Loved this to bits -- it's solid and excellent, in a subtle way. A few notes:

- This isn't Final Fantasy VII -- dungeons are numerous, mazey, long, and chock-full of random encounters. Multiple times the main story pauses until you go to two or three dungeons (in any order) to get the required plot tokens. This is bad if you see rpg dungeons as an unpleasant obstacle in the way of progressing the rpg story. But I loved the combat system, and I was in the mood for a classic, dungeon-y, meat-and-potatoes jrpg, so I had a really fun time.

- Small cast sizes are good! There are only six playable characters, and they all get plenty of time to shine throughout the story. I semi-recently played FF9 and Xenogears for the first time; both those games have much bigger casts, and both drop the ball with many of their characters. There are no Ricos or Freyas here, characters with a couple good scenes early on that have nothing to do otherwise. The skits, added in the PSX remake, obviously go a long way in helping me further connect with the characters. Their ending resolutions, and the extended pre-final dungeon scene in Early, cemented them in my heart as an all-time favorite rpg cast. (The excellent, playful writing in the Phantasian Productions patch also definitely helped.)

- The main villain is introduced in the first seconds of the game, and he stays the main villain for the entire story. There's no bait-and-switch, no big twist. There are two main act break setpieces, one about three hours in and one about twenty hours in, that each further establish the villain and develop your relationship with him. When I got to the finale and the full arc of his story was revealed to me, I was really moved. A big part of that is that they didn't pull a new villain out of their ass for the final boss -- this is Dhaos's story from start to finish as much as it is Cress and co.'s, and that's a rare feat for an RPG story.

The only other Tales game I've played is Vesperia, and it frustrated me because of its extremely long, sloppy story full of dropped threads and its very easy fighting. Phantasia was the perfect antidote -- it's more tightly focused, and the dramatic fights kicked my ass. I have a lot of friends that adore Tales; I'm really happy I found the right game to invite me into the series.

Phantasy Star Online Episode 1 and 2 was a pivotal game for me growing up. So imagine my confusion with PSO Episode 3 was released. I think I have a lot of pretty straight-forward feelings for Episode 3 despite the hard pivot into a card-based strategy game. It's a fantastic game.

The narrative is a continuation of the Pioneer 2 plotline and now approaches it from two different story threads, the hero side and dark side, as Sega are wont to do in their 2000s games. And it's engaging. The general aesthetic of PSO is still here. The music is still amazing. There's still that sense of hopelessly lonely ambiance.

The pink elephant in the room is the genre change. This is not Episode 1 and 2. This is a turn-based strategy game with card mechanics. You build decks either as a hero and powering up your hunter, or you build decks full of monsters if you're playing on the dark side. Both are fun and offer unique approaches to combat. The game gets pretty difficult as time goes on from what I remember. But I'm also just bad at deck-building games.

I think in an era where games like Slay the Spire or Inscryption can exist, there's a world where Phantasy Star Online Episode 3 has a redemption arc. It's a fascinating diversion from PSO and PSU's traditional style of gameplay, and it's actually really fun. It's a pity that playing it online required so many hoops to jump through, but maybe private servers still live to this day. Who knows? Give it a shot.

I grew up during an era where McDonald's was still aggressively targeting children with their marketing. It was a time when Ronald was able to coexist with a wide cast of kid friendly characters, like Birdie the Early Bird, Captain Crook, the Fry Kids, Grimace, and of course... Goblin. By 1993, McDonald's was so comfortable pushing their slop on America's youth that they partnered with Sega to produce a Ronald McDonald platformer. It's a well-known fact that Sega contracted Treasure to develop McDonald's Treasure Land Adventure as the studio's first game, a sort of "one for you, one for us" deal to get Gunstar Heroes made. At face value, this seems like a purely business driven arrangement at both ends, but it resulted in a licensed game based on a trash fast food chain that is way better than it ever had any right to be.

Now, I have the constitution of an emaciated Victorian orphan, but I knew if I was going to play McDonald's Treasure Land Adventure for the first time since I was a child - on actual hardware no less - then I'd need to do this right. I ordered myself a large fry, a Big Mac, a Fillet-O-Fish, and washed it all down with a Grimace shake. This misadventure ended with me being hospitalized. My lawyers have advised me to not make any direct accusation against the McDonald's corporation for what is assumed to be a horrible case of food poisoning, so I will say strictly as a matter of opinion that you should not drink the Grimace shake. Not fucking once.

