A look back at: Shin Megami Tensei

My birthday tends to often be a day in which I want to deadline my completion of certain things. Okay, today isn't my birthday, but I wanted to finally get through with Shin Megami Tensei before then. And so I did, today, and amusingly enough while on the clock as well. This game honestly should not have taken over a month, but I get extremely busy with other things, plus my return to Freelancer has me playing that a whole lot. Budgeting time ends up being a big hurdle in what I do nowadays, huh.

Anyways, it's a good thing I played Digital Devil Story 2, because this game is actually just that except on the SNES. Annoyingly, the guide I followed for this game was awful, it had barely any recommendations for what demons to recruit, so I just picked the ones that had the best HP values. Making matters worse, well there's a ton of things, but fusing demons didn't get me anywhere truly substantial. And like the other games, you want to keep your human characters healthy as much as possible, meaning grinding to give them better stats and also just plain keeping them out of trouble, since your heroine has the important spells and your hero has the computer.

I felt a lot of annoyance with this game's encounter rate, so much more than Digital Devil Story 2. Almost every step was an encounter, and you get back-to-back encounters very, very frequently. I ended up overloaded on both makka and magnetite as a result, so those weren't really worrisome (though those last few shops have the best equipment in the hundreds of thousands of makka, my god). Figuring out which branching path, law, chaos, or neutral, was tough at first, but I eventually settled for neutral since it seems to cover the most baggage, plus it kills everyone! How fun. But of course, all that damn grinding, it takes a toll on me. And heck, the alignment screws up how I would even recruit some demons. There were ones I absolutely wanted, but the way my alignment leaned prevented me from doing so. And even then, the demons get super stingy and want all sorts of stuff. And others, of course, they'll just leave. Bastards.

And with it comes my traditional RPG fatigue. I really wanted to get it over with at that point, so I used the PAR codes to remove encounters from the last stretch. This helped me explore things without fuss, though there's still the tough bosses. And honestly, should mention that there are bosses that are either immune or have innate reflection of certain skills, so its makes you feel awful for hitting yourself with a mass shock spell effect. This game had a good stride early on, setting the examples for the hero, the law hero, the chaos hero, and the heroine, and to me, it just sort of falls flat once Tokyo gets nuked. Oh, you couldn't avoid that, but you get a cool dream sequence, then have to work your way back through. And things happen, and your alignment makes things go one way or the other. Sometimes you even get locked in at your alignment until you can progress further. This game really does tell you how hard it gets.

A look back at: Pokemon Emerald Seaglass

Yes, that's right. It's another one of those ROM hacks that doesn't change the setting from either Hoenn or Kanto. In this case Hoenn, but you get the idea. This hack despite not providing a new setting ended up with a niche following on Reddit, basically giving players a chance to experience Emerald as if it were done Gen-2 style. Not in a Gen-2 engine, the engine is still Gen-3, but with Gen-2 sprites. That is its main selling point by far.

But sprites aren't gonna impress me as much as gameplay. So we gotta focus on what was changed in that regard and see what really shone. This game's got a Shiny Charm out of the box? Okay! Though I didn't get shinies, the thought is nice. What about that Gamecube being used as a cheating device or to change up playthroughs? This offers a ton of replayability. Is that a DexNav? One that totally works superbly? Yes! Now we're talking. Catching mons is a pain in most games, but this always makes it easier. There's even following Pokemon and you can set whichever to follow you. Plus your notebook has level caps if you want more challenge. Of course, I would NOT be satisfied if battling your opponents resulted in some sameiness, and it delivered. Mons from Gen-1 to Gen-3 are always available, along with newer evolutions and the Applin and Tinkatink lines for good measure. Maps remain the same, with minor changes here and there regarding some of the newer content, you got a wishing well for example for getting random mons. And the Pokedex is extremely helpful for picking and choosing some of my team members due to showing all the abilities, moves, locations, and evolution methods. There's even Alolan and Galarian forms available.

And the best part is how you can play it any style you want. Nuzlocke, type expert, casual, anything will work. It's what Emerald probably should have been all along. They even keep things that were joyous to begin with, like contests and the Battle Frontier. I have once again made a walkthrough, but this isn't as detailed. Emerald Seaglass has TONS of documentation and I don't need to go over what has already been covered.

What is the best ship for Freelancer?

