A look back at: Pokemon Yellow

 

Technically speaking, this is the very first RPG I ever touched. I never really owned it, but I did get a chance to borrow the game to feel how it played. I really did think that Pokemon games would be like this game, but this game to this day remains surprisingly the most unique. It seems Game Freak would end up utilizing the formula of "release two Pokemon games with the same settings but a few mutual exclusives", then release another with the same setting and then enhance things a bit more. We see this first with Yellow of course, which would be loosely based on the anime so it makes you feel as if you're playing as Ash, even including Team Rocket's iconic goons and trying to get the starters in accordance to how Ash had got them (well, not really).

Though there is something to consider. The first gym against Brock is actually much harder than it would be in Red/Blue because Pikachu doesn't stand a chance with its electric attacks there. Compared to Charmander, who normally would be the hardmode against Brock then, but the Special stat of Brock's mons aren't that good anyways and he has no Rock type moves. They alleviated this somewhat in Yellow by allowing you to explore west of Viridian and hopefully finding a Mankey. So yeah, subtle changes are out and about to ensure that the gameplay, as tough as it would be for starter-hogs like I used to be back then, would make it more interesting. Even with this though, the rest of Yellow is a lot like Red/Blue regardless.

There really is not much else to say. Pokemon often gets flak for recycling the same sort of things over and over again, but this really is only prevalent if the settings are the same, so in other words, if the generations are the same. True, the Gen-1 games get perhaps the most flak, owing to a dumb fanbase that prefers them over everything else despite all the flaws that Gen-1 already has. Future gens will of course offer more features, some are controversial but even those have their interesting gimmicks and makes you think a lot more. In any case, Game Freak at least picks things up better each time.

Doom Musings: Soundtrack rankings: Evilution

Yeah, I still don't have a lot of amazing ideas for new Doom musings, but might as well finish off the IWAD soundtrack rankings with Evilution. I'm sure it was necessary anyways. With that said, do not expect me to repeat my opinion on the Bobby Prince tracks, since they have already appeared in Doom II and I will only cover stuff from Tom Mustaine, L.A. Sieben, Jonathan El-Bizri, and Josh Martel.

16. Untited text screen music

This is Josh Martel's only contribution to the Evilution soundtrack. Sadly, it's honestly pretty forgettable; I'm sure I've never really heard this text screen music outside of Evilution itself. It tries to be broody and creepy, but other songs in this IWAD work way better. Plus it's only five seconds long! Josh never really contributed much to the Doom community of old besides this track as well as one PWAD level, but he did manage to create the Heretic version of DEU. That was probably his best achievement.

15. TNT Title

I have no idea if that's the title of the title music or not. If so, well it could have been better. Then again, it could have been worse. In any case, unlike the Bobby Prince title music, this one is supposed to get the player's blood pumping. Why else would you boot up Final Doom after having finished Doom II? You're going in for carnage man! Gotta start with some music to get you going!

14. Into The Beast's Belly

I never did like this track. Very action-oriented, as if it beckons you to continuously deal with loads of enemies. I guess it works well for certain maps, like Kama Sutra MAP31, and maybe even Evilution's Mount Pain given how many monsters you face there. Maps like Last Call? Not so much, especially the middle of that map. And not counting the title tracks or text music, this has to be the shortest track ever, clocking in at just over one minute. Expect it to loop several times in the bigger maps.

13. Smells Like Burning Corpse

Another heavy action-paced track, but it fairs better than Into The Beast's Belly with a much better melody. So even at the lesser action-packed moments you could appreciate this track a bit more. That being said, this track's volume control changes are a bit problematic, so if your MUS reader cannot read the values, the song may be broken.

12. Let's Kill At Will

Not counting any of the title/intermission/text music, this has the least mileage out of every single IWAD track. I vaguely recall one wad that had this track, but I cannot remember the name. Nevertheless, this track only appeared once in Evilution, and it has some interesting melodies in it. The guitar parts are quite quirky, and a bit all over the place. Jonathan's tracks tend to do that, as you might expect with this as well as Soldier of Chaos or Blood Jungle.

