A look back at: Odin Sphere

This one I just sort of found out about. It's got the most convoluted timeline for several interesting plots, and for an action RPG, extremely challenging gameplay.

All of the gameplay is a 2D side-scroller, but with tough enemies, weak characters, and a few abilities to use at the disposal. It's so easy to die no matter which character you use, and the Phozon concept only really helps for leveling up, same with eating foods. Not too useful in battle. Alchemy is probably the only real interesting way to do things in this game, and I use it almost exclusively when the fightings over. Oh yes, and you get these ranks depending on how well you do in every battle, which honestly I don't really care that much for. You know another thing making this one really hard? The extreme graphic detail, which for a PS2 game is quite nasty to contend with when so much action is exhibited in the playing fields.

Sure the game has some very interesting ways of leveling up HP and Psypher energy indeed, and a lot of it can be done after the battle. I wish that the special moves in this game were actually unique, when it seems all but one of them have the all-powerful Cyclone spell and it seems that most of the other spells are not really that useful. Having to drink potions to keep both hot and cold elements from sapping health is also really annoying. Due to the different settings and what may be encountered, it's a good idea to have certain accessories on hand to block out the harmful effects, like wearing one amulet to prevent poison which predominantly shows up in the forest level. And then there's always one particular area with 5 stars and just the nastiest hordes attacking at once.

All of Odin Sphere's characters do end up memorable, friend and foe alike. Yet the storyline is screwed up in a number of ways. Why is Gwendolyn's chapter, chronologically the last in the timeline, the first to be played?  Many of the other chapters happen before that chronologically, often intertwining with one another. You look at characters like Valentine and think they are just flat-out insane, in comparison to the more ambiguous ones like Odin and Ingway. The NPC interactions in certain non-combat areas are quite interesting, like when Oswald is in the netherworld. I gotta give the final chapter at least some credit in its nonlinearity, yet the correct way to do things without still losing even when you beat the final bosses could be difficult to figure out. Certainly a story-driven game that really could have done a whole lot better if it didn't skip around a timeline so very often.

A look back at: Suikoden II

The much-revered Suikoden II tends to be one of the greatest RPGs to ever exist according to quite a lot of people for...just about all it offers. Although really, I don't recommend playing this one until you have at least completed the first Suikoden, you know, because of a lovely little thing known as a save bonus.

So basically Suikoden II upgrades on basically everything Suikoden I had, a better storyline, better characters, better gameplay, everything. There are tons of things in this RPG it almost becomes a Pokemon game. Giving more than one rune slot is great. Having set battles against certain enemies is annoying at times but delightful other times. Watching just how bad the whole "war is hell" aspect, especially considering the main three characters (four if you want to count Pilika) are children.

Good lord, just look at the main villain of the game. Luca Blight is 100% human in appearance, but mentally his mindset is that of a completely evil murderer, and physically he will show he can stand his own. He makes all other villains in this game look lame in comparison, and even Jowy, after managing to off Luca, still doesn't compare. Sure, Jowy knows how to hold a throne rather well, but when met with Riou and Nanami on the field, he does the same sort of thing, telling Riou to give up the war to him. As much as his ways seem peaceful and all that, he really does not want to be seen as a loser, making him much more inferior to Luca even in his motives.

Surely Suikoden II is a game of greats, including minigames and sidequests, especially those involving getting certain characters. Hix and Tengaar have a somewhat funny one, Futch has a serious one, and Clive's subquest although extremely hard to do due to time constraints is one that ultimately feels worthwhile. Also Hai Yo's cooking contest is so much of a quest in its own right it actually gets its own credits if you finish it. Admittingly, the Neclord quest, as well as the trip to Gregminster seem like fanservice at the very most. A whole lot of fanservice when you consider how many of the Suikoden I characters decide to return. It's alright though. Especially when you can recruit the main hero from Suikoden I who still remains a solid character entirely.

So why do I still hold the first Suikoden in higher regard? Well, Suikoden II is pretty unpolished, and it has annoying RNG. What do I mean? Think about the war battles, as well as the cookoff challenge where outcomes are actually predetermined. Maybe you'll take down this one regiment on the field easily when you attack, maybe you won't. And that really could cost Stars of Destiny. Meanwhile, the judges you get are determined, so you may be at odds when you have a harsh judge, a vegetarian, and a meat lover all at once. The unpolishedness comes mostly from the awful translation. Suikoden I had it too, but this game has quite a few errors in its text you wonder who left them all in. I'll admit to gloating at it numerous times, even when I try to look past it.

But overall, Suikoden II like any other Suikoden game has replay value, having a lot of strengths that its predecessor didn't have and feeling like a wonderful experience and a perfect example of a sequel in a franchise. All this despite it being unpolished. Again, please play the first game first to get a much more refined experience as to why this game is just as good.

A look back at: Grandia

I was actually recommended this game, and it certainly is one of Game Arts' finest ones. Grandia was one heck of a grind though.

Yes, there's quite a lot in terms of grinding in this classic PSX RPG, but not in the usual way. Character levels are meaningless when I played, instead, I focus exclusively on weapon and magic levels, each of which had to be used multiple times to really get the most out of them. Quite hard for a balancing act, especially magic. On the plus side, the monsters are visible on the field, so gaining an initiative can be a bit easier to do, although getting ambushed is honestly just as easy. Still though, the battle system is very fun and very unique, knowing which enemies are attacking what, and how fast your characters can act. Not to mention despite its linearity in how characters leave the party, they at least give you experience items so the newer characters end up not falling too far behind.

It's quite a comical plot at first, but really gets its own at Disc 2. Before that, it's a comical sort of adventure overall, with Justin being a goofball in a lot of ways, but still being a romanticist adventurer seeking the End of the World amongst other things, with Sue and Feena tagging along. People are often revered, like Feena and Gadwin, yet in party they are pretty much okay overall. Justin at least is the determinator even when the Garlyle forces impede his progress. With Feena along for the ride, we reach Disc 2.

This is where I enjoy Grandia a lot more, as the plot goes from funny and comical to actually quite serious. We see the atrocities that Gaia has committed to villages were Rapp and Milda were from, as well as Feena's newer abilities and her connection to Leen. The idea of actually finding Liete and having her join is also excellent. Justin also hates the idea of sacrifices, similar to the ideas in Wild Arms 2, he tells Mullen that the Gaia will just revive later. Destroying it at the heart of it all seems like a sacrificial thing to do, but at least Justin manages to survive along with all the friends he has along the way for an absolutely wonderful ending. So yes, a change in plot like that really made this game something I really enjoyed, as is the gameplay, and despite the fact I did all that grinding, Grandia still holds a high regard as a good RPG.

A look back at: Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga

We were all gaming noobs at one point, always playing the most popular games at the time when we were kids, and sucking horribly at them in a lot of ways. I remember Superstar saga as such a notable example of what I was back in the day, someone who enjoyed Nintendo's overall gaming experiences especially when Mario is concerned. And what do you know, a story-driven game involving the bros, Peach, and Bowser! It didn't get me into RPGs, thank Pokemon for that, really. But it was an interesting game.

The idea of actually dodging direct attacks and enhancing your own with timed action commands is delightful, and it is probably heard of at least one expert player who can dodge literally every attack thrown at them. Such players are pretty good overall and can obviously take that low-level playthrough in the palms of their hands. Indeed, I at least try to do similar to that. Mario and Luigi are NOT strong characters, they are generally okay at dishing damage, but could fall easily to strong attacks. With a little memorization, their strongest attacks will destroy enemies, and so will they be able to dodge whatever is thrown at them with relatively excellent timing. There's plenty of actually good minigames too, a hallmark I notice in quite a few Mario RPGs, where none of them are really groan-inducing.

