which is not a criticism as someone who’s favorite video game series is Dragon Quest- but lacks any real agency or depth. The first half of this game I just turned on autobattle and watched me win every fight no problem. The second half when I unlocked strong multitarget magic turned into me using one thunder spell and reaping the rewards. Every boss fight is buff Jack > have Jack do strong sword techniques > have Rudy shoot gun > heal when needed. I described the game to a friend as being “babies first JRPG'' because it is absolutely pathetic in terms of difficulty and holds your hand so much that nothing scratches any itches this genre provides. Even the superbosses of the game, which I fought out of curiosity, are effectively impossible to lose to if you just equip a certain item. I don’t have a problem with easy games, heck, a lot of the JRPGs I love are easy- but when it’s presented so sluggish and with so little agency, I found myself spamming the invisibility spell every second I could just to avoid getting into fights entirely.
I also think the game is borderline broken and unbalanced as all hell when it comes to your very few bits of player agency. The notable example for me is the magic system, which gives a surprising amount of freedom in your choices of what spells you learn. About halfway through the game though, you are given the option to learn advanced magic. It costs the same amount of resources to learn as basic magic, and you can undo your spells at any time and reallocate those points. So basically, halfway through the game you can just undo the progress you made and choose a lot of options that are just.. objectively better. Cecilia the mage gets exponentially stronger at this point if the game in the span of like 10 minutes of menu fiddling. I liked that I had the choice to redevelop the character, but it makes an easy game even easier. The EXP balancing is also all over the place. In one of the dungeons I fought a regular random encounter that netted me 10k EXP. The boss at the end gave me 4k. The satisfaction of fighting a strong enemy- like a boss encounter- is ruined when the rewards aren’t even close to proportional. I can think of even more examples like how strong Rudy’s ARMs are to use versus the price to refill the ammo- but I think it’s emblematic enough of how thoughtless the game feels already with the current examples.
The overworld is also just.. not very fun to explore. The drab colors fit the story and themes of the game well, but it lends itself to a very homogenous world that feels clunky to navigate as a result. The map is near useless and shows the bare minimum amount of info possible, along with needing to be found first entirely rendering a good chunk of the game map-less. And most annoyingly is the use of teleporters sprinkled all around that disorient your location and make (the prevalent) backtracking convoluted and slow given the long repetitive animations of using them. By the time you reach the advanced magic and can finally fast travel, it feels like a godsend- and while satisfying in that regard, feeds into the frustration even more retrospectively.
Finally, I think the story is just whatever. None of the side characters stood out to me at all and the main cast is decent enough if only for the fact that I just like the trope of a trio on an adventure. Plus you get a talking mouse companion which is just objectively awesome. I wish the world and story used the barely prevalent wild western themes more given it was one of the things drawing me here, but the fantasy and sci-fi elements were interesting enough to be passable. The melodrama didn’t really work for me given how uninvested I was most of the time, but there’s some good stuff to be found in this department here and there so I don’t think it’s quite as flawed as the gameplay- even if still pretty bland.
Where the game shines is the dungeon design, which I thought was pretty consistently great. Not everything is a winner, but combining Zelda-esque puzzles, a great balance of labyrinthian exploration, and a perfect length made them really fun, and seeing how the tools you unlocked worked in a puzzle context was neat. None of them are hard or push the mechanics very far, but they are enjoyable. In terms of presentation, the game visually is just ‘pretty good’ or ‘solid’ but in a simplistic way that I like. The music, however, is definitely the strongest part of this all and has some excellent and memorable tracks.
By the end of Wild Arms as it got goofy with the Sci-fi, ramped up stakes, and gave you a more full (albeit shallow) gameplay experience- I warmed up to it a bit more and had some fun with it, but probably the most important anecdote I can give here is that I actually shelved this game for a while because I was so unimpressed by the first half of it all. I never do that, and I think it speaks volumes to how middling this game is to have me go that far in avoiding it. Like I said, I don’t think this game is bad, but a lot of the elements of it are underwhelming or poorly implemented in a way that- even with the good- culminates in an experience that is somehow lesser than the sum of its parts.
I don’t love Wild Arms as much as I desperately wish I did. This era of JRPGs is so, so incredible- but this one is a reminder to me that not everything is a heavy hitter. Maybe someday I’ll revisit this game to see if my mind changes at all, and in doing so I’ll huddle up with it on original hardware to give it that charm, but until then I am not impressed with this game. I got the platinum trophy in an effort to really make sure I wasn’t missing something here, but this will be one I don’t think about all too often in the days to come. A shame, but whatever. Can’t win ‘em all!
2024
Unicorn Overlord is a very clearly a passion project and love letter to tactical RPGs and it is one that sticks its landing incredibly well. It manages to balance a wealth of new, fresh, and innovative ideas in its gameplay and presentation, while also bringing in a “best hits” mentality from the games that clearly inspired it. What results is something that I greatly enjoyed.
The blue haired, sword-wielding, prince & co. starting a revolution to take back a corrupted kingdom is almost identical to the setup of Fire Emblem 1- and there are clear ideas pilfered from games like Final Fantasy XII and Suikoden baked into the gameplay and worldbuilding, yet it remains very much its own thing. Combining real-time and turn-based elements in the gameplay mechanics was incredibly fun and interesting, and added new layers of strategizing I’ve not experienced before. Every tool in my kit felt like it had a place in battle, and I could experiment however I wanted. The party composition especially held a lot of depth that felt great to see the rewards of when I smartly approached it. When not in combat encounters, the world is incredibly liberating and I felt very rewarded by my own choices allowing me to take on harder battles early to explore entire continents well before the story took me there. Every corner had some new quest to do, piece of an objective to find, or simply an item to pick up that I could use to rebuild a town or heal in battle. I also loved that the final mission of the game opens up fairly early on, and you can choose to tackle it as early as you want if you feel equipped. This game is just a ton of fun overall.
The game loses me a little bit with its story. It’s far from being “bad”, it's populated with tons of varied characters, and (along with the rest of the game) is presented outstandingly- but it doesn’t take nearly as many risks as the gameplay does. It is very serviceable, and very much nothing I haven’t already seen many times over. I don’t mind serviceable stories, but when that is all that pushes along the adventure, it seeps into the gameplay and by the last chunk of it all I was ready to be done. It got a little repetitive admittedly, but not anywhere close to negatively impacting my feelings on the game.
Ultimately, though, Unicorn Overlord is the type of game that makes me sad knowing it’ll be overlooked by most when it deserves a lot more attention. I enjoyed my time enough to even grab the Platinum trophy on my Playstation. This was my introduction to Vanillaware and it has bumped up some of their other titles on my priority list out of virtue of how much I enjoyed this one. And while Atlus only published it I can pretty easily say this is my favorite new game they have put out since SMT4. If you enjoy tactical RPGs, Fire Emblem, gorgeous art direction, fantasy settings- or if a screenshot of the combat looks like the type of thing you might enjoy- try this game. It’s well worth it, and I had a wonderful time.
Edit ~one month later: I gotta say I really was in the moment when I reviewed this because nowadays I really, REALLY struggle to remember or care about anything story or character related. The gameplay loop is very satisfying and fun, the world is great, and I'm sure some will get plenty of mileage out of the cast- but to me I think it is really bland and it does kind of take away from the experience retrospectively. I was thinking about the 75 and counting JRPGs I have completed and I think Alain might be the single most boring protagonist of any of them..? I feel like he got zero characterization at all aside from being an honest and noble prince to save the day! I can't remember more than three or four of the party member's names either. If you asked me to describe the story I think all I could really muster is "Your castle gets overthrown and now years later you, the prince, must go back and stop the bad guys"- and to be fair, I think that really is all they give. I had a lot of fun with the game, but truthfully it really feels disposable, or the type of game I would say rent or borrow from a friend if those were still popular ways of playing games these days. The game has gone on some fair sales recently so I think if you can snag it with a price drop you'll have some fun for sure. Though if you are craving a tactical RPG and you have not played Final Fantasy Tactics or Fire Emblem Geneaology of the Holy War- prioritize those first. A lot of my praise of this game still stands- it's fun, gorgeous, and feels very liberating. However, I really can't turn a blind eye to how barebones and cookie-cutter the remainder of the experience ended up. I have bumped it down a star accordingly to reflect my marinated feelings on it.
I still hope this game is successful and gets an audience and that Vanillaware listens to fan reception and someday could maybe make a really great sequel that addresses a lot of the dissapointing elements. I'd love to play that game, but for the time being I think Unicorn Overlord as we have it now leaves something to be desired.
The blue haired, sword-wielding, prince & co. starting a revolution to take back a corrupted kingdom is almost identical to the setup of Fire Emblem 1- and there are clear ideas pilfered from games like Final Fantasy XII and Suikoden baked into the gameplay and worldbuilding, yet it remains very much its own thing. Combining real-time and turn-based elements in the gameplay mechanics was incredibly fun and interesting, and added new layers of strategizing I’ve not experienced before. Every tool in my kit felt like it had a place in battle, and I could experiment however I wanted. The party composition especially held a lot of depth that felt great to see the rewards of when I smartly approached it. When not in combat encounters, the world is incredibly liberating and I felt very rewarded by my own choices allowing me to take on harder battles early to explore entire continents well before the story took me there. Every corner had some new quest to do, piece of an objective to find, or simply an item to pick up that I could use to rebuild a town or heal in battle. I also loved that the final mission of the game opens up fairly early on, and you can choose to tackle it as early as you want if you feel equipped. This game is just a ton of fun overall.
The game loses me a little bit with its story. It’s far from being “bad”, it's populated with tons of varied characters, and (along with the rest of the game) is presented outstandingly- but it doesn’t take nearly as many risks as the gameplay does. It is very serviceable, and very much nothing I haven’t already seen many times over. I don’t mind serviceable stories, but when that is all that pushes along the adventure, it seeps into the gameplay and by the last chunk of it all I was ready to be done. It got a little repetitive admittedly, but not anywhere close to negatively impacting my feelings on the game.
Ultimately, though, Unicorn Overlord is the type of game that makes me sad knowing it’ll be overlooked by most when it deserves a lot more attention. I enjoyed my time enough to even grab the Platinum trophy on my Playstation. This was my introduction to Vanillaware and it has bumped up some of their other titles on my priority list out of virtue of how much I enjoyed this one. And while Atlus only published it I can pretty easily say this is my favorite new game they have put out since SMT4. If you enjoy tactical RPGs, Fire Emblem, gorgeous art direction, fantasy settings- or if a screenshot of the combat looks like the type of thing you might enjoy- try this game. It’s well worth it, and I had a wonderful time.
