Trials of Mana
A great remake for a great game, although not flawless. I compiled the items I wanted to highlight on bullets below for better clarity. Do bear in mind I’m halway through the game at the time of writing.
-Overall comparison to the original: If you’re one of those people feeling trauma over FFVIIR, rest assured that this game is extremely loyal to the original, at least up to what what current social standards allow (lookign at you, Sorceress class attack), the exception being the battle sytem, but we can all agree that the original’s attack-retreat-weapon charged-attack cycle with screen freezing magic wouldn’t fly beyond the SNES.
– Real player with 75.0 hrs in game
Read More: Best Anime Fantasy Games.
Trials of Mana is an excellent example of how to do remakes the right way. It is clear as water that the dev team learned a lot from the remake of Secret of Mana, because this sequel improves nearly everything that game did wrong. Gameplay is smooth and character models look great.
However, the game has some issues. The story is pretty simple and straightforward, as one would expect from older JRPGs; unfortunately the devs didn’t improve the plot from the original 1995 game, which shows. Villains are extremelly one-dimensional and can be described with few words. The main characters lack any form of development, and just kinda go with the flow. Also, the game is relatively short and not so difficult.
– Real player with 63.9 hrs in game
Gekido Kintaro’s Revenge
Gekido Kintaro’s Revenge is an okay Beat ‘em up game, so it’s time for the story.
After stopping the evil Kintaro, our hero Tetsuo returns to his sensei’s house were all is quiet for a year. But soon his sensei feels a dark, ominous and evil presence returning, he sends Tetsuo to a faraway farming village outside the city to see what it is.
Now let’s talk about the likes. The game play was simple, but fun. Some of the enemies were cool looking. Game was not too hard and the cutscenes were nice to look at. Survive mode in the game was okay.
– Real player with 5.3 hrs in game
Read More: Best Anime Indie Games.
I was craving a simple beat ‘em up and the colorful retro graphics of Gekido caught my eye. I have to say I sure am glad it wasn’t more expensive as I frankly hate this game. The stages and enemies were designed to make every death feel incredibly cheap and infuriating. Every trap is guaranteed to hit until you know their exact placement ahead of time, and even then it’s a toss as they appear just off the screen so you often can not be precise enough. Both the enemy AI and your own combos tend to place you overlapping an enemy sprite, rendering you incapable of striking that specific enemy regardless of the direction you’re facing, while the said enemy has no issue striking you. The jumps are imprecise and will leave you wondering whether you should keep trying or if the gap really is just too big. The hit boxes on some objects make absolutely no sense (a falling rock will hurt you even though it misses by a half an inch on the screen), and the game even has a habit of forgetting to let you move after you clear the screen of all enemies making you restart the stage. Do yourself a favor and replay Streets of Rage 4 instead if you need a simple but properly made game.
– Real player with 5.0 hrs in game
Langrisser I & II
Langriser I & II are remakes of the early titles in the series and were among my favorite when I was younger. I played Langrisser I (which was named Warsong in America) on the Sega when I was a kid and many years later I got to play a fan translated version Langrisser II (it was the Sega/Mega Drive version, not to be confused with Der Langrisser). I have played these games multiple times and I enjoyed their gameplay immensely and when I heard that the remake was coming, I automatically wished-listed the game and bought it and the DLC when it came out. Its one of the few games that I will fanboy for (alongside the Drakengard, Ys, and NieR series of games) and overall, I am happy to say that I was not disappointed with the game as it was everything I expected it would be plus some good changes/improvements to the game which made it better, in my opinion.
– Real player with 114.0 hrs in game
Read More: Best Anime Strategy Games.
Langrisser 1 Remake
Turn based strategy game where your commander units are like normal characters in games like this but each one can spend gold to hire units of soldiers before battles start, with the options available to them and the quantity available depending on their class and promotions. Hired units will be much weaker if they leave the command range of their leader and if they are adjacent to their commander they will heal some of their health at the start of each turn. Hired soldier kills will give their commander experience and if your commander or an enemy commander is killed all of their hired soldiers are lost with them. It’s one of the better games on the Genesis and the sequel’s Super Nintendo upgrade Der Langrisser is one of the best games on the SNES.
