Final Fantasy IV: The After Years

(psp version)
While it is nice to see the original characters and how they evolved after the end, it gets VERY repetitive.

First because there is a lot of revisited dungeons and it gets very tiring, like "doh, here again?"

Second because the last chapter is just advance through and endless dungeon plenty of very frequent encounters with enemies with very high-hp, requiring alot of grinding (which I hate).

There are a lot of characters to choose from, each very unique but there's some stupid (hidden) requirement that If I don't go to a story place with a certain formation I will miss the good/extended ending.

What I appreciate the most are the new sprites for characters and scenarios, they are high quality and really makes the game look very modern and refreshing. But I'm sure this won't happen again, Square always messes up. Music is great as usual.

Did I like it? Only seeing Kain&co.
I think you will like it if you:
- Liked FFIV
- Don't mind heavy grinding

I rate my experience with a 3 out of 10.

NIS Special

Disgaea 2

New story, new characters and a few new features. Nice for people who wanted more Disgaea but it is not very refreshing, plus I miss Laharl.

Did I like it? Yes, but...
I think you will like it if you:
- Like srpg
- Don't need a FFTactics story

I rate my experience with a 6 out of 10.

Disgaea 3

Cool story and characters, a whole lot of content but it feels dated, I already know all the tricks, grinding, etc. so I got bored and had to force myself to finish it. Ugly graphics.

Did I like it? I got bored as I progressed
I think you will like it if you:
- Like srpg
- Don't need a FFTactics story
- Aren't tired of the Disgaea combat style

I rate my experience with a 5 out of 10.

La Pucelle Tactics

The game before Disgaea, it is weaker on content and characters but still very funny to play and follow the story. It has some kind of feature similar to "geo panels" that makes it unique too.

Still it has a whole lot of features, way more than the usual srpg but I barely remember them.

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

I rate my experience with a 7.5 out of 10

Phantom Brave

This game has the Disgaea style but feels older and more classical. I got bored before I finished it, I think it will pleasure a srpg fan though.

Did I like it? I got bored
I think you will like it if you:
- Love srpg

I rate my experience with a 4.5 out of 10.

Pandora's Tower

Pandora's Tower is an action rpg that takes place in a huge chasm surrounded by towers, so forget about visiting towns or any kind of world map.

The hero's objective is to save the princess (obviously) by feeding her with the flesh (not so obvously) from the boss of each tower to remove her curse.

Those towers are plenty of puzzles, some of them are completed by progressing on a different tower, I think they are kinda smart, not very hard but entertaining. Also towers represent an element like fire, water... this kinda reminded me to zelda temples.

There are many enemies to fight on those towers, they can drop some materials or fresh meat that can be used on the "princess" to delay her curse. Fights are done by sword and a chain that is controlled with the wiimote, it actually isn't bad, I had no issues. The chain also has other uses for puzzles or to avoid obstacles.

Music is nice enough, visually looks pretty good, story is fine and has multiple endings and a good replay value.

Did I like it? Yes
I think you will like it if you:
- Don't mind the lack of outside world
- Like zelda-ish temples

I rate my experience with a 7.5 out of 10.

Zelda: Skyward Sword

I must say that playing this game made me hate Twilight Princess even more, I think back and I notice that really got bored playing that game.

I found this Zelda being more challenging than usual, that's exactly what I needed to like this saga again because on Twilight Princess I felt I was just rushing through temples and it got pretty repetitive.

The story is another thing that revived my love for Zelda games, It explains many things that I wanted to know related to Link and the Princess plus it's not very intrusive as it let me explore all I wanted.

The bad side are the controls, using the wiimote may sound like a good idea but I don't like it, because it gets very tiring after an hour and also because I'm left handed and that gave a lot of imprecisions while swinging the sword. Movement isn't very precise either and got killed/desperate many times.

Music is very good and it looks okay, it's well done but enviroments look pretty blurry I really wanna see ZeldaU ^^.

Did I like it? Yes, this is my preference now: Link to the Past > Link's Awakening > Ocarina of Time > Skyward Sword > Wind Waker > Twilight Princess > Majora's Mask.

I think you will like it if you:

- Love Zelda games

- Like action-rpg

I rate my experience with a 8.5 out of 10.

Sonic Colors

Finally! I had a blast playing this game. I love the 3d sections as I love the 2d ones, no experiments this time, just a fast and intense Sonic experience.

