megidodyne
2018
The idea of an extremely unfair edgy RPG has some appeal but I think some of the ways the game is unfair aren't as intended as others. Not a fan of how enemies can only die at the very end of a turn, so even if you have extremely powerful weapons and attack an enemy with a blow that kills it multiple times over, it can still get an extremely debilitating hit off before instantly dying a second after (I'm not talking about the particular undead enemies who are supposed to be able to live after decapitation, just the combat system in general works like this)
The game is a bit unpolished in general, I encountered a (beneficial) bug with the 2nd bed in the game where no matter how many times I failed the coin flip I would never be attacked by an enemy. I would just have to walk a few steps to wear off the adrenaline and I could try again, which essentially allowed it to become my cheap savescum spot. I feel like this warped my experience quite a bit away from the "intended" one. Despite the lack of polish and budget you'll notice my score for the game is above neutral. Despite what the game was working with on a budget level I think it was still pretty effective in creating an extremely oppressive yet engaging atmosphere. I also really liked the limb based targeting system that let you cripple enemies and disable some of the more dangerous attacks, very similar to a system in xenoblade X that I always considered underrated and wished to see in more RPG's. I think the difficulty and ridiculously brutal scenarios your growing party can get put through endeared me to the characters quite a bit, its definitely one of those games where you're constantly thinking about conversations between characters as you go through each room. A solid formula that with much more polish could make for a fantastic game. Will try out the sequel to see if it lives up to the potential.
The game is a bit unpolished in general, I encountered a (beneficial) bug with the 2nd bed in the game where no matter how many times I failed the coin flip I would never be attacked by an enemy. I would just have to walk a few steps to wear off the adrenaline and I could try again, which essentially allowed it to become my cheap savescum spot. I feel like this warped my experience quite a bit away from the "intended" one. Despite the lack of polish and budget you'll notice my score for the game is above neutral. Despite what the game was working with on a budget level I think it was still pretty effective in creating an extremely oppressive yet engaging atmosphere. I also really liked the limb based targeting system that let you cripple enemies and disable some of the more dangerous attacks, very similar to a system in xenoblade X that I always considered underrated and wished to see in more RPG's. I think the difficulty and ridiculously brutal scenarios your growing party can get put through endeared me to the characters quite a bit, its definitely one of those games where you're constantly thinking about conversations between characters as you go through each room. A solid formula that with much more polish could make for a fantastic game. Will try out the sequel to see if it lives up to the potential.
This game is fantastic. It fixes basically every issue I had with its predecessor.
Now not every single location in the overworld is filled with encounters, they actually let you rest with encounter free areas. You can walk through the town of Tsukudo-cho without being harassed by demons every 5 steps. Speaking of, Raidou's movement speed is practically doubled both in battle and out. He can travel at a reasonable pace and actually do some respectable moves in battle. The gun is way faster and so actually a worthwhile option, and he even now has a dodge roll move so he no longer feels like a sack of bricks on a trolley. The magnetite system has been completely revamped and is actually a factor in battles now.
Like its predecessor it still has an incredibly strong style and amazing 10/10 meguro ost.
The only thing I'd say is that I prefer the plot of the first game, but 2's is by no means bad and in the end thats just personal preference.
Its a shame that this is a niche game within an already niche series. I think more people need to experience this one, its seriously fantastic.
Now not every single location in the overworld is filled with encounters, they actually let you rest with encounter free areas. You can walk through the town of Tsukudo-cho without being harassed by demons every 5 steps. Speaking of, Raidou's movement speed is practically doubled both in battle and out. He can travel at a reasonable pace and actually do some respectable moves in battle. The gun is way faster and so actually a worthwhile option, and he even now has a dodge roll move so he no longer feels like a sack of bricks on a trolley. The magnetite system has been completely revamped and is actually a factor in battles now.
Like its predecessor it still has an incredibly strong style and amazing 10/10 meguro ost.
The only thing I'd say is that I prefer the plot of the first game, but 2's is by no means bad and in the end thats just personal preference.
Its a shame that this is a niche game within an already niche series. I think more people need to experience this one, its seriously fantastic.
This game is pretty heavily boosted by the great aesthetic and style, cool character designs, and absolutely 10/10 Meguro ost.