The other major hallmark? The humor. Now, I'm pretty sure you can laugh your ass off at any funny RPG moment, then lose your sanity at another. But Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga is a generally funny game overall with barely any major nightmarish scenarios. You look at Cackletta and she's generally dangerous, but in a quite comical way. Double for Fawful as well, who will naturally make a reappearance in Bowser's Inside Story as its main villain. You also look at minor villains like Popple, as well as none other than Bowser himself, who has mostly been relegated into comic relief almost entirely until Cackletta decides to fuse with his body. Naturally, that's one of those moments that I'm not a fan of, but at least the intimidation factor increases here. And the natural sense that despite any possible separation, the gibberish-speaking bros will ALWAYS triumph over whatever possible threat that Cackletta ended up providing. All in all, a very humble effort that Nintendo provided.

A look back at: Xenogears

Oh Xenogears, you are certainly a game I thought would be absolutely excellent given your potentially amazing storyline and your amazing music. God, I loved Knight of Fire and Steel Giant, and was excited to hear them as battle music along with lots of other music. Plus tons of memorable characters. But do I often focus on storyline all the time?

Yes, I'm actually surprisingly not a fan of the gameplay as much as I was led to believe. The gear combat and the on-foot combat have their ups and downs, with the numerous abilities actually being quite taxing, especially when concerning gear combat and fuel. The game has its hands full with actually annoying dungeons, such as the Tower of Babel, the Shevat staircases, and possibly the worst of all, the Kislev sewers. Add to it really annoying random encounters and this game was a grind in its own right. Add to that the annoying bosses, such as Ramsus in a lot of places, and that evil bastard Redrum, and wow, I just find so many reasons to hate this game. On the plus side, having different button combos for deathblows and combo attacks is nice, and the gear combat minigame, albeit required, is actually quite fun.

So yes, the plot. This game absolutely loved the idea of several philosophies, which naturally is NOT my field of expertise. You look at Fei's freudian personalities, and how they are quite screwed up. You look at how characters like Rico and Billy have very interesting side plots that are quite tragic in a number of ways, but afterwards they are forgotten rather quickly. You look at how Fei and Elly have been reincarnated as multiple reincarnations of a couple, and then get confused when Grahf not only is one of those incarnations, but also inhabits the body of the current Fei's father. You look at how Citan is a traitor/non-traitor in a vein that makes Lando Calrissian look like an amateur. You wonder how Big Joe always likes to show up in random places. You get tired of recurring fights, such as the Gebler guys, the Elements, and Ramsus. You get very confused at this Gazel Ministry and how you never see who they are or what they do, as well as Krelian in general. You gloat over Disc 2 and how it all apparently was rushed, with characters just sitting on a chair narrating things.

And yet somehow, Xenogears still manages to be interesting. There's some nice pride in the Yggdrasil submarine and all it gets capable of doing. There's nice fights where you are controlling characters other than Fei (obviously because he transforms into Id or is otherwise incapacitated). The whole beginning of the game is a fantastic deconstruction of the destroyed hometown attribute, where a friend who is brutally murdered ends up triggering Fei's bad side and completely destroying the village he was in. There's Elly's apparent switch of sides, Bart and Sigurd's connection of their missing eyes, and the whole monstrosity that is humans turning into Wels. It's all very interesting stuff. Between all the philosophies and mixed gameplay, Xenogears is worth at least one play. But given how long it is, given how convoluted the plot actually becomes, and considering how it is the fifth of an apparent non-existent series that unfortunately never really saw the light of day, I really want to know more. Even if I don't want to play this a second time, there's always something interesting to find in Xenogears that prevents it from being absolutely horrible.

A look back at: Wild Arms: Alter Code F

And yet when I look back here, I see a very nicely done remake, with the simple concept of having so much more to do overall. That's the kind of thing I expect remakes to end up doing, which is fairly standard.

So yes, translation errors are fixed, cutscenes are done better, battles are a lot more interesting, and you get to control more than three of the main heroes this time around. The encounter series is quite advanced, and several new enemies like the apples help in building up characters. The Abyss in this game is the toughest one I can find in the entire series to date (bear in mind I played this before Wild Arms 3). And of course it's not the only sidequest the game offers, there are lots more with very good rewards throughout.

Yet still the world in Wild Arms: ACF remains the same, except inverted in a way. But still there's no real Western connection provided in this game, which Wild Arms 2 at least tried with some locales. Still disappointed in that despite the rest of the advancements, that setting remained. On the plus side Rudy isn't the only gunslinger in the game, experience can be tweaked well, as can encounters, many enemies are interesting to combat, and I'm always a big fan of puzzles, so a puzzle minigame is a worthwhile thing to see here. I guess it was worth the long trek through this good enough reboot.

A look back at: Breath of Fire 4

It's often debatable which is the better game, this or 3. I could care less, since both games have enough good and bad to talk about.

Well, not too much different gameplay-wise. I did forget to mention world navigation in the previous game does away with random encounters entirely, you can just opt to fight enemies in a field. The same here, more or less. Masters return, which is nice, and this time having to switch characters into and out of battle is also nice. What isn't nice is that if the front 3 fall, it's a game over even when the back 3 are doing fine. Also divided experience meant a bit more grinding on my end, which I'm never a fan of. And loads of minigames too, but despite there being more than the previous game, these minigame's aren't bad for the most part, thank goodness.

So this story is pretty much divided into two parts entirely. But notice that the bulk of the story involving Ryu mostly involved Nina's quest to find her sister Elina, and let that sink in for a moment. This is what she's doing along with Cray, who serves mostly as Elina's lover. Sure, there's a whole slew of other characters, with Ursula and Scias technically being on the enemy side of things, as well as Ershin's obviously strange role in everything, not to mention the dickery that Rasso and Yuna continually employ, and then you get to the other side of the continent, wait, were we still trying to find Elina? I get that Ryu's a dragon and all, and that's a big deal for the series as a whole, but just look at the quest we were first brought with.

On the other side of the plot we have Fou-lu, a playable character on his own path. He's trying to find his other half, Ryu, and merge with him considering his premature awakening has actually disturbed his own empire. It's quite amazing how while Ryu is with good friends and generally sees the good in people, even when his emotions start to swell, Fou-lu never has much to rely on, so as he is continuously being haggled by Yohm (who is yet another general who is hellbent on destroying dragon-kin type people for god-knows-what) he starts to realize just how hopeless humanity is in acknowledging his own kind.

So you can bet things do get interesting when the two plots finally intertwine, but the outcomes of the intertwining are not pretty. For one, Nina and Cray finally find Elina, only for Cray to have to put her out of the apparent misery she had been put on. On the other side, the one person who cared most about Fou-lu was Mami, who was put to death in a particularly devastating fashion which had completely made Fou-lu lose his hope. Both atrocities were committed by Yuna, a character who never actually seemed to have faced the consequences of his own actions, almost as if he was hoping both Ryu and Fou-lu would eventually fight. And they would, should you get the ending where it involves the idea that Ryu still has his friends to rely on and doesn't consider them scum like Fou-lu did. It still kind of sucks that during the whole quest to save Elina, not only was it unfruitful in the end, but it almost completely fell by the wayside for other subplots and Ryu's dragon abilities. Even if this sort of quest seems cliche now, Breath of Fire 4 did it well enough for me to like it, and the series still does a good job at giving players a sense of dread when they realize what atrocities rear their ugly heads in.

A look back at: Suikoden

The very first Suikoden, an outright classic in my eyes and one that got me into a fantastic franchise that ended up being my favorite. And as linear as this game is, it's another one that ends up being the best of its series for me.

The idea of six characters on the battlefield. The idea of generals being thrown into a war, potentially dying or forced to switch sides upon defeat. The idea of runes for magic and the idea that True Runes are the special powerful runes that basically grant immortality. The amazing idea that Suikoden II had in which the game basically allowed several characters from this game to be imported into that one. The different ranges of short, medium, and long. The uniqueness of everyone having their own weapons instead of having to buy newer ones. The ability to flat-out cheese the RNG in a lame dice game that ends up leaving you with loads of cash. Suikoden was a classic RPG of goodness. Of course, nothing's perfect, especially for emulator users who have to tweak the settings so the game doesn't crash. There are some minigames that are annoying (the spinner one!). The forced character selection is most blatant in this game, with some characters like Viktor and Gremio always being forced for plot reasons.

