Bravely Default (Nintendo 3DS)

Title :

Bravely Default

Console : 

Nintendo 3DS

Developer :

Square Enix

Silicon Studio

Release Date (NA) :

February 07 2014

Ça fait trop longtemps que se post traine comme "Draft" dans mes trucs. J'ai terminé se jeu il y a... 4, 5 mois peut être, je m'en rappel plus en fait.

Alors en bref, j'ai pas aimer le démo quand il est sortie et j'étais vraiment pas convaincu du jeu rendu là. Ca ma prit quelques mois avant d'y jouer quand il est sortie car un chummy ma conseillé d'y jouer et de pas me fier au démo. Il avait raison. Merci Sclout.

En gros c'est un jeu que j'ai bien aimé jusqu'à temps que j'arrive au chapitre 4 ou 5. Ils ont fait un move ASS ou tu dois refaire la même chose pendant 3-4 chapitre d'affilé. Bref c'est vraiment cheap de faire ça et on doit se retaper le même bout d'histoire à chaque fois. Ca ma vraiment mis en criss quand je m'en suis rendu compte.

En conclusion, le style "retro" JRPG du jeu est intéressant et le système de job est pas mauvais, même si y'en a en fait un peu trop. Aussi, même si y'a un bout de marde à passé dans l'histoire, sa vaut la peine de se le faire.

Y's 1 & 2 (Steam)

Title :
Ys 1 & 2 Chronicles

Console : 
Steam

Developper :
Nihon Falcom
Published by Xseed Games

Release Date (NA) :
February 14 2013

I've known the Y's serie for a pretty long time. I remember the III, who available on the Snes, and I never liked it at the time. Must be because I was finding it to hard or maybe it was not a turn base RPG...? I dunno. However, I purchased Y's Chronicles on steam at a good price on steam and decided to finnaly give it a go, since I was looking for a game that would not take too long to do. I was right, since the first took me about 5 hours and the second almost 10.

I must say I really liked the two of them. It is a fast paced game where you don't have much time to think about your moves and just rush into the action. The combat system is pretty simple. You just have to dash into the ennemy to hit him. You have to be pretty carefull though to not hit them face to face how you will lose HP. At first I was not sure about that system but after some adjustment and try, I got used to it.

For Y's one, the first hour is pretty though. I died a lot and had to retry often. Until I got my first level, then all was to easy afterward until the last boss. You can only get 10 level in Y's 1. However, the challenge was better in Y's, were you cap at level 50. It's true I could have play in hard mode, but I'm not this kind of player.

Wild Arms 1 (PS1)

Title :
Wild Arms 1

Console : 
PlayStation 1
(Available on PSN also)

Developer :
Media Vision

Release Date (NA) :
April 30 1997

I remember when I saw for the first time the cover if Wild Arms. I was at my favorite video game rental shop (Mega Jeux) and when I took a look behind the cover, I was blown away that the combat was in full 3D. I just wanted to play it so badly, however I didn't have a PlayStation console at that time since I decided instead to get an N64 for Christmas (Dat bad choice)... It took another Christmas for me to finally have a Playstation. (Awww yeah!) So after playing FF7, Vandal Hearts and some other great RPGs, I finally decided to give a go to Wild Arms and was not deceived by it, but I can remember much unfortunately.

So more than 15 years later, I decided to redo it to see if it was still as cool as it was in my memories. Oh and since I was playing the PSN version, I could transfer my game on my PSP and bring it on the bus when I go to work. Pretty cool feature, that exist for years now...but...it was my first time using it...and it was cool...however. So, after the first hour, I was totally in the game. These 2d Sprites are still wonderful and was rendering decently on my LCD TV (thanks to the PS3 filtering for PS1 games). However, we can't say much of the 3D combat scene. There are not as cool as the first time I saw them. Also, the combat animations are very bad and slow, but this is all to be expected from a technology that was on is first debut at the time. It's just sad that the combats are not up to the 2D sprite environment.Because of that, it could stop some user to try this game.

Anyway, I suggest this game to any JRPG fan. I must mention also that they have made a remake of it on PS2. This will surely be my other game that I will start after Bravely Default 

is done.

Fire Emblem Awakening (3DS)

Title :
Fire Emble Awakening

Console : 
Nintendo 3ds

Developper :
Itelligent System
Published by Nintendo

Release Date (NA) :
February 4 2013

I must tell you the truth. Before playing this game, It's been several month the game was laying on my games shelf. After doing Pokemon X, I was still in a big gaming mood and I decided to go fo it. First, I must say I already played the Fire Emblem series before and for people who knows the game, when a character die in that game, he d-i-e-s... no ressurection possible. Since I'm not a big fan of that and I was not so eager to enter this type of gameplay since usualy I tend to ragequit in the middle of the game (shame on me). In this one however, they decided to go more 'casual'. The player has the choice to select a Normal mode where your character can be resurected after a combat if they die. So since I'm a big lazy chicken, I chosed the normal mode so I can take it more easely. Even though I try that no character dies when I play, if it's happen, I don't have to redo the battle.

