Mega Man I, II & X

This was my first mega man game, I was 7 years old when I got it and it wasn't until 3 years later that I got my first boss down after understanding how to play it.

I understood that this wasn't Sonic or Super Mario World, here I had to advance very slowly, thinking where and how to move on each screen to avoid getting killed by random enemies.

Then when I reached a boss I had to watch and learn his movement and attack patterns plus try different weapons to find a weak point or a shot behavior that kept me out of danger.

After understanding all of this I found an amazingly fun game, challenging and that could be played in many different ways.

Did I like it? It took me my time... but in the end yes I did.
I think you will like it if you:
- Desire a challenge
- Don't mind the 8 bit looks

I rate my experience with a 7.0 out of 10.

I started this one 15 years later after beating MM2, I enjoyed both equaly but I think the ending stages are a little too hard.

Did I like it? Yes but I had problems with the last stages.
I think you will like it if you:
- Desire a challenge
- Don't mind the 8 bit looks

I rate my experience with a 6.5 out of 10.

I started this one right after MM1, I appreciate the new looks and gameplay like the charged shot. I noticed that I advanced through the stages way fast, I'm not sure if it's because X is faster paced or I'm just more experienced.

I found that the bosses were way harder than the original Mega Man, It didn't help that I managed to start the stages in the worst possible order. On the other hand I found the last stages and final boss more balanced (or less hard).

Did I like it? Yes.
I think you will like it if you:
- Desire a challenge

I rate my experience with a 6.5 out of 10.

Demon Gaze

This is a 1st person dungeon crawler, the way it works really reminds to Etrian Odissey: 5 character party with front/back lines and similar classes.

The combat is turn based, where enemies and allies attack in the same turn with the order defined by their speed. The random encounters frequency starts very low and it increases with every dungeon, it never got overwhelming.

The game also introduces some kind of "demon companions", which offers some passive and active skills and also help through the battles, those are very important in boss battles which are very challenging and usually requires to try different demon setups. There's also an original loot system, the monsters usually drop items that are used in circles that you find in the dungeson which lets you choose the type, quality and quantity of the items you want to receive after defeating the monsters in the circle.

I enjoyed the Dungeons because they are not very hardcore, the puzzles are easy and the exploration is usually fun, it reminds me a little to SMT: Strange Journey or even Persona 1.

Visually the 2D drawing looks beautiful thanks to the Vita screen, the 3D enviroments not so much but it doesn't hurt. The music is very nice, I liked the battle theme (keep in mind that I also like the Persona 1 PSP battle themes).

About the story... it seemed interesting for the first 5 minutes but I started to skip all the text once boobs and underwear little girls showed up. No regrets.

This is one of the few games that I've bothered to get the Platinum trophy. I had more fun than in any Etrian game I've played, probably because it's more forgiving and the difficulty curve increases on a pace that fits me perfectly all the way through the end and post-game.

Did I like it? Yep, I had a lot of fun.
I think you will like it if you:
- Don't hate light dungeon crawlers
- Enjoy modern japanese plots or don't mind skipping the story.

I rate my experience with a 7.5 out of 10.

Citizens of Earth

A jrpg-like that tries to be inovative with very nice ideas:

- A crazy story: We're the President of Earth and have to deal with the daily citizen problems in form of quests.

- Turn-based combat with a "combo point" system with abilities that generate points and other abilities that spend them.

- Lots of recruitable characters with unique skills in combat and also out of combat perks like the "breadman" that will sell you... bread of course.

But everything falls appart because of how the game is designed, it is not fun to progress through the game and I think it is because it has a bad pace and poor level design. In the end it becomes the typical game plenty of delivery quests in a plain scenario like many modern rpgs.

Graphics are 2D and I have no complains here, same with music and sound.

Did I like it? Got bored after 2 hours, and after 6 hours I hated it.
I think you will like it if you:
- Haven't played many rpgs

I rate my experience with a 3 out of 10.

Grand Theft Auto 5

I definitelly don't like the Grand Theft Auto saga anymore.

I started with IV and I'm feeling the same way with V, the world is awesome and Rockstar puts a lot of attention on all the details, I even have a cinema to watch original (short) movies!

The characters are very unique and well developed too, but the big bad thing for me is the progression through the story because I found most of the missions very boring, I was driving for most of the mission length where nothing exciting happened, this kills the pace for me. The only missions I really loved where the heists and there are very few of them and I still hated the preparation missions (more driving...)

So no more GTA for me, I have more fun playing Sleeping Dogs and Saints Row games.

For the trolls: I did finish the game and all the optional events/missions (took me 10 hours per character).

Did I like it? I liked some characters and exploring the world, but not the "main game".
I think you will like it if you:
- Aren't tired of the GTA formula.

I rate my experience with a 4.5 out of 10.

Atelier Shallie

And another cute Atelier game!

As Escha&Logy, this game has 2 protagonists to choose from with very different personality. I choose Shallotte and I had a lot of fun, the other Shallie seems more of the "innocent" kind, I didn't try it for enough time.

It has been a long time since the last time I played an Atelier game and I noticed that alchemy has really evolved a lot, there are a lot of variables to play with that makes the item creation very entertaining.

