Tales of Vesperia
Depends on what you're looking for. I'd say it's a good old-school JRPG on the same vein as Abyss and Symphonia.
One of the main draws of this game is the cast - some of the characters were incredibly refreshing in 2008, the protagonist being the prime example - a snarky, street-smart, "chaotic good" hero very unlike the typical JRPG protagonists back then. I don't think it has the same impact nowadays, but they were ahead of time on this aspect and it helps the game hold out compared to recent JRPGs.
The story is kinda underwhelming. I like how early game it's more low-stakes, focused on character problems, but the final act is a mess. Combat is fine, but can get a bit boring if you don't switch characters from time to time.
There's a ton of side quests and secrets in the game, likely the most content of all Tales games. It's one of those games where if you want to 100% you definitely should play with a guide.
I agree with the general feeling, Tales was one of my favorite series for a long time but the interest fizzled during the PS3-PS4 era because the games just kept getting less and less interesting.
That being said, Graces is one of the few games from that time I still hold in high regard, mainly for the battle system which is one of the best in the series.
If something recent like Tales of Arise gets a port to Switch 2, though - then Iβll be interested.
I'd recommend almost any Tales made in the last 15 years over Arise. That game looks great and has a very strong start, but oh boy it takes a massive nosedive in quality over time. The endgame is one of the biggest slogs I've seen in recent JRPG history.
Unless a rerelease comes with a massive reworking of the entire second half of the game I'd stay away from it.
I enjoyed the Zarnag battle way more in the manga adaptation, it felt like a high-stakes battle with some real close calls, so much that and end of it instead of celebrating they just huddle together to calm down. Definitely one of my favorite moments of the manga.
That being said, at this point in the story Yuke is way more likeable in the anime adaptation. Early on in the manga he's very lacking in confidence so they keep using the "Yuke does something amazing, thinks it was nothing special, everyone goes crazy about it" setup way too often.
Another welcome change is the post-battle handling... in the manga there was a dumb plotline about Yuke risking punishment for using an unregistered spell that they skipped here. But I do wish they kept the explanation on what exactly Prismatic Missile does, since it was a very fitting "trumph card" for Yuke - it's a massive pile of negative status effects.
Finished Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana!
Most of my comments about this game are on previous week's post. There was an annoying difficulty spike on the final boss, but overall a great game that I can easily recommend.
Playing Fantasian Neo Dimension!
It feels like I'm playing a long-lost JRPG from the PS1 era and I'm loving it.
The "diorama" visuals are an interesting take on the prerendered backgrounds from old days, with the constrast between them and the 3D models creating a very nostalgic look. There's that classic exploration where you'll keep finding items at every corner of the city, something I adore but you don't see much in modern JRPGs.
Battle system has some great ideas, Iike how you can "curve" a spell around a tankier enemy to hit a mage on the back row. Being able to "store" enemies and fight them in a batch is a fantastic idea, not only it helps exploration flow better without the constant breaks from random battles, but also makes even weaker enemies offer some challenge as you're often fighting 20-30 of them in a row.
Story... is not much to talk about so far, but I'm enjoying the character interactions. There's also short VN-like "memories" that seem reminiscent of the "A Thousand Years of Dreams" sections from Lost Odyssey, though unfortunately they don't have the same amazing writing and emotional depth. But at least they do a good job developing character backstories.
One thing I'm a bit underwhelmed is the music, mainly because I heard a ton of praise for it. It's a definitely solid OST with some great highlights, but IMO it's nowhere near the masterpiece I heard some people claiming it to be.
Finally, there's two main annoyances worth commenting - one is the controls can be a bit wonky, they don't adjust the way you'd expect when the camera shifts and you have to stop moving if you want them to "reset". The second is that loading times on the Switch are a tad high, with battles taking 5-6s in average to load, but that's only of a problem in the first 1-2h of the game, as the ability to "batch" battles makes this a much smaller issue.
Replaying Tales of Graces f Remastered!
I know I shouldn't be playing two JRPGs in parallel, but since I'm going on vacations starting next week I can probably manage it? π But I love this game, have beaten it 3 or 4 times and the moment I saw the Switch version I knew another playthrough was coming.
While the plot of this game is fairly basic (even for Tales standard), the gameplay is incredibly fun and there's a lot of diversity in playstyles between the characters. The cast is great and has some good chemistry, including some of my favorite skits in the series.
One really interesting feature of this version is that it has the "Grade Shop" where you can buy game modifiers like increased XP gain unlocked from the start - this used to be only a NG+ feature. I chose not to use it but it's definitely a welcome addition as it can make the game easier for those wanting a more relaxed experience, or simply help cut down on grinding for completionists.
Finished Astral Chain, played couple of post-game arena-combat missions, but ignored the rest. Overall, a very good game, the story wasnβt anything out of the world (except literally speaking), but it wasnβt anything bad either. The gameplay and combat was really good.
That game was a ton of fun. We need more good tokusatsu-inspired games.
If you're interested in Oath in Felghana you may also want to take a peek at Ys Origins.
Runs on the same engine so it has the same fast-paced gameplay, and this one has multiple characters with different combat styles to make it more replayable.
Playing Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana!
Plenty of stress and anxiety at work this past week made it hard to get into a more story-focused game, so an old-school Action RPG worked a lot better.
