paranoodle
2022
I'll come back and review this more thoroughly later (if I don't forget), but so far I'm hovering around 3/5 stars because it's a mix of content ranging from 0/5 to 5/5 and it mostly just kind of averages out to "okay".
The visuals are gorgeous, I love the concepts and setpieces, and the music is great. I appreciate that there's a lot of variety, even if the quality of the mechanics is also pretty variable.
Unfortunately on the less positive side, a lot of the chapters feel rushed - they're trying to fit too much story in too little time, and the difficulty curve is all over the place, not only across chapters but within as well. The game is also pretty deeply misogynistic at its core; women are almost always either absent (less than 10% of notable/major characters are women) or fall into unpleasant gendered stereotypes.
I understand why it influenced some other games, and why it was a big deal at the time, but this is one I would've personally left in the 90s I think.
The visuals are gorgeous, I love the concepts and setpieces, and the music is great. I appreciate that there's a lot of variety, even if the quality of the mechanics is also pretty variable.
Unfortunately on the less positive side, a lot of the chapters feel rushed - they're trying to fit too much story in too little time, and the difficulty curve is all over the place, not only across chapters but within as well. The game is also pretty deeply misogynistic at its core; women are almost always either absent (less than 10% of notable/major characters are women) or fall into unpleasant gendered stereotypes.
I understand why it influenced some other games, and why it was a big deal at the time, but this is one I would've personally left in the 90s I think.
this game isn't quite perfect but it gets surprisingly close for me:
- i can have turn-based combat instead of ATB (i hate ATB)
- generally really fun combat mechanics
- the 3d shaders are so gorgeous it's ridiculous i wish every game looked this good
- tiny cute final fantasy monsters
the art style for the characters is a bit more miss than hit for me unfortunately (the normal-ish-proportioned ones have really weirdly big heads and the chibi ones are just... a bit blocky for me), but i really enjoy the monster stylization, and the colors in this game are gorgeous.
this game in general is gorgeous really, it uses very realistic shaders and stylization for the environment, paired with stylized characters such that it almost feels like you're wiggling some amiibos around as your party members, but with good animations. and, you know, not actually real.
the story is... without spoiling, i'd describe it as a weird but mostly successful mix between kingdom hearts and bravely default. well-written enough that i was interested to see how things would end, but not enough that i was hungry for more after finishing the game.
of note, there's a bunch of cheat options built-in, which, even if i didn't use myself (outside encounter rate), i really appreciate, because it means that no matter how bad you are at it, or how little time you have to play it, you can still enjoy all the parts of it you'd like. or just turn off encounters because you're max level and don't feel like it, that's always a nice plus.
would love to get to play the expansion/dlc someday but i have to admit their shenanigans with how they priced it for people who already had the base game left me with a pretty sour taste.
- i can have turn-based combat instead of ATB (i hate ATB)
- generally really fun combat mechanics
- the 3d shaders are so gorgeous it's ridiculous i wish every game looked this good
- tiny cute final fantasy monsters
the art style for the characters is a bit more miss than hit for me unfortunately (the normal-ish-proportioned ones have really weirdly big heads and the chibi ones are just... a bit blocky for me), but i really enjoy the monster stylization, and the colors in this game are gorgeous.
this game in general is gorgeous really, it uses very realistic shaders and stylization for the environment, paired with stylized characters such that it almost feels like you're wiggling some amiibos around as your party members, but with good animations. and, you know, not actually real.
the story is... without spoiling, i'd describe it as a weird but mostly successful mix between kingdom hearts and bravely default. well-written enough that i was interested to see how things would end, but not enough that i was hungry for more after finishing the game.
of note, there's a bunch of cheat options built-in, which, even if i didn't use myself (outside encounter rate), i really appreciate, because it means that no matter how bad you are at it, or how little time you have to play it, you can still enjoy all the parts of it you'd like. or just turn off encounters because you're max level and don't feel like it, that's always a nice plus.
would love to get to play the expansion/dlc someday but i have to admit their shenanigans with how they priced it for people who already had the base game left me with a pretty sour taste.