You know I'm really running out of ideas for new blog posts, especially when you have ten different things on your mind with regards to your own work schedule, your game schedule (cause I want to try every new Doom release ASAP these days and get secret descriptions done soonafter), having to budget time to playing the latest Pokemon ROM hack that I wanted to try as well as going through the Shin Megami Tensei saga of games (oh yeah, I'm on the title game this time, by the way). It got to the point where I ended up doing two things. One is to actually play these games during downtimes at work or when no one else is looking. And the other is to revisit Freelancer, a PC game that more or less is now abandonware at this point and I unfortunately have to do the abandonware download (but relax, I still have the CD-ROM of the game itself, it's just that my current machine doesn't have a disk drive anymore). So I did, and I'm currently rolling through the campaign as per usual and it got me thinking, what really is the best ship to use in the games?

Sure enough, you're gonna see the Eagle, Sabre, and Titan compete for the top spot, something that people on GameFAQs or other boards probably did some things on. But we will expand this to other ships and during the course of the actual game, so here we go.

You start off with the Starflier, of course this ship will NOT be the absolute best at anything other than turning speed and small frame, of which it's undeniably the best. But it gets blown up super quickly otherwise. Obviously, you want something better by the time Mission 1 is over. So here are your choices:

Rhino (Liberty Freighter)
Patriot (Liberty Light Fighter)
Startracker (Civilian Light Fighter)
Defender (Liberty Heavy Fighter)
Bloodhound (Pirate Heavy Fighter)

So you have five ships available, the first three on Manhattan (with the Rhino also on Pittsburgh), the Defender on the Missouri, and the Bloodhound on Rochester. The Dagger can be seen on Buffalo Base if you are friendly with Outcasts and Rogues, but you need to complete Mission 2 to have a chance to purchase it, so we're skipping it for now.

The first three ships on the planet, well, they won't be the winners here. The Rhino is the closest due to all the guns, but being a freighter, it's a huge target and its turning speed is of course gonna be what you would expect for a freighter. Nevertheless, it somehow is the best ship for the Liberty portion of the Freelancer speedrun, oddly enough. Still, you'll die quickly in that thing, so it loses in a normal playthrough. The Startracker and Patriot seem like logical steps up from the Starflier, the Patriot basically being a sleeker-framed ship with similar turning speed, while the Startracker is slightly more armored. But neither of them compensate well enough for the tougher missions ahead, so they're also out. That leaves the Defender and the Bloodhound, and you want to know the consensus?

Winner: Defender

Yes, the Defender is just better. The advantage both ships have over the planetside ships is a forward-firing turret, but the Defender is better to obtain without too much trouble and has more guns overall. The Bloodhound is a wide target from the sides, as you probably already gathered from fighting Rogues, so it's just really only better than the ships on Manhattan. With that said, we'll hold on to the Defender, and after Mission 2 finishes, you can access Liberty's other sectors and two more ships are now available:

Dagger (Borderworld Light Fighter)
Mule (Pirate Freighter)

I already said the Dagger was on Buffalo, a Rogue's base, but the Mule is also on a Rogues base, Alcatraz in California. If you like playing as a pseudo-tank that doesn't move well but has good turrets, the Mule is the next step up from the Rhino. But how would they hold against the current best ship?

Winner: Defender

Nope, the Defender still wins. It can get you through the Liberty portion without too much fuss, while the Mule is difficult to handle aside from having the guns. The Dagger is a light fighter meaning it doesn't have the best of weaponry compared to heavy fighters, although it too has a nice forward-firing turret, making the Dagger have five guns pointing forward; the Defender still outshines it. Plus being friendly with the Rogues is a problem.

So the Defender is capable of dealing with the Liberty portion of Freelancer's campaign rather well, up until after Mission 4 where you are now in Bretonia and the ship's class 4 gun/shield status gets outshined soon enough. The entire Sirius sector completely opens up once you land on Leeds, but the only ships you can buy are in Bretonia proper (and Liberty I guess, but you're hostile with them right now). So here's what you can buy:

Clydesdale (Bretonia Freighter)
Cavalier (Bretonia Light Fighter)
Crusader (Bretonia Heavy Fighter)
Piranha (Bounty Hunter Light Fighter)
Legionnaire (Corsair Light Fighter)

The Bretonia planets have the Cavalier, Clydesdale, and Piranha, with the Piranha also being available on Sheffield Station and the Cavalier on Battleship Hood. Speaking of battleships, the Bretonia battleships are where the Crusader can be nabbed, and the Legionnaire is on the Junker base Trafalgar. Once again, the planetside ships are not gonna be winners. The Clydesdale is just a step up for freighters, nothing too spectacular. The Piranha loses to the Cavalier as far as gun/shield class goes, as it only goes up to 4 while the Cavalier goes up to 5. Incidentally the Legionnaire also has a gun/shield class of 5 as does the Crusader. The Legionnaire of course fairs better than the Cavalier armor-wise, but it's got a strange frame (as does the Piranha) overall. Bulky for a light fighter though.

