Secret of Evermore

To me this is the american Secret of Mana. The style, interface, movements and combat are nearly the same.

This is an action rpg with real time combat, not very technical but fun nevertheless, based on charged attacks, using lots of healing items and crafting to make spells.

The story did feel like any other squaresoft game to me (this was a good thing back then). Implying time travel, by jumping foward time the character gain access to more modern weaponry. For example it starts with a bone, then he gets a sword and finally a bazooka.

Same with the companion, it goes from a old dog to a cyborg dog. As a difference from Secref of Mana, this companion is the only party member that will accompany the protagonist, it is also controllable but it usually does a nice support job while leaving the control of the main character to the player.

Visually looked very good, the sci-fi scenarios were very welcome to me, as for music it has some nice tunes but I don't remember it too much.

Did I like it? Yep!
I think you will like it if you:
- Like snes action rpgs

I rate my experience with a 8 out of 10.

Kartia

This is the first tactical rpg I played so I have very good memories from it.

The first thing I remember is the Yoshitaka Amano design, that's a win for me, I love how it averts from the usual anime style.

The combat reminds a lot to Fire Emblem and Final Fantasy Tactics, turn based, using single units on a grid with the usual rock-paper-scissors system, but I think Kartia is way easier (which is good for newcomers). Of course it has its own original features.

Spells and equipment are obtained via crafting, as also are the different types of troops than can be summoned to help on combat. They're called Phantoms and are the main feature of the game (to me) as they add some nice variety to the combats.

Story is divided in 2 scenarios one for each character and it's kinda interesting how it evolves, maybe I wouldn't like it much nowadays but back then I really enjoyed it.

Did I like it? Yes
I think you will like it if you:
- Aren't tired of tactical rpgs

I rate my experience with a 7 out of 10.

Secret of Mana

This is an action rpg with real time combat where the first thing that attracted me is the possibility that the entire game could be enjoyed by 3 players, one on each character in the party. While this could reduce the game's difficulty, it was a blast playing an action rpg with friends.

The gameplay the pace isn't very high but it is very fun, specially on boss fights. The interface isn't very confortable, specially on multiplayer, but it's passable.

The story was very cool, nowdays is just the usual chosen one that needs to save the world again. As for the rest it has the usual rpg elements, towns, shops, equipment, experience levels, etc.

Good music, excellent presentation, pretty enviroments and very fun gameplay. As always with snes and squaresoft.

Did I like it? Oh yeah.
I think you will like it if you:
- Like snes action rpgs

I rate my experience with a 8.5 out of 10.

Eternal Sonata

This is a lovable rpg, it has the usual elements, exploration, treasures, shops, equipment, etc.

Encounters aren't random (thanks!) and combat reminds me a lot to "Tales of" but on a more paused pace and with full control of the party (better than having stupid ai), It is challenging and fun, I really enjoyed it.

There's plenty of optional things to do like taking photographs, finding hidden objects and different difficulty levels.

The story is very original to me about the dreams that Frederic Chopin had while he was sick. Charaters are very interesting too, specially after what happens on the first cutscene ^^.

The game looks very beautiful and neat. Music is again very good, I'm getting addicted to Motoi Sakuraba.

Did I like it? Very.
I think you will like it if you:
-´Like jrpg

I rate my experience with a 9 out of 10.

Resonance of Fate

What a weird rpg!
Combat is turn based, but the character has a limited time to spend moving and jumping towards a direction while attacking the enemies with modern ranged weapons like machine guns, grenades, etc. This system has many different options making it original and challenging enough to entertain me.

Customization is all about the weapons, it is very original. Each weapon has a number of slots that can be ocupied by different sized parts, kinda like tetris pieces where the challenge is to effectively use all the available space. This can create unrealistic things like guns with multiple cannons... (modifications aren't visually represented on combat).

There's little usual rpg exploration to do, a little city and not much else. Instead the main exploration is done on a grid enviroment consisting in smartly clear those grids to find, treasures, accomplish misions, fights, etc. I had tons of fun doing this.

It looks okay and music has very nice tunes. I didn't enjoy the story too much, probably due the flashback storytelling but I wasn't very interested though the setup was good.