this game is one of my childhood faves and i keep coming back to it every once in a while (current tally: 9 playthroughs). it's wonky in spots and pretty solid in others but it's also just really unique in a lot of ways.
i found the characters really likeable and fun even if they're frequently not very well-written, and the plot is... something. without spoiling, this game is kind of (in)famous for having what i've frequently seen described as "a plot aneurysm" partway through. it's really fun to experience if you're down for weird jrpg story stuff.
combat-wise, it's pretty straightforward and somewhat similar to other SO titles. the MP KO "feature" is... an interesting idea, and it at least gives a couple funny bosses as a trade-off for your healers/casters dying like flies until you figure out how to wrangle the system.
the crafting and other side mechanics are for the most part so incredibly obtuse even a guide struggles to make sense of them, but the good news is that you don't strictly need them to finish the game (even if it might make 1-2 spots a tad easier and/or trivial if you cheese stuff). the other good news is that if you do figure them out, you feel like a genius and you can trivialize everything except the post-game if you so wish.
in terms of visuals, i like most of the character design even if, again, it sometimes goes in... interesting directions. the graphics were pretty dang good for ps2 at the time and still don't hold up too bad, honestly.
as for the audio, it has the same sound effect set as other games in the series, and the usual OST by motoi sakuraba who is having the time of his life banging on his synth. i'm so happy for him.
i found the characters really likeable and fun even if they're frequently not very well-written, and the plot is... something. without spoiling, this game is kind of (in)famous for having what i've frequently seen described as "a plot aneurysm" partway through. it's really fun to experience if you're down for weird jrpg story stuff.
combat-wise, it's pretty straightforward and somewhat similar to other SO titles. the MP KO "feature" is... an interesting idea, and it at least gives a couple funny bosses as a trade-off for your healers/casters dying like flies until you figure out how to wrangle the system.
the crafting and other side mechanics are for the most part so incredibly obtuse even a guide struggles to make sense of them, but the good news is that you don't strictly need them to finish the game (even if it might make 1-2 spots a tad easier and/or trivial if you cheese stuff). the other good news is that if you do figure them out, you feel like a genius and you can trivialize everything except the post-game if you so wish.
in terms of visuals, i like most of the character design even if, again, it sometimes goes in... interesting directions. the graphics were pretty dang good for ps2 at the time and still don't hold up too bad, honestly.
as for the audio, it has the same sound effect set as other games in the series, and the usual OST by motoi sakuraba who is having the time of his life banging on his synth. i'm so happy for him.
2017
i'd never heard a peep about this game, so i picked it up completely blind after seeing its name on a list of games grezzo had contributed to. i was in the mood for some jrpg and generic 3ds stuff was gonna do just fine.
as it turns out, despite the painfully bad name (and with this studio's previous project being "the legend of legacy" this seems to be a running theme of theirs) and fairly generic-looking box, this was really not a game i'd call generic, and i had a really good time with it!
overall i'd describe it as somewhat adjacent to bravely default in flavor and aesthetic, but without the final fantasy flavoring, and with a much more unique take on its mechanics. the game is really based around giving you a lot of room to do things the way you'd like to do them, with a ton of customization options. you have a ton of tactics options to pick roles for party members and add modifiers to their skills, everyone can wield every weapon type, most skills are available to everyone (save sorcery being unique to demons most of the time). if you want to have all 5 of your active party be double-shield tanks, you can. it rules.
plot-wise i found it interesting enough to keep me going but not much past that, it's fairly standard "world is screwed up, get backstory, find culprit" flavor, even if there's a couple interesting stops on the way. the world-building is already a notch above that, where things are just unique enough that i found myself curious to discover new areas. unfortunately, the plot slows down a bit too much around the last chunk of the game, and with it the pacing and gameplay dwindles a little bit also, in my opinion. it's the type of game where you have a great time for the vast majority of it, but the last 5-10 hours leave you wishing you were still in the middle of the game.