11. Infinite

Tom Mustaine often went with low-toned guitar notes with his Evilution tracks. Infinite seems to live up to its name with how those tones seem to drone on. Quite atmospheric on the onset at least, but I always thought of this as his weakest track overall. Best to focus on the little itty bitty beats at times for this one.

10. Soldier of Chaos

Not the most popular of tracks, but I always found it one of the more interesting ones. Soldier of Chaos has neat drum beats, then the ambience kicks in well. Jonathan's instrumentation hits a key quirk with the synth solo that is quite all over the place. Actually scratch that. The whole song is quirky. But I can appreciate its quirkiness in certain Doom maps at times. Why else does it have that title anyways, am I right?

9. AimShootKill

The last of the original tracks that gets played in Evilution (because the rest are either Doom II tracks or revisit some of the other tracks from before this). A simple riff from Tom, on repeat, but it does its job well, adding variations to the overall melody and doesn't feel dissonant in any level it's in. Okay, Habitat probably isn't the best way to introduce AimShootKill, considering its infamy, but whatever.

8. Cold Subtleness

Jonathan really wants you to understand that he takes his track titles seriously. While the bass riff isn't cold or subtle, the synth certainly kicks in and tells you that yes, there's gonna be that feeling of cold subtleness, and by god he wants you to feel it. The strange little synth riff that follows adds quirkiness to the track but doesn't detract from the feeling at all.

7. Blood Jungle

Welcome to the jung...oh right. Jonathan's quirkiest track for sure. I know I use that word with his music tracks a lot but their quirkiness works out in the end anyways. Definitely has the atmosphere going well for Deepest Reaches and a bit for Ballistyx as well. One of the more atmospheric tracks and definitely works well even when the settings aren't necessarily "jungles".

6. More

This honestly sounds like one of the more standard-sounding Doom tracks, but the sound works. Tom goes with a few riffs and builds variations as he goes along, creating one of his better ones with this brooder of a track. It can fit just about anywhere without issue. The title is pretty funny given how much more instrumentation is in the other tracks not written by Tom.

5. Agony Rhapsody

Now THIS is an incredibly atmospheric and spooky track. I sort of wish Bobby Prince would do something like this, but L.A. Sieben nails it spectacularly. The spooky sounding riff just drones in the best way possible. It fits perfectly for more horror-themed levels and gets a lot more coverage than one might think.

4. Sadistic

The title is dumb, but this'll likely be the second music track for starting Evilution players in a level that gets the blood pumping right away. What better way to enhance a level that straight up gives you a berserk pack than a fast-paced rocking music track? Seriously, talk about hitting it out of the ballpark. And it works in the frantic Stronghold too.

3. Death's Bells

Probably the most famous Evilution track, this one wanted to let you know just how regal it sounded. And by god it definitly is memorable due to its melody and all the little variations in it. The drums kick in, the bells kick in, everything that kicks in lets you know that this is how Evilution's music is unique. This track gets a lot of mileage as a result.

2. Horizon

The best Tom Mustaine track. It's no secret Doomguy is supposed to be seen as a militaristic individual, so having this track with a nice military drum beat helps that point. It's also no secret that the Doom games emphasize horror and spookiness, so this track has to sound brooding and creepy. And Tom combined the best of both worlds here. It's a shame this track only got played once, it's absolutely worth it!

1. Legion of the Lost

The number one spot goes to Jonathan El-Bizri, who's best track is interestingly enough his least quirky. Legion of the Lost is quite ambient compared to the rest of the pack of Evilution tracks, but its serene sounds make this track feel different in a great way. It provides the atmosphere with great orchestration and harmony, and works well both as the intermission music and for the otherworldly locale that is Pharoah. It's no wonder this track seemed to have more remixes on it than the others. Just play THT: Threnody, there's quite a few Legion of the Lost remixes to find there!

RPG Ranks: 150-141

Originally, this was a full-on ranking of each of the 100 games I played, but each time I finish 10 RPGs, I'll go ahead and update the whole thing. Also to make this feel more like a countdown I'll upload the top ones on the page first, then ending on the last, to make it feel more like a countdown. But without further ado, time to rank all of the 150 games I played. Check my list on my TTT profile for my actual grades on these games. Also the # numbers correspond to which number it was reviewed.

