Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider is one of the most "By the numbers" retro-style games you can possibly find. This game was made by the same people that did Blazing Chrome, an already "By the numbers" game, but in comparison Chrome wins by a landslide.

I don't want to call "Moonrider" bad because it's not, but it's so damn safe in it's design and execution that while playing it you will be thinking how much more fun you would be having if you were playing the games that inspired it, specially Ninja Gaiden or Shinobi III (AKA Ninja Ryukenden and Super Shinobi II) which are masterpieces.

Aside from it's obvious ninja game inspirates, there's a fair deal of Megaman and "whatever was popular in the late 80's/early 90's". What I think hurts this game a lot is that does not just pays homage to those games, it outrights tries to copy them with flaws included.
It's endearing when you play an old game that had a barebones story and limited gameplay, but doing it today feels just like a regular shortcoming, there's not tongue-in cheek commentary done about it, it's just played straight.

The story is some barebones political revolution thing with no real explanation as to why things are happening, similar to Alien Soldier (this game wishes it was as tight). But Alien Soldier backstory is an excuse to throw boss fights at the player. In this game you keep getting information you could not give two shits about.

For some retro-style ninja fix I would much rather play "The Messenger", which is a game that pay homages to retro games while building upon them instead of limiting itself just for nostalgia's sake. (Cyber Shadow might be another good alternative but I have not played it).

Fazia tempo que eu não me emocionava jogando alguma coisa...

Crisis Core sempre foi uma grande pendência minha pelo simples fato, Final Fantasy VII é um dos melhores jogos da história e um grande favorito meu, precisa de mais? Se esse jogo expande um pouco mais dessa obra-prima, já é um must-play imediato.

O jogo tem uma vibe incrível, é um pouco difícil de descrever mas acho que da pra resumir com uma palavra: nostalgia. Revisitar os cenários do FFVII, entender as referências e call-backs que o jogo faz, é difícil não ficar com um sorriso estampado no rosto. O plot é bem simples e cumpre bem seu papel mas o real foco em si são os personagens, em especial seu protagonista. Zack é um personagem sensacional e todo o crescimento que ele tem durante o jogo e em como os acontecimentos o abalam te fazem simplesmente querer torcer pro cara se dar bem, tudo é feito com maestria pra fazer a dor ser ainda maior. Agora vamos lá... o final do jogo, é algo que vou continuar lembrando pra sempre. Absolutamente maravilhosamente brilhante, é uma das conclusões mais incríveis que já presenciei em um jogo. Saber o que acontece nesse caso é ainda pior pois fazem os sentimentos ficarem ainda mais a flor da pele, e tudo isso naquela CG maravilhosa que nem sei como conseguiram colocar num PSP... uau.

Agora o elefante que nem todos gostam: o gameplay. Eu adorei, sinceramente, estava buscando um jogo pra jogar no tempo ocioso em sessões curtas e o Crisis Core foi o jogo perfeito pra isso. A história é curta, zerei em 11 horas fazendo algumas missões secundárias e tive uma experiência bem agradável. As vezes é bacana jogar algum jogo que tenha um gameplay completamente quebrado, mas que não se esquece de um ponto crucial, que é a diversão. Acho que o fato dele me lembrar um pouco gameplay do Final Fantasy XII, que considero o melhor da franquia me fez gostar mais, eu adoro essa mistura de action com turno e no fim achei o gameplay um baita ponto positivo. A trilha sonora quando remixa as músicas do original é ótima, a do jogo em si achei competente, embora ainda tenha sim faixas memoráveis, especialmente a dos créditos. Sério, essa run de jogos no PSP que estou fazendo me faz ficar cada vez mais impressionado com o portátil. O jogo é muito bonito e é impressionante o que eles conseguiam fazer no PSP.

Uma história bacana com um final impecável somado a um gameplay divertidíssimo me trouxe uma experiência sensacional, me diverti muito mesmo jogando em sessões curtas de 20 a 30 minutos, super recomendo pra quem jogou o FFVII, simplesmente um jogão.

(Sim eu chorei no final...)

The Final Fantasy Legend, also known as the first SaGa game, is a unique RPG for the Game Boy. You start alone and visit a guild to recruit party members, whether they're humans, mutants or monsters!

One of the most noteworthy aspects of this game is that you don't increase your stats with level-ups. Instead, you buy stat-raising items for humans, and mutants increase their stats and learn new moves randomly after fights. Monsters are highly interesting, though. When you defeat an enemy, they can drop meat. When a monster eats the meat, they transform into a new monster, using all of that creature's attacks and gaining all of their stats. This approach to party-building makes The Final Fantasy Legend a unique experience, allowing for players to really experiment with what kind of party they want to build up throughout the game.

Of course, being that this is a Game Boy game, there's a lot of things that the game does not explain, like weapon and armor stats, and the effects of items you buy in shops. Some are self-explanatory, and you can easily assume that the more expensive the weapon/armor, the better it is. However, each weapon gains its power from one of three stats, those being Strength, Agility, and Mana. It is very possible to find yourself buying a Mana-based weapon, not realizing this is the case, and then equipping it to a human, who can't improve their Mana stat like mutants can. Things like this will have players referencing online guides often for proper loadouts. Thankfully, you'll get used to the rules of this game quick, and soon you'll be referring to guides less and less as you play. Certain weapon types tend to use specific stats, making decisions regarding equipment easier to make. For example, bows always use the agility stat, and most swords rely on strength.

Speaking of weapons, all weapons and items (except armor) have a limited amount of uses before they break. This keeps players on their toes regarding their equipment and encourages players to use a variety of weapons instead of relying on the same ones throughout the game. Once you reach the end game, this becomes a non-issue since by then you'll be very powerful and you'll have more money than you'll know what to do with. Until then, though, this system proves to be interesting and keeps you thinking about what you have on your characters.

The Final Fantasy Legend is a fun short romp that will keep you engaged from beginning to end, exciting you with powerful monsters to control as well as cool abilities and weapons to tear through foes with. With how customizable your party is, it feels like the game encourages you to try beating it multiple times with challenging parties or with self-imposed rulesets. It's not a perfect game by any means, but it is one that will stick with me for a while. Hopefully it'll stick with you, too, but I wouldn't blame you if He Don't it didn't.