Top 3 Ys game and the best of the classic 2D games.

In Memories of Celceta you learn more about Adol, but in this you get to learn more about Adol's travel companion Dogi. It was cool coming to his homeland, seeing the town he grew up in and learning his backstory.

I really loved the story of Chester and Elena and it's one I won't be forgetting any time soon. It definitely pulled at my heartstrings at times and Chester was a really relatable antagonist with a good backstory that I can't elaborate on because of spoilers.

The art design and graphics are really charming and have a very 90s anime style to them. Much like all of Falcom's games from that era.

Combat is the same as Ys: Origin due to being on the same engine, it's a lot more simplistic than newer Ys games where you get skills and can combo and stuff, but simple isn't always a bad thing and it's still a fun system, especially the magic part of it.

Bosses in this game are VERY difficult, some people might not enjoy it, but I'm a masochist so I really enjoyed it. I'll just say tfw your action J-RPG becomes a bullet hell.

Level design was great. Your typical Ys. Lava level, ice level, underground waterway, forest, cave, etc, but even though I've seen these levels many times they're designed well with good platforming sections and secrets to find and are always fun to explore so I never mind the formula.

The MUSIC. Peak Falcom. Among one of my faves of all their games. Incredible. Super catchy melodies, shredding guitars and keyboards that sound like they came straight out of an 80s Yngwie Malmsteen album, beautiful violin pieces as well.

I really don't have any complaints, for a simplistic, old-school low budget J-RPG from the early 2000s, this game is pretty damn great and close to perfection.

Far from my fave Ys game, but still very good!

I really liked the story, (especially the 2nd half and everything to do with The Mask of the Sun, gave me an Indiana Jones feel at times) but most of the villains were very boring and one-note, that said I loved all the main party members and their interactions with each other and most of the other important characters throughout the world as well.

Also this game definitely had one of the better amnesia centered plots that I've experienced and I enjoyed how you recover memories while exploring and how the memories showed some of Adol's backstory, it was nice to finally learn a bit about him as a character.

Great world-building as with anything Falcom does. Plenty of optional NPC dialogue and some references to past Ys games.

The gameplay was super enjoyable and in many ways felt like a rough version of what it would become in Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana. Especially the combat. Having many different special attack skills that are unique to each individual character and being able to map up to 4 at a time to button combinations definitely gives good variety to the combat and it never got boring to me.

The party system was also kinda rough around the edges compared to Ys VIII because the AI was really dumb and badly programmed at times, but being able to switch between characters was still nice all the same. Some people complain about the attack types and enemy weaknesses, but I enjoy the system because it makes you go out of your way to utilize all your party members in battle by constantly swapping between them.

The cartography simulator of exploring the world and mapping it all out and getting rewarded at every interval of 10% of map progression is always a lot of fun to me and something that really gave Ys VIII that adventurer's spirit so I was happy to see it was also in this game, the fact the level/dungeon design was so good also made exploration never boring to me. There's a nice crafting system too and I loved just finding new resource points to farm materials for new weapons/armor/accessories etc.

Bosses were just as great as you'd expect from Ys, but a bit too easy having access to so many healing items due to the crafting. Still a lot of fun though.

The OST was fantastic, but that's honestly just expected from Falcom, though constantly having some banging tunes playing is definitely another reason I didn't mind grinding experience or farming materials.

All in all while Celceta didn't leave the same kind of emotional impact on me as Ys VIII or Ys Origins, it was definitely still a worthy entry to the franchise with some great characters, a pretty interesting story (lackluster villains aside), fun, albeit a bit too easy combat and gameplay and a killer OST. I thoroughly enjoyed every minute I put into the game.

It's decent and might have been more fun in co-op with friends, but I played most of it by myself aside from a few areas with some random players.

Combat is definitely the best thing about it. All the guns and melee weapons have weight behind them and just feel very enjoyable to use, you also get weapon mods which give your guns different special abilities. I also did like how the melee is not a dedicated weapon you switch to and just a button you press instead making it mostly a secondary and keeping your primary focus on your guns which will usually be a hand gun and a rifle. Stamina management is mandatory due to having no block and only being able to dodge roll, so timing is everything.

The Trait system was an interesting take on leveling and character progression. You basically unlock a new "Trait" every time you do something enough times like if you get enough headshots for example you'll unlock a Trait that lets you deal more damage for headshots and every time you get enough experience points to level up you'll get a Trait point which you can then use to increase the level of any of your Traits. You also get a new Trait every time you beat a boss for the first time.

Level design is all procedurally generated and therefore bland and generic, but I guess it gives replayability for some people since no two playthroughs are the same. I personally hate procedurally generated levels 9 out of 10 times I play a game with them in it and Remnant is no exception. Which brings me to my next point...

Due to the procedurally generated levels, exploration is honestly, simply put...Horrible and not rewarding. So many dead ends and it just feels like a waste of time especially when you do find loot and it's generally just supplies you could've just easily bought in the hub world instead. For a "looter shooter" you rarely come across weapons or loot of value, you might occasionally find a new accessory to equip or a Tome of Knowledge (Gives a Trait point) but they're so few and far between it never feels worth it going off the beaten path to explore.

