Pokemon Part 2

It has some nice additions, better and colored graphics, new story, lots of new pokemon, new ways of exploration, pokemon can be equiped with one item and the game is really long. But of course it wasn't as suprising as the original.

Did I like it? Yes
I think you will like it if you:
- Like rpgs

I rate my experience with a 8 out of 10.

More things to do, better graphics but the same system and feels like nothing changed, I enjoyed it but It started to feel repetitive.

Did I like it? Yes
I think you will like it if you:
- Like rpgs

I rate my experience with a 7 out of 10.

The declive, I noticed that I wasn't having so much fun anymore and was forcing myself to finish it.

Did I like it? Yes, but got bored
I think you will like it if you:
- Like rpgs
- Aren't tired of pokemon

I rate my experience with a 6 out of 10.

I just coulnd't play for more than 6 hours, this game isn't fun nor challenging for me anymore :(

Did I like it? Nope
I think you will like it if you:
- Like rpgs
- Aren't tired of pokemon

I rate my experience with a 4 out of 10.

Not played and not gonna play it.

I may try it but I have no hopes.

Final Fantasy Tactics

To me this is an overrrated game, yes it is tactical and very fun but it has many lacks...

Challenge isn't very high plus I HATE random encounter on a game like this, because to me the battles are supposed to be long, strategic and epic. Having random encounters just trivializes the combats and become very generic and repetitive, plus having that "free grinding" can unbalance the entire game.

I appreciate the job variety, gives a lot of customization and choices though some classes suck a little :P.

The story is okay, with a few twists but I can't see what's so great about it, I aslo found characters boring.  Graphics: got nice sprites and music is correct.

Also I don't see the "Final Fantasy" anywhere, it should have been called Vagrant Tactics.

Did I like it? Yes
I think you will like it if you:
- Like srpg
- Don't expect Final Fantasy

I rate my experience with a 7.5 out of 10

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance

The start is really bad, I mean, that snow ball fight... but it is a great game, there aren't many additions but it is pretty entertaining. I think the story is worse than the original.

Did I like it? Yes
I think you will like it if you:
- Like srpg
- Can get through the start

I rate my experience with a 6.5 out of 10.

Final Fantasy Tactics A2

More of the same gameplay (which is good), new story and new implementations, fun enough.

Did I like it? Yes
I think you will like it if you:
- Like srpg

I rate my experience with a 7 out of 10

Final Fantasy IV

My first Final Fantasy and probably the first jrpg I've ever played by myself, I think I was like 7 years old and got up to the moon where I found a difficulty spike and quit it (of course I finished it years after).

Many things were new to me, a deep story and very charismatic characters, I started to learn english just to understand them ^^.

Combat is turn based with the active time battle system that gives a more dynamic behavior that makes the combats very interesting. Encounters are random of course.

There are many characters and with unique skills that gives the game the necessary variety to not make it repetitive. There's no customization aside form the equipment.

There are many places to visit, the usual shops, towns and even other worlds, though smaller than the main one. The game is not very long but is very intense and with many secrets to find.

It looks okay (the psp review is excellent) and to me this is where Uematsu career takes off because it has a lot of excellent melodies. I think this is the start of epicness on the saga.

Did I like it? Yeah!
I think yhou will like it if you:
- Like jrpg
- Don't mind random encounters

I rate my experience with a 9 out of 10.

Disgaea

This game came out at the perfect time because there was a heavy lack of srpg on ps2, so it was taken with open hands by the community and got great sales for a japanese title like this one.

The main gameplay is very classic, tactical turn based combat with grid movement. But then I found some very special features that I hadn't seen before:

- Character Throwing: The player can throw away his allies to reach places that aren't easy accessible, or just to get to places quicker. The enemies can also be thrown, for example this can be used to get them closer or away from allies and also can be used to fuse the enemies which increases their level.

- Geo panels/symbols: Colored panels that give a bonus effect on the player that stands on it depending on the symbol it has. Symbols can be moved and broken to change the color of the panels. I'm not gonna explain all the possiblities but it is very entertaining, it is like having a puzzle inside the scenario that can be solved to get more bonus.

- Character creation: It is huge, there's a lot of classes, from the usual mages to weird monsters and can be promoted to superior versions, upgrades, armor, customization (up to lv9999!), huge.

- Item world: Each item has a whole world inside of it and can be explored to improve the item. did I mention that there's a huge lot of items?

- The assembly where new characters, stages and other features can be obtained with the assembly's approval.

The story is nothing special but it is very humoristic and characters are hilarious, I wasn't used to a game like this. Visually looks very ugly though I like the character designs, music has very nice tunes and I liked the english voices.