But all in all, I still remember the first Suikoden as that linear RPG that started the trend of having LOADS of characters in it, and managing to build a nice story about overthrowing a corrupt empire through war means and rebellion, with all the side paths taken to ensure more allies are grabbed. I love it for what it does to the Five Great Generals, where you can spare their lives and have them join your cause (except your father though). I love how sly Mathiu is as a strategist, whether it is tricking your enemy or tricking you. The deaths in this game were wonderfully done, tying in to the rune that the main character has, the Soul Eater, which to this day still remains my favorite Suikoden rune in the series. I absolutely love how the settings are laid out and what their problems were, the racism involving elves, kobolds, and dwarves; Grady being generally greedy with money in his town, Milich apparently being all narcissistic in naming of the towns in his region, and basically all the ways to fix these issues. I like Barbarossa as a character, not a villain of course, because of that one scene he has with Futch, showing that Barbarossa isn't entirely that corrupt, but a certain someone has made him that way. There were obviously a few loose ends left loose, and example being the entire Kalekka incident which naturally didn't get a whole lot of mention, but ends up being part of the past.

And even if someone sees the weak points in a Suikoden game I'm gonna say that the game has a lot of strong points to counter it. Sure, not every character is amazing, many are boring, like here's your armor dealer who does nothing else, oh, what about this guy with a turban on his head who actually IS useless? I look past characters like this and look at better characters. I mentioned Viktor and Gremio, two characters that LOVE to force themselves into the party, but neither are technically bad, both gameplay-wise and storyline-wise, these characters provide a lot. And despite his silence and his lack of romance, I look at this game's main character and think he's easily the coolest out of all the Suikoden protagonists. That silent demeanor may just have won him the wars here.

A look back at: Lunar: Eternal Blue Complete

Now this is the kind of game that actually feels like a sequel! Well not so much, but it's thankfully not something that's a prequel like Lufia II or someplace completely different like Wild Arms 2. And like its predecessor, its story is the strong point.

So yes, this one qualifies as a sequel, and that's nice, although not everything is set in the same settings. Where oh where is Caldor Isle? Why are Meribia and the now grounded Vane so close to one another. What's this orphanage in between the two? Where are the characters I'm familiar with...oh. Yeah, this is a distant sequel. Unless it's a special case like with Nall or Ghaleon, everyone you know from the first game is likely dead, although they are namedropped at times. And yes, more dragons are present, the flying cat companion with Hiro counts as one, to no one's surprise if they had already known that Nall was one too back then. Ghaleon being resurrected is quite a surprise, although I often think of it as mere fanservice. Zophar is apparently quite famous for a villain that he gets an entire website named after him.

So Hiro isn't Alex, and Ruby naturally isn't Nall. That's quite obvious. Hiro certainly has the kind of "hero" drive once we meet Lucia, who is quite possibly more mysterious than Luna ever was. She's thankfully not Althena in disguise. The other characters sure manage to be interesting enough. Jean being a dancer with a horrific past as a martial artist, Lemina trying to do what she can so that some really fat guy doesn't end up marrying her mother, Leo a completely misunderstood general. Lucia's whole gameplay is quite unique, as she's completely AI controlled no matter what. At first, you watch as Lucia blows through encounters, always going first, and always uses an all-target powerful spell. Then Zophar smacks her with magic, leaving her with no attacks at all and with 1 HP. You know, it's a good thing she doesn't really gain levels, but still grows in strength as the story goes on.

I find the best thing about this game is its playable epilogue, at least if you played the PSX remake. Sure, there's less character interaction then, since you already defeated Zophar and there's just picking up friends to tie up all loose ends, but it's quite heartwarming to see the fruits of what Hiro wants come to fruition. As for the story itself, the whole thing is around Lucia vs. Zophar, and Ghaleon shows up obviously as an enemy although he had been technically helping these new heroes. The fake Althena honestly made no sense to me, and neither did Leo masquerading as Mystere (though it was a nice little attempt at comedy). Lucia in truth remains the best character here, being a lot like Valkyrie Profile's Lenneth in that she's emotionless and one-note, but becomes more humble to humans as the story goes on and of course, is friendliest with hero.

Didn't talk much about gameplay, but there's not much different than the previous game apart from Lucia's AI control. It's pretty good as far as I care.

A look back at: Valkyrie Profile

Valkyrie Profile is the telling tale of a valkyrie finding dead souls to fight for the sake of Valhalla, or is it?

This ended up being one of my favorite games in a similar vein that Lufia II had, in that basically everything about it is good. Sure, the dungeons turn into side-scrolling platformers, but have the right enemies and traps to get over. The game's unique combat system sticks out over many others, utilizing the buttons for good attacks, plus the combos that can be done, oh yes, and mages tend to be useful too. Sure, you can use the menu for things as well, and might as well since the game can get quite rough, but it's a worthwhile value of the games battles. The Purify Weird Soul moves are pretty anime-esque but do their job as finishing moves, and can be comboed for extra fun. The MP in this game is actually currency, the DME in this game is essentially the HP, and the EXP ball is so helpful.

Oh yes, and time periods get used up upon entering and doing things. Go to towns, find recruits that end up dying, also train up recruits and then send them over to Valhalla, meaning you can't use them again, yet said warriors are in fact what pleases your superiors. The characters you get all have their unique personalities and how each one of them died and join your entourage. Even the ones that don't join but are still very important plot-wise, like Brahms and Lezard, care to be among the memorable ones. You can obviously expect Asgardians to be rich in power, just look at Loki and you can tell he's gonna be a villain. You can also look at Midgard and realize just how miserable it is. Part of it may be Odin's fault too, considering he took one important thing called a Dragon Orb, which ends up in some destabilization of that area. As far as most interesting character, that's easily Lenneth, a character basically defrosted into an emotionless warrior finder, who in the A ending would end up getting her memories back should you choose. And naturally the B ending doesn't cover any of this at all.

And then there's the prospect of endings and difficulty settings which give this game quite the replay value. Each time, you are liable to get different Einherjar in each game depending on what the RNG provides, and to avoid C ending you gotta get those characters sent up. But the Seal rating is the key to the A ending, and needs to somehow be kept low to unlock those events there. It's quite a balancer. As for difficulty settings, this is one of the reasons why Hard is the best difficulty setting, due to several accessories that boost stats on level-ups, this means that several characters in the game will have it much easier than they would on Normal and especially Easy.

So yes, when the story and gameplay are real good and the characters are interesting, with the main ones growing on the player, it pretty much is a sign the game is gonna be fantastic all around. I really could not recommend this game anymore than I already have, it is excellent and worth a buy.

A look back at: Wild Arms 2

Potentially the lamest Wild Arms title yet, but then again, having not played Wild Arms 4 at this point, I can't say for sure if it is that bad. It has some redeeming features though. Not really gameplay-wise if you must, since much of it is similar to before, force abilities, two members being able to use guns, eight elements, the usual stuff. There seems to be even less Western-styled setting in this game than its predecessor, although Damzen City and that one border town seem quite nicely done for locales, especially with the music AGAIN being center-stage as the crowning best thing about Wild Arms 2. But this one has quite a lot of greenery, perhaps moreso, and more swords and weird magic going around. Oh yeah, and the whole deal with FP required for certain things such as magic itself is quite taxing if you utilize Force powers a bit too much. Some actual improvements are better tools to use, better dungeons to go through, a rotatable isometric view, and an interesting take on encountering enemies where you can skip some if needed, also a few of the ambushes in this game make a character stand alone against the enemies.

So yes, I don't like this game nearly as much though. The idea of ARMs being an anti-terrorist organization rather than, you know, people with guns is pretty pathetic. Also only two characters, Ashley and Brad, seem to employ the guns, the others use daggers and cybernetics, staves, weird robot things, and an umbrella. And in Ashley's case, he uses a gun-blade...thing. Urgh. It's so weird how Ashley's plot plays out too, a ceremony goes completely wrong where everyone turns into demons, Ashley included, but being a main character means you get access to a sword that will basically make you a better demon in Lord Blazer. His companions he gets on the journey are mostly nothing special, the most interesting ones are the war criminal Brad and Kanon, who actively seeks him out, attacking him multiple times before joining eventually. The villains for the first half of the game are the members of Odessa, bringing order to oppression and conformity, apparently, they are mostly anti-heroes in a way. Antenora's probably the most interesting one, an ACTUAL anti-hero against the leader Vinsfeld. Also Judecca is just an ass, Caina is a weird case of a character gender-swapped in translation, and Ptolomea in reality is just a general who looks out for his men.