150. Deep Dungeon 3 (#114)

I never thought I'd find an RPG worse than Golvellius, but Deep Dungeon 3 proved me wrong. You get your character and companions of different classes, get supplies as usual, deal with first-person perspective dungeons and Dragon Quest turn-based combat. Except when I played this game I had not an iota of fun. Especially once you reach those particular enemies that either evade every attack or don't get damaged all that much, even with the best possible stuff at the time. Just how? My theory was the English translation of this was a flat out mod, which somehow failed in balancing the game or gave it a new bug.

149. Golvellius: Valley of Doom (#21)

The Master System really only had one decent RPG in Phantasy Star, which you can argue had aged poorly. But it also had this, and god, this was an awful Zelda clone. The more I look at some of the RPGs I played, the more I questioned whether or not some games should be considered RPGs, and Golvellius not only ranks among them, but is the worst I've ever played. Movement is eschewed, enemies go through attacks, and while the game tries to do unique things with the dungeons, they are either annoying or boring and just not fun at all. Not to mention respawning enemies. I never like those.

148. Hydlide (#53)

Remember when I defined this as an Action RPG? It is, but it's the bare bones of one. And it doesn't have any of the traits that make it fun. You run into enemies to damage them, and they damage you the same way. It's way too simplistic, and you die easily. But if you can prevail, level up your stats good, you can beat this game within a day. There's barely a story, or anything outstanding. It's amazing there was a series to this game after all.

147. Deep Dungeon (#112)

That screenshot shows the premise of this mini-series of RPGs that started on the Famicom Disk System. It's all done in first-person perspective, one-on-one combat, and it can be boring or frustrating, but almost never fun. You'll often miss attacks, and be in a loop for much of this game to the point where you just wonder if you are capable of even doing anything. This is compounded by all sorts of fake-outs and other crazy things that are aimed to kill.

146. Startropics (#12)

The reason this is low is because I decided not to really consider this as an RPG in hindsight. Sure you see what I see though, a health bar, different items, and the like. But this is definitely an action-adventure game moreso than an action RPG. It's even got lives. It's basically like a top-down Castlevania, and speaking of that's a series that didn't really go the action RPG route until much later. I didn't like this game all that much, with timed jumps and enemies that could easily kill. It's an interesting cult classic at the least.

145: The Guardian Legend (#15)

Again, this one exists at the bottom because it is entirely different from the RPG mantra that I am used to. While both this and 108 are better than the worst action RPGs I played, they don't really offer much in terms of anything I want in RPGs, level ups, compelling stories (well Startropics actually had a compelling story), they were just different than the RPGs I reviewed. This was quite a fun game at least, combining top-down Zelda action with rail-shooter sections. Not really much of an RPG though.

144. Deep Dungeon 2 (#113)

Only one Deep Dungeon game could be worthwhile to play, and that's the second one. It's harder in a sense, especially due to the first-person perspective making things more immersive and all, but it has plenty of holdovers from the previous game that were done much better. Still though, encounters could get either really nasty or are complete cinches, but regardless these deep dungeon walls will be difficult to penetrate.

143. Minelvaton Saga: Ragon no Fukkatsu (#118)

Well, it TRIED to be unique in some way. The game that started the obscure Silva Saga series started out with a game that combined insane fetch questing with a battle system reminiscent of Hydlide and Ys. but without much of the fun. Add to that excruciating dungeons, many of which need to be backtracked due to all the fetch questing, and enemy encounter frequency at an all-time high, and you've got a real grinder of a game. Leveling up here is practically meaningless since you gain levels like crazy.

142. Shining Wisdom (#52)

My first envoy into the Sega Saturn so far has been with Shining Wisdom, a game I honestly shouldn't have really bothered with for the same reasons as above. It tries to be action RPG, but is pretty much a poor man's Ocarina of Time where you find your health pickups, fight enemies that reappear upon just moving a few feet away, and incredibly wonky mechanics for beating enemies, with a lame sword mechanic as well as other items that also damage you if you use them on enemies. The plot also is cliche and easy to get lost with at times. How did this end up being my first Shining game I played?

