Old Review- Kingdom Hearts (PS2)

I love this game. While I enjoyed all of the subsequent titles, the original Kingdom Hearts is still probably the best in the series. Birth by Sleep may have stronger gameplay, but Kingdom Hearts 1 is still the best blend of Disney and Final Fantasy roleplaying we'll ever see.

My Review- Kingdom Hearts (PS2)

Kingdom Hearts is one of Square’s most popular franchises, possibly even more so than Final Fantasy. While today the series spans more than eight installments, with more on the horizon, it all began with the original Kingdom Hearts, released on the PS2 in 2002. A strange yet enticing mix of Square role-playing and Disney properties, Kingdom Hearts is a classic Action-RPG.

Old Review- Final Fantasy X-2

My Review- Final Fantasy X-2 (PS2)

Since its 2001 release, Final Fantasy X has sort of become the standard by which modern console RPGs are judged. This isn’t very surprising, as it’s an excellent game, as well as an incredibly successful one. Due to this success, Square decided to revisit the land of Spira by making the first direct sequel to any main series FF title. Final Fantasy X-2 also has the distinction of being the first Final Fantasy title to be released by the then newly formed Square Enix. Is X-2 a worthy follow up to it’s lightning-in-a-bottle predecessor?

STORY

WARNING- THIS MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR THOSE WHO HAVE NOT PLAYED OR COMPLETED FINAL FANTASY X.

Game Informer WKC2 Review

I'm not the kind of person to get hung up over review scores. At least, not for the reasons most people would. If I'm looking forward to a game, no amount of bad press or word of mouth will prevent me from trying the game out for myself.

Recently, however, I have noticed a disturbing trend with modern video game reviews. Specifically, I have a problem with 'JRPG's getting noticeably lower scores than their western counterparts, for no genuine reason. People often say that JRPGs are stagnating, that they don't provide the innovation that WRPGs apparently provide (which simply isn't true, more on that some other time). However, there seems to be something uglier than that afoot- a simple refusal by so-called 'game journalists' to give these games a fair shot at all, only begrudgingly giving a good game a decent score (see Gametrailer's review of Disgaea 4 for an example), and jumping on the smallest possible flaw. These games are criticised unfairly, plain and simple. A recent example I found was Game Informer's review of White Knight Chronicles II, a PS3 exclusive RPG that came out last month. Now, the original White Knight Chronicles was an average-at-best affair, which was dissapointing coming from the great developer Level 5. I can safely say that White Knight II is a vast improvement on it's predecessor, and in a gaming generation that lacks too many great JRPGs, you can't go wrong with a game featuring a giant midieval robot. Game Informer isn't known for particularly great reviews, but their review of White Knight Chronicles 2 is such an unfair piece of writing, I feel it is worth discussing. I'm going to pick out some lines from the review, and say why I feel they are wrong.

Old Review- Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light (DS)

So this is one of my older reviews from a while back. Usually I find my opinion of a game shifts a bit over time, but I honestly still stand by my original opinion of this one. It's a fun, unapologetically old-school RPG that will satisfy anyone like me who loves 8 and 16-bit era RPGs. Anyways, here it is.

My Review- Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light (DS)

Role-playing video games have come a long way since their inception with the Wizardry and Ultima games. We now have the ability to create vast worlds, weave epic tales, and spend millions of dollars on cinematic presentations. Despite all of these advances, it never hurts to remember ones roots- console RPGs owe a lot to pen-and-paper games like DnD, and today’s multi-million Final Fantasies, Star Oceans, and Mass Effects owe a lot to classic NES, SNES, and Genesis RPGs. Square Enix, a respected RPG developer with more than a decade’s worth of fantastic titles under its belt, attempts to revisit this lost age of swords-and-sorcery with Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light, a game with retro mechanics that pay homage to Phantasy Star, Dragon Warrior, and the older Final Fantasy titles. Did a developer now infamous for flashy and over-the top cinematics succeed in crafting an adventure in the spirit of the classics, or does the game fall short of the mark?

Personal Review Style

Just a quick blurb concerning how my reviews are organized. I'll have an example (one of my older pieces) later.

I write reviews in five sections. The first is an introduction, providing backstory on the game. The second is story, where I summarize the game's plot and then describe my thoughts on it. The third is gameplay, where I describe the game's systems and mechanics, and any flaws in them. The fourth is presentation, where I talk about the game's graphics, music, and voice acting. Finally, I have a concluding paragraph that summarizes the review. I do give the game a letter grade based on the number of flaws I find, but that's probably the least important part of the review.

I can't say any of the sections are more important than the others- story, gameplay, and presentation are equally important for making a game enjoyable. If one is lacking, the entire package suffers as a result.

If I'm posting an older review, I'll say so in the title, and I might include a small section before the review if my opinion of the game has shifted at all since I reviewed it. I also try to review a game as soon as I beat it, which on average takes me a month.

