CtheIronblooded
1993
Maybe I'm a little biased because Aladdin is one of my fave Disney movies, but I really loved this game as a kid, one of the best licensed Disney platformers for me. Really creative and enjoyable level design, great music from the movie but in 16-bit sound, decent AI for the time, a fair difficulty curve (Unlike Lion King which was too hard or Little Mermaid which was far too easy) and awesome hand-drawn graphics.
A cool and ambitious concept, maybe a bit too ambitious for its own good. The gameplay is pretty janky and sometimes not that enjoyable, but Komaru is honestly up there with some of the best DR characters and this game fleshed out Toko a lot more too. Solid story and great character interactions. Really makes you feel bad for the child antagonists as well.
It's two of the greatest VN/ADVs that you'll ever experience in one package together. It's just simply a no-brainer to get this if you like hard sci-fi stories with an emphasis on philosophy and quantum physics themes.
A great game, but a bit overrated in the fanbase and far from the best in the series (I consider it the worst of the 3) let alone the best VN of all time like a lot of people try to claim. Loved the darker and serious atmosphere of the first, but this one just devolves into too much absurdity and comedy at times. Plus the cast isn't as strong as the 1st or 3rd games, but the writing of the actual trials and over-aching mystery is more complex from the 1st game at least and most of the new gameplay additions (Aside from the hell that is the new Hangman's Gambit) are very much appreciated and add extra depth to the gameplay aspect.
I enjoyed it, but I think out of all the Ys games, hell out of all of Falcom's games I've played this one did the least for me. It was the epitome of mid in basically every regard.
This was the first game on the new engine and it really shows due to how simplistic the combat mechanics feel compared to Felghana or Origin.
The concept of different swords having different elemental attacks is cool, but executed horribly because you can only damage certain enemies with certain elements therefore you constantly have to grind so you can upgrade and refine all THREE of your swords at the same time.
I typically don't mind the Ys grind, but in this game just felt so unnecessary and way too often. If you're even 1 level below the recommended for a certain boss or your weapon isn't leveled up enough you'll be doing almost no damage against them.
However when you are properly leveled up combat is extremely easy compared to Origins or Felghana which were much more challenging, no boss really stood out to me other than the 2nd to last boss.
Level design is your typical Ys, but this time it felt more bland because I didn't enjoy the gameplay as much.
OST has a few standout tracks, but still one of the weaker Ys OSTs to me.
The story also didn't really do much for me. Your typical Ys story. Adol arrives in a new land, has to collect magic artifacts for the people of the land, learns of some ancient prophecy that will throw the land into turmoil and has to stop it. Like I said, not bad, but very by the numbers. The racial conflict between the Rehda and Eresians was interesting, but I didn't really care much about any of the main characters aside from Geis and Ernst.
Anyways, the game wasn't bad, but it was incredibly underwhelming and I expect much more from Falcom.
This was the first game on the new engine and it really shows due to how simplistic the combat mechanics feel compared to Felghana or Origin.
The concept of different swords having different elemental attacks is cool, but executed horribly because you can only damage certain enemies with certain elements therefore you constantly have to grind so you can upgrade and refine all THREE of your swords at the same time.
I typically don't mind the Ys grind, but in this game just felt so unnecessary and way too often. If you're even 1 level below the recommended for a certain boss or your weapon isn't leveled up enough you'll be doing almost no damage against them.
However when you are properly leveled up combat is extremely easy compared to Origins or Felghana which were much more challenging, no boss really stood out to me other than the 2nd to last boss.
Level design is your typical Ys, but this time it felt more bland because I didn't enjoy the gameplay as much.
OST has a few standout tracks, but still one of the weaker Ys OSTs to me.
The story also didn't really do much for me. Your typical Ys story. Adol arrives in a new land, has to collect magic artifacts for the people of the land, learns of some ancient prophecy that will throw the land into turmoil and has to stop it. Like I said, not bad, but very by the numbers. The racial conflict between the Rehda and Eresians was interesting, but I didn't really care much about any of the main characters aside from Geis and Ernst.
Anyways, the game wasn't bad, but it was incredibly underwhelming and I expect much more from Falcom.
If you're a fan of rhythm games and Final Fantasy it's a no-brainer you'd like this game. Like others have said it's hard to rate on its own merits due to the sequel just taking the concept and doing it better, but it was still a great game for the time. Good selection of amazing music to play along to, the pixel art is super cute and the RPG elements mixed with the core rhythm game was really unique. Spent a lot of time playing this back in the day.
2010
Pretty cool concept making a Mario Kart style arcade racing game and mixing it with a more realistic Need for Speed look. The was a limited variety in the power-ups you could get and the courses could've been better, but the game was still pretty fun and had some serious potential, if a second game came out and fixed some of the shortcomings they really could've had something special.
2009
Mobile game bad ðŸ˜
The voice acting and story is actually pretty damn good for a Sonic game and it gave us some of the absolute best Crush 40 tracks like Knight of the Wind, With Me and Live Life.
Everything else about the game is pretty garbage though.
Everything else about the game is pretty garbage though.
2013
To be fair it takes a very high IQ to understand Bioshock Infinite...
The Rick and Morty of video games.
You want a story that actually knows how to utilize quantum physics/philosophical themes properly? Go read Zero Escape or Steins;Gate instead, thanks.
The Rick and Morty of video games.
You want a story that actually knows how to utilize quantum physics/philosophical themes properly? Go read Zero Escape or Steins;Gate instead, thanks.
"Kingdom Hearts is a really beloved and popular franchise, how can we milk this even more? Oh I know lets remake a mobile game for the DS that has poor gameplay, graphics and a filler story that basically just recounts the events of KH 1. Those fools will eat it up!"
Probably a Square Enix meeting for the creation of this game.
Probably a Square Enix meeting for the creation of this game.
I prefer the in game Witcher 3 Gwent before it was a Hearthstone wannabee.
2016
I have put 50 hours into this game over the course of a few years on PS4 simply because it's the only Arkanoid/Break Out alternative on the system and yeah that's a shame because the maps are horrible and the actual physics feel awful. Really wish there was a decent Arkanoid style game on PS4.
For as bland and boring as this game is at least it had some solid multiplayer and it was still more enjoyable than the movie.
Not exactly the masterpiece the 2nd game is, but still one of the most artistically creative and unique platformers I've ever played.
Absolutely amazing aesthetics and art direction, this is what Alice in Wonderland would be like if Tim Burton and Tod McFarlane combined their twisted imaginations and wrote it. The level design and puzzles are just as imaginative as the art-style too. Gameplay isn't quite the best of its kind, but it is serviceable, still I'd recommend playing this one for the lore/story significance before going into Madness Returns.
Absolutely amazing aesthetics and art direction, this is what Alice in Wonderland would be like if Tim Burton and Tod McFarlane combined their twisted imaginations and wrote it. The level design and puzzles are just as imaginative as the art-style too. Gameplay isn't quite the best of its kind, but it is serviceable, still I'd recommend playing this one for the lore/story significance before going into Madness Returns.