FINAL FANTASY® XIII-2
I played most of the final fantasy games since when I was young, before FFX10 and FFVIII came to steam. I used to play them in a very old Windows XP and a Windows 7 computer. Back then those games was always refreshing and broke the usual norms held by video games. I always wanted to play FFXIII series- it was a dream to me. Regardless of course I jumped to FFXIII-2 without playing the prequel for various reasons. I did saw a lot of videos related to FFXIII and I could say it’s more epic than this. But, I think it was a bit too much when people say that FFXIII-2 is bad compared to most Final Fantasy games. In terms of bugs, FFXIII-2 is indeed bad and frustrating. But you have to understand this is a badly ported game and I never let that bothered me really. There are many workarounds for the bugs and some worked for me. With that said, I managed to get all of the achievements (most were ridiculous), completed the DLC and the main story and my judgment is the story is epic. Since the bugs were bad I’d first start the review with that.
– Real player with 130.7 hrs in game
Read More: Best JRPG Singleplayer Games.
I’m convinced this game is a work of satire. The plot is so contrived you stop halfway and realize that Square is just fucking with you.
Here’s an example: there’s a machine in the past that kills its creator and creates a future filled with robots. What caused it to kill its creators? Itself in the future corrupted the machine in the past to kill its creators. Why? Because if it didn’t force the machine to kill its creators in the past it wouldn’t exist in the future as the sole controller of the world. The Machine came from a future that didn’t exist so that it could continue existing and create that future.
– Real player with 124.5 hrs in game
Tears of Avia
Update: I originally wrote this review on launch day, I have now completed one full playthrough and adjusted some comments to reflect this.
A great genre aware indie game. If you love JRPG’s then this will embody every trope, cliche and worn-to-the-ground charisma you’ve come to love in the best ways possible.
With a selection of protagonists straight out of a pregen dungeons and dragons adventure, colourful and classic personalities along with bright and iconic designs (RIP Reina’s spine) there’s someone you’re bound to love. I myself was torn between the obviously-the-protagonist Kai and the all too matching a description Iris. And the rest of the cast, so far, hasn’t been a let down either for me. From the hard working superior you bump into to the obviously-not-merlin (which I have nicknamed Fauxlin) provides plenty of laughs. Although you don’t spend much time with some of the later characters, revisiting previous locations will sometimes provide interesting inter-character dialogue that you can watch while in the tavern, and replaying some levels with mixed up parties will let you see interesting dialogue combinations. With the added bonus who you recruit and how you treat your party members changing their outcome in the epilogue also, some of which can be quite sad.
– Real player with 38.0 hrs in game
Read More: Best JRPG Story Rich Games.
This review has been updated to reflect my thoughts after completing the game on normal.
1. Nice character and enemy designs
2. Nice animations (you can skip them and enemy movement)
3. Good music and the main menu theme song is catchy
4. Varied skill trees kind of encourage skill experimentation
5. Loot from battles is worthwhile - a nice gameplay loop of finding better gear
6. Combat is streamlined (healed after battle and can quickly retreat to town)
7. When you equip a new weapon its shown in battle and also the main character in town exploration
– Real player with 17.8 hrs in game
Twilight Memoria
I’ve always been a diehard fan of the RPG that carries the ATB system. Just mention it like Final Fantasy V, VI, VII, VIII, IX they are all my favorites! So when I saw a new RPG maker game that carried this system, I was very enthusiastic.
This might be my serious review considering that I really support the indie game climate of the JRPG genre.
1. Opening
The first time I played, I felt a stutter in the map scrolling section in the village; it made my head quite dizzy I don’t know why; is this my VGA error? I don’t understand, but I tried to hold it and play again.
– Real player with 14.9 hrs in game
Read More: Best JRPG Anime Games.
JUST COMPLETED.
TL;DR 9/10 GAME.
This game is good but needs some fixing. Let me describe my playing experience below:
Twilight Memoria is an RPG game where you play as two children: Rucifar and Luna, in a fantasy world full of monsters. They play around their village and help other villagers with their monster-hunting and alchemy skills. They either hunt monsters, or craft items to use in battle or to aid them in their quests. It’s a heartwarming, everyday life type story where you are not in some big adventure or saving the world, but the game is still very challenging in the battle system and how you survive your quests. UPDATE: THE ENDING WILL STRIKE YOU IN UNEXPECTED WAYS. THIS IS GOOD.
– Real player with 12.2 hrs in game
Crystal Ortha
In Crystal Ortha we play a mercenary named Ross. Ross needs money to survive, fighting monsters for anyone willing to pay. When he gets the opportunity to work as a bodyguard for a lovely young lady named Margaret, he accepts the job instantly. Margaret dreams of finding the motherload of legends, namely the Crystal Ortha. The Crystal Ortha is a place full of magic crystals worth unimaginable amounts of money. If Ross joins her to find it he will be paid an ungodly amount of money for his protection. On the journey, Ross and Margaret are joined by two other companions and they learn how the Crystal Ortha came to be and why Ross somehow feels connected to the legend around it.
– Real player with 14.0 hrs in game
So, you probably already know if you will enjoy this game, but if you are on the fence, I have to say this game is pretty fun and the retro style plus the easy to use interface makes it really fun to play. I love JPRPG’s and this one is pretty fun.
– Real player with 7.5 hrs in game
Divided Reigns
I never review games. But I know this game is very new and I’d love to convince someone to give it a try.
Divided Reigns starts with your main character, Ailfred, who is the captain of an army who has just conquered a nation but committed atrocities in the process. But his conscience isn’t being silent about it, and his efforts to change course lead to a series of events that go far deeper then he could have ever imagined.
