u/rosemarieseternal

The Game Boy trilogy is kind of the inverse of the NES trilogy so far, what with the first game being incredibly flawed and being not very well liked but the second game is considered an amazing game that fixes so much. I have not heard a thing that was good about the third entry but regardless I hope this offers a good review and I hope you enjoy.

The visuals are fantastic here, I understand that Game Boy titles aren’t really discussed for visuals but they did a great job building on the first games admittedly lovely visuals. The original aesthetic shines like crazy and the backgrounds and monsters all look perfect. The fact this is on a Game Boy of all things is incredible to me. Cloud Castle and especially Dracula’s Castle in particular being my favorite levels visually. Even Christopher Belmont’s sprite is substantially better. The detail is much better here.

The soundtrack in Castlevania II is some of the best I heard on the system, the password selection screen alone is really good but then you have New Messiah as an introduction track which is my favorite intro of any Castlevania game so far. Psycho Warrior, Road of Enemy, Ripe Seeds, Evil Gods, Passpied and The End Of The Day are other favorites of mine but the absolute best track is Praying Hands. Not only does this game have some of the best harpsichord I heard in a game it’s done on an 8 bit handheld that also creates some of the most dramatic sounding classical pieces I have ever heard. Hands down my favorite soundtrack so far.

To call the gameplay an upgrade is heavily underselling it as this game is incredible to play, the most noticeable aspect is the lack of slowdown it is smooth as hell to play and the controls are as fluid and precise as can be for a handheld Castlevania. Platforming is much better than in the previous game, combat and the way Christopher controls are much better as well. Jumping is much better, the whip is better to use and the upgrades are very worthwhile too.

That being said I wish Christopher moved faster in this game, a fair amount of the hits I received were due to him moving so damned slow and while I got accustomed to it. It’s still an issue I have with the game even if slow.

The difficulty here is much more fair than in Adventure where the control and slowdown made it much harder than it needed to be. Gone are the really bad platformer sections with much tighter and better level design, enemy placement isn’t as cheap as you think it would be, the boss fights here are actually really fun albeit Dracula was kind of more of a hassle than needed sometimes.

I love that they brought back the level selection aspect from Castlevania III too, while there’s not as much choice in how gameplay is done I still think it’s a great thing to have here. Also bringing back sub weapons was great I have no idea why this wasn’t in the previous but seeing them back here really made me realize how lacking the first game was.

9/10 game, easily my favorite in the series.

I truly don’t regret many things in my life and am happy with many of my decisions but this might be the one rare regret I have had in my life. And all it took was ten minutes to realize that, and another fifty minutes to fully understand why. Anyways, here’s my review just don’t expect anything new or groundbreaking but I hope you enjoy the read.

The visuals here are basically your average early Game Boy title, nothing here is really unique but I will say it looks fairly decent and has a lot of effort placed on the spritework and backgrounds. Which I understand is a constant and an expected quality to have for a Castlevania game but this could use all the praise I could possibly offer it.

The soundtrack here is actually great, even the intro track Battle Of The Holy is an incredible intro to the music and there’s still other really good songs such as Darkness, Revenge and Evil Devil. Soundtrack so good that they made the Game Over track incredible. I haven’t seen a company make a Game Over track sound this lovely since ATLUS and their 90s JRPG run except those are considered exceptional games intended to be hard, this one is just common courtesy for anybody playing this.

The gameplay is genuinely abysmal, slowdowns at a constant which makes everything harder than it needs to be, controlling your character is already sluggish but anything requiring jumping is going to be a pain especially later on. The level design is actually quite fine and competent but it really made me miss the first Castlevania honestly.

Enemy placement is a crapshoot especially the eyeballs on the intro stage, boss fights are a constant bore and the platforming is some of the worst I have seen. That narrow little practice in the first stage with the floating blocks? That is somehow not the absolute worst instance of this in the game and that one made me start using save states so as to not screw up a jump and start over.

And to top it all off this game is woefully short, considering this must have cost $30 when it came out this feels like a complete ripoff, Castlevania on NES was also pretty short but that was a great game with incredible replay value, this is just nothing to me. Final Fantasy Legend came out the same year as this and that is a significantly longer game with more to it.

I have nothing more to say other than that game is horrible. 3/10 all the way through this is a truly terrible game. A lot of people call mediocre games bad when they’re just boring but this one was actually painful. Anyways, time for the next Game Boy game hopefully it’s much better.

For this one I played the English and Japanese versions just to see the differences and also hopefully this won’t be as long a post as the Simon’s Quest one. I hope you enjoy reading it though and that it’s a decent one.

As for the visuals this game is a further improvement from the first two and I have to say I really love the medieval aesthetic here, while gothic is always amazing this style is always a great one. The monsters all look great, they fixed my criticism of Simon’s Quest where a lot of the backgrounds had little variety and everything looks much better especially the details in the forests, the haunted ship and the castle itself and the inclusion of weather here makes everything here perfect. On top of that I love the playable characters designs here especially Alucard and Trevor.

The soundtrack for this game is in the top 5 of the NES library. The USA version is scuffed compared to the Japanese version and it still puts out stuff like Epitaph, Beginning, Mad Forest, Aquarius and Demon Seed. Matter of fact I even played through the Japanese version and the music on there is even better. Hearing the enhanced version of Clock Tower is addicting especially Mad Forest and Big Battle. Although I will say that I thought the Western versions of Aquarius and Nightmare sounded better. Still the best soundtrack in the NES trilogy however.

As for the gameplay I haven’t seen a Western release of a game be this intentionally hard in a while. NES games being hard wasn’t unknown at all but this was pretty damn brutal at times, my issues weren’t really the Medusas or the knockback at this point, I thought the level design could get really hard but I was used to that, the stairs are the worst part about the game and I have no idea why you can’t go up them automatically and why not land on them whenever you get knocked back? Hell, just have the character move a lot faster on the stairs too it’d solve a big issue and not only that but the Japanese version was more in line with the first games difficulty and everything was certainly more fair to me, I understand this was to combat people only renting instead of buying but this was kind of overboard.

Level design is the best in terms of concept and execution, I loved the Haunted Ship and Clock Tower a lot especially the Clock Tower’s focus on verticality even if the controls make it a bit more difficult than needed. I really liked the Mad Forest too and the introduction stage. Genuinely, everything here was great but I will say that later on the game gets unreasonably hard, it’s like a really good test for people that played the last two but I wish it kinda took account of the slow movement prevalent in Castlevania because some of this feels more aligned to a Ninja Gaiden style due to the onslaught of enemies sometimes.

There’s new mechanics here I really like such as being able to play as four different characters and even the level branching which is pretty unique for a platformer. The level branching is really cool and I like the player choice aspect but the multiple characters are the best part here. Alucard’s probably my least favorite to play as due to his attack being kinda trash and the bat transformation being situational. Sypha and Grant absolutely cleansweep especially Grant in the Japanese version due to magic and way better mobility. Trevor is the default and he works pretty well here even with Sypha and Grant as options. I will say though that despite Grant getting nerfed in the Western release that he is my absolute favorite to play as.

The boss fights here are finally difficult again like in the first game and they’re a lot of fun but playing against Dracula in the Western release is the closest you will experience to being placed in the brazen bull. I got through most of the game just fine but Dracula actually got me to crack after attempt twelve and I started using save states. Death I could handle just fine albeit with some frustrations but Dracula was just a test of my patience.

Despite my issues with difficulty, I recommend doing a playthrough on both the Japanese and Western releases. Japanese version’s my favorite but Western is really atmospheric and classic. This gets an 8.5/10 although I am biased because I adore really difficult games.

So that’s where the TBDM song came from, but anyways this will be another review like with the first game and thanks to the advice I got from the last post my playthrough went smoother regarding controls and dealing with enemies. I hope you enjoy reading and I hope it’s not too long.

Visually, this game is gorgeous and I love the improvements on that gothic art direction and I also really do like the monster and town designs, but I do wish there was a little more variety with the towns, monsters and mansions as they just blend together a bit too much or could’ve had more changes. I think the other locations you visit outside of them look amazing but the biggest praise I have outside of Simon’s new look is the day to night segments. It’s very impressive for the time and even today.

The music is somehow even better than in the first Castlevania and they thankfully have a pretty nice variety in tone like the calming Silence of the Daylight and the dramatic masterpiece known as Bloody Tears, but goddamn even though Bloody Tears is an amazing song it’s not even my favorite in this game. Dwelling of Doom is also great but Within These Castle Walls is a top 5 song for the console and the 80s regarding gaming.

Now for the gameplay and I’m actually really mixed on it, I wouldn’t call it bad whatsoever but I think it could have used a lot more time. The overall combat design hasn’t changed much but thanks to some advice I got I managed to adapt to the controls and fighting and I actually loved it more this time around, I really loved fighting monsters and exploration was kinda fun too. On top of that I actually love the day/night changes what with the lighting changes, the different music and the difficulty change was great although it was kind of slow whenever it started to transition.

My main gripes have to do with the localization, this is an early NES game so I understand translations gonna be scuffed but this is really bad, the hints are incredibly vague or nonsensical and you absolutely need a guide for this. I couldn’t tell if this was to sell more copies of those old guidebooks or if they did a bad job translating the script to English because things like the Deborah Cliff clue. I understand that some NPCs were supposed to lie according to one of the devs but anything that conveys such really doesn’t come through here.

The actual RPG stuff is really impressive for the time and it feels like a very early attempt at a Metroidvania what with the open exploration, RPG elements and the usage of items and equipment changes and it also kinda reminds me of a FromSoftware game in terms of the aesthetic and exploration elements. But that being said, I wish this game had a map of sorts to use in-game because I know there were probably physical ones but it was still a pain to know where to go, I also thought that implementing currency into this game was a decent idea but actively getting hearts for it is a very tedious experience because of the grinding you absolutely need to do in order to buy items.

I also wish the game was a bit more difficult because why are the bosses so unbelievably easy? The first game was absolutely more difficult and fun in this aspect but here it just falls flat, none of the fights were very memorable either unfortunately but that’s also due to how seemingly unfinished the balancing is throughout the game.

I’d give this game a 6.5/10. The ideas are ambitious and deserve to be recognized for it but so much of this could’ve utilized more time, for how good the general combat, visuals, music and ambitions are. The balancing needs work, the translation is horrible and would actually slow down progress and the open world design needed a bit more structure and a map. I really wanted to like this game more seeing as I love it when sequels go out of their comfort zone to experiment but this was kind of a misfire on several aspects.

I decided to get into Castlevania after I was gifted several games and this had been in my mind to marathon for a while especially after I finished Persona. Plus I’d like to discuss albeit I will have absolutely nothing to say because this took me like 40 minutes to an hour to finish.

