Utawarerumono
one of the biggest disappointments I've ever had with a franchise, the game is full of defects to the point I can write a text of the size of a philosophical essay, criticizing both gameplay and primarily the story, in my mind ys games exists as a vacation to falcom not making kiseki games yearly
one of the most cliched predictable narratives I've seen in a jrpg and I honestly can't understand why people like it, it's completely overrated, I think it's a collective delusion
one of the most cliched predictable narratives I've seen in a jrpg and I honestly can't understand why people like it, it's completely overrated, I think it's a collective delusion
TL;DR: Weakest Ryza game, but left a legacy. Positive and negative points of this journey:
✅Ryza's biggest point is how perfect a lighthearted story it is. There are no dangerous conflicts or anything that makes the world suffer. It makes me chills to say that. We've consumed so many stories where characters fight to save the world, save those they love as if their lives depended on it, all for that peaceful tomorrow for the rest of their lives... that peaceful tomorrow is like the whole story of Atelier Ryza, the world has never been in conflict, but a beautiful plot has managed to be created with simplicity and showing us how we can evolve as a person, in addition to valuing the time we spend together with those who are precious to us. Like you're with your friends at school, and that time is so much fun that you'll remember it for the rest of your lives, you realize "ah, those were the best days of my life"
✅Franchise's best entry in slice of life and comedy. The characters are well explored as if they were alive. It's a coming of age as if we were actually accompanying a life.
✅ Not exactly a plus point, but something that draws attention. The game is focused more on slice of life and everyday life than on the plot itself. And ironically, it's still the Atelier with the most creative and well-done story.
✅Ah, the soundtrack. Of course, this is the BIGGEST positive point right here. This game is a dream of any music nerd who is a gamer. These are compositions that should be known throughout the world. For those who understand, they are highly complex with very peculiar and out of the ordinary time signatures, 5/4, 7/8, 6/8, a music lesson within a game, and this is VERY OUT OF THE NORMAL. Believe me. Rare.
❌The sides are inferior to Ryza 2. In Ryza 2 they were more interesting and deeper, where you explored more deeply the places related to the main plot and about the universe of that game. Most of Ryza 3's are just random sides around the map.
❌The game doesn't look better than Ryza 2 in graphics. Yes, it's a bizarre case where the graphics of a game from 2-3 years ago are superior to the current one. As much as the map is bigger and more open, the draw distance is very reduced.
❌Another loss for Ryza 2 itself, the artistic direction has gone downhill. It was one of the strongest points of Atelier Ryza, its artistic direction, which became less clear in 3.
❌ In narrative it loses to Ryza 1 (and Ryza 2 ofc), and also for being a sequel. The credit will always go to the first game for having created and presented everything, a sequel will always have to bet on a deeper narrative to be better than the first game, but Atelier was always mediocre in its story, so obviously Ryza 3 wasn't better in narrative than the previous games. I kneel to the epilogue after the last boss though.
❌ Honestly speaking, this game was the weakest Ryza in almost all aspects, including the soundtrack.
🌐 PERSONAL OPINIONS:
🌐 Didn't beat Ryza 2 for me, which is the most emotional Atelier of all. That journey was awesome, so Ryza 2 still my fav Atelier. It also doesn't beat Ryza 1, responsible for creating the world and introducing summer and characters in a way that no other Atelier does.
🌐 I can't believe they didn't put Clifford and Serri in this game, who were two of my favorite Ryza characters. It was a sin, I swear.
CONCLUSION
The ending is beautiful and still a worth journey. I love Reisalin Stout and her character progression. Empel plot also surprised me. Ryza was the Atelier of my generation and I should be proud that my generation had the best Atelier in the history of the franchise. And it's from here for the better. Thank you, Koei Tecmo for the experience. I don't even know what to say here, but damn, didn't make such a big review like this in a while. See you again someday, Atelier series, in another summer!
