Radshyguy
2005
The first game without the creator on board and a huge step down.
The first thing any Katamari fan will notice are the controls, which are different since the PSP obviously does not have two analog sticks. Thankfully, this can be ammended with the Vita version or an emulator, which makes it feel better even if it's obviously not as smooth as real dual analog. What's more annoying is that the new quick turn is really hard to get use to using and the dash lacks the fluidity of We Love Katamari's since it's used by spamming up on digital inputs. That being said though, it is playable, and I will defend the game on that.
That's not the big issue here though. It's the level design. This game has four unique main levels. Three for the super large stages are unique and the final stage's last part is also unique. The game mostly consists of different versions of these four maps with different objects, similar to Katamari Damacy, however just like that game it is pretty repetitive. Even more so this time though in my experience. By the end of the game, even for the specific versions of each stage I had played some of these over five times. It doesn't help that some of these levels have you play one level of each size except the final one too, so it just overall makes for an extremely repetitive game. The level design for the smaller stages is at least alright, but on the larger ones it honestly feels almost braindead since you start so large with no real threats to you. Especially the stages where you start at 10 meters.
This game is for fans only, otherwise, skip it.
The first thing any Katamari fan will notice are the controls, which are different since the PSP obviously does not have two analog sticks. Thankfully, this can be ammended with the Vita version or an emulator, which makes it feel better even if it's obviously not as smooth as real dual analog. What's more annoying is that the new quick turn is really hard to get use to using and the dash lacks the fluidity of We Love Katamari's since it's used by spamming up on digital inputs. That being said though, it is playable, and I will defend the game on that.
That's not the big issue here though. It's the level design. This game has four unique main levels. Three for the super large stages are unique and the final stage's last part is also unique. The game mostly consists of different versions of these four maps with different objects, similar to Katamari Damacy, however just like that game it is pretty repetitive. Even more so this time though in my experience. By the end of the game, even for the specific versions of each stage I had played some of these over five times. It doesn't help that some of these levels have you play one level of each size except the final one too, so it just overall makes for an extremely repetitive game. The level design for the smaller stages is at least alright, but on the larger ones it honestly feels almost braindead since you start so large with no real threats to you. Especially the stages where you start at 10 meters.
This game is for fans only, otherwise, skip it.
2001
When describing parts of Megaman X6 to my friends in voicechat, my friend was playing the level where you fight 5 donuts that aren't animated in a row in different arenas with varying levels of annoyance. During this conversation, I just remember that one of my friends who was mostly quiet said something along the lines of "this sounds like a bad game someone would make up for a joke".
That speaks volumes.
That speaks volumes.
2013
At the time writing this, I am currently the only review of this game giving it such a high score and I wanna defend that stance.
This game most definitely has its issues, the animations are dreadful and the game overall has pretty mediocre graphics (mayonaise water), the game remains undubbed, a lot of the anime cutscenes are just taken straight from the DS version or are drawn over, and it has random encounters in the year 2013. I will also say that this game starts off pretty slowly and takes a bit for it to pick up, but it sure does and in the 2nd half I couldn't take my eyes off of the screen.
That being said, I think this game is one of the most underrated games in the series. The cast isn't the best or most memorable but they have some good development, really good chemistry with eachother, and there are some big stars of the cast. Shoutout to Hisui, a character I was really indifferent to at the start but ended up loving come the ending. The story also went from really episodic and whatever to being one of the most interesting in the series for me, with some extremely good scenes and a fast pace in the second half with a memorable set of final hours. So many twists and turns too, a lot of stuff in this game I just didn't expect and it was really fun to see.
The gameplay though? Easily the highlight. This is up as one of my favorite combat systems in the series, if not my favorite. It's fast, fluid, has an emphasis on air combat, an dit just has so many fun mechanics. It's a bit of a middleground between Xillia and Vesperia, instead of having a number of attacks you can do, you have a set number of basic attacks and then a set number of artes you can use. You can use them in any order you like which can make for some creative combos, especially with how almost every character can allow you to go flying. Top that off with perfect timing counter attacks that continue your combo or the ability to enter chase links so you can use link artes and freaking teleport behind your enemies in midair and launch them across the screen and this is some of the most fun I've had in the series. Every character has their appeal too, I couldn't get into all of them but with eight party members I still enjoyed playing as more than half of them, Chalcedony being my favorite.