141. Popful Mail (#103)

Popful Mail shouldn't belong here. In fact, the only reason I considered it an action RPG in the first place was the ability to switch characters on the fly. There's no leveling mechanic and just a few moments where you can buy items. Also I played an untranslated SNES version and beat it within a single day. It's somewhat fun, moreso than some games ahead of it, but it's less RPG and more Metroidvania.

Continued in the next post.

RPG Ranks: 140-131

Continued from the previous post.

140. Deep Dungeon 4 (#124) 

So far the Deep Dungeon series has been atypical, but slowly becoming more typical through and through. Mind you, that's a nice thing. This game is still as tough as the others in the short-lived series, but still follows a medieval setting and generally isn't fun in the modern day.

139. Ys. (#96)

To be frank, it's basically a better Hydlide, but not by much. A better plot, with boatloads of ports for the first game itself, but a lot of moments where you're gonna need a guide to figure out where you're going. And it is subject to the "run into enemies to damage them" mantra. Not a fan of that at all, even if it is easier to do in this game than it was in Hydlide. I wonder if the later games did a better job though.

138. Secret of the Stars (#107)

Long have I contemplated whether or not this is better or worse than Dual Orb II as far as worst SNES RPGs go. In the end, this is worse. No combination attacks or good music were able to save Secret of the Stars from being such a nauseating experience. Slow speed, frequent and boring battles, awful translation, dumb moments of backtracking and getting lost. Tecmo should have just stuck with what they do best, which definitely isn't the RPG genre.

137. Dragon Quest (#76)

To think that it would take me so long to review just one Dragon Quest game, well, I decided to do it. The most classic RPG in existence, has a good series and all that, but why the original so low? Simply because it is quite possibly the most grinding game ever. Grind for experience, enemies barely give it, level gaps are huge. Grind for money, except good lord those prices are steep. One-on-one battles only, rather cliche plot. So many issues with this game that you'd really be having your numbers done from playing it just once.

136. Dual Orb II (#86)

I outlined everything wrong with Dual Orb II in my lookback post, if you want to see it. It's amazing how I grinded like crazy here too, but I still felt pretty empty. For an SNES RPG that's pretty darn embarrassing, don't you think? It tries to be interesting while still having some cliches, but fails. Things don't make sense and enemies get stupid. And really, could you use more battle music please? One track isn't enough.

135. Ys. III (#123)

A step in the right direction? Or not? Who knows. Ys. III is still as simplistic as the previous games in the series, even with this new change to side-scrolling action-RPG and having to actually hit things Zelda II style. There's more effort in the plot and in the combat, things can still be cheesed, but things can still kill you very quickly. These games do go by pretty fast overall.

134. Ys II (#102)

Sequels should always be better! Which is what Ys II is, although not by much. Adding MP and spells is cool, but the gameplay mechanics apart from that remain intact. There's a little less headaches in backtracking, thank god. Still though, running into enemies to damage them is still silly.

133. Wizardry IV: The Return of Werdna (#144)

You get to play as a bad guy! How cool is that? Well, this game has some issues. One is your character is a squishy wizard, a problem when he has to battle physical fighters. Then you gotta summon monsters from pentagrams as your main line of defense. Problem? They're computer controlled, which means you only control Werdna the revived wizard. Revenge motif is nice, but this is the weakest game in the Wizardry series gameplay-wise and took a lot of tries.

132. Majin Eiyuuden Wataru Gaiden (#19)

The accessibility of a game can actually determine where it ends up on the full ranking. Majin Eiyuuden Wataru Gaiden is actually a pretty good game with Zelda II like mechanics, but it is based off of an obscure anime and despite being properly translated it doesn't offer a lot of excitements. It plays reasonably well though, but you're not likely to see me referencing an obscure game like this anytime soon.

131. Dragon Quest II (#79)

What DQ2 does better than its predecessor is make that barebones turn-based RPG mechanic a little more like the barebones turn-based games I'm used to. Multiple party member, multiple enemies, a bit of randomization here and there. But it's also not a good game because it's somehow even more nastier to play through and twice as unforgiving. Good freaking luck if you decide to go for it, while you'd be enjoying some, you'd probably be hurting way more.