The gameplay is pretty jank. About half of raidou's moveset is useless due to the massive amount of endlag after his moves that basically guarantee you being vulnerable and talking a blow to the face after you use them. The gun move in particular is only useful for hitting the frail element of a demon you plan to capture. Any other time its a complete waste of an action, as raidou plants himself like a tree to the ground for about 3 months to fire off 3 glacially slow shots after just a single press of the button.
Raidou feels very sluggish to control overall.
It takes a bit but once you get into the flow of the game it goes pretty smoothly for a while until I'd say about the end of chapter 8, when the bosses health bars get an obnoxious boost. The boss rematches in the final dungeon have an absurd amount of health that takes so long to whittle down it drained away any enjoyment I was having.
To top this off the encounter rate is absurdly high, and there are encounters EVERYWHERE. There is NO place you can walk in that is free of encounters in this game. You can be walking through a bustling city street surrounded by people or through a mansion filled with maids and still be getting assailed by demons and fighting for your life.
The magnetite system is barely a factor. Despite the latter half of the game requiring extreme amounts of recalling and resummoning your demons to make them avoid large screen covering boss attacks, I at no point ever even used more than half of my magnetite bar. According to some people I've talked to, the magnetite system is only balanced for the games hard "King" difficulty, but this is only unlocked after beating the game once and I did not play on that mode, nor do I have any interest in replaying this. So I will never know.
The story is pretty interesting and does some cool things.
The sequel is much better as a game.
The gameplay is pretty jank. About half of raidou's moveset is useless due to the massive amount of endlag after his moves that basically guarantee you being vulnerable and talking a blow to the face after you use them. The gun move in particular is only useful for hitting the frail element of a demon you plan to capture. Any other time its a complete waste of an action, as raidou plants himself like a tree to the ground for about 3 months to fire off 3 glacially slow shots after just a single press of the button.
Raidou feels very sluggish to control overall.
It takes a bit but once you get into the flow of the game it goes pretty smoothly for a while until I'd say about the end of chapter 8, when the bosses health bars get an obnoxious boost. The boss rematches in the final dungeon have an absurd amount of health that takes so long to whittle down it drained away any enjoyment I was having.
To top this off the encounter rate is absurdly high, and there are encounters EVERYWHERE. There is NO place you can walk in that is free of encounters in this game. You can be walking through a bustling city street surrounded by people or through a mansion filled with maids and still be getting assailed by demons and fighting for your life.
The magnetite system is barely a factor. Despite the latter half of the game requiring extreme amounts of recalling and resummoning your demons to make them avoid large screen covering boss attacks, I at no point ever even used more than half of my magnetite bar. According to some people I've talked to, the magnetite system is only balanced for the games hard "King" difficulty, but this is only unlocked after beating the game once and I did not play on that mode, nor do I have any interest in replaying this. So I will never know.
The story is pretty interesting and does some cool things.
The sequel is much better as a game.
This review contains spoilers
This might have my favourite gameplay out of the xeno games. The tutorials are pretty poor, overdrive is a mechanic you basically have to watch a youtube tutorial to truly understand how it works. But once you do the combat is awesome. The continents are all beautiful and have an amazing sense of scale. Finally getting a skell and flying over what before seemed like such huge areas in seconds blows your mind and makes you feel like a god. The environmental story telling is probably the best in the series, you can constantly see nature at work with sights such as enemies feasting on the bodies of others.
The soundtrack is also one of the most unique and standout in the series, due to being done by Hiroyuki Sawano. There is a crazy number of amazing 10/10 tracks in this games OST.
Unfortunately, despite a few standout characters like Elma, Lao and Nagi, the story and cast are probably the weakest of any xeno game.
Also mr takahashi has some pretty big balls pulling the "Its something about this planet" cliffhanger stuff considering his track record of being unable to finish his big epics.
Still love the game but don't count your eggs before they've hatched.
The soundtrack is also one of the most unique and standout in the series, due to being done by Hiroyuki Sawano. There is a crazy number of amazing 10/10 tracks in this games OST.
Unfortunately, despite a few standout characters like Elma, Lao and Nagi, the story and cast are probably the weakest of any xeno game.