Winner: Crusader

But of course, the heavy fighter is generally the choice here. Although the Crusader doesn't have a forward-firing turret, it's certainly important for this portion of the campaign, so you got that going for you. However, after mission 5, it's important to note that ships OUTSIDE of Bretonia are now available.

Drone (Kusari Freighter)
Dromedary (Borderworld Freighter)
Drake (Kusari Light Fighter)

As I said, the entire Sirius sector is open once you reach Bretonia for the first time, therefore going back to Mactan (assuming you are friendly enough with Outcasts and Hackers) for the Dromedary and going up to the Kusari planets for the Drake and Drone (which is actually only available on Junyo and New Tokyo) is actually an option to pick. But can they beat the Crusader?

Winner: Crusader

Mission 6 segues into Mission 7 and it can be a bit difficult to balance things out. Mission 6 of course has the race mission, so something with better turning speed is ideal, but you can manage it in a Crusader. Heck, the advanced walkthrough says you can do it in a Dromedary for that matter, but that's a story for another time. The reason the Crusader wins overall is because of how important firepower can be for Mission 7, since the combat has you battling several non-fighter craft Rheinland sends out, including a fleet in Tau-29. Though it was closer than it should be, honestly you can totally have fun in the racing part of Mission 6 in a Drake, and win super easily due to its perfect turning speed, it's not too necessary. The race is actually not that difficult overall. But now we reach Kusari proper, and these ships will more or less outclass the Crusader by this point.

Hawk (Civilian Light Fighter)
Barracuda (Bounty Hunter Heavy Fighter)
Dragon (Kusari Heavy Fighter)
Wolfhound (Pirate Heavy Fighter)

The Dragon is on Kusari battleships, and the Hawk and Barracuda are on the Kusari Planets (though New Tokyo has a Drone instead of a Hawk, the Hawk could also be purchased on Kyoto and the Barracuda can also be purchased on Planet Curacao). It's really odd that the Wolfhound could not be acquired until you reach Kusari proper, as it is on two pirate bases in previous locations: Montezuma in Cortez and Arranmore in Dublin; of course, you need some rephacking to get that and if I'm being frank the Wolfhound is honestly not too worth it. Better than the Mule, and got the firepower and armor, but it's a HUGE target for a heavy fighter. The Hawk is also not worth it considering the Barracuda is on the same planets usually.

Winner: Barracuda

The Dragon is almost at the Barracuda's level apart from cargo space and turning speed. Both unfortunately don't have forward-firing turrets (the Wolfhound has them though). But I remembered Starman Omega's ships FAQ about subgroups and noticed that the Dragon really suffers from having its parts blow off and extra damage from missiles, and this was more than enough to convince me that the Dragon, although cool, is an awful ship in missile dogfights. The Barracuda it is, and it will be serviceable until you get to the Osiris. But will it beat the cheap Anubis for the remainder of the singleplayer campaign?

Winner: Anubis (Order Very Heavy Fighter)

The key to the last few missions is that you'll eventually be dealing with some static (or really large) targets, so having all the firepower needed is important. The Barracuda and Anubis have six guns, one turret, and a torpedo slot (plus mines), and while the Barracuda has better maneuverability, the Anubis has the forward-firing turret for extra firepower. Therefore, even though it's more of a target, the Anubis will serve you good enough to beat the single-player campaign's last legs.

And that leads to the post-game, where we will do things interestingly. The idea is that I will go up a gun/shield class from the Anubis, whose highest class is 6, and go from there. Class 7 ships:

Banshee (Rheinland Light Fighter)
Humpback (Rheinland Freighter)
Stiletto (Borderworld Heavy Fighter)

Winner: Stiletto

None of these ships are really worth it since two more ships are available in Rheinland (Stiletto on Bruchsal, Banshee and Humpback on Rheinland planets, plus Holstein), but we'll go with the Heavy Fighter here due to it being the most logical step up from the Anubis. It even has the forward-firing turret! The Humpback has the worst maneuverability of all the freighters and isn't even better than the Dromedary in terms of cargo space, while the Banshee is okay, but only has four guns and no torpedoes or turrets. Now for the Class 8 ships:

Valkyrie (Rheinland Heavy Fighter)
Falcon (Civilian Heavy Fighter)

Winner: Falcon

I would prefer getting the Falcon after the Anubis instead of the Stiletto or Valkyrie after the single-player campaign to bridge into the better ships later on. The Valkyrie is cooler, but not only do you not get a cloaking Valkyrie, it is slightly weaker and turns slower than the Falcon. It's also only available on Battleship Westfalen, the only Rheinland battleship to land on, while the Falcon is sold on a whopping FIVE planets (New Berlin, Stuttgart, Baden Baden, Hamburg, and Kurile). It's like they were gonna lay it out to you there. Unfortunately neither the Valkyrie or Falcon have forward-firing turrets. Now to the Class 9 ships:

Centurion (Corsair Heavy Fighter)
Hammerhead (Bounty Hunter Very Heavy Fighter)

Winner: This is honestly a toss up.

The biggest problem is, do you want to keep using that Falcon until you get one of the better VHFs now? Or do you want the extra bridge ship? Because both of these two ships are expensive, yet you can save some extra credits to get one of the better VHFs. Nevertheless, both are decent steps up. The Centurion has decent forward firepower and armor but not-so-good maneuverability overall, plus you gotta be friendly with the Corsairs since it's on their Cadiz base. The Hammerhead despite being classified as a VHF is weaker in armor than the Centurion, with similar firepower, better maneuverability, and better availability on a corporate base (Freistadt). It's honestly a toss-up because you could, but you can do better. Not to mention both ships once again don't have a forward-firing turret. Now for the three best VHFs, the moment you have been waiting for.

Eagle (Civilian Very Heavy Fighter)
Titan (Corsair Very Heavy Fighter)
Sabre (Borderworld Very Heavy Fighter)

Winner: Toss-up between Eagle and Sabre
My personal pick: Sabre

First of all, the Titan loses out due to lacking manueverability, a forward-firing turret, and its cost being slightly higher than the Sabre and Eagle and needing to land on Leon base or Planet Crete to get. Sure it's got the best armor overall, but firepower is what a Very Heavy Fighter wants. That leaves the Eagle, the better ship for maneuverability, and the Sabre, the better one for firepower. The Eagle loses in my opinion due to lacking the forward-firing turret that the Sabre actually has. But many people do swear by it, it's probably the most popular of the VHFs cause of the nice balance overall. Also helps that it is available at any easy-enough location, you just need the Zoners to not be hostile and get it at Freeport 9. For the Sabre, you got to have the Hessians (at Vogtland) or the Outcasts (at Malta) friendly enough for getting it, nothing a bribe on a neutral base won't fix though. Again, my preference is the Sabre. You probably like the Eagle or are rogue enough to say the Titan trumps all. But to recap.

Missions 1-4: Defender
Missions 5-7: Crusader
Missions 6-10: Barracuda
Missions 11-13: Anubis
Best Class 7 ship: Stiletto
Best Class 8 ship: Falcon
Best Class 9 ship: Centurion or Hammerhead (toss up)
Best Class 10 ship: Eagle or Sabre (toss up)

A look back at: Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei II

Stupid work made me take an entire month on an NES game! Oh well, I had a number of other major projects going on, and even then this game could have taken at the very least two and a half weeks overall. And yeah, it's gonna be a Megami Tensei marathon until my 200th game, mostly, and now I'm on the second game of the series. While keeping the major hallmarks of what made the first game what it is, this one essentially crosses over the mythological demons of lore with a setting that predates the Fallout franchise. Yep, nuclear apocalypse, in Japan though. Humans live in bomb shelters or if they're lucky enough, ailing cities. And then there's the demons where the recruiting process has improved somewhat. Not only can you have six members in your party, but can store up to about ten or so demons, and can remove them from the computer as you wish! QoL changes are usually the ones I like. Still a bit of a hassle to heal up party members by doing so individually for each one using the girl's spells.

Oh speaking of, the game's got a male and female lead once again, but this time there's no canon names. There's also this random best friend of yours who, surprise, turns traitor but dies a good guy. Yeah, one of those. And then there's the whole "our demons are different" thing, almost to the point where it looks like every demon is against one another. No wonder certain good-aligned demons consider your party a party of "saviors" and could join. Of course, joining means stopping the malice you inflict and bribing them with goods. Still super annoying when they take your stuff and run. The new overworld mechanics are nice too, but the encounter rate makes going to a simple rest stop a pain to the point where I can easily have up to TEN encounters before even making it there!