Did I like it? Yes
I think you will like it if you:
- Are looking for an unusual rpg experience

I rate my experience with a 7.5 out of 10.

3D Dot Game Heroes

This is a tribute to the old Zelda games using humor and voxel graphics which looks very pretty.

The scenery reminds a lot to A Link to the Past, plenty of similar temples, gadgets, treasures and many optional things to do with good replay value.

Combat is more hack&slash than the usual Zelda, with an upgradable big sword that gets huge while the player remains with full hp. It is fun and challenging enough.

The story is also humoristic and usually jokes around the typical plots that these games have.

Did I like it? Yes!
I think you will like it if you:
- Don't hate old school action rpg

I rate my experience with a 7.5 out of 10.

Blue Dragon

Another game flammed to death. To me this is one of the few rpgs from this generation that manages to keep the old school scent from the snes games while being modern on some areas.

Combat is the old school part, random encounters with turn based fights with characters that use the powers of their inner blue dragon. This dragon is what represents the class system on this game, so we got the fighter, black mage, white mage, etc. each with the usual customization and level ups. I had tons of fun.

We can find the very nice world map that we demand so much lately, with many towns, places and optional things to do. I liked the hd graphics too, it looks neat.

The plot is written by Hironobu Sakaguchi, music by Nobuo Uematsu which has some epic tunes and some with a new but awesome style. Then add the Akira Toriyama designs, this is just so epic.

Did I like it? Yeah!
I think you will like it if you:
- Like jrpg

I rate my experience with a 9 out of 10.

Pandora's Tower

Pandora's Tower is an action rpg that takes place in a huge chasm surrounded by towers, so forget about visiting towns or any kind of world map.

The hero's objective is to save the princess (obviously) by feeding her with the flesh (not so obvously) from the boss of each tower to remove her curse.

Those towers are plenty of puzzles, some of them are completed by progressing on a different tower, I think they are kinda smart, not very hard but entertaining. Also towers represent an element like fire, water... this kinda reminded me to zelda temples.

There are many enemies to fight on those towers, they can drop some materials or fresh meat that can be used on the "princess" to delay her curse. Fights are done by sword and a chain that is controlled with the wiimote, it actually isn't bad, I had no issues. The chain also has other uses for puzzles or to avoid obstacles.

Music is nice enough, visually looks pretty good, story is fine and has multiple endings and a good replay value.

Did I like it? Yes
I think you will like it if you:
- Don't mind the lack of outside world
- Like zelda-ish temples

I rate my experience with a 7.5 out of 10.

Atelier Rorona

Atelier Rorona is the less epic rpg I've played, I controlled an alchemy shop apprentice that needed to fullfill some requests in order to maintain the shop open.

Obviously these alchemy requests required to gather materials, which can be done by buying them and also getting them from treasures or monsters that can be found on dungeons.

To explore the dungeons Rorona can team up with 2 other characters to choose from a few that are recruited through the story or by doing some optional content. Combat is the usual turn based system with a correct character evolution, no surprises here.

All the exploring, combats and alchemy is pretty fun and well done, I think it will entertain anyone looking for a light jrpg experience.

The main story is fun with a few memorable characters that "emanate" cuteness everywhere, it is short but there's a lot of optional content to do that multiplies its duration.

The graphical, musical style and story development are nothing special but I would define everything on this game as "cute".

Did I like it? Yes
I think you will like it if you:
- Don't need an epic story
- Are manly enough to have fun playing as a little girl

I rate my experience with a 6 out of 10.

Secret of Mana 2 (Seiken Densetsu 3)

This Secret of Mana sequel is another of the squaresoft jewels for the snes.

The combat is pretty much the same, 3 players in real time only interrupted by item and magic menu and their usage, where the player can take control of 1 character and leave the others to the little customizable IA. Actually the combat is very fun, not too hard but it never got repetitive, something hard to achieve nowadays.

On the rpg side is very complete as usual on snes, lots of equipment, skills, magic, towns, shops... and a good class system with lots of different classes for every character where the player can choose to evolve 2 times as the character levels up.

The story is very entertaining (and a bit typical), the player can choose between 7(?) characters that show a different point of view which gives a lot of replaying value.

The music is really good, sound effects not so much and visually looks very detailed and colorful.

