Shining the Holy Ark

I have very good memories about Shining the Holy Ark, this was one of the first rpgs I managed to finish when I was a kid.

It is a first person dungeon crawler with the usual Camelot/Sonic! Software Planning unique style for graphic style and gameplay. The combat is the usual turn-based, using a style similar to Phantasy Star or Dragon Quest. Dungeons while not very hardcore, are pretty and fun, cities look pretty nice too.

I don't remember anything special from this game, there was no special customization: some different pixies that could help at the combat beginning, the usual promotion at a certain level and basic object crafting. But the execution was excellent, everything that makes a good rpg was on place and balanced.

I think only Camelot and a few others are capable of delivering excellent games without any revolutionary change or mechanic.

Fun dungeons, challenging combats, interesting plot, likeable characters, treasures and pixies to find, even a hidden character something that I don't see much lately.

Did I like it? Yes, a lot.
You will like it if you:
- Like Camelot games
- Don't hate 1st person rpgs

I rate my experience with a 8.5 out of 10. 

Tales of the Abyss

This game starts very good, combat is very fun though bit "button-masher", there's nice exploration, dungeons, good customization, looks great on 3ds, everything was in the right direction.

But then after 30 hours the game seemed to force its length by keeping me busy at any price, and that killed the game for me. For another 30 hours I was doing boring repetitive quests, travelling from Daath to Baticul to Yulia and then Daath again, I won't forget the those names, ever. I really really had to force myself to finish this game, thats why all the good things about this game got void by this bad memories.

About the story, it was interesting but I think I may be getting tired of the "Tales of" saga, the main reason are the character behaviors, I find them utterly unrealistic and exaggerated and this makes me loose interest in their development, therefore I loose interest in game's story too.

Did I like it? Nope, it sickens me.
I think you will like it if you:
- Have inconditional love for "Tales of"
- Haven't played any "Tales of" before

I rate my experience with a 3.0 out of 10

Dragon Force

Eight rulers: Junon, Gongos, Wein, Reinhart, Mikhal, Leon, Teiris and Goldark. It has been like 17 years and I still remember the entire cast, this says a lot about the game.

I remember an excellent plot, each ruler having his own outcome and events all with equal quality, fun and length, it could take between 30 and 40 hours per ruler.

The game is a real-time tactical rpg, it consists in conquering the entire continent, capturing castles, placing good defenses, defeating the other rulers, recruiting the most awesome generals, leveling them up, finding better, powerful weapons and troops, and of course saving the world. Everything here is highly addictive!

When 2 armies battle, they do by fighting with general vs general plus their own troops, those battles are in real time with the general being in a static position, where they fight the incoming troops and cast diferent skills or magic attacks, if the troops die and both generals are still alive the battle is decided with a duel.

There are many types of troops, each with weakness and strengths towards each other, for example archers are strong agains harpies and weak to soldiers. Also different formations can be chosen, this modifies the troops stats which increases the strategic choices.

Ok, now I really want to play this game again.

Did I like it? I'll never forget it.
I think you will like it if you:
- Are a jrpg fan
- Like conquering lands and managing an army

I rate my experience with a 8.5 out of 10.

Project X Zone

I could say many flaws about this game, boring story and dialogs, can get repetitive and I think needed more customization; I could choose the equipment of every squad but I couldn't choose the squad members, only its support unit.

But I was so addicted to the battles and combat system that I could ignore any flaw this game has, that once I turned on my 3ds I couldn't stop, I loved the the strategy, the cast, the combos, tons of damage. It's pretty long too, it took me around 70 hours.

The battles are the usual srpg, but the combat system is based on doing key combinations that need to be correctly timed to create bigger combos, there's also support actions and special attacks to increase the possiblities. 

Still this can get a bit repetitive, because the battles and the combat system are the things that kept me playing because the story is never amusing and lots of chapters are clearly fillers to extend the game's length.

Finally there's a wide cast with characters from Megaman, Resident Evil, .Hack, Tekken, Virtua Fighter, Street Fighter, Devil May Cry, Xenosaga and many more, with some suprises as I didn't expect to find someone from Fighting Vipers ^^

Did I like it? Hell I was addicted.
I think you will like it if you:
- Have fun with the combat system
- Know most of the cast
- Like srpg
- Don't mind the lack of costumization

I rate my experience with a 8.0 out of 10

Rudra no Hihou

This game is kinda epic, it is composed by 3 scenarios that explain the story with different and well connected points of view through 3 main characters and then one final scenario that concludes everything.

It has everything I can find on a numbered final fantasy: world maps, cities, exploration, plot, turn based combat... but there is a new mechanic on the combat system which becomes my main issue because the entire gameplay is based on that. It consists in a magic system that requires me to "write" my own magic spells by combining words that are found through the game.

