SaberHazari
Bio
Above all, avoid lies, all lies, especially the lie to yourself. Keep watch on your own lie and examine it every hour, every minute. And avoid contempt, both of others and of yourself, what seems bad to you in yourself is purified by the very fact that you have noticed it in yourself. And avoid fear, though fear is simply the consequence of every lie. Never be frightened at your own faintheartedness in attaining love, and meanwhile do not even be very frightened by your own bad acts.
Above all, avoid lies, all lies, especially the lie to yourself. Keep watch on your own lie and examine it every hour, every minute. And avoid contempt, both of others and of yourself, what seems bad to you in yourself is purified by the very fact that you have noticed it in yourself. And avoid fear, though fear is simply the consequence of every lie. Never be frightened at your own faintheartedness in attaining love, and meanwhile do not even be very frightened by your own bad acts.
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Being part of the Backloggd community for 1 year
Elite Gamer
Played 500+ games
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Liked 50+ reviews / lists
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Become mutual friends with at least 3 others
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Played 250+ games
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Gained 3+ followers
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Played 100+ games
Favorite Games
504
Total Games Played
000
Played in 2024
003
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The game follows the protagonist Gillian Seed who has been assigned to the JUNKER(Japanese Undercover Neuro-Kinetic Elimination Ranger) which is an organization established to deal with the onset of Snatchers in Neo Kobe City. Snatchers are robotic killing machines who take on the identity of their victims. This game is heavily inspired by the movies "Blade Runner" and "Terminator".
Hideo Kojima is best known for his Metal Gear series. But before its stealth gameplay and plot complexity, there was Snatcher. Kojima's love of films is apparent from the beginning of this game. Protagonist Seed hunts down the Snatchers, Replicant-esque Terminators in Neo Kobe City, which might as well be Los Angeles in terms of architecture. He is accompanied by a sensible robot companion named Metal Gear as he investigates murders and uncovers a gigantic conspiracy.
Gillian and his wife Jamie both suffer from amnesia and they can't remember anything about their past before 3 years ago when they were found. Because they don't know anything about their past, both of them have a hard time being together again.
Snatcher has an in-game wiki in the form of computer Jordan which is really well-crafted and interesting. I became invested in the game more after reading through the wiki after I started the game.
In terms of gameplay, Snatcher is a console equivalent of a point and click adventure. From your first-person perspective, you can move to different areas, talk, look, or investigate things most of the time. This user interface is rough due largely to the fact that you may need to perform some strange combination of your options in order to proceed, but Snatcher tends to inform one's goals well. What really makes Snatcher stand out is in the details. Each area has richly nuanced pixel art and multiple points of interest that can be examined through the menus instead of cursor pixel-hunting.
Dialogue in this game is amazingly delivered despite the limitations of the hardwares at the time. The visual movement in the times of voice acting in important moments, I thought, are brilliantly done and feels very immersive.
The lore of the game is really interesting. The plot has depth and very well foreshadowed twists. The characters are all mostly really likable and the game is very emotional at times too. I won't say the writing is perfect here but it's definitely fantastic enough to leave an impact on the players mind.
Overall, I tremendously enjoyed playing through this game while at times being frustrated at the gameplay but not enough to diminish my positive experience of the game. I highly recommend it to anyone who likes sci-fi and noir films or is a fan of Kojima.
Personal Rating - 9/10
Hideo Kojima is best known for his Metal Gear series. But before its stealth gameplay and plot complexity, there was Snatcher. Kojima's love of films is apparent from the beginning of this game. Protagonist Seed hunts down the Snatchers, Replicant-esque Terminators in Neo Kobe City, which might as well be Los Angeles in terms of architecture. He is accompanied by a sensible robot companion named Metal Gear as he investigates murders and uncovers a gigantic conspiracy.
Gillian and his wife Jamie both suffer from amnesia and they can't remember anything about their past before 3 years ago when they were found. Because they don't know anything about their past, both of them have a hard time being together again.
Snatcher has an in-game wiki in the form of computer Jordan which is really well-crafted and interesting. I became invested in the game more after reading through the wiki after I started the game.
In terms of gameplay, Snatcher is a console equivalent of a point and click adventure. From your first-person perspective, you can move to different areas, talk, look, or investigate things most of the time. This user interface is rough due largely to the fact that you may need to perform some strange combination of your options in order to proceed, but Snatcher tends to inform one's goals well. What really makes Snatcher stand out is in the details. Each area has richly nuanced pixel art and multiple points of interest that can be examined through the menus instead of cursor pixel-hunting.
Dialogue in this game is amazingly delivered despite the limitations of the hardwares at the time. The visual movement in the times of voice acting in important moments, I thought, are brilliantly done and feels very immersive.
