Pokemon Part 1

My first and best experience with pokemon, I bought it when no one in my country knew about it (myself included) and it really surprised me though my first impression was bad because, at first it reminded me a lot to Final Fantasy Legend III, a game I bored to death, I guess it is by the looks and that both are rpgs.

But after this, when I got used to the gameplay it was a blast. The fact of capturing pokemon to make a party like any other rpg but way more customizable because there are 150 different pokemon, with different weaknesses, strenghts, skills, status growth and many other things that give this game a high strategic component.

The trainer can build a party of 6 pokemon and combats are fighted 1vs1 with a turn based system where the trainer only gives orders and uses items to the pokemon. The multiplayer combats are awesome and very competitive and all the trading and collecting pokemons is very addictive.

The story is also unusual, this time we're not the hero of light up to save the world with its infinite justice, no this time we're just another amateur pokemon trainer who wants to be the best. Graphically looks okay with many cool character designs, music has great tunes.

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

I rate my experience with a 9.5 out of 10.

Final Fantasy Mystic Quest

Graphically can remind to the other final fantasy games, though there are many different things like the battle screen is similar to Phantasy Star/Dragon Quest series.

Encounters aren't random and battles are turn based with a turn order style similar to Final Fantasy X.

Customization is about gaining experience levels and not much more, there are no equipment choices but upgrades and a few different weapons to choose from which also are used during the exploration.

The exploration is limited but reminds a lot to the Action RPG with a few jumps and things to do around. The world map is small and based on checkpoint, everything is very lineal.

The game isn't epic nor a blast to play but is entertaining enough. The story is a bit weird but fun and graphically looks like very simplistic, like the first few snes game. Music is very cool.

Did I like it? Yes
I think you will like it if you:
- Are desperate to play old school jrpg

I rate my experience with a 6.5 out of 10.

The Story of Thor

 

Finally some rpg love for mega drive!

An action rpg with many usual mechanics, with a setup similar to the Zelda games: find the dungeon, explore it while resolving puzzles and fighting monsters on real time action.

On every dungeon the player will find a spirit representing an element which will be used to progress through the game and also learn new abilities and attacks.

The story isn't anyting special as usual on these games, but the arabic atmosphere is nice and gives it an unique look. Sprites look pretty, colorful and detailed. Music is good.

Overall is a fun game, not epic and a bit short and easy, as I was very young and managed to finish it on a nice pace, but still entertaining.

Did I like it? Yes.
I think you will like it if you:
- Want more action rpgs
- Don't mind playing old games

I rate my experience with a 6.5 out of 10.

Final Fantasy Adventure

A game that can remind to the (old) Zelda games on its looks and also to the Enix action rpg on its gameplay.

But in reallity this is the first game of the Seiken Densetsu saga, saga where Secret of Mana belongs, so we may find many gameplay and plot features that will be used on the later games.

The gameplay is real time action, focused on dungeons which contain the usual puzzles, enemies and treasures. Also there's some of exploration to do around too, the world map is big enough to contain a few towns and places to look. As curiosity, the player can kill the npcs in town... a thing we are only alowed to do on some western rpgs now (and probably with the same repercusion).

On the customization side we find the usual experience levels, parameters and equipment, etc. No complains here, it's a game from 1991.

The story is the usual Hero of light vs Dark plus saving the girl, at least the story involving the Mana Tree is apreciated as a Secret of Mana fan. Graphically looks nice for a Game boy, I can't remember about music quality, sorry!

Did I like it? Yes
I think you will like it if you:
- Are desperate to play old school jrpg

I rate my experience with a 7 out of 10.

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.