✅Ryza's biggest point is how perfect a lighthearted story it is. There are no dangerous conflicts or anything that makes the world suffer. It makes me chills to say that. We've consumed so many stories where characters fight to save the world, save those they love as if their lives depended on it, all for that peaceful tomorrow for the rest of their lives... that peaceful tomorrow is like the whole story of Atelier Ryza, the world has never been in conflict, but a beautiful plot has managed to be created with simplicity and showing us how we can evolve as a person, in addition to valuing the time we spend together with those who are precious to us. Like you're with your friends at school, and that time is so much fun that you'll remember it for the rest of your lives, you realize "ah, those were the best days of my life"
✅Franchise's best entry in slice of life and comedy. The characters are well explored as if they were alive. It's a coming of age as if we were actually accompanying a life.
✅ Not exactly a plus point, but something that draws attention. The game is focused more on slice of life and everyday life than on the plot itself. And ironically, it's still the Atelier with the most creative and well-done story.
✅Ah, the soundtrack. Of course, this is the BIGGEST positive point right here. This game is a dream of any music nerd who is a gamer. These are compositions that should be known throughout the world. For those who understand, they are highly complex with very peculiar and out of the ordinary time signatures, 5/4, 7/8, 6/8, a music lesson within a game, and this is VERY OUT OF THE NORMAL. Believe me. Rare.
❌The sides are inferior to Ryza 2. In Ryza 2 they were more interesting and deeper, where you explored more deeply the places related to the main plot and about the universe of that game. Most of Ryza 3's are just random sides around the map.
❌The game doesn't look better than Ryza 2 in graphics. Yes, it's a bizarre case where the graphics of a game from 2-3 years ago are superior to the current one. As much as the map is bigger and more open, the draw distance is very reduced.
❌Another loss for Ryza 2 itself, the artistic direction has gone downhill. It was one of the strongest points of Atelier Ryza, its artistic direction, which became less clear in 3.
❌ In narrative it loses to Ryza 1 (and Ryza 2 ofc), and also for being a sequel. The credit will always go to the first game for having created and presented everything, a sequel will always have to bet on a deeper narrative to be better than the first game, but Atelier was always mediocre in its story, so obviously Ryza 3 wasn't better in narrative than the previous games. I kneel to the epilogue after the last boss though.
❌ Honestly speaking, this game was the weakest Ryza in almost all aspects, including the soundtrack.
🌐 PERSONAL OPINIONS:
🌐 Didn't beat Ryza 2 for me, which is the most emotional Atelier of all. That journey was awesome, so Ryza 2 still my fav Atelier. It also doesn't beat Ryza 1, responsible for creating the world and introducing summer and characters in a way that no other Atelier does.
🌐 I can't believe they didn't put Clifford and Serri in this game, who were two of my favorite Ryza characters. It was a sin, I swear.
CONCLUSION
The ending is beautiful and still a worth journey. I love Reisalin Stout and her character progression. Empel plot also surprised me. Ryza was the Atelier of my generation and I should be proud that my generation had the best Atelier in the history of the franchise. And it's from here for the better. Thank you, Koei Tecmo for the experience. I don't even know what to say here, but damn, didn't make such a big review like this in a while. See you again someday, Atelier series, in another summer!
It changed the franchise forever, for the better. It stands as an unforgettable turning point, introducing stronger RPG elements to the series, such as voice acting and a more engaging narrative than any other Zelda game.
Well-written narrative with great characters (who become even more solid if we play Age of Calamity), it's difficult to explain how detailed this game is.
We finally after decades got to see explicitly in-depth characters.
Its magical exploration that brought inspiration to many games today, I've already replayed this game 2 or 3 times and it never loses its appeal. A living, beautiful and characteristic world, practically perfect atmosphere and sound design. A game that is the definition of immersion.
For me, Breath of the Wild marks a new era in The Legend of Zelda franchise, it's just the beginning.
Well-written narrative with great characters (who become even more solid if we play Age of Calamity), it's difficult to explain how detailed this game is.
