Phantasy Star Online

My first online  game! I played for tons and tons of hours though I never got any character to level 100, thats because the lack of content forced the player to repeat over and over the same missions and places.

So the main attraction here was the online gaming, being in a game with so many people, playing with them, making strong friendships in a different way than usual, everything was new and exciting for me as a teenager :P.

The combat system is a bit simplistic but fun and accesible, player can choose between a few classes (ranged, melee and mage), races and a little companion that could be feed and evolved in many different ways improving the character status and giving some special attacks.

The game had high production values so presentation, graphics, music and interface are excellent.

Did I like it? YES!
I rate my experience with a 9 out of 10

Phantasy Star Online Blue Burst

More content added, if this had come sooner PSO would have been saved for me, too bad I was already tired of it and I found some new and bigger MMORPGs.

Did I like it? Nope.
I rate my experience with a 5 out of 10.

Phantasy Star Online Ep3 C.A.R.D. Revolution

Another iteration, this time using card battles, I didn't play for more than 1 hour.

Did I like it? No, I didn't.
I rate my experience with a 4 out of 10.

Phantasy Star Universe

It tried to increase the mmo experience and added many improvements and also a few bad things like separating the online and offline game. To me it felt very dated, I played PSO too much and this wasn't what I wanted on a new MMO.

Did I like it? I got tired very soon.
I rate my experience with a 4.5 out of 10.

Phantasy Star Online 2

I've played the beta and the japanese release, it is entertaining and has improved in many ways, combat has more options and a different pace. Now it depends on the amount of content and customization and when the english version is released.

I rate my expectations with a 6 out of 10.

Timestalkers

I was happy when I got this game, finally an rpg for the dreamcast!

Battles are turn based, nothing new, the challenge is good but the system is very boring, slow paced and repetitive.

The game core is about exploring long, random-generated dungeons while fighting monsters on non-random fights (thanks). I got sick of it because I wasn't having fun with the combats.

On the customization side the player can capture allies, train them on the VMU, use them as allies and to play minigames. This is probably the funniest part of the game.

It's fully 3d and shows a nice resolution but the design is ugly.I can only remember one town that changed its shape while advancing through the story.  There are no voices and music is forgettable.

Did I like it? Nope.
I think you will like it if you:
- Are a dungeon explorer!
- Have fun with the combat

I rate my experience with a 3.5 out of 10.

Infinite Undiscovery

The first impression isn't too good, a game where most of the scenes aren't dubbed and models don't have an animated mouth, omg! (duh).

After this, I think the game is pretty entertaining. The combat system is real time controlling 1 character and leaving the rest of the party to the ia. The IA was okay to me, at least it is configurable (coughFF12cough). There are a few characters to choose from which gives enough variety to make entertaining fights.

The combats pace is very good, I never got tired of travelling through the big enviroments which reminded me to FFXII but less boring. There's also some nice cities and secrets to discover making exploring fun enough.

RPG elements are the usual, towns, dungeons, shops, magics, cool weapons, lots of equipment though there isn't any other form of customization.

The story is about the usual chosen one and tries hard to be epic and seeing the latest rpgs I'm playing I think it does good. I have no complains about music nor graphics, I'm easy to please when I'm having fun.

Did I like it? Yes.
I think you will like it if you:
- Like action rpgs
- Don't mind the low budget production

I rate my experience with a 7.5 out of 10.

Might & Magic X Legacy

Just what I needed, a challenging 1st person rpg with real rpg elements, no need for dragons, old scrolls nor huge empty worlds.

This is similar to an open world rpg, smaller but without the filler content, wherever I went I always found something interesting. I like the level design too, with many interconnected places a la Dark Souls. Quests are decent, they motivate exploration and never get repetitive.

The feeling of progress is awesome too, getting owned by a giant of epic strenght and then coming back a few days later to find that I was starting to have a chance against it... I haven't felt this in many games lately, that's why I hate when the enemies have auto-level.

The movement is grid based, so each grid represents one turn which helps when designing the strategy for the next battle.

Combat is turn based, very fun and challenging, allowing the player to choose amongst many play styles through a complete selection of classes, races, skills and weapons.

The game has many performance issues, I got used eventually but there's heavy "lag" specially while walking around the open world and long loading screens.