The visuals are really good for early-mid era NES, I really like the gothic environments and I think they did an amazing utilizing classic novel monsters and old mythology, it gives everything a really unique feel for the time and I think the backgrounds look amazing and there’s a lot of variety.

The music is fantastic too, the boss theme is great, Vampire Killer, Heart of Fire, Walking On The Edge and Stalker but I really adored Wicked Child as my personal favorite. I found the soundtrack theatrical and bold for its time and I’m really happy they went for this direction, so many NES platformers got a little generic with the soundtrack but they did great here.

The gameplay is both really fun and also like an awareness of how stiff the human body can be, I thought the control for the whip was responsive alongside overall movement but I really didn’t like how jumping was so restrictive, Simon jumps with the height of an athlete but the mobility of a gout patient, I wish I could move him while he jumps to avoid a really bad move, and I could understand jumping being a risk but this is a platformer with constantly spawning aerial enemies I’d like the ability of free movement during these moments.

I found the difficulty balancing to be a bit inconsistent in that the bosses including Dracula were less difficult to me than reaching them, there’s a good challenge and all but the levels get weird with enemy placements especially the Medusas. Things fly at you like it’s a bullet hell later on but those at least let me move a small character with tons of mobility. I think Ninja Gaiden did this the best even if that game was aiming for something different.

Last but not least I thought the level design was actually quite good, I loved the environments and jokes aside about the castle layout being a disaster but I found the subweapons really interesting to use and I loved the amount of verticality and the lack of much if any filler especially with obstacles. I never found it handholding or like it disrespected my ability as a grown adult to do anything it was refreshing for me and everything clicked really well. That being said, there’s still some really bad enemy placement that was likely deliberate to artificially prolong the game because this is a very short game even for the time and this is also mentioning the knockback when hit which is just a pointless mechanic and only frustrates me.

Regardless though this was really fun. I’d give it an 8/10 regarding the time it was released.

I decided to play Persona 4 Arena Ultimax in between breaks from Persona on PSP. Thankfully this wasn’t a very long game and I beat it after two days and I did the side content too thanks to the all nighters. This is a new one for me because I never discussed a fighting game. So I hope this is a good read while not being too long and also there will be a spoiler or two.

The story of P4AU is kind of just there, like there’s a structure and all but it’s pretty barebones in that aspect and the real strength of the game narratively are the character interactions. I understand that expecting a fighting game to have a great story is kind of just wishful thinking but it’d still be nice all things considering, it reminds me more of Eyes of Heaven where the plots kinda just there but the character interactions really hold it all together.

Let’s discuss the writing though, regarding the returning characters from 3 and 4 they’re the best part about the game. I love everybody’s interactions and the jokes actually land harder here than in the two main games, the side content is the absolute best part of the game too and the real bonus is that there’s more consistency in character writing which I thought P4G had issues with alongside seeing how they function much more clearly, and while they’re all pretty damn good I think Adachi and Yosuke’s were the standouts. A slight redemption arc but he still experiences the consequences of his actions and he gets a lot to do, still the best antagonist in the series after all.

I also love the character interactions in the fights too and there is a ton of dialogue. Not only for victory screens but there’s also the Navigator dialogue which is fantastic, specifically Nanako and Adachi’s although for opposite reasons are a must listen for anybody into the series. ArcSystems dialogue can be hit or miss but here it’s the most consistent so far.

As far as the new stuff is concerned I’m pretty mixed though although I’ll begin with the positives. Labrys was a very charming character and I really liked her altogether despite a bad line or two, I found her interesting and I’m happy they continued expanding the lore but Sho is such a misfire, Sho has the appearance of an edgy OC but he lacks any charisma or great moments, his most defining and likable quality is that he makes puns and as an antagonist goes, he gets horrifically outdone by Adachi in every way and his backstory isn’t interesting whatsoever despite being tied to Ikutsuki to the point where that blank slate of a man doesn’t really get any depth to him even with that revelation.

Regarding the crossover with P3’s cast I loved it a lot, I was very mixed on Persona 3 FES as a game but the cast here is amazing and I loved seeing how everyone changed not only in appearance but personality. Although I have to wonder why Junpei is still the pervy character I wish they toned it down more considering his character arc and social link in P3P showcased that he was so much more than those tropes and not only that but apparently Chidori is still alive so why would he act like this in the first place? Overall though I really have no complaints besides Ikutsuki arriving and receiving no depth or anything resembling a proper character.

The visuals and art direction are really good here too, it’s an ArcSystems game so the character sprites and animations will be fantastic, I think the designs for the P3 cast are perfect and it shows a more aged look to everybody perfectly especially Mitsuru’s design and I think Fuuka looks amazing too. The P4 cast looks the same though but that’s not an issue continuity wise. I think Labrys is great visually but Sho is pretty average for me in regards and even then I’ve seen way better edgier designs from ArcSys games like ABA in Accent Core Plus R and ironically enough Ragna from Blazblue. I should also mention that the cutscenes are presented in a visual novel style but its voice acted for the most part, my only gripe with the cutscenes are the lip movements when they talk it’s a little weird but it is a nitpick however.

The voice acting here across the board is amazing, I’d argue it’s the best English dub I’ve experienced in the series so far. Everyone here hits a stride amazingly and even Sho’s VA known as Todd Haberkorn does a great job here but I wish he could’ve voiced a better written character. The standouts here for me are Johnny Yong Bosch who made me wish Persona protagonists had voiced dialogue in the mainline games, Amanda Winn Lee, Yuri Lowenthal and Erin Fitzgerald did perfectly. And that’s not even getting into the P3 cast who all did amazingly, it also showed me more that the voice direction was the real problem in FES because Tara Platt is amazing in here as Mitsuru seeing as the line delivery is much better here. I also think Vic Mignogna and Michelle Ruff did amazing too as Junpei and Yukari but now we’re gonna discuss the recasts.

Persona 4 Arena Ultimax did recast a few characters such as for Kanji, Naoto, Fuuka, Ken and Igor. While they got good VA’s for the recasts I am kinda mixed overall. Fuuka and Ken’s new VA’s are noticeable upgrades especially Fuuka who was voiced by Wendee Lee. Wild that she was given more to do here than Ace Attorney unfortunately. Kanji and Naoto are voiced by Matthew Mercer (who was stuck as Great Value Troy Baker at this time) and Valerie Arem. They do fine but at the same time Troy Baker was perfect as Kanji and Valerie’s a good choice but Anna Graves sounded mature yet youthful as to where Valerie has an older sound that doesn’t fit for this version of Naoto. That being said they did pretty good though.

The soundtrack here is great, keep in mind they do reuse some tracks from Persona 4 but that’s fine the music in that game is great but Yosuke, Chie, Margaret and Adachi’s themes are fantastic and catchy as hell, they mostly sound like Sonic the Hedgehog fighting game music which is a-okay with me. Funnily enough Elizabeth’s battle theme is just the Nyx battle theme in P3 which by all means can’t fix what ain’t perfect. Still though not a bad song and everybody did great regarding the music.

Now we get to the gameplay, this is just your standard fighting game and it’s a very responsive and well made one, ArcSystems did great here, the controls are really good and the combos aren’t a pain for the most part. Movement’s fluid and there’s a lot of content thankfully but while it is very fun, I have an issue with this game that’s a constant in many ArcSys games but the balancing here makes no sense sometimes, I’m not expecting Virtua Fighter tier balancing but the fact the Shadows in the game are this OP is kinda insane. Shadow Chie absolutely stomps and 2.50 undoes the way they worked and while it is far from a game breaking change, it’s still a very confusing one mechanically because it does undo how Shadow characters were designed but at the same time it could be worse. This game isn’t exactly MVC in terms of archaic balance and the game is still incredibly accessible.

That being said the gameplay is just visual novel cutscenes and fighting so that’s kind of a hard sell considering the main series has much more to it. And also this game at full price is $30 which is insane to me for a fighting game that’s a decade old. Thankfully it goes on sale frequently enough for much less but still a weird asking price especially seeing as Guilty Gear Accent Core Plus R released a year or two earlier and costs way less.

I give the game an 8.5/10 though. Easily one of the better anime fighting games on the market and everything works smoothly but with some balancing problems and a kind of uneventful main plot.

Finally beat this game, took me longer than expected plus I got burned out for a bit but it’s finally over. Time to review the final moments and then go on to play Persona on PSP. I hope you enjoy.

The story here is still great quality regarding the final goodbyes, the emotional moments of everyone realizing that, Adachi’s letter, the farewell and the reunion in the timeskip months later are phenomenal. I especially loved the glimpse of Inaba in its more renewed form. But I have one criticism and it’s just the inclusion of Izanami and an extra dungeon. The fact three deities are included here now to be behind the murders and all the supernatural is kind of just way too much, if anything it makes the mystery more poorly executed. Had it just been Adachi and the one deity it would’ve been much better. Izanami doesn’t really make much sense to be the true final boss considering there’s like two moments of foreshadowing and for the first one, you could’ve just had Margaret be the gas station attendant and nothing would really change so what’s the point?

The visual aesthetics here are pretty great too, the new dungeon is minimalistic and that’s not a bad thing, I quite like the look with the gates that contort and spin around and I also really like most of the timeskip designs. I will admit that Yosuke could’ve used a jacket or something to hide how weirdly long his neck is and I kinda wish that Kanji kept a bit of his punk aesthetic but I understand why the changes. I do love their new looks though especially Chie as the standout. And while I like Izanami’s design alongside the first phase of her boss, her second phase design is raw as hell and reminded me of the PS1 games I loved it.

The voice acting this time around is great too, everyone does really good but I have to give credit to the main cast especially Laura Bailey and Karen Strassman regarding line delivery during the farewell moments and in the dungeon. Not really much to say though here other than that the voice acting is great as per usual.

The new music added here is pretty good for the most part. I really liked Corridor as this minimalistic piano piece that’s really eery yet a little calming, as if everything isn’t at a close yet with a loose end still remaining. The Genesis is a mixed bag for me, I don’t mind a song with a lot of buildup but that payoff doesn’t work well in the game, I like the brass renditions of other songs in-game but I really wish after all the creepy buildup the payoff would be a more flourishing symphonic payoff of several songs into one. But to end on a better note I absolutely love Never More. Not only a great song to conclude the game on but it’s a sad one as well, not in the way of Memories of You where that song is like a final goodbye to someone you will never meet again, but in that while it’s a temporary goodbye, it’s still really bittersweet after everything. Top 5 in the soundtrack for me seeing as I’m listening to it while writing this.

The gameplay is fine though, the dungeon’s strengths are in the audio and visuals but as a whole it’s very straightforward with no gimmicks, obstacles besides shadows and like some mid-bosses. I miss the Hollow Forest at least that had a bunch of challenge with SP management and the roguelite mechanics. But nothing bad thankfully.

