Ar Nosurge

I started this because it looks like a nice Sci-Fi turn based jrpg, but I didn't expect this. Maybe I'm getting old, but years ago a jrpg didn't need tons and tons of obnoxious dialogs that don't contribute anything to the game.

I had the same problem that in Tears To Tiara, I didn't research too much about the game and I found that both are like Visual Novels. But at least on Tears To Tiara the combats were entertaining, in ArNosurge the combats are trivial and seem like a mere excuse the extend the game length.

The combat at first is really confusing, for about 8 hours I had no idea what I was doing but I was winning all the battles without problems and once I understood how it worked I became unstoppable, I don't remember using any item or friend skill. Also overleveling is a problem because grinding is easily exploitable.

The game also has a crafting system, it is very simple, the progression is boring, repetitive and it implies going through tons of stupid dialog again (and you can't skip it!).

The story starts good and has potential, but I grew so tired of reading cheap dialog that made me lose interest after the first 10 hours.

I think this game would be more enjoyable if it adopted the form of a pure Visual Novel to stop confusing people like myself :P. AND THERE'S NO SKIP TEXT BUTTON!

Did I enjoy it? No, this is bad.
I think you will like it if you:
- Liked Ciel Nosurge.
- Don't mind visual novels interrupted by boring gameplay

I rate my experience with a 3 out of 10.

Persona Q

Although this is suposed to be Persona+Etrian, this seems more like Shin Megami Tensei combats in Etrian Odyssey labyrinths with Persona 3&4 make-up.

The combats are 1st person, turn-based and the main objective is spotting and abusing the enemy weakness, it is actually very fun because the difficulty is very balanced through all the game.  All party members use what they call personas, but these really behave like demons/angels from Shin Megami Tensei as you have to keep finding new powerful demons because they become obsolete very quickly, these can be bought, obtained as a reward or by fusing 2 or more of them. All these facts make it look more like Shin Megami Tensei than Persona.

All the game happens inside of extensive labyrinths, most of these are smartly done and very entertaining to explore, although some puzzles are a bit "japanese" which made me get stuck a few times. The pace is very good, there's a small downturn after the fist half of the game that made me think about quitting, but then it recovers again with a nice dungeon.

Graphically the demons are gorgeus as usual, characters look cute and the labythings look fine, Etrian team has really improves through the years. Music is awesome as always (only if you like Persona 3&4 style).

This game took me around 51 hours to finish, I'm kinda fast completing games so I think it will take around 65 hours for the average player. The story is okay for a crossover game at least which usually is a mere excuse to bring the characters from different together. The bad point is that there are tons of dialogs, I can only guess that this is a bit of fan service as most are just the characters acting very cliché.

Did I enjoy it? Yes!
I think you will like it if you:
- Like Dungeon Crawlers
- Don't hate Persona 3&4 style

I rate my experience with a 8 out of 10.