But you know who stands out above everyone else in terms of character? Irving. He's probably the one character that after playing the game, I ended up hating most. His actions are the ones who actually make everything seem so damn grim overall when the events unfold. He directly helps out the heroes in ARMs, but also apparently was responsible for funding Odessa, so he's basically the mastermind of both parties. For what cost though? Basically whether it was ARMs or Odessa who win against each other, the winner would have to deal with the even bigger evil that made up the second part of the plot. Yep, all his plan, and to make matters worse he ends up giving himself and his sister up to that evil just so the heroes can defeat it. Really now? Oh yeah, and Lord Blazer was actually put in place for Ashley because of him. I play through the entire game just to realize how senseless this character ended up being, and how much of a "hero" he is.

Now notice the last word I said there in the quotes, "hero". This is the one thing I loved about Wild Arms 2 the most, the idea of a hero that of course usually gets stretched by JRPGs to mean someone does good to all, potentially at a cost. Naturally, every character who's name isn't Irving is opposed to the idea of a hero. Ashley ends up opposed to the idea eventually. Brad hates it due to it potentially making him a criminal. Judecca flat out mocks the idea of a hero. Hell, even an early part of the game has Ashley being sent to prison so he and Lilka can apparently rescue Brad. As early as that, the idea of a hero is pretty much embellished and foretold. Well done with that aspect Wild Arms 2. I can't respect you for some things, but that right there is a huge plus.

A look back at: Lufia II, Rise of the Sinistrals

Hey everyone, good game alert, this is a true favorite RPG of mine. Lufia II may have been a prequel game, but it did basically everything right with a basic turn-based RPG and then some.

Interfaces are cleaner, music is nicer, characters are more in-depth than they were in the first game, the dungeons are quite puzzling, there's nothing here I really hate. The villains are appropriately villainous, without being any sort of anti-hero. The love triangle thing was done rather well enough, the numerous side deeds around multiple towns to help them out was also quite well done with each scenario being unique in some way. Of course, the Ancient Cave is a fun randomizer of a dungeon, and there's also the World's Most Difficult Trick. Almost all of the puzzles in this game are pretty nasty, and one titled as being the World's Most Difficult Trick basically eclipses all of the puzzles I have seen thus far in a game.

The whole IP skills thing is pretty good, but better in the next game. I also didn't really get the capsule monster thing all that much, but sometimes these things either put up a good fight or are nice fodder so my other characters stay safe. The enemies being active in dungeon also allows me some advantageous positioning to ambush them by stunning with puzzle tools and going behind them. Quite a few glitches, such as killing the egg dragon in one hit, but these are FUN glitches, mind you. I like them.

The game's plot is the simple story of Maxim going on his usual hunting business, then getting this one woman, Iris, telling him he needs to go on his journey. This naturally ends up finding him at odds with the first sinistral, Gades, and after that he ends up marrying Selan, possibly being one of the few JRPG protagonists to actually be married. Making matters better is that Selan's also a warrior, and naturally so are Guy and Dekar, two other great dudes. Of course, there's the addition of the other Sinistrals, further strengthening their villainous resolve and fueling the heroic resolves of the heroes on this journey. It just is the kind of linear RPG story that is decent though, starting out very small, giving one nasty threat, then another one to keep it pumping.

Naturally though, I have nothing but disdain for the remake, having made a lot of changes, most are questionable and awful really.

A look back at: Wild Arms

You see me doing all these look backs and are wondering why not revamp your original reviews, well I kinda want to keep them as they are. The look backs are what I remember most about these games. Wild Arms is an example of a JRPG series I wanted to quickly get at after looking at it for the first time, and it's mediocre at worst but rather good at best.

Right off the bat, I will say Michiko Naruke did a fantastic job with the soundtrack, capturing the adventurous feels of the overall game and the general atmosphere of the towns and dungeon treks. As for everything else, we've got the standard turn-based RPG mechanics, a few puzzles using different tools that different characters can use, quite a few good sidequests to accomplish, yeah it all seems worthwhile. Though one thing does bother me, only one of the three playable characters here is a gunslinger and there's not a whole lot else on the other character's parts, being both a swordsman and a mage. They try to do interesting things to make up for it, like using MP for Fast Draw moves or spells, and two collectables allow players to get more uses out of them. Meanwhile, Rudy's got to keep ammunition stock in good shape all the time for his numerous weapons he gains.

Plot-wise, it's pretty complex. Jack has this awful past being a failed knight, then there's Rudy's exile from his village just because he has a gun. They end up meeting Cecilia at a wrong time, where there's always that one thing that the apparent enemy always seems to seek, her tear drop, so they terrorize the entire kingdom, not to mention a few other towns in-game. The rule of four applies to the main enemies, although Mother along with Zed don't necessary qualify due to one being the leader and the other being a comical low rank. I have to hand it to Alhazad for being the most devious, especially with the body horror thing done to humans and dogs in one particular part of the game. Unfortunately that and a few other parts are basically failure setups, in that the heroes are too late to reach what they need before the villains get there first.

I guess one thing I liked was how the four demons found out that Mother's intentions weren't what they had expected, and that she just flat out told them her plan after she was resurrected. It's pretty much agreeable for the demons that it's better to conquer rather than to destroy, they then use the obvious plot of setting the heroes up to take down Mother for their conquest. Other neat things? Well there's the whole Elw dimension, Rudy losing his arm to Zeikfried, and the prospect that even after being saved from yet another giant satellite, Filgaia is essentially still a wasteland.

Yet despite all these things, Wild Arms seems to be a Western-styled JRPG in name only. Apart from the gunslinging that Rudy or Jane does, most everything is typical faux-fantasy style with dashes of technology and it really shows. The setting of Filgaia honestly needs to be more Western in nature if I were to enjoy it more. At least it's not too bad.

A look back at: Golvellius

I hate this game.

I think it's pretty obvious, The Legend of Zelda is the best example of its kind of action adventure gameplay. While Crusader of Centy was a pretty lackluster example of a Zelda clone for the Genesis, it at least tried some interesting things with animals and throwing swords. The same can be said for Startropics, which was a more modern Zelda clone with some interesting if annoying mechanics involving jumping and lives. The Guardian Legend was a nice hybrid of game styles that worked out well despite how hard it was. I can say good things about those games, but not anything about Golvellius: Valley of Doom.

This is a straight of Zelda clone that controls like trash overall. The overworld navigation is annoying enough, and the enemies respawn, many of which are quite damaging and don't even move back when hit. You'll also likely be grinding for cash in this game, well I'll give certain enemies credit for providing some decent cash. The NPCs are actually NOT helpful this time around, and then there's the dungeons. Two types, side-scrolling and top-down don't-stop-moving, both of which suck because you leave the dungeon prematurely for screwing up. Bosses take lots of hits to kill, and giving their attack patterns combined with the sucky grid-based movement that the original Legend of Zelda did NOT have, and this game is just awful to play through. So yeah, despite being the second Master System game I checked out, I really don't have the will to replay this one any time soon.

A look back at: Chrono Trigger

Ah, good old Chrono Trigger, one of the most famous RPGs ever, always a good game to play, and often considered very overrated. But it has many good qualities which is why it is overrated. The most famous RPG when it comes to time travel, the most famous or possibly second most famous Eldritch Abomination type of villain, a memorable set of characters all around, kickass music, interesting battles, multiple endings, there's almost nothing I hate about this game.