that said, the characters is where this really shines for me. you have a whopping 12 party members (though 3 are optional and figure much less) and they're all interesting and compelling characters, and with great visual designs to boot. i might not have been all that invested in the plot, but getting to see all the characters interact and go on their quest was an absolute delight. shout-out to robbins for being a literal penguin and the strongest party member (self-proclaimed). outside the party members, there's a non-negligible amount of interesting npcs and antagonists, with again some really great design work.
one thing quite unique with this game is that there's a really large amount of sidequests, many of which have different possible endings with both story and material consequences, and whose branching outcomes feel really natural.
overall i really loved this game, even with its faults, and i'm excited to get around to the remaster to play through it differently :3
as it turns out, despite the painfully bad name (and with this studio's previous project being "the legend of legacy" this seems to be a running theme of theirs) and fairly generic-looking box, this was really not a game i'd call generic, and i had a really good time with it!
overall i'd describe it as somewhat adjacent to bravely default in flavor and aesthetic, but without the final fantasy flavoring, and with a much more unique take on its mechanics. the game is really based around giving you a lot of room to do things the way you'd like to do them, with a ton of customization options. you have a ton of tactics options to pick roles for party members and add modifiers to their skills, everyone can wield every weapon type, most skills are available to everyone (save sorcery being unique to demons most of the time). if you want to have all 5 of your active party be double-shield tanks, you can. it rules.
plot-wise i found it interesting enough to keep me going but not much past that, it's fairly standard "world is screwed up, get backstory, find culprit" flavor, even if there's a couple interesting stops on the way. the world-building is already a notch above that, where things are just unique enough that i found myself curious to discover new areas. unfortunately, the plot slows down a bit too much around the last chunk of the game, and with it the pacing and gameplay dwindles a little bit also, in my opinion. it's the type of game where you have a great time for the vast majority of it, but the last 5-10 hours leave you wishing you were still in the middle of the game.
that said, the characters is where this really shines for me. you have a whopping 12 party members (though 3 are optional and figure much less) and they're all interesting and compelling characters, and with great visual designs to boot. i might not have been all that invested in the plot, but getting to see all the characters interact and go on their quest was an absolute delight. shout-out to robbins for being a literal penguin and the strongest party member (self-proclaimed). outside the party members, there's a non-negligible amount of interesting npcs and antagonists, with again some really great design work.
one thing quite unique with this game is that there's a really large amount of sidequests, many of which have different possible endings with both story and material consequences, and whose branching outcomes feel really natural.
overall i really loved this game, even with its faults, and i'm excited to get around to the remaster to play through it differently :3
2012
i've played through this game, start-to-finish (dlc included), twice. 100% the second time. i'm pretty sure i could do it again and want to do it again and the only thing stopping me is a quiet voice of reason saying "those 200 hours would be better spent on something else".
fantasy life is... a lot of things, all of them good. its story is aimed at kids and is so warm and hopeful in a way that's kind of contagiously wholesome. the graphics are cute and bubbly in the same manner. uematsu brings his a-game and gets really creative with the music in a way that i found surprisingly memorable and unique. the game mechanics are all relatively simple but give you enough to do that you never feel bored.
in a way, the game feels a little bit like an mmo (more specifically, a lot of its gameplay elements remind me of final fantasy xiv), but without the sense of crowded loneliness that often entails. you just have a lot of options on what you can choose to do or not do, and it really helps feel like you get to pick the experience you want to get out of the game. the option for multiplayer makes it really easy to not feel too hung-up over having to cover all the classes on your own, too.
i love games with crafting, and i loved how gathering and crafting in this game feel like mechanics and not just thoughtlessly added menus. the minigames are hectic, gathering essentially has non-battle bosses, and any of those classes could just go ahead and run through the whole plot if they wanted.
i'm not even sure where i'm going with things anymore, but i love this game and everything about it cheers me up and feels fun and comfy and i only wish there was even more of it.