I should have my first review up on the blog soon.

Final Fantasy V- First Impressions

Final Fantasy V is one of the 'lost' Final Fantasies, one of three other games in the series that weren't localized when they first came out (the others being II and III). 16 bit RPGs are among my favorite games to play, so expiriencing the 'missing' counterpart to Final Fantasy IV and Final Fantasy VI (two of my all-time favorite games) is a real treat. The game has a few flaws, but so far it's very fun.

The story is pretty standard for the series- four warriors are chosen by the cystals to save the world from an evil force, so far so basic, but the story goes a bit further than usual for a game with this type of story. The main characters (Bartz, Lenna, Faris, and Galuf) are all very likeable and full of personality, making them far more fun to travel with than the cookie-cutter characters from III (the DS version). The game's writing is also very good, as well as quite humorous. The adventure is lighthearted, but so far hasn't degraded into complete silliness as many lighthearted RPGs so- it still is telling a good story, but the characters seem to be having fun with their travels, and so it becomes fun to experience their story. The game also looks and sounds great, as 16 bit games usually do to me.

Also very cool is the Job System, a class system that was introduced in III, but arguably perfected in V. In Final Fantasy V, characters can choose any of the Jobs currently available to them, and select one ability to use as well as the default ability the job has. Characters gain Job levels in battle, earning new abilities with each level and eventually mastering the Job. The great thing is, not only is there no penalty for switching Jobs, any ability learned by levelling up the Job can be selected for use by a new Job. For example, switching from a White Mage to a Black Mage doesn't mean you can't keep using healing spells- just have the Black Mage select 'White' as his skill, and he'll be able to use both 'Black' (his default ability) and 'White' magic.

One thing that I have noticed is that the game's battles have a LOT of lag. Usually the more enemies you're fighting, the more the game will lag- the ATB bars have frozen for almost twenty seconds once. I'm not sure if this is a result of the port to GBA or not, but it is a noticeable problem.

Final Fantasy V is so far a very enjoyable old-school RPG. I'm about halfway through it right now. More on it later!

Final Fantasy VIII- First Impressions

I've been a huge fan of the Final Fantasy series for years, but I've never had the opportunity to play most of the games until recently. This year has been a blitz of gaming for me, as I've obtained and played through most of the series this year. I got all three PS1 FF games over the summer, and now that I've beaten VII, I've turned my attention to one of the more controversial games in the series, VIII.

I'm about halfway through Disc 2 (out of 4) right now, and I must say that I'm enjoying myself quite a bit. I really love the RPGs of past gaming generations, and the three PS1 FFs so far (haven't started IX yet) are great games. Final Fantasy VIII does have some strange elements to it, though. Like most FF games, it almost completely reinvents the wheel, featuring a number of changes such as a magic-based character growth system and level scaling. Yes, every enemy in Final Fantasy VIII outside of a few rare exceptions will be at the same level as your party. This creates an odd scenario in which leveling up isn't a very good thing, as your stat increases will be minimal and every enemy will have leveled up as well, making things more difficult for you.  Characters also level up every with every 1000 experience points they earn, rather than an increasing amount. In order to combat the level scaling, mastering the Junction System is imperative. I won't go into too many details until I review the game, but suffice it to say that the Junction System, so far, is a massive headache. How it works is that every character stockpiles magic spells (up to 100 of each), and then, after equipping a Guardian Force (the iconic Summons of Final Fantasy), a character can 'Junction' a spell to any of their stats. The amount the stat is increased by is determined by the type of spell and how much of it you have (for example, 100 Curagas are good for HP Junctioning). That's all I'll say for now; the system is almost stupidly overcomplicated at times.

As for the story, Final Fantasy games are known for good stories, and Final Fantasy VIII still tells an engaging tale. I'm really digging the pseudo-modern setting of the game (sort of a cleaner version of FFVII's world, but not as sleek as XIII's), as well as the political situation concerning the evil Galbadian Republic. Having the main  characters be mercenaries (SeeD special forces) is an interesting touch which adds a unique flavor to the typical 'evil empire' storyline JRPGs are so fond of. What I don't like is that, so far, Squall is the only playable character to have a major character arc. Aside from Laguna (a playable who you control for brief flashbacks), the rest of the party has so far been strangely lacking in character development, which is dissapointing for a Final Fantasy game. Hopefully they'll have more to do later in the story.  I'm also rather dissapointed in what is arguably the most famous aspect of Final Fantasy VIII, which is the romance between Squall and Rinoa. Granted, I'm only two discs in, but so far Rinoa has got to be one of the least appealing love interests I've seen. Again, hopefully this aspect of the plot gets better, especially considering that the game's logo is the two of them embracing.

For now, I'm still enjoying FFVIII despite my criticisms. I'll have more on it later.