J.U.L.I.A. Among the Stars

A graphic adventure with a very nice sci-fi setup.

I loved the freedom to explore and advance through the game at my own pace, exploring the planets and recreating the events in the order I wanted.

The art style is very good, there aren't many "screens" but all of them are very detailed and look amazing though it lacks animation. The sound and music are okay and never break the atmosphere.

The gameplay basically is about finding objects, guessing passwords and solving puzzles with the objective to know more about the story, which is very fun though the lonely setup means there aren't many characters to meet.  The balance between dialogs, puzzles and exploration is very balanced, I never got tired of any.

The main problem I found is that the game is too short, it took me only 7 hours to beat it and get 90% of the achievements and experts in the genre may find it too easy and simple, but is a very good experience for a casual like me.

Did I like it? Yes but it is too short.
I think you will like it if you:
- Like graphic adventures
- Love sci-fi

I rate my experience with a 6.5 out of 10.

Baten Kaitos Origins

This is the second Baten Kaitos game and it's a prequel to the first.

The story happens 20 years before the original and we play as a soldier from the empire. The characters act very funny but then the dialogs ends up being very predictable, the story is very good tough the pace sometimes is a bit slow, very specially the seconds disc that feels a bit too long.

The game is pretty much the same with a few changes, for example:

- A little change is the magnus mixer, now we can mix the quest magnus which gives many new situations to solve (usually as subquests).

- A big change is the battle system, now it plays differently, VERY differently. At first I had some trouble, but once I got used to it I really enjoyed battles and I prefer it over the Eternal Wings one.

It's a bit hard to explain what has changed on the battle system because there are many things, for example we use a common deck for all the characters, can only equip one weapon or armor per character and it's equipped via a card inside the same battle. It's a brand new challenge.

Visually hasn't improved much either, most of the places are the same as in the first game and the new ones aren't very surprising. Still it looks very original and detailed using many animated sprites (or meshes?) over 2d prerendered backgrounds.

I'm a bit critic on some aspects because I'm comparing it to the first game, but overall is excellent and superior to many other because the setup is very original, fun battles and many things to do.

Did I enjoy it? Yes.
I think you will like it if you:
- Liked the first Baten Kaitos
- Like JRPG

I rate my experience with a 8.5 out of 10.

Bound by Flame

An usual western action rpg.

Boring story but at least there are 2 well defined paths and companions you can ****, kinda Dragon Age copy&paste.

The combat as always is real time button mashing, there are 3 different play styles with their own skill tree to choose from and which can be switched at any time, warrior, mage and rogue. I never found any reason to switch between them therefore I beat the entire game as a rogue and just 2 buttons: attack and dodge.

Customization also includes a few different armors and weapons which can be improved with materials found by exploring or killing monsters, I maybe changed my equipment 3 times on the entire game.

There are like 3 nice looking scenarios (swamp, iceland and castle), not very big and with a lot of backtracking, specially if you intend to complete the side quests.

I think the game does nothing very wrong and is actually fun, it just too short and lacks depth. It took me like 9 hours to beat the game with many side quests done, companions banged and the rogue skill tree completed.

Did I like it? I had (short) fun
I think you will like it if you:
- Want a simple action rpg.
- Your PS4 is starving. (my case)

I rate my experience with a 5.5 out of 10.

One Piece Unlimited World Red

Best One Piece game I've played. This one mixes button mash combat, adventure and rpg elements.

The combat is combo based similar to Pirate Warriors but less massive and with harder opponents. Characters level up and can be equipped many different passive and active skills that are found through the game.

Depending on the equipped skills, the characters can perform different roles like healing, ranged damage, melee damage, support... and the player can choose to bring up to 3 of them to battle which gives a bit of strategy because choosing a wrong party can lead to a harder game. The player controls one character while the cpu controls the other two, but the player can switch between characters at any moment.

I specially had fun with the exploration to find materials for creating and improving items and skills, the scenarios are very limited and simple, though they look very good.