– Real player with 69.5 hrs in game
ZONE OF THE ENDERS THE 2nd RUNNER : M∀RS / アヌビス ゾーン・オブ・エンダーズ : マーズ
Metal Gear Solid 2’s Cool Younger Brother
You like Vanquish?
This game’s made in 2003, and I think this is the best omni-direction mecha combat action game the market has to offer. The only thing that does outer space high speed mecha combat better than this game is probably Warframe’s Archwing mode.
The game is fun, not many of its kind out there. The controls is fairly responsive, the combat mechanic is deep enough for players to be experimental but not to the point that it is impenetrable. Scenario design is great, variety of situations that keep the player’s engagement fresh (a la Platinum Games). The momentum of the story’s pacing fits the speedy combat gameplay. Progression feels great with the additional tools gradually given in the game to change things up on how you approach combat. It’s a skill based game, so you kinda leveled up yourself to proceed through. The game is challenging even on normal, there’s a side challenge that’s pretty hard even on the easiest difficulty. You have been warned.
– Real player with 19.8 hrs in game
ZONE OF THE ENDERS THE 2nd RUNNER is a fast third-person mecha action game produced by Hideo Kojima. This is a cult title that I have only recently been able to check out. Although a brief game, ZOE2 provides frantic and challenging gameplay despite having a few issues.
STORY
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2351078675
You are Dingo Egret. On Callisto, the Martian moon, he finds a mysterious signal and investigates. It turns out to be an Orbital Frame- a mecha that uses the power of Metatron (the series’ substance of power). AHRAM, a military power, begins attacking and Dingo has to pilot the mech. The mecha’s AI, ADA, gives you a brief introduction to Jehuty, your mech, and you fend off AHRAM. Eventually you come face-to-face with the game’s antagonist: your former commanding officer, Nohman, and his mech, Anubis. You are no match and Nohman asks Dingo to rejoin BAHRAM. He declines and Nohman shoots him, leaving him at death’s door and instructs Ken, his subordinate, to dispose of the body. Instead, she decides to secretly revive Dingo by replacing his destroyed organs and hooking him up to Jehuty as life-support to do her bidding. What follows is his journey back to Mars and to save it from BAHRAM.
– Real player with 13.8 hrs in game
FINAL FANTASY IV: THE AFTER YEARS
It’s the same game as FF4. 17 years later they couldn’t figure out how to advance the story so they just copied the same story and added fan fiction romances to show that time had lapsed. FF4 wasn’t some masterpiece, but it did have some nice plot twists for its time: my brother is the villain, I’m a bad guy and I need to find redemption to be a good guy. This was the 90’s it was cheesy. It was fine. Decades later they pull the same cheesy clichés that have been used a billion times in stories just to remind you of events from the previous game.
– Real player with 110.0 hrs in game
I would only recommend this game for people who have a special place in their heart for the original FFIV. And even then… FFIV is in my top 3 of favorite games. It just did something for me. But this game is becoming hard to finish. I’ve worked myself up to the last tale by now, but it’s been a chore. While I don’t regret buying and playing this game, that is out of pure love for FFIV and nothing else. If you buy it, buy it on sale.
Pros:
- It’s amazing to see the old characters back, 17 years after we last saw them. Some storylines are very interesting, and the overall story is solid enough. The story (and stubbornness) is what makes me want to keep playing til the end.
– Real player with 69.9 hrs in game
Secret of Mana
I had this game on my wishlist for some time now. I read the comments, and I was really impressed of the huge amount of negative recommendments. But today I decide to check SoM by myself and I invested the 40€.
Here are my first impressions: (will be edited, if necessary)
1. I played SoM in 1994 and later like hell. On the SNES with my best friend, tag team. We have never ever had a game, playing so many hours together in that days before or after SoM. It was just the best! Better than Secrets of Evermore or Lufia.
– Real player with 91.3 hrs in game
9/10 A great example of what a remake should be.
I just finished playing my second playthrough of this game, and I am happy to report that throughout my two runs through the game, I never had any of the game crashes or problems that other players have mentioned having, so either the game has been patch-fixed since then, or the game just got along with my computer. In any case, the crashes were my main concern with buying this game, so if you’re on the fence about getting it because of those posts, I would just go for it, because this game has been great.
