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
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 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%.
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 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.
Albert Odyssey : Legend of Eldean is a Sega Saturn game developped by Sunsoft that was released in NA on July 1997. It was localized by Working Design, known for localizing other great game (especialy RPGs) in english on different console. There is two other Albert Odyssey that came out before on SNES. These were tactical RPGs instead of turn base like this one. AO is another game that I played when I was a teenager. I can't remember if I had finished the game, but I know that I have some good souvenir and I liked it in the past. It is not a RPG that has revolutionized or bring any new gameplay elements. You cannot be more classic than this game, but it's a game that you can do and enjoy pretty easely.
Story :
You play as Pike, a young boy found and raised by a group of harpies. With you, they found a magic talking sword called Cirrus that speak for you since Pike is one of these heros that does not speak in a RPG. So one day, the harpy village crystal is stolen and a friend of yours is petrified by the ennemy. Then your quest begin to find a priest who will be able to cure your friend. So over your adventure you will learn that an evil emperor try to take over the world and overtime you will find different allies that will help you to destroy him.
Nothing big here and pretty straight foward. It's not a great or bad story. It is enough so you can continue to play even if sometime, some mission or event that you have to do seem like they were not very necessery to the story. They just sometime happen and finish really fast and then you do : '' Meih!? That's all...? Ok, fine...'' All in all, some events could have gone a little deeper.
But the cool thing is that when you think you have finished the game a new adventure begin. (Yeah, I just spoiled you a little about the game, but I know you will not play it so it's fine ;) This new adventure begin with almost all your old crew. Again, you have to find and kill a bad person that you briefly saw in your last adventure.
Game Play :
The battle system is pretty simple. It's turn base, so each player and ennemies wait for their turn, determined by the agility. Then you has to choose if you want to attack, defend, use skill/magic, item or run...pretty simple huh? As for the magic and skill, they are unlocked after getting a certain level. Nothing complicated here either. Even if the combat are simple, for me there are one of the best type they can be. But I must admit that in Albert Odyssey, loading time kill me a little. When you enter a combat or when a ennemie die, you have to wait some seconds that seem to last forever.
Outside battle, you have all the basic of a RPG. Villages, a world map and dungeon to explore. This last one are pretty straigh foward and not long to do. One thing though that annoyed me in the game are the monster encounter rate. I hate that when just after a combat, you do two steps and then get another fight! Dammit! Let me walk a little for god sake! Graphic :
The graphics in this game are really nice. The town, dungeon or castle sprites are top notch. The characters sprites are also well made and detailed. In a battle, the combats animations are nice to watch and reaaly done well. They've done a great job on that game. Music : The music in this game is very nice. All was made with real instrument, it is not something that you were hearing a lot at the time. Even thought the music is good, I don't think it is something that you will listen often outside of the game. Overall :
Albert Odyssey is a nice game for those who want to play a good old style RPG but with better graphics and animations. It is a simple and no brainer game with a story who is very easy to follow.
This is until you reach the goddamn last dungeon! What the heck there were thinking on that!?! Earlier I was questionning myself if I have finished this game in the past. After passing some time in the last dungeon, I remembered rage quitting it in the past. It is such a maze with teleporter and all that shit were you can just turn around for hours. Even in the past people were calling in lot at Working Design to know what to do, so they made a Walktrhrought to help peoples to do it... and that's what I've done. meih... Awesome : - Simple turn base system - Awesome 2d graphic and animation - Nice humour Meih... : - Loading time in combat - High encounter rate - The last dungeon!
Baten Kaitos is JRPG that came out on Game Cube only and it was released in NA on November 2004. It has been co-developed by Monolyth Soft and Tri-Crescendo and published by Namco. This is a game that I wanted to play for a long time. I remember I bought this game to my younger brother for Christmas some years ago and for some reason, I didn't bought one for me. So the reason why years later I decided to buy and try it is... because I listened to the music. I like to browse video game music on the internet, and someday I heard a combat music that kicked my ass and I knew who made that music just by the style of it. Can you guest? Damn right! It is Motoi Sakuraba, again. (Did you know I can listen up to 8 hours of his music when I work at job). So by knowing it was him who has done the soundtrack, I bought the game.
Story :
This is a typical JRPG story where a Evil God seek to awake again after 1000 years and you try to stop it with you crew who are most different from one another. You have the weird one, the girl almost nude, the big guy, the one who just look like a girl, the young girl and the teenager hero... So nothing new in there and I was not much impress by it. I never really got linked with them and some even pissed me off sometime.
Game play :
This is where Baten Kaitos differs from other RPG. It is in his combat system. The battle system work with card, called magnus. Their is all kind of magnus, you have the one to attack, to defend, to heal, to boost and other that does almost nothing. So when the combat begin, you have limited time to use the cards from your deck. Each cards have number on them and the things is to try to do a straight (like on poker) to boost the attack damage. But you have to be careful not to use weapon that can be the same element has the enemy. (Fire sword against immune to fire, you see the thing?).
It is a cool idea in some part of it. You can get hundred of magnus card so there lots of possibility, but the thing I dislike about that is often, you have to recheck and update you deck. So when you have all the character, it can take up to 1 hour to do so. For me it's just time lost. Also the combat can be slow. When in the end you can play up to 9 cards, it's begin to be long watching the character doing is attack animation each time.
Graphic :
There are some pretty graphics in this game, especially for some backgrounds and environment. There is lots of different places to explore, from a candt village to a desert one. But, we cannot say the same for the characters design. I think they lack something in each of them. None of them have charisma and I didn't connect to any of them. Oh and if you look closely to the high rez image on the booklet, you can see how ugly Xelha can be.(No really, look at her head, it's look like a big plastic head. And I don't talk about their facial expression...). All in all, they made a good job even if I think there is a little to much type of environments.
Music and Sound :
It's god damn Motoi Sakuraba. Sure the music is good. It is mainly because of the combat theme that I wanted to do this game.
One thing, and it's the most horrible thing in the game, are the voice over. It's been a while that I heard such bad voice over in a game.
Overall :
It was a 'OK' game but a little to long, or it seemed to long. And I must admit it, I didn't fully finished it at this date. I'm at the last boss and I need to grind a little more to beat it, but I'm just to tired to play it anymore for now... (50 hours so far).