Also mr takahashi has some pretty big balls pulling the "Its something about this planet" cliffhanger stuff considering his track record of being unable to finish his big epics.
Still love the game but don't count your eggs before they've hatched.
This game does an amazing job at balancing a pretty large cast of characters and yet still managing give the majority equal development and make them equally endearing. The magicite shards make for a great progression system that offers a nice amount of character customisation.
The story has its scenes of levity but is otherwise quite dark and often went places I couldn't have possibly expected.
The story has its scenes of levity but is otherwise quite dark and often went places I couldn't have possibly expected.
(I played this game emulated with a patch that added the SNES music)
This game basically makes Final fantasy 3 completely obsolete.
The job system is massively improved and actually encourages experimentation unlike 3's which punishes it. Its story, while simple, is still very charming, has some really good scenes and does certain concepts from 3 significantly better like the existence of a another group warriors who fight for the crystal from before your time. The music is great, I love the visual style and tone. Despite being worlds apart tonally from VI I think it stands as its equal in quality.
This game basically makes Final fantasy 3 completely obsolete.
The job system is massively improved and actually encourages experimentation unlike 3's which punishes it. Its story, while simple, is still very charming, has some really good scenes and does certain concepts from 3 significantly better like the existence of a another group warriors who fight for the crystal from before your time. The music is great, I love the visual style and tone. Despite being worlds apart tonally from VI I think it stands as its equal in quality.
This review contains spoilers
This game is about "pretty good" for 80% of the run time with only minimal issues. One being the arbitrary 40 item inventory limit this game introduced (and was thankfully dropped right after). This annoying restriction also messes with the optimise equipment function, since I assume the behind the scenes process involves the game unequipping all your stuff first and then looking in your inventory to see what you have. So if your inventory is full or a few away from full it won't let you use the function, which was a very frequent annoyance and basically took away the pretty obvious omnipresent appeal of finding items in chests in rpgs, because it was always accompanied by the thought of "ugh, what do I have to throw away now"
But aside from that, I enjoyed the game a decent amount until you go to the moon. Then I think is when the game just sorta throws away all the appeal in both story and gameplay. The lunar surface and lunar subterrain is a pretty steep difficulty spike, one of the most intense in any of these games. The random encounters always outspeed you turn 1 and can do a devastating amount of damage to you before you're able to strike. It felt like the entire area was designed as a resources drain and just to make you use your entire mp, potion and ether stock in record time. Also, story wise, you are robbed out of a satisfying conclusion with the games recurring villain, after he is revealed to also be being brainwashed (after that plotpoint was already being used on one of your party members). You never get a non scripted fight with Golbez, which is immensely disappointing. The real antagonist is a moon man vampire. But even then, you don't get to fight him. He is killed by Golbez and an ally, and then his lingering hatred incarnates into a new monster, which ends up being the final boss you fight and is about two spheres removed from anything the game had you caring about the entire time.
Overall I don't think the game is awful, I had fun with the majority of my playtime, but some mechanical annoyances and a really poor ending sort of soured the experience.
The after years is a real steaming pile of garbage though. Just an excuse to rehash content and a really really awful attempt to tie together all the final fantasy games with crystals in them.
But aside from that, I enjoyed the game a decent amount until you go to the moon. Then I think is when the game just sorta throws away all the appeal in both story and gameplay. The lunar surface and lunar subterrain is a pretty steep difficulty spike, one of the most intense in any of these games. The random encounters always outspeed you turn 1 and can do a devastating amount of damage to you before you're able to strike. It felt like the entire area was designed as a resources drain and just to make you use your entire mp, potion and ether stock in record time. Also, story wise, you are robbed out of a satisfying conclusion with the games recurring villain, after he is revealed to also be being brainwashed (after that plotpoint was already being used on one of your party members). You never get a non scripted fight with Golbez, which is immensely disappointing. The real antagonist is a moon man vampire. But even then, you don't get to fight him. He is killed by Golbez and an ally, and then his lingering hatred incarnates into a new monster, which ends up being the final boss you fight and is about two spheres removed from anything the game had you caring about the entire time.
