While playing Chained Echoes, I could just tell that the director of this game played a shit ton of JRPGs and knows all about the conventions and clichés. I love how they managed to circumvent all of the more tedious bits that are commonplace in a game like this.

Firstly, there are no random encounters. Enemies are clearly visible in the gameworld and while they can't always be avoided, you can always run away with a 100% chance to fix your party or reset the battle if it goes wrong. Since your party is always at full health at the start of a battle, every fight is allowed to be somewhat demanding. You can just go nuts with you abilities and use whatever you want.

The cool part about this however, is the overdrive system. A gauge on the top of the screen that you can raise or lower by using specific actions or swapping out characters. The idea is to keep that gauge at a certain point to gain various benefits in battle. It adds a really interesting layer to battles, because you have to decide whether to focus on your overdrive bar or use an option you would rather use at the moment. It creates really interesting decision making and kept battles really engaging. There are some really cool twists to that system later on, as well. It's neat!

Skillpoints are only obtained by defeating bosses and working on your reward board, which is a cool twist on the sphere grid of FFX. Where doing specific challenges unlock new tiles and creating a chain of said tiles unlocks skillpoints and other rewards. It's a motivating system for doing side content that is much preferred to just grinding levels.

Another cool thing about battles is that weaknesses are openly shown to the player. Instead of looking that stuff up or painstakingly analyzing every foe and then remembering all the weaknesses, that step gets skipped and you can go crazy. It also shows if you can steal from an enemy or if they're consumable (yes, there is a blue mage in this game)

Boss battles constantly offer unique twists and are seldom pure bloated trash mobs. They really went out of their way to make them a special event that requires additional thinking.

The mechs you unlock fairly deep in the game are another really cool addition to the game. They not only give you more freedom in exploration (suddenly being able to fly around feels amazing) but also introduce yet another style of combat that puts yet another twist to the battle system. It also uses the overdrive system, but in a whole different way that felt fresh. Even the basic idea of how to customize the mechs is quite cool and different from the actual characters.

Talking about exploration: Side quests aren't really hidden and are openly placed on the map. They often feel like part of the main story in terms of writing and content and there is no fetch questing to be found here. The actual exploration is more about finding unique minibosses, treasure chests or entire dungeons that can hold new items or class statues, that can unlock specific class items which can customize your party even further and are gated behind combat challenges. It's so awesome stumbling upon such a shrine, solving a combat challenge and getting a strong buff for one of your characters with additional skills. Being able to freely switch those around offers a lot of freedom. I really enjoyed exploring the entire world and there's plenty to be found.

For example clan members! At one point you unlock a Suikoden-style base and get to recruit NPCs that level up your base and offer various bonuses. The game doesn't even really hide those from you. There's a clairvoyant that gives you advice on where to find those. Same thing goes for the glossary, which documents which enemy drops what item. You barely have to use guides for this game, because the developers knew there is no point in hiding stuff from you!

The story of Chained Echoes is really well written. I admit, it lacks the spectacle or "epicness" of a Final Fantasy game, but it makes up for it with mature and believable writing. It doesn't shy away from really dark themes and each of the party members have a proper reason to travel on your side. The backstories are mostly very captivating (I loved the backstory of Glenn and Ba'Thraz in particular) and the game does it's utmost to escape tropes. Some of the revalations of this game really blew my socks off and I utterly enjoyed how the storyline concluded.

There are some things that did not really blow me away, though. The music, while pretty good, did not really stick in my head all that much. I'd argue JRPGs are the games that benefit the most from an amazing soundtrack (I can't even explain why, it's just that a good soundtrack carries this genre even more than others for me) yet Chained Echoes is mostly just "alright" in that regard. I would love to give it another listen once the OST is available on YouTube, but from purely playing the game it felt a bit unremarkable. Though some of the calmer pieces were nice.

Another thing I felt indifferent about was the gem system. It's another layer to character customization and stuff, but fusion those bad boys felt a bit too convoluted and a bit tedious, so I mostly just used the auto fusion and put the first thing that sounded good into my gear. I like that you can take them out at any time to put it into your new stuff, but I wish it was more steamlined.

