Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits

(I may be inaccurate because I played it a looong time ago)

A saga that I miss so much :(. Features tactical turn based combats but not like the usual srpg. It doesn't have a grid system, so being able to move anywhere gives the game an increased feeling of freedom..

The battles tough are way shorter and simplistic but still challenging and fun to play. The character customization is limited too, the usual equipment and not much else. The amount of content is very good, we got an arena, exploration and many secrets to find.

The production values are good, nice voice acting and music, okay graphics and interesting character designs.

The story is about 2 different races that are historically confronted, though is very typical the development is good because is explained from 2 different points of view, one on each side with their own charismatic characters.

Did I like it? Yes
I think you will like it if you:
- Don't hate jrpg
- Don't mind the light strategic battles

I rate my experience with a 7.5 out of 10.

Drakengard 3

I loved this game just because of its lore. The story is interesting and original, though a bit confusing and it needs some research (like reading novels, buying dlc...) and would have been nice that the full story was integrated in the main game. The characters are interesting and fun, though as usual in Drakengard they are a bunch of depraved people who I can't feel any empathy for them, well I feel sorry for Mikhail ;\.

The game gets played similar to Dinasty Warriors but with way less troops and very linear scenarios, slashing trough weak soldiers I barely had any problem beating the entire game. There are also a few stages that are played with the dragon which are fun bun not very challenging.

There are 4 kinds of weapons that can be improved and are played a bit differently, but it the end I didn't find much need to change weapons and went always with the sword, which I used like only 3 different sword on the entire game.

A major complain, I reached a point in the story where the game forced me to have all the weapons available to continue, which means like 6-7 hours of grinding or buying the very expensive dlcs that costs me more than the game, this sucks.

Graphically is weak, it has low detailed textures and enviroments plus has many framerate drops too. Music is awesome though, I love the last boss song ^^.

If this team really developed Nier, I don't get why this game looks and plays so worse, Nier graphics were way better, more stable, it didn't have linear enviroments and gameplay was better polished (not to mention the companion AI...), I think it could have been an excellent game but this is a long step backwards.

Did I like it? Just because of the lore, could have "played" it youtube.
I think you will like it if you:
- Like the drakengard/nier world

I rate my experience with a 5.5 out of 10.

Mind = Zero

I'm gonna make it sound bad:

At first look is a Persona copy&paste, because the story is about some schoolboys that can invoke "spirits" called MINDs and a part of the story develops with similarities with Persona 4 but I think that's it. It doesn't have social links, rumors, press turns or any kind of persona customization.

It's all about exploring dungeons with 1st person view, watch dialogs and go back to explore again. I found exploring those dungeons very fun, they aren't long or "laberynthic" enough to get tiring (aside from the post-game one). The world map is divided by regions and waypoint based, similar to Persona 2.

The combats are turn-based, using a 2 health bar system, one for the character and another one for his MIND. When the MIND is summoned it's the one that takes damage and also gets drained over time, to recover MIND's health it needs to be summoned back leaving the character health exposed to damage. I think it is a very original system, but the random combats (sometimes the randomness is a bit unfair) are pretty easy, I usually choose auto+fastward to deal with them. Only on the bosses is where it gets fun, those are very long battles and require some strategy with the summoning.

Customization in my opinion lacks a bit, there's the usual equipment which is okay and then a set of cards that give the player different skills, passive (ex. +30 defense) or active (like a magic attack). Those cards can be improved and upgraded by using another cards, but in the end it doesn't have much deep. I finished the entire game by just using passive and healing skills, I didn't use a single magic spell.

The story is fine, some characters are very fun (like Leo in my opinion) and it develops just find though in the end it falls into jrpg cliche, like for example if the chosen one is male, he is the protagonist, if the chose one is female, she gets kidnapped.

The dungeon graphics feel a bit dated, but thats okay to me, the character design is pretty cool and the vita screen makes it shine a lot. Voices and music are okay.

The game may not be very deep and has low production values, but surprisingly I had fun playing it.

Did I enjoy it? Yep
I think you will like it if you:
- Like easy Dungeon Crawlers
- Don't expect a complex game.

I rate my experience with a 6.5 out of 10.

Final Fantasy XIV

The second version of the second mmo featuring a world with a few Final Fantasy details like summons, black mages and chocobos.

Gameplay is the very standard "World of Warcraft" style, quests and more quests about deliveries and defeating monsters all the way to the max level where the player will start attending bigger and spectacular dungeons and fights. The combats are cooldown based with a way slower pace when compared to other games.

The amount of content is decent but lacks many basic features. The story may be cool, but it isn't what I'm looking on a mmo so I skipped most of the dialogs, there are some unskippable ones, I didn't like this because affects the game's pace.

Graphically looks very good. The interface, special effects, monsters and characters details are awesome, specially the clothes that feel very realistic. Enviroments have nice textures and modeling but they feel a bit generic and not very fantasy like. Music has nice calm melodies, with is nice to avoid repetitiveness on a mmo.

Overall is a good and addictive mmo, but it is too standard for me and has nothing special to offer rather than the FF theme.

Did I like it? Yes, but...
I think you will like it if you:
- Aren't tired of mmos

I rate my experience with a 6 out of 10.