Gameplay is the usual: jump, dash and crouch as always plus some new gadgets that give some new ways and possibilities. Unlike the last Sonic games, this time I didn't find any trouble with controls being imprecise, everything was smooth.

Also the story pace is fast and it doesn't interrupt the gameplay which helps a lot for people like me who look for a "plug&play" game. Length is good, plus there are some nice optional modes and collectibles to find.

Visually looks very good, fast, colorful and with lots of details; I was very surprised that this runs on a Wii (plus I played with the WiiU upscaling). Music is nice too.

So far this is the best 3D Sonic I've played.

Did I like it? Very
I think you will like it if you:
- Don't hate 3d Sonic games

I rate my experience with a 8.0 out of 10.

The Last Story

This is a nice try to establish a "new" way for the jrpg genre. I say "new" because it kinda reminds me to FFIV, in both games the story develops at a pretty fast pace where a lot of things happen very quickly and with no fillers, giving a short but intense experience.

The bad side is that the exploration is very little and limited, luckly the main city is big enough and there are many optional things to do (which I didn't do).

The combat is real time, player controls one character and can give orders to the rest. Encounters aren't random and they're kinda scripted and tries to give some strategic component to the battles but it ends up being a bit chaotic, most of times just rushing foward gave me the best outcome. Still it's fun to play.
 Customization is weapon-based, I didn't have much fun here. There's also a lot of visual customization that some people seem to apreciate but in the end doens't affect to the gameplay.

The story is okay but nothing new; there is a chosen one and a princess again. Thankfully characters have that "Sakaguchi" spirit that makes them very likeable, that saved the game to me. Music is good enough but not outstanding as usual and graphically the city and characters look beautiful, dungeons not so much.

Finally the simple multiplayer is good for a quick cooperative or competitive match.

Did I like it? Yes.
I think you will like it if you:
- Like action rpg

I rate my experience with a 7.5 out of 10.

Xenoblade Chronicles

I'll make it short: art is excellent, gameplay is realtime-cooldown based combat that hardly gets boring, customization is relevant, music is superb, story is long and very well paced, characters are likeable, the world is huge and the game gives a lot of freedom to explore it. Plus there's a ton of optional content very well scattered though the world.

Everything is in a perfect balance on what I expect from a game that I don't know what else to say, try it for yourself and decide :P.

So a game that had me for 120 hours through the story without getting tired, enjoying every scene, fight, conversation, exploring that world and having adventures. After so many hours of this I became really fond of the entire cast, then add an emotive ending and it's just normal for anyone to cry here. Cry Count = 4 (Chrono cross, Persona 3, MGS4 and Xenoblade)

Did I like it? My 3rd favorite game ever.
I think you will like it if you:
- Like jrpg

I rate my experience with a 10 out of 10.

Sonic Unleashed

Okay this is starting to feel better, Sonic speed stages are fun with a few diferent paths to take and things to find, with parts using the 3d perspective from the last games and other parts using the old 2d perspective, new controls like a "instant" lateral move and a drift feature that reminds me to Mario Kart, and fast, maybe too fast that sometimes I need to "hand-brake" to choose a different path.

Controls aren't perfect though, it needs a bit more refinement to make them less imprecise.

And then there are the Sonic-Wolf stages; a lot of long and slow paced stages based on punching enemies, jumping and climbing that are very boring and unoriginal to me, reminds me to Ratchet&Clank gone bad.

Story is the usual, this time the conversation parts are back but they are minimal and without the awful exploration segments from Sonic The Hedgehog 2006.

So far my favorite keeps being Secret Rings, followed by this Unleashed, Black Knight and The Hedgehog 2006.

Did I like it? I liked 50% of it.
I think you will like it if you:
- Like Sonic games
- Can get through the Sonic-Wolf levels.

I rate my experience with a 6 out of 10.

Little King's Story

This is reminds me to a medieval pikmin rpg. I played as a king who could train my kingdom inhabitants into diferent professions like soldier, archer, woodcutter, etc. and become part of my squad. The kingdom increases its size while advancing through the story which allows to construct different buildings, more inhabitants and more profesions.

Combat is about throwing the squad members to the monster while avoiding his attacks, like pikmin but with rpg elements like leveling up and equiping every unit. There's also a lot of exploration to do and things to find using the non-combat professions.

Overall Little Kings is probably too easy, I did like 50% of the game before I noticed that the units equipment could be improved.