To put is easy, lets say if I write Fire, a fire spell will be cast, if I write FireAll this fire spell will affect all the targets while consuming more mana. While this is very cool, I found that its implementation is pretty bad, poorly explained and as I'm not hardcore enough I had to keep using a walkthrough to know which spells to use and how to write them.
 I think that this magic system could use a "casualization" proces to make it easier to learn and use, then we would be talking about an unforgettable game.

I also found the combat was a bit unbalanced, I got easily wiped specially on boss fights, so I was required to do some level grinding, which I hate.

Still it is an enjoyable game.

Did I like it? Yes but I had some issues
I think you will like it if you:
- Are hardcore enough for its mechanics
- Like epic old school rpgs

I rate my experience with a 6.5 out of 10

SMT: Strange Journey

Since I played the first Persona I'm in love with Atlus and its Shin Megami Tensei series and spinoffs. They seem to have found how to keep an excellent balance between telling a story, atmosphere, exploration, challenging combat and customization.

Strange Journey doesn't disappoint. The story may not be epic, but it is unusual and well told. The atmosphere is excellent, I really felt integrated into its world and kept wanting to know more about it.

Dungeons are really fun to explore, not very big nor long, with mercifully placed save points, plenty of secret doors and optional revisits.

Combat is challenging as always and I didn't need to do any heavy level grind until the last boss, which is a good thing because I hate level grinding >).

Customization includes the usual demon compedium, negotiation and fusion. There's only equipment choices for the main character and the stats that grow on level up are based on some questions that were answered at the game's beginning, it is a bit lame but it isn't an issue. Finally there are some equipable skills that have diferent effects on the field, like decreasing the encounter rate or mp regen.

Did I like it? Absolutely.
I think you will like it if you:
- Like Shin Megami Tensei
- Are a dungeon explorer!
- Want challenging fights

I rate my experience with a 8 out of 10

Bahamut Lagoon

This will be a hard review as I played this game a long time ago so I may forget many things about it, but I want to make these reviews around the good/bad memories I have.

This is one of the first srpg made by squaresoft, it looks like the usual turn based combat system on grid maps and the game structure is the usual on these games: chapter introduction -> preparation for battle -> battle -> chapter end.

First, every unit is a squad composed by 4 customizable members and then when combat pops up, the usual "final fantasy" combat system appears where actions can be choosen like any turn based game, of course this combat lasts for just 1 turn.

What made this game unique are the dragons. Every squad has attached one dragon, this dragon acts by himself but always following a basic order (like stay, follow, defensive, offensive...). Outside the battle these dragons can be feed with items that increase stats, depending on which stat increases the dragon may evolve to another kind of dragon with diferent properties. This system is really deep, I didn't dedicate much time to it but I still had fun.

Field graphics are okay while combat graphics are pretty and well animated, I think it is similar to Rudra no Hihou.

Story is fine, no surprises here and I liked the characters, go Taicho!

Did I like it? Yes.
I think you will like it if you:
- Enjoy srpg
- Love old squaresoft games
- Don't have high expectations on the story

I rate my experience with a  8 out of 10

Sonic and the Secret Rings

Like a child, this game felt like the usual challenging but doable game that I used to play when I was little.
Keep in mind that I played this one right after being disappointed by Sonic the Hedgehog 2006, so maybe that's why I enjoyed this one so much.

It's a "Sonic on rails", controls can get bad but I think it isn't "game-breaking". It's played by horizontaly moving the wiimote but most of the actions are done by pressing buttons (thankfully) so it is not much diferent from the usual 3D Sonic (at least the ones I played), with less "auto-pilot" scenes than usual though there are nearly zero path choices, levels are all straight with a few diferent options to avoid obstacles but always staying on the same path.

Sonic is the only playable character and I'm happy about it, not only because I prefer the usual fast-paced sonic action but also because on the older Sonic games I played with other characters to explore the places that I couldn't reach with Sonic.

I found that there are very few levels, but every level has a bunch of missions that take part in a portion of the level and are needed to advance in the game which can be fun and challenging like finishing with 0 rings or without killing anything. By completing this missions I earned new skills and experience for my ring. This is another fun thing, Sonic has a ring on which he can equip skills like extra speed, jump, damage, new movements, etc. There are a lot of skills. Each skill requires a number of skill points on the ring and the number of skill points increasse by leveling the ring.

Story is fine, not very intrusive and never cuts action. I really apreciated that, when I get back from work I just want some fast action and this game was excellent for this, no exploration, not clueless walking nor talking to npcs, just select a stage and a mission, go!

It also includes a multiplayer mode, but I didn't try it so I have no opinion about it.

