Topic: User Impressions/Reviews Thread

@johncalmc I really enjoy your little mini-review pieces that you occasionally drop and your Metal Gear Solid post was definitely… solid. Great thoughts, all. Except for the fact you ignored my favorite entry to the series, but I can forgive that I guess, because you made me laugh there at the end with the visions of you sitting on the porch complaining about “kids these days…” while you sip on prune juice in your rocking chair.

@johncalmc Nice broad sweep on this series. I really need to replay the first three games myself. Always wanted to play MGS4, but, having never owned a PS3, not being able to play that has always been one of my gaming regrets.

Personally, MGS2 was the sweet spot for me on PS2. It maintained the mechanical aspects I loved from the first game (hated that the dropped the radar and went with a camouflage system in MGS3) while giving it a far more thought-provoking storyline overall. And, if you like stupid characters, this one had a vampire! I also prefer the industrial theme to crawling around a jungle. The original game will likely always be my favorite, though. It was so impressive for its time, and it still has my favorite line-up of baddies.

I don't think your distaste for MGS2 is particular unpopular: the protagonist switch was hugely controversial back in the day, and Snake Eater has pretty much been the fan favorite since it released.

@johncalmc Fantastic retrospective rundown. It's never "mad" to wanna replay what is arguably the greatest saga in gaming history, and props for finding the time to do so. There's an ever-growing part of me that's wanted to do the same for a while, but it's one heck of an undertaking (even moreso for me, because I'd include your "games that must not be named" in my playthrough). I'm just convinced that my previous ranking of the individual games would change, and I'm curious to see how.

I'd say that MGS2 has only become a darling in recent years. There was a big chunk of time back there, especially in the wake of MGS3, where fans considered it a prequel-level insult. Whilst I can understand such objections with the benefit of hindsight, it was my first experience with the series, so it'll always hold a special place in my heart. My point is, you're not alone in your criticism.

Nor are you alone in your praise of MGS4. It was (and I hope, still is) my favourite. I'll never forget the impact it had on me. First game to make me cry. It's a masterpiece, plain and simple.

Ahh fair enough then @colonelkilgore.

I think the easiest solution is to just make a twitter account, link it to your PS4, share them over through the share button and then grab the links to the screenshots off of twitter

It's what I do and the only reason I touch that site

I did write that Danganronpa 1 review ages ago so I know all too well how hard it is to keep a review like this under wraps without spoiling too much! @Ralizah 😅

I hope the second game goes just as well for you Ral and it was worth the somewhat slow set up of the first! Not to mention the extremely long wait before these finally got localised!

RE: SMT I & V

I'm kinda glad I don't have a switch atm or that it's not also releasing on PS4 if only because I'd probably be in the same situation as yourself. Not to mention Pathfinder is distracting me immensely and there's no way in hell I'd manage to beat it in time for when SMT V gets round to releasing 😄

Though to be honest... I was initially excited for SMT IV even though I didn't have a 3DS at the time (and I never even ended getting it) and yet there's something about SMT V that just hasn't fully drew me in. I like the looknof it and everything (It in fact appeals more to me then SMT IV thabks to the more nocturney tone)

Maybe I'm still annoyed at myself for not liking Persona 5 and getting sucked into that hype and that's bled into this, making me more cautious?

I dunno.

It does look good though and hopefully that delivers for you too Ral.

Good luck if you decide on learning Japanese. It's not an easy language. Easier then r
Russian though that for damn sure. My partner's Eurasian (Russian on her dad's side, Japanese on her mother's) and tried teaching me some... I didn't too well besides the basics 😂

And no problem! It's always a pleasure to read through what everyone's written!

There was that Dragonball game @RogerRoger that released last year (... Or was it the year before?) after all that was an actual single player action rpg like game (Rather then the typical bandai anime arena fighter thst they seem to love) that seemed to sell really well.

I'm sure if they did something similar with Naruto it'd sell a whole lotta copies as well. I'd certainly be more interested in that then Dragonball (I seriously don't get the facination with that series myself!)

Yeah I had a go of Ninja storm 4 (There was a demo on the US store) and it was only a story mode fight between... I forgot the names at the moment and I'm not gonna cheat and look 'em up. Madora Uchiha and,.. Uhh... The first hokage. The wood one. Did think the voice acting was a bit weak but the set piece was good enough. I'm sure Ninja storm 3 will be just fine though and I really can't complain for a £3.99 sale price! 😂

I'm both surprised and not surprised to hear that it's Kiba. It's totally a Rog answer but just a little not quite who I was expecting either if that makes sense? (But I also get why he wasn't in Shinobi strikers as he's not the biggest most well known character either). I do quite like Kiba too... The fight Naruto has with him in the Chunin tournament was pretty memorable to me!

