Having never played this game, I was excited to try it when it came to the new PS+ program. I can definitely see why it holds a soft spot in so many people's hearts - it's a charming game, it's pretty fun, and it has great music.

But hoo boy - that control scheme! Apparently this was one of the first games to showcase the dual analog sticks, so it opts to use an analog stick option for so many controls when a button would have been way better. I guess that's understandable given that they were trying to showcase the new controllers, but it made for a less enjoyable playing experience than it could have been.

All in all, though, I'm sure PS1-era me would have been just fine with the controls. :)

A charming indie game in the style of the old 16-bit SNES jrpgs. I loved this game for the first 10 hours, really liked it after that, but was ready to get to the end with about 5 hours to go. I feel like it was maybe one chapter too long.

The music was great, and the dialogue and characters are pretty well done. I enjoyed the battle system, although it did get boring toward the end since every battle played out pretty much the same way.

I'll definitely be on the lookout for this team's next game.

At first I didn't think I 'd like this game. Apparently it was the first of the Arland games to get the "Plus" treatment, so while Rorona is the earlier game, Rorona had several more quality of life improvements to the gameplay. Coming from Rorona, it was a little tough to make the transition.

However, I'm really glad I stuck with it. Totori as a character is just completely charming, and while the crafting isn't nearly as involved or complex as it was in Rorona, it's still enjoyable enough.

Unlike with Atelier Rorona, the time limit drove me crazy in this game. In Rorona, I felt it was there to give a sense of urgency to the quarterly tasks, and it really worked. In Totori, with time passing for every battle, every gather, and much more for travel, I really felt the pressure from the time limit, especially when going for the true ending. In the end, though, I still had plenty of time.

I will say that getting all of the endings in Totori was a not-so-pleasant grind, especially compared to Rorona where you can unlock several characters' events in one playthrough and then choose the ending you wished for. In Totori, you're locked into endings based on a priority system, so you have to be extra vigilant not to unlock an ending you don't want.

All in all, I really enjoyed my time with Totori, but I wish it had seen the same quality of life changes as Atelier Rorona. Still, it has some great callbacks to Rorona with characters and scenes, and the new characters, while not as good as the ones in Rorona, still hold their own.

I picked this up because I had a $1 GameFly offer with two discs out and needed a second PS5 game. I almost didn't play it because I didn't know if I'd end up liking it, but I'm really glad I did!

I really enjoyed the platforming and mechanics, and everything was just challenging enough to make me keep trying to 100% every level. The ultimate challenge level was tough but fair, and I definitely made it harder on myself by going faster than I needed to (I finished at 8 minutes 45 seconds I think).

This game really shined in two-player co-op, though. I had tremendous fun playing with a friend, although when I tried four-player co-op it was much more of a hassle than anything due to the limited range of the camera.

Overall, I'm really glad I picked this up, and it was a delight to play on the PS5.

This was much better than I thought it would be, and was a great PS+ game.

There's definitely some small-dev jank to the animations and the AI is pretty bad, but the game is absolutely gorgeous on PS5, the characters are great, and the story was compelling enough to keep me playing for basically two days straight until I finished.

This is also one of the first games in recent memory where I actually read all the little descriptions for the collectibles. The devs did a great job making the history interesting.

I'll definitely be on the lookout for their next game.

I already loved the original, but this remake/remaster is really well done. Movement is much more fluid, frame rate is fantastic, the extra ending is great, and I swear that even the grind for materials was less painful.

I do miss old man NieR, but young NieR was so much better than I thought he was going to be - to the point that I don't think I could ever go back to the PS3/360 version just for the old guy.

This is an absolute classic that everyone should play, and this is the version to get.

This is a game I really wanted to like - and for a while, I did! I love the whole Fallout gameplay loop of exploration and looting, and this game satisfied it in droves.

Unfortunately, there's not too much to this game beyond that. Combat is boring. The story is just OK. Where this game really shines is in the backstory that you read on terminals, but the story of the present day just didn't grip me at all. I also completely tuned out during the (extremely lengthy) ending slideshow that showed me the result of all my work, because ultimately, I just didn't care!

I also didn't care a lick about any of the companions, with the exception of the amazing Parvati, who never left my party and singlehandedly bumped my review from 3 stars to 3.5!

The DLC is pretty good and might be better than the main game. Peril on Gorgon starts pretty slow, but quickly becomes interesting and engaging (but again, only in what you discover about what happened in the past through terminals and whatnot). And Murder on Eridanos was short, engaging and fun.

I also didn't like that the game level caps you at 36 (or 30 without the DLC). There was a good portion toward the end where I was gaining no XP and couldn't improve my character at all, which takes out quite a bit of your motivation.

Oh - and finally - I know this is a game set in space, but it really didn't feel that way, unlike something like Mass Effect. It honestly didn't feel that much different than Fallout setting-wise. Lots of same-ish buildings to explore and same-ish planets.

Also, the load times are just bad, even on PS5.

I feel like there could have been a good game here, and maybe the second one will be better, but I probably won't pick it up.

I really like this game!

First off, this is an old-school JRPG. It's a really well done PS4 remaster of the PSP version from years ago, which itself was a remake of the SNES classic. This means there are a lot of things from old school JRPGs that will probably turn off newer players, such as random battles (lots of them!) and backtracking. Also, unlike most games with random battles, there's no good way to turn them off. There's one character you can get late who can turn them off in the world map, but you can only lower the rate in dungeons.

That said, this game is still great for anyone who grew up playing NES/SNES JRPGs. The redone pixel sprites look great, the voice acting is better than expected, and the story is surprisingly good, although you'll roll your eyes at some of the lines. I also really liked most of the characters.

The best part of this game, though, is the intricate crafting and skill system. It's really exciting when you unlock something new, and the game is pretty easy to break (in a fun way) if you know what you're doing. Unfortunately (or fortunately?) even breaking the game means you can still die pretty easily in the postgame dungeon if you aren't careful.

I really, really hope we get a localization of the second PSP game remaster!

Amazing game with amazing DLC.

This game is like the perfect blend of Bioshock, Deus Ex, and Dead Space. And the DLC puts a twist on the gameplay of the base game with highly addictive results.

This is a definite recommend from me, especially if you like the three games above. And don't skip Mooncrash!

Honestly, the only negative with this game are the really long loading screens, which are long even on PS5. This would have been a great candidate for a next-gen update to hopefully cut down on the loading.