You of course want to rely on your demons and keep them in good shape. Being able to use teleportation spells and healing springs and fusion temples much easier is a big QoL change that I enjoy, as is the actual save feature (original game had to have the clunky password system). Having multiple endings could have been nice, but I actually found both endings kinda boring, with the good ending only slightly better. It was definitely an interesting follow-up to the first game and grew the beard for the franchise well. Anyways, I will probably take a few days break before checking out Shin Megami Tensei next.

A look back at: Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei

Alright, it's time. We're gonna try to go through the Megami Tensei franchise at a relatively steady pace as best as I possibly can. And we're gonna start from the beginning, from when the series was perhaps the most toughest.

Every first-person dungeon crawler I've had the chance of playing really does not mess around, and this game isn't an exception. Like in M&M and Wizardry, you get to choose the stats to start out with, and Strength and Wisdom are the main two I'd invest in to keep the main character HP and spells up. And trust me, these characters start out weak. The battles in the early part will take a while just to get rid of some enemies, sometimes I had to run. With a few levels, they can get better equipment and thus better survivability. And from then, the devil convincing and the devil summoning would then work, but I gotta be rationing them properly. Because nobody likes too many demons, so fusing the good ones to make even better ones is important. And then there's level requirements! More grinding! Ugh.

That's not even getting to the fact that statuses on your main characters can be very debilitating, yet for the demons themselves it's not as big a deal. Anything that prevents your movement is bad enough, but if Nakajima's hit with one he cannot summon or return any demons, and if it's Yumiko, you're not gonna be able to heal. Having only one place to restore statuses or resurrect fallen allies in the game is a huge problem, especially since you will get far from the beginning that you would LOVE seeing those warps to head back (at least until Yumiko gets Staruto spell). And then you have the ones who just simply hit hard and take lots of hits. Sure you only battle one species of enemy at a time in this game, but you could easily get more just immediately after them. No rest sometimes! Oh and the MAG currency is one I wanted to safeguard since it prevents demons from losing HP when walking through these maze-y corridors.

Ah yes, this being a dungeon crawler of course we've got to deal with mazes. What did you expect? Gotta have a guide handy to see where you need to go, look out for the traps and holes, find where the shops are (honestly these shops are so random), figure out hidden doorways, how to go through areas you can't see through, dealing with fixed encounters, tiles that disorient you. It's all here. Impressive amount of mechanics for a game on the Famicom, but it's like the others, HARD.

RPG Ranks: Up to 190

You know I nearly forgot that I had to do one of these considering both how long it's been since I did one and the fact that The Magic of Scheherazade, the last game I played, was so short and I almost forgot I did it as my 190th RPG. Anyways, let's go ahead and do another one of these rankings, including the rest of the ones from beforehand.

190. Deep Dungeon 3 (#114)
189. Golvellius: Valley of Doom (#21)
188. Hydlide: (#53)
187. Deep Dungeon (#112)
186. Startropics (#12)
185. The Guardian Legend (#15)
184. Deep Dungeon 2 (#113)
183. Minelvaton Saga: Ragon no Fukkatsu (#118)
182. Shining Wisdom (#52)
181. Popful Mail (#103)
180. Deep Dungeon 4 (#124)
179. Ys. (#96)
178. Secret of the Stars (#107)
177. Dragon Quest (#76)
176. Dual Orb II (#86)
175. Ys. III (#123)
174. Ys II (#102)
173. Wizardry IV: The Return of Werdna (#144)
172. Majin Eiyuuden Wataru Gaiden (#19)
171. Dragon Quest II (#79)

170. Lagoon (#184)

This action RPG's ranking here is here because of how short your sword is. Yeah, seriously. Your sword is SHORT. It certainly has that early Ys. feel to it, but many criticize Lagoon for basically not doing what Ys. did. At least it tried, had a decent-enough story to go by as well as regenerating health. I ended up figuring out enemy patterns and timing the sword fairly well to get some enemies defeated, but this is another action RPG where it looks like magic reigns more supreme in how to hit things, at least until you run out.