So, when I decided to give it a try, I was saying to myself that I could play it in lost time, slowly. Finally I finished it with 40+ hours done in less than 2 weeks. I really enjoyed this game and everything in it was just perfect. The story was good even though I don't remember much but you still want to continue to play to know more about it. I also really liked the combat animation. There were really fluid and juste nice to watch over and over. I like also the visual of the character even though it was a strange decision to not make feet to the characters. However, I strongly recommend this game to any person who own a 3ds and love tactical RPGs.

Etrian Odyssey IV (3DS)

Etrian Odyssey IV is a first person dungeon crawl JRPG with turn base combat a la Dragon Quest. The game was released the 26 of February 2013 and was developped and published by Atlus. Etrian Odyssey series is known to be for hardcore gamers that like to grind for hours to be able to advance into the game. But all that changed with the fourth one since you can now choose a Casual mode where completing the game required much less grinding and in the same time is more easy. I must admit that I've taken the casual mode, because I wanted to be able to pass the game quickly and didn't want to waste hours and hours into grinding.

I must tell I'm not the biggest fan of First Person dungeon crawl. Except Shining the Holy Ark, I've never finished one before. I've also tried the two first Etrian Odyssey but I was not able to hook to them. But the fourth was able to hook me enough to finish it (Story side only, not at 100%) Something that I really liked in this one compared to the old one are the animated ennemies. Their animations are really fluide and give a nice timing side to the combat. As for the story, it is pretty simple but enough to keep you advancing and wondering enough what will happen. Since your character are not preset and need to be build, they do not interact during the cutscenes.

So if you never tried a first person dungeon crawl JRPG, I suggest you this one. It's can pretty simple if you just want to past through it or it can become a real challenge if you want to complete it at 100%.

Pokemon X (3DS)

Here is a game whodon't need any presentation. Pokemon X/Y. The last time I played a pokemon game was when I was a teenager (14 years ago) with pokemon Red / blue. I don't remember if I finished it, but I know I played a lot with it. I cannot talk or compare about the difference of Pokemon X with the last couple of others Pokemon games (Pearl, Black and white, etc) but for someone who reenter the world of Pokemon, like me after 14 years, this is a blast!

I read some critic about the fact that not enough new Pokemon has been added to X and Y, but for people like me who didn't play the game for more than 10 years, all the pokemon are new, since you can get all the Pokemon from all the old games (700+). This is just perfect! So almost all the pokemon I see are new to me, and if it's one from the first generation, I get a moment of nolstagia. :)

One thing that you will notice also is the new 3D graphic. This is the first pokemon on handheld that they made in 3D (I'm not talking about the crappy 3D feature from the 3DS... I just hate 'augmented' 3D). The shading / texture are beautiful, from the characters to towns and environments. They remind me a lot of Golden Sun on DS. The animation of the Pokemon durin g  the combat are varied and great. Even if I removed them later in the game, beacause I wanted the combats to be faster. :P

They also added a lots of online and Local multiplayer feature. You can trade, fight, give power up and do more with other players.You can see who is playing in your friend and also chat (by voice) witht them. It could have been nice to be able to send just a text message also, instead of going into all the pipeline to get a voie call. Anyway...

So all in all, Pokemon X / Y is a must take if you have played and liked the game 15 years ago and didn't replay since then. I've put so far around 35 hours in it and finished the first part (Until the credit). After that, other feature open to you and more can be done if you want to cacht em all!

Evoland (PC)

Evoland is a small game I discovered on steam not too long ago. It is a game made by Indie developper Shiro Game and came out the 4 april 2013. I will not make a big review like the other game, but I still wanted to talk a little about it since I pretty much liked it, even if it took me only 5 hours to go through all the game and achievements.

Don't think that you will play a full game when you bought it, but see it more like a experience and history lesson. History Lesson? Yeah because you will see most of the evolution that the RPG as gone through since the Game Boy era. So the more you advance and get chest in the game, the more the game will evolve. From the 8 bit to 16 bit and even 3D. Also from Zelda style combat to turn base combat and many more things. Evoland has also a lot of cliché and reference from popular RPG game.

If you are a big old school RPGs lover, it's a game for you. I'm sure Evoland will remember you some good souvenir when you were playing in your younger days.