Did I like it? Yes.
 I think you will like it if you:
- Want instant action
- Don't mind moving sonic with the wiimote
- Can avoid comparisons with the good old sonic games

I rate my experience with a 7.5 out of 10.

Vagrant Story

I had my expectations too high, I kept hearing how a masterpiece this game is and I guess it's true but it isn't my kind of game.

The story is so ol' good squaresoft which is excellent but I "had" to quit after 7 hours, I just wasn't having fun.

The game is dungeon based, separated in rooms with a few jumps to do and boxes to move to reach the exit or get a treasure. It is okay though I found no challenge here.

The combat system is like a mix of action and turn based rpg, I could freely move but the action got paused on menus and while executing actions. Combat requires to time button pushes to create combos, to succeed I needed to do huge combos but each weapon type and button had different timings, I wasn't motivated enough to learn that, It was boring for me.

I also needed a lot of preparation for combats, there were like 5 or 6 types of enemies, they required me to find and level a weapon strong for each: "oh here is a Dragon, time to get and train the Dragonslayer"-"oh here is a Pop-Singer, time to get the Pop-SingerSlayer" this is one of the grinding jobs I hate the most :\

Did I like it? Nope and I feel really sad and disappointed that I didn't like this game.
I think you will like it if you:
- Don't have any problem with the weapon system that this game proposes.
- Have fun with the combo system.

I rate my experience with a 3 out of 10.

Sonic the Hedgehog (2006)

I didn't finish this game, I reached 93% done on Sonic and tried hard to have fun with this game and I barely found it. This game is really rushed, there are lots of technical issues like:

· The camera doing ninja moves.
· There's plenty of places to get stuck, I got stuck like 10 times meaning a level restart as It seems I couldn't restart to last checkpoint, sometimes way back if I didn't save the game.
· Nearly every-time I touched a button/joystick while on a "auto-pilot" running scenes ended up with a dead Sonic, it's better to not touch anything and just look until the game gives you the control back.
· Weirdly placed loading screens, let's say a loading takes 5 seconds, this is what it takes to start and retry a quest: Talk to the NPC -> accept the quest -> Loading Screen -> NPC 1 sentence speak -> Loading Screen -> Mission start -> Fail the mission -> Loading Screen -> NPC 1 sentence speak -> Loading Screen -> Talk to the npc again, accept the quest -> Loading Screen -> 1 sentence speak -> Loading Screen -> Mission Start. That's an awful lot of time.

Most of Sonic main levels were quite enjoyable, long and fast with many diferent paths to take and sub-objectives to do but closer to the end I got overwhelmed by the technical issues and quited. I tried to play with Shadow with his vehicle levels or Silver and his mental powers but I think it was too late, I lost my mood.
 Between main levels there's a little of clueless exploration to do around the city, there I could find hidden coins and quests, boring quests. I wouldn't have included this part in the game, I prefer direct action.

Did I like it? Sometimes, but no.
I think you will like it if you:
- Can ignore the technical issues
- Enjoy other playing styles like Shadow and Silver

I rate my experience with a 4 out of 10.

Etrian Odyssey IV

I wasn't very hyped by this game, I skipped Etrian Oddyssey III due lack of time so it has been a long time since I played this game series and I forgot many things about it.

I forgot about how addictive it is; time flies while exploring the dungeons, the turn based combat, evolving the characters and getting the right group setup. This last part is the one I enjoy most, there are a few classes but thanks to its customization it allows classes do different functions depending on the skill choices, for example I went with 2 Snipers, 1 specialized in binds and other in dealing critical damage and extra shots.

 This gives a lot of valid group setups and choices, like going or not with a pure healer, tank or no tank, binds or status effects, etc. These choices mean lots of different fight strategies which is what I value the most on a rpg combat system. 

Oh and I forgot, at a certain point of the adventure you're able to choose a subclass.

I also liked having a world map to explore, there I could find quests, dungeons, some tough aggressive insta-kill monsters and loot that got changed for money once I got back to the city.

But I also forgot about having to draw the dungeons, auto-map helps but I still needed to draw walls, passages, doors... I'm not comfortable with that as I'm playing all the time with my hands on the buttons, so every time I wanted to add a door I need to change my hands position (maybe I'm lazy :P)

 And I forgot about how I always ignored its story, the game is nice per se but maybe having a better story would get it to a new level.

Finally frustration, getting the party wiped out means to do everything again since the last time you saved, which is usually okay but I felt like that I died every time I took a risk like "one more floor" or "I can beat the boss", so it got a bit frustrating.

Did I like it? Yes though I got burnt many times.

I think you will like it if you:

- Are a dungeon explorer 

- Love Atlus challenging difficulty

- Don't mind grinding from time to time

- Liked other Etrians

I rate my experience with a 7.5 out of 10.