Edit ~one month later: I gotta say I really was in the moment when I reviewed this because nowadays I really, REALLY struggle to remember or care about anything story or character related. The gameplay loop is very satisfying and fun, the world is great, and I'm sure some will get plenty of mileage out of the cast- but to me I think it is really bland and it does kind of take away from the experience retrospectively. I was thinking about the 75 and counting JRPGs I have completed and I think Alain might be the single most boring protagonist of any of them..? I feel like he got zero characterization at all aside from being an honest and noble prince to save the day! I can't remember more than three or four of the party member's names either. If you asked me to describe the story I think all I could really muster is "Your castle gets overthrown and now years later you, the prince, must go back and stop the bad guys"- and to be fair, I think that really is all they give. I had a lot of fun with the game, but truthfully it really feels disposable, or the type of game I would say rent or borrow from a friend if those were still popular ways of playing games these days. The game has gone on some fair sales recently so I think if you can snag it with a price drop you'll have some fun for sure. Though if you are craving a tactical RPG and you have not played Final Fantasy Tactics or Fire Emblem Geneaology of the Holy War- prioritize those first. A lot of my praise of this game still stands- it's fun, gorgeous, and feels very liberating. However, I really can't turn a blind eye to how barebones and cookie-cutter the remainder of the experience ended up. I have bumped it down a star accordingly to reflect my marinated feelings on it.
I still hope this game is successful and gets an audience and that Vanillaware listens to fan reception and someday could maybe make a really great sequel that addresses a lot of the dissapointing elements. I'd love to play that game, but for the time being I think Unicorn Overlord as we have it now leaves something to be desired.
I’ve played a lot of video games in my time, and while it has led to some unforgettable adventures- there are times where the game I play lack originality and become a bit homogenous. Grim Fandango is not one of those games.
The first 10 minutes of this game have enough creativity and personality to be painted across an entire game and be impressive. The fact that it is only just the tip of the iceberg highlights how special this game is. In the span of this 10-ish hour adventure I was continually impressed by virtually everything it had to offer. Every corner of this world is dripping with atmosphere so palpable it’s hard not to be immersed. I fell in love with every character, and found them all to be as funny as they were genuinely compelling. The amount of care, wit, and outstanding writing poured into the narrative never got dull and I was sad to see the credits roll just because I was so absorbed into it. On top of everything, the smooth jazzy score and Final Fantasy VII-esque pre-rendered backgrounds combined with the stellar art direction presented this game with a matching level of enchanting enjoyability.
My only real criticism I have here is that the puzzles are hard, and while that is not inherently a bad thing- they aren’t hard in an always compelling or fair-feeling way. Many times the solution felt so obtuse I never slapped my forehead and said “oh man, I sure am dumb” when I resorted to a guide. Some solutions that I did find out were pushed aside by some occasionally unresponsive controls. It lends itself to a gameplay experience that is not always as consistently enjoyable as the rest of the elements of this wonderful game. I don’t often use the pretense of “play the game with a guide”, but in this case I don’t think it is of any shame- and if it lets you experience this story in a more accommodating way it certainly should be on the table.
Overall, I get why Grim Fandango is so revered now. It got its hooks in me fast and didn’t let go until the end. From its characters, iconography, and even things like little bits of Spanglish added to my vocabulary- it has left a massive impression on me already. I loved Grim Fandango, and I think my highest praise is that I am already considering playing through it again. Great, great time here. I will be keeping this near my heart, or where it used to be.
The first 10 minutes of this game have enough creativity and personality to be painted across an entire game and be impressive. The fact that it is only just the tip of the iceberg highlights how special this game is. In the span of this 10-ish hour adventure I was continually impressed by virtually everything it had to offer. Every corner of this world is dripping with atmosphere so palpable it’s hard not to be immersed. I fell in love with every character, and found them all to be as funny as they were genuinely compelling. The amount of care, wit, and outstanding writing poured into the narrative never got dull and I was sad to see the credits roll just because I was so absorbed into it. On top of everything, the smooth jazzy score and Final Fantasy VII-esque pre-rendered backgrounds combined with the stellar art direction presented this game with a matching level of enchanting enjoyability.
My only real criticism I have here is that the puzzles are hard, and while that is not inherently a bad thing- they aren’t hard in an always compelling or fair-feeling way. Many times the solution felt so obtuse I never slapped my forehead and said “oh man, I sure am dumb” when I resorted to a guide. Some solutions that I did find out were pushed aside by some occasionally unresponsive controls. It lends itself to a gameplay experience that is not always as consistently enjoyable as the rest of the elements of this wonderful game. I don’t often use the pretense of “play the game with a guide”, but in this case I don’t think it is of any shame- and if it lets you experience this story in a more accommodating way it certainly should be on the table.
Overall, I get why Grim Fandango is so revered now. It got its hooks in me fast and didn’t let go until the end. From its characters, iconography, and even things like little bits of Spanglish added to my vocabulary- it has left a massive impression on me already. I loved Grim Fandango, and I think my highest praise is that I am already considering playing through it again. Great, great time here. I will be keeping this near my heart, or where it used to be.
If Final Fantasy VII (1997) is a game in need of no introductions, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (2024) is on the other end of the spectrum- being a game desperately in need of as many as possible. This is a strange title, being the middle-child entry of a trilogy with intent of fully reimagining a classic JRPG that I adore. It brings about the question of how do you even view this game? As a sequel? As a Remake? As a preservation of my own experiences and memories? As an entirely standalone, in a vacuum experience? Every avenue is a pros and cons list longer than it has any right to be, but I believe all have equal merit in discussion of the product. Rebirth is a weird game, but I am happy to say before anything else that it is an incredibly fun and enjoyable one regardless.
To catch anyone up on my previous opinions, I have a conflicting relationship with Final Fantasy VII Remake (2020). When the game works, it is absolutely magical. Seeing all these characters, locations, music, etc. reimagined was and is among my favorite memories with a video game. Conversely, the game was so padded that it could be used as a bulletproof vest- and beyond just the added filler of stretching a 6 hour experience into a 40 hour JRPG, it came at the expense of the storytelling quality and impact. It was certainly fun, but certainly frustrating.
As a sequel, Rebirth fixes nearly every issue I had with Remake. The main story of this game is about the same length as Remake, but the expansiveness and variety of the world doesn’t really allow for any time to be wasted. Everything feels meaningful, adds true scope and scale, and is generally a hell of a lot more interesting and fun. Where the original game was quite restrictive, this gives you a hearty amount of agency at nearly every turn. You have more control of where you go and what you do given the open area design, you are given more opportunity to choose your battle party and customize their gear, there is a massive amount of optional content to chip away at, the list goes on. The more organic approach to the world and gameplay also allows for the story to maintain its focus and intent more prominently than Remake as well. Nearly every chapter in this game has something interesting and important to carrying along the plot and growing the characters. Every aspect that could’ve been improved in the game experience was very thoughtfully tweaked here, and it lends itself to a game I find to be a lot more enjoyable all the way through.
As a Remake, there are still quite a few missteps to be found here, but I find it a lot less intrusive when the whole package is so much more briskly paced, expansive, varied, and wastes less time. As much as I don’t really care for the direction they have taken the story in this series- I am fine with change as long as it serves this story and is interesting. There are moments where the changes presented were just that, but there are also many where it is not. Out of risk of sounding like a snob for the original, I will say that there is more than a handful of scenes and moments recreated here that just fall flat and miss the point, and the new content is a very negatively-skewed mixed bag, but as much as the oomph is lost I can really appreciate where the game gets it right. My biggest example is the goofiness of FFVII, something that really makes the original so memorable for me and something I was worried would be stripped down in this remake. It was not, and in many cases was even toned upwards which was a ton of fun and makes the more somber parts of the experience more effective, too. As a preservation of my memories it is very much not that, but for what this game is trying to be I can get behind it when its highs work so well for me, even if the lows are plenty prominent.
As a standalone vacuum experience, I don’t really think it is very fair to view it in this regard despite it being a fully priced, advertised, and treated game. You will be absolutely lost if you don’t have the context of Remake, which I believe you will also be absolutely lost in if you don’t have the context of the original. In order to appreciate the story being told here, you need to have done your homework- to say the least. It’s also a middle child of a trilogy as previously stated, so along with not having context of the beginning of this story, you also don’t get an ending here quite yet either. What I am trying to say here ultimately is that if you are seeing this game advertised and thinking “hey, maybe I’ll try this game as my first FF game or exposure to FFVII after all the cultural impact,” leave it alone and come back later. I doubt that’ll be the case for many, but it leaves the point for all that this game is a cog in a machine, and needs to be treated as such if you want to enjoy it fully. On the other hand, I will commend the actual gameplay mechanics, because even in a vacuum I still find it incredibly fun. I tend to lean more turn based with my JRPGs, but I do like an action RPG every once in a while. Remake has what I cite as my favorite interpretation of an action RPG I’ve played yet. Rebirth, like with everything else, takes what worked about the gameplay there and meaningfully expands and tweaks it here to make it even better. There is an unprecedented amount of customization to be found here, and some of my favorite moments of the game were talking to my friend who was playing and seeing how our character builds and combat approaches were complete opposites and yet still viable. It is certainly flashy, but it is equally as tactically engaging and I find that pretty neat.
Don’t have a segway for this but the game also is beautiful and the music is incredible. Good stuff.
I’ve kept this pretty vague, but I hope you can see that this game was far from perfect, but still incredibly fun, polished, and worth my time. I highly recommend it for anyone who was in my shoes as there is an experience worthy of being played here. Even though I have a soft spot for XV, I think this is easily the best modern Final Fantasy game and I hope the series learns from both its strengths and weaknesses as it continues. Good time, fun time.
spoilers ahead
In a less vague sense, I have some more specific thoughts I will bullet point to those who have played. If you don’t want spoilers then feel free to scroll away. I’ll start with mean things and progress to nice things.
- The Temple of the Ancients was probably the most disappointing part of this game for me. Such a visually and mechanically striking dungeon in the original and seeing it stripped of virtually everything unique here was so sad. Not a fan of that.
- The whole storyline with Zack was dumb. Considering there is an option to skip it entirely when you replay the game it really makes me wonder if it was even necessary at all.
- I get they’re saving things for Part 3, but they really underused Cid to a pretty sad degree here. Wish he had more characterization, but considering Rocket Town is not yet here it is TBD. I never cared about Vincent but he was pretty equally boring here so I have nothing really to say.
- Chadley is annoying. So, so annoying.
- The part where Tifa enters the lifestream is kinda stupid but I think it had a pretty cool mini story arc for her. The fact that she and everyone else barely acknowledge Cloud just attempted to kill her though is baffling.