Overall, this game is an absolute steal. This is one of my longer reviews on this site but I just really wanted to defend this game since I feel most Tales fans just pass it off as an average 7/10 game, but there's so much to appreciate here. The only major issue with this game (aside from stupid random encounters) is that it it's trapped on the Vita.
This game most definitely has its issues, the animations are dreadful and the game overall has pretty mediocre graphics (mayonaise water), the game remains undubbed, a lot of the anime cutscenes are just taken straight from the DS version or are drawn over, and it has random encounters in the year 2013. I will also say that this game starts off pretty slowly and takes a bit for it to pick up, but it sure does and in the 2nd half I couldn't take my eyes off of the screen.
That being said, I think this game is one of the most underrated games in the series. The cast isn't the best or most memorable but they have some good development, really good chemistry with eachother, and there are some big stars of the cast. Shoutout to Hisui, a character I was really indifferent to at the start but ended up loving come the ending. The story also went from really episodic and whatever to being one of the most interesting in the series for me, with some extremely good scenes and a fast pace in the second half with a memorable set of final hours. So many twists and turns too, a lot of stuff in this game I just didn't expect and it was really fun to see.
The gameplay though? Easily the highlight. This is up as one of my favorite combat systems in the series, if not my favorite. It's fast, fluid, has an emphasis on air combat, an dit just has so many fun mechanics. It's a bit of a middleground between Xillia and Vesperia, instead of having a number of attacks you can do, you have a set number of basic attacks and then a set number of artes you can use. You can use them in any order you like which can make for some creative combos, especially with how almost every character can allow you to go flying. Top that off with perfect timing counter attacks that continue your combo or the ability to enter chase links so you can use link artes and freaking teleport behind your enemies in midair and launch them across the screen and this is some of the most fun I've had in the series. Every character has their appeal too, I couldn't get into all of them but with eight party members I still enjoyed playing as more than half of them, Chalcedony being my favorite.
Overall, this game is an absolute steal. This is one of my longer reviews on this site but I just really wanted to defend this game since I feel most Tales fans just pass it off as an average 7/10 game, but there's so much to appreciate here. The only major issue with this game (aside from stupid random encounters) is that it it's trapped on the Vita.
2006
I love random encounters and overly large overworlds!
Combat is bland at best, characters are boring I can't remember one personality quirk about any of them, and the story at best is functional. Just another example of Dimps being Dimps.
Combat is bland at best, characters are boring I can't remember one personality quirk about any of them, and the story at best is functional. Just another example of Dimps being Dimps.
1995
This game needs seperate pages. The Playstation version of this game is really different from the SFC version and is more like a remake. That being said, the Arche profile picture will now give his opinion on Tales of Phantasia ooo. Surprise I actually don't really love it.
I understand the SNES was a console very limited in tech, but on PSX there was really no excuse for spell pause. For anyone who's unaware, in all versions except the Japanese exclusive PSP remake of Tales of Phantasia, the game will pause to play a spell's animation. Problem, for most of the game you have three spell casters. While one doesn't always pause the game this makes the game ungodly slow and honestly really detracts from the whole "one of the first action RPGs" point. The combat is already really basic and simple, but the constant pausing just drags the game down a ton. Top this off with some maze-like dungeons and an overly high encounter rate and this should be a game I hate.
Do I though? Eh. Not really. This might be my Tales fanboy speaking but this game is filled with tons of charm and it's nice seeing where the series came from. The combat is decently fun sometimes especially when you turn off spells on party members, the story isn't really that good but it definitely has its highlights and it at least kept my attention the full way through, and while the cast is nothing special, half of them are at least somewhat memorable and Arche is still one of the best characters to come out of the series.
This game really bordered on a 5/10 from me and honestly that's probably what I should give it, but I don't know man I'd just feel bad doing that to a game with as much historical signifigance and charm as this one. This game is at least somewhat enjoyable, just please take breaks and if you don't wanna finish it... Don't.