We finally after decades got to see explicitly in-depth characters.
Its magical exploration that brought inspiration to many games today, I've already replayed this game 2 or 3 times and it never loses its appeal. A living, beautiful and characteristic world, practically perfect atmosphere and sound design. A game that is the definition of immersion.
For me, Breath of the Wild marks a new era in The Legend of Zelda franchise, it's just the beginning.
Interesting setting, but a world too empty. Fascinating adventure, but null storytelling. Tells you absolutely nothing.
2023
TL;DR: Listen, Fire Emblem series is a joke in terms of story writing. It's almost unbelievable that this game celebrates 30 years of this mid franchise. Engage had EVERYTHING to be the best Fire Emblem ever, but the writers threw it all down the drain for the sake of the gameplay.
Engage looks like a fangame. It doesn't even look like it was made by professionals. I played almost all FE games believing that a great game would come, like I tried other franchises that didn't like at first but I liked it later, but Fire Emblem seems to be an eternal average. I still give it a relatively high rating because I REALLY enjoyed the beginning of the game, I was really looking forward to it.
it fails miserably to deliver a good, consistent story. I'm not even gonna talk too much about the apalling worldbuilding, I'm going to focus on the bad writing. At first I was surprised, the story at the beginning was amazing, however, as soon as the prologue ended, again, another FE game went to hell. I've said it before and I'll say it again: it's 2023 and this series still has outdated writing. It feels like I'm watching some generic 2005 anime. The problem with the narrative in this series is because they create a narrative for the gameplay, they actually don't want to tell you a story. They've started to change this mindset a bit in Three Houses, but it's still BAD. It's a lot of time spent on gameplay and eventually becomes repetitive, making it all a dragging game. THE STRUCTURE IS LOATHSOME, DISGUSTING
DUDE YOU'VE LIKE 15 MIN OF SIMPLE DIALOGUES THEN YOU GO TO 50 MIN REPETITIVE GAMEPLAY, AND YOU CONTINUE THIS SHIT THE ENTIRE FUCKING GAME. The writers seem like amateurs. It's poorly written.
bro I swear, the villains in this game don't even know what they're fighting. I SWEAR TO YOU, THE GAME PRESENTS THE ANTAGONISTS, ONE OF THEM EVEN BASICALLY KILLS THE OTHER CHARACTER'S DAD, BUT THE GAME 30 MINUTES LATER PUT THAT ANTAGONIST CHARACTER AS PLAYABLE AND A GOOD-GUY AND THE EXCUSE IS LIKE "haha my father died too it's all right now I'm on your side"
IT DOESNT END HERE
THERE'S TOO THAT SCENE WHERE THE CHARACTER LITERALLY HATES YOU AT FIRST, LACKS YOU WITH EDUCATION AND IS AN ASSHOLE, BUT SUDDENLY JOINS YOUR TEAM (YES LITERALLY OUT OF NOWHERE, THERE'S NOT EVEN 1 SINGLE TALK FROM THIS CHARACTER, SHE JUST JOINS YOUR PARTY AND THEN AFTER THE BATTLE "haha xD I'm sorry" there was nothing more to it than that, dudes just used 1 single dialogue to say she's sorry.
It
Does
Not
End
Here.
ONE OF THE VILLAINS WHO IS A GIRL LITERALLY KIDNAPS THE QUEEN OF A KINGDOM, PUTTING HER IN THREAT OF DEATH FOR SOME DISGUSTING REASONS OF WRITING STUPIDITY, AND THEN WE'VE TO FIGHT 50 MINUTES AGAINST HER THEN AT THE END OF ALL OF THIS SHIT SHE'LL BECOME A PLAYABLE CHARACTER AND THE QUEEN WILL SAY: "xDxD please help the Divine Dragon save the world! This is your punishment!"
It
Does
Not....