8.5/10 ending and the game as a whole is an 8.5 too. I’m very happy I played it all the way and I loved my time with it despite some issues. Now I’m going to play Persona on PSP.

Update: This encounter rate is godawful😭

As I am playing P4G blind and was blindsided by King Moron’s death, I simply must say that I took him for granted. Yes, he insulted the dead, was a massive asshole and goes after you off rip for being from a city in Japan. But I will play devil’s advocate and state that he at least cared for his occupation and the welfare of his students. He gave great career advice to his students and went out of his way to go out in the evening as a serial killer was on the loose to give you gym clothes while telling off a girl for being late out at night. Yes, there were rumors that he is a closeted pervert and are they true? Probably but that man was in the top 3 of competent teachers in this game besides the coach and history teacher.

Miss Kashiwagi has made me realize just how good Mr. Morooka had it because at least he wasn’t trying to groom the kids, but Miss Kashiwagi is also voiced by Mary Elizabeth McGlynn and she’s a top 3 voice actress in anime dubs so that cancels out the fact she comes out the gate hitting on children and acting like a teenage girl is her competition like she’s Daisuke Namikawa’s wife.

Hey everyone, I finished this and am currently at the next arc right now and a lot already happened. I’m going to write my review about Rise’s arc and then go play more. I hope you all enjoy the post and I hope it’s concise and informative enough.

This arc here might be the best one so far from a writing and thematic perspective with its commentary on idol culture concerning the rampant sexualization of them alongside the parasocial relationships fans tend to have towards idols. The whole dungeon this go around has a really good presentation and the whole thing feels kinda gross but in the intended way, they even had Yosuke show a lot of restraint in that he understands that it’s incredibly predatory and revealing but for some reason the writers had him go on a whole tangent about Kanji’s sexuality that made no sense during the camping trip. But I digress. I also really like Rise as a character, I find her likability and considerate nature very charming but I have to say, after this arc she starts calling you senpai every ten seconds and it’s a little annoying. Maybe it’s just her being an idol but still, overall a great storyline. Also, Teddie also gets a shockingly nice boss fight, it’s the best one so far and his Shadow’s actually kinda creepy, even if Teddie will say a bad line or two I still think he’s a charming and likable character.

As far as social links go, I managed to make a great amount of progress on Adachi, The Dojimas, Yukiko and Yumi’s. So far I really like all of them, they corrected a criticism I had of P3 where the school related social links were weak in comparison to the ones outside of it. Yumi’s is really good and the direction it goes in the later ranks is pretty brave. Yukiko’s is really good and I like how she comes to her own path on her own terms, all you do is just help everyone to their destination but you don’t really decide it for them, it’s really nice. The Dojimas are the standout though and are easily top 3 but Adachi’s is pretty funny and charming as well.

The visuals for the dungeon are really good too, the whole thing’s really sleazy and disgusting and I’m amazed they handled it as well as they did. I also really like how awkward the bossfight is with the various moaning and it doesn’t even feel sexual it just sounds horrible, I also really like Shadow Teddie’s presentation in terms of his boss fight and design, he looks kinda terrifying even though his portrait is goofy as all hell, side note but Teddie when he’s all crumpled up has the best portraits in-game seeing as how I kept losing it a decent amount looking at them.

As far as audio goes I have to shove in both the music and voice acting together because there’s not much in the way of it. The new song I picked up on immediately is Theater, the song that plays in Rise’s dungeon, it’s a really good club beat with some vocals that try to be seductive but it ends up adding to the uncomfortable nature of the dungeon. It reminds me of a song from Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt more than anything. I also have to talk about the voice acting, everyone here’s really in their groove but Laura Bailey does an amazing job as Rise and as for Shadow Teddie, as much as I really like Sam Riegel in the role, Dave Wittenberg’s Shadow Teddie is superior in how naturally evil he sounds and honestly it just sounds creepier.

As for the gameplay, it has now settled in just how much easier this game is than I expected, this dungeon and the game gave me an RNG assist so egregious that I can only describe it as divine intervention. The amount of Golden Hands that spawned in this dungeon was so varied that I am up to level 50+ and I am not even halfway through the game. I did do a bit of grinding but the sheer EXP gains from that plus me utilizing Shuffle Time to its greatest potential is incredible to me. Also, Yukiko has been the most elite healer in the series so far and it also helps that her offensive spells are pretty damn good.

9.5/10. Everything’s been great so far in the game I hope the next game’s dungeon is equally good.

Hey everyone, I’m right now entering the next arc into the game and seeing as I just now finished up with this one. I may as well review it and give my thoughts. I do hope you enjoy reading it.

As for plot right now, I really liked what they did with Kanji and his arc, I thought they did a great job conveying his insecurities with his masculinity due to years of being judged and teased for his hobbies and also how he presents himself in ways that don’t fall under any traditional gender roles, and I also do like how his sexuality isn’t really the main focus despite his Shadow over exaggerating it as is their role in the story. I thought this was a really good followup to the Castle arc narratively and I wanna touch up on pacing really quick but they did a way better job disguising how you don’t really advance way too much by adding some mandatory hangouts and extracurricular activities like the camping trip and the stuff with the scooters. ATLUS did a great job writing the main cast’s chemistry so far.

As for characters and social links I’m progressing through, Kanji is the best so far his jokes land a lot and I think Troy Baker does an excellent job voicing him in serious moments alongside comedic moments. Hell, the camping trip had some really good line delivery especially from Yuri Lowenthal (that Motorcycle line delivery is amazing as a side note) and Erin Fitzgerald as Chie does great. While we’re on that note I thought the camping trip was alright, nowhere near as egregious as people made it out to be although that could be because I watched Superbad recently. But I thought some jokes landed pretty well like the Mystery Food X buildup and payoff plus Yosuke and Kanji talking to each other minus the odd 30 second homophobia moment, that felt a little out of character considering when Kanji meets them on the rooftop, Yosuke doesn’t really talk about it much if at all plus he only has one comment about it in the dungeon but everyone there was pretty uncomfortable being in it. So it’s most likely just very dated and bad writing.

The social links so far have been really good, I like Yosuke and Yukiko’s a good bit and I think Yumi’s has been pretty bittersweet in a good way. Chie’s is solid but I’ve been really liking Adachi’s social link and I have to say but I love the reference to Akinari where Nanako reads the story he was writing in P3 to everyone. It’s a really great callback and I’m happy his book got published. But the standout so far has to be the Dojima’s respective social links, Ryotaro’s is about his emotional disconnection from his family life and his obsession with solving his wife’s death and Nanako’s being about her grief since her mother’s passing and Ryotaro’s negligence. The two of them have their flaws (I can excuse Nanako’s though) but they’re both well written and I love their characters a lot, I really like Ryotaro’s and how even though he is in the wrong for how he handles Nanako, he’s still a very likable guy that’s slowly opening up past his grief. So far the both of them are on par with P3’s Sun social link in my opinion.

In terms of any art direction and visual changes everything’s been great as mentioned before but I really like the differences in between dungeons. I thought the Sauna dungeon was pretty good and I haven’t mentioned this but the Persona designs are gorgeous especially the ones that got carried over from Shin Megami Tensei. Soejima did a great job overall and I think he’s a really good successor for Kazuma Kaneko’s work considering the big shift in tone from Persona 1 and 2 to the modern trilogy.

The music so far has been great, I think the track Sauna is amazing and does the oppressive nature of Castle better while I also liked It’s SHOW TIME! and I have to say I have no honest idea why more people aren’t talking about Belongings. I thought the instrumental version was pretty good but I ended up hearing the vocal track on the ost and it’s fantastic. I’ve been listening to it on repeat the entire time writing this. How much? is also a really good track. As a whole I love the pop rock with city pop mix with some ambient and funk thrown in direction that the soundtrack has. A lot of really good variety is in the game.

As for the gameplay however, I’m entirely used to the dungeons and I think the social simulation mechanics here are a lot more refined and well done than in P3. I like everything here involving gameplay much more but if I had to make any slight criticisms it’d be that I wish the dungeons were handcrafted instead of procedurally generated still, while it isn’t bad I do miss P1’s handcrafted feel. And I do think this game has been pretty easy especially since I now have five party members and Yukiko has been absolutely invaluable in battles. Not only that but Shuffle Time is the most hilariously busted mechanic where you can just get constant heals, exp, money, treasure keys and more. And this isn’t even getting into the Golden Hands. They’re not that rare and they’re also a great way to get stronger, but ATLUS kinda did too much with the QOL here, challenge kinda flies out the window here due to it.

9/10. Been loving this game a lot and I’m on Rise’s arc now. I just now noticed how many Tales of Vesperia and .hack//GU VA’s are in Persona 4.

I’m gonna be honest this is gonna take way too long to wait for a long review of the whole game because quite honestly I don’t want it getting way too long. So I’m going to instead discuss each arc as it goes on and what goes on during it. I hope you enjoy and I do have to mention that there’s spoilers.

The game’s premise and setting is the best one I’ve seen so far what with the very believable small town and the murder mystery plot, I understand there being some Diamond is Unbreakable similarities but I also ended up getting a lot of Twin Peaks vibes what with the supernatural elements and the presentation of how the small town has a kind of darkness to it and not only that, but Inaba as a town is really fun to go around in and it’s a very immersive setting as well, they don’t really try doing that “small towns are inherently better” trope that I don’t like either they really just shatter it, the townspeople gossip, there’s animosity from the shop owners because of Junes, everyone here has something to them because of how isolated it kind of is and I’m impressed by Atlus for that. It just makes everything great. Side note but the pacing so far is better although it may stall later on who knows.

I also really like the cast so far and the greatest improvement from 3 is how much actual chemistry there is between each other. I can actually buy Yukiko and Chie being really close friends and Yosuke so far is less egregious than Junpei. I know Yosuke gets a lot of criticism from what I’ve noticed but I found him to be a believable teenage boy that has a lot of merits to him such as his intelligence and his acceptance of Saki’s view of him, whether it was exaggerated or not. I think the Dojimas are really interesting too and I hope they end up being social links and I especially like side characters such as Yumi and I don’t find Teddie annoying either. I also quite like Morooka as a comedic character and besides that, I think the school staff are really charming and have some good lines. If I have any criticisms of the writing so far, it’s with Marie’s social links and not because of her character I actually like her, it’s because the other main characters are kinda shoehorned in to build chemistry, I feel like if she were a party member it’d have been better executed.