Overall I don't think the game is awful, I had fun with the majority of my playtime, but some mechanical annoyances and a really poor ending sort of soured the experience.
The after years is a real steaming pile of garbage though. Just an excuse to rehash content and a really really awful attempt to tie together all the final fantasy games with crystals in them.
Xenoblade 2 is great. As expected of xeno the ost is fantastic, the characters are endearing, and the gameplay is fun. The gameplay has been expanded greatly from xenoblade 1 with the introduction of the blade system and with it many mechanics like driver combos and the blade special system.
On top of this, it has one of the absolute best value expansion packs Nintendo has ever released. Torna is a fantastic game on its own right that also helps to improve the story of the main game with added context, adding weight and even despair to some scenes.
On top of this, it has one of the absolute best value expansion packs Nintendo has ever released. Torna is a fantastic game on its own right that also helps to improve the story of the main game with added context, adding weight and even despair to some scenes.
Discussion around this one is pretty turbulent, a lot of people think its a perfect masterpiece and a lot of people think its massively overrated. Personally, I really love it. While the gameplay is fairly simple, I think its very engaging and I think mechanics like visions and chain attacks are very fun. While the distribution of character development to the cast is a little uneven like many previous xeno games, I still came out of it satisfied and liking everybody. The OST is fantastic, one of my favourites.
I like this game a lot. I think it has a great story (once it actually gets going), a really enjoyable cast, fairly fun gameplay and a good ost.
Unfortunately I also think it has probably the worst, slowest opening of any Xeno game, and really does not make a good first impression.
I'd also say it has not aged as gracefully as some other games in the series. Its models look a little doll like and uncanny and do not hold up nearly as good as xenogears sprite work. The game is also quite slow in many aspects.
Still, none of this is a dealbreaker. I think its still a great game, and far superior to 2. And once the story does get going, there are are ton of amazing character beats and scenes that make pushing through the slow opening worth it.
Unfortunately I also think it has probably the worst, slowest opening of any Xeno game, and really does not make a good first impression.
I'd also say it has not aged as gracefully as some other games in the series. Its models look a little doll like and uncanny and do not hold up nearly as good as xenogears sprite work. The game is also quite slow in many aspects.
Still, none of this is a dealbreaker. I think its still a great game, and far superior to 2. And once the story does get going, there are are ton of amazing character beats and scenes that make pushing through the slow opening worth it.
1998
An unforgettable story and characters. The gameplay has room for improvement, but isn't bad by any means. The soundtrack is amazing. Even with the rushed nature of disc 2 I still think the game is amazing. Frankly, we as a species might not have been able to handle a version of this game that was fully finished. Takahashi held it back out of mercy for us.
They did basically the best they could considering the situation they were dealt with after xenosaga 2. A fantastic game that looks incredibly visually for the time. Basically every single issue with Saga 2 is fixed. Some of the original saga 1 voice cast return, and even the new ones retained from saga 2 seem to actually be being directed this time and so actually give great performances. Fun and engaging combat, great music, and an amazing story. Lots of great callbacks to Xenogears, yet it all also works on its own.
This review contains spoilers
A game with a very good story, sadly dragged down by basically everything else. The artstyle shift makes many of the characters look awkward to bad, especially KOS-MOS and Shion. There's also a change in voice actors for many characters, also unfortunately hitting KOS-MOS and Shion the hardest. It also really ruins what should be some of the games most hard hitting scenes with some really awful delivery. Many poor decisions make the gameplay slower and tedious, such as the introduction of the stocking mechanic and regular encounters that start to last far too long. Also the only Xeno game with a subpar soundtrack, despite the presence of a few fantastic tracks such as the credits theme and the other songs featuring its melody.
The games story also doesn't focus very much on Shion and especially KOS-MOS at all, which might be surprising coming from 1. Luckily Jr's story and his relationship with Albedo are fantastic, saving the games story from being as poor as everything else, even despite the odd shift in focus away from Shion and her robowife.
The games story also doesn't focus very much on Shion and especially KOS-MOS at all, which might be surprising coming from 1. Luckily Jr's story and his relationship with Albedo are fantastic, saving the games story from being as poor as everything else, even despite the odd shift in focus away from Shion and her robowife.