Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII (PSP) – Review

Following on the success of the immensely popular Final Fantasy 7 and the various spin-offs and media from that work, Square Enix has turned to a portable spin-off for the PSP in Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7 that explores the character of Zack some years before the events in the main FF7 game.  While [...]

Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 (PS2) – Review

Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 from Atlus is a JRPG based on very traditional, turn-based combat combined with dating simulation-like elements that doesn’t, at first, vary much from its predecessor, Persona 3.  However, as you start to get into the game, you’ll notice several improvement on the already successful formula that make the game [...]

Tales of Vesperia (360) – Review

Namco’s first venture of the Tales series onto the current generation of consoles, Tales of Vesperia, will feature little surprise to those that have played the series before, not that this is a problem; the few touches on gameplay changes make for a familiar, yet new, experience, and the advantages of the new hardware help [...]

Persona 3 (PS2) – Midgame Thoughts

With a tad under 20 hrs under my belt for this game, I’ve got a better feel for it.
The game is closer to a roguelike random dungeon crawl game (like Nethack or Angband) than your typical RPG – basically, you’re not wandering a large overworld, and there’s only one dungeon with about 200+ floors which [...]

Persona 3 (PS2) – Initial Impressions

This…is a weird game.
I’ve watched some screwed up anime before (Lain, Neon Genesis Evangelion)  and the story of this game is already there, only after the first hour of play.  Unlike a traditional RPG, the combat side is a bit less emphasized (it took 45 minutes to get to a battle), and inbetween is a [...]

Atelier Iris 3: Grand Phantasm (PS2) – Review

Atelier Iris 3: Grand Phantasm, developed by Gust and distributed by NIS America, is, like the previous games in the series, a sequel in terms of gameplay and concept to the Atelier Iris system known for its retro 2D look and focus on alchemy within the game. While this time around throws in a [...]

Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology (PSP) – Initial Impressions

Played this for about 2 hours cumulative so far, and it’s pretty decent. It’s part of Namco’s Tales series, and actually is almost their take on Kingdom Hearts, in that the game involves all the characters from the past Tales games; I’ve certainly recognized those from Phantasia, Symphonia, Legendia, and the Abyss (with the [...]

Atelier Iris 3: Grand Phantasm (PS2) – Mid-game Thoughts

So I’ve logged about 20hrs on the game now, more than the halfway point, and there’s definitely pluses and minuses for the game.
Pluses:
- The quest system is pretty good to fill in the game where the story can’t take  the game (that is, the main story to this point is not all-encompassing, yet).  Since you [...]

Atelier Iris 3: Grand Phantasm (PS2) – Initial Impressions

Haven’t gotten too far into this (have yet to hit on alchemy, which I’m hoping is closer to the first installment than the second, in that you can experiment a bit more with the alchemy recipes), but they seem to have taken at least some concepts from FFXII; while I’m sure there’s an overarcing plot, [...]

Shadow Hearts (PS2) – Review

Shadow Hearts, developed by Sacnoth and published by Midway, is pretty much a standard turn-based RPG that adds some new concepts to the usual mix, has a rather interesting story, and shows the signs of what the series will become in future installments, but is otherwise a lackluster title that looks like a PS1 [...]