Bosses - I like the general concept and design of a lot of the bosses, what I DON'T like is how every boss is both 1 singular giant enemy and a horde mode of waves of smaller enemies. It's extremely easy to be overrun by the smaller enemies, especially playing by yourself and just feels super cheap and artificially difficult. Also the fact that each area of the map has a few bosses that are randomized is annoying too. You could playthrough the entire game multiple times without ever facing all the bosses since it's just RNG and luck based on which ones you'll face. There's only a couple that are mandatory and will appear in all playthroughs

Story and lore were nothing to write home about, typical post apocalyptic stuff with a bit of Lovecraftian "Man finds gateway to another world and sets loose extra-dimensional beings upon earth" added for extra measure. The creature design was pretty cool though.

All in all where it lacked in story, lore and world, the game excelled in combat (which is the most important thing in Souls-likes after all) but repetitive boss design, bland level design and no real reward for exploration holds Remnant back from being truly great and made it feel like a slog at times to keep playing. Would only recommend if you want a good co-op game or feel the need to play every single Souls-like because you have an addiction like me.

Very solid, certainly one of the better 3D non FromSoft Souls-like games.

For those of you who don't know about the game, it changes up the Souls formula with its own gimmick of possessing different bodies (Shells) that have unique build types and abilities, so you aren't confined to one style all game long like in most of these games. You can get items that let you swap bodies on the fly too so you can switch builds often for different situations.
Combat is your standard Souls affair. Lock on, dodge roll, light attack, heavy attack, a special move unique for each weapon, a parry and counter, but instead of a block you have a feature called "harden" and it lets you turn your body into stone and a well timed harden can stagger enemies. Plus there are items that give you attack buffs or heal buffs after hardening, it's not much, but aside from the Shells, it's a cool little gimmick that sets the game apart from its contemporaries.

There's only about 4 real bosses in the game and a couple mini-bosses and honestly they're not that memorable. The final boss was cool and I liked the ice boss personally, but other than that they were pretty weak which is disappointing since bosses are usually the strong point of these games.

The level design isn't anything you haven't seen before and there's only 4 areas in the game. A hub that's like a swamp. A fire styled level, a snow level and a level where you're walking on floating pathways, so I guess it could be considered an air level, but regardless the levels are well designed, not too complex or labyrinthine yet still have many little secrets to discover and everything you'd expect from Soul-like exploration.

Music wasn't much to write home about, mostly being ambient, though there were a few more folky medieval sounding pieces with lute spread around and some more esoteric Gregorian chanting in the boss themes. Also it's worth mentioning that there's a music DLC pack of instrumental Rotting Christ (Yes, the black metal band) songs to switch the boss music to and I highly recommend that because it's a lot more epic than the base boss themes which were pretty unmemorable.

There isn't a lot to say about the story because it's mostly based on lore like almost all Souls-like games. The different Shells have back-stories and histories you can learn if you want by using Tar (this game's Souls essentially) to unlock new abilities for the Shell and also unlock a lore entry. The overall story is your standard Souls-like affair of killing immortal godlike beings and absorbing their powers to ascend to the next stage of humanity.

So all in all the game was a very solid and enjoyable time and even though it's far from amazing or the most original game ever it honestly is still pretty damn impressive all the same due to the fact the game was made by a group of only about 15 people.

I would definitely recommend it to hardcore Souls fans because there's no denying that the game is basically a huge love letter to Dark Souls in every way possible, even the load screens are a dead ringer for Souls and if you want more of that style, Mortal Shell is a good alternative, it starts out very difficult with a big learning curve, but if you stick with it you'll find a very rewarding experience, just like the games it emulates. The developers definitely have potential and I really look forward to what they do next.

Loved all the new characters with Akiyama being my fave. Though Saejima and Tanimura were awesome as well.

The gameplay was really awesome as well, having 4 different characters with unique fighting styles really did wonders for the evolution of the combat system after how bland the combat was in Yakuza 3.

The gauntlet of final bosses was fucking epic. Each individual main character getting a final boss and playing them one after another was honestly so much fun to me

Having 4 different characters also gave a lot more variety for the sub-stories and this game definitely has some of my fave sub-stories in the whole series.

All in all the game was fantastic but the actual narrative is so goofy, especially thanks to one plot twist in particular that has become a huge meme in the Yakuza fandom. Certainly the worst Yakuza narrative, but the gameplay and characters themselves more than make up for it.

Almost snapped my PSP in half while fighting Dark Fact, good times.

Finished on December 5th of 2020.

The bump combat system can seriously be infuriating, but surprisingly very fun too. Since characters don't even have attack animations (In Ys I at least, Ys II actually gave Adol and the mob enemies attack animations) it's pretty impossible to avoid damage when you're just running into every enemy. The boss design in Ys I is really horrible, especially the final boss which is basically 80% luck and 20% skill, Ys II has a lot better designed bosses though, also Ys II gives you magic abilities and just having a range attack alone helps so much.

Some of the level design can be quite annoying too because it's very labyrinthine and you don't even have a mini-map so it's easy to get lost, but the OST is incredible and always sets the atmosphere for every level so even when I got lost I never minded, I also love the pixel art and character designs. The story is very simplistic, there's honestly probably only 50 lines of story dialogue between both games but what little story the games have is engaging enough and made me care about the main characters.

All in all I am glad I played through Ys I & Ys II, while they didn't blow me away, they were still solid, enjoyable experiences and very memorable, seeing the formation of the series was nice. Plus Origin, Ys I & Ys II all have a bit of interconnected world-building and since Trails is my fave series of all time you can imagine I like that and playing all 3 games together felt pretty fulfilling.