Revier's Stuff of Dubious Value

After touring through both Illusion of Gaia and Terranigma, I got curious about their predecessor, the supposedly arcade-y, action-y and simplistic Soul Blazer. Well, it is certainly all those things. BUT, it is also a very oddly charming and enjoyable game, despite that. I think this comes down to its gameplay loop, mainly. See, you're an angel tasked to destroy monsters and rescue captive/dead life, and you accomplish both by destroying monster spawners. Doing so not only offers XP and progression, but directly releases formerly captive/dead inhabitants immediately. As in, fully functional NPCs, complete with sprites, dialogue, and sometimes even sidequests and items! This means that while you're making progress in the dungeon, you're also actively progressing with the restoration of life, and can get to feel it yourself. The game smartly uses this format to create fun vignettes, like delving into the backstory of a dolphin who was a shipwrecked man in its former life, or...

 So, in response to my Illusion of Gaia review, some people told me that Terranigma was that game but better in every way. Considering how Illusion of Gaia had fallen somewhat short of its great ideas, this easily grabbed my attention. Turns out, the truth is a bit more complicated. Terranigma starts out great. The initial hook is quite convincing, the protagonist feels a lot more fluid, and has far smoother moves. The "dungeons" in Act 1 are rather simplistic, but this can be easily overlooked, as it is effectively the game teaching the player the ropes. Act 2 is even better, as that's when the protagonist begins to revive life on Earth, and the player gets grand payoffs from guiding him around. The dungeons are a bit too action oriented for my liking, but it's still fine, they're all mostly well designed for their purpose and are decently fun romps. Unfortunately, the same can't be said for the bosses, which randomly block all use of magic and are designed m...

 Illusion of Gaia is many things. The short version is that it's a blend of a puzzle game and an RPG, where you run through various landmarks of the world in search of six macguffins. The long version is....well, let's just say this is a game with layers upon layers. But I didn't write this to describe the game, but rather to deliver my judgement on it. So, let me get this out of the way: it is, in simple terms, a Good Game, with certain really big caveats. Chief among them is the inconsistent quality of dungeons, where some dungeons are decently imaginative while others rely on moon logic or excessive backtracking, and make you want to tear your hair out. There is exactly one Great level in this game, the Sky Gardens, while Mu and Mt. Temple are aggravatingly padded out dungeons, not helped in the slightest by their selection of enemies.  So what makes it Good, then? Well, the game does try its hand at a rather intriguing premise. It genuinely captures the spirit of advent...