fantasy life is... a lot of things, all of them good. its story is aimed at kids and is so warm and hopeful in a way that's kind of contagiously wholesome. the graphics are cute and bubbly in the same manner. uematsu brings his a-game and gets really creative with the music in a way that i found surprisingly memorable and unique. the game mechanics are all relatively simple but give you enough to do that you never feel bored.
in a way, the game feels a little bit like an mmo (more specifically, a lot of its gameplay elements remind me of final fantasy xiv), but without the sense of crowded loneliness that often entails. you just have a lot of options on what you can choose to do or not do, and it really helps feel like you get to pick the experience you want to get out of the game. the option for multiplayer makes it really easy to not feel too hung-up over having to cover all the classes on your own, too.
i love games with crafting, and i loved how gathering and crafting in this game feel like mechanics and not just thoughtlessly added menus. the minigames are hectic, gathering essentially has non-battle bosses, and any of those classes could just go ahead and run through the whole plot if they wanted.
i'm not even sure where i'm going with things anymore, but i love this game and everything about it cheers me up and feels fun and comfy and i only wish there was even more of it.
"what if pokemon and monster hunter had a baby" is the closest one-sentence description i can give of this game and boy does it deliver. it monhuns as well as monhun games (and dodges some of their pitfalls) and it pokemons... better than most pokemon games imho.
the combat is really simple, it's rock-paper-scissors but with a couple skill options thrown in to make it just interesting enough as to not be too boring, but feels less limited than pokemon's 4-skill setup. the monsters each have their patterns as in other monhun games, but on a turn-based format (which i'm very grateful for, it's nice to have time to think). that said, the difficulty isn't trivial and some of the late-game bosses require you to think pretty carefully about what you're doing even if you're working with all level 99 monsties.
the story is... okay? it's not bad but it's a game for kids so it's understandably a story for kids. i was never that invested but the characters are cute and there's a handful that are going to stick with me after this (i'm looking at you number 6), so that's plenty for me.
the graphics are really nice, i love the stylization they decided to go for and everything is so nice and bright, it's really lovely. that said, this is pushing the 3ds as hard as it will go (and then some), and it really shows, because some areas have a lot of noticeable lag and framerate drops, which is a bit of a shame.
i already have over 200 hours on a single save in this game and i'm probably going to get at least another hundred trying to 100% it and once i'm done... i might actually start another file, dang.
the combat is really simple, it's rock-paper-scissors but with a couple skill options thrown in to make it just interesting enough as to not be too boring, but feels less limited than pokemon's 4-skill setup. the monsters each have their patterns as in other monhun games, but on a turn-based format (which i'm very grateful for, it's nice to have time to think). that said, the difficulty isn't trivial and some of the late-game bosses require you to think pretty carefully about what you're doing even if you're working with all level 99 monsties.
the story is... okay? it's not bad but it's a game for kids so it's understandably a story for kids. i was never that invested but the characters are cute and there's a handful that are going to stick with me after this (i'm looking at you number 6), so that's plenty for me.
the graphics are really nice, i love the stylization they decided to go for and everything is so nice and bright, it's really lovely. that said, this is pushing the 3ds as hard as it will go (and then some), and it really shows, because some areas have a lot of noticeable lag and framerate drops, which is a bit of a shame.
i already have over 200 hours on a single save in this game and i'm probably going to get at least another hundred trying to 100% it and once i'm done... i might actually start another file, dang.
2021
probably my favorite of the mainline entries so far! very glad they dropped most of the stuff about world that i really disliked.
i've seen most of what i wanted out of it so far at around 100-ish hours, and i'll probably hop back on here or there for some of the newer monsters since i'm not interested in grinding for the sake of it (and don't especially enjoy the rampages) and the late-game drop rates are way too scarce to make it enjoyable.
some of the new monsters are really neat though :)
i've seen most of what i wanted out of it so far at around 100-ish hours, and i'll probably hop back on here or there for some of the newer monsters since i'm not interested in grinding for the sake of it (and don't especially enjoy the rampages) and the late-game drop rates are way too scarce to make it enjoyable.
some of the new monsters are really neat though :)
2007
man this game still rules