UnluckyThir13en

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

Persona 5 was and is easily one of the greatest RPGs, turn-based games, and games of any genre really, to come out during the 2010s. Yes, Persona 5 Royal came out and fine-tuned its formula even further, but I won't hold its improvements against the base game, which was already a complete and extremely satisfying experience. I blew through this version alone three times, and I "took my time" all the while. Its music and presentation isn't for everyone, but for those that resonate with it, you'll forever find yourself a dedicated Phan.

I don't see myself remembering most of the characters or events of this game long after finishing. Both the protagonists and antagonists were very lukewarm, and I constantly found myself expecting and hoping that the game had reached an appropriate conclusion, only for it to pull a gotcha and prolong things even further. It is a competent enough game, especially for a handheld action RPG, and "good" in many respects, but never quite reaches "great" in anything it does.

SMTIV Apocalypse caught a lot of flak when it first dropped because it was considered too optimistic for an SMT game. I don't think it's inaccurate to say that it leans into the most anime troupes of any SMT game, with things like "friendship" and "determination" actually having an impact on the story. But vibes aside, it's an improvement on SMTIII and even IV in many ways. Nanashi had a phenomenal design, the cast was a lot more involved (though arguably more insufferable depending on who you ask), and the conglomeration of the MANY rival factions (both old and new) coming together was a treat. Dagda was and still is one of my favorite characters in the series, and the final boss fight made III and IV's final fights look almost trivial by comparison in scope. One of the objectively best stories in the series, and just a great experience that slightly falters due to its mixed bag of a cast, and against the series' usual and previously established atmospheric expectations.

After Pokémon Y, SMTIV was my most-played game in the entire 3DS catalogue. I went through more cycles of the game than there were unique endings, and I adored it. Some of SMTIII's flaws are still present here - though less egregious - namely, travel in the overworld can be a jumbled and often confusing mess. Flynn is also just less cool than Demi-Fiend. But everything else is a massive improvement. The main cast is the best in the mainline franchise, and the endings (Law, Chaos, Neutral, and Nihilism) were so much more interesting to align with because the arguments and personalities tied to them were all more valid and introspective than the "what type of **** are you?" mentality that accompanied its predecessor's endings. Just an immaculate experience that I really hope comes to modern consoles soon.

SMTIII has quite a few things holding it back. Absolutely horrid dungeon design and some truly awful puzzles. An underwhelming cast of main characters. And as is typical for an Atlus title, they unnecessarily monetized the hell out of it despite being a remaster of a 20 year old game with minor quality-of-life improvements to the base game. But then you get to the pros. The Demi-Fiend is iconic. The aesthetic is timeless. The Vortex World is dark, lonely, and fascinating. Demon fusion and the press-turn system hold up as well as any more modern SMT game. Major nitpicks aside, this was a fine way to experience Nocturne in full for the first time.

Citizens of Space fine-tuned many grievances players had with Citizens of Earth, and its gameplay is all the better for it. However, I found the world exploration and recruitable characters more uninteresting than CoE's, and I encountered numerous recurring bugs on the PS4 version of the game that would crash my console, bar off characters I had met the requirements to recruit, provide no battle menu and force me to restart the application as a workaround, and more. This is a "better" game, but these technical issues were just too prominent, and I found the experience less charming overall.

Another game I wanted so badly to like but with too many problems for me to overlook. Its art style was fantastic, its plot was quirky and absurd, its gameplay was EarthBound-inspired, and it juggled some interesting ideas on paper. But it was just too much of a slog in execution. Many modern quality of life functions were either locked behind Citizens' abilities or nonexistent, and the jokes were ham-fisted and rarely struck a chord with me. For a game that was rather on-the-nose in how it satirized American stereotypes, it felt like it was trying too hard to be inoffensive, and in the process, it pulled back where it should have been digging in, and rested on the laurels of its influences rather than establishing itself as a worthy equal in its own right.

After I played Final Fantasy XVI in 2023, I discovered its RPG elements had left me filling unfulfilled. Sea of Stars came in and scratched that itch. It had all the classic ingredients of a top-shelf RPG: a decent overall party (shoutout to Garl), leveling and stat allocation, weapons and armor (including legendary gear), side quests, fishing, cooking, an interactive turn-based battle system inspired by genre staples like Chrono Trigger and Super Mario RPG, and a great story that tied to The Messenger in a way that left me pleasantly shocked. It even had a ton of puzzles and world exploration, neither of which I generally love, but actually enjoyed immensely here. It did overstay its welcome toward the end, but as a game paying homage to the classics, Sabotage Studio released another classic of their own.

This short Metroidvania platformer ended up being one of the most mechanically fun games I played in 2023. It isn't particularly deep or memorable, but it was very fun and very funny, and ended up being one of those overlooked rare gems that I hope more people can talk about for its own merits, rather than merely for its relationship to Sea of Stars.

Anime games are so monopolized by arena fighters that it's almost exhilarating that we got a smaller-scaled battle royale hero-based game. Unfortunately, the experience is marred by one of the stingiest and least-rewarding gatcha systems I've ever encountered, a frustrating lack of feedback and QOL improvements from the devs, and (if you care about this) the most disgusting set of trophies in a game I've ever seen, easily taking an estimated 1,000+ hours to 100% a game that doesn't even offer a platinum. It's a fun enough experience in spurts or with friends, but I would not recommend it for completionists or people searching for their next live service fix.