- The Dyne storyline was almost perfect but that boss fight against him killed the mood so dramatically, and him being killed by Shinra guards and then having to fight Palmer in a big mech was jaw droppingly tone deaf.
- Some areas are annoying to explore. (Gongaga)
- While some minigames were pretty terrible and there were so many of them, some of them rocked. Chocobo racing was a ton of fun and Queen’s Blood is up there as one of the best in the entire series. All the variants of it too were incredibly enjoyable.
- The Gold Saucer is my favorite location in the original game and how they recreated it here was magical. Loved every second.
- I want to go to Costa Del Sol in real life.
- The new lyrical theme of the game is beautiful.
- Yuffie goes from probably my least favorite character in FF to someone I loved to play with and be around in this game. She is less than paper-thin and annoying in the original game, and here she is just fun to hang out with. Very impressed how much they recontextualized her in this game to make her more interesting and memorable.
- Cait Sith on the other hand is one of my favorite characters in the entire series, and this game seems to be made by people who love him as much as I do? They really did him justice and I loved every second he was in the game.
- The Gilgamesh fight is so much fun and I love this interpretation of him.
- Game was just fun. What else can I even say.
My final note is do not try and get the platinum trophy like I did. Goodness gracious it is misery. Spare yourselves. Other than that, if you play or plan to play this game I hope you enjoy !
To catch anyone up on my previous opinions, I have a conflicting relationship with Final Fantasy VII Remake (2020). When the game works, it is absolutely magical. Seeing all these characters, locations, music, etc. reimagined was and is among my favorite memories with a video game. Conversely, the game was so padded that it could be used as a bulletproof vest- and beyond just the added filler of stretching a 6 hour experience into a 40 hour JRPG, it came at the expense of the storytelling quality and impact. It was certainly fun, but certainly frustrating.
As a sequel, Rebirth fixes nearly every issue I had with Remake. The main story of this game is about the same length as Remake, but the expansiveness and variety of the world doesn’t really allow for any time to be wasted. Everything feels meaningful, adds true scope and scale, and is generally a hell of a lot more interesting and fun. Where the original game was quite restrictive, this gives you a hearty amount of agency at nearly every turn. You have more control of where you go and what you do given the open area design, you are given more opportunity to choose your battle party and customize their gear, there is a massive amount of optional content to chip away at, the list goes on. The more organic approach to the world and gameplay also allows for the story to maintain its focus and intent more prominently than Remake as well. Nearly every chapter in this game has something interesting and important to carrying along the plot and growing the characters. Every aspect that could’ve been improved in the game experience was very thoughtfully tweaked here, and it lends itself to a game I find to be a lot more enjoyable all the way through.
As a Remake, there are still quite a few missteps to be found here, but I find it a lot less intrusive when the whole package is so much more briskly paced, expansive, varied, and wastes less time. As much as I don’t really care for the direction they have taken the story in this series- I am fine with change as long as it serves this story and is interesting. There are moments where the changes presented were just that, but there are also many where it is not. Out of risk of sounding like a snob for the original, I will say that there is more than a handful of scenes and moments recreated here that just fall flat and miss the point, and the new content is a very negatively-skewed mixed bag, but as much as the oomph is lost I can really appreciate where the game gets it right. My biggest example is the goofiness of FFVII, something that really makes the original so memorable for me and something I was worried would be stripped down in this remake. It was not, and in many cases was even toned upwards which was a ton of fun and makes the more somber parts of the experience more effective, too. As a preservation of my memories it is very much not that, but for what this game is trying to be I can get behind it when its highs work so well for me, even if the lows are plenty prominent.
As a standalone vacuum experience, I don’t really think it is very fair to view it in this regard despite it being a fully priced, advertised, and treated game. You will be absolutely lost if you don’t have the context of Remake, which I believe you will also be absolutely lost in if you don’t have the context of the original. In order to appreciate the story being told here, you need to have done your homework- to say the least. It’s also a middle child of a trilogy as previously stated, so along with not having context of the beginning of this story, you also don’t get an ending here quite yet either. What I am trying to say here ultimately is that if you are seeing this game advertised and thinking “hey, maybe I’ll try this game as my first FF game or exposure to FFVII after all the cultural impact,” leave it alone and come back later. I doubt that’ll be the case for many, but it leaves the point for all that this game is a cog in a machine, and needs to be treated as such if you want to enjoy it fully. On the other hand, I will commend the actual gameplay mechanics, because even in a vacuum I still find it incredibly fun. I tend to lean more turn based with my JRPGs, but I do like an action RPG every once in a while. Remake has what I cite as my favorite interpretation of an action RPG I’ve played yet. Rebirth, like with everything else, takes what worked about the gameplay there and meaningfully expands and tweaks it here to make it even better. There is an unprecedented amount of customization to be found here, and some of my favorite moments of the game were talking to my friend who was playing and seeing how our character builds and combat approaches were complete opposites and yet still viable. It is certainly flashy, but it is equally as tactically engaging and I find that pretty neat.
Don’t have a segway for this but the game also is beautiful and the music is incredible. Good stuff.
I’ve kept this pretty vague, but I hope you can see that this game was far from perfect, but still incredibly fun, polished, and worth my time. I highly recommend it for anyone who was in my shoes as there is an experience worthy of being played here. Even though I have a soft spot for XV, I think this is easily the best modern Final Fantasy game and I hope the series learns from both its strengths and weaknesses as it continues. Good time, fun time.
spoilers ahead
In a less vague sense, I have some more specific thoughts I will bullet point to those who have played. If you don’t want spoilers then feel free to scroll away. I’ll start with mean things and progress to nice things.
- The Temple of the Ancients was probably the most disappointing part of this game for me. Such a visually and mechanically striking dungeon in the original and seeing it stripped of virtually everything unique here was so sad. Not a fan of that.
- The whole storyline with Zack was dumb. Considering there is an option to skip it entirely when you replay the game it really makes me wonder if it was even necessary at all.
- I get they’re saving things for Part 3, but they really underused Cid to a pretty sad degree here. Wish he had more characterization, but considering Rocket Town is not yet here it is TBD. I never cared about Vincent but he was pretty equally boring here so I have nothing really to say.
- Chadley is annoying. So, so annoying.
- The part where Tifa enters the lifestream is kinda stupid but I think it had a pretty cool mini story arc for her. The fact that she and everyone else barely acknowledge Cloud just attempted to kill her though is baffling.
- The Dyne storyline was almost perfect but that boss fight against him killed the mood so dramatically, and him being killed by Shinra guards and then having to fight Palmer in a big mech was jaw droppingly tone deaf.
- Some areas are annoying to explore. (Gongaga)
- While some minigames were pretty terrible and there were so many of them, some of them rocked. Chocobo racing was a ton of fun and Queen’s Blood is up there as one of the best in the entire series. All the variants of it too were incredibly enjoyable.
- The Gold Saucer is my favorite location in the original game and how they recreated it here was magical. Loved every second.
- I want to go to Costa Del Sol in real life.
- The new lyrical theme of the game is beautiful.
- Yuffie goes from probably my least favorite character in FF to someone I loved to play with and be around in this game. She is less than paper-thin and annoying in the original game, and here she is just fun to hang out with. Very impressed how much they recontextualized her in this game to make her more interesting and memorable.
- Cait Sith on the other hand is one of my favorite characters in the entire series, and this game seems to be made by people who love him as much as I do? They really did him justice and I loved every second he was in the game.
- The Gilgamesh fight is so much fun and I love this interpretation of him.
- Game was just fun. What else can I even say.
My final note is do not try and get the platinum trophy like I did. Goodness gracious it is misery. Spare yourselves. Other than that, if you play or plan to play this game I hope you enjoy !
note: I played the Nintendo Switch version of this game on the trilogy collection, though I am logging it as this since I am exclusively talking about this third title
If you want to hear my opinions on the previous Ace Attorney games up until this point, I have reviews from the original Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney up until Dual Destinies. As these games tend to be pretty similar in terms of their mechanics and ideas, I don’t feel the need to repeat myself every time- especially given I have yet to reach a point where I feel negatively towards these wonderful games.
With that being said, I am just going to outline my thoughts on the game rather than weave them into a more essay-esque review. The TLDR is that I thought this game was fantastic, but if you want to know why..
-Insanely great time here. I wasn’t expecting it given the first two were so strong, but this is probably my favorite of the Apollo Justice trilogy and has some of my favorite moments in the entire series.
-Returning cast is fantastic as always. While I think some were a little underused- Athena definitely feels like she was thrown in because they had to and not necessarily because she was integral to this story, for example- but even that criticism is outweighed heavily by how strong everyone is presented, and they do give some smart time allocation too. To counter my own criticism, having the starting intro case for Apollo and Athena be defending Trucy, for example, is a great way to give her some screen time while serving as a compelling backdrop for a case. Phoenix is used in a really fun and unique way given the new setting for his trials, and I love that they give a chance to go up against him briefly later on. Apollo really shines for me here especially, though. I love his story- and while being a little silly he never brought up his childhood in the past, I can easily overlook that given the story told here for him is genuinely compelling and serves as a great character arc and story for him. I was very invested, and it really solidified him as one of my favorite characters. I also loved the return of Maya- I think it could be argued it was a bit of a cheap way to tickle nostalgia.. But it’s Maya- it works and I was so excited to see her once more. Some other highlights were the defense pairing of Athena and Simon from the previous game- I loved that dynamic and was glad to see Simon again given how much I enjoyed him, and I loved the banter from Ema, Larry, Pearl, Edgeworth- and really just everyone. I only wish Gumshoe made a little cameo to round it all out, but what we got was excellent.
-The new characters didn’t hit with me right off the bat- but as I played more I found myself loving them more alongside it. By the end, I think this has one of the strongest rosters of new characters. Nahyuta initially seemed a little dull, but I found his story fascinatingly compelling and full of some great twists. Rayfa is a little grating at the start, but in a way that lends itself to some excellent character growth. While in different ways, Alhbi and Datz ended up being some of my biggest highlights just due to how fun they were to talk to. My favorite of the bunch, however, was Dhurke. His personality is so fun to be with, but his dynamic and story with Apollo is one of the series highlights for me. The twists and turns by the end of his story were executed amazingly and I loved every second. The lineup of antagonists were also really fun as all Ace Attorney games tend to be.
-The ramped up stakes in this game led to such a tense and fresh dynamic all around. Being under the threat of execution upon failure is just an inherently fun and exciting new spin on the courtroom battles, and I think beyond that it ties into the story in a fascinating way to unravel, and provides some equally fascinating character moments and thematic identity. Which lends itself to..
