Duke Reivier's Grand Game Emporium

So, I just got done watching a rather amazing and hilarious LP of Xenogears, over here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMthTW4vRq8bNjz1PVnn-2YCTWc5vHJ1O Doubtless it is an extremely flawed game, like so many overambitious games; the combat mechanics are undercooked, the dungeon design is horrible, many of the story beats are, at best, loosely connected with each other, and the game simply seems to have no idea about how to effectively exposit its narrative details or provide satisfying bits of gameplay. Yet, despite it all, I find it to possess a strange, compelling charm. It is absurd, for sure, overblown for sure too, and has more than its fair share of writing issues, but at the heart of it all, it's very sincere about what it's trying to be. Rarely does it ever feel like a story moment was inserted just for its own sake, and while there are absolutely moments that drag, there are just as many that are solidly hilarious or moving. It helps that the game knows how to ...

Repost of a review I wrote two years ago, saving it for posterity and better visibility. It holds pretty well even today. I think the game is an interesting and surprisingly heavy story of people stuck between the politics of two warmongering empires. I particularly like the character writing for the two central leads, Lunair and Revier. They start out rough, but over time, solidly build up a complimenting relationship, featuring reckless, well intentioned bravado on one side, and cold, calculated yet oddly humane pragmatism on the other. But that's the rub - it takes so long to truly get going. The first Act is extremely rough, and even when getting to the considerably tighter second Act, there are still multiple rough patches of poorly paced and ill fitting scenes to get past. However, the experience at the end is worth it - there's an intensely tense plot involving high politics and personal stakes, which eventually escalates to a dramatic, sober finish. The third and fourt...

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...

Star Ocean 2, the original, was an action RPG released in 1999. Made by the ambitious and currently defunct developer company, tri-Ace, it featured a simple yet compelling formula: mix a real time action centric interpretation of the "standard" JRPG formula, as popularized by Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest, with roleplaying mechanics manifested as additional, non violent yet useful skills that could be invested into. Your characters could either choose to play through the game in a straightforward manner, or pick up cooking to make healing items mid dungeon, or call birds to supply them in dungeons, or even smith all sorts of amazing gear. Sadly, as is the case with several tri-Ace projects, the final game fell way short of its ambitions. The alternative skills required absurd amounts of investment to pay off. Most of their results weren't worth the effort. Oftentimes even with excessive investment, failures were very common. As such, it was mostly used just to gamble on...