The visuals are great and they hold up really well in my opinion, the character models are charming and the environments and textures look really good for a Vita game, but I think the UI here is the real treasure. The text boxes, shop interfaces, characters portraits, the extra content with the TV listings and battles haven’t aged a day and everything’s real sleek. I know the UI for Atlus games have always looked pretty good but I think this is a really good example of how far great presentation can go. I also really like the animated cutscenes and the studios all did an amazing job producing them. That being said, I do have one complaint and while I understand the direction they’re going for I wish the game kept the darker lighting because Inaba looks a bit too bright and clear for a foggy town, the PS2 version had a more foreboding atmosphere and also I think the scanlines and static in the TV world, while great attention to detail tend to mess up how textures look at times.

The music is fantastic here too, Shadow World’s a great intro but the original one for PS2 is classic and I’m happy they included it in Golden in some fashion. The battle themes are all really catchy and fun to listen to, the standout themes for me besides those are Your Affection, Heartbeat, Heartbreak, A Sky Full Of Stars, Backside of the TV and Reasoning. I also thought the theme for Castle was solid but I found it a little repetitive despite the really nice switchup, as much as I was mixed on Tartarus I thought the music for that was ambitious and oppressive in an intriguing way. And this one’s a big nitpick but I wish they changed up the Velvet Room theme, I really liked how they switched it up in the PS1 games and while this versions great I liked the variety from back then.

The voice acting is outstanding and the English dub is incredible. Yuri Lowenthal as Yosuke is so good that I feel bad for the person voicing him in Revival because he is perfect in the role, Amanda Winn Lee is a VA I’m pretty mixed on but I think she does good as Yukiko but as Shadow Yukiko? She’s great. Chie and Teddie’s VA’s changed in Golden but after some comparisons I think Erin Fitzgerald was a better casting choice alongside Sam Riegel. I think both have better deliveries especially Erin whereas for example Tracey Rooney’s portrayal as Chie, her voice is great but her delivery isn’t as good. Erin does better across the board and even though she was a little grating at first, she found her flow and proceeded to do amazing. Everyone is really good but for the side characters? My standout choice besides Adachi are the Dojima’s, especially Nanako and Ryotaro who convey that warm yet distant familial relationship very well.

The gameplay for Golden is a big stepup from P3. The fact that male companions (mainly Yosuke so far) get a social link is a huge improvement, but I also think the setting has more to do and has more intriguing NPC dialogue. There’s already plenty to do and the flow of things is great, the social links so far are a better start than in P3 and I think the dungeon design is better visually but I really wish the layouts weren’t just hallways, it gets pretty repetitive but I do like that after clearing a dungeon you’re allowed to fight an optional boss and get some good gear, that’s a neat detail. As far as combat goes, the fact you can do direct control over your party members is amazing, now you can do precise strategies much easier and you aren’t at the whim of inconsistent CPU like in P3. I will say though Golden’s pretty easy but at least it’s a fun type of easy. I do wish there was some more challenge however.

9/10 so far, everything’s really good barring some minor gripes.

For the record I am playing the FES version so any QOL updates from Reload will not be present here. With this, I’ll have finished P3FES but regardless, I hope it is a good read.

The story of The Answer is actually great in my opinion and in fact I like this one more than the Journey. The whole premise is that it’s the aftermath of the main game’s ending and everyone is just figuring out what to do after a loss that severe. The thematic aspect of moving on, growth, acceptance and even depression are executed very well. The emotional beats hit harder and I especially must praise Yukari’s character in this, who has become my favorite at the time of writing this concerning her arc and how she handled everything regarding the events of the main game, hell everyone else has a great moment or two. I’d say the only thing here I’m mixed on is Metis. She isn’t bad but compared to Aigis and Yukari she’s kind of a misfire in execution.

It comes with a big caveat in that the pacing problems are brought back from The Journey, most of this expansion is outright gameplay and while that should sound good, the vast majority of a JRPG known for its plot and characters being just gameplay over the storytelling is a bit damning and as for the gameplay I’ll discuss that later.

The visuals are the same so all the praises I had for aesthetics and color apply here but the new thing here is the Abyss of Time, I actually really like its design over the one for Tartarus where in this one everything’s more bright and feels like you’re in an actual afterlife. The sand plus the focus on the reds and darker colors is a really great touch.

The soundtrack for The Answer is absolutely great too. There’s tons of good songs here like the Mass Destruction remix, 3/31, The Snow Queen, Between Doors, Brand New Days and the highlight here is Heartful Cry. Which might be the best battle song in the series that I’ve heard so far. Bottom line the songs here are all great.

The voice acting is slightly better here too, Ken’s isn’t anything great still and Fuuka’s is alright with some better delivery here and there but Michelle Ruff as Yukari is an actual slam dunk in terms of performance. Quite honestly everything revolving around Yukari here is also a slam dunk but I digress. Overall, things are solid here.

The gameplay of The Answer might be the single greatest way I have seen to not improve upon the mechanics from its predecessor in any meaningful way. I would outright say that this might be one of the least enjoyable gameplay experiences I’ve had in a long time. For starters, The Abyss of Time is just more Tartarus but with more bizarre gameplay design choices. By no means am I against dungeon crawling, the Ys games are a top 5 series for me in the JRPG genre but repeating the same design philosophies that were already pretty criticized is a very unusual idea.

Removing the social links and compendium should not have even been a decision, removing two very appreciated game mechanics that could’ve been well utilized (Social Links to get greater depth and insight on characters could’ve helped mitigate the fact 10-20% of this expansion is plot and character writing.) and removing a feature that makes fusing Personas reliable and with great utility was removed for no good reason. If this was six hours I’d understand but this is 25+ hours that I had to slightly rush and do all-nighters for.

The combat and difficulty balancing are actually worse this time around, keeping the AI controlled party members even though it was a very divisive and oft criticized feature of the main game is one thing, not fixing or improving the AI to better understand specific strategies or be a far better immediate help is another, but to have the difficulty be ramped up not by great balance but by stripping QOL features like the Compendium and literal difficulty walls that you need to either grind or pray to God that the AI controlled party member doesn’t sell the battle like Game Four of the NBA finals isn’t proper game design, that’s just an incredibly lazy way to pad out game time. Dragon’s Dogma has a hard endgame with an expansion that focuses only on combat but that game is built around having incredibly OP builds with much better design making it more of a roguelike as you play the expansion and it does it very well.

Overall, I’d give The Answer a 5.5-6/10. Great story, great characters, great music and solid voice acting across the board but this gameplay is abysmally balanced, designed and is padded out for way too long which makes the pacing much worse.

Persona 3 FES is a very impactful game that I do not regret playing, it is also one of the most viscerally confusing games I have ever experienced on many aspects. As for this review though I won’t be going into depth on The Answer and the social links seeing as they would make the review much too long and render it a giant wall of text and also I’d rather review them separately. I hope you enjoy the review though. Also, spoilers ahead.

The story of Persona 3 is actually pretty good, there’s a lot of great emotional beats and I do quite like the more depressive themes regarding nihilism, what to do with life as you have it and connections with the people around you. These are explored well and I do also have to mention how flawless this game’s ending is, it hits like a truck and will stay in your memory for a very long time. That being said, however I only really have two flaws regarding the narrative. The least impactful one of the two is that you’re able to save Chidori, and while I love Chidori and I love her and Junpei’s relationship, I feel like her sacrifice makes much more sense to be one you can’t prevent. And the way you save her isn’t even obscure, just keep talking to him everyday and pick the least heartless option regarding his feelings towards Chidori.

The other criticism I have branches throughout other aspects of the game but the pacing is absolutely unserious, and my issue isn’t waiting every month to fight a huge Shadow. It’s mainly how the high school setting fails to immerse me, there’s a lot of downtime and even with that the high school feels nothing like it. The fact there’s only one school trip in this immensely well funded academy feels wrong, on top of that but I really wish the students had more chemistry in terms of conversations and hanging out, everyone feels like an absolute stranger sometimes and it doesn’t help that you wish everyone would have a mandatory hangout once in a while to flesh everyone out a bit more. I don’t mind a slow buildup and the execution of what it builds up does hit hard, but you can’t have all this setup while not having something going on at once, small payoffs while leading up to the big ones goes a long way after all. I’ll get back to this topic later though.

The characters in Persona 3 FES are really good too and everyone in the main cast is memorable and likable especially Yukari, Junpei, Akihiko, and Aigis. I love some of the social link characters too such as the old couple, Elizabeth, Akinari, Tanaka and Mutatsu. If I had any complaint it’d again be the lack of chemistry of the group on a large scale. Makoto, Yukari and Junpei work amazingly and I could believe Akihiko and Mitsuru alongside Junpei and Chidori. But Fuuka kinda doesn’t really connect well with anyone including her best friend and Ken doesn’t really have much after his arc ends. That’s not saying they’re bad characters, far from it but considering I’m playing this after finishing Persona 2. The chemistry is certainly lacking more in my opinion. Also, the antagonists aren’t anything special but that’s a criticism I had for the previous games. The closest to an antagonist I found really compelling and interesting was Chidori, and that’s because her and Junpei’s relationship were fantastic. Outside of that though the antagonists aren’t quite compelling.

The visuals and art direction of Persona 3 FES is really good, I love how washed out the colors look and despite how dated the models are, everything appears decent to me and I really like the backgrounds too. The character portraits look amazing too, Aigis might have my favorites, then again everyone looks great here in this regard, it’s a visual look that’s unique to the 2000s and I adore it. Everyone’s designed pretty well and fit their personalities, but Chidori’s design is phenomenal and is the standout to me. The animated cutscenes also look good too down to the appearance as well as

The soundtrack to Persona 3 FES is amazing as well, the instrumentals aged well and everything has that early 2000s vibe and some tracks remind me of something that Hideki Naganuma would make. Burn My Dread and the new opening theme for FES are fantastic, Mass Destruction, Master of Shadow, Joy, Changing Seasons, Paulownia Mall, Deep Breath Deep Breath and Memories Of You are slam dunks but the Tartarus theme across the blocks is pretty ambitious and is executed perfectly, yet my absolute favorite is Memories of the City. This song makes the final part of the game’s stakes feel like everything is depending on you as everything descends into chaos. It’s a fantastic soundtrack all the way.

The voice acting of Persona 3 FES goes from amazing to absolutely bad. There are some fantastic performances like Liam O Brien as Akihiko, Michelle Ruff as Yukari, critically acclaimed anti-vaxxer Karen Strassman as Aigis and world renowned champion of women’s rights Vic Mignogna as Junpei. These are fantastic performances but then you have some iffy ones like Paula Tiso as Fuuka. Her voice is fine and it fits Fuuka but she delivers lines in a very apathetic manner which doesn’t fit her character as a shy and introverted person, on top of that but she isn’t a bad VA seeing as she was fantastic in No More Heroes. I’m also not that fond of Tara Platt as Mitsuru but her as Elizabeth is great. Whoever voiced Ken was certainly miscast however seeing as they deliver lines real weird and Ken sounds way too old for a kid. You could try saying that it’s just a 2006 JRPG but then again, .hack//G.U. released around this time and has far better voice acting alongside Final Fantasy XII releasing in the same year. Overall, very iffy opinion on it.