I understand the SNES was a console very limited in tech, but on PSX there was really no excuse for spell pause. For anyone who's unaware, in all versions except the Japanese exclusive PSP remake of Tales of Phantasia, the game will pause to play a spell's animation. Problem, for most of the game you have three spell casters. While one doesn't always pause the game this makes the game ungodly slow and honestly really detracts from the whole "one of the first action RPGs" point. The combat is already really basic and simple, but the constant pausing just drags the game down a ton. Top this off with some maze-like dungeons and an overly high encounter rate and this should be a game I hate.
Do I though? Eh. Not really. This might be my Tales fanboy speaking but this game is filled with tons of charm and it's nice seeing where the series came from. The combat is decently fun sometimes especially when you turn off spells on party members, the story isn't really that good but it definitely has its highlights and it at least kept my attention the full way through, and while the cast is nothing special, half of them are at least somewhat memorable and Arche is still one of the best characters to come out of the series.
This game really bordered on a 5/10 from me and honestly that's probably what I should give it, but I don't know man I'd just feel bad doing that to a game with as much historical signifigance and charm as this one. This game is at least somewhat enjoyable, just please take breaks and if you don't wanna finish it... Don't.
1998
Just to note, both times I played this game was as Megaman. Bass doesn't seem as fun so I haven't done it.
This is honestly a great game and doesn't deserve all the crap it gets, especially considering this is the same franchise as 9 and X6. The basic stages are honestly awesome and the boss fights are pretty fun with the notable exception of Dynamo Man and maybe Burner Man. They're all really creative and honestly not that hard I don't know why people say this game is unfair on Super Famicom, and this is on top of the great powers. The bolt shop and map of levels are great mechanics too.
This could have been one of my favorite Megaman games but what holds this game back is unfortunately the castle stages. The first one is fine but the second one is a guantlet of obnoxious bosses that is just unbareable, making for one of the worst stages in 2d platformer history, and the final stage is not much better. If you play this game, just stop after you beat the first King stage, you're not missing much.
This is honestly a great game and doesn't deserve all the crap it gets, especially considering this is the same franchise as 9 and X6. The basic stages are honestly awesome and the boss fights are pretty fun with the notable exception of Dynamo Man and maybe Burner Man. They're all really creative and honestly not that hard I don't know why people say this game is unfair on Super Famicom, and this is on top of the great powers. The bolt shop and map of levels are great mechanics too.
This could have been one of my favorite Megaman games but what holds this game back is unfortunately the castle stages. The first one is fine but the second one is a guantlet of obnoxious bosses that is just unbareable, making for one of the worst stages in 2d platformer history, and the final stage is not much better. If you play this game, just stop after you beat the first King stage, you're not missing much.
2002
I have mixed feelings on this game, it bordered on a 5/10 for me. The first two stages are pretty boring, then the game actually gets pretty good for two zones! Then it becomes one of the worst Sonic experiences of all time for zones 5 and 6. 7 is decent though and the game was equalling out to be fine. Nope. The boss rush and final boss is some of the worst crap I've ever had to deal with. Just unbareable, skip this one.
2005
This is the worst game I've played in my life.
Oh, before any Sonic fan says it by the way, the PS2 version isn't why I didn't like the game. I only ever had framerate issues on the first level and the multiplayer.
Everything about this game is a disaster. From the story, to the graphics, to the controls, to the level design, to the missions, to the hilariously unfinished multiplayer.
The story exists to retcon stupid crap into Sonic Adventure 2 and to be overly "edgy". This is sprinkled with the delightful multiple path system where the endings are extremely similar and the levels/cutscenes rarely connect into eachother. The graphics are ugly and look extra bad when contrasted with all the reused models from Sonic Heroes.
Shadow controls like he's on ice, the level design is bland at best and labyrinthean at worst, it even reuses level design within the same levels too which is insane for a game made by supposedly competent developers. The missions consist of annoying chores that can sometimes take over thirty minutes to complete while you listen to the white noise this game calls music.
This game is just a total trainwreck, please don't play it, go watch some funny YouTube man play it if you wanna laugh at the occasional unintentionally funny parts of it.
Oh, before any Sonic fan says it by the way, the PS2 version isn't why I didn't like the game. I only ever had framerate issues on the first level and the multiplayer.
Everything about this game is a disaster. From the story, to the graphics, to the controls, to the level design, to the missions, to the hilariously unfinished multiplayer.