Some enemy groups also seemed to have a bit too much HP at a late point of the game. Maybe I my gear wasn't amazing at that part, but there was a brief sections where fighting enemies was a bit of a hassle. Not a big deal, but I need to justify that half star that's missing, lol.

Despite those complaints: Chained Echoes is a fantastic RPG that deserves to stand right beside it's clear inspirations. There is a bit of FF6 in there, a bit of Chrono Trigger, a bit of Xenogears, Suikoden and more. It seems like a game from a person, who really loves the genre and tried their best to put all their favorite aspects into one game while cutting away all of the bad stuff. I think it really succeeds in most regards and deserves to be played by anyone who loves the genre.

once again, tri-ace totally blows their previous work out of the water and then some. the controversy surrounding so3 is not only a testament to how little jrpg fans should generally be trusted, but also a head-scratching reminder of how little they tend to value gameplay in their games

there's a solid sci-fi plot here with fun characters and some really neat developments especially in the second half, but i'd imagine it all being very fatiguing if not for the ridiculously addictive battle system. the story hits a lot of arbitrary roadblocks frequently; simple errands have a tendency to turn into ordeals spanning several dungeons. is this a pace-breaker? no, because with the promise of new areas to explore comes many more bosses, and tons more gameplay... see where i'm going with this?

oh, and shout out to these guys' ambitions. seriously, a large chunk of what i love about this game is how fuckin' weird and unique it is. a little jagged in places for sure (the models aren't great, voice acting's madly inconsistent, and the airyglyph vs aquios politics could certainly be more engaging) but those are just small blemishes on what's ultimately a damn good, heartful arpg that deserves WAY more credit than it tends to get

StreetPass Mii Plaza was a very interesting and unique feature to the 3DS and an enjoyable experience throughout the life of the system. Earlier on, the 3DS did not have the best of starts in terms of sales so it was hard to enjoy this application but as the system gained popularity it was always fun collecting puzzle pieces and involving other bypasser's Miis in "Find Mii". Too bad Nintendo did not continue this streetpass trend with the Switch.

The Find Mii game had mild RPG elements and was surprisingly fun despite its simple presentation and gameplay.

It's hard to talk about these fucking games dude. Like, really hard. Like, really REALLY hard. Not even just because they can be very complex and full of themes that practically anybody can sink their teeth into, but because I love these games so, so fucking much. Kill The Past has practically done fucking everything for me! It's given me super stylish UI's, funny and funky ass humor with loads of swearing, and like, insanely good ass meta shit. Suda really said "aight I haven't directed a game in a while so i'ma make something small scale" and then proceeds to make the most personal game of his entire career, using tons of symbolism to detail the ups and downs of the game industry through Travis and Dr. Juvenile while also furthering Travis even more as a character, making him wiser and a bit less of an asshole. Still an ass but sliiightly less. And what he says to Juvenile before they fight is so fucking gooood dude like FUCK. IT PERFECTLY ENCAPSULATES THE ENTIRE FUCKING REASON I LOVE ART AND MEDIA IN THE FIRST PLACE, LEARNING ABOUT THE ARTISTS THROUGH THEIR ART AND SHIT, LIKE, THEIR STYLISTIC SENSIBILITIES AND THEIR INFLUENCES IN EVERY FUCKIN FACET OF THE PIECE ITSELF. It just goes so fucking hard and that was kinda the moment I went "Damn. This game is fucking insane." Also the bit at the end where it's the goddamn training from NMH3 and Travis is like "DUDE! GET THE FUCK OUT WE'RE IN GODDAMN DEVELOPMENT!" What other fucking games have this kinda shit? Fucking, beautiful game. Absolutely fucking beautiful.

One of the most personal games I've ever played. Travis Strikes Again is a prime example of a creator putting their own life into a game. It's something Suda51--the game's main director--poured his heart, soul, happiest memories, and biggest hardships into. And what came out was a very unique beat-em-up with a dazzling assortment of different worlds, topped off with an incredible soundtrack that enhances the narrative and atmosphere throughout the entire game.

Besides the endearing story, the gameplay itself is really good, albeit monotonous in single player. It really shines when you're playing co-op with a friend. This was a trip down memory lane that no hardcore Suda fan would dare to miss!