The gameplay is the best representation of Active Time battle system, apparently touted Active Time Battle 2.0. It's cool to see your characters apparently find a position to go to against the enemies they fight, as well as the usage of techs, unique equipments, and the combining of attacks and magic. Not to mention the idea of position changes, where enemies may just line up, say you are trying to use Crono's line tech. Several enemies have set patterns that can be figured out rather interestingly. A good example is the Golem, a boss the game makes you supposedly lose to, but in reality is possibly the easiest boss to beat because he always copies what element hit him last and he can be prevented from taking any action if the party just attacks him with different magic over and over. Admittingly, some other battles are definitely hard, especially when you factor in enemies with percent damage attacks, such as Queen Zeal herself.

Yes, the time travel gimmick may not have originated here, but Chrono Trigger does it best. It's accidental because of Marle's pendant, you have the consequences of altering time because of a missing queen who is Marle's ancestor, the post-apocalpytic future where Lavos obviously destroyed everything and survivors in the ruins are using odd machines and stuff, the side-story involving Glenn and Cyrus, as well as Magus's overall motives. The whole thing with Lavos is rather intense, especially given a certain queen is quite the zealot in unleashing it. Interestingly enough she manages to not be an example of an underling who doesn't get killed by her unleashed superior, yet the consequences, as many players have seen, which involves Crono and Schala, are insanely dire. In between all the crazed and nasty plots are some pretty funny moments, like with Ayla's first meeting, the actually decent minigames (impressive), and basically anything Dalton does.

The game does an exceptional job with its setting, showcasing the happy lifestyles of the prehistoric times and the millenium times, the grim and dull lifestyle of the middle ages, and the despair in the post-apocalyptic future. 12000 BC showcases the extremes of this, the floating kingdom of Zeal is rich with lush riches and elite classmen, while the ground below has the ruffians who are unfortunate enough not to be part of the rich caste system, cast as poor ones below. It's startling stuff and done very well.

The game's Fated Hour stuff is basically where the game completely opens up, and I love everything that can be done here. It opens up around the time after Crono dies, and a whole slew of subquests can be done. Even the Black Omen counts as a subquest, and each subquest pertains to specific characters: Ayla has the return of the Reptites, Magus has his former subordinates, Frog has Cyrus's ghost, Lucca is gonna fix her mother's legs, Marle has that other trial, Robo has Geno Dome. Things you can do with your time machine to influence these quests and get the items you want = so much fun.

Ah yes, and then there's New Game +, where you can try out different endings, get to Lavos faster, all that with the stats and equipment to keep. Man, this game is memorable and good, one that is certainly worth replaying. In my opinion, the ones who say its overrated haven't played it yet, and need to play it to discover why it is overrated.

A look back at: Majin Eiyuuden Wataru Gaiden

What a weird and unique NES game I found when I played this back in 2015 or something. It's actually an action RPG too, which is pretty good! Then again, I know absolutely NOTHING about this anime that the game is based off of, so a lot of the plot ends up lost on me. Then again, maybe not. This game's plot involves finding something in the title, a hero named Wataru, and the player character is a nameable hero that is searching for the guy. In almost true anime fashion, this game's method of combat involves machins, which are, well, you know, mechs. You actually get several in game which is cool, along with...magic for them. The gameplay is like Faria's, standard overworld navigation which becomes a different kind of action-oriented battle system, except this is more like Zelda II instead of Zelda I.

Not much else to say about it since I'm not familiar with the source material at all. The plot is nice and short, the damsel in this case is actually a guy for some reason, and there's that idiotic ordeal where you actually save some princess as well and she asks to marry you. There's some lookalikes in one particular area, a dragon to fight, and apparently not only is said Wataru character captured but in some sort of bottle as well. So a plot with cliches and some rather dumb things, at least the gameplay is decent enough for an NES game. Also the music is decent as well. Probably could have been a replayable RPG if it was actually released outside of Japan.

A look back at: Tales of Phantasia

This was a BIG game, particularly for the platform I played it on. This and Star Ocean share a lot alike, their menus and character interactions, and the fact that their Famicom sizes were the largest for the platform ever. Tales of Phantasia is quite debatable on whether or not it is the most famous Tales game. For one, I've seen quite a bit about other games, especially Symphonia, so Phantasia may not be all that popular. On the other hand, this game was the most remade out of all of them, with a GBA port and an iOS port, both of which aren't very well received at all. The original one on Super Famicom is honestly where it's at if you want the best experience.

I was quite pleased with what this game offered, but not completely excited. Lots of menus, lots of combat opportunities, although the random encounter rate is rather annoying for this game. A few unique battles and navigation moments, the time travel aspect, and quite a few nasty sidequests which thankfully are sidequests, oh yes, one of them just HAD to be an arena. The game's main combat system is pretty difficult to get the hang of as it is semi-active time. Making things worse is you only have two characters who are fighters in the sense, and one of them is an archer. And then there's the squishy wizards that make up the rest of the party. Actually, the problem here is that Cless is the only really controllable character, and it's pretty easy to just make him do the stuff in an effort to win battles quickly and forget about your other characters who are there to help sometimes. The battle menu serves as a slight pause to the action, and I abused the hell out of it here and when I played Tales of Destiny. Many battles end up pretty tough, and you don't want to get Cless KOed as he's the one you control throughout. TP is used for both magic and Cless's abilities, and this game thankfully regenerates them after battles, which I think is excellent considering how often abilities are used.

So plotwise, the character interactions take most of the precedence. This game does the destroyed hometown gimmick a lot better than most. Well for comparison, Breath of Fire 1 has Ryu's hometown ravaged, but no one there really dies due to Sara's magic. In Tales of Phantasia, both Cless and Chester when returning from their hunting trip come back to see everyone pretty much dead, including Cless's parents, Chester's little sister, and if I remember this one couple who were gonna get married. It's one of the grimmest things to see here. Not only that, but we see Mint later on and naturally her mother's dead too. The circumstances for this were dire, especially due to Uncle Olson selling Cless out, and how much of a jerk Malice turns out to be.

Most interesting character? Dhaos naturally. The sorceror king is the villain travelling through time to find a world tree and simply wanted a seed from the world tree on this planet. Once he finds out that this tree is apparently dying, who's to blame? Yeah, the humans, with their usage of technology and what not, that's what Dhaos thinks, so he wants to destroy the humans here. Of course, it's only after the final confrontation with Dhaos that the heroes know of his motives, and then a seed gets thrown to his planet, although Dhaos himself obviously would not be present. But he's definitely the kind of villain who was well-intentioned and actually quite agreeable in a sense. Unfortunately, it's one of those cases, in that he's nothing but a villain the party is after until after you beat him where his motives become clear, and that sort of ruins things by quite a bit. Many of the other characters really have only few interesting moments, Mint with the unicorn, Arche in general, but Dhaos's interesting moments only showing up at the end sort of eclipses everyone else entirely in some way.

Really and truly though, it's a hard game to give a decent grade to. There's so much there to find in many aspects, but in the end it's not entirely the most pleasing out of the RPGs I've played.

A look back at: Faria: A World of Mystery and Danger!

Gee, with a title like that, you'd expect some game that is really all about adventure! Then again, it is an action RPG so yes you will find that. Then again, it's an action RPG for the NES, and since every NES game has been rather hard, yes, this will have that. It's almost a hybrid of other famous games in gameplay, in that your overall navigation is Dragon Warrior/Final Fantasy whenever you're not in combat, and then it goes into Zelda mode when in combat, where you can't really do much else except swing you sword or use other items to defeat some monsters.

So I said it was tough, well, the level curve kinda sucks, enemies can do tons of damage, poison is surprisingly difficult to cure, and for a time you won't be able to see invisible monsters. Also the hospital charges significantly more the more you are hurt. That Phantom Tower dungeon is the worst, a Lost Woods style maze that seemed quite endless to players. One thing that is interesting are the jewels, which are really just faux money in case the player dies and loses half the money, but it's really got no other important applications to think of. One town in the game seems to have all the best items, but it's just past the midway point in the game and by then there's still the annoyances of several enemies, particularly the invisible ones. Also you know how I said I you can't really do much else except fight enemies when you get into a battle? There's a reason for that. Actually running from battles is detrimental in that the player can lose money, experience, health, or even items. What could Game Arts possibly be thinking doing this?