Now we get to the gameplay, and I absolutely dislike most of how Persona 3 FES handles it. But first I’ll give praises.

I actually really like Tartarus as a dungeon, I didn’t find it mindnumbing and the concept is great. It’s not a very well designed one but compared to Persona 2’s dungeons I’ll take this one. The scale of progression in the look of the interiors plus how the themes adds an instrument or more with each block as it turns into a beautiful and fleshed out track by the final one is fantastic, I wish more games had this.

The combat is turn based but the real negative here is just the idea of AI controlled companions in a game like this, yes I have switched up tactics and yes my issue isn’t that the games difficulty and system is a little chaotic and I actually quite like that. But there is no reason why I cannot have direct control over party members especially seeing as the AI will make the absolute worst decisions sometimes and I get a game over because of something beyond my control. If Persona 3 had the Gambit System from Final Fantasy XII where party members were automated but you could also heavily alter which actions they take from highest to lowest priority with many options to allow a good level of strategy. I’d really like this, but the companion AI doesn’t quite function like the Pawn system from Dragon’s Dogma where it learns consistently and you can really see the improvements there. If you get a status ailment then good luck and if you want your party members to do anything in specifics then you’re absolutely out of luck. I have no idea why they adopted this mechanic seeing as the previous games didn’t have this.

The fatigue system is a great idea in concept but the execution isn’t all there, I love the strategy element to it but it’s a massive pain if you want to progress really far into Tartarus and also on grinding, I understand wanting to limit grind but this game is balanced in a way where grinding is not only an incentive but a need. Not only regarding some difficult fights, there’s also the fact you can’t fuse personas with a higher level than you so if you really want some strong ones you have to level up consistently, and this mechanic gets in the way of that alongside that you perform worse in combat as a result. I don’t get the whole “it’s realistic” defense that I’ve seen for some of the divisive game mechanics, like if I was playing an immersive sim then I’d get it but this is Persona and this game isn’t balanced well enough to support these mechanics.

The social link system is fantastic and there are some great ones like Hierophant, Sun, Lovers, Devil, Tower and Aeon. Sun might be the absolute standout because of how emotionally draining it is and its impact regarding the themes of life the game has. That being said I am not a fan of most of the social links involving the students, but that has largely to do with how the characters don’t really have the best writing or chemistry with the main character. I also have to mention that for some reason the boys in your party lack a social link which is astounding to me, yeah they level up through story events but have a social link for them to flesh out characters and also for more benefits in battle for them.

Side note but the romance in this game could use a lot of fleshing out, it’s a fine idea but it doesn’t really impact much outside of some neat moments. For the sake of doing this I went for Yukari though because her social link was the most interesting and objectively speaking she’s the best written character in my opinion.

The Calendar System is a great idea but this game is really strict on what you can and can’t do, I can understand exams and stuff but the fact that entire social links can only be done in the school when it’s open and you can’t access any of them during breaks is a horrible restriction, why not place the students outside the school in order to go through them? They have lives outside of school and I’m sure they see you as a friend in general so they’d likely be down to hang out with you. And bringing back the topic of pacing, most of your time that isn’t plot is spent on doing activities like raising your social stats or progressing through social links. This is more egregious considering this is a high end town with a lot to do yet the game feels like it takes way longer to get through due to how limited you are with activities to do especially in regards as to when you can do them.

6/10 game. Great characters, story moments, themes, soundtrack and visuals but the voice acting, gameplay, pacing and much of the cohesion and execution regarding mechanics leave a lot to be desired.

Pulled more all nighters due to how much I ended up loving this game similar as to Innocent Sin, I do hope this review is a good read and I’ll do my best to be concise with it while also providing a good amount of detail, the version I played is the PS1 original that was localized so this should be fun. Unfortunately though seeing as the games get much longer and more in-depth, these too will be much more lengthy which I will do my best to condense into something more readable.

The story of Eternal Punishment continues from the ending of Innocent Sin and I must say I really do like the new direction the plot takes regarding themes and while certainly Innocent Sin’s more character driven plot is amazing, I also quite love how everything here is more of the same but much more trippy. I understand it may not be a positive for a few people but it fits perfectly for a continuation and the plot is just as good as Innocent Sin if not slightly better although that could be because the story here is more likely to appeal to me now than if I played it while I was a teenager. The ending is more of a punch in the gut somewhat than the previous game as well and everything here flows pretty well, and as for the localization I’ll get to that soon.

The cast of Eternal Punishment is equally as good as Innocent Sin’s and everyone here is just immensely charismatic and has amazing chemistry with one another. The comedic moments, designs, more emotional scenes and personalities are all fantastic and everyone here has so much personality. I adore Katsuya, I adore Baofu, Ulala is such a GOAT that I have to wonder how Persona fans have spent years arguing over high school waifus when she exists and Maya being the main character is great but due to her being the protagonist she kinda suffers from having less displays of her well written personality that was shown in Innocent Sin. I also think Tatsuya is a good improvement here and he has more character to display and I do quite like his dynamic with Katsuya all throughout. So overall, more of the same as Innocent Sin but done differently enough but I will say the antagonist of Eternal Punishment is also just decent and I do hope that there’s a Persona villain in the upcoming entries I have to play that serve as amazing antagonists.

The localization of Eternal Punishment on PS1 is leaps and bounds ahead of the infamously terrible Revelations: Persona translation. Is it perfect? Absolutely not but as a whole it is a very serviceable localization. The essentials are conveyed well enough but the script certainly could use some touchups and I’ll explain why later but everything here is standard quality for the time and as far as I know nothing substantial was removed so in my opinion it’s serviceable.

The art direction and visuals are the same as Innocent Sin’s and while that is not at all a bad thing and I understand why but I do kind of wish some things were kept visually differently. I looked into the first two SMT games as they are direct sequels to one another and those had a lot of visual differences despite being first person dungeon crawlers on the SNES. That isn’t to say Persona 2’s art direction is bad, far from it actually. The designs on everyone and the demons and Personas are all great. I love the environments throughout the game as well. So again, more of the same but that same thing is also great.

The PS1 soundtrack for Eternal Punishment is phenomenal, while I kinda prefer Innocent Sin’s music on PS1 by a sliver, Eternal Punishment also has phenomenal tracks like the battle themes, Maya’s theme, the opening, the revamped Velvet Room theme, Map I, Snail Mountain, Aoba Park, Ebony, Kasugayama High School, Club Zodiac, Sumaru TV, The Round Sun and Monado Mandala. That classic PS1 sound aged to perfection in my opinion and as a bonus I wanted to check out the PSP’s soundtrack and quite honestly while pretty solid it does have some remixes that are worse. The boss theme had the piano removed, Sumaru TV doesn’t have the voice samples like in the original, Monado Mandala’s instrumentation is noticeably worse after hearing it through decent headphones and The Round Sun certainly had elements stripped from it and while not at all bad is nowhere near as fun as the original version. Overall, the PS1 soundtrack is fantastic regardless.

The audio for the original version is pretty solid and holds up, some stuff could be mixed a lil but overall it’s all good but this version has actual English voice acting utilized more than in Revelations: Persona. And quite honestly the voice acting while not horrible does suffer some awkward pauses and delivery, however the voice actors are actually really good and I checked on who they were and a lot of them had performances in other games I quite loved. Lani Minella who did Maya went on to voice the infected in The Last of Us and the female Dunmer in Skyrim and not only that but Amanda Winn Lee did great in Evangelion and Dave Wittenberg is an amazing talent. So quite honestly I’d have to chalk it up with an awkward script and shoddy voice direction because voice acting at this time was actually pretty good seeing as this was made after Legacy of Kain, Baldur’s Gate and Metal Gear Solid. And if anime dubbing was called into question then Cowboy Bebop and Berserk ‘98 proved that good talent was present.

The gameplay of Persona 2: Eternal Punishment is more of the same but with some improvements, if you did not like Innocent Sin’s gameplay and thought it was unbalanced you won’t like this one either although I think the difficulty here is ramped up so it isn’t as monotonous. The battle system and negotiations are still as good as ever and I think the PS1 version is better to play overall thanks to the UI and challenge but the Rumor system here is amazing and went through enough improvements as to make the utility much more efficient and worthwhile, I hope this is used more in some degree honestly. There’s actual new locations and they’re all great and I quite love that they made actual differences in this regard but there is one crucial flaw to the gameplay as a whole.

The dungeon design and encounter rate feel somehow worse this time around and while I understand there are ways to work around them, I still don’t get why this hasn’t been fixing seeing as it negatively affected the pacing in the previous game. I know that the MegaTen has this reputation of being really difficult games but there’s challenging and then there’s unbelievable tedium. The dungeons are these labyrinths of constant battles while also being quite repetitive to look at and to also experience, the Monado dungeon is one of the worst final dungeons I experienced in quite some time if you try to beat this without utilizing anything at your disposal.

9/10 game. Better difficulty balancing which leads to better combat, a great cast, amazing music and great visuals, fantastic story, themes and a revamped Rumor system that I loves while also never really improving upon the encounter rate and dungeon design from Innocent Sin.

I may take a break from Persona to go play Danganronpa which has been on my backlog for a decade or I might go straight into Persona 3 FES but I am very excited to try out Persona 3 from what I’ve heard about it so who knows.

I played this game nonstop and pulled some all nighters essentially because of how much I loved this game, again I hope to write a review that’s detailed while also respecting your time. I hope you enjoy the review. And I want to mention that I’m playing the PSP version of Innocent Sin while Eternal Punishment is on PS1 due to the fact they were properly released in America. And also I’m using the PS1 boxart because I found it much prettier honestly so forgive that minor discrepancy.

The story of Persona 2 is a lot better presented this time around with a localization that isn’t hellbent on restricting how the plot is told at all times. The way the game handles the darker themes of the first game while also fleshing out the characters and their personal gripes and struggles is leaps and bounds ahead of Revelations: Persona. I am actually quite impressed with it and I would label this as the most mature and well executed plot in any JRPG I have played in quite some time and I have quite literally went through most of the mainline Final Fantasy games this year. I especially love the way the game tackles things such as rumors and themes of psychology and I cannot stress enough how great the cast is.