This is a port of a 20 years old game, but it's aged surprisingly well. Gameplay is fast-paced and generally quite fun, but there's a few spots where it really shows it's age. The lack of quest markers can lead to strange situations like when I spent a long time stuck on a dungeon only to find out I needed to go back and watch a cutscene I missed in the town, and there's a wild variety in quality in bosses going from "amazingly fun" to "pure slog".
Also, this game is quite hard, so be ready to die a lot on bosses, even on normal difficulty. But since those battles tend to be short and the game lets you retry it immediately it doesn't end up being particularly frustrating.
I think I reached the final dungeon yesterday so I should be done over the weekend.
Finished Metaphor: ReFantazio!
I stand for all that I wrote last week - this is a fantastic game that unfortunately is also quite frustrating due to some poor decisions on dungeon design and combat balance.
Besides that not a lot more of gaming this week, only played a bit of bullet hell games like DoDonPachi Resurrection and DoDonPachi True Death.
Will probably start another JRPG this weekend but not entirely sure which one. Fantasian Neo Dimension, Persona 3 Reload and Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance are the strongest candidates.
I have heard great things about Metaphor, though they will probably release a Metaphor: ReFantazio Royal with fixes and balances by the time I get around to it, so will just play that.
Hopefully so. This is the first Atlus RPG in a long time where I feel a fixed/improved version is necessary.
Playing Metaphor: ReFantazio!
Yes, a non-Switch game! Since this is from the Persona team and had very positive reviews I was quite interested in the game, but I'm so disconnected from the Playstation/Xbox world nowadays that I assumed this was only out for the PS5! π But I learned that it has a PS4 version and even a physical and multi-language version in Japan, so I dusted off my old PS4 Pro, got the laser which I knew was broken since earlier this year fixed, and decided to give this one a try.
I came into this mostly blind and was expecting a more traditional JRPG, so I was surprised when I saw all the classic Persona elements like calendar system, social stats and social links. But it does provide some very welcome changes - the calendar is very compact, with only 5 months in-universe, the social links are shorter and no longer need "grinding" affection levels, each day is better used with events on the night from the beginning, social stats grow faster.
There's plenty more to love in this game. The art and music are fantastic, though the UI is too busy and can be distracting. They've definitely crafted an interesting world, so much that I even spent time reading in the in-game encyclopedia to learn more about the different races and places. I also love the way they incorporated travel into the story with campfire events, beautiful locations where they just stop for a short breather, random encounters at night - all of this adds a lot to the feeling of adventure.
That being said, there's also some pretty massive flaws in the game, with the biggest ones being related to dungeons and combat mechanics. The dungeons are a slog - they are boring, stupidly long, full of enemies that have tons of HP even on normal. It's clear that the developers wanted to make it harder for players to complete them in a single day, but they took the worst possible approach here.
There's also issues with the combat mechanics. It uses a similar system to Trails though Daybreak where you start battles using action combat to kill weak enemies or stun stronger ones then move into turn-based. But this time enemies can also get advantage over you if you don't dodge properly, and the action combat is very clunky so this ends up happening way too often, with the difference between who gets the advantage being potentially as big as "win without taking damage" vs "getting a full party wipe". They also start using Repel/Drain effects way too early in the game, and this is a Press Turn system game which makes these incredibly punishing, plus for some reason they decided to not include items or skills to scan enemies for vulnerabilities, all of which leads to frustrating trial-and-error gameplay where you can accidentally hit a Drain and lose your entire turn.
Finally, the UI definitely could use improvements. There's a lot of QOL features that could and should have been added for better inventory and skill management - both very important things in a game where you're juggling 10+ weapon types and 20+ jobs with different skills.
I know I spent a lot of time on negatives, so I just want to emphasize that despite those problems I've been playing this game non-stop and having a good time. But there's a ton of frustration mixed in because I think this game could've been one my all-time favorites with a bit more polish.
Playing If My Heart Had Wings!
Slow progress between holidays and Metaphor. I'm enjoying Aoi and Kotori's dynamic quite a bit now, but it definitely feels more sibling-like instead of romantic. Twins still haven't joined and I'm curious to see how they are so maybe I'll give this one a push during the weekend.
Playing Crimzon Clover - World EXplosion!
Attempting to get a 1CC on Novice, so far I made it to the stage 4 boss.
I've asked around for more "non-bullet hell" shmup recommendations and heard good things about Super Hydorah.
Also got a few comments to take check the Darius series. The CS Core version of Dariusburst which people say is the most complete one is on sale, and there's also G-Darius and two different collections of older games (one for Arcades, one for Consoles).
If you don't mind older games you can get 19xx on the Capcom Arcade for $2. Input lag on that collection is slightly high for my tastes (I play a lof of Gigawing there), but it's still playable, and it doesn't get much cheapter than that.
Haven't played it yet, but also heard good things about Super Hydorah which is another Gradius-inspired shmup on the Switch.
What were your Top 3 most played games this year? Here's mine:
Harvestella was a really good surprise for me this year. It felt really unimpressive to me at first, but kept growing on me as I played and I ended up with a quite positive opinion of the game at the end.
I grew up watching Juspion and Changeman and still have a soft spot for those series.