169. Crusader of Centy (#8)
168. Orphen: Scion of Sorcery (#131) 

167. Magic Knight Rayearth (#48)
166. Digimon World 4 (#174)

165. Alundra 2 (#188)

Alundra 2 isn't a bad sequel, it was just not a good game. Having nothing to do with the original title didn't make this game bad, what made it bad were bad camera controls, annoying knockbacks, the puzzles combined with the camera, and a fairly cookie-cutter plot of "bad guy forces hero to do stuff while other bad guy schemes behind the scenes on everything". Oh and having to earn better combo attacks for the sword swiping, the oddities of mercy invincibility for this game, and that magic is overpowered compared to everything else. Shame too, we got some great voice actors like Scott Menville who actually lent their voices to this title.

164. The 7th Saga (#77)
163. Final Fantasy Legend II (#46)
162. Final Fantasy Legend III (#54)
161. Faria: A World of Mystery and Danger! (#17)
160. Ranma 1/2: Treasure of the Red Cat Gang (#121)
159. Grandia III (#133)
158. Final Fantasy (#2)
157. Final Fantasy Legend (#43)
156. Wizardry III: Legacy of Llylgamyn (#143)
155. Wizardry II: The Knight of Diamonds (#142)
154. Lunar: Walking School (#44)
153. Silva Saga (#119)
152. Great Greed (#47)
151. Tenchi Muyo! Game Hen (#93)
150. Phantasy Star II (#16)
149. Silva Saga II (#122)
148. Lufia & The Fortress of Doom (#6)
147. Robotrek (#101)
146. Final Fantasy Adventure (#105)
145. Warsong (#56)
144. Final Fantasy II (#135)
143. Dragon Quest IV (#94)
142. Shining Force: The Sword of Hajya (#129)
141. Shining Force (#106)
140. Shining in the Darkness (#82)

139. Shining Force II (#186)

With my experience having slugged through two other Shining Force games, I had a much better reception of Shining Force II. Well, apart from some of the names being recycled for totally different characters and such, the Shining Force's universe is so oddly intertwined. But even with that said I just found Shining Force II more enjoyable, more immersive, than the chapter-based predecessor. I certainly won't ever forget the annoying Mithril RNG above all else though.

138. Wizardry V: Heart of the Maelstrom: (#146)
137. Wild ARMs 4 (#136)
136. Phantasy Star III (#71)
135. Romancing SaGa (#61)
134. Dragon Quest III (#89)
133. Princess Crown (#126)
132. Might and Magic Book One: The Secret of the Inner Sanctum (#153)
131. Wizardry VI: Bane of the Cosmic Forge (#147)
130. Might and Magic II: Gates to Another World (#154)
129. Breath of Fire (#9)
128. Final Fantasy Mystic Quest (#75)
127. Wizardry: Proving Grounds for the Mad Overlord (#141)
126. Might and Magic III: Isles of Terra (#157)
125. Might and Magic IV: Clouds of Xeen (#158)
124. Might and Magic V: Darkside of Xeen (#159)
123. Phantasy Star (#3)
122. Dragon Quest V (#104)
121. Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure (#84)
120. Earthbound ZERO (#88)
119. Realms of Arkania: Blade of Destiny (#161)
118. Realms of Arkania: Star Trail (#164)
117. Digimon World (#171)
116. Chocobo's Mysterious Dungeon (#145)
115. Chocobo's Dungeon 2 (#165)
114. Jade Cocoon (#58)
113. Koudelka (#163)
112. Vandal Hearts II (#162)
111. Digimon World 3 (#173)
110. Tales of Destiny 2 (#176)
109. Digimon World 2 (#172)
108. Wild ARMs (#22)

107. Moon: Remix RPG Adventure (#183)

Also known as just Moon, this game, originally a Playstation title, finally got a Western release recently, and I had to check it out via the Steam release. And it's something completely different. Sure, it starts out simple enough...wait what? You're actually going through the television? Actually living in the world your hero knight had set out on a journey with? No combat? But yet you can still die if you screw yourself with your own energy. Spread the love while deconstructing what regular RPGs were about. No wonder this game inspired Toby Fox's creations.

106. Star Ocean: Blue Sphere (#109)
105. SaGa Frontier 2 (#132)

104. Dragon Quest VI (#116)
103. Sailor Moon: Another Story (#37)
102. Star Ocean (#67)
101. Final Fantasy III (#55)
100. Tales of Eternia (#136)
99. Xenogears (#30)
98. Odin Sphere (#34)
97. Spectrobes (#152)
96. Illusion of Gaia (#51)

95. Brain Lord (#189)

At least when Enix, or rather Produce!, produced this one, it wasn't ENTIRELY the worst thing. But they decided on the name Brain Lord for a reason. Prepare to tease your brain with some riddling block and boulder puzzles! Oddly the game is short though, you can go through it well aside from the puzzles, as the combat is really nothing to write home about and the familiars you get as allies really do help make combat mostly an easy affair. It's got some ties to Mystic Ark and the 7th Saga only with character names too.