Persona 2: Innocent Sin’s main cast is nearly perfect, not only is the cast incredibly likable but their personalities, backgrounds and designs are fantastic. I loved Tatsuya as a main character but I also especially loved Eikichi and Lisa, Jun, Maya and seeing Yuki/Yukino return in this game was a great surprise. Lisa’s relationship with her family and her banter with Eikichi in particular were probably among my personal choices for great character writing and also comedic chemistry and I also quite like Tatsuya and Jun’s dynamic. They did a far better job with the main characters this time around thankfully but my only gripe is that the main antagonist while serviceable, isn’t exactly my favorite and while a big improvement over Guido, they aren’t in my top ten which is a shame due to how fantastic the main cast is.

I also quite loved the writing and I did really appreciate how they still kept around the experimental and mysterious atmosphere alongside the elements of psychology and how it involves the main cast of what’s essentially just mostly high schoolers and I wish more JRPGs had something like this. But even with that aside the events of the game get unbelievably depressing and the ending stings so much worse because of how fantastic the translation and writing have been. The leap in quality from the first game that I played on PS1 is unbelievable and I find it astounding that Atlus hasn’t re-released Persona 2 on modern systems. And to briefly touch on the localization, it’s pretty great although there are censored graphics namely revolving around the main antagonist but other than that it’s all good.

Persona 2: Innocent Sin’s art direction and visuals are also very good, yeah it’s basically a touchup of a PS1 JRPG but those old games have a charm and vibe that’s unique to this very day. The character designs for everybody are phenomenal, I love the Persona and enemy designs as well, the setting is amazing and the environments are fantastic. Kazuma Kaneko and Shigenori Soejima do a wonderful job alongside the rest of the team in my opinion and as far as the PSP remaster goes in touching everything up it’s solid but I will say I feel like the 3D gameplay environments could’ve used a few touchups in order for the re-release to be more rounded out. Either way it’s all amazing.

The music for this game somehow surpasses Revelations: Persona’s brilliant soundtrack and managed to become possibly my all time favorite JRPG soundtrack tied with Drakengard 3 and TWEWY. The PSP’s remade soundtrack is pretty damn good but the PS1 original’s is heavensent. I really appreciate it keeping up with what made the original soundtrack so unique and there are tons of standouts like the Velvet Room’s new theme, the battle music, the opening song, Seven Sisters High School, MAP Sumaru City, Kasugayama High School, Bomb Shelter, Aoba Park, Lunar Palace Konan and more. And to further elaborate on the PSP soundtrack I do like the remixes and there are some great ones but it kinda throws out the atmosphere the PS1 original had alongside the fact I am not a fan of some of the instrumentation used like on the boss theme, the new guitar parts are great but I felt like the original version hit way harder due to the synths being much better in sound over the remixed’s synths.

I also would like to praise the voice acting featured in this game, everyone here does such a great job and with a cast this stacked I wish the game was fully voiced. I could understand that there was probably some limitations regarding storage seeing as it was on a PSP game but with how talented the voice actors are it feels like a shame that they aren’t utilized more especially Stephanie Sheh and Troy Baker. And I would also like to praise the voice acting directors for their efforts as well regarding this, they really are what make or break an English dub.

The gameplay for Persona 2: Innocent Sin might be the one aspect where I have plenty of criticisms for this otherwise amazing game. For starters this game’s difficulty is really easy and while it isn’t a dealbreaker, this game’s encounter rate certainly helps the game feel more monotonous as a result and it kind of just makes the game feel like it takes longer as a result. I also have to criticize the dungeons because while Revelations: Persona was pretty flawed the dungeons weren’t an issue, Innocent Sin’s dungeon design is hindered by how slow the gameplay is compared to the first Persona’s speedy movement. The game manages to have the tedium be from having it be so easy yet so slow and with constant battles that playing it can get pretty frustrating. And yes, you have methods of lowering the encounter rate but it doesn’t do much to remedy the gameplay’s flaws.

And how easy the game is seeps into everything else, demon negotiation while easy and can be a good way to get through battles is also a bit boring now. Quite honestly this game is so easy yet also very slow at times that increasing the overall difficulty and game speed alongside maybe slightly lowering the encounter rate would be the most simple fix for a good amount of the issues, but it wouldn’t alleviate how much I wish they did more with the rumor system and side activities in the game. You have this great concept regarding rumors that’s interwoven into the story and it’s kind of just used for menial things in the game.

9/10. The gameplay is its biggest flaw but the art direction, writing, soundtrack, writing, story, atmosphere and cast are all so well executed that it was well worth going through everything.

This is my first Persona game and I wanted to play the PS1 original essentially, this will be a review that I hope is detailed enough while also giving the reader respect for the limited time they have on this world as to where they don’t end up reading a huge wall of text. That being said I hope you guys enjoy reading this as I quite enjoyed my time despite several issues and that being said there are spoilers somewhat.

The story of Revelations: Persona is a really interesting one actually and I didn’t expect a localized JRPG to be this experimental with the plot especially with how intrusive the changes were. A story about a comatose girl warping reality due to her own insecurities, fears and worries into a nightmarish hellscape alongside creating a utopia that gets more horrific as you explore had an amazing atmosphere and really surreal moments that I loved but I couldn’t help but feel as if the game itself got neutered heavily and it turns out that it did because they removed the Snow Queen route and from what I saw of it is honestly a massive shame because it could’ve added some much needed depth to characters and it was overall a gorgeous idea.

The writing of Revelations: Persona is like seeing a pro athlete desperately trying to get back to peak form while they struggle to fully rehabilitate after a horrendous injury. You’ll see flashes of brilliance for example I thought Mary was the best character regarding themes and writing and I quite liked Mark as a whole but as a whole the entire game feels like the translation jumbled everything up and as a whole it starts feeling like watching D. Rose after his ACL tear, the themes and metaphors are amazingly executed but the dialogue that the characters have goes from laughably funny to absolutely horrible. The characters are fine in concept and some are well executed but the antagonists as a whole don’t go well, the best one I could remember was Selina and I thought her and Mary’s connection was pretty solid but everything else kinda just exists and there’s a big disparity in quality as a result.

The localization of Revelations: Persona might be one of the worst I have ever seen on the PS1 alone, not only just in the dialogue translations plus the revised character appearances, removed story content and balancing issues that harm the gameplay but also just how illogical the changes are. I understand that localization during these days was infamously horribly but there are SNES games that flow far easier despite any censorship present. This is exceptionally bad on all fronts and I can imagine there being some developmental issues because cutting out a whole big chunk of story that didn’t have any big taboo elements that they couldn’t change outright makes no sense to me and the best example of this is the setting. You could also clearly tell this place was supposed to be very Japanese but they haphazardly changed everything and replaced it with a more American setting while keeping the most Japanese temple imaginable in the city.

Onwards to the visuals however, this game has some rough 3D but man do I find how rough the 3D animations look especially with the Philemon cutscenes, several animation errors and all to be incredibly charming and fitting. The designs of the characters, the Personas, the environments such as in dungeons, shops and other interiors, enemies and just the overall artistic aesthetic are amazing. The biggest critique would be some of the character portraits being rough to look at but that is nowhere near a deal breaker.

Now to the audio and I was actually quite impressed with the overall quality. The fidelity is really nice to this day and everything sounds crystal clear for PS1. Sound effects, music and character voices come out very smooth. The voice acting across the board is generally fine too albeit the way they pronounce Persona is a lil iffy but that’s just a nitpick. Mixing is overall solid although it could be a lil too loud sometimes.

The soundtrack for this game is near perfect and I cannot name you one song I don’t love, the amount of variety and quality here outdoes most JRPGs I have ever played. I have not played a MegaTen game besides this one but this music is phenomenal and ahead of its time. You have atmospheric tracks such as Dungeon - Ruins, School Infirmary, Velvet Room, City 2 Accident and Dungeon - House, really chill and catchy tracks like Convenience Store, Dungeon - Black Market, 1st & 2nd Ward Shopping District and Boutique. The battle music across the board is fantastic and every dungeon theme goes so hard especially the Police Station and Kama Palace which are so good. The people behind the music deserve all the praise possible for this.

The gameplay of Revelations: Persona is actually really solid, the combat is turn based with grid movements which I found really nice, the negotiation system is innovative as all hell and it was great experimenting with it and it did give a lot of the characters personality alongside the enemies and the Persona fusion system rocks due to customization and it’s a great incentive to use the negotiation system and none of the dungeons were outwardly terrible thankfully. If I had any criticisms it would be how absolutely archaic the balancing is and also the games layout.

Not only is the game pretty easy but I noticed that things cost way more than most games and as a result you have to grind more but the rate at which you get money is very slow due to how relaxed random encounters are and I just don’t understand this system whatsoever, you are absolutely forced to head to the casino and gamble like nobody else to the point of insanity due to how much more efficient it is in raising money and not only that but there are actual multiple ways you can play the story and getting to experience all of it is just archaic and cryptic and it really doesn’t give you any context clues on obtaining any of them and maybe that’s due to how compromised the localization is as nothing makes sense at all.

7/10 game I loved the combat, themes, soundtrack, main cast, audio, visuals and the overall story but the dialogue, antagonists, balancing and localization really drag it down from its greatest potential.

Hey everyone, I decided to watch this show because I found the whole series on YouTube and binged it and so here’s a review that I hope to god is concise and not a wall of text because this is a kids show with 25 episodes, and thus I hope you enjoy.

The story of Unlimited is basically an early isekai story but set in Final Fantasy, by all means a good premise however and while there is an overarching story, it also has a monster of the week sort of premise that does nothing very original or unique or even entertaining that many shows at the time had. And while you may think that maybe the overarching story is worthwhile, it also isn’t well paced and can drag at times alongside the unfortunate fact that this show is halfway finished as it was cancelled due to the financial disaster known as Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. And as a result, story-wise this isn’t exactly an interesting watch.

The setting and world of Unlimited is actually pretty good. I really like Wonderland as a setting and I wish it got adapted for a game and I do like the potential of having dark undertones in a kids show in the Final Fantasy setting. This absolutely feels like watching a kids show set in that series, absolutely no mistake about it, but it does nothing worthwhile with the whole thing. Quite honestly unfortunate in that aspect because an isekai story with darker themes and plot with much better payoff was released a year later as well that was called “.hack//sign” and while it was meant for a slightly older demographic, that show still did it way better.

The cast of Unlimited is also not very compelling either. Don’t get me wrong the cast is likable and they have their moments but they aren’t very interesting most likely because the show is half finished so I can’t place a lot of the blame on the writers, but even early on I can’t say they’re as memorable as say the cast of YuGiOh, Invader Zim or Inuyasha that aired around this time. Don’t get me wrong however, I think Ai and Yu are quite decent protagonists and I do like Lisa and Kaze but I kinda wish we got way more from them. While we’re on that note I found the main antagonist to be a decent idea and watch but again, the show is half-done.