The lore of the game is really interesting. The plot has depth and very well foreshadowed twists. The characters are all mostly really likable and the game is very emotional at times too. I won't say the writing is perfect here but it's definitely fantastic enough to leave an impact on the players mind.
Overall, I tremendously enjoyed playing through this game while at times being frustrated at the gameplay but not enough to diminish my positive experience of the game. I highly recommend it to anyone who likes sci-fi and noir films or is a fan of Kojima.
Personal Rating - 9/10
Premise:
Fata Morgana is a gothic suspense tale set in a cursed mansion. The overall story spans across a millennium. An amnesiac spirit awakens in the mansion and is greeted by a maid who seems to know the spirit and calls it her master. And both of them go through the past of the mansion in an attempt to recover the memories of the spirit.
Review:
Fata Morgana starts off with 4 almost completely different stories that have very little connections with each other and are set in very different times of the mansion. At first it may seem like an anthological series of stories but all of the different stories will get connected to an unified plot over the later half of the narrative. It is really fascinating to see how the novel manages to intertwine the different stories and characters together with each other and the mansion.
Fata Morgana deals with several heavy themes such as tragedy, misfortune, racism, oppression, abuse, love, relationships, loneliness etc. It is a story that tackles various sensitive topics that people generally refrain from discussing.
I think the characters of Fata Morgana are written to almost perfection. All of them are given enough context for the consumer to feel emotions toward. When Fata Morgana hits its high points especially character moments, it is really hard to not feel any kind of emotion towards them. Almost all of the characters are multifaceted complex characters with defining personality traits, proper background and growth.
There were no visible plot holes to the story at least from my perspective, everything was well explained and delivered to the consumer. The dialogues are also intelligently written.
The soundtracks of the game are perfection. Almost all of the soundtracks in the game are voiced.
In conclusion let me say that, this game and its narrative is easily one of the best fictional experiences of my life and I highly recommend it to people who have become interested in the game after reading the review.
Personal Rating: 10/10
Fata Morgana is a gothic suspense tale set in a cursed mansion. The overall story spans across a millennium. An amnesiac spirit awakens in the mansion and is greeted by a maid who seems to know the spirit and calls it her master. And both of them go through the past of the mansion in an attempt to recover the memories of the spirit.
Review:
Fata Morgana starts off with 4 almost completely different stories that have very little connections with each other and are set in very different times of the mansion. At first it may seem like an anthological series of stories but all of the different stories will get connected to an unified plot over the later half of the narrative. It is really fascinating to see how the novel manages to intertwine the different stories and characters together with each other and the mansion.
Fata Morgana deals with several heavy themes such as tragedy, misfortune, racism, oppression, abuse, love, relationships, loneliness etc. It is a story that tackles various sensitive topics that people generally refrain from discussing.
I think the characters of Fata Morgana are written to almost perfection. All of them are given enough context for the consumer to feel emotions toward. When Fata Morgana hits its high points especially character moments, it is really hard to not feel any kind of emotion towards them. Almost all of the characters are multifaceted complex characters with defining personality traits, proper background and growth.
There were no visible plot holes to the story at least from my perspective, everything was well explained and delivered to the consumer. The dialogues are also intelligently written.
The soundtracks of the game are perfection. Almost all of the soundtracks in the game are voiced.
In conclusion let me say that, this game and its narrative is easily one of the best fictional experiences of my life and I highly recommend it to people who have become interested in the game after reading the review.
Personal Rating: 10/10
Premise:
The game follows the protagonist Estelle Bright and her adoptive brother Joshua. They go on a journey throughout the kingdom of Liberl to complete their training to become full-fledged Bracers. Bracers are the members of a non-government multinational organization that acts to keep the peace and to help and protect civilians.
Review:
This game is the beginning of a narrative that spans over 10+ games and as such it is pretty slow as it builds up and establishes the lores and world building for the entire series. You can compare this series to a novel series where the first book takes a lot of time to properly establish the world. But this doesn't mean that it will not pick up the pace. Believe me, even the first game has a lot of twists and turns later on in the game.
The story writing of the first game is excellent, most of the twists in the game have a lot of subtle hints and foreshadowing for the player to pick up on. The game explains and gives context on most of the things that happen in the story and to the characters to keep the player immersed on the plot.
The characters are what I am most interested to talk about when I am discussing this series. Each and every playable character in the game is written sublimely throughout the series. All of them get relevantly fleshed out background and story throughout the plot, they are all characters that you can get immersed and engrossed in. The important non-playable characters are also really well crafted to stay relevant to the story. I can't praise Trails' character writing enough. All of the townspeople and non-playable characters all have their own story and relationships that you can get immersed on. I highly suggest doing all the sidequests, even the hidden ones, in the game, they are well worth your time as they flesh out all of the in-game npcs.