-The cases here are excellent. With the exception of case 4 (which as I said I loved the Athena Blackquill dynamic and had some standout witnesses to cross-examine) being pretty filler-y, I feel like this is one of the most fun lineups of cases in the series and the way it crescendos was presented perfectly. Case 1 isn’t my favorite intro case in a vacuum, but it teaches the new setting, stakes, and characters wonderfully. Case 2 is another great introduction to the other side of the cast and is just a ton of fun altogether. Case 3 is pretty high tier for me, with a great ramp-up of mystery, character drama, twists, and a great exploration to the overarching narrative and ideas. And then case 5 is about as wonderful a finale could possibly be for this story, and I think it isn’t far behind other final cases like the respective for Justice for All and Trials and Tribulations. Excellent stuff here. The DLC case was also excellent.
-The new divination mechanic is an outstanding evolution for the series in a gameplay sense, and while I wouldn’t be surprised if it doesn’t return in the future- given the spirit medium backdrop and mysticism of Ace Attorney, it is a wonderful, creative, and incredibly fun mechanic and it really adds to the games identity. I loved it, especially with it being alongside the other mechanics like Psyche Locks or Perceiving.
-Great presentation all around. The animations are so, so good- and the character design is out of this world as always. It always fascinates me how expressive everyone is. The music matches the quality, too.
I really don’t have anything bad to say about this game. It clicked with me just as all the other games have, and I had a consistently fun time through the six cases. With one of my favorite stories and some of my favorite characters in the series as a whole, I think of Apollo’s trilogy this is the one that gets closest to the Phoenix Wright trilogy for me. I would have to think about it for a long while, but this could be in my top 3 so far depending on what I’m feeling about Justice for All on the day of debate. Either way, this game was a blast and a perfect ending to the trilogy for me. My highest praise is that I played six Ace Attorney games in the span of like a month and a half and it never once got dull. I love this series !!
If you want to hear my opinions on the previous Ace Attorney games up until this point, I have reviews from the original Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney up until Dual Destinies. As these games tend to be pretty similar in terms of their mechanics and ideas, I don’t feel the need to repeat myself every time- especially given I have yet to reach a point where I feel negatively towards these wonderful games.
With that being said, I am just going to outline my thoughts on the game rather than weave them into a more essay-esque review. The TLDR is that I thought this game was fantastic, but if you want to know why..
-Insanely great time here. I wasn’t expecting it given the first two were so strong, but this is probably my favorite of the Apollo Justice trilogy and has some of my favorite moments in the entire series.
-Returning cast is fantastic as always. While I think some were a little underused- Athena definitely feels like she was thrown in because they had to and not necessarily because she was integral to this story, for example- but even that criticism is outweighed heavily by how strong everyone is presented, and they do give some smart time allocation too. To counter my own criticism, having the starting intro case for Apollo and Athena be defending Trucy, for example, is a great way to give her some screen time while serving as a compelling backdrop for a case. Phoenix is used in a really fun and unique way given the new setting for his trials, and I love that they give a chance to go up against him briefly later on. Apollo really shines for me here especially, though. I love his story- and while being a little silly he never brought up his childhood in the past, I can easily overlook that given the story told here for him is genuinely compelling and serves as a great character arc and story for him. I was very invested, and it really solidified him as one of my favorite characters. I also loved the return of Maya- I think it could be argued it was a bit of a cheap way to tickle nostalgia.. But it’s Maya- it works and I was so excited to see her once more. Some other highlights were the defense pairing of Athena and Simon from the previous game- I loved that dynamic and was glad to see Simon again given how much I enjoyed him, and I loved the banter from Ema, Larry, Pearl, Edgeworth- and really just everyone. I only wish Gumshoe made a little cameo to round it all out, but what we got was excellent.
-The new characters didn’t hit with me right off the bat- but as I played more I found myself loving them more alongside it. By the end, I think this has one of the strongest rosters of new characters. Nahyuta initially seemed a little dull, but I found his story fascinatingly compelling and full of some great twists. Rayfa is a little grating at the start, but in a way that lends itself to some excellent character growth. While in different ways, Alhbi and Datz ended up being some of my biggest highlights just due to how fun they were to talk to. My favorite of the bunch, however, was Dhurke. His personality is so fun to be with, but his dynamic and story with Apollo is one of the series highlights for me. The twists and turns by the end of his story were executed amazingly and I loved every second. The lineup of antagonists were also really fun as all Ace Attorney games tend to be.
-The ramped up stakes in this game led to such a tense and fresh dynamic all around. Being under the threat of execution upon failure is just an inherently fun and exciting new spin on the courtroom battles, and I think beyond that it ties into the story in a fascinating way to unravel, and provides some equally fascinating character moments and thematic identity. Which lends itself to..
-The cases here are excellent. With the exception of case 4 (which as I said I loved the Athena Blackquill dynamic and had some standout witnesses to cross-examine) being pretty filler-y, I feel like this is one of the most fun lineups of cases in the series and the way it crescendos was presented perfectly. Case 1 isn’t my favorite intro case in a vacuum, but it teaches the new setting, stakes, and characters wonderfully. Case 2 is another great introduction to the other side of the cast and is just a ton of fun altogether. Case 3 is pretty high tier for me, with a great ramp-up of mystery, character drama, twists, and a great exploration to the overarching narrative and ideas. And then case 5 is about as wonderful a finale could possibly be for this story, and I think it isn’t far behind other final cases like the respective for Justice for All and Trials and Tribulations. Excellent stuff here. The DLC case was also excellent.
-The new divination mechanic is an outstanding evolution for the series in a gameplay sense, and while I wouldn’t be surprised if it doesn’t return in the future- given the spirit medium backdrop and mysticism of Ace Attorney, it is a wonderful, creative, and incredibly fun mechanic and it really adds to the games identity. I loved it, especially with it being alongside the other mechanics like Psyche Locks or Perceiving.
-Great presentation all around. The animations are so, so good- and the character design is out of this world as always. It always fascinates me how expressive everyone is. The music matches the quality, too.
I really don’t have anything bad to say about this game. It clicked with me just as all the other games have, and I had a consistently fun time through the six cases. With one of my favorite stories and some of my favorite characters in the series as a whole, I think of Apollo’s trilogy this is the one that gets closest to the Phoenix Wright trilogy for me. I would have to think about it for a long while, but this could be in my top 3 so far depending on what I’m feeling about Justice for All on the day of debate. Either way, this game was a blast and a perfect ending to the trilogy for me. My highest praise is that I played six Ace Attorney games in the span of like a month and a half and it never once got dull. I love this series !!
note: I played the Nintendo Switch version of this game on the trilogy collection, though I am logging it as this since I am exclusively talking about this second title
If you want to hear my opinions on the previous Ace Attorney games up until this point, I have reviews from the original Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney up until Apollo Justice. As these games tend to be pretty similar in terms of their mechanics and ideas, I don’t feel the need to repeat myself every time- especially given I have yet to reach a point where I feel negatively towards these wonderful games.
With that being said, I am just going to outline my thoughts on the game rather than weave them into a more essay-esque review. The TLDR is that I thought this game was fantastic, but if you want to know why..
- Once again, the main cast is outstanding and so much fun. Seeing Phoenix return to his Attorney position after his role in Apollo Justice was so exciting. As much as I love the guy, I truthfully didn’t need him to be playable again since I thought it was an interesting idea to have him step down, but I can’t deny the fun of him being back. Apollo was also a blast this time, too. I think they chose some bold and interesting choices for his character following the previous game, but all of the decisions made here either provided with more of what I loved from before or a new opportunity to see him grow. Athena was, at first, a little bit of a letdown conceptually since I felt she might take away focus from Phoenix and Apollo- the duo I really wanted to see bounce off each other- but it didn’t take long for me to really welcome her with arms open. I loved her personality and thought she was a ton of fun, and just added to the game by providing more fun dynamics and interactions. Love her.
- With the exception of the DLC case which shafts Apollo to the side, I thought they balanced the trio here phenomenally. Everyone gets their chance to shine, and it feels distributed very equally. It’s weird the game is subtitled Dual Destinies when it is clearly a trio, but at the very least the game itself does the three of them justice (no pun intended).
- The new side characters here were also excellent and a ton of fun. Simon is one of my favorite prosecutors in the entire series thus far, as his background, story, design, and personality were all incredibly unique and executed wonderfully. Detective Fulbright was goofy as hell and I thought he was just a silly dude to hang around with. I really loved each defendant, and all the antagonists were deliciously satisfying to bring down too.
- Bringing back returning characters is a cheap but effective move, and it worked here pretty well for me I must admit. Seeing Pearl, Edgeworth, and Klavier again made me incredibly happy since I love them all. My main complaint is that they are all very sparingly used, and not in a way that feels respectful of the new characters spotlights but instead as if they weren’t really intended to be in the game but were added for familiar faces. It works, and I really loved seeing Pearl again especially, but I could smell a bit of cynicism in their appearances despite eating it up. What I will say, however, is that they really give Trucy the short end of the stick here and it was very sad to see. With the exception of the last case in which she is given the role of hostage- meaning taken away from you- she gets next to no screen time despite being a vital character in Apollo Justice and just one of my personal favorites in the series. She feels like a huge afterthought and I am thoroughly disappointed by how little we get of her.
- I thought it was very interesting how the cases were presented out of chronological order here. Trials and Tribulations has cases in a non-chronological order, but in the sense that some are flashbacks from years ago. This time, they’re out of order in the sense you get some teases of what happens later in this story, and watch the events unfold before and then afterwards. I found that to be a really fun and fresh idea for this series and really highlighted some of the mysteries presented here.
- The cases themselves were great here. I think that it could be argued that some go on a little too long, and that most don’t quite reach the very top of the tier list- but for what they are, they are all a lot of fun, satisfying to unravel and experience, and and provide some really unique scenarios like a murder that follows a script, bombing incidents, or in the DLC cases case- defending an animal. Tons of fun all around.
- The presentation of this game is incredible. I was iffy on the idea of 3D models given how expressive the sprites of the past have been, but they clearly poured their hearts and souls into how this game looked. I was viewing the concept art and it’s insane to me how perfectly they translated the character designs and poses into 3D. It truly does feel like an evolution of the presentation of Ace Attorney, as it allowed for some outstanding animations during breakdowns and other events. The backgrounds are all animated in some noticeable and subtle ways, which is really neat, and allows for dynamic cameras in many instances that both boost presentation and gameplay by being able to, for example, rotate a crime scene and find new evidence. The nuances in the character animation gets a special shout out from me, too. Top that all off with one of my favorite soundtracks in the series thus far (which is a high bar to reach), and I think they nailed it from this angle.
