etria_girl
2021
a game more into its overall plot than its romance, but the plot isnt very good :/
weirdly paced at times and feels underdeveloped. the setup is interesting enough and the cast has a fun dynamic when all together, but i cant help but feel disappointed by this one in the end, shrug.
weirdly paced at times and feels underdeveloped. the setup is interesting enough and the cast has a fun dynamic when all together, but i cant help but feel disappointed by this one in the end, shrug.
beat the other person who left a review, great game tbh ^_^
(simple but fun itadaki street-like game, decent graphics, middling music, worth a round or two)
(simple but fun itadaki street-like game, decent graphics, middling music, worth a round or two)
This review contains spoilers
the good: cassius promoting rean to divine blade, anelace’s 2 seconds of her new design was good, every time when juna is the main character of the game, the divine knights’ farewell, everyone looks great in their wedding outfits, half the soundtrack is really good
the bad: half the soundtrack is pretty bad, the curse literally ruined this game for me, this game thinks i like millium more than valimar and i Do Not, seeing that little heart on altinas bonding event icon, arianrhod’s motivation being way lamer than she deserves, everyone that died didnt die, everyone that betrayed didnt betray, aberich is lame as hell, osbornes backstory and ending is stupid, why do rhey act like reincarnation means you are the same person???, ishmelga is truly the worst idea ive seen in a while (how dare you bring hamel back and give it such a stupid secret backstory), why does everyone give claire and lechter so many free passes, why does elie look like that
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trails of cold steel 4 is a game with more lows than highs. its supposed to be a culmination of every game that came before it but some parts of this game made me so annoyed or angry that it sometimes had me feeling dumb for ever getting invested at all. even worse, i quite like cold steel 3, i even think its my favorite of the cs games! i liked the timeskip, i really liked how rean’s character and position changed, and i just generally enjoyed that game. but sadly every question it set up is answered in the stupidest ways in cs 4. every death is reversed, every betrayal was a fakeout to “scope out from the inside” while accomplishing nothing, every character is paid off with the stupidest endings and motivations, every woman and girl in erebonia wants to fuck rean even more than before, AND osborne has a new voice and its SO much worse that it sunk any chance of osborne moments working for me
i was spoiled on nearly every detail of this game because rarely have i seem a fandom that spoils every game so throughly 2 weeks after the japanese release, but im not sure what if any of this would have hit more successfully if i hadnt been spoiled, im inclined to think it wouldve been even worse for me honestly
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anyway idk man ive heard several times that reverie is the best trails game i just pray i like it at all at this point (even with c’s identity being spoiled for me, of course :/)
ps the real curse of erebonia is the guy at falcom doubling boob sizes every game and vacuum sealing every womans outfit, please stop him he’s a menace
the bad: half the soundtrack is pretty bad, the curse literally ruined this game for me, this game thinks i like millium more than valimar and i Do Not, seeing that little heart on altinas bonding event icon, arianrhod’s motivation being way lamer than she deserves, everyone that died didnt die, everyone that betrayed didnt betray, aberich is lame as hell, osbornes backstory and ending is stupid, why do rhey act like reincarnation means you are the same person???, ishmelga is truly the worst idea ive seen in a while (how dare you bring hamel back and give it such a stupid secret backstory), why does everyone give claire and lechter so many free passes, why does elie look like that
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trails of cold steel 4 is a game with more lows than highs. its supposed to be a culmination of every game that came before it but some parts of this game made me so annoyed or angry that it sometimes had me feeling dumb for ever getting invested at all. even worse, i quite like cold steel 3, i even think its my favorite of the cs games! i liked the timeskip, i really liked how rean’s character and position changed, and i just generally enjoyed that game. but sadly every question it set up is answered in the stupidest ways in cs 4. every death is reversed, every betrayal was a fakeout to “scope out from the inside” while accomplishing nothing, every character is paid off with the stupidest endings and motivations, every woman and girl in erebonia wants to fuck rean even more than before, AND osborne has a new voice and its SO much worse that it sunk any chance of osborne moments working for me