On other points: the gameplay is the best in the franchise. Ironically, this Fire Emblem still manages to be the best in many ways among all the others. You see how bad this franchise is when even a mediocre game like this manages to outperform many others.
The soundtrack is spectacular. This one is arguably the best in the series. I shall research more about the composers. It presents beautiful leitmotifs with a pure and well harmonic orchestra. I'll definitely be adding several songs to my playlist and I pity songwriters so good working in a bomb like this one.
Artistic direction is good, the artist is very good. It won't be a very welcome game in the west, I know why but I don't know how to explain it well. One of the reasons is because there's no marriage system.
Framme Best Girl.
In conclusion, fuck this franchise of assholes, dumbasses, intelligent systems it's your fault you incompetent
🖕🖕🖕🖕🖕🖕🖕🖕🖕
Engage looks like a fangame. It doesn't even look like it was made by professionals. I played almost all FE games believing that a great game would come, like I tried other franchises that didn't like at first but I liked it later, but Fire Emblem seems to be an eternal average. I still give it a relatively high rating because I REALLY enjoyed the beginning of the game, I was really looking forward to it.
it fails miserably to deliver a good, consistent story. I'm not even gonna talk too much about the apalling worldbuilding, I'm going to focus on the bad writing. At first I was surprised, the story at the beginning was amazing, however, as soon as the prologue ended, again, another FE game went to hell. I've said it before and I'll say it again: it's 2023 and this series still has outdated writing. It feels like I'm watching some generic 2005 anime. The problem with the narrative in this series is because they create a narrative for the gameplay, they actually don't want to tell you a story. They've started to change this mindset a bit in Three Houses, but it's still BAD. It's a lot of time spent on gameplay and eventually becomes repetitive, making it all a dragging game. THE STRUCTURE IS LOATHSOME, DISGUSTING
DUDE YOU'VE LIKE 15 MIN OF SIMPLE DIALOGUES THEN YOU GO TO 50 MIN REPETITIVE GAMEPLAY, AND YOU CONTINUE THIS SHIT THE ENTIRE FUCKING GAME. The writers seem like amateurs. It's poorly written.
bro I swear, the villains in this game don't even know what they're fighting. I SWEAR TO YOU, THE GAME PRESENTS THE ANTAGONISTS, ONE OF THEM EVEN BASICALLY KILLS THE OTHER CHARACTER'S DAD, BUT THE GAME 30 MINUTES LATER PUT THAT ANTAGONIST CHARACTER AS PLAYABLE AND A GOOD-GUY AND THE EXCUSE IS LIKE "haha my father died too it's all right now I'm on your side"
IT DOESNT END HERE
THERE'S TOO THAT SCENE WHERE THE CHARACTER LITERALLY HATES YOU AT FIRST, LACKS YOU WITH EDUCATION AND IS AN ASSHOLE, BUT SUDDENLY JOINS YOUR TEAM (YES LITERALLY OUT OF NOWHERE, THERE'S NOT EVEN 1 SINGLE TALK FROM THIS CHARACTER, SHE JUST JOINS YOUR PARTY AND THEN AFTER THE BATTLE "haha xD I'm sorry" there was nothing more to it than that, dudes just used 1 single dialogue to say she's sorry.
It
Does
Not
End
Here.
ONE OF THE VILLAINS WHO IS A GIRL LITERALLY KIDNAPS THE QUEEN OF A KINGDOM, PUTTING HER IN THREAT OF DEATH FOR SOME DISGUSTING REASONS OF WRITING STUPIDITY, AND THEN WE'VE TO FIGHT 50 MINUTES AGAINST HER THEN AT THE END OF ALL OF THIS SHIT SHE'LL BECOME A PLAYABLE CHARACTER AND THE QUEEN WILL SAY: "xDxD please help the Divine Dragon save the world! This is your punishment!"
It
Does
Not....
On other points: the gameplay is the best in the franchise. Ironically, this Fire Emblem still manages to be the best in many ways among all the others. You see how bad this franchise is when even a mediocre game like this manages to outperform many others.
The soundtrack is spectacular. This one is arguably the best in the series. I shall research more about the composers. It presents beautiful leitmotifs with a pure and well harmonic orchestra. I'll definitely be adding several songs to my playlist and I pity songwriters so good working in a bomb like this one.
Artistic direction is good, the artist is very good. It won't be a very welcome game in the west, I know why but I don't know how to explain it well. One of the reasons is because there's no marriage system.
Framme Best Girl.
In conclusion, fuck this franchise of assholes, dumbasses, intelligent systems it's your fault you incompetent
🖕🖕🖕🖕🖕🖕🖕🖕🖕
A lot of wasted potential. Route system was a bad choice, story would've been much better if it was linear with blue lions as true route.
Overall the story is a bit shallow, but with good philosophies and themes. In terms of finals, Radiant Dawn remains as the best ending in the entire franchise, but Three Houses is the most consistent FE.
But well, when it comes to Fire Emblem, the narratives are getting better...
Overall the story is a bit shallow, but with good philosophies and themes. In terms of finals, Radiant Dawn remains as the best ending in the entire franchise, but Three Houses is the most consistent FE.
But well, when it comes to Fire Emblem, the narratives are getting better...
2022
great ideas, at firstly I was surprised by how interesting it was, but it got extremely tiring in the final stretch and its structure was totally a bad choice.
because of practical than creative choices, this game ended up disappointing... still a good game though.
because of practical than creative choices, this game ended up disappointing... still a good game though.
SALUTE FOR THE GINTAMA OF THE GAMES. THE MOST STUPID AND DUMB GAME I EVER PLAYED, ONE OF THE BEST PARODY WORKS EVER
IT'S JUST STUPID, THAT'S WHY IT'S GOOD.
IT'S JUST STUPID, THAT'S WHY IT'S GOOD.
it's impressive how Ike is the personification of gigachad of the RPG genre.
this isnt even mid just bad and outdated writing
dramatic romeo juliet story that uses lazy ideas and cliches generics that you can see in almost any formulaic story
dramatic romeo juliet story that uses lazy ideas and cliches generics that you can see in almost any formulaic story
A game that makes you value life. This game was literally PERFECT in all aspects until the climax. I was even amazed, because if it had stayed as good as it was, it would easily be one of the best games ever made. After the prison arc it decayed and was just so-so, twists were kinda weird.
For last, Xenoblade 3 has one of the best soundtracks I've ever listened in a game. Harmonic piano in games isn't common, flute that gives identity to the work, legendary composers, literally symphony orchestra with rock & guitar and it still worked.
For last, Xenoblade 3 has one of the best soundtracks I've ever listened in a game. Harmonic piano in games isn't common, flute that gives identity to the work, legendary composers, literally symphony orchestra with rock & guitar and it still worked.
2022
low-tier god of war. This game didn't even need to exist, just should've put the plot content of this game in the 2018 one. The game wouldn't even be that long, prob main plot 60 hours, but whatever. Good but almost mid
2019
I swear to God the start of this game was so good I already was "alright Persona series you won, take my 4.5/5", the first 30 hours were the best part of the game by far.
The insights into the mystery are still genius.
About the common Persona 5 plot: it's very good. Amazing from the beginning to the middle, mid to the end because this franchise always can't stop the cringe of running away from the main theme and out of nowhere you start fighting a god. Again, the topic was a very good critique of society and suddenly you're against a god.
Gameplay is great and far better than any other Persona. Nothing to say here.
Royal part is mid and basically normal plot, antagonist was great and one of my favorite characters, but as a villain is kinda meh. Everything I saw in Royal part I had seen before in this medium and in other medium as well, the plot itself does not bring anything new except the research of the antagonist and Akechi who is one of the 5 best characters in this game.
Kasumi itself is overrated af, her plot is totally basic. Again, nothing new, I've seen that kind of development 4384837 times. You're lucky if it was your first time, because it's totally generic. Not to mention she was a disappointment. Royal didn't know how to use her in a good way, she was basically cameo for 80 hours.
But this game still is easily the best Persona in EVERY way: narrative, characters, fun, soundtrack... everything. And it's also clearly the one with the best theme. And I really liked the protagonist in this entry. Finally a Persona protagonist that didn't look like a "piece", he actually looked like a worthy protagonist and well used.
I swear I was enjoying the game a lot, a lot, but it's VERY repetitive. This game is long, yes, it's the longest game I've ever played, but this game's script isn't. You basically waste a lot of time doing the same things and the game goes on like this, you literally go to school, farm charm points, kindess and that things, come back, social link and sleep. You do this the whole fucking game. I love stories that take time to happen things, that proceed slowly, my favorite works are very longs slow stories, but Persona is ridiculous. It's one thing to be slow, it's another to spend 50 hours doing the same shit, social links in this franchise isn't that good as well, it's just good character development, not amazing.
So if you haven't had burnout playing this for 100 hours always going to school to study sleeping school social link sleeping school social link sleeping school study sleeping school theather sleeping I unironically say you've a better brain than me, you're better than me. I'm not kidding. You are stronger and superior to me.
TL;DR: I was really enjoying Persona 5 Royal A LOT at first, I really enjoyed playing, but after middle game my mentality was like: JUST END IT END THIS SHIT MOTHERFUCKERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
The insights into the mystery are still genius.
About the common Persona 5 plot: it's very good. Amazing from the beginning to the middle, mid to the end because this franchise always can't stop the cringe of running away from the main theme and out of nowhere you start fighting a god. Again, the topic was a very good critique of society and suddenly you're against a god.
Gameplay is great and far better than any other Persona. Nothing to say here.
Royal part is mid and basically normal plot, antagonist was great and one of my favorite characters, but as a villain is kinda meh. Everything I saw in Royal part I had seen before in this medium and in other medium as well, the plot itself does not bring anything new except the research of the antagonist and Akechi who is one of the 5 best characters in this game.
Kasumi itself is overrated af, her plot is totally basic. Again, nothing new, I've seen that kind of development 4384837 times. You're lucky if it was your first time, because it's totally generic. Not to mention she was a disappointment. Royal didn't know how to use her in a good way, she was basically cameo for 80 hours.
But this game still is easily the best Persona in EVERY way: narrative, characters, fun, soundtrack... everything. And it's also clearly the one with the best theme. And I really liked the protagonist in this entry. Finally a Persona protagonist that didn't look like a "piece", he actually looked like a worthy protagonist and well used.
I swear I was enjoying the game a lot, a lot, but it's VERY repetitive. This game is long, yes, it's the longest game I've ever played, but this game's script isn't. You basically waste a lot of time doing the same things and the game goes on like this, you literally go to school, farm charm points, kindess and that things, come back, social link and sleep. You do this the whole fucking game. I love stories that take time to happen things, that proceed slowly, my favorite works are very longs slow stories, but Persona is ridiculous. It's one thing to be slow, it's another to spend 50 hours doing the same shit, social links in this franchise isn't that good as well, it's just good character development, not amazing.
So if you haven't had burnout playing this for 100 hours always going to school to study sleeping school social link sleeping school social link sleeping school study sleeping school theather sleeping I unironically say you've a better brain than me, you're better than me. I'm not kidding. You are stronger and superior to me.
TL;DR: I was really enjoying Persona 5 Royal A LOT at first, I really enjoyed playing, but after middle game my mentality was like: JUST END IT END THIS SHIT MOTHERFUCKERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
entire game is mid but the ending is perfect, I should replay it in 10 years
2012
HAHhahAHhaHAHhaHAHhaHAH '-'
I WON'T GIVE UP, PERSONA 5 PLEASE BE GOOD.
I WON'T GIVE UP, PERSONA 5 PLEASE BE GOOD.