And that about wraps my feelings here up. I don’t really have anything else negative to say, it is just an incredibly fun and solid time here. I think AA1 and especially Trials and Tribulations are untouchable in terms of a series ranking, but I would absolutely put this game in regards as high as something like Justice for All and Apollo Justice. I’m five games into this series and I have loved every second of it. I am surprised by how many dislike this game, but none of that matters because I certainly did. Great time here.
If you want to hear my opinions on the previous Ace Attorney games up until this point, I have reviews from the original Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney up until Apollo Justice. As these games tend to be pretty similar in terms of their mechanics and ideas, I don’t feel the need to repeat myself every time- especially given I have yet to reach a point where I feel negatively towards these wonderful games.
With that being said, I am just going to outline my thoughts on the game rather than weave them into a more essay-esque review. The TLDR is that I thought this game was fantastic, but if you want to know why..
- Once again, the main cast is outstanding and so much fun. Seeing Phoenix return to his Attorney position after his role in Apollo Justice was so exciting. As much as I love the guy, I truthfully didn’t need him to be playable again since I thought it was an interesting idea to have him step down, but I can’t deny the fun of him being back. Apollo was also a blast this time, too. I think they chose some bold and interesting choices for his character following the previous game, but all of the decisions made here either provided with more of what I loved from before or a new opportunity to see him grow. Athena was, at first, a little bit of a letdown conceptually since I felt she might take away focus from Phoenix and Apollo- the duo I really wanted to see bounce off each other- but it didn’t take long for me to really welcome her with arms open. I loved her personality and thought she was a ton of fun, and just added to the game by providing more fun dynamics and interactions. Love her.
- With the exception of the DLC case which shafts Apollo to the side, I thought they balanced the trio here phenomenally. Everyone gets their chance to shine, and it feels distributed very equally. It’s weird the game is subtitled Dual Destinies when it is clearly a trio, but at the very least the game itself does the three of them justice (no pun intended).
- The new side characters here were also excellent and a ton of fun. Simon is one of my favorite prosecutors in the entire series thus far, as his background, story, design, and personality were all incredibly unique and executed wonderfully. Detective Fulbright was goofy as hell and I thought he was just a silly dude to hang around with. I really loved each defendant, and all the antagonists were deliciously satisfying to bring down too.
- Bringing back returning characters is a cheap but effective move, and it worked here pretty well for me I must admit. Seeing Pearl, Edgeworth, and Klavier again made me incredibly happy since I love them all. My main complaint is that they are all very sparingly used, and not in a way that feels respectful of the new characters spotlights but instead as if they weren’t really intended to be in the game but were added for familiar faces. It works, and I really loved seeing Pearl again especially, but I could smell a bit of cynicism in their appearances despite eating it up. What I will say, however, is that they really give Trucy the short end of the stick here and it was very sad to see. With the exception of the last case in which she is given the role of hostage- meaning taken away from you- she gets next to no screen time despite being a vital character in Apollo Justice and just one of my personal favorites in the series. She feels like a huge afterthought and I am thoroughly disappointed by how little we get of her.
- I thought it was very interesting how the cases were presented out of chronological order here. Trials and Tribulations has cases in a non-chronological order, but in the sense that some are flashbacks from years ago. This time, they’re out of order in the sense you get some teases of what happens later in this story, and watch the events unfold before and then afterwards. I found that to be a really fun and fresh idea for this series and really highlighted some of the mysteries presented here.
- The cases themselves were great here. I think that it could be argued that some go on a little too long, and that most don’t quite reach the very top of the tier list- but for what they are, they are all a lot of fun, satisfying to unravel and experience, and and provide some really unique scenarios like a murder that follows a script, bombing incidents, or in the DLC cases case- defending an animal. Tons of fun all around.
- The presentation of this game is incredible. I was iffy on the idea of 3D models given how expressive the sprites of the past have been, but they clearly poured their hearts and souls into how this game looked. I was viewing the concept art and it’s insane to me how perfectly they translated the character designs and poses into 3D. It truly does feel like an evolution of the presentation of Ace Attorney, as it allowed for some outstanding animations during breakdowns and other events. The backgrounds are all animated in some noticeable and subtle ways, which is really neat, and allows for dynamic cameras in many instances that both boost presentation and gameplay by being able to, for example, rotate a crime scene and find new evidence. The nuances in the character animation gets a special shout out from me, too. Top that all off with one of my favorite soundtracks in the series thus far (which is a high bar to reach), and I think they nailed it from this angle.
And that about wraps my feelings here up. I don’t really have anything else negative to say, it is just an incredibly fun and solid time here. I think AA1 and especially Trials and Tribulations are untouchable in terms of a series ranking, but I would absolutely put this game in regards as high as something like Justice for All and Apollo Justice. I’m five games into this series and I have loved every second of it. I am surprised by how many dislike this game, but none of that matters because I certainly did. Great time here.
note: I played the Nintendo Switch version of this game on the trilogy collection, though I am logging it as this since I am exclusively talking about this first title
About a month or two ago I jumped into the world of Ace Attorney blindly and on a whim. It was a series on my radar, but a compelling sale of the Phoenix Wright trilogy on the Nintendo Switch Eshop and some time to kill spurred me into giving it a go. What I did not expect at that time was that I enjoyed my blind venture so much I unexpectedly played that trilogy back-to-back-to-back, and I found some of my new all time favorite characters, stories, and games in general. I fell in love with Ace Attorney, and shortly thereafter I ran over to pre-order a copy of the upcoming Apollo Justice trilogy as its hooks were just too deep in me.
Like the previous three titles, I went into this trilogy as blind as I possibly could. I didn’t know who Apollo Justice was- but I was eager to find out. Considering how much I adored Phoenix’s trilogy, there were big shoes to fill- yet I am still a rational and level headed person. If this game was exactly what I had known and loved, I can’t say I would be disappointed by it. If this game was a bold, new take on the series- I can’t say I’d be disappointed by that either assuming what they present here is compelling. I was open to see whatever it would give me, and I am very happy to report that I got a sort of blend of both outcomes here, and one that I still very much enjoyed.
Given the genre of this series doesn’t lend itself much to major evolution in mechanics or presentation, I am going to be relatively quick with my thoughts here so as to not be redundant or drag on my thoughts. Anyways,
- I loved the cast here. Apollo is an incredibly endearing and lovable protagonist. Trucy is so much fun and makes for a fantastic companion. The direction they took Phoenix’s character is really interesting and the kind of bold, refreshing shake-up I was hoping might be in this game. Klavier is a really fun twist on the prosecutor, since this is the first time the opponent doesn’t have bitterness or vitriol towards the defense. Ema returning from AA1’s 5th case was a great and welcome surprise. Fantastic overarching antagonist.
- Really outstanding selection of cases here. I enjoyed all of them and found they crescendoed into something really excellent by the end of things. The first case is a wonderful intro, the second was really exciting how it weaved so many small threads into one, the third had great characterization and twists, and the fourth was a fascinating way to wrap them all together.
- The returning forensic investigations from Rise from the Ashes is a bit of a gimmicky and silly mechanic, but it is at worst harmless, and at best a fun little diversion. I love that it really emphasizes each piece of evidence with you being able to interact and get little bits of flavor text from them.
- The presentation is very much still Ace Attorney- which is to say it has fantastic and incredibly memorable art direction. I found the characters to be more animated than ever, which was really fun, and the music is stellar.
- Just a damn fun time to be had here.
I have some issues with the game, notably
- The cases are a bit on the longer side of things, and while I still really enjoyed them I felt their length at points.
- Apollo doesn’t always get the limelight he deserves, which is a bit sad since he is not only the titular character, but I just really like him.
- The new perception mechanic is a great concept, but I feel is used in a very linear and kind of arbitrary way. The concept of finding and pointing out nervous ticks from the character sprites is a fascinating concept, but it is so limited in when you can use it, why its used, and you don’t naturally see the characters quirks without entering a heightened-senses aura. Not bad by any means, but I think it is notably a less fun mechanic than, say, the magatama psyche locks in JFA and T&T.
- As much as I loved the fourth case, and still do, my biggest gripe with this game is that it ends very.. abruptly? It’s not a loud, crashing thud- but the stakes raise, raise, raise, and right when it's about to explode at its highest highs like the final cases in the PW trilogy- it just kinda fizzles out. It was such a bummer, because it was so close to reaching that same electrifying catharsis, but it just.. ends. I am equally disappointed and confused since the dominoes were falling into place there, but given the buildup of the case tied all four cases into it, it didn’t have as grand a finale as I think it deserved. The conclusion also isn’t particularly conclusive at points either- with it neglecting to even educate the protagonists of one of the major twists the ending brings, not giving Phoenix much of a conclusion despite his involvement in the final case, and fast-forwarding some really interesting conversation about Trucy’s past, etc. It just felt rushed, and that makes me sad. But it makes me sad because..
Apollo Justice is a wonderful game. I talked quite a bit about some of my faults with it, but the highs way outshine my gripes here. I had such a fun time with this game and think it is absolutely worthy of being added to this series lineup. If I had to rank, I don’t think it quite lives up to the original PW:AA due to its flat ending and certainly not Trials and Tribulations, but I think it can easily be placed alongside something like Justice for All (which is a game I love!!). I don’t know what else to say, really, it's Ace Attorney- it has yet to fail me. This game seems to be a bit more mixed in reception, but I thought it was fantastic. Thumbs up from me.
About a month or two ago I jumped into the world of Ace Attorney blindly and on a whim. It was a series on my radar, but a compelling sale of the Phoenix Wright trilogy on the Nintendo Switch Eshop and some time to kill spurred me into giving it a go. What I did not expect at that time was that I enjoyed my blind venture so much I unexpectedly played that trilogy back-to-back-to-back, and I found some of my new all time favorite characters, stories, and games in general. I fell in love with Ace Attorney, and shortly thereafter I ran over to pre-order a copy of the upcoming Apollo Justice trilogy as its hooks were just too deep in me.
Like the previous three titles, I went into this trilogy as blind as I possibly could. I didn’t know who Apollo Justice was- but I was eager to find out. Considering how much I adored Phoenix’s trilogy, there were big shoes to fill- yet I am still a rational and level headed person. If this game was exactly what I had known and loved, I can’t say I would be disappointed by it. If this game was a bold, new take on the series- I can’t say I’d be disappointed by that either assuming what they present here is compelling. I was open to see whatever it would give me, and I am very happy to report that I got a sort of blend of both outcomes here, and one that I still very much enjoyed.