If you’re looking for a high quality movie style cut scenes and fifteen different ways to mash your buttons in combat, this is not your game. If you loved the classic turn-style JRPG’s (think Final Fantasy VI and Chrono Trigger) and are looking for a fresh take on them with an impressive storyline, you’re in for some terrific hours of gaming.
– Real player with 171.8 hrs in game
This is an edited re-review
I’ll start this off with the positives:
This dev duo is incredibly responsive to their community. You never know what to expect when something comes out of an indie group, but they seem to go above and beyond trying to fix issues IMMEDIATELY after launch. My original review was a down vote because of the amount of major bugs I had ran into. I recorded them here and even emailed more to their developer-email. I can’t say if they’ve all been fixed, but I know at least one was rectified within 24 hours of reporting it.
– Real player with 67.7 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
FINAL FANTASY IX
TL;DR: Every long-life gamer has that particular game considered life-changing. To me, Final Fantasy IX is that game. And to me, this is the best game that a life being have ever crafted. Yes, I say “life being”, not “human”, because I’m assuming aliens have their own videogames. But they won’t be as good as Final Fantasy IX.
–————-
Okay, here comes a very long review. I’ve been waiting this for so long.
First of all, completely ignore my time count on Steam for this game. I’ve put 1000h+ into it, and I can easily make a perfect run by memory. Do you know that particular favorite movie you watch every single year? Well, I do that but with this game.
– Real player with 123.9 hrs in game
While I do recommend this game, I’d suggest getting it only if it’s been discounted. Final Fantasy IX is my absolute favorite game of all time but this “remaster” leaves a lot to be desired.
As mentioned in many, many other reviews, the new interface is really big and ugly and is clearly just the same interface they used for the mobile port. The original interface was actually quite good and it’s a shame it wasn’t restored for the PC port.
Sadly, there’s also a lot of bugs that have gone unfixed since launch, most notably the overworld music glitch. It likely won’t be terribly noticeable to those new to the game but in the original upon entering a random encounter the overworld music would actually pause so that when you exited battle it would pick up where it left off. That is sadly not the case in this version. Every time you have an encounter the music will restart. This is incredibly annoying and quite upsetting since Over the Hills is a beautiful and LONG song but it is perpetually restarted nearly every 10 seconds as encounters are fairly common. This IS a jrpg from 2000, afterall.
– Real player with 118.2 hrs in game
FINAL FANTASY XII THE ZODIAC AGE
FF12 is an outlier. It’s the only numbered FF game directed by Yasumi Matsuno, creator of FF Tactics. And it is also the only numbered FF game to re-use existing world, called Ivalice, again originally from FF Tactics. This should not be a problem since chonologically it takes place thousands of years before any other game. Instead you get expansive world with many original races and nations, it easily puts most, if not all, other FF games to shame. And yes, to address the elephant in the room, it gives strong Star Wars vibes.
– Real player with 162.3 hrs in game
I liked this game but I also hated it. Because it doesn’t have a maybe button I have to go with the dislike button because I complain more about the bad things than acknowledge the good. Which honestly is Balthier and Fran. Didn’t care for Vaan..didn’t care for Ashe. I wanted to know more about Balthier and Fran than any of the other characters. He’s a pirate for god sake that would’ve been way interesting than hunting down glowing stones. Yes, we did get a little Fran story but I rather find out how they met than what the hell I got with Vaan and Ashe. They could’ve made a story about that. I think Square decided to making Vaan the main character of this Final Fantasy was a mistake. I rarely used the Espers at all. Not sure why anyone would other than progressing through the story which some are mandatory to fight. The gambit system didn’t work for me I just kept attacking and healing and I played the whole game on 2x fast mode..because I didn’t think that it was worth paying on normal speed. The journal in which you have to track what mission you are on is at the bottom of the map menu but only will tell you the main quest. Not even the sidequests are logged anywhere. You wouldn’t even know that they are side quests in this game unless you’re taking on hunts which is a pain in itself. A perfect example of a bullshit side quest is the three medallion quest. Without a guide, you would never figure out that you have to talk to certain people in different areas of Rabanaster. To get to the map on your location you have to go through 5 pages to get to that and the clan primer page in which you have to access all the time and that’s only if you accepted a hunt then back out of those pages to get back to the game. 5 pages it gets annoying..doing that all the time to find where I am at. They decided to let you have a map on screen but sometimes the map is too big that it obstructs your view on playing the game that you have to back out the map and go through all those pages to the map to back out again. I had a hard time tracking the Hunt club quest that I had to go online to get the correct information on what the hell I was supposed to track and how. This game doesn’t tell you anything worthwhile. It is like they made this game so you have to buy the strategy guide. I really wanted to love this game but I can’t recommend it. Play Final Fantasy 10 or even 9. Those are great games.
– Real player with 125.0 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
Liege Dragon
This is a great game. So first I had never played a game by KEMCO or by Exe Create, and when I played it I thought the lucky tickets and craft weapons were a pay to win thing. I was wrong it’s all in game drops. That being said the game itself is amazing. It feels like an old Final Fantasy game or a old Dragon Quest. That means at least in my eyes that it’s doing jrpgs justice. Having played it up to about the second dungeon, I can say it is worth it to get. The story while a little long winded and without voice acting, is still a great story that I want to know more of. The gameplay is unique as the item system is a lot like Star Ocean Second Story, but the battles themselves are like Dragon Quest. This makes for a complex system that is easy enough to learn but still require skill to execute.
– Real player with 3.4 hrs in game