I started playing this game because they removed the time limit factor, now I can choose when to advance into the next chapter giving infinite time to explore everything I want to. Of course some players may prefer the time limit setting and I think it should have stayed that way because we already have lots of games without time limit ;)

The combat system is turn-based with an use of turns similar to FFX and Lost Oddyssey where the order depends on the skill used and can also be pushed/canceled with the right skills. Also the game has an original way to use the party members on the reserve that makes the battles very dynamic and fun. A game with this battle system, the right budget and thematic, would be a masterpiece (I mean, an Atelier game is not very commercial).

Graphically looks okay and has a few technical issues but nothing unplayable. The music is very good, a few songs have entered into my favorites list ;), the voices are okay too.

The story is good enough though the chapters pacing is a bit weird, some chapters are very long and others extremelly short or irrelevant.

Did I like it? Yes.
I think you will like it if you:
- Don't hate "light" jrpgs

I rate my experience with a 7 out of 10.

Bloodborne

Bloodborne is a new game made by From Software based on "Dark Souls gameplay", with a few tweaks. Here is my review whining.

The combat is faster and more hectic, forcing you to be more agressive and dodging instead of blocking. I always played the Souls games with a medium shield but it didn't take me much to get used to dodge, it feels pretty natural. I had more problems with being agressive and taking the iniciative, but It stopped when I learned my weapon's swings and how the "stuns" worked.

The weapons now transform and it's pretty cool but it is not much different from the switching from 1 hand to 2 hand in Dark Souls. Also there aren't many weapons, so the progression isn't made like the usual rpgs where you find a more powerful weapon every few hours, instead they offer really different play styles and it's up to the player to become accustomed to one and stick with it.

The difficulty, I've come to the conclusion that it isn't very balanced, because:

- On my first playthrough, I played at my normal pace and I found that the game was a bit easy. Only blood-starved beast gave problems, I killed the rest of bosses on first try. Then I started NG+ which I beaten quickly and without problems. Now I'm on NG++ and don't have many problems either. I'm sure it was not due the AI bug because I kept moving the PS4 from one room to another, shutting the power in the process.

- Then I've started a new game from scratch, I played at a higher pace and I had a lot of trouble beating any boss, they kept one-shotting me all the time and I wasn't really that underleveled plus I went straight to find and upgrade my favorite weapon and leveling the correct stats and my insight was always low. I couldn't believe that I was having a harder time than playing NG+ and NG++... maybe it's a bug.

The levels are visually stunning buta bit confusing, it took me 2 playthroughs to get used to some levels. I find it hard to orientate when parts/decoration of the level look very similar, I had the same problem with Lords of the Fallen.

And my last complain is that the game is a bit short, my first play took 17 hours where I only left one boss to kill, my second playthrough took me 12 hours, where I killed everything and got the Platinum Trophy. For comparison's sake: DeS took me 24h+15h, DaS 34h+29h, DaS2 36h+42h (first play without the dlc, second play with all the dlc)

I complain a lot but the game still is very fun to play, I prefer Bloodborne over any other modern game.

Did I like it? Yes, but in some aspects less than other Souls games
I think you will like it if you:
- Like challenges

I rate my experience with an 8 out of 10

Code Name: S.T.E.A.M.

Surprise of the Year! I wasn't attracted at all by this game, but I gave it a try and it is really fun and looks better than what static images show.

This game is made by the Fire Emblem developers and the structure is similar: Dialog -> Preparation -> Battle -> Dialog, it is also focused on strategy and has the same turn system where each player has it's turn to move all his soldiers, but it plays different.

The movement is also grid based but moving consumes steam, this same steam is required to attack and the amount of steam consumed depends on the weapon.

The combat is based on ranged weapons like shotguns, rifles, rockets, grenades, sniper, and the characters are controlled similar to a 3rd person shooter, where you need to aim and shoot. Of course it is not a shooter because it's your turn and the enemy is static so it is just to allow the player to aim to different parts of the monster in search of his weak points.

One thing that reminds me a lot to XCOM are the "counter attacks": a unit can stay in "guard" position which will allow it to attack an enemy unit that moves inside his sight during the opponent turn. Guard position requires a weapon that is able to counterattack and enough steam to shoot.

I call this an srpg though it doesn't have any level/stats progression (some people needs to see numbers to call it an rpg). The progression is made by finding "cogs" that are spread though the scenarios which rewards new weapons, and money that is earned by killing enemies, inside boxes around the scenario and you get more money for completing the misison, extra if you complete it witouth deaths and few turns. With money you get new "steam bags" that gives the soldier different effects: like more starting steam, more capacity, healing, etc.

The game is challenging, I loved the difficulty and balance of the enemies and scenarios from the start to the end. Also there's no global map/view so you don't know what's behind every corner until you come close to it, so you need to be prepared for everything!

The story is fine and there's not much dialog, but even so, I liked the characters a lot as they have a strong presence. I find videogame stories more enjoyable with images rather than text. Music has some good tunes and graphically looks better than I've seen on the internet.


Did I like it? Yes!
I think you will like it if you:
- Like srpg
- Are looking for a challenge

I rate my experience with a 8 out of 10.