Did I like it? Haaaa-hahahahahahaaaaa!
I think you will like it if you:
- Like srpg
- Don't need a FFTactics story

I rate my experience with a 9 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.

Suikoden Tierkreis

To me this is a typical rpg with a few Suikoden details.

It isn't bad as jrpg because it has many good features like good combat with the usual front-back line party setup, exploring is good enough, many towns, equipment choices and dozens of characters to recruit.

But it really failed to keep me entertained. I think the plot quality is very low, I never felt attached to any character and I found the pace too slow. I just coulnd't play for more than 2 straight hours while on other Suikoden games I had to force myself to stop.

In the end as jrpg I think it will keep many people entertained, but there are better choices.

Did I like it? I got bored from time to time.
I think you will like it if you:
- Forget Suikoden series exist.
- Love jrpg

I rate my experience with a 6 out of 10.

SMT: Devil Survivor Overclocked

I almost never check for information about games, plus this is a Shin Megami Tensei game so can't go wrong.

And It surprised me very much to find this is a tactical rpg (I always confuse tactical and strategy terms, spare me =) ), no dungeons nor random encounters this time.

Battles are tactical and squad based similar to Bahamut Lagoon, so every unit is composed by a human and its demons and it can perform 2 types of actions: One are the field skills like healing of buffing useful when there's no enemy around. The other are the direct combat that is done by the usual shin megami tensei turn-based system, but of course this only lasts 1 turn with the possibility of getting an extra attack, because it uses a weakness system similar to Digital Devil Saga, where exploiting the weak point is very important and grants an extra turn for the ally/foe.

It looks and sounds okay like any other game from the saga. It's challening, there's demons, fusing, learning abilities from other demons and the story is interesting as usual, Atlus always delivers.

Finally there's also a lot of endings but I've never liked multiple endings, requires too much effort causing me to get bored pretty soon, I just watch them on youtube >).

Did I like it? Very.
I think you will like it if you:
- Don't hate tactical rpgs
- Like shin megami tensei environment

I rate my experience with a 8 out of 10

Radiant Historia

This game has a good combat system, nice rpg features, character development, a story successfully explained between two paralel universes, excellent music...

It has the requierements any good jrpg needs, everything it's correct but I feel like It's missing something, I'm not sure what it is but this game didn't leave any footprint on me.

Maybe it was because the time traveling mechanic interrupts the pace, or the sub-missions were a bit boring and I never needed to complete them because the game was never very challenging.

So it is a good and round game but It never got me hooked and had to force myself a bit to finish it.

Did I like it? Yes, but not that much
I think you will like it if you:
- Like jrpgs
- Time travel!

I rate my experience with a 6.5 out of 10

The world ends with you

Yet another game I had "overhyped", yes the story and enviroment is very original and the art style and music are awesome, but the gameplay is not for me.

The first thing I didn't like is the main character, from destructive personality to hero of light, I'm too used to that kind of development.

The second and most important thing I didn't like is the battle system, It is pretty good and original actually but It isn't what I'm looking for on an rpg, I prefer more slower strategic combats but this game is based on touch-screen gestures with a high pace and few strategic choices.
 I finished it but the requirements to success on this game were not appealing to me, so my experience wasn't very good.

Did I like it? Not much.
I think you will like it if you:
- Are looking for an original rpg
- Don't mind the fast gesture combat system

I rate my experience with a 5 out of 10

SMT: Strange Journey

Since I played the first Persona I'm in love with Atlus and its Shin Megami Tensei series and spinoffs. They seem to have found how to keep an excellent balance between telling a story, atmosphere, exploration, challenging combat and customization.

Strange Journey doesn't disappoint. The story may not be epic, but it is unusual and well told. The atmosphere is excellent, I really felt integrated into its world and kept wanting to know more about it.

Dungeons are really fun to explore, not very big nor long, with mercifully placed save points, plenty of secret doors and optional revisits.

Combat is challenging as always and I didn't need to do any heavy level grind until the last boss, which is a good thing because I hate level grinding >).

Customization includes the usual demon compedium, negotiation and fusion. There's only equipment choices for the main character and the stats that grow on level up are based on some questions that were answered at the game's beginning, it is a bit lame but it isn't an issue. Finally there are some equipable skills that have diferent effects on the field, like decreasing the encounter rate or mp regen.

Did I like it? Absolutely.
I think you will like it if you:
- Like Shin Megami Tensei
- Are a dungeon explorer!
- Want challenging fights

I rate my experience with a 8 out of 10