An RPG with a unique vision for its gameplay and a lot of ambition that is held back by the reality of that very vision. Because no character (aside from the protagonist Sho) is immune to the possibility of being eliminated, the story is also constructed in such a way that no character aside from Sho contributes anything of importance to the plot. Similarly, because a traitor is randomly generated every chapter, there is excitement in the potential for future repercussions and trying to figure out who dunnit, but the process and actual impact of there being a traitor is also drastically lessened compared to other games with a similar premise and fixed baddies (i.e. Danganronpa, Zero Escape series). But for all of its shallow elements, Lost Dimension has a fantastic gameplay loop that never grows stale and is easy to lose yourself into into.

My 8/10 score reflects my experience with the "game", a visual novel and inherently less "fun" to me than a standard game that finds a way to effectively marry narrative with gameplay. But from a story and characterization perspective, this is a perfect 10/10 that unexpectedly found a way to take some of the most morally reprehensible characters and give them an absurd amount of characterization and depth. It's a deeply flawed cast that is made sympathetic by virtue of the player living a shared journey with them. It also tremendously vindicates the existence of visual novels as an artistic medium, as experiencing this as a mere book or comic would lose that player perspective that was so critical to the experience. This is an incredibly uncomfortable and haunting must-play title for anyone who values narrative design and a good story.

An actual masterpiece. Everything from the art style, the music, the story, the characters, and the gameplay captivated me. This was both my first experience with an SMT game, as well as my first experience with a tactical RPG, and I couldn't put it down when I originally played it. I got every ending just to max out some of my favorite demons and unlock all of the title screen characters. I know Overclocked is supposed to be the best version of DS and I'm sure I'll experience it one day, but the original was peak as it was, and easily ranks in my top five favorite games of all time.

An excellent entry point into Ys, and containing some of my favorite modern action RPG mechanics of any game I've played, with the potential for near-limitless stat farming and a robust end-game to keep invested players interested. I didn't love the story - I felt like it peaked in Chapter 2 and I spent the rest of the game hoping for a similar level of tension or stakes - but the game was fun and at the end of the day, that was enough to make it a great experience.

Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot is the perfect love letter to the DBZ franchise, as the base game comprehensively covers every canonical arc in Z from beginning to end, with a lot of care and attention given to the cinematics, story retelling, and side quests. Unfortunately, that doesn't necessarily translate to a fun game that can stand on its own legs outside of the fandom, and I found it to be a mediocre RPG at best, and an infuriating one constantly crashing my console at worst.

TWEWY was a true masterpiece. I think most fans knew going in that NEO: TWEWY would probably not be able to measure up. And while that is still true, if "pretty damn good" is the next rung of quality below a 10/10, I'd say we were incredibly fortunate that NEO hit such a high bar. It didn't have the touchscreen controls of the original, but the gameplay still felt polished and immaculate. I'd even go so far as to say this is my favorite modern action RPG (as of the time of writing this). Of course, like its predecessor, it is also extremely stylish, pure ear candy, and a completionist's nightmare. The biggest shortcoming of NEO is that the new characters are constantly living in the shadow of TWEWY's main cast. And while they're well-done in their own right, there's just no getting around that. I'd recommend this for fans of the original who can be content with more world-building and plenty of references that will absolutely make the journey worth the payoff. But for gamers new to the series, I imagine this will probably score lower.

If I could choose only one game that I considered absolutely essential specifically to the Nintendo DS system, it would be TWEWY. With an amazing cast of characters, a compelling story and character development, gorgeous art style, plenty of playlist worthy bangers, and some of the most satisfying character progression of any game I've ever played, I happily sank over 200 hours into this 25 hour game. It's a tragedy that a good port hasn't come along yet, but I don't know if anything is capable of capturing how great the touchscreen controls felt in the original.

Quite possibly the most sloppily translated game I've ever played. But a fun enough one at that. A dungeon crawler that incorporates some rhythm-based mini games into its ultimate attacks, and a universal pool for both resource-based progression and combat actions. A pretty standard RPG overall, but I think devs could learn a few things from the chances this one takes.

Conception II is a game I really wanted to like. But I just found it difficult to embrace. Wake Archus is a bland third-rate swagtagonist wannabe. I got about halfway through the game before I could distinguish half of the heroines apart. The main villain was as predictable as he was poorly-written. The combat, though it had the potential to be something special, felt incredibly under-utilized. And as for the star children, I've never been less drawn or hooked by a "monster collecting" game as this. On paper, Conception II had a lot of promise. But it was painfully mediocre and completely lacked charisma. The only saving grace was the fan service, and even that walked a tumultuous line between funny and creepy, and was largely abandoned over halfway through for a more serious story that it had no business attempting.

Everything Fuga: Melodies of Steel did, Fuga 2 does as well or slightly better. New playable character? Check. New gameplay mechanics? Check. Greater emotional stakes? Check. New kill-shot that doesn't permadeath your characters? Check. At the end of the day, this is just more Fuga with slight improvements, but that ended up being more than enough for me.

One of 2021's most overlooked hidden gems. A unique take on RPG staples like classical turn-based combat and elemental weaknesses with rudimentary but satisfying character progression and social sim elements. Biggest weakness is its shallow cast of characters built on one-dimensional archetypes, but they're collectively charming enough to warrant a pass. Not an overly difficult game, even for a first-time no-Soul Cannon run, and a perfect gateway into turn-based RPGs for newcomers to the genre.

One of 2021's most overlooked hidden gems. A unique take on RPG staples like classical turn-based combat and elemental weaknesses with rudimentary but satisfying character progression and social sim elements. Biggest weakness is its shallow cast of characters built on one-dimensional archetypes, but they're collectively charming enough to warrant a pass. Not an overly difficult game, even for a first-time no-Soul Cannon run, and a perfect gateway into turn-based RPGs for newcomers to the genre.