Continued in the next post.

RPG Ranks: 130-121

Continued from the previous post.

130. Crusader of Centy (#8)

This is yet another example of "good game, not really an RPG" for me. It's basically Sega's answer to A Link to the Past, complete for animal lovers and even having a Sonic cameo as shown. But RPG? Not really, it's got stuff that differentiates it spectacularly. But I caress, one of the more enigmatic games I've played, something I remember rather well too. And it's fairly humble, which is quite possibly the best thing about it.

129. Orphen: Scion of Sorcery (#131) 

Orphen is, without a doubt, the most difficult game for me to classify. It's advertised as an RPG, but it has Zelda-like health bars. It is an adventure game, but it has most of the stuff in cutscenes. It's got unique battles, but it's so weird how the characters act in them. It's got an interesting plot, but it seems weird with the Groundhog Day-style looping that occurs. Everything is quite weird about this game. That being said these are some stellar PS2 graphics which give it a slight edge.

128. Magic Knight Rayearth (#48)

Long game right? Not really. This was that RPG I beat in three days, and I even grinded my way through it too. Nothing special, barebones turn-based RPG, this one based off of a girly anime. It's fairly uninteresting overall. Perhaps its saving grace is that it is short.

127. The 7th Saga (#77)

Well, as far as worst RPGs go, this comes up often. It's one of the most grinding games, since it's way too easy to die, some character classes have serious disadvantages, and apprentice battles are always difficult. Not to mention getting a partner since most of the going will be solo. I just had to see it for myself, and its...not entirely as awful as expected (encounter system is well done to be honest), but nowhere near a stellar RPG. The premise of this game is good, but the rest fall flat.

126. Final Fantasy Legend II (#46)

The SaGa series is full of weird games that either hit or miss, and for me FFL2 was a miss. Keeping some of the core aspects from Final Fantasy Legend was fine, but many things were different and gave me headaches. I felt like the way encounters worked was actually fixed in many ways, and that bothered me. Some customization elements save it from being really crap, but it's not something I recommend.

125. Final Fantasy Legend III (#54)

And yet somehow, FFL3 is not that far behind. I used to think this was a better game than both of the previous two FFLs, but the thing is, this game is basically Final Fantasy 3 for the Game Boy. It detracts from SaGa's signature style of random stat gains for something more in line with the barebones RPGs I usually talk about. Because of that, it's not as good as I labelled it before. Had it not been in the SaGa series, or tweaked to be better suited in the SaGa series, it could have been pretty decent for a followup.

124. Faria: A World of Mystery and Danger! (#17)

Many things don't make sense in the world of mystery and danger. This game's heroine is a man? The princess was a fake? What it at least does is utilize Final Fantasy navigation and couple it with Zelda-like battles. If only character hitboxes were done better, I wouldn't fret as much. The game is still hard as nails to push through, and those invisible foes! Argh! Plus you'll need a light for dungeons.

123. Ranma 1/2: Treasure of the Red Cat Gang (#121)

In an attempt at making an RPG, the creators of this anime RPG made something entirely typical. It will likely only please the fans of Ranma 1/2, and even then not by much. It's very slow-paced, battles are easy, and the cursed forms either are disadvantageous or are otherwise don't impact gameplay at all. There was loads of potential at uniqueness, and that's something I want to see in every RPG at any point.

122. Grandia III (#133)

It's truly interesting to see an actual PS2 game so low on the list, especially when you consider the franchise it is in. But make no mistake, this game was way worse than I had come to expect. Sure, the battle system is nice and fun still, but you hit a noticeable difficulty spike and enemies are just way too fast. This also has a plot that sort of confuses itself, with one part of it being the need to fly and the other having to deal with your female lead's evil brother.