Given the genre of this series doesn’t lend itself much to major evolution in mechanics or presentation, I am going to be relatively quick with my thoughts here so as to not be redundant or drag on my thoughts. Anyways,
- I loved the cast here. Apollo is an incredibly endearing and lovable protagonist. Trucy is so much fun and makes for a fantastic companion. The direction they took Phoenix’s character is really interesting and the kind of bold, refreshing shake-up I was hoping might be in this game. Klavier is a really fun twist on the prosecutor, since this is the first time the opponent doesn’t have bitterness or vitriol towards the defense. Ema returning from AA1’s 5th case was a great and welcome surprise. Fantastic overarching antagonist.
- Really outstanding selection of cases here. I enjoyed all of them and found they crescendoed into something really excellent by the end of things. The first case is a wonderful intro, the second was really exciting how it weaved so many small threads into one, the third had great characterization and twists, and the fourth was a fascinating way to wrap them all together.
- The returning forensic investigations from Rise from the Ashes is a bit of a gimmicky and silly mechanic, but it is at worst harmless, and at best a fun little diversion. I love that it really emphasizes each piece of evidence with you being able to interact and get little bits of flavor text from them.
- The presentation is very much still Ace Attorney- which is to say it has fantastic and incredibly memorable art direction. I found the characters to be more animated than ever, which was really fun, and the music is stellar.
- Just a damn fun time to be had here.
I have some issues with the game, notably
- The cases are a bit on the longer side of things, and while I still really enjoyed them I felt their length at points.
- Apollo doesn’t always get the limelight he deserves, which is a bit sad since he is not only the titular character, but I just really like him.
- The new perception mechanic is a great concept, but I feel is used in a very linear and kind of arbitrary way. The concept of finding and pointing out nervous ticks from the character sprites is a fascinating concept, but it is so limited in when you can use it, why its used, and you don’t naturally see the characters quirks without entering a heightened-senses aura. Not bad by any means, but I think it is notably a less fun mechanic than, say, the magatama psyche locks in JFA and T&T.
- As much as I loved the fourth case, and still do, my biggest gripe with this game is that it ends very.. abruptly? It’s not a loud, crashing thud- but the stakes raise, raise, raise, and right when it's about to explode at its highest highs like the final cases in the PW trilogy- it just kinda fizzles out. It was such a bummer, because it was so close to reaching that same electrifying catharsis, but it just.. ends. I am equally disappointed and confused since the dominoes were falling into place there, but given the buildup of the case tied all four cases into it, it didn’t have as grand a finale as I think it deserved. The conclusion also isn’t particularly conclusive at points either- with it neglecting to even educate the protagonists of one of the major twists the ending brings, not giving Phoenix much of a conclusion despite his involvement in the final case, and fast-forwarding some really interesting conversation about Trucy’s past, etc. It just felt rushed, and that makes me sad. But it makes me sad because..
Apollo Justice is a wonderful game. I talked quite a bit about some of my faults with it, but the highs way outshine my gripes here. I had such a fun time with this game and think it is absolutely worthy of being added to this series lineup. If I had to rank, I don’t think it quite lives up to the original PW:AA due to its flat ending and certainly not Trials and Tribulations, but I think it can easily be placed alongside something like Justice for All (which is a game I love!!). I don’t know what else to say, really, it's Ace Attorney- it has yet to fail me. This game seems to be a bit more mixed in reception, but I thought it was fantastic. Thumbs up from me.
About a month ago, I- on a whim- took a deep and blind dive into the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney trilogy. In the span of about 10 days, I went from someone who didn’t know anything about the series into someone who does own a Phoenix Wright T-shirt and have adopted objection into my vocabulary at any opportunity possible. I love Ace Attorney.
Back when the remaster of Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective was announced, I was very curious because I had heard of the game long ago, and the reactions to the announcement were incredibly positive. However, I did not bite. After I played the Phoenix Wright trilogy I did some reading about the development and history- only to find that Ghost Trick was a passion project made by key figures of Ace Attorney? Along with a preorder of the newly released Apollo Justice trilogy, I picked up Ghost Trick on a whim just to see if it would scratch any of my itches.
My goodness, Ghost Trick scratched my itches. Heck- it made itches I didn’t even know I had, and then proceeded to scratch those too. I will not mince words here, Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective is a masterpiece.
The back of the box, elevator-pitch concept of Ghost Trick, rewinding time to save people from being killed by solving puzzles via possessing and manipulating objects is already something so inherently fun, fresh, and silly that I can’t believe it took until 2010 to try it out, frankly. That concept is fun right from chapter 1, and it continues to be fun until the end credits. I struggle to think of ideas they weren’t able to squeeze out with that mechanic, it feels like it is used to its fullest potential- and the wave of satisfaction that crashes over you when the solution clicks is about as euphoric as video games can get. I was grinning ear to ear and chuckling to myself when the gears in my brain aligned perfectly and I saw how to make the situation play out. As someone who grew up on games like Scribblenauts- ironically, another DS era puzzle game- every single chapter gave me a moment like the scene of Ego in Ratatouille being reminded of his childhood after taking a bite of his food.
Now, that would be enough for me to love the game, but to make another Ratatouille allegory (of all things), take the scene where Remy first tries a bite of one food, only to mix it with another and see the burst of flavor, captivating his imagination and taste-buds even more than the sum of their parts. The gameplay mechanics are one of those foods, the other is the Ace Attorney-esque creativity, silliness, and fun found in their storytelling. That combo, pardon the situational irony- is killer.
Ghost Trick’s story is so much fun, so insane, and so enjoyable that when it ended I almost just booted it up right from chapter 1 once more and played through it again. It is so intricately made that you feel an infectious beam of passion from the developers weaving together its tight narrative. It is engaging, goofy, and I could not put it down. Between the story, gameplay, and 10-ish hour long campaign, I would absolutely not blame someone for playing this game in one long binge. If not for life circumstances, I would’ve absolutely considered it. If that isn’t a great compliment, then I don’t know what is.
I could go on about how much I liked individual characters, twists, or set pieces. I could talk about how earworm-y its soundtrack is or how striking and bold the art direction presents itself. I could talk about so, so many things. But I won’t. I will never take the opportunity away for someone to just jump into this game and love it as I did. I seldom give a game a 5 star immediately after playing something, but this is a time where I can do it with confidence.
Everyone should play, experience, and love Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective. If you don’t, you’re an odd person- and I’m sure many would agree.
Incredible game
Back when the remaster of Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective was announced, I was very curious because I had heard of the game long ago, and the reactions to the announcement were incredibly positive. However, I did not bite. After I played the Phoenix Wright trilogy I did some reading about the development and history- only to find that Ghost Trick was a passion project made by key figures of Ace Attorney? Along with a preorder of the newly released Apollo Justice trilogy, I picked up Ghost Trick on a whim just to see if it would scratch any of my itches.
My goodness, Ghost Trick scratched my itches. Heck- it made itches I didn’t even know I had, and then proceeded to scratch those too. I will not mince words here, Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective is a masterpiece.
The back of the box, elevator-pitch concept of Ghost Trick, rewinding time to save people from being killed by solving puzzles via possessing and manipulating objects is already something so inherently fun, fresh, and silly that I can’t believe it took until 2010 to try it out, frankly. That concept is fun right from chapter 1, and it continues to be fun until the end credits. I struggle to think of ideas they weren’t able to squeeze out with that mechanic, it feels like it is used to its fullest potential- and the wave of satisfaction that crashes over you when the solution clicks is about as euphoric as video games can get. I was grinning ear to ear and chuckling to myself when the gears in my brain aligned perfectly and I saw how to make the situation play out. As someone who grew up on games like Scribblenauts- ironically, another DS era puzzle game- every single chapter gave me a moment like the scene of Ego in Ratatouille being reminded of his childhood after taking a bite of his food.
Now, that would be enough for me to love the game, but to make another Ratatouille allegory (of all things), take the scene where Remy first tries a bite of one food, only to mix it with another and see the burst of flavor, captivating his imagination and taste-buds even more than the sum of their parts. The gameplay mechanics are one of those foods, the other is the Ace Attorney-esque creativity, silliness, and fun found in their storytelling. That combo, pardon the situational irony- is killer.
Ghost Trick’s story is so much fun, so insane, and so enjoyable that when it ended I almost just booted it up right from chapter 1 once more and played through it again. It is so intricately made that you feel an infectious beam of passion from the developers weaving together its tight narrative. It is engaging, goofy, and I could not put it down. Between the story, gameplay, and 10-ish hour long campaign, I would absolutely not blame someone for playing this game in one long binge. If not for life circumstances, I would’ve absolutely considered it. If that isn’t a great compliment, then I don’t know what is.
I could go on about how much I liked individual characters, twists, or set pieces. I could talk about how earworm-y its soundtrack is or how striking and bold the art direction presents itself. I could talk about so, so many things. But I won’t. I will never take the opportunity away for someone to just jump into this game and love it as I did. I seldom give a game a 5 star immediately after playing something, but this is a time where I can do it with confidence.
Everyone should play, experience, and love Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective. If you don’t, you’re an odd person- and I’m sure many would agree.
Incredible game
Retreading a bit of ground for those who have read my recent review of Metal Gear 1, but I am a large and longtime fan of the Metal Gear series who, by some random circumstances, never got around to the original 2 titles. I have been rectifying that as of lately, and enjoying my time immensely.
When I played The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, I greatly enjoyed my time with it as it is an excellent video game. Something that I noticed, as someone who had played and adored its 3D sequel- Ocarina of Time- was how much the latter took from LTTP on the jump to the third dimension. Sure, it may have played and been presented differently, but there was so much DNA from the SNES game baked into the mechanics, structure, atmosphere, and overall design
I bring up my time with Link to the Past because that feeling of watching the groundwork being laid out as a fan of later entries was very prominent with Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake.
Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake is to Metal Gear Solid what Link to the Past is to Ocarina of time- and like the Zelda games, both games here are excellent as well.
Most of what I have to say about Metal Gear 2 is lifted directly from what I said about Metal Gear 1 as they are pretty similar in how they are executed, but Metal Gear 2 really amps up things and expands the experience just as a good sequel should. There is more variety in locations, items, boss encounters, and music. There is more dialogue, set pieces, and story scenes. The enemies are more advanced and capable. And best of all, that rock-solid game design is still here too.
Zanzibar Land is crafted with such care that despite it being multiple buildings of multiple floors, all with mazes of locked doors and enemies. I never got lost, and once again from Metal Gear 1 I found the gameplay loop incredibly satisfying. The addition of crawling, different sounds on different types of floor, the soliton radar, alert phases and times, using a real tap-code chart to decode messages(?!?), etc. are all pretty groundbreaking to see on such primitive hardware, and it all works wonderfully. Everything I could really want out of a 2D Metal Gear gameplay experience is pretty much perfect here.