For me it's probably more the polygonal PS1 that's the more nostalgic era for me for similar reasons as yourself of when I got into gaming... But the PS2 era of character models certainly has it's charm as well!

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy Some games are just inherently difficult not to spoil for others if you want to talk about them in any depth at all. At that point, you have to weigh the pros and cons of every piece of information you reveal.

As for the tone of SMT V, I actually prefer IV in that regard. Dark future/gritty 80s futurism > Dark fantasy/wandering around a desert any day. With that said, it's been pretty strongly implied in information dumps about the game since the E3 trailer that you and your friends aren't permanently stuck in Da'at and will be able to return to modern-day Tokyo throughout the game, which will give it a VERY different vibe. I could actually see light school life elements being woven into the game, which would give it a bit of Persona flair (they're already changing the way buffs work to align more with how they work in modern Persona games). With that said, they seem to be doubling down on the atmospheric and hostile feel of the game in other respects.

Interesting tidbit: the director of Shin Megami Tensei V also previously directed Atlus' Etrian Odyssey games.

I've actually studied Japanese before in University, so I know my hiragana, katakana, and some basic phrases and whatnot fairly well. What I'd like to do, and what's going to be incredibly difficult, is learn to read kanji at a level where I'll be able to appreciate video games and most literature. There are a ton of different approaches to it online that I've toyed with.

The thing about learning to read kanji is that the practice is fairly alien to an adult Westerner, so it'll take a TON of concentration, daily drills, and commitment.

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy Yeah, I've yet to give Dragonball a shot, but I'd like to at least see what it's all about at some stage. I do get the impression that, if Dragonball finds success with something, a Naruto equivalent isn't far behind, so you might be right! Here's hoping!

I love the dub voices for Naruto, but all the UNS games come with the original Japanese audio if you prefer (can't recall where you stand on the whole "Sub vs. Dub" issue, apologies).

Well, at least my answer was befitting my reputation! Honestly, if he weren't a package deal with Akamaru, then I have a feeling ol' Keebs would be a couple places lower. The problem is that there are so many characters I like, to the point where it'd be quicker to rank who I don't like. Kiba's whole "bonded with wolfdogs" schtick just made him stand out from his peers, 'cause I like dogs. Without that, then my favourite would probably be Kakashi, or Naruto himself.

Yeah, that turn-of-the-millennium style holds a lot of appeal to me, as well. By the end of the PS2 generation, character models had evolved far more than they had during the PSone era. I often found myself missing those blocky peeps, even back when they were recent history.

@RogerRoger The first thing I did in both the UNS games I’ve played is rush to the options and change to Japanese audio because that’s what I’m used to 😂

@nessisonett Yeah, I'm real glad it's included as a choice, as it always should be. I'll never forget how disappointed I was when I booted up Ultimate Ninja 5 back on PS2, only to discover that it hadn't been dubbed; I sent the game back as "faulty" that same day.

No need for apologies @RogerRoger! I'm a filthy dub lover ha ha! 😄

At least in regards to anime. I typically tend to find something about the performances grate on my ears a little in Japanese (usually an over exagerated squeaky girl voice or something).

I've played PS4 two games with a sub only option (Digimon Cyber Sleuth: Hacker's Memory & Yakuza 0). Hacker's Memory was fine enough that I wasn't clamouring for a dub like I normally would but Yakuza 0 was really well done in that regard. They successfully pulled me in and got my emotions flowing when they needed to!

I did end up buying UNS3 the other day & I completely forgot Naruto was voiced by a woman in english (Especially as I've never seen the anime, only read the manga and played two games in the ninja storm series). That did end up giving me a good little chuckle.

Yeah I took a look at one of the trailers that has come out since I last looked at it and... I don't know what to make of that yet @Ralizah.

I do like how distinct the two series are from one another... No doubt there's some purists who are vehemently against any persona-esque elements getting pushed into SMT.

The buffs makes sense I guess as it was easy enough to buff yourself into being untouchable. Though after experiencing how SMT did it... Persona's method doesn't feel nearly as impactful either.

That's an interesting tidbit about the director though. Will you be drawing your own map I wonder? ... Probably not but it'd be fun if you did 😄

Good luck if you do decide to go for it Ral. My partner tried teaching my daughter on how to read kanji before that trip to japan. She was only 15