Fun Fact: The only dungeon in this game without a door leading to an empty room is literal Hell

100% - All Steam Achievements

NES series often went in very different and divisive directions with their sequels, and Final Fantasy is no different. This is probably almost everyone's least favorite of the (classic) FF games and even in this remake I can see why.

It really is mostly the leveling system. Throughout my playthrough I really tried to find the good in it because I believe it is such a strong concept for how character development can be done in an RPG, but it just really is at odds with the rest of the game design.
My issues are almost entirely with how weapon and spell levels work, and not really with stat levels as other than a long stretch of time where Maria simply refused to gain Magic or Intellect even though she was constantly using black magic, I found the stat progression pretty consistent.

However, with weapons and spells I was simply baffled by the decision to have them level depending on how many times you use them in a single battle. In my playthrough I found almost every random encounter to be able to be ended in only 1-3 turns if I simply attacked with every character. However doing this won't level up your attacks beyond a certain point, and you'll have to either wait for enemies to get stronger or start playing sub optimally and not acting with 3/4 of your party. Admittedly, this is not something that will ever prevent you from progressing in the game's story, and only is an issue if you try to max something, or even worse EVERYTHING, out (and you will have to do this for at least one weapon and spell for all achievements). The system just doesn't work with how easy and repetitive encounters are.

Speaking of encounters, I'd like to touch on the dungeons in this game, which are kinda miserable to play through. I won't harp on this since I'm sure it's been mentioned in other reviews, but the "trap doors" to empty rooms are just frustrating and nothing else. This frustration is only compounded by what I think is a substantially higher random encounter rate than the first game had AND the lack of effective multi-target spells (they will only tickle your enemies in this game since they do 1/8 the already meager damage of a single target spell). Additionally, I found the dungeons to just be very boring mazelike hallways that are both difficult and uninteresting to navigate.

To end this review on a good note, I'll touch on the story. Final Fantasy II actually attempts to tell a story with characters and events, unlike most games on the NES which at best create a decent world for you to explore. While the story is likely something you've seen before (it is very much the plot of Star Wars with small deviations) it is one of the most complex of the NES/famicom games.

I really like a lot of the ideas in this game, but I feel that they are ahead of their time and held back by some of the artifacts of being a JRPG from 1988. I am positive that these ideas will be elaborated on in games I play from the coming decades (SaGa, The Elder Scrolls, etc.) and eagerly await seeing them used in a game that frustrates me less.

Finally finished this and it genuinely blew me away. One of the most ambitious games ever made with a scope that still feels huge decades later. Probably the most deep, unpredictable and utterly insane story I've seen in the medium. It covers any themes they could get past the censors - mental health, organized religion, free will, classism, genocide to name a few. (I don't think the ESRB played past 10 hours.) The presentation is outstanding with dynamic in-engine cutscene direction not over-relying on FMVs. It's a wonderful looking work in general with 2D sprites in dense 3D scifi environments and awesome mech / biblical / eldritch designs. When a lot of other RPGs on the console were using prerendered backgrounds these fully explorable multi-level populated towns seemed magic. The 360 camera made me feel like I was peering into little dioramas. I also enjoy the combat! Fighter style combo inputs either on foot or in giant mechs with complex mechanics and amazing animation.

It's well known that the developers ran out of time and money on the second disc and it becomes apparent with how the storytelling style suddenly changes and it's not nearly as open. This can even be felt in the music with how there isn't nearly enough unique tracks to cover all the different scenes and locations. So Xenogears is categorically unfinished. Disc 1 is really consistent though and by itself is more compelling and fully featured than other entire games. It was one of the longest of its day. If Square had given the team what they needed to complete it as fully envisioned with a Final Fantasy tier budget, it coulda been the best damn RPG ever. Even with those limitations and some frustrating moments, I think Disc 2 really picked up and reeled me back in, and the last hours were peak fiction.

I don't love everything about Xenogears, even the story - it's definitely not flawless and could be brutal to get through at times so I wouldn't usually give a "10/10" BUT I strongly feel that it's a work of art. That rating represents the huge impression it made on me and my respect for the vision and creativity. Anything less wouldn't be right. It continually impressed me for 50 hours and the gameplay remained fun. It's not easily recommendable because of its unintuitive design and sluggish English text speed (you NEED to apply a text speed code). But if you love Chrono Trigger and FF7 you owe it to yourself to try it out... I consider them a holy trinity of sorts.

"PERHAPS, THIS IS HELL."

I had high expectations for Signalis since its release in October 2022 but was busy catching up to the genre with Silent Hill and Resident Evil to fully understand the depth of the survival horror era.

What a ride it's been, to come to the conclusion of nearly 30 years of survival horror with Signalis.

It was breathtaking for the entirety of my playthrough and I loved playing it.
But what's more is the understanding behind it. I had no problem witnessing the result of the magnificent community that worked together to ensure proper explanation and theories about the world to us and the audacity from the devs to make a deep enough story that self drives anyone to craziness as it did to the characters from the game.

The fact that two people created this game amazes me, and the level of detail and love that emanates from it makes me really grateful that inde dev can now express themselves to a wider audience thanks to the digitization of games.

Signalis is not a reference dump.
What's the difference between a good reference and a bad one, or between homage and plagiarism?
It’s the purpose, and Signalis' aim, to bring such a tragic story to life, moves me.

It's a compelling story of romance, purpose and promise.
A story in which the boundary of identity between gestalt and human is revealed in a magnificent movement of devotion.

I had to read a few theories online to fully understand some very simple plot details from the game's documentation. But I think it's part of the beauty of video games to be able to create a community that helps each other in a never ending loop of friendship that crosses the boundary of distance between players.

I love tank control, I love Tchaikovski, I love Lovecraft, I love romance, I love time traveling and loop, I love difficulty, I love NieR, Neon Genesis Evangelion, GinEiDen and Monogatari. What more to ask than Signalis to be one of my favorite games of all time ? God, I love video games.

Videogames peaked here. I'm really saddened by Japan Studio's disappearance now. I didn't like GRR that much, but this game however has connected much more with me, the controls feel so responsive and everything seems so beautiful and gratifying even just travelling around the world. Endearing characters, and although kinda overblown by sidequests, the game is just as long as it needs to be. The gravity styles you can use on this game are give a much more refreshing experience that gives your playstyle the feeling of always improving and expanding.
What a beautiful game