falsenine
2015
Ludo but maybe suffers too much from being a prequel to Kiwami, which has a more engaging narrative.
1997
Aged like wine, best protagonist in JRPG History and it's not even my favorite FF. Deserves all its hype and praise.
2016
Initially overrated to the point of looping back to becoming over-hated. The immersion is still top-notch and the dungeon design is incredible. Devs should be taking a lot of notes.
2012
PS Vita hood classic for depressed high schoolers. Social links are great and the overall feel of the game is delivered in a compelling manner, with an honest and compelling antagonist standing in opposition to the party.
1996
Fun platformer that aged pretty well, all things considered. The camera is absolute aids but that's really the only bad thing I can say about the game.
1995
Good ol' Chrono Trigger can proudly join the ranks of "Video Games That Live Up to Their Massive Hype" and the strides it made within the JRPG genre resonate strongly even today. CT is one of the first RPGs I played that helped really get me into RPGs as a whole, even with the abysmal PSX port's load times; really it's a game that's very hard not to enjoy. It's a shame the Dream Team didn't get the chance to assemble ever again.
1994
Dropped like a hot fucking rock. The people who praise this game have clearly not actually played it and merely enjoy the aesthetic. Mechanically it's behind even some NES RPGs.
Corny and hard to really take seriously but the cases are engaging enough to retain interest. The big problem with the series is that everything is so played-up that the narrative can't ever go anywhere meaningful.
The kamige. Shu Takumi is a genius and this [along with Ghost Trick] illustrates this in its purest form. Maybe a bit underappreciated because it's the first entry and the proof of Takumi's concept itself, but in the same vein the excellence of this game is no doubt a reason why AA took off at all, both domestically and abroad. Peak of a great series of adventure games.
A nice return to form for Ace Attorney. Takumi's vision shines through as he creates an immersive world that's just as compelling as the original trilogy. Features some excellent cases although even its final cases remain dwarfed by some of the series' true peaks.
2015
Campy, but undeniably enjoyable. Doesn't really hit a big peak but I feel like the developers really didn't set a foot wrong in regards to what they set out to do with this game.
2000
The legendary game that was built on a foundation of a decade+ of its predecessors. Hironobu Sakaguchi's life's work was Final Fantasy itself, but among those games, this is the finest one. Final Fantasy IX is what turned me from a player whose interest had been piqued by the series into a full-blown JRPG fanatic. It hits every beat, it sets up expectations while never boring the player, and yet subverts them spectacularly anyways. Zidane and Garnet. Vivi, Steiner. Kuja. It's all so good. Truly the crown jewel of Squaresoft's catalog. Good luck topping this one, lads.
There was a point when Tactical RPGs were a hard sell for me, but FFT turned out to be the perfect antidote. The inclusion of the job system in the game is one of the greatest strokes of genius in game design and carries the game into top-tier category. The world and narrative are excellent (though sadly some of the characters themselves could have been more compelling) and makes for an immersive low-fantasy epic. Not many games hit the right notes like FFT does.
1998
Super cool game with a cute graphical style and an addictive battle system. Wolf Team absolutely had something big on their hands when they developed this game and the success of the Tales Of series really shows. It does a lot more legwork than many of its contemporaries from a narrative POV, possibly owing to the fact that it was adapted from a developer's idea for a novel.
1999
The best bad game I have ever played. Narratively it becomes a mess of sludge in the second disc but the world design and everything about Disc 1 is so compelling. I can't really neg it even though it becomes a trainwreck because the majority of it really is quite good in terms of graphics, OST, dungeon design and the plot's rising action. I'd be lying if I said I didn't have fun even if it ends weakly.