And this plot is a pretty weird gender-bender plot of sorts, which actually isn't that horrendous. So your character is a nameable female knight from some unknown origin, and then you have this unnamed wizard who is the standard bad guy. You also have a standard king and a standard princess to help and rescue, respectively. Not to mention dealing with a town that seems to be poisoned and then petrifying the king, and then the Wizard actually impersonates the kidnapped butterfly princess. The fact that the wizard does all of this and manipulates the hero into saving "him" is quite the feat. Well, yeah, you figure things out and actually kill the wizard not long after saving the real princess, and then your character turns into a man who apparently was one the entire time because the wizard did THAT too. Not really gonna go there, but I will say that the wizard's idea to completely merge into a dragon for immortality is not really original, and neither is getting a legendary sword to slay him. Ah, cliche plots, this time with genderbends. It's such a strange plot that I actually cannot hate it, even though the gameplay leaves a lot to be desired with some of its annoying mechanics.

A look back at: Phantasy Star II

Ah yes, more Phantasy Star stuff. This apparently is one of the more popular entries along with Phantasy Star IV, and it has a pretty weird cover art, at least for the North American version. But it is a Phantasy Star game, and would you believe it, I hated it more than the first one!

So why do I? Well, the most annoying aspect of grinding for money to buy equipment is still prevalent, so I spend a whole lot just to get what I need. Monster encounters are also much tougher too, and while they now place multiple enemy types in and added a few new status ailments in, a whole lot of battles are just excruciating to go through. Why though? Well I mentioned grinding for one. But as you will see, enemies can ambush you often, and you cannot ambush them. Furthermore, both attacks AND magic (techs) frequently miss enemies often at random, making most battles last longer than they should, yet enemies NEVER miss! Oh yeah, two types of enemies, monsters and robots, is unique, but then you have abilities and weapons that obviously won't work on the latter very well, and there's even one entire character that loses his effectiveness rather quickly once the robots take over the planet.* Why? Why must these battles be so annoying? And why is the only really reliable way of reviving besides a revive spell some weird cloning machine? Not to mention to get new characters, you have to keep going to your house, which gets quite boring. One particular character is a thief who sometimes steals from a store, leaving your party, and you have to keep fetching her because she ends up back at your house.

To further hit the nails on the head, the dungeons, while getting rid of the first-person perspective, are somehow even harder to go through. There are only four bosses, but the first two you fight are unwinnable. Neifirst is fought with Nei alone, and while it technically can be won, Nei's supposed to die regardless of the battle outcome and everyone else comes in at that point. Then there's the three Army Eyes, where they are supposed to last a few turns before they decide to use your move to imprison the party, all part of the plot. Like Neifirst, you can theoretically win against these Army Eyes, but if you do, somehow you can't go on with the plot! Who didn't see this when they created this battle?

Other things annoy me here. The whole subplot involving Teim was a waste of time. Her father Darum is a dick who won't let anyone pass a certain checkpoint until he finds his daughter time. Problem is, when the party finds her, she doesn't want to reveal herself. What happens? Oh, well Darum kills her because she won't reveal or answer to him. Then Darum realizes this and kills himself. Way to freakin' go, two completely unnecessary deaths instead of a family reunion for the price of actually getting through the damn tunnel.

Oh yes I did mention the party gets imprisoned on a satellite after the Army Eyes imprison them. They are stuck without weapons and have to go through random encounters and damaging floors. What happens to the satellite is that it blows up the main world from Phantasy Star 1, which the player will never explore. Great job there ruining Alis's home planet! And if that weren't enough, the ending is just awful. You defeat the two end bosses, then find these Earthlings were actually responsible for the creation of the final boss, and what's the ending? Oh it shows some heroic words from the playable cast as they apparently fight off the Earthlings, which unfortunately stops the game there. I want to know what happened for crying out loud. An ambiguous ending is a bad ending in my book.

So yes, I hate Phantasy Star II, it's hard, and it's plot has some really bad moments. The game is often overrated due to how it's all sci-fi and all that, also for being the Mega Drive's first RPG and because of Nei's iconic death scene being better than Aeris's.** Here's an example of a game that really had the bad far outweigh the good.

*Hugh, for the record. On the plus side Josh becomes a lot more effective by then since he specializes in robots, but I still was annoyed overall with the change.

**Which it is to be honest, even if parts of it don't make sense.

A look back at: The Guardian Legend

This is one of the strangest games I ever had a look at, and seems actually not that bad given how unique it was, especially for an NES game.

Basically, you take the sidescrolling labyrinthian gameplay the Zelda and Startropics dungeons had provided, then you put up the top-down rail-shooter aspects such as Xevious, and the combination is The Guardian Legend, a hybrid game of sorts. Not an action RPG as I had erroneously called it back then. It's another one of those fun but extremely hard games, with most of the frustration in the shooter part really and truly.

The game itself has tons of enemies in both gameplay forms, and the character is a hybrid character of course, a guardian that transforms into a jet on the way to the alien ship Naju. It's a totally weird character but then again it was quite excusable for what it offered. The main currency is almost akin to Zelda's rupees, in that they are multipurpose, not just for buying "upgrades" but for using special weapons, kind of like Link's bow and arrows. The plot is the standard "find these devices to blow up ship" variant, involving ten devices, where the actual task is bigger than the plot itself considering just how much opposition is against the player. It's simple and to the point. Still though, it's a nice futuristic setting as opposed to the more common fantasy setting you'd see in most other action RPGs or action-adventures you might find back in the day. I realized I talked pretty much about everything this game had to offer, and, well, what else can you see, it's old school NES stuff, worth a look at even if you can't beat it.

A look back at: Sword of Mana

Whenever I try to play some of these games, I do my best to actually play the first game in the series. That doesn't usually come to fruition with certain series such as Growlanser or Dual Orb which have no reliable translation available for their first release. Sword of Mana is a game I accidentally played, in a sense that is. In other words, for those that are not aware, Secret of Mana, the most famous game in the series, is NOT the first game in the series, but rather Final Fantasy Adventure for the Game Boy. Sword of Mana is essentially an enhanced remake of Final Fantasy Adventure.

Looking back on it and remembering just recently what I was talking about with sidequests and Breath of Fire 3 being so bad at them, this game had tons of actual sidequests, and tons of optional content that the completionist in me just beckoned to check out. The day changes upon screen changes, there's log entries to make for a certain location that repeatedly pops up, there's the idea of filling up the beastiary. There's also a distinct character class system when you level up certain traits in the game, where you can be of a certain class, although it becomes permanent which boosts you get after a while. Oh yes, and lots of leveling up of weapons and magic contributing to an overall long experience. Put simply, this game has a TON of stuff.

I didn't care that much for this game's plot though. It's pretty meh overall. There's this obviously villainous dude with the unoriginal name Dark Lord, and he naturally isn't the main enemy of the game. There's the characters that join up with you and act as AI commands them to on the quest. There's also vampires, which are okay overall. And naturally, the quest for the title item is pretty straightforward. Notably though, only the male hero can use the swords in this game, the female can only use the staves. There's more of that ancient technology thing that is common in JRPGs too. It's pretty bland for a main plot, and here's an example of a game in which I'm happy with the sidequests, because there's a lot more interesting stuff there than there was with the game as a whole.

Breath of Fire 3's minigames

Good grief, help me out here. This game was the first to make me loathe minigames, especially when most of the annoying ones are required to get through that plot that falls apart the more I look at it. Look, I like most aspects of this game, already mentioned in my look back at post, but these things make me not enjoy this game as much when I have to do them. Great game otherwise, but still.

Let's start positive. The fishing minigame is the most prominent and a huge step-up from its previous incarnation in Breath of Fire 2. It's real nice that you can even see the potential catches to get, as well as a nice ranking system, making this game literally its own thing completely let loose from the main plot.

The faerie village I can actually imagine being just as unique as the fishing minigame. But since I never actually done it in this game, I can't really comment on it. I did this game in Breath of Fire 4 though, and it's pretty mild.