94. Langrisser II (#73)
93. The Legend of Dragoon (#60)
92. Final Fantasy IV (#4)
91. Kartia: The Word of Fate (#63)
90. Lufia: The Ruins of Lore (#139)
89. Final Fantasy V (#65)
88. Romancing SaGa 3 (#83)
87. Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars (#140)
86. Mystic Ark (#137)

85. Alundra (#187)

Finally I got around to playing Alundra after so long, only to find it's a Link to the Past clone! I blame this game for making me play A Link to the Past Randomizer for some time by the way. But enough of that. This game I will consider an action RPG, it nails the immersion perfectly with a nice, grassy world, a village full of people you get to know (and mourn when several die), and have to deal with religious zealots and the like. And the music is a chef's kiss. Ugh!

84. Dragon Quest VII (#127)
83. Wild ARMs 2 (#24)
82. Vandal Hearts (#160)
81. Wizardry: Tale of the Forsaken Land (#156)
80. Dragon Quest VIII (#138)
79. Thousand Arms (#69)
78. La Pucelle: Tactics (#117)
77. Threads of Fate (#1)
76. Tales of Destiny (#39)
75. Suikoden IV (#66)
74. Wild ARMs: Alter Code F (#29)
73. Sword of Mana (#14)
72. Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time (#62)
71. Legend of Legaia (#80)
70. Lufia: The Legend Returns (#36)
69. Star Ocean: The Second Story (#98)
68. Secret of Evermore (#10)
67. Secret of Mana (#110)
66. Seiken Densetsu 3 (#120)
65. Wizardry VII: Crusaders of the Dark Savant (#148)
64. Soul Blazer (#42)

63. Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits (#181)

Honestly when it comes down to it, I think all the Arc the Lad games (except End of Darkness which I have yet to play) are very decent. So me ranking Twilight of the Spirits with the rest of the pack makes a ton of sense. This being the first Playstation 2 title, they went with more open movement, usage of some spirit items, and best of all, two separate parties which allows for back-and-forth immersion. Arguably am not a big fan of the game being a humongous time skip from the previous three, but they made this game work well.

62. Arc the Lad III (#179)
61. Arc the Lad (#177)
60. Arc the Lad II (#178)
59. Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete (#7)
58. Tales of Phantasia (#18)
57. Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete (#26)
56. Breath of Fire III (#13)
55. Brave Fencer Musashi (#59)
54. Breath of Fire IV (#28)
53. Paper Mario (#64)
52. Growlanser III: The Dual Darkness (#74)
51. Suikoden Tactics (#81)
50. Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga (#31)
49. Romancing SaGa 2 (#78)
48. Suikoden III (#38)
47. Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (#128)
46. Suikoden V (#108)
45. Grandia (#32)
44. Final Fantasy Tactics Advance (#175)
43. Growlanser II: The Sense of Justice (#57)
42. SaGa Frontier (#97)
41. Might and Magic IX: The Writ of Fate (#169)

40. Wizardry 8 (#149)
39. Pokemon Yellow (#151)
38. Pokemon Red/Blue (#150)

37. Final Fantasy X-2 (#185)

There's just so much to do in Final Fantasy X-2 that the idea of 100%ing this game is one of the biggest challenges I thought I could try. But I didn't. But it serves as an interesting contrast to its predecessor Final Fantasy X, seeing as how that game was very linear and this one is nonlinear from the get-go. Still, it's more recommended to play that game over this, it establishes everything I liked about Spira and the characters, and while this one fledges more out while adding in some new flair, it's incredibly easy to lose yourself in the sidequests.

36. Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria: (#182)

While I do love me some Valkyrie Profile, I have got to admit, this does a lot of things that make it feel like a messed-up sequel. Loving the way combat is done is definitely something, the gritty atmosphere of the world still sets a fabulously eerie mood, breaking off enemy parts and crafting finishers is another great thing. But it's missing the pizzazz of Einherjar backstories, opting for just Silmeria to get her Einherjar back after they were lost and having Alicia do all sorts of legwork. Speaking of which yeah the platforming in this one is back, not too bad, neither is playing as many known characters from the first game. But it is a game that feels like a prequel despite being a sequel and then throwing people off in a time loop all of a sudden. It's so weird.