Did I like it? Yep
I think you will like it?
- Like action rpgs
- Don't mind playing old games

I rate my experience with a 8 out of 10

Zelda: Skyward Sword

I must say that playing this game made me hate Twilight Princess even more, I think back and I notice that really got bored playing that game.

I found this Zelda being more challenging than usual, that's exactly what I needed to like this saga again because on Twilight Princess I felt I was just rushing through temples and it got pretty repetitive.

The story is another thing that revived my love for Zelda games, It explains many things that I wanted to know related to Link and the Princess plus it's not very intrusive as it let me explore all I wanted.

The bad side are the controls, using the wiimote may sound like a good idea but I don't like it, because it gets very tiring after an hour and also because I'm left handed and that gave a lot of imprecisions while swinging the sword. Movement isn't very precise either and got killed/desperate many times.

Music is very good and it looks okay, it's well done but enviroments look pretty blurry I really wanna see ZeldaU ^^.

Did I like it? Yes, this is my preference now: Link to the Past > Link's Awakening > Ocarina of Time > Skyward Sword > Wind Waker > Twilight Princess > Majora's Mask.

I think you will like it if you:

- Love Zelda games

- Like action-rpg

I rate my experience with a 8.5 out of 10.

Little Big Planet

LBP is a cute 2d platformer game, I was really surprised by this game because it has very original situations, gadgets, the ambientation and pace are awesome too.

The game may not be very long, but it has many minigames to spend time and, most importantly, stages are crowded of collectibles which become objecs that can be used to create new stages, share them online, download new ones; this is a whole new world that exponentially extends the game length.

Everything is very polished and carefuly detailed, looks pretty, music have some very nice tunes, good little voice acting, it's very fun to play and has a huge online community behind.

Did I like it? Very.
I think you will like it if you:
- Don't hate 2d platformers
- Like to create new stages

I rate my experience with a 8.5 out of 10.

Ultra quick-review: Little Big Planet 2

A correct sequel, more levels, new gadgets, a bit different pace... but it felt like an expansion for the online community as I didn't enjoy the main campaign as much as the original.
Though it is worth for people who participate on the online community as there are many new things for them.

Did I like it? Yes
I think you will like it if you:
- Don't hate 2d platformers
- Want more objects to create new stages

I rate my experience with a 6.5 out of 10.

Ultra quick-review: Little Big Planet Vita

Again it keeps the same formula, looks very good on vita and tries to make good use of the vita specific controls. But again it didn't feel special as the original.

Did I like it? Yes but I'm a bit tired already
I think you will like it if you:
- Don't hate 2d platformers
- Want more objects to create new stages

I rate my experience with a 6 out of 10.

SMT: Devil Survivor 2

This feels like they took the first game and just added a new story because the gameplay is almost the same and there's a lot of reused sprites and scenarios. (I'm comparing with the Overclocked version)

I think the story is weaker than the original, failed to keep me interested and I don't like some of the character behaviors, it feels more like the usual jrpg than a Shin Megami Tensei game. So I found myself skipping lots of dialogs because I wasn't very interested and I usually knew what was going to happen.

I'm not a fan of the graphic style either, while combat sprites are okay I don't like the character designs, again it feels like a typical jrpg with big boobs and evil faced foes.

But at least the core gameplay is very good. I love the tactical grid-based combat, it's challenging and entertaining. I can have 4 squads that are composed by 1 human which skills can be customized and 2 demons that are obtained via the auction house, compedium or fusion. Once a squad establishes combat with another squad, they fight like any turn based Shin Megami Tensei with its usual skills, weakness exploits, extra turns, etc.

Customizaton is very good: there's the demon's skill inheritance on fused demons, where the player can choose which skills inherit from the former demons. Human's skills are chosen by the player and they must be learned by stealing them from enemy demons. There's no equipment customization though.

Overall isn't bad, but there's a difficulty spike towards to the end that leaves a bittersweet taste, I mean I finally got some nice powerful demons and then I need to grind again? I don't remember this happening on the original, at least until the last boss...

Did I like it? Meh
I think you will like it if you:
- Don't hate Shin Megami Tensei
- Like tactical rpgs
- Don't hate grinding

I rate my experience with a 5.5 out of 10.