The story exists to retcon stupid crap into Sonic Adventure 2 and to be overly "edgy". This is sprinkled with the delightful multiple path system where the endings are extremely similar and the levels/cutscenes rarely connect into eachother. The graphics are ugly and look extra bad when contrasted with all the reused models from Sonic Heroes.
Shadow controls like he's on ice, the level design is bland at best and labyrinthean at worst, it even reuses level design within the same levels too which is insane for a game made by supposedly competent developers. The missions consist of annoying chores that can sometimes take over thirty minutes to complete while you listen to the white noise this game calls music.
This game is just a total trainwreck, please don't play it, go watch some funny YouTube man play it if you wanna laugh at the occasional unintentionally funny parts of it.
2004
I feel like a scumbag giving this game an 8/10 considering how highly-regarded it is as a masterpiece, but honestly after playing the masterpiece that is We Love Katamari this game just really went down in my game rankings. It's good, great even, but it's not nearly as replayable as its sequel and is much more repetitive. Not only is there not much variety, but there's also really only three maps that get expanded throughout the game. It makes for a neat feeling of progression, but makes the game harder to replay. The levels also drag out way too long and the controls aren't perfect either.
That being said, an 8/10 is still a pretty great score. I strongly recommend this game, if only to play its sequel, but it's still an unforgettable, inspired experience.
That being said, an 8/10 is still a pretty great score. I strongly recommend this game, if only to play its sequel, but it's still an unforgettable, inspired experience.
2011
A game that was admittedly pretty rushed so it ends up lacking in elements like side content and the final part of the game is much too short, but gosh dang dude the combat and characters in this game are just fantastic. As of now, this game and its sequel hold my favorite cast of characters in any video game. The combat is super addicting too, every character is fun and there's so many options with what you can do. The story is solid too, not the best in the series but a pretty enjoyable time. Overall, go play it it's good.
2005
A weak overworld and the combat while great isn't quite as refined as Vesperia's version of the combat, but the story and characters are just phenomenal. The character development for the main character is what every story-based game should strive for, and there's just so many scenes in this game I think about on the weekly. Just a mindblowing experience.
2004
Dropped a couple great elements from the first game but still overall a masterpiece. The dungeons are really fun to explore and the challenge is always there. If you loved the first or third game I'm not sure how you'll feel about the different direction of this game but personally the dungeon crawling elements and bigger focus on the world of Pikmin were really great to me.
2006
I don't know what to say that hasn't been said. This game already has a reputation as one of Nintendo's intelligent and brilliant games ever. All I can say is that it's true. The gameplay's the best the series has ever been, the story's fantastic, the characters are genuinely very well-written, the Mother charm still runs through this game, and my gosh that last chapter. Perfect game. Please just emulate it though if I have to hear one more person say they're "waiting for the official release" I'm gonna scream.
Also play 1 and 2 first I beg of you! It makes it so much more enjoyable.
Edit: Congrats on being the best rated game on Backloggd Mother 3! I don't know how long this will last, but it makes me happy to see.
Also play 1 and 2 first I beg of you! It makes it so much more enjoyable.
Edit: Congrats on being the best rated game on Backloggd Mother 3! I don't know how long this will last, but it makes me happy to see.
I know that this game is basically considered the Boogeyman in the Mother and even Nintendo community but I don't think I will ever waver from giving this game a perfect score. I will be honest though, they have a point. The encounter rate is obnoxious and the overworld and dungeon design is legitamately kind of awful, but this is one of the most charming games I've played in my life. The combat is simple but difficult enough to keep you engaged, the dialog is both funny and beautiful, the atmosphere is great, the story is excellent, and everything about this game just fills me with a sense of wonder. I am extremely biased as such a hardcore fan of the Mother series, but I just can't force myself to give this game a score under a 10.
2005
This was a game I loved as a kid, but soon forgot about after Katamari Forever came out and then didn't really think about for a while. After revisiting this game though, my gosh. "Masterpiece" is the simplest way to say it, but after picking this game up I just could not put it down. Even after beating the game, I just couldn't get enough, I got every collectible, did the inane 1,000,000 roses challenge, super cleared every stage, and even collected every object. Controlling your Katamari is as smooth as butter, the game is filled with tons of charm, there's tons of content on top of each stage being infinitely replayable, and I just can't get enough of it.