So the bad minigames? Let's start. I'm not fond of that wood-chopping one, although it's really all about timing, the frames can be off at certain points. Nice that the guy who sponsors it actually teaches work skills though. Hide and seek is fine too, and it's even more advanced when your characters are grown up. Momo's Tower is surprisingly devoid of minigames for such a zany place. The first really annoying minigame, may not really be a minigame since it uses standard battle mechanics, it involves training Beyd, which naturally took up quite a few minutes of my time. It's like if I was playing Final Fantasy II, I gain in stats by being hit in stats or using other stats. That's literally how it is. Right after that, you go to a lighthouse and have to sacrifice a plot item known as a Flame Chrysm to program a main valve. It's a simply "hit x at the right moment to win game" and it's dumb. First try I got it, but only after staring at it a few times just to make sure I don't screw up. These two are significantly less annoying than the next few I'm about to put on here which happen after the time skip.

Steel Beach, a ways into the game from the time skip, is the location of a really annoying one involving Garr. Here, it's a two-person towing minigame where this monkey has two flags and you and some other foreman have to pull this thing out the water when the correct flag is up. The problem occurs when the same flag shows up and you or your other guy end up behind. It really does make me quite mad when it happened frequently. And to make matters worse, what you pulled up turned out to be a boss fight. Absolutely delightful, not.

Then there's the whole idea of the Shisu quest, an actually required quest that is just awful. Finding ingredients basically involves collecting multiples of horseradish, vinegar, shally seeds, and mackerel. Well, they all don't seem so bad, especially the mackerel which can be done with the fishing minigame pretty easily. All except vinegar that is. Once again, a rope minigame involving Garr and some EXACTING button presses involving the same amount of presses to lower the bucket and raise the bucket. Again, I somehow did manage to do it on the first try, but having read on how to do it, I can safely say I never want to touch that again. Then, of course, having to actually cook and prepare the shisu is a game in itself, one that is pretty easy if you read instructions, but eh, after that vinegar bit, I'm definitely worn out and want no more of it.

If you thought that was the end of it, you're wrong. There's more. Finding the Legendary Mariner of course is pretty much a waste of time especially after you meet the guy to find out he's a pooper, pretty much. But having to navigate the tides in twenty-five seconds is a rough go, especially since I want treasure too. At least the Legendary Mariner does allow you to reach the Black Ship. There's one other exacting minigame involving that, with a counter that you examine which counts up every second, and you have to talk to Momo on the control panel exactly when it hits 100 to get the ship moving.

If you thought my annoyances with everything not-standard-Breath of Fire 3 gameplay ended there, give yourself a pat on the back, because I obviously have not talked about the Desert of Death yet. It's another thing that pretty much qualifies as its own game, and isn't even a minigame, but unlike the fishing and possibly unlike the faerie village there is NOTHING fun about this. You have to navigate the desert in the nighttime with only the stars as the guidance, and naturally you also have to keep water with you all the time so the dehydration doesn't ruin your max HP values. Three infuriating things here. One is that it's another long portion of the game. Another is that it's a long REQUIRED portion of the game. The last? The fact that you're apparent in-game guide gave you the wrong directions to the oasis you need to go. Oh yeah, and a few really good pieces of equipment could be found here, and I went for them, but obviously didn't like the treks.

Do I hate Breath of Fire 3 because of these things alone? I don't want to, because if you take all the required minigames and annoying quests out and just leave the faeries and fishing in, it would have definitely been my true favorite amongst the entire Breath of Fire franchise. Everything aside from the minigames is pretty good and I enjoyed the aspects there, but not these dumb quests and minigames that were actually necessary for the plot when they popped up.

A look back at: Breath of Fire 3

Yep, another Breath of Fire game I look back on. Hey, it's the first JRPG series I ended up playing a lot of games from, certainly NOT gonna be the last. A look back at this is gonna be quite broad, because as a whole, this game has a ton of stuff to talk about.

What I liked:

The gameplay overall manages to be strong. We cut the party member size from 4 to 3, which I'm not really gonna voice an opinion on, but we also have new abilities that can be learned by examining enemies, plus there's ways to bring on new stat raises via the whole master/apprentice system. Also the idea of members who fall in battle immediately getting back up if the RNG decides so is another fine point, as if giving characters an extra chance (although it might not always work out properly if more than one enemy targets the weaker enemy). The dragon transformation here is the best in the series, being able to pick and combine genes and create different dragon forms is a remarkable effort. You have six characters for the party overall, and each and every one of them has something interesting about them as well, both story-wise and gameplay-wise. Just look at Peco, the onion that seems awfully useless given how he starts, but has automatic regeneration AND happens to tie in the plot at the last moment by actually being a communicator for the world tree. You look at other characters' aspirations, such as Garr's lamentations for his beliefs, Momo's continual scientific studies, Rei out for revenge, and heck, even the intro cinematic is a nice callback to the very first Breath of Fire. Oh, and the fishing minigame? Actually pretty good.

What I didn't like:

Yeah, so I said the fishing minigame is good. Unfortunately, that's probably the only minigame I like. See, Breath of Fire 3 is where I started hating RPG minigames, and this has some of the worst ones. Not to mention most of them are required, and quite a few sidequests* get on my nerves. What better way to get on a ship than train this nerd on how to beat up this bigger guy? Only you somehow STILL don't get the ship until after you go through this lighthouse. What's the deal with this damn rope minigame with the foreman being so balanced it's NOT balanced. Oh, nice boss fight afterwards. And the Shisu quest can go straight to hell, there's even another rope minigame to get from a well, of all things, vinegar. You know what? I'll put my grievances on the minigames of Breath of Fire 3 in a different post.

So the plot of this game is half good and half bad. The whole beginning is amazing, a dragon gets free, turns back into a human, and is taken by the thieves and raised as such. They do their things and all, then here comes Balio and Sunder, two murderous horsemen, completely ruining everyone's lives.

This whole part afterwards up to the Angel Tower? I love it. I love all of it. Most of it is of course trying to find friends and/or running from the two horsemen, but there's that lovely determination you can see in Ryu. He went from being a cowering kid with a small sword to someone who's destined to get his life back on track. He gets Nina, Momo, and Peco involved as he searches and stumbles along, eventually everyone gets captured and forced into an arena, where Garr actually frees them, obviously for his main purpose of slaying the dragon. This is also the last we see of the horsemen, who have been quite the villains for some time now. Eventually, the plot goes to Angel Tower, fighting Garr one last time before Ryu loses it. The time skip that follows shows how much I like Garr as a character in this game, as he's the first to rejoin and actually feel like an atoner. Put it simply, he wants answers to his own goddess as to why his faith wanted to murder all the dragons. The plot then basically involves finding more about the Brood (Ryu's dragon group) and the goddess Myria, and that's where the plot falls apart. From then on, it's reunion with friends who also are convinced to find out more, stupid quests, long-winded story stuff, and this rather sadistic desert. Was it worth it in the end? Well, we do get to fight Myria anyways (or not should you choose the alternate ending) but it's pretty eh overall. So yeah, Breath of Fire 3, very memorable for what it offers, even if it sort of falls apart later on with no getting back up. I'll write another blog post on these annoying quests/minigames later on.

*which aren't sidequests if they are required to proceed in the plot. A sidequest goes AWAY from the plot, and many FAQ writers seem to forget that. An example of a sidequest in this game is running the faerie village. I don't have to actually bother with that at all in this game.

A look back at: Startropics

I have no idea why I considered this one an RPG. It is another game that just falls under the action-adventure category and I called it that so long ago. I found Startropics from the same source as Threads of Fate, that one GameFAQs list that talked about RPGs no one has played.

It's a relatively short NES game with a reasonable plot. There's not much I can really make of it. Mike is looking for his uncle and it's basically a fetch quest odyssey with robots, submarines, and talking animals. Also some aliens are involved and a the villain is a guy named Zoda who apparently is the titular character in the sequel game which I'm not gonna play.  A whole lot of these side stories and navigation actually DOES spark some interesting moments, like the piano, the graveyard thing, the ship sinking, and actually finding your uncle. Not to mention the alien infiltration. Mike as a character is alright, a fish out of water considering he's an all-American dude visiting native places that look like they come out of the Flintstones. Zoda isn't necessary fought, but he has to have that "enter your mind" trick on Mike near the final part of the game. That's all there is to the plot and characters, but I'm fine with that. The music is fine too, and one of the high points of the game.