This mix of combat, adventure and rpg allows the game to not get repetitive because each one has a different pace and the player can choose when to do one or the other.

The game itself is not very long and sometimes gets too easy, but there are many side missions to do, items to find, improving the city and its shops, a harder new game+...

Did I like it? Yes
I think you will like it if you:
- Are a One Piece fan
- Don't expect anything like Pirate Warriors

I rate my experience with a 6 out of 10.

Hyperdimension Neptunia PP

I  have never played and "idol" game before so I don't know if they are any better than this.

The game is about raising one of the Hyperdimension cpu's to become a pop idol by playing concerts and assisting events to increase the character stats or improving the relationship with other characters.

The events are fun if you are a fan of the game's characters and their hillarious dialogs, it is probably the main attraction of the game because the concerts are very lame.

There are very few songs to play and the concert gameplay it is just about presing a button each 10-20 seconds and moving the camera around like in modern cinema. With this I got an excellent rating at every concert, zero challenge.

Graphics are fine and 2d art is very well done as always, the few songs sound well and voices are good as usual.

Did I like it? I had fun and don't hate the game, but there's not much to do aside of watching dialogs.
I think you will like it if you:
- Are a neptunia hardcore fan

I rate my experience with a 5 out of 10.

Hyperdimension Neptunia mk2

I thought I would never play a Neptunia game again, but I'm glad I tried MK2. It is a huge improvement.

The combats are turn based again but this time the characters move around the battlefield which allows to establish different strategies, target multiple enemies, hide from being hit, etc. I have played a game with a very similar concept, maybe Arc the Lad on PS2?

Combats aren't random and are very easy to avoid, also the battle pace is very nicelly done where I never got tired of fightning over and over. The game balance is great but there are too many overpowered skills which I tried to use only on boss fights.

On the customization side, we get to equip with many different items and also choose between a few skills to build different combos.

The game's pace has improved a lot, we get a more detailed world map with lots of things to do like quests, visit cities, battle in a colisseum, watch events, explore dungeons which are very short, I don't have any complain I think it is perfect for this game.

Graphics are okay though it abuses a bit on palette swap. Music has some catchy tunes and voices are good for a low budget game like this. Also it is not very long (I got the true ending in 22 hours) but has a great new game+ with new dungeons and many endings to watch.

The story starts fine and I watched many events because it was interesting to know the characters, but it got very boring after half game and I started to skip many events and only paid attention to the main story.

Did I like it? Yes
I think you will like it if you:
- Are a neptunia fan
- Don't hate anime jrpg

I rate my experience with a 7.5 out of 10.

Final Fantasy Theatrhythm

This is an addictive rhythm game a la Guitar Hero featuring the best of Final Fantasy music. It is controlled with the touch screen using the usual gestures and where each Final Fantasy numbered game has at least 3 different stages featuring different gameplay:

- The world map: where the character roams around and the player follows an slow paced music. Controlls here are usually tap and hold&slide.

- Cinematic mode: a beautiful mode where a cinematic from the game plays while the player follows the flow with taps, holds and flicks.

- Battle mode: the 4 characters battle some enemies while the player keeps the rhythm on a fast paced music with taps, holds and quick slides while the characters attack the monsters with many known skills, magics and summons.

The game has some rpg-like customization, featuring the main characters who can level up, learn different abilities, equip item. Plus there's a ton of content to do, many difficulty levels and different modes.

Music of course is superb, featuring the most epic and remember tunes from the main games. Too bad the 3ds speakers aren't great, but the recording quality is very good because I connect the 3ds to some autoamplified speakers the sound quality experience a vast improvement.

On the bad side, there's dlc and that they "dared" to put tunes from a game that Squarenix refused to bring in english.

Did I like it? Addictive!
I think you will like it if you:
- Don't hate rhythm games
- Love Final Fantasy

I rate my experience with a 7.5 out of 10.