Trails world building is simply phenomenal, there are so many different factions, nations and races in this world. The conflict and relationships between these different organizations are portrayed brilliantly. And as this is the first game of the series, it establishes the context about a lot of those organizations and builds up the lore of the world.
The battle system is really dynamic and enjoyable. It has some elements of tactical rpgs but in essence, it is a turn based rpg series. The combat is pretty deep as it has many things for you to consider, with very diverse setups for your characters. Strategy is important to win many of the battles in the series and even in the first game. There are three difficulty modes in the game, Normal, Hard and Nightmare. I would recommend Normal mode to anyone. The higher difficulties of the games aren't that balanced, mostly just increases the stats of the AIs rather than making the AIs more advanced. That isn't to say the higher difficulties aren't hard, they can get very very challenging at times. If you do want some challenge, go ahead and pick Hard or Nightmare mode.
I really love the aesthetic and artstyle of the series. It is a 3D environment presented in an isometric, rotatable camera perspective with charming sprites for the characters.
The dialogues in the game are written with passion, ambition and intelligence. It is recommended for you to talk to all of the characters(plot important characters, residents, random npcs) after any major event in not just this game but the whole series, as they have really interesting things to say. Interacting with treasure chests twice is also recommended as they contain random tidbits and hilarious messages from the developers.
The soundtracks of this series contains some of my most favourite and memorable osts of all time. The sound team working on this series "Falcom Sound Team Jdk" really are an exceptionally talented and passionate musical group.
In conclusion, if you are interested in a large well built narrative with tons of characters then you should definitely give this series a shot and start with this game.
Personal Rating: 9/10
I will try to write a review for the Second Chapter soon as well but I can't promise when.
The game follows the protagonist Estelle Bright and her adoptive brother Joshua. They go on a journey throughout the kingdom of Liberl to complete their training to become full-fledged Bracers. Bracers are the members of a non-government multinational organization that acts to keep the peace and to help and protect civilians.
Review:
This game is the beginning of a narrative that spans over 10+ games and as such it is pretty slow as it builds up and establishes the lores and world building for the entire series. You can compare this series to a novel series where the first book takes a lot of time to properly establish the world. But this doesn't mean that it will not pick up the pace. Believe me, even the first game has a lot of twists and turns later on in the game.
The story writing of the first game is excellent, most of the twists in the game have a lot of subtle hints and foreshadowing for the player to pick up on. The game explains and gives context on most of the things that happen in the story and to the characters to keep the player immersed on the plot.
The characters are what I am most interested to talk about when I am discussing this series. Each and every playable character in the game is written sublimely throughout the series. All of them get relevantly fleshed out background and story throughout the plot, they are all characters that you can get immersed and engrossed in. The important non-playable characters are also really well crafted to stay relevant to the story. I can't praise Trails' character writing enough. All of the townspeople and non-playable characters all have their own story and relationships that you can get immersed on. I highly suggest doing all the sidequests, even the hidden ones, in the game, they are well worth your time as they flesh out all of the in-game npcs.
Trails world building is simply phenomenal, there are so many different factions, nations and races in this world. The conflict and relationships between these different organizations are portrayed brilliantly. And as this is the first game of the series, it establishes the context about a lot of those organizations and builds up the lore of the world.
The battle system is really dynamic and enjoyable. It has some elements of tactical rpgs but in essence, it is a turn based rpg series. The combat is pretty deep as it has many things for you to consider, with very diverse setups for your characters. Strategy is important to win many of the battles in the series and even in the first game. There are three difficulty modes in the game, Normal, Hard and Nightmare. I would recommend Normal mode to anyone. The higher difficulties of the games aren't that balanced, mostly just increases the stats of the AIs rather than making the AIs more advanced. That isn't to say the higher difficulties aren't hard, they can get very very challenging at times. If you do want some challenge, go ahead and pick Hard or Nightmare mode.
I really love the aesthetic and artstyle of the series. It is a 3D environment presented in an isometric, rotatable camera perspective with charming sprites for the characters.
The dialogues in the game are written with passion, ambition and intelligence. It is recommended for you to talk to all of the characters(plot important characters, residents, random npcs) after any major event in not just this game but the whole series, as they have really interesting things to say. Interacting with treasure chests twice is also recommended as they contain random tidbits and hilarious messages from the developers.
The soundtracks of this series contains some of my most favourite and memorable osts of all time. The sound team working on this series "Falcom Sound Team Jdk" really are an exceptionally talented and passionate musical group.
In conclusion, if you are interested in a large well built narrative with tons of characters then you should definitely give this series a shot and start with this game.
Personal Rating: 9/10
I will try to write a review for the Second Chapter soon as well but I can't promise when.