121. Final Fantasy (#2)

I can imagine you all are wondering why all the NES games show up near the bottom. It's quite obvious, they're primitive and barebones as far as RPGs are concerned. Along with Dragon Quest, the first Final Fantasy game exemplified that rather well. While much better to play than thou art Dragon Quest the first, it still was subject to some slow-paced turn-based battles, along with the annoyance of defeating enemies only to target empty space. It's quite obvious Square managed to pick up their pace once they made the whole thing into a series.

Continued in the next post.

RPG Ranks: 120-111

Continued from the previous post.

120. Final Fantasy Legend (#43)

And speaking of series starters, Final Fantasy Legend started the SaGa series, but likely confused RPG newbies on how systems worked! Gotta admit, those stat gains didn't work out too well on the Game Boy. But I still think this is the best of the FFL sub-saga, numerous ways to kill, climbing the tower all the way to the top, eating the monster meat. Still, other games in the SaGa series definitely eclipse this sub-series.

119. Wizardry III: Legacy of Llylgamyn (#143)

Classic, yet primitive. A good definition of all Wizardry games really. Of course, primitive is a misnomer with all the customization, but the gameplay remains rough and you'll desperately want to use that map every turn. Of the original three Wizardry games, this has the weakest plot. Although climbing up a volcano to prevent impending disaster sounds fun, there's not much in evil overlords when you get to it. It was better blasting a backwards-named Wizard or finding legendary equipment, speaking of which...

118. Wizardry II: The Knight of Diamonds (#142)

On this edition of Wizardry, you're going on a scavenger hunt! For epic equipment! While everything else gameplay-wise is the same as the original Wizardry game (further down the countdown). So yeah, grind a TON just to be able to get anywhere here. Then get your equipment, let one of your characters equip it all, and you get that precious knighthood. No major boss to fight!

117. Lunar: Walking School (#44)

It's no Dragon Song, thank god, but Lunar Sanposuru Gakuen, or Walking School, is barebones as all hell. No wonder it's only a spinoff game. My sole Game Gear RPG is basic and at least gives us an interesting story of school misfits. Learning magic at this academy is easy, talk to every teacher in each day! Weird stuff happens on every day of the game too. Lunar games always had decent stories, even if gameplay-wise they aren't as impressive.

116. Silva Saga (#119)

Obscure as it is, looks like someone forget to make this NES RPG difficult. According to GameFAQs this is the second easiest NES RPG, and I'll be damned if my experience doesn't say that too. Level grinding is an afterthought, you go through party members like butter but they all function the same. The game is also much less of a fetch quest than its predecessor. I'll give it that. Too bad much of the game is kinda boring. 

115. Great Greed (#47)

This game flat-out embodies WTF when it comes to RPGs I played. One that definitely doesn't take itself seriously, and has, for a Game Boy RPG, a unique one-on-one battle system. Simplicity doesn't always equal fun though, as this game manages to be quite the challenge. To make up for it, people are named after food, you fight food monsters, and you also do weird things like influence elections, change city laws, buy fruits for a beauty pageant dress. What even was this game?

114. Tenchi Muyo! Game Hen (#93)

Another anime RPG, based off of one I have no familiarity with, and obviously not really that popular considering that it never reached outside Japan. This was a poor man's Final Fantasy Tactics, no classes to speak of, no status effects, nothing but using up kiai for attacks as well as anime transformations. There is a bit of uniqueness to the units but that's honestly about it.

113. Phantasy Star II (#16)

It amazes me how classic RPGs always end up way harder than they should. Phantasy Star II is considered superior to others in its own series, but I don't think so. While the storyline is pretty good, the separation of bio-monsters and robots nice, and a character death done rather well, I care about gameplay much more, and wow, it definitely does not play to a player's favor. Why would spells even miss? For shame.

112. Silva Saga II (#122)

Silva Saga II almost feels like a remake of the original Silva Saga on NES. The exact same setting is used and familiar partners also join the party. But it tries to do different things, like differing your starting location, adding new partners, and trying to spice up the story quite a bit more. It succeeds at being only slightly better than its NES prequel. However, the overall gameplay is incredibly standard, and having not been officially released outside of Japan also hurts it quite a bit.

