I can only imagine how revolutionary this game was in 1997, especially thinking about the transition from 16-bit sprites to polygon models. I had a blast going through the game, whether it was making materia combos, Chocobo breeding or going through the minigames in the Golden Saucer. Defeating the optional Weapons were challenging, but felt rewarding after pulling it off. 100%ing the game was only painful because of two achievements: Materia Overlord and Master of Gil.

Before playing, I was unfortunately spoiled by the FF7 Spoiler That Everyone Knows About. But after finishing the game, that event was just one of the many crazy plot points the story contains. Final Fantasy VII is worth playing; there is so much more than just that one scene.

It's easy to understand why this game is considered a classic; every JRPG fan should have this game clocked in their list, and if not, get to it!

One of the harder FEs with probably the easiest final final map (it literally took two turns; Roy can one-turn the boss at this point, and I had given him boots). Despite being an interesting set of characters, half the cast is difficult to use. Roy himself isn't very good since he doesn't promote until chapter 21, which is actually the penultimate chapter if you're not going for the true ending. Other than that, it's a pretty standard FE story, with interesting maps that aren't toooo annoying, although same turn reinforcements were. Building supports also takes way too long, though I'm pretty sure that's constant throughout the GBA games.

Going from Tekken 7 to Tekken 8, one can easily see the shift from defensively to offensively centered combat. The heat system, power crush changes, chip damage and other frame data modifications make is more rewarding to press buttons and pressure your opponent. Because of that, I think defensive gameplay becomes even more important.

The graphics received a huge overhaul and now the game looks gorgeous.

gotta say... this game is peak

Not really sure what drove me to finish this game. The music wasn't remarkable and some dungeons were a massive pain. The story itself was very decent and expected from a 90s game, and there were characters that I enjoyed (like Mary). The part I liked the most was the setting that Soul Hackers takes place in.

Recruiting demons was interesting, and the personality system helped keep a somewhat refreshing feel to it, but being an old SMT game it usually didn't feel rewarding to forge a new demon. Cutscenes and dialogue were also unskippable and had to be sat through every time. Because of that, the old-JRPG-features like random encounters and dying on the first turn to some Mudo was tiring. One of the most memorable bosses (in a bad way) was one really hard boss that came after a 2-3 minute cutscene. Luckily, the 3DS port of this game comes with modifiers that include difficulty. Among those mods is an automap hack, which will automatically give you the layout to the dungeon floor you're in, making the game less of a slog to get through, especially through the evil dungeons where they make you go up and down it multiple times. (One dungeon that stood out in particular was a huge room with invisible walls and doors and you had to find a certain room to enter - but they weren't invisible on the automap.)

That being said, I did have enough fun to finish the game. In the end, there were a couple demons that felt satisfying to fuse (after searching for the base demons and hoping my conversations went well enough, and then finally fusing up to the final demon), and because of that optimization, the final boss was fairly simple. However, the ending of the story felt pretty abrupt to me, and I have no desire to do New Game+ nor the post-game dungeon that unlocks after the first clear. This was the first SMT game I've played - discounting Persona 3 to 5 - and the start of my journey through these old SMT games. Next on the to-play list are the 1994 games like SMT2, if..., and Devil Summoner. I'm not expecting these games to be any more fun, but I'm starting to understand the appeal for old JRPGs and excited to get through them.

If you're looking for an action horror game, this probably isn't the one for you. The combat is repetitive (although the animations are cool), and the game isn't scary (save for the school side mission later in the game).

If you're looking for a collectathon in an empty Shibuya, then you've come to the right place. I can't count how many times I was sidetracked from my original goal because I saw something else I wanted to do. If you're this type of person, then you'll have your hours in the game because there's so much to collect, from spirits to tanuki to graffiti and more.
Movement in this game is also fun. You can fly from rooftop to rooftop, and after going a bit through the skill tree, you can easily scale these skyscrapers to have a look out at Tokyo from up high.

The map is expansive and the graphics are gorgeous, especially with a reshade filter. The enemy designs are also amazing, especially the bosses. I've never taken so many screenshots in a game before, mostly thanks to the game's photo mode. In it, you can pose the main character as well as apply filters and borders to create the perfect photo. The game doesn't only happen within the cityscape of Shibuya; because the game deals with paranormal happenings, at times you're transported to mystical locations, making for even more photo mode backdrops. Most of my photos tended to be in rooms in houses you can enter.

The story itself is okay, nothing groundbreaking but it's not terrible either. I thought the ending was good, and the two main characters are likable. If you're a fan of Japanese mythology, you might enjoy the game more, along with its side quests that deal with strange happenings and capturing youkai.