35. Might and Magic VIII: Day of the Destroyer (#168)
34. Might and Magic VI: The Mandate of Heaven (#166)
33. Might and Magic VII: For Blood and Honor (#167)

32. The Magic of Scheherazade (#190)

I've played hidden gems and I've played hidden gems and The Magic of Scheherazade is a hidden gem. It's a "little of everything" RPG, action RPG combat with Zelda-like navigation, Dragon Quest-style turn-based combat, regular HP, MP, experience, money gaining, weird party members, chapter-based plot progression, class changes at a temple, and heck, even price haggling for discounts! And all for an Arabian-themed game on the NES.

31. Crystalis (#5)
30. Final Fantasy VIII (#85)
29. Final Fantasy IX (#115)
28. Tales of Symphonia (#180)
27. Earthbound (#99)
26. Skies of Arcadia (#90)
25. Treasure of the Rudras (#87)
24. Phantasy Star IV (#92)
23. Chrono Cross (#40)
22. Final Fantasy VII (#50)
21. Terranigma (#68)
20. Grandia II (#41)
19. Makai Kingdom (#170)
18. Final Fantasy X (#155)
17. Vagrant Story (#70)
16. Final Fantasy Tactics (#95)
15. Suikoden (#27)
14. Suikoden II (#33)
13. Breath of Fire II (#11)
12. Disgaea: Hour of Darkness (#130)
11. Bahamut Lagoon (#125)
10. MOTHER 3 (#111)
9. Live-A-Live (#49)
8. Wild ARMs 3 (#35)
7. Final Fantasy VI (#45)
6. Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals (#23)
5. Phantom Brave (#91)
4. The World Ends With You (#100)
3. Chrono Trigger (#20)
2. Valkyrie Profile (#25)
1. Soul Nomad & The World Eaters (#72)

A look back at: The Magic of Scheherazade

So it's been only three days since I last made a post and already I finished a game. Technically, two days were spent on The Magic of Scheherazade; this game is an NES game that has a password system (no saving) and Legend of Zelda-style movement. And yet aside from action RPG combat, they also went ahead and gave us Dragon Quest-style turn-based stuff too. Along with jobs that impact stats like Final Fantasy 3, time travel like Chrono Trigger and many others, a weird solar eclipse that comes by which reminded me of Castlevania 2's day/night system, different tools and magic to use like many other action RPGs. All of this, Culture Brain, somehow you managed to do all of these before the more famous ones did, and yet you get barely even a mention even among other RPG gurus!

So yeah, The Magic of Scheherazade is a game I recommend everyone to look at at least once. It's got that "little of everything" spice to it which means it doesn't actually hit a stride anywhere, but it provides consistent enjoyment. At least, when it's enjoyable. Money isn't a problem usually. Experience is usually not a problem. Filling up HP and MP with the items is unorthodox and took me a while to figure out. Some enemies just spawn in annoying places. Some spells are overpowering like the "change forms" spell, both me and some of the opposing bosses can utilize this and it reminded me of Duke Nukem 3D's shrink ray in that it renders the target helpless and easily killable. For the bosses that had this change form spell, I really just had to spam magic at them, and for the record, the Magician class is the most recommended class, but others are necessary for certain plot-related things.

The two things I personally didn't like are the lack of a save system (obviously) and the turn-based battles. While it seemed innovative at the time to incorporate random turn-based battles upon screen transitions and such, it lends itself to a number of problems. First, fighting alone is totally not recommended, you die much easier that way. Second the magic your main character has isn't enough compared to what they can use on the field, your allies can use some of this though which doesn't make sense. Oh yeah, the allies? What the heck are their stats supposed to increase, when I increase? I guess that makes some sense. Often times I had to rely on them, some interesting formation attacks, or the recruitable troopers to get by some of these surprisingly tough turn-based battles. And then I said screw it. I would escape these things. Because ultimately the biggest issue with turn-based battles is that they are a total pace-killer. You gain experience much faster and easier in the action RPG battles, and while I appreciate using strategy in turn-based battles, it's also how these battles are shown up, enemies already in a formation where they TOO can use a group attack to soften up or straight up instakill in the case of the Mondiburn spell, and the recipes for frustration are more than enough for me to just escape or use loads of troopers to get through them.

Still, the fact I beat the game in two days shows just how dedicated I am to the fabric of this kind of stuff. And this really is the last game for my summer break, the rest will be much slower to come by.