Baten Kaitos

A master piece from two great developers.

This is a "typical" jrpg, with dungeons, shops, many locations and a world to save through turn-based combats, but everything put there very carefully making a very fresh and enjoyable experience.

Combats are turn based, where attack/defense is done through collectible cards that can be found or bought. The player can use those cards to perform Defensive/offensive combos that sometimes can become secret combined attacks. The combat is very fun, bosses are challenging and the card system is very deep.

Graphically looks very detailed using pre-rendered backgrounds with animated details, the art design is impressive with many original and beautiful locations and creatures. Dungeons contain some entertaining puzzles which you don't use to see lately.

The music is awesome, though most of the sound/voices seems recorded in low quality, but still very enjoyable.

Did I like it? Very!
You will like it if you:
- Like jrpgs

I rate my experience with a 9 out of 10.

The 7th Saga

An rpg from when Enix could make games, the setup is very interesting and mixes the usual medieval content (swords&dwarves) with sci-fi (aliens&technology) giving an unique atmosphere to the game.

Encounters aren't random but aren't far from it because it is hard to avoid them and they're kinda frequent but still very fun and addictive.

Combat is turn based where I only got one main character and can recruit another member to help me. I could choose my main character from 7 different characters, very unique looking and with their own skills, making every playthrough different so the replay value is very good.

Then we got the usual jrpg elements, lots of equipment, towns to visit, places to explore, an epic story (which I barely remember :P) and all the other things that made us fall in love with Enix.

Graphically looks okay and uses the mode 7 (3d perspective) for the main exploration and combats, sprites are good enough. Music doesn't hurt.

Did I like it? Yes, addictive.
I think you will like it if you:
- Like jrpg
- Don't mind playing snes games

I rate my experience with a 8 out of 10.

Valkyria Chronicles II

A tactical srpg with a modern atmosphere, using guns, bazookas, tanks, etc.

The gameplay is very fun and addictive, as usual on sprg the battles are long and entertaining, giving the player many ways to approach encounters.

But it gets old and repetitive after a few hours due the lack of depth and customizaton, the battle strategy will always be very similar, with a few scripted moments but I got used to it and got bored because I was always doing the same thing over and over again.

The story follows the modern japanese trends: a group of anime looking students that are up to save the world from evil looking characters.

Graphically looks good, very anime-ish though - and I'm starting to hate it, more variety on designs please! Music and voices are very good.

Did I like it? Yes but got bored eventually
I think you will like it if you:
- Like srpg
- Don't hate anime style

I rate my experience with a 6 out of 10.

Shin Megami Tensei IV

An excellent game, with a very challenging combat system based on gaining extra turns by finding the enemy weaknesses while protecting yourself from your own ones.

The player can learn abilities from his demons, which are "caught" by negotiating with them in battle or obtaining them through the demon fusion system.

The world and graphics are dark as always, music and sound is good too. Demon designs are awesome as always.

This is the first numbered Shin Megami Tensei game I've played, so when I compare it to Strange Journey I find 2 negative things:

- The press turn system seems a bit more unbalanced as every time the enemy found a weakness on any of my demons, it was game over. At least I could return to the moment right before the fight by paying some Macca, this is greatly apreciated.

- The story is a bit weaker, because the player has to "wait" too many hours to reach the next dialog, making the characters more superficial. I really prefer Strange Journey storytelling.

The positive side is that the dungeons doesn't seem like the ones from Etrian Odyssey anymore, now dungeons are lighter, very entertaining and never get too tiring.

Did I like it? Yes, I love the difficulty of these games.
You will like it if you:
- Like jrpgs
- Want challenge

I rate my experience with a 8 out of 10.

Hyrule Warriors

I though I had enough of Dynasty Warriors games, which consists in having your character battle against thousands of enemies with barely any AI, conquering outposts and killing generals for loot.

I didn't have much fun while playing the story mode, there are a few new additions like the usage of the usual Zelda items (bow, bombs, boomerang...) and some big bosses which are dealt differently than usual, but it was still more of the same repetitive Dynasty Warriors gameplay. At least got a bit better at the end of the first half because we can control an unusual character and the difficulty increases too.

Overall the story mode is too easy even in hard mode, thankfully a harder mode appeared when I finished the Story that adds a bit more challenging and is actually fun.

Then I started the Adventure Mode and here is where I got addicted. A big map divided into a grid where every cell is a battle with many different loot, rewards and challenges for every character so no character gets left behind if you want to finish the map. Progressing through the map also requires completing an adjacent cell with a specified rank and then unlocking extra rewards by using one of the diverse items that are found when completing the battles. So this makes the adventure mode very dinamic and entertaining and completing the map is going to take me hours and hours, also the first dlc brings a whole new map into my addiction, I'm going to be busy for months.

There aren't many characters to choose from but at least they have very distinctive attacks and weapons that makes them different to play. Characters can gain experience to increase their level to gain more attack and hp, this time we don't have other stats like defense nor musou. Also they got 3 skill trees that gets progressed by using items dropped by defeating enemies. Weapons are only found by defeating generals or as a battle reward and can have sockets with skills on it that can be transfered into other weapons.

Graphically I think this is the best game that Koei/Omega Force has ever done. Music contains some of the most important Zelda themes, which is excellent.

Did I like it? I'm addicted!
I think you will like it:
- Are a Zelda fan
- Aren't looking for a complex action game

I rate my experience with a 8 out of 10.