As a Metal Gear fan I knew most of the general events going into this game as they’re important in later entries, but I was very impressed how investing the story was here, and the characterization of Solid Snake and a handful of other important figures was both fantastic and surprisingly moving? As MGS was ahead of its time, I think this game was too.
There are a few fumbles for me in this game, but they’re not really too bad. Like the first, I think this isn’t a guide game but more of a “Google once or twice” game as sometimes it isn’t quite clear about what it wants- or it just gets annoying. The highlight annoying part for me was in the forest you have to walk on a windy and narrow invisible path around quicksand, and it is just tiring and tedious. I also think the boss fights are mostly pretty weak here. None of them are hard, but most of them are just kind of weird (in a not-very-fun way like later entries) and annoying. The backtracking can also get a little excessive, I know backtracking is in Metal Gear 1 and later entries, but I think that this is the title with the most to be found (or it felt that way, at least). And while not a criticism nor complaint, this game is also long enough to not really have the same replay value of the original, lightning quick Metal Gear.
I also just want to say that I was pretty shocked how many times I noticed something that was just flat out reused in Metal Gear Solid, as it was wild to see things like an elevator or staircase ambush or forging keys in different temperatures to name a few. I just think it was interesting and worth mentioning and highlighting once more how ahead of the time this game was.
I keep saying it over and over, but it really just is ahead of its time. It isn’t quite as cinematic as the 3D games, but compared to the first this really feels like a thrilling and well defined story told via 8-bit video game, and I found that to be equally fun as it was impressive. I think the first Metal Gear is great for having a really fun and tightly-knit stealth action game and I love it dearly for that, but I think this game sits pretty confidently among the Solid titles for what it sets out to achieve. I wish more people would play these first two entries as I found them to be a heck of a lot of fun and really added to my love for this wonderful series. Great game, great duology, great times to be had overall.
Also, considering the PS5 version of this game (and MG1) basically give you every trophy for simply completing the games and then playing their boss rush modes, I did get the platinum trophy and consider this fully completed, even though there isn't really any optional content to be found in the game itself.
When I played The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, I greatly enjoyed my time with it as it is an excellent video game. Something that I noticed, as someone who had played and adored its 3D sequel- Ocarina of Time- was how much the latter took from LTTP on the jump to the third dimension. Sure, it may have played and been presented differently, but there was so much DNA from the SNES game baked into the mechanics, structure, atmosphere, and overall design
I bring up my time with Link to the Past because that feeling of watching the groundwork being laid out as a fan of later entries was very prominent with Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake.
Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake is to Metal Gear Solid what Link to the Past is to Ocarina of time- and like the Zelda games, both games here are excellent as well.
Most of what I have to say about Metal Gear 2 is lifted directly from what I said about Metal Gear 1 as they are pretty similar in how they are executed, but Metal Gear 2 really amps up things and expands the experience just as a good sequel should. There is more variety in locations, items, boss encounters, and music. There is more dialogue, set pieces, and story scenes. The enemies are more advanced and capable. And best of all, that rock-solid game design is still here too.
Zanzibar Land is crafted with such care that despite it being multiple buildings of multiple floors, all with mazes of locked doors and enemies. I never got lost, and once again from Metal Gear 1 I found the gameplay loop incredibly satisfying. The addition of crawling, different sounds on different types of floor, the soliton radar, alert phases and times, using a real tap-code chart to decode messages(?!?), etc. are all pretty groundbreaking to see on such primitive hardware, and it all works wonderfully. Everything I could really want out of a 2D Metal Gear gameplay experience is pretty much perfect here.
As a Metal Gear fan I knew most of the general events going into this game as they’re important in later entries, but I was very impressed how investing the story was here, and the characterization of Solid Snake and a handful of other important figures was both fantastic and surprisingly moving? As MGS was ahead of its time, I think this game was too.
There are a few fumbles for me in this game, but they’re not really too bad. Like the first, I think this isn’t a guide game but more of a “Google once or twice” game as sometimes it isn’t quite clear about what it wants- or it just gets annoying. The highlight annoying part for me was in the forest you have to walk on a windy and narrow invisible path around quicksand, and it is just tiring and tedious. I also think the boss fights are mostly pretty weak here. None of them are hard, but most of them are just kind of weird (in a not-very-fun way like later entries) and annoying. The backtracking can also get a little excessive, I know backtracking is in Metal Gear 1 and later entries, but I think that this is the title with the most to be found (or it felt that way, at least). And while not a criticism nor complaint, this game is also long enough to not really have the same replay value of the original, lightning quick Metal Gear.
I also just want to say that I was pretty shocked how many times I noticed something that was just flat out reused in Metal Gear Solid, as it was wild to see things like an elevator or staircase ambush or forging keys in different temperatures to name a few. I just think it was interesting and worth mentioning and highlighting once more how ahead of the time this game was.
I keep saying it over and over, but it really just is ahead of its time. It isn’t quite as cinematic as the 3D games, but compared to the first this really feels like a thrilling and well defined story told via 8-bit video game, and I found that to be equally fun as it was impressive. I think the first Metal Gear is great for having a really fun and tightly-knit stealth action game and I love it dearly for that, but I think this game sits pretty confidently among the Solid titles for what it sets out to achieve. I wish more people would play these first two entries as I found them to be a heck of a lot of fun and really added to my love for this wonderful series. Great game, great duology, great times to be had overall.
Also, considering the PS5 version of this game (and MG1) basically give you every trophy for simply completing the games and then playing their boss rush modes, I did get the platinum trophy and consider this fully completed, even though there isn't really any optional content to be found in the game itself.
I try not to let back-of-the-box sales pitches excite me before I experience a piece of media with eyes unclouded by expectations, but put yourself in my shoes for just a moment. My favorite video game of all time is Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King. My favorite film is My Neighbor Totoro, and really just the entire filmography of Hayao Miyazaki. My favorite video game genre is the Japanese Role Playing Game.
What is Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch? Well, it’s a JRPG developed by the people who made Dragon Quest VIII in collaboration with Studio Ghibli (creators of films like My Neighbor Totoro) for art direction and Joe Hisaishi (composer for Hayao Miyazaki’s film lineup).I try to not let hype get to me, but I am only human. That is the perfect storm to create something that I will love, and thankfully enough- it did!
Ni No Kuni is a treat. I could nitpick elements of it til the end of time if I tried. The battle system isn’t very deep or interesting, the cel-shaded 3D models show their age at points, there are a few QOL features that would’ve gone a long way, etc. But I just.. Don’t care?
Why even bother focusing on points like that when the adventure presented here is so much fun, is so earnest and heartfelt, has a great protagonist with a compelling story with equal part silly fun and genuine tension, is satisfying to play and immerse yourself in, is perfectly paced and is the right length, has outstanding art direction and music, and is just a nice time.
The first note here will be pretty short, but the 2D animated cutscenes are so wonderful. Ghibli is and will always be wonderful. This is no exception. Joe Hisaishi’s score admittedly proved to me he is best at film composition compared to a game where you don’t have as much control of the emotion presented, and yet even bringing up that ‘criticism’ is so silly because the music here was so lovely and perfect. Another hit by the man who never misses.
Outside from that though, this game feels like the developers knew they could just make something they wanted to make knowing attaching Ghibli would automatically market the game to a huge audience, so they just played around with all the things they loved about JRPGs. The structure is very Dragon Quest, there is monster collecting like a Pokemon, SMT, DQM, etc., the combat blends turn-based and real time very akin to something like Final Fantasy XII, and the overworld feels straight out of the Playstation 1 era. As someone who loves JRPGs dearly, this really resonated with me because it was a little taste of all the stuff I loved with a team so lovingly putting it together that you feel it yourself.
I loved the narrative and all the characters and character moments along the way. The idea of finding people with excesses of positive emotions to give their spirit to those lacking them is so ingenious and never got old to me. I felt so compelled to do side missions as they gave you extra perks like increasing item drops or movement speed- which are really fun and tangible rewards for investing yourself in the world extra. While the story is definitely on the linear side of things, it still gives you the freedom to explore around, compose parties, and do content in a very player-guided manner- and I loved it. I just have a lot of love for the game as a whole.
That is the ultimate statement I am trying to present here. I just love this game, because it loves me back. It is pretty much everything that works for me on display here. Despite the dream team combo of developers, it still doesn’t quite rank next to my all time favorites- but it didn’t need to. For just being a really fun, lovely JRPG- it does its job excellently. I had such a great time, and I give it a high recommendation.
Just don’t get the Platinum trophy for it like I did the item grind in postgame is brutal
Anyways, wonderful game
What is Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch? Well, it’s a JRPG developed by the people who made Dragon Quest VIII in collaboration with Studio Ghibli (creators of films like My Neighbor Totoro) for art direction and Joe Hisaishi (composer for Hayao Miyazaki’s film lineup).I try to not let hype get to me, but I am only human. That is the perfect storm to create something that I will love, and thankfully enough- it did!
Ni No Kuni is a treat. I could nitpick elements of it til the end of time if I tried. The battle system isn’t very deep or interesting, the cel-shaded 3D models show their age at points, there are a few QOL features that would’ve gone a long way, etc. But I just.. Don’t care?
Why even bother focusing on points like that when the adventure presented here is so much fun, is so earnest and heartfelt, has a great protagonist with a compelling story with equal part silly fun and genuine tension, is satisfying to play and immerse yourself in, is perfectly paced and is the right length, has outstanding art direction and music, and is just a nice time.
The first note here will be pretty short, but the 2D animated cutscenes are so wonderful. Ghibli is and will always be wonderful. This is no exception. Joe Hisaishi’s score admittedly proved to me he is best at film composition compared to a game where you don’t have as much control of the emotion presented, and yet even bringing up that ‘criticism’ is so silly because the music here was so lovely and perfect. Another hit by the man who never misses.
Outside from that though, this game feels like the developers knew they could just make something they wanted to make knowing attaching Ghibli would automatically market the game to a huge audience, so they just played around with all the things they loved about JRPGs. The structure is very Dragon Quest, there is monster collecting like a Pokemon, SMT, DQM, etc., the combat blends turn-based and real time very akin to something like Final Fantasy XII, and the overworld feels straight out of the Playstation 1 era. As someone who loves JRPGs dearly, this really resonated with me because it was a little taste of all the stuff I loved with a team so lovingly putting it together that you feel it yourself.
I loved the narrative and all the characters and character moments along the way. The idea of finding people with excesses of positive emotions to give their spirit to those lacking them is so ingenious and never got old to me. I felt so compelled to do side missions as they gave you extra perks like increasing item drops or movement speed- which are really fun and tangible rewards for investing yourself in the world extra. While the story is definitely on the linear side of things, it still gives you the freedom to explore around, compose parties, and do content in a very player-guided manner- and I loved it. I just have a lot of love for the game as a whole.