What I'm not fine with is the gameplay. I find it novel that the weapons Mike uses are yoyos and other modern items, meaning this predates the Mother series in its abilities. There's also a lives system which really makes this NOT an RPG in the sense. Dungeons are laid out Zelda-style, top-down perspective. It's very tough, this is why I hate it. And even after playing other Nintendo Hard RPGs I still think this is one of the toughest ones. I barely beat it, some of the enemies and all bosses can one-shot you on contact and there are a few mechanics involving jumping that get to my head way too much. Indeed, it's how the game plays that bothered me into not liking it. Why lose ALL your weapons aside from your default when you simply leave a dungeon? Why does your health level default back down to three hearts when you have more anyways? And oh yes, the default weapon actually gains in power when you have more health, assuming you have the upgrades. So if you struggle at some point, you are really struggling overall.

It's far from my least favorite game though, as there are far worse, but this is something that really doesn't need too much explanation. On the surface, it's a Zelda-like game that is appropriately hard, but I was not comfortable with this game when I played it, and I'd rather not play the sequel if it plays similarly to this.

A look back at: Breath of Fire II

Immediately after my Breath of Fire game was finished, I decided to go right into the sequel. Boy did I not know the ride I was in for.

This game I have extremely fond memories of. The gameplay is pretty much identical to the first, although this time we have different dragon abilities, shaman abilities for fusion this time around, and actually battle abilities. So there's that out of the way. But how do you get all the abilities. Some are not really explicit to find, and it is really easy to miss all of them, the earth shaman in particular has the most roundabout way imaginable for getting her. And the dungeons are nastier, and the random encounter rate is at an all time high in the extremely long Infinite dungeon. Every major villain here is a demon of some sort too, all with interesting and nasty abilities.

That's not what makes this game memorable, it's the story. A really harrowing story that made my heart lurch multiple times. I still remind myself just how tragic this game is. On the onset, seems like quite a few places are at peace and this church of St. Eva seems all nice and everything. But oh wait, the protagonist is just a defenseless kid up against this HUGE DEMON OH GOD. You can't win that one. Alright, time skip and find out our main characters seem to be doing fine, but how long does that last? This game deals with an egotistical mastermind of an arena chairman, an even more egotistical frog prince who impersonates Jean, the real prince and promptly makes him fail a cooking competition just because he's evil, and a monkey general who's out her wazoo with her tactics. All of these are demons by the way. Really nasty-looking demons, and they aren't the only ones. Perhaps predictably, the head church guy is really evil all along, and therefore it should be obvious that the deity known as St. Eva is also evil. It's a crazed concept of the corrupt church, and this game is one of many that has done it.

That's not even scratching the surface involving character deaths. While none of the playable ones die, we see a lot of tragic scenarios play out. We watch Rand try and hold two walls together, only for his mother to take his place. That same mother seemed bitchy and unlikeable due to her abuse of her son, but she was still a mother goddamnit. And before that was Ray, a semi-important character who has helped out for a few scenarios. Then he is fought due to his status as a high member of the church. This battle is where he gives Ryu the ultimate dragon spell, meaning he must've realized it was the wrong choice to follow Eva and that this is the best way at redemption, even if it kills him. Of course, I don't want to leave out Nina's decision to become the great bird, while it doesn't actually happen to her, her sister does it instead and the results are equally as tragic. The ending just before the final boss just had me lurched back. Watching Ryu's friends all get killed in crystals one by one, and although he brings them back, it was truly a nasty thing to see. And then the prospect of the multiple endings is sad no matter which one you get. The worst may just be the default ending. Ryu is completely conscious about the open demon portal and has to guard it in some sort of eternal sleep like his apparent mother had done. Some of those flashback scenes involving Ganer don't help much either. This is definitely one of the saddest RPGs I've played, good, but really sad and heart-wrenching.

A look back at: Secret of Evermore

One of the most interesting games I've played, a Western RPG that plays very similarly to its similar games in Secret of Mana, which I still haven't played along with games in that series. Yep, another Action RPG, but actually quite slow-paced too.

Secret of Evermore is a game I remember most for it's amazingly atmospheric soundtrack, one of the greatest soundtracks ever, with memorable songs in just about every location. It also happens to have a case of "accidental plot" where the boy's dog runs off and he chases him to a lab, where things happen and he ends up in a totally new land. Actually, let's talk about these new lands. They are all interesting locales involving ancient areas, well except for Omnitopia which is naturally a futuristic setting. Enemies obviously match the setting, and apparently the dog does too, becoming a different breed of dog each time, up to the robotic jet dog in Omnitopia. Battling enemies in this game is actually somewhat interesting, gotta charge your attacks to really do damage, and the alchemy system here uses up several kinds of items to create good magic spells on enemies. Provided the player continues to search these items, they end up being useful for many things, not just fighting. And there's even this huge-ass market where a lot of things can be bought or sold.

Well the characters do manage to be interesting apart from a boy who likes crap movies and his shapeshifting dog. It seems the residents of the boy's town are not only sucked into the portal too, but also three other residents are sucked in, and apparently have evil clones of themselves too. These evil clones aren't really fought, but are still enemies. I'm also rather glad that the main scientist, Sidney Ruffleberg, is actually a good guy who was trying to make something chess-related, but naturally it backfired and he clearly seems like the guy to atone for what he had done. What bugs me is that the robot he screwed up apparently was his own butler. That's just so far-fetched and unbelievable, but it needed to be deactivated to finish this plot up. And then there's the matter of getting the other residents out of this weird world so that the stability stays the same. Yet there seems to be this sequel hook at the very end which really begs me to wonder if this game would ever actually get a sequel.

Overall though, Secret of Evermore is above average in every aspect, not really the most amazing thing ever of course, except in music where it definitely is amazing.

A look back at: Breath of Fire

Here it is folks, my first ever RPG that I actually played. Well not entirely, but the first one in these modern times I played back in 2014 or so when I decided to go back to RPGs. Yes, I played Pokemon, the Mario & Luigi games, and the godawful Final Fantasy remakes for the DS along with a few outliers such as Spectrobes. But after looking at Breath of Fire, I got right back into turn-based RPG stuff.

On the surface, this really is the most standard RPG I can remember playing. Standard characters, standard magic abilities, standard encounters, standard navigation, standard save points, all of it. The first Breath of Fire has only a few innovative ideas, such as field skills depending on which character you have, fusion spells to fuse one particular character with others, and "second winds" or so where you deplete a bosses health bar and then they get mad or something and are still fighting you. The dragon powers in this game are actually quite cool too, and are often the trump card in boss fights. One of which combines every character in the party. Apart from that, yeah, good luck finding anything truly interesting.

Most of the interesting stuff Breath of Fire really provides is in characters and plot. A nice little civil war between two dragon factions is quite the interesting take, and key characters include Sara and Jade. The idea that not four, but six keys were used to seal a goddess away was better than just four. Oh but Jade does have these four lieutenants. And you can also have only four characters in the battlefield, but can swap them for the reserves in the back. Speaking of characters, hey, look, none of them are really human! It's quite interesting, the most human ones can turn into other species, Ryu to dragon, Nina to bird, and Karn to whatever fusion spell. While some characters do become pointless gameplay-wise, storyline-wise they are pretty decent overall. Unfortunately I cannot say the same for the villain side. Only Jade and Cerl are interesting, but Zog and the other three members of Jade's four are pretty lame overall. So the plot has some of that "war is hell" stuff, especially considering the Dark Dragon's lust for dominance and control. We see towns almost getting leveled, other towns getting destroyed or lost in time or in perpetual freezing moments, and one character apparently is lost in stasis where the party has to go to a psychedelic dream world to help him out.

At the very best, this game is average, and that's about as much as I can say for it. It has some interesting ideas in plot, but not a whole lot in terms of gameplay. Is it bad though? No.