Might & Magic X is long enough for its price, it took me like 30 hours to complete. The story is fine, it looks pretty enough, music and effects are okay.

Did I like it? Yes!
I think you will like it if you:
- Stop playing with dragons and try some real rpg

I rate my experience with an 8 out of 10.

Illusion of Time

Also known as Illusion of Gaia and Soul Blazer 2, this action rpg is the definitive proof of what Enix was capable of.

Combat evolves from Soul blazer in the right way and becomes very entertaining, with new skills where some are used to solve little puzzles or find secrets that give this game the needed variety to not become repetitive.

The story also gets way more epic, immersive and adds some interesting characters and locations which helps to make this a very enjoyable experience, of course it has aged a bit but it still is recommendable.

Visually made a major jump, with beautiful enviroments a la squaresoft plus big and detailed sprites that made this game shine when it came out.

Did I like it? yep!
I think you will like it if you:
- Want an snes action rpg

I rate my experience with a 8.5 out of 10.

Alpha Protocol

This Tactical Espionage RPG gave me a hard time, I had to try to start the game like 4 times before I managed to understand how to enjoy it.

The gameplay is similar to Metal Gear Solid but with more choices, because stealth-kill is just an option and I could choose to play it like a shooter too.

My main issue is with the customization, we can choose to level up skills to improve and gain abilities with Gun, Rifle, Stealth, Melee, Sabotage, etc. But whenever I tried to keep balance like put a few points on stealth, another few on guns, sabotage and melee, then I found myself losing all the time.

So on my 4th try I just spend points in 2 skills to become powerful, too powerful to make the game a walk in the park, because I could just stealth and knockout everything. The IA doesn't help either, it is very limited and have a bad/limited visual detection script.

On the good side, the story is entertaining and the dialogs have many choices that really matter, because they affect on the outcomes on many many ways, like who lives, dies, who the player works for, how missions are resolved and many different endings. It really gives a huge replay value because the story changes every playthrough.

So in the end, Alpha Protocol is fun to play but it is very difficult to keep the game challenging.

Did I like it? Yes but with balance issues.
I think you will like it if you:
- Read a guide on how to start
- Don't expect a heavy action game
- Don't mind the simple graphics or ia

I rate my experience with a 6.5 out of 10.

Bravely Default

On one side I'm very happy about this game because it has my favorite character customization: the Job system, allowing the player to choose the character classes and combine some of their skills to make powerful and/or original combinations.

Combats are random and turn based, where aside from the usual attack/magic/item commands the player has many mechanics to use like:

- Summoning streetpass friends to do an attack, this can break some combats as a powerful ally can one shot bosses. I try to not use it.

- Sleep points: Points gained by having the console on sleep, this can be used to pause the action and allows the player to get an immediate extra turn for one character.

- Brave/Default: the main mechanic which allows to spend up to 3 extra turns (Brave) which will cause the character to be unable to act until the extra turn counter reaches 1 again. And Default which allows the character to skip one turn, increasing the extra turn counter and reducing the damage taken.

Also we get a nice and explorable world map with plenty of places to visit, the music is very nice and graphically the scenarios look pretty.

On the other side I hate the character models, they look very childish and so are their behaviors, this is a very common thing on the actual jrpgs which in my opinion downplays the game making the story less serious and transcendental.

In the end is a very nice jrpg but it lacks a lot on the plot and character development. Still, thank you Nintendo(or Square?) for bringing these games here.

Did I like it? Yes, I love the job system
I think you will like it if you?
- Like jrpg

I rate my experience with a 8 out of 10.

Soul Blazer

Soul blazer is probably the first snes rpg I played.

It is a real time action rpg, I don't remember many details and it really didn't look excellent and lacked many of the usual rpg elements, but it had that Enix scent that made it special.

What I liked is that as I progressed through the story the town grown up bigger and new npcs appeared making the game seem very epic, I wasn't used to that!

Progressing through the story usually meant complete the dungeon, kill the boss, go back to the town, next.

The entire game is pretty fun but experienced players may find it too easy now.

Did I like it? Yes.
I think you will like it if you:
- Want more snes action rpgs

I rate my experience with a 6.5 out of 10.