Punlecochon
6 reviews liked by Punlecochon
Rogue Galaxy
2005
this game could be good but dungeons exist and are ugly
Rogue Galaxy
2005
Very dull and excessively cliched, and a disappointing follow-up to Dark Cloud 2/Dark Chronicle. Lacking in focus and originality and suffering from bloat, it doesn't have much going for it.
Many story beats feel like they were lifted from somewhere else (Cowboy Bebop, Star Wars, Princess Mononoke, Astro Boy, etc., and also just a bunch of generic predictable plot points), and that's when the story is even advancing at all. Well, it's not like the story is decent. The characters aren't much better, sometimes leaving a poor impression if they aren't being forgettable. Hour-long dungeons can end up being made longer by special attack animations that you want to skip. And the dungeons sure do feel stretched out.
Insectron was kinda fun, though.
The music is just okay and mostly inoffensive, it sort of teeters between generic orchestral music and stuff that's kinda solid when you're listening to it but I'm just ambivalent about it and honestly I don't remember any of it off the top of my head. Graphics are fine but they're sometimes wasted on uninteresting places like the prison.
Overall, not what I was hoping for from Level-5 or Sony at the time. Also, I gave up at the last boss because it's quite obnoxious and didn't get around to beating it until a while later.
Many story beats feel like they were lifted from somewhere else (Cowboy Bebop, Star Wars, Princess Mononoke, Astro Boy, etc., and also just a bunch of generic predictable plot points), and that's when the story is even advancing at all. Well, it's not like the story is decent. The characters aren't much better, sometimes leaving a poor impression if they aren't being forgettable. Hour-long dungeons can end up being made longer by special attack animations that you want to skip. And the dungeons sure do feel stretched out.
Insectron was kinda fun, though.
The music is just okay and mostly inoffensive, it sort of teeters between generic orchestral music and stuff that's kinda solid when you're listening to it but I'm just ambivalent about it and honestly I don't remember any of it off the top of my head. Graphics are fine but they're sometimes wasted on uninteresting places like the prison.
Overall, not what I was hoping for from Level-5 or Sony at the time. Also, I gave up at the last boss because it's quite obnoxious and didn't get around to beating it until a while later.
LostMagic
2006
I really like the mechanic of drawing to cast spells, but it's understandable that it puts people off from the game. Victory relies more on strategy than raw stats, and I almost never had to grind. Controlling AI units can be difficult though, they have a tendency to run into walls if you don't carefully manage their movement. It's not perfect, but I recommend giving it a try.
LostMagic
2006
Gimmicky game that was fun to play. Kudos to the developers for thinking out of the box.
LostMagic
2006
A ridiculously fun real time strategy game on the DS that I've replayed several times and really never gets old for me. Lost Magic has a nice story, that's very charming and reminiscient of classic fairy tale anime films, a cute artstyle, very well balanced yet challenging battles, and so much more. My only real critique is the OST is pretty meh but it's forgivable considering everything else is so good.
LostMagic
2006
REVIEW:
One of the only games where you legit feel like a wizard/mage
PROS:
-- Magic Variety - This game has soooo many spells and different things/options for magic!
-- Music - Even though i would say the music is simple, if fit the game very well.
-- Monster Capturing - I guess a number of games let you capture monsters, but in this game you can have such a variety and do so much with them, like order them to all split up and conquer different places, you can buff, heal, or teleport them with your spells.
(I say "One of the only games where you legit feel like a wizard/mage" because of the variety of magic options to you... You can teleport away from danger, Heal yourself, make it where your enemy can't attack (by freeze or disable), you can capture enemies, you can raise your DEF and lower their ATTACK, you can slow their movement speed and raise your own, etc etc etc.
CONS:
-- Pathing Logic - idk what they did with the pathing logic but it's horribleeee... You will tell your minions to Go to X spot and there is like a 40% chance they will get stuck on THEMSELVES and not continue moving, just do a little seizure dance... becoming easy pray... also it would be nice if you didn't have to Micromanage them, as you have to control every single direction they go/etc; instead of saying "go here on map", you have to make them go left, then down, then around the tree, etc etc etc...
-- Monster Clutter - It would be cool if there was someway to filter or sort your captured monsters... as you could have a level 4 ogre next to the end game monsters/etc... lets say i wanna easily find my strongest water monster? good luck, have fun going through every monster 1 by 1 till you find it.
One of the only games where you legit feel like a wizard/mage
PROS:
-- Magic Variety - This game has soooo many spells and different things/options for magic!
-- Music - Even though i would say the music is simple, if fit the game very well.
-- Monster Capturing - I guess a number of games let you capture monsters, but in this game you can have such a variety and do so much with them, like order them to all split up and conquer different places, you can buff, heal, or teleport them with your spells.
(I say "One of the only games where you legit feel like a wizard/mage" because of the variety of magic options to you... You can teleport away from danger, Heal yourself, make it where your enemy can't attack (by freeze or disable), you can capture enemies, you can raise your DEF and lower their ATTACK, you can slow their movement speed and raise your own, etc etc etc.
CONS:
-- Pathing Logic - idk what they did with the pathing logic but it's horribleeee... You will tell your minions to Go to X spot and there is like a 40% chance they will get stuck on THEMSELVES and not continue moving, just do a little seizure dance... becoming easy pray... also it would be nice if you didn't have to Micromanage them, as you have to control every single direction they go/etc; instead of saying "go here on map", you have to make them go left, then down, then around the tree, etc etc etc...
-- Monster Clutter - It would be cool if there was someway to filter or sort your captured monsters... as you could have a level 4 ogre next to the end game monsters/etc... lets say i wanna easily find my strongest water monster? good luck, have fun going through every monster 1 by 1 till you find it.