– Real player with 53.4 hrs in game
Ys I & II Chronicles+
Useless bit of trivia first.
The amount of times these games have been redone is truly mindblowing, but then again Ys has been around since 1987. What we have here is an enhanced port of a PSP port of an enhanced edition of a windows remake of a combined turbografx-16/pc-engine remake of a pair of games on an ancient japanese pc. Rolls right off the tongue and I’m not even gonna get into how many ports the original games themselves got. I’m fairly certain this won’t be the last remake either.
– Real player with 67.3 hrs in game
This game screams: Epic. Retro. Action RPG. While we’re at it, Ys Chronicles+ kicks Major Ass (this is an E rated review)! The game mechanics are so simple and so addictive that you can literally spend hours grinding monsters, just because! And then you look at the clock and think, “Holy Pants! It’s tomorrow! …But maybe just a little longer…” and then you turn into a zombie. Yea, this is a hyperbole, but it’s not as much of an overstatement as you might think.
And did I mention that this is a package of two games? Quick history lesson. When Falcom was developing Ys, limitations forced them to split the epic into two, resulting in two games, Ys I and II, collectively called (in this case) The Ys Chronicles (Ys Complete, Ys Eternal, Ys Epic Remake VII, these two games have seen a plethora of remakes, and Ys Chronicles+ is the latest and arguably greatest).
– Real player with 40.6 hrs in game
Atria Valkyrie
Game Features:
1. Four DISC hovercrafts to choose from, each with its own unique bullet style.
2. Absorb enemy bullets to charge your weapon. Then return the attack to the enemy.
3. DISC hovercrafts have 3 types of attack. A fully charged weapon (3rd level) will fire bullets that penetrate multiple enemy units and do the most damage.
4. Protect the cruiser at all times.
5. Five levels of tactical warfare, mid-boss and final boss battles.
6. Three game modes: Campaign with selectable difficulty, Skirmish, Endless mode.
Flipon
What’s new if this type of game has been already done to death?
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Cute silly story which you don’t need in order to play (kinda appropriate for kids)
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Some extras which make it more enjoyable than open or free games in the same vein
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Game modes always challenging you and pushing you to the next level
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Nice audio tracks
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Overall sense of action and a feeling of joy
What’s bad with it?
Not much that I can say. I have enjoyed lots of hours of casual play and have already achieved whatever I supposedly wanted from it. There’s some replayability value but I’m already done at 12 hours (check my status and you’ll see if I reinstalled and kept playing later on).
– Real player with 20.7 hrs in game
Review from a Hardcore Tetris Attack/Planet Puzzle League Player
When I saw this on sale, it was an instant buy! I was jonesing to flip some panels like back in the old days! As someone who played an unhealthy amount of Tetris Attack/Panel De Pon and Planet Puzzle League when I was younger, I can honestly say that I got my money’s worth here. If you’re familiar with the formula of those games, you’ll feel right at home here, and at the asking price, it’s honestly a steal!
PROS:
– Real player with 14.0 hrs in game
Final Fantasy IV (3D Remake)
Where do I even begin with how special this game is to me? I was introduced to the legacy of Final Fantasy IV through the DS remake not long after it released, so it’s not like I’ve had decades to dwell on it, but the game struck a chord with me from the very start. The music is enchanting, the story is gripping, the voice cast is phenomenal, and the gameplay hasn’t aged a day. For my review, I’d like to elaborate on each of these points one at a time to give a better sense of what I love about Final Fantasy IV.
– Real player with 109.5 hrs in game
This game should be the Gold Standard when comes to “remakes” for it was properly done. The faithfulness that the developers at Matrix Software that took the pains and applied the wisdom to properly enhance the locations from the original that was unable to execute due to the limited capacities on the Super Nintendo (Famicom) now have been given the proper authentic vision the original developers envisioned.
For example: Damcyan (the desert-kingom) has taken the “middle-eastern” flavor and Fabul with its “Chinese” reflection; and of course, Eblan with its “ninja” embracement.
– Real player with 85.5 hrs in game