The music for Unlimited is fantastic, it is stellar music for a cartoon show and I’m so happy they gave their A game on this. Check out tracks like Ai’s Theme, Departing Wind, Difficult Battle, Colossal Fortress Gaudium, The Absurd World, Nihilistic World and The Magun has Thawed. The composers involved are Akifumi Tada and Shirō Hamaguchi and they have a few anime and games on their belt individually, like the first two Sakura Wars games, One Piece, Rosario + Vampire and even arrangement work for Final Fantasy. This part is a slam dunk, no complaint from me.

The voice acting for Unlimited is decent, everyone here does a pretty sound job but if I had one complaint about this show it is that they have to work with this script. The script for the show is not very good and there can be some very iffy and also some painful line deliveries but again it is by no means bad.

And now we have the art direction and animation, now this is a Final Fantasy animated series so I was expecting some very impeccable production in this aspect seeing as the series has always been incredible in this aspect but this might actually kinda be the biggest disappointment about this series. Not in the art direction or designs, they’re all very good in my opinion especially Kaze, I’m a little amazed they never reused his design or added him into a game he looks great. And I do find the overall artstyle nostalgic and warm alongside some really lovely looking backgrounds.

But the greatest issue is just the animation quality of it all, the studio behind it was Studio Gonzo and the wildest part to me is that they’ve made really visually appealing and striking anime before. This is the studio behind Romeo X Juliet, Afro Samurai, Gankutsou: The Count of Monte Cristo and they even worked on the Lunar games and even the music video for Linkin Park’s Breaking The Habit. But that’s beside the point.

For example I’m not fond of the summoning animations, they add in some 3D animation but it’s not very groundbreaking or even that good to incorporate, if I had to think of a show around the time that best mixed 2D and 3D it would be Code Lyoko and not only that they go on for way too long and you could tell it’s a way to fill up as much screentime as possible as a bit of a way to not use more budget than necessary. And not only that but stock footage is littered throughout the show, the use of stock is very normal don’t get me wrong but so much of it is just used and it makes the show so dull sometimes. And yes I get it’s a children’s show but I could name several cartoons from this time and even beforehand that did a way better job with the animation.

Maybe the budget wasn’t much or there was certainly some time constraints considering this anime got canned halfway through but everything about this anime is just halfbaked, I really don’t have much to truly analyze or talk about because the whole thing feels like a concept which unfortunately does happen a lot with Final Fantasy. The show kinda does have an audience still but I’m just amazed they never tried to remake or revive this series, this could potentially have so much to offer especially with the advancements in animation and Square’s greater reach and involvement in multi-media content. I really hope they revisit this though.

6/10, lovely art, character designs, music, setting and premise but everything else like characters, plot, animation and overall structure is just blatantly unfinished or mediocre.

Hello everybody, this will be a review towards the book that was released to essentially be a conclusion to the alternative ending XV was supposed to have with the cancelled Aranea, Lunafreya and Noctis DLC. So all in all it’s those DLC’s plus Ardyn’s condensed into a 384 page book (400+ if you count artwork) and I shall be critiquing them here. Spoilers ahead and I will do my best to condense it properly.

The book starts off with Ardyn’s DLC and if you’ve played it already then it states what you already experienced with that but in novelization form. Any issues you have with the writing are present here and quite honestly anything involving Ardyn is always a treat, I’m more confused as to why it was added in as it doesn’t truly add much to the DLC at hand. I do find the Lunafreya addition to be neat though, lord knows she could use anything positive. 7.5/10.

Before I head towards the Aranea DLC I have to mention the writing style, the author of the book is Emi Nagashima but under the alias Jun Eishima and I’ve actually read her work for Nier: Automata and those were really good reads especially for a JRPG novel but this was a bit of a difficult read for me and not because of length or complexity but because she’s basing this off the draft for the DLC. The translation as far as I can tell is solid but the material she’s forced to work with has the book suffer in my eyes and it isn’t entirely her fault.

You then start Aranea’s chapter and this is the best chapter in the book and it makes me further disappointed that this got canned. The action in this chapter is great and I like the character work with Aranea, Biggs and Wedge and also even Loqi makes an appearance in the book and he has more character here than in the main game. If I had any gripes with this it’d be the inclusion of Solara, a character that was most likely intended for the DLC is making her debut in this book and quite honestly she doesn’t start off strong. She isn’t by any means terrible but even with her background revealed I would’ve just preferred it to be solely Aranea as the main focus through and through, it’s such an odd story choice to introduce her so late. 8/10.

Lunafreya’s chapter is the worst part of this book and it amazes me that with the extra media, addendums and more involving XV that Lunafreya is this unremarkable of a character. Even in her own chapter she is not the most interesting aspect about it and even though Solara is added into this chapter she isn’t even that much better. I also have to mention this but I am not a fan of the retcons and new additions in the novel so far especially involving Bahamut, the gods in XV were uncaring and detached but not evil which was a interesting dynamic but Bahamut is just purely evil in this one. All it does is just rewrite and make XV’s poorly presented yet interesting story into something worse. 4/10.

Before I enter the Noctis chapter, I would like to add to the previous paragraph by stating Lunafreya might be the single worst presented character in any mainline Final Fantasy game I have played. Vaan and Penelo from XII might not have much to do but at least they got way better in Revenant Wings as far as I can tell. In a series that gave us Rydia, Faris, Celes, Terra, Aerith, Tifa, Yuffie, Rinoa, Edea, Selphie, Beatrix, Garnet, Freya, Yuna, Lulu, Ashe, Fran, Vanille and Aranea yet this is the best they could write a female character? She has had her own DLC planned, a major role in a feature length movie and getting to her so you marry her was a core goal in the first half of XV and yet she’s this uninteresting? Solara is also equally uninteresting and I have to ask why didn’t they just add Iris into the book? It would best explain her development into this renowned demon slayer and it would’ve been a more sensible option than creating a major character this late into the timeline.

We now enter Noctis’s chapter, and it’s more interesting than Lunafreya’s as it explores his time he spent in the crystal during the ten year timeskip and for some reason Solara’s here and I cannot criticize how nothing her character is any further, Ardyn is also here and I really dislike how everyone got affected by these retcons, even the fight against Bahamut is one I couldn’t bring myself to enjoy. This was when I started checking out. Even though Noctis and Lunafreya get married I still believe they have no chemistry, I am so happy this isn’t canon because this book really hinders Ardyn’s character by a lot and he’s one of my favorite Final Fantasy antagonists. This alternate what if ending where things turn out well feels like it was made to make money instead of an actual original vision of Tabata’s. 5/10.

In all honesty I have no idea why the DLC’s were even thought up of or planned, as I read this book it only cemented how good FFXV’s original ending was, say what you will about Tabata’s overall qualities as a director but he can kill off a main character very well, I never mentioned it much but XV’s ending despite how haphazard and rushed it was, was actually a somber and good ending. A much wiser decision in my opinion would’ve been to scrap Ardyn, Lunafreya and Noctis’s DLC. Make Aranea’s instead, replace Solara with Iris and if they wanted to make addendums to the ending. Don’t make a new one because that’d just make the original one feel like a bad ending but add ending states.

In my opinion here is how I would’ve done this, I would’ve added choices in major story moments like having the option of saving Lunafreya in Altissia and having her go with the party to Insomnia at the ending. You could’ve scrapped not only terrible retcons with no cohesive thought behind them but you also would have the opportunity to better flesh out Luna, the banter in XV was great they could’ve had Luna and Noctis talk for a whole lot more and cement much better chemistry for each other. You also could’ve had the both of them sacrifice themselves to rid the World of Ruin state the world was in during the timeskip, it would’ve made much more sense with the themes of the story while also creating an incredibly bittersweet and cohesive romance closure as they never get the life together they always wanted while also saving the world.

Overall, this book and the DLC feels like an afterthought, like if Square Enix wanted to make more money from XV by any means necessary, why create a novel though? An audio drama would’ve been a far more effective medium than a book.

5/10 book. I have finished the XV multimedia review and it was truly an experience that I cannot describe as either good or bad, just a whirlwind of an experience.

Before we begin I’m just gonna say that by all means this is one of the most egregious examples of DLC I have ever seen for a JRPG, turning actual story content into DLC you have to pay extra for is some greed I hadn’t seen since Asura’s Wrath and its ending. That being said the content they provide is pretty decent and yes there’s spoilers for them. I also tried to make this more concise considering there’s really not much to talk about here.

Episode Gladiolus is a pretty short one though but far from bad, I thought the combat was pretty solid even if Gladiolus was kinda iffy to play as sometimes. The music is fantastic and honestly this is some of the best metal in any Final Fantasy game I’ve played so far I hope they incorporate more of this in future entries, I also have to mention the absolutely fantastic remix of Battle At The Big Bridge and also seeing Gilgamesh in this game is always a great thing, dude was the best part of FFV and this DLC has really beautiful environments too. The biggest criticism I have for this DLC is that Gladiolus gets swept aside for Cor who I found more intriguing and interesting as a character which isn’t a good thing considering Gladiolus is supposed to be the main focus. He isn’t a bad character in the slightest and I think he’s actually likable but damn I wish he got all the focus. Overall 7/10 DLC.

Episode Prompto is essentially a third person shooter like a retry of Dirge of Cerberus but thankfully nowhere near as repetitive and mindless. I think the writing is way better here concerning Prompto and Aranea as well as the open environment being a breath of fresh air because it’s basically frozen tundra, that being said I wish that was in the base game overall, I also quite like the stealth inclusion and while it’s no Metal Gear, Splinter Cell or Thief it’s still a decent attempt by Square Enix. Also this music is absolutely fantastic as well, more games need techno of this quality and this is the only Episode with any actual content beyond the main story too which is neat, still short though but 8/10.

Episode Ignis is laughably amazing, the other two already don’t make sense being relegated to paid DLC but this absolutely should have been in the base game. The gameplay is the absolute best compared to the previous two, while shorter than Episode Prompto, the story and writing are an absolute slam dunk where not one character is a miss. Ignis goes from top 10 to top 5 in this DLC due to his sacrifice and commitment to protecting Noctis and it isn’t even funny how absolutely fantastic the soundtrack is, Gladiolus and Prompto had great music but this is just amazing. 9/10.

Episode Ardyn is a great DLC but the writing is kinda cheapened by the fact this was supposed to have three more DLC’s after this and it was kinda made to have the book in mind which adds an alternate ending, as a result there’s a bunch of retcons that I am not fond of, I understand wanting a happy ending for Noctis and everyone but everything I’ve experienced with the book as I am reading it is just makes me heavily prefer the themes of sacrifice in XV. Ardyn as a character is also great in this and the combats insanely fun as well and while I like the music, I am a bit stunned that they added Lotus Juice into the game, I think he’s great in Persona from the music of his that I heard but he is such a jarring addition to the soundtrack that it loops around to being endearing. 8/10.