Graphically looks good on the PSVita, the story is pretty simplistic about saving princesses and dealing with bad guys, nothing special.

Did I like it? I got a bit bored
I think you will like it if you:
- Want a simplistic adventure

I rate my experience with a 5.5 out of 10.

Tales of Graces F

Welcome to Rage Against Tales Of: here we are again with amnesic characters, unrealistic behaviors and passable story.

Thankfully the combat system here is superb, it is my favorite inside the "Tales of" saga where physical attacks are treated similar to artes, with many to choose from meaning a lot more possible combinations.

Customization is one of my favorites too, there's equipable titles that make characters learn new active and passive skills, and there are lots of titles to unlock. Also the Eleth Mixer that allows to equip items that give field bonuses. Finally the usual equipement crafting, fun as always and many other secondary things to do, this game is very complete.

All of this makes me forget about the characters and focus to have fun. It looks pretty good for being a Wii game, music is fine too.

Did I like it? Yep, but I still hate the characters.
I think you will like it if you:
- Love "Tales of" saga
- Like real-time combat rpgs

I rate my experience with  a 8 out of 10.

Zelda Twilight Princess

It had been like 15 years since the last time I played a Zelda game and I may have waited too long to play Twilight Princess.

While it looks and plays good, the darker setup is welcome, what bored me is the lack of challenge from the main mechanic: explore 1/2 dungeon, find the new item, explore the rest and kill the boss.
 Plus I never bother exploring things when there's no challenge, so I skipped everything I could and went directly from dungeon to dungeon.

Anyway it's probably a very good Zelda game and I may have grown bored of the saga and its mechanincs

Did I like it? Yes but sometimes bored me
I think you will like it if you:
- Played it when it came out
- Love the Zelda series

I rate my experience with a 6.5 out of 10.

Sonic & the Black Knight

Okay, whose idea was it to give Sonic a sword? That's dangerous, he can hurt his reputation.

To me sword combat and the speed and jump elements doesn't mix well, so as a Sonic game this is bad. Plus the combat is done by swinging the wiimote with nearly no strategy, my arm kept getting tired on every boss fight.

I think the idea is cool and it could have been very fun if developers did a similar game but without the gameplay "impositions" that a Sonic game implies.

Missions are boring, repetitive and too easy, it's a step backwards form Secret Rings.
Graphically the game looks better than Secret Rings, specially with the wii U upscaling.
At least Knuckles looks nice on his armor.

Did I like it? Boring.
I think you will like it if you:
- Want some easy action
- Have inconditional love for Sonic

I rate my experience with a 4.5 out of 10.

Sonic and the Secret Rings

Like a child, this game felt like the usual challenging but doable game that I used to play when I was little.
Keep in mind that I played this one right after being disappointed by Sonic the Hedgehog 2006, so maybe that's why I enjoyed this one so much.

It's a "Sonic on rails", controls can get bad but I think it isn't "game-breaking". It's played by horizontaly moving the wiimote but most of the actions are done by pressing buttons (thankfully) so it is not much diferent from the usual 3D Sonic (at least the ones I played), with less "auto-pilot" scenes than usual though there are nearly zero path choices, levels are all straight with a few diferent options to avoid obstacles but always staying on the same path.

Sonic is the only playable character and I'm happy about it, not only because I prefer the usual fast-paced sonic action but also because on the older Sonic games I played with other characters to explore the places that I couldn't reach with Sonic.

I found that there are very few levels, but every level has a bunch of missions that take part in a portion of the level and are needed to advance in the game which can be fun and challenging like finishing with 0 rings or without killing anything. By completing this missions I earned new skills and experience for my ring. This is another fun thing, Sonic has a ring on which he can equip skills like extra speed, jump, damage, new movements, etc. There are a lot of skills. Each skill requires a number of skill points on the ring and the number of skill points increasse by leveling the ring.

Story is fine, not very intrusive and never cuts action. I really apreciated that, when I get back from work I just want some fast action and this game was excellent for this, no exploration, not clueless walking nor talking to npcs, just select a stage and a mission, go!

It also includes a multiplayer mode, but I didn't try it so I have no opinion about it.

Did I like it? Yes.
 I think you will like it if you:
- Want instant action
- Don't mind moving sonic with the wiimote
- Can avoid comparisons with the good old sonic games

I rate my experience with a 7.5 out of 10.