Treasure Land Adventure is a fairly short and easy game, consisting of only four levels and lacking much mechanical depth. It's designed for children, so this almost goes without saying, but it's lousy with that Treasure charm and is so tightly designed that I found myself having just as much fun with it as a 35-year-old. In true Treasure fashion, each level consists of several strung together set-pieces, so there's no shortage of variety despite the overall lack of level theming. Enemies smack of that unique Treasure aesthetic, too, and are so at odds with the visual design of Ronald McDonald and his friends that it's comical - in a lot of ways, this is a Treasure-ass Treasure game and the bits and pieces related to the McDonald's brand feel kind of slapped on. But it all works despite this; a testament to Treasure's creativity and talent.

All of Ronald's friends are here, and most must be saved from certain peril. Well, except for the Hamburglar. You just find that little fuck hanging out in a hidden room, and he has the audacity to shake you down for your jewels. Worst part of the game. I was so mad having to look at that little freak. Get the hell out of here! Asking me for a handout, like I owe him something? Do I look like a charity case? Does Ronald McDonald look like a chump to you??

Once Ronald collects all four parts of the treasure map and ascends to the moon - nearly stranding himself and all his friends on the surface in the process - he reveals that he never really cared about the treasure and has no desire for money (a lie.) The whole reason this game exists was so Ronald could sell kids a full price product that in turn acted as an advertising vehicle for his garbage food. A vicious marketing cycle that preyed on the young and, apparently, the old as well. The McDonaldland characters have been roused from their years long slumber, existing now as a means to exploit nostalgia for profit. You might think the Grimace shake is for kids, but it's not... It's for you, the very person who Treasure Land Adventure was for in 1993. You've grown, but your cash spends the same.

Roughly two hours after the credits rolled, I felt the first intense twinge of pain in my stomach. Their poison worked its way through my body [personal opinion, not legally actionable], leaving me weak and deformed. Though I lay here recovering, the wheels of vengeance already roar with life, their fury powering an infernal engine called 'revenge'.

Tell Grimace I lived.

Rhapsody II: Ballad of the Little Princess is a sequel to Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure released a few months prior in Japan, Rhapsody II follows Kururu, the daughter of the main character from the previous game.

Unlike the first game, this one uses a linear setting with chapters and most importantly a new type of gameplay that entirely ditches the Tactical JRPG format and goes for a more traditional turn-based combat in the likes of the classic Final Fantasy titles. These new gameplay changes are a welcomed addition as the original gameplay wasn't really good, not terrible either, just not very good at being a TRPG. But is this game good as a basic turn-based JRPG? I'd say so, just like the original this game is overly easy where you barely need to focus on anything to win, the only difficult roadblock I had was the final boss since I actually had to think for a second but other than that it's a cake walk, just a tiny bit harder than the original, my main issue from the combat comes from the battle animations taking ages and during a boss fight that has a bunch of health it gets old quick.

Other than the combat gameplay this game still has the classic JRPG world where you walk around and interact with people annnnd, it's not as good as the original, Let me explain why. This game takes a more linear approach where you don't have the "open world" to explore, you mostly just follow a script via chapters, and on paper it's not a bad idea when done right but this game has a really poorly paced story that really makes you feel like it was unfinished or just undercooked.
I'd say half of the game you spend your time doing some quirky small stories in the castle and that can quickly get boring. Then you somewhat start an adventure but it's still linear and that lack of freedom is small but it really hits, you do get the exploration element from the first game but at the very last chapter of the game and it's just really frustrating because it has some cool new places to show like the Rosenqueen theme park and more story about the ancient but they barely elaborate those things, it really just feels like a last minute thing where they were like "Crap we need the exploration part but we already made a linear story" so they rushed it and added this fake exploration moment which felt more useless than anything.

Other than all of these small issues that keep the game from truly being a great JRPG, it still has that old NIS charm but unfortunately, it somewhat gets unused. What I mean is that the new charming characters introduced in the game are barely shown! They added a new family in this game that would act as the new antagonist with that loveable trope of the previous bad guys working with the MCs to get rid of the new bad guys, It never gets old and unfortunately, they only decided to show the new family at the very end of the game otherwise you barely see them or know who they are and what they want.

Overall this is a fine JRPG that you absolutely do not play for the gameplay and even if I'm a bit harsh on the game it's still a good time, I like the new princess and the new characters, I just wish they did more with them, this game was made in less than a year so it was most likely rushed, this game shares many assets to the first game, even the music, half of the tracks comes from the first game.
I sincerely hope Rhapsody 3 will focus more on it's new and already existing characters to give us what we love in a classic NIS game, charm over gameplay.