Next up we have Comrades and I did not like this one at all, the combat is good but it’s also a grindfest that wants to be Monster Hunter except it’s balanced and optimized much worse, the premise of it being in the World of Ruin in FFXV is a good one but quite honestly why not ditch this idea and implement it into the base game? Have the second half of the game be the World of Ruin and it could be like the post-game of Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen where everything gets more challenging and bleak. This seems like such an odd waste of budget and resources that could’ve gone to the base game or just developing the Aranea, Noctis and Lunafreya DLC. 4/10 I’d comment on multiplayer but I have no experience with it whatsoever.

As a bonus here’s my thoughts on Kingsglaive and the Brotherhood anime.

Kingsglaive is a gorgeously animated movie with really good voice acting but it also suffers from a script I can only describe as somewhat vague and as if the team that worked on the movie had different notes and ideas for XV in contrast to the game developers, there are several inconsistencies most notably being Luna’s role and her design alongside characters that seem important in XV just not being present or mentioned much if at all including actual characters and locations we don’t really explore much of in the game. 5/10

The Brotherhood anime was a really good watch and the writing, voice acting and overall character chemistry was fantastic, again I feel as if this should’ve been in the game but if I had one major criticism for it, it’d be the plot being just average alongside the lack of an English dub which amazes me because the English voice acting is really good for XV. 7.5/10 these two should’ve been implemented into the game from the start as a prologue or even just side content.

I’m also reading the book but I have a lot to say about it and quite honestly I’d probably just make a whole separate post regarding it.

There will be a massive wall of text, this will be a long read, I have spent several all-nighters playing this, that being said here’s my thoughts on Final Fantasy XV after beating the main story and DLC. And yes, there’s spoilers.

The story of Final Fantasy XV is a good premise and overall plot that is told in the most creatively counterproductive way I have ever seen, you have a roadtrip bachelor party all the way to a wedding as shenanigans and fun occur in the backdrop of a political betrayal between an empire and your kingdom. By all means a unique and great idea, Square Enix proceeded to grab this delicate and ornate jewel of a story and then proceeded to shatter it into a million pieces, swept up the pieces, tossed the fragments into a cannon and fired it into several directions in a successful attempt to make repairing the jewel impossible.

This story is very much fragmented and unfinished, the game has had four released DLC told from differing perspectives, three planned ones that were cancelled, an animated miniseries, an entire movie, a book that’s supposed to be an alternate ending, a drama CD and several trailers. These practices make no sense and having to purchase several of these just to get a clearer vision of a plot I’d generously call rushed hinder this game severely. Yes, there’s decent set pieces but you cannot tell me a game in this state from a company with three decades experience at the time of this games release is anything but unacceptable. Hell, even some of the multimedia releases have discrepancies with the game. I have no idea why the DLC wasn’t part of the main game in the first place especially the character ones.

This game’s pacing is very odd. I have never seen a game with an open world first half and then a linear second half, it’s so incredibly backwards and just such a confusing design choice seeing as usually it’s the reverse like how in FF7 Midgar was the linear section and then the game opens up once you get past that section. It feels like they ran out of time and budget for this. It’s like I’m playing two entirely different games from two different eras, by no means is linearity bad but it’s just so bewildering.

The cast for this game does some heavy lifting and in particular the main characters. Noctis, Ignis (best character), Gladiolus and Prompto are the absolute best written part of the game and I’d go as far as to call them my favorite main cast of heroes in the series. The banter is humorous and believable and their chemistry together is second to none, by all means some of the best written characters I’ve experienced in a JRPG. That being said I cannot say the same for the remainder of the cast. While Ardyn is a top 3 antagonist of the series for me, the Empire that quite literally kills your father has less development and screentime than the one in Final Fantasy II, and especially compared to VI. Aranea’s a cool character but she gets swept to the side and Lunafreya exists to die, I would call her the Great Value version of Aerith but her death is so uneventful that I had felt more emotion losing the Regalia.

Speaking of Lunafreya, her romance with Noctis is the single greatest instance of nothing in the series. They make Serah and Snow look like Celes and Locke in regard to chemistry. Quite genuinely, Noctis has much better chemistry with almost anyone else that I’d rather they have made their romance entirely driven by politics instead of actual love and to have the actual romance be driven by player choice. He could start kissing Prompto or Sarah from the Terra Wars crossover and it would make much more sense than having them be together.

Now for the visuals, this game is absolutely gorgeous and especially if you play this on modern hardware it has not aged a day. The open world is gorgeous and the character models look great across the board, this is the Final Fantasy game with the most gorgeous setting I have seen so far and it crosses over to all the towns and Altissia especially is a masterpiece of design, I do have to admit making another proprietary engine after Crystal Tools is a weird move but it worked out better than this one, even if it was only used for like two games.

The art direction and design is gorgeous, characters like Noctis, Ignis, Prompto, Gladiolus, Lunafreya, Ardyn, Cindy and Aranea have fantastic looks to them and the world of Eos is gorgeous, the vegetation is beautiful and the towns all look spectacular, even the fashion is great alongside the weapons and enemy designs, I also must say the summons go hard as hell in this game and managing to do one of these is always hype as hell.

The soundtrack for XV might be top three for me, the songs here are all fantastic especially the battle themes, Somnus, Omnis Lacrima, Valse di Fantastica, Nox Divina, Melancholia and especially the crowning jewel of this game’s soundtrack Apocalypsis Aquarius. And while everyone here did a phenomenal job with this games more orchestral approach and they all deserve their flowers, that being said how did it take this long for Yoko Shimomura to be involved with a mainline Final Fantasy game? She’s been making absolute masterpieces for decades with the Kingdom Hearts series, Radiant Historia, the Mario RPGs, Parasite Eve and even Street Fighter II. We got a metal chocobo song made by a DMC3 composer before we got Yoko on a mainline game and I don’t know how to feel about that.

The voice acting of XV is also pretty solid, everyone here does a pretty good job but especially the VA’s for the main four and Ardyn ended up doing a great job. They can do hilarious, depressing, casual and fun deliveries incredibly well and quite honestly if I had to give a few standouts it’d be Robbie Draymond as Prompto, Darin De Paul as Ardyn and Adam Croasdell as Ignis. Seriously the three of them do phenomenal work.

Now we discuss the gameplay and I have a lot to say about it. The combat for this game is both fantastic and yet kinda easy, you could play this strategically and wait to land a few fantastic strikes like the devs intended or you could spam warp strike like a madman and blitz through it because Square didn’t properly explain the combat good enough. I would compare this combat to Nier: Automata and Dragon’s Dogma quite honestly, the battle system is hack n slash oriented and it is really fun don’t get me wrong, if I had a major criticism it would be the camera and sometimes the party AI but first let’s discuss the bosses.

The boss fights are all insanely fun and a great time but if I had to pick a weak spot it would be Leviathan’s boss fight. The music is right, the scale is right, the visual spectacle is right but the gameplay just gets railroaded, despite the visual spectacle you don’t really do much. It’s like I’m playing Asura’s Wrath except that game was mainly centered around the more basic gameplay style, XV has way more freedom in its gameplay compared to that so I don’t get it whatsoever. Still a great moment but it’s a little disappointing.

The camera when far away is great and allows you to see everything but when close by it just doesn’t help you at all and on top of that it ends up making you feel nauseous and confused especially in closed off areas. And the companion AI is decent half the time but at times having it be entirely up to the AI is a little disappointing because they can end up doing some poor decisions especially in close quarters. Just implement the Gambit system from XII and everything’s good, and if you didn’t wanna add that then have them improve through more and more combat and have them learn how to incapacitate enemies through experience like in Dragon’s Dogma.

Magic and summons in this game are the most gorgeous yet unintuitive gameplay mechanic which feels so odd considering this is a Final Fantasy game, they look gorgeous yet the magic feels like an afterthought, I had barely used it whatsoever due to the fact playing it like a hack n slash was so much more fun, had they emulated Dragon’s Dogma’s magic system it would’ve fit the game perfectly. And the summons while gorgeous and a wonderful spectacle you quite literally have to fulfill conditions in the game before you can utilize them and I can understand not wanting the player to spam them like you could in earlier games but even then this is way too random for it to be considered dependable or even an intuitive option in battle.

The open world of XV is the greatest mixed bag for me, on one hand it’s a gorgeous look with amazing towns to look at with plenty to do, on the other hand it’s a bit repetitive to explore and I do wish there was kinda more to do. It’s repetitive in that the game alludes to gorgeous locales but you’re stuck in an environment that looks like the American Midwest as the main exploration field and any big interesting cities are just very linear. Altissia is a huge disappointment in this aspect as it’s so gorgeous but exploring it isn’t very fun. And as far as side content, it exists. You can do fishing, a pinball game, the Arena in Altissia and you can also do camping which is the most interesting aspect of the game believe it or not.

But that being said, while hunts are great the other side content isn’t very fun and is largely barebones save for collecting the Royal Arms which is worth it, and while I also like the photo stuff Prompto does I kinda wish there was like a return for Triple Triad or add like a casino or two in the game to do activities in. It’s this open world game but it has less to do than some linear JRPGs released years earlier, I don’t want like a hundred side activities but I’d like at least a little more variety. There’s also a massive Cup Noodle commercial in the game and the delivery is like a Wayne’s World bit but much more shameless. It ended up being the most entertaining side quest in the game.

Exploring the world is a mixed bag in that it fulfills the roadtrip aspect immensely well, but it does get kinda boring as Ignis drives you around and if you try to manually drive the Regalia, it doesn’t handle too well either which is a bit of a shame. The dungeons are largely fine with the best one in the game being the Pitioss Ruins which I found really fun. The open world is where you can really feel how rushed this game is because it is very obvious that you were supposed to explore much bigger cities. On top of this near the end of the game it’s revealed the world was in a World of Ruin type of situation where the world is in perpetual darkness, my only complaint was that the second half of the game after Leviathan wasn’t basically set in this. This could’ve been a fantastic setup for a darker second half like VI’s World of Ruin but the game does nothing with it.

This game is simultaneously a 6/10 and a 9/10, fun combat, great main cast and villain, good voice acting, gorgeous visuals, a decent first attempt at an open world and amazing music but the story while good in theory is also told in one of the worst ways possible alongside a forgettable cast of extras with some less than great side content, a magic system that feels non-essential and a summoning mechanic that is pure luck and utterly random. By all means a pretty unfinished game that was rushed yet everything that is good is done absolutely wonderfully.

I also ended up looking up VersusXIII gameplay footage just now and somehow I feel a little emptier.