That is the ultimate statement I am trying to present here. I just love this game, because it loves me back. It is pretty much everything that works for me on display here. Despite the dream team combo of developers, it still doesn’t quite rank next to my all time favorites- but it didn’t need to. For just being a really fun, lovely JRPG- it does its job excellently. I had such a great time, and I give it a high recommendation.
Just don’t get the Platinum trophy for it like I did the item grind in postgame is brutal
Anyways, wonderful game
1987
I am a longtime, hardcore fan of the Metal Gear Solid series- and yet, I had never gone and played the original two Metal Gear titles. Seeing the semi-newly released Master Collection on a good sale was the push I needed, and I am very pleased by the results here.
Something I have noticed about myself is that I have a bit of a fondness for older video games that most others would label with terms like “outdated”, “frustrating”, or “hard to go back to”. I think, for example, the original NES Metroid is a wonderful and extremely fun game even today. Some like the first four Dragon Quests, Mother, or Castlevania 1 are even among my all time favorite titles. Metal Gear 1 is one of those games that I have fallen in love with.
When Metal Gear adopted the Solid title, it became instantly famous for its cinematic storytelling, memorable characters, rich lore, and exploring all sorts of themes- both mature and silly. What I think it gets less credit for is the game design, with incredibly smart level and enemy design that made every moment tense, electrifying, and crafted with an attention to detail unlike anything else. The core of that game design, shockingly, was established here in the first attempt wonderfully, despite an 11 year and multiple-hardware generational-gap.
Every moment of this game was just a ton of fun to be a part of. There is no in-game map to help guide you through Outer Heaven, but the way the location is condensed, segmented, and arranged is so smart you don’t need one. Weirdly enough, I felt a little bit like I was playing a game like Dark Souls- mentally charting which doors led to what, the enemies I’d find, and items needed to make it through to the next checkpoint as I slowly but surely unwove the tangles of the world little by little. It was immensely satisfying from beginning to end, and really just reminds me why I love video games.
The other mechanics presented here are definitely at their simplest- the enemies need to get their eyes checked because you can be standing shoulder to shoulder with them and they won't see you unless they pivot 90 degrees, shooting a gun simply launches a little white pellet in front of you, and Snake can ditch his knee pads since there is no crawl or crouch to be found here- but the simplicity works in its favor and really highlights how fun the game is at its core. The game isn’t particularly difficult by any means, so I see little reason to even be frustrated by what's offered here. Despite the age, there are still a lot of really neat ideas here that are recycled in later games, but I had no idea were from all the way at the start. Smoking cigarettes to reveal security lasers while it slowly drains your life bar, for example. was a cool concept in MGS1, and seeing it in 8-bit was still incredibly cool. The Kojima attention to detail reigns true no matter the hardware, it appears. At the end of the day though, sneaking behind enemies to go by rooms unseen, ambushing with a three-hit punch, and hiding under a cardboard box to fool security cameras- what more do you need?
As is the case with most other games of this era, the story is very simple but fun- just like the gameplay. Compared to the later works of Hideo Kojima- this is a drop in a large bucket in terms of narrative complexity, but what is here is still a ton of fun. I loved the end game twist, I loved seeing how Solid Snake got his legendary status referenced in the Solid games, I loved the bits of personality seen from the hostages you rescue, bosses you fight, and transmitter pals. I loved it all.
Something else that I really found myself enjoying was the length of the game. When MGS1 was finally able to have voice acting, cinematography, and a general filmmaking-level quality to its story presentation, they squeezed every bit of that they could in their games. When they couldn’t do any of that, however, it lends itself to a game that is lighting quick. There is a breakneck pace to the story and gameplay here without any long interruption, and while certainly a different flavor than what I know and love, I love this for completely different reasons. I beat this game from start to finish in 3 and a half hours. Combined with the fun of the core gameplay experience and simplicity, the length of this adventure (especially on repeat playthroughs) makes this game an incredibly compelling experience that I would gladly pull out and play through on a whim when I have a free afternoon and don’t want to chip away at whatever JRPG I’m playing. There is more replay value here for me than any other Metal Gear title I’ve played, and that is a really fun prospect to think about. I’d gladly run through it all over again.
While I loved pretty much all of the game, I will admit it is not without its rougher patches. In the middle of the game it introduces a few sections or ideas that don’t really lend itself to the quality the rest of the title presents. Puzzles where you have to put on a gas mask? Cool in concept, lame in execution when opening the doors to get out of the gas-filled rooms requires you remove the mask and thus take unavoidable damage, especially when you may have to cycle through a meaty handful due to the keycards not stacking in utility like in later games. The instant-death floor traps in here are incredibly annoying later on as the game relies on them a bit too much, and even grazing by the edge of one is enough for you to have to start from the last checkpoint. And while the game is really not all that cryptic in my opinion- with pretty great hints from the hostages and codec along with the general quality level design- there are a couple moments where you need to contact specific codec frequencies in specific rooms to arbitrarily do things like open a door or give a key weapon, and I found that to be the only real cryptic nonsense here. This is not a guide-game like a Simon’s Quest, this is a “Google once or twice” game, which I think is hardly a mark of poor quality.
Ultimately, I didn’t really know what to expect from this game going in. I knew the general story as it is pretty essential info for the later entries, but the gameplay experience offered in a standalone (cardboard) box here is compelling both with or without the rest of the series’ context under my belt. I really, truly loved my time with this title, just as I did with the Solid games all those years ago. Incredibly pleasant surprise.
*Also, I played the extra boss rush mode to get the last PS Trophy (every other is gained naturally through just one playthrough) so I am thus marking it as fully completed
Something I have noticed about myself is that I have a bit of a fondness for older video games that most others would label with terms like “outdated”, “frustrating”, or “hard to go back to”. I think, for example, the original NES Metroid is a wonderful and extremely fun game even today. Some like the first four Dragon Quests, Mother, or Castlevania 1 are even among my all time favorite titles. Metal Gear 1 is one of those games that I have fallen in love with.
When Metal Gear adopted the Solid title, it became instantly famous for its cinematic storytelling, memorable characters, rich lore, and exploring all sorts of themes- both mature and silly. What I think it gets less credit for is the game design, with incredibly smart level and enemy design that made every moment tense, electrifying, and crafted with an attention to detail unlike anything else. The core of that game design, shockingly, was established here in the first attempt wonderfully, despite an 11 year and multiple-hardware generational-gap.
Every moment of this game was just a ton of fun to be a part of. There is no in-game map to help guide you through Outer Heaven, but the way the location is condensed, segmented, and arranged is so smart you don’t need one. Weirdly enough, I felt a little bit like I was playing a game like Dark Souls- mentally charting which doors led to what, the enemies I’d find, and items needed to make it through to the next checkpoint as I slowly but surely unwove the tangles of the world little by little. It was immensely satisfying from beginning to end, and really just reminds me why I love video games.
The other mechanics presented here are definitely at their simplest- the enemies need to get their eyes checked because you can be standing shoulder to shoulder with them and they won't see you unless they pivot 90 degrees, shooting a gun simply launches a little white pellet in front of you, and Snake can ditch his knee pads since there is no crawl or crouch to be found here- but the simplicity works in its favor and really highlights how fun the game is at its core. The game isn’t particularly difficult by any means, so I see little reason to even be frustrated by what's offered here. Despite the age, there are still a lot of really neat ideas here that are recycled in later games, but I had no idea were from all the way at the start. Smoking cigarettes to reveal security lasers while it slowly drains your life bar, for example. was a cool concept in MGS1, and seeing it in 8-bit was still incredibly cool. The Kojima attention to detail reigns true no matter the hardware, it appears. At the end of the day though, sneaking behind enemies to go by rooms unseen, ambushing with a three-hit punch, and hiding under a cardboard box to fool security cameras- what more do you need?
As is the case with most other games of this era, the story is very simple but fun- just like the gameplay. Compared to the later works of Hideo Kojima- this is a drop in a large bucket in terms of narrative complexity, but what is here is still a ton of fun. I loved the end game twist, I loved seeing how Solid Snake got his legendary status referenced in the Solid games, I loved the bits of personality seen from the hostages you rescue, bosses you fight, and transmitter pals. I loved it all.
Something else that I really found myself enjoying was the length of the game. When MGS1 was finally able to have voice acting, cinematography, and a general filmmaking-level quality to its story presentation, they squeezed every bit of that they could in their games. When they couldn’t do any of that, however, it lends itself to a game that is lighting quick. There is a breakneck pace to the story and gameplay here without any long interruption, and while certainly a different flavor than what I know and love, I love this for completely different reasons. I beat this game from start to finish in 3 and a half hours. Combined with the fun of the core gameplay experience and simplicity, the length of this adventure (especially on repeat playthroughs) makes this game an incredibly compelling experience that I would gladly pull out and play through on a whim when I have a free afternoon and don’t want to chip away at whatever JRPG I’m playing. There is more replay value here for me than any other Metal Gear title I’ve played, and that is a really fun prospect to think about. I’d gladly run through it all over again.
While I loved pretty much all of the game, I will admit it is not without its rougher patches. In the middle of the game it introduces a few sections or ideas that don’t really lend itself to the quality the rest of the title presents. Puzzles where you have to put on a gas mask? Cool in concept, lame in execution when opening the doors to get out of the gas-filled rooms requires you remove the mask and thus take unavoidable damage, especially when you may have to cycle through a meaty handful due to the keycards not stacking in utility like in later games. The instant-death floor traps in here are incredibly annoying later on as the game relies on them a bit too much, and even grazing by the edge of one is enough for you to have to start from the last checkpoint. And while the game is really not all that cryptic in my opinion- with pretty great hints from the hostages and codec along with the general quality level design- there are a couple moments where you need to contact specific codec frequencies in specific rooms to arbitrarily do things like open a door or give a key weapon, and I found that to be the only real cryptic nonsense here. This is not a guide-game like a Simon’s Quest, this is a “Google once or twice” game, which I think is hardly a mark of poor quality.
Ultimately, I didn’t really know what to expect from this game going in. I knew the general story as it is pretty essential info for the later entries, but the gameplay experience offered in a standalone (cardboard) box here is compelling both with or without the rest of the series’ context under my belt. I really, truly loved my time with this title, just as I did with the Solid games all those years ago. Incredibly pleasant surprise.
*Also, I played the extra boss rush mode to get the last PS Trophy (every other is gained naturally through just one playthrough) so I am thus marking it as fully completed