111. Lufia & The Fortress of Doom (#6)

Here's another grindfest, although I never noticed it because this was the game where I decided to liberally grind in RPGs. Still though, the first Lufia game seemed nice from what it offers, especially the entire playable prologue. We're then treated to slowly making our way up the ranks, with randomized monster stats and a gimmick similar to the first Final Fantasy in attacking empty space. Not to mention random targeting. These of course pertain to groups, but it's still bad. The storyline goes through lots of weaves too.

Continued in the next post.

RPG Ranks: 110-101

Continued from the previous post.

110. Robotrek (#101)

Not a lot of RPGs employ robots very well, and this is one of them. Robotrek definitely allows you to build combat robots to use in combat, too bad the system is a poor man's Pokemon that is clunky and often requires the bot to recharge all the time. It is active-time, making things more frantic, and a timer is an added challenge to getting bonus experience. The plot is all over the place here.

109: Final Fantasy Adventure (#105)

This is a classic action RPG entirely. Zelda-like navigation but with HP, MP, gold, different weapons and magic spells, bosses and enemies that require proper strategy. Don't mean to be biased, but Sword of Mana beats it every which way, expanding heavily on things and making way for more playable characters. Not really something that should be passed up though.

108. Warsong (#56)

I have fond memories of quitting Warsong because I could not understand any of the mechanics and the first battle in the game was hopeless. You shouldn't ever start your game off like that, folks. Having to select the types of soldiers you need for battle is nice, but the mercy of the RNG is the one thing I never could understand when it comes to the Langrisser series battles. Not to mention these games take time and this was the only game in the series with permadeath rules.

107. Final Fantasy II (#135)

Yeah, I finally got around to replaying this, even though it was on a remake in my case. But seriously, the way battles went confused the heck out of me the first time and I found myself at a roadblock with it. This battle system basically predated the SaGa games, but those were just easier to figure out for me. That being said the second Final Fantasy game has rather solid story of good vs. evil and the plot twists in between, so it fares better than you'd think.

106. Dragon Quest IV (#94)

At this rate, you can pretty much guess that I am going through all the barebones RPGs right now. Dragon Quest IV is the first game in the series which actually made an effort with the storyline, giving off multiple character stories that converge. Remarkable! It's a bit too long for my taste, though. But hey, in case you're wondering, I'm hitting the RPGs that are actually average. The rest of this page will be filled with them in fact.

105. Shining Force: The Sword of Hajya (#129)

I'm almost tempted to not talk about this game as much as Shining Force, which immediately follows it on this ranking. But if you must know, this game's mechanics are basically the exact same as Shining Force's, hardline tactical RPG combat, an attempt at a compelling story, and the "brother syndrome" as I like to call it. Sadly that's about it, and you won't find anything truly different apart from plot. 

104. Shining Force (#106)

I see the potential, dammit. I see it so damn well. Shining Force proves to be a basic, yet nostalgic strategy RPG game. The story isn't too compelling and neither are the characters, which are problems. Furthermore, this is a game that suffers horrendously from bad XP growth and an odd promotion system, forcing many retries to get anyone up to proper levels. Mages shine here.

103. Shining in the Darkness (#82)

Phantasy Star predates the Shining series first outing with its 3D dungeons, but in Shining in the Darkness, the immersion of playing through a 3d dungeon is pretty innovative. It's the only one of course. Premise is still simple, but it gets its brownie points. Too bad the backtracking ruins the vibes, and the plot is cliche enough already.

102. Wizardry V: Heart of the Maelstrom: (#146)

An interesting game to rank. After the experiment of playing the bad guy in IV they went back to their roots, and this is surprisingly a good thing despite not a whole lot of new things really being offered to the table. I mean, I did miss customizing my party and all though, so that's certainly something I really wanted to do, even if that usually takes up time.

101. Wild ARMs 4 (#136)

So, we have the worst Wild ARMs game here. Hex battle system is interesting, but a poorly-executed concept, and I'm guessing the fifth game remedied it better. It at least keeps several holdover mechanics from the previous games, but doesn't excel in making them any better. But the real drawback is this game's storyline and it's rather awfully inept main character. The game's plot is strange and Media Vision certainly made it a very political game for all the wrong reasons.

Continued in the next post.