i was spoiled on nearly every detail of this game because rarely have i seem a fandom that spoils every game so throughly 2 weeks after the japanese release, but im not sure what if any of this would have hit more successfully if i hadnt been spoiled, im inclined to think it wouldve been even worse for me honestly
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anyway idk man ive heard several times that reverie is the best trails game i just pray i like it at all at this point (even with c’s identity being spoiled for me, of course :/)
ps the real curse of erebonia is the guy at falcom doubling boob sizes every game and vacuum sealing every womans outfit, please stop him he’s a menace
This review contains spoilers
cs3 spoilers in this review:
this game is so uneven. strong start, great intermission, weak middle, good ending (though loses nearly all impact in retrospect :/), a great epilogue and then ANOTHER epilogue because they dont want to end the game on as sad a note (even though it kind of ruins the mood they Just set up)
seriously, so much of the finale chapter fails to hit knowing that IMMEDIATELY in the next game they walk back crow dying. and i know theres Reasons for it, but man theres looong scenes of weeping and an entire credits sequence all around this that I remember hitting when i played this for the first time on vita, that just totally misses now.
and speaking of weird choices this game has basically three endings. the game could have ended with the occupation epilogue and it would have worked Really well as a downer ending, and a great point of comparison for where rean and lloyd both end up at the end of their respective stories to this point. i’m even willing to give falcom that last free day, because the mood of it at the start is Really good, and having one last free day does being it back around in a nice way. rean returning from tangram gate feeling so bad about everything, claire not even being able to talk to him, all his friends leaving him to move on with their lives as he’s stuck in this rut, its great. but because thats too sad of a way to go out they have to just do the old schoolhouse again so everyone can come together for a SECOND full length final dungeon. I dont remember the epilogue feeling as out of place the first time i played it but i was so wrapped up in my feelings with everything that first time in a way i was less so this time, and it stuck out so much more.
I still like this game and its highs are good, but its lows are so much more pronounced this time. weird game
edit: also oh yeah putting important story content into ng+ only and even then you have to finish the whole game finding these hidden items to get a secret cutscene is so stupid, what were they thinking
this game is so uneven. strong start, great intermission, weak middle, good ending (though loses nearly all impact in retrospect :/), a great epilogue and then ANOTHER epilogue because they dont want to end the game on as sad a note (even though it kind of ruins the mood they Just set up)
seriously, so much of the finale chapter fails to hit knowing that IMMEDIATELY in the next game they walk back crow dying. and i know theres Reasons for it, but man theres looong scenes of weeping and an entire credits sequence all around this that I remember hitting when i played this for the first time on vita, that just totally misses now.
and speaking of weird choices this game has basically three endings. the game could have ended with the occupation epilogue and it would have worked Really well as a downer ending, and a great point of comparison for where rean and lloyd both end up at the end of their respective stories to this point. i’m even willing to give falcom that last free day, because the mood of it at the start is Really good, and having one last free day does being it back around in a nice way. rean returning from tangram gate feeling so bad about everything, claire not even being able to talk to him, all his friends leaving him to move on with their lives as he’s stuck in this rut, its great. but because thats too sad of a way to go out they have to just do the old schoolhouse again so everyone can come together for a SECOND full length final dungeon. I dont remember the epilogue feeling as out of place the first time i played it but i was so wrapped up in my feelings with everything that first time in a way i was less so this time, and it stuck out so much more.
I still like this game and its highs are good, but its lows are so much more pronounced this time. weird game
edit: also oh yeah putting important story content into ng+ only and even then you have to finish the whole game finding these hidden items to get a secret cutscene is so stupid, what were they thinking
Overall I had a great time with this game once again, and its close enough to the original that it'd be totally fine to play this in place of the original, since getting a Wii and the fan patch hooked up would be a lot of effort for some people.
There are of course some slight issues with this remaster (as with all remasters) but for what it's worth I didn't super notice this stuff when playing, and I think everything that made the original good was retained.
The new lighting looks pretty good but does somewhat take away the impact of certain rooms which had unique lighting in the original (which they still have, it just is less of a dramatic difference from the regular hallways now).
The new character models look Fine but on seeing a comparison they are less expressive and are way less animated than the Wii version, which is definitely a shame.
And lastly using the right stick for the flashlight is just more awkward than using the motion controls from the original.
Those issues aside though, the new translation is pretty good and the game still looks and plays great, so I'm happy. If they ever make a Fatal Frame 6 I hope it's closer to this game's style than to 5's.
There are of course some slight issues with this remaster (as with all remasters) but for what it's worth I didn't super notice this stuff when playing, and I think everything that made the original good was retained.
The new lighting looks pretty good but does somewhat take away the impact of certain rooms which had unique lighting in the original (which they still have, it just is less of a dramatic difference from the regular hallways now).
The new character models look Fine but on seeing a comparison they are less expressive and are way less animated than the Wii version, which is definitely a shame.
And lastly using the right stick for the flashlight is just more awkward than using the motion controls from the original.
Those issues aside though, the new translation is pretty good and the game still looks and plays great, so I'm happy. If they ever make a Fatal Frame 6 I hope it's closer to this game's style than to 5's.
This game is in such direct conversation with EO1 that they really are best played as a pair. There are a ton of changes in EO2 from EO1, many of which are about breaking everything that was strong in EO1 and making you take a different, often more challenging, approach here. I don't love every change they make (as fun as it is to use an alternate class in a role, a war magus just feels less secure to have around than a medic did), but the changes that are good are Really important to my enjoyment.
Every town NPC has dialogue every time you reach a new floor, which may be the most important change to the feel of the game from EO1. Every town character gets so much more personality, and the game plays with them (introducing character quirks and quest chains) and the time-of-day system (something that was barely relevant in EO1), all the time. Derek the hospital's doctor works all day and doesn’t want to be overheard, so isn't free to meet with you about a sidequest he's posted until 11PM. And in a later stratum there are tiles that save you a lot of time but can only be crossed at night. You will even speak to miscellaneous NPCs in the labyrinth far more now, a minor but still noticeable change.
The strata theming in EO1 was pretty good, and in the moment feels totally appropriate and strong but I like the theming and design of EO2’s strata (basic as the idea is) a lot more. While the series never quite recaptures the feeling of leading up to and then progressing through EO1’s 5th stratum, the 1st through 4th here are really good, and I like most of the 5th in a gameplay sense (though what a letdown compared to 1’s both visually and thematically, oof.)
And lastly the music is absolutely fantastic here, one of the best soundtracks of the series (though they are nearly all excellent).
Overall a great game, the quibbles I have with it don’t compare with the things I love about it, and I am really happy I revisited Lagaard.
Every town NPC has dialogue every time you reach a new floor, which may be the most important change to the feel of the game from EO1. Every town character gets so much more personality, and the game plays with them (introducing character quirks and quest chains) and the time-of-day system (something that was barely relevant in EO1), all the time. Derek the hospital's doctor works all day and doesn’t want to be overheard, so isn't free to meet with you about a sidequest he's posted until 11PM. And in a later stratum there are tiles that save you a lot of time but can only be crossed at night. You will even speak to miscellaneous NPCs in the labyrinth far more now, a minor but still noticeable change.
The strata theming in EO1 was pretty good, and in the moment feels totally appropriate and strong but I like the theming and design of EO2’s strata (basic as the idea is) a lot more. While the series never quite recaptures the feeling of leading up to and then progressing through EO1’s 5th stratum, the 1st through 4th here are really good, and I like most of the 5th in a gameplay sense (though what a letdown compared to 1’s both visually and thematically, oof.)
And lastly the music is absolutely fantastic here, one of the best soundtracks of the series (though they are nearly all excellent).
Overall a great game, the quibbles I have with it don’t compare with the things I love about it, and I am really happy I revisited Lagaard.
2007
fantastic game, great to revisit the original after so long with the 3ds version
while i think later entries in the series improve a lot of elements of this game, the 5th stratum sequence in this game is unmatched by any other entry in the series, and i was floored by how good it was even having played it before. probably the etrian game with the most interesting mood, with many different aspects of the gameplay combining into a really unique feeling
while i think later entries in the series improve a lot of elements of this game, the 5th stratum sequence in this game is unmatched by any other entry in the series, and i was floored by how good it was even having played it before. probably the etrian game with the most interesting mood, with many different aspects of the gameplay combining into a really unique feeling
man i wish someone would just make a new portrait of ruin
(i generally like the inti sidescrollers ive played and this looked castlevania-ish so i did no research on this before getting it. unfortunately this means i didnt realize it was a spinoff of some ecchi series, so i really didn't like the story or setting. this game is definitely a sequel to their curse of the moon games, (of which i only played the first and only kind of liked) and plays a lot like them.
the music was bad the whole way through, the levels were standard and not that interesting, and the bosses were a fair challenge but the rest of the game being so :/ really brought them down to me. unlocking new abilities to get around stages was kind of fun, but they were all just awkward enough to use that they never felt all that freeing or exciting to use.)
well if nothing else, this game has at least kind of put me in the mood to go back to/restart touhou luna nights, so that's something i guess
(i generally like the inti sidescrollers ive played and this looked castlevania-ish so i did no research on this before getting it. unfortunately this means i didnt realize it was a spinoff of some ecchi series, so i really didn't like the story or setting. this game is definitely a sequel to their curse of the moon games, (of which i only played the first and only kind of liked) and plays a lot like them.
the music was bad the whole way through, the levels were standard and not that interesting, and the bosses were a fair challenge but the rest of the game being so :/ really brought them down to me. unlocking new abilities to get around stages was kind of fun, but they were all just awkward enough to use that they never felt all that freeing or exciting to use.)
well if nothing else, this game has at least kind of put me in the mood to go back to/restart touhou luna nights, so that's something i guess
Remarkably well done game for what it is, had a great time with it. The two new characters are really interesting and enjoyable, and the writing is honestly on-par with the show's.
None of the endings are super substantial but the meat of the game is good, and everything still feels like it wraps up fairly well despite it.
None of the endings are super substantial but the meat of the game is good, and everything still feels like it wraps up fairly well despite it.
1999
probably the best final fantasy ive played/seen???
fun (if underused) cast, interesting story, great setting, gorgeous backgrounds filled with a ton of detail, incredibly charming and characterful animations, great music, weird and engaging systems, and many classic moments. i was in love with this game nearly my entire time with it.
the game doesn't explain itself very well, the story is oddly told at times, and most of the party isn't used nearly as much as you'd want, but what is here is still just excellent, absolutely recommended.
(selphie's blog and the credits video are just two of the best things in final fantasy)
fun (if underused) cast, interesting story, great setting, gorgeous backgrounds filled with a ton of detail, incredibly charming and characterful animations, great music, weird and engaging systems, and many classic moments. i was in love with this game nearly my entire time with it.
the game doesn't explain itself very well, the story is oddly told at times, and most of the party isn't used nearly as much as you'd want, but what is here is still just excellent, absolutely recommended.
(selphie's blog and the credits video are just two of the best things in final fantasy)
i am so mixed on this.
-setting and music do nothing for me but its so clearly supposed to be a lot of this experience
-enemies hit quite hard, which makes exploring sometimes tense and fun, and other times a complete slog
-platforming is pretty fun once you get a few movement abilities but they are So Spaced Out
-equippable souls are varied and interesting, but i never liked having to level them up, it made trying new ones less fun
in the end i dunno man, i never want to feel that i have to grind to fight a boss when im playing castlevania, and certainly not at the slow rate you level up in this game
-setting and music do nothing for me but its so clearly supposed to be a lot of this experience
-enemies hit quite hard, which makes exploring sometimes tense and fun, and other times a complete slog
-platforming is pretty fun once you get a few movement abilities but they are So Spaced Out
-equippable souls are varied and interesting, but i never liked having to level them up, it made trying new ones less fun
in the end i dunno man, i never want to feel that i have to grind to fight a boss when im playing castlevania, and certainly not at the slow rate you level up in this game
fukami getting he/himmed at the end ruined my life
1989
all videogames should strive to be this good, lesser though they are
Even with the roughest edges smoothed out, Battle Network 1 is still the earliest attempt they made for this style of RPG, and it shows.
The internet (world map) design is so labyrinthine and same-y that without the bottom screen maps in the DS version I'd probably have spent several hours more wandering aimlessly than I already did.
Each dungeon having a unique gimmick is fun, but because this is their first attempt, weird things like diagonal movement ice sliding and invisible multi-layered paths make dungeons much more of a pain than they needed to be (but the fixing of several elements in the ElecMan dungeon is a huge help, and makes me feel for all the kids in 2001 playing the most ridiculous version of it.)
While the DS version has spruced up some parts of the combat, even looking back at the GBA version they’ve set up a great base to build from, all the basics that make the combat so fun are here. Each new chip type is fun to try and incorporate, and building MegaMan up with each upgrade is satisfying too. The addition of playable MM Starforce really makes the endgame easy and fun, the lockon+teleport move truly is 200 years in the future tech :p
Story and music are quite barebones in this one, but fine for what they are, and while the Starforce side story is very short and shoehorned in, it does lead to some cute banter between the boys, and I was charmed by it.
Overall glad to check this one off my list! I’d been curious about BN 1 since I was a kid, but I can’t say it’s particularly worth going back to, especially with how much of an improvement even BN 2 is.
Standout track: Fire Field
The internet (world map) design is so labyrinthine and same-y that without the bottom screen maps in the DS version I'd probably have spent several hours more wandering aimlessly than I already did.
Each dungeon having a unique gimmick is fun, but because this is their first attempt, weird things like diagonal movement ice sliding and invisible multi-layered paths make dungeons much more of a pain than they needed to be (but the fixing of several elements in the ElecMan dungeon is a huge help, and makes me feel for all the kids in 2001 playing the most ridiculous version of it.)
While the DS version has spruced up some parts of the combat, even looking back at the GBA version they’ve set up a great base to build from, all the basics that make the combat so fun are here. Each new chip type is fun to try and incorporate, and building MegaMan up with each upgrade is satisfying too. The addition of playable MM Starforce really makes the endgame easy and fun, the lockon+teleport move truly is 200 years in the future tech :p
Story and music are quite barebones in this one, but fine for what they are, and while the Starforce side story is very short and shoehorned in, it does lead to some cute banter between the boys, and I was charmed by it.
Overall glad to check this one off my list! I’d been curious about BN 1 since I was a kid, but I can’t say it’s particularly worth going back to, especially with how much of an improvement even BN 2 is.
Standout track: Fire Field
2022
great music by akira senju, okay but not amazing story, amateur voice acting, sometimes charmingly, sometimes distractingly. battles are super long
story mechanics below:
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(the story choices only kind of mattering and then always folding back into a main plotline was somewhat disappointing. i know anything else would be unrealistic from this scale of game, but still. it was at least fun seeing the different endings for each character's route, far more interesting than the 'golden route' ending.)
story mechanics below:
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(the story choices only kind of mattering and then always folding back into a main plotline was somewhat disappointing. i know anything else would be unrealistic from this scale of game, but still. it was at least fun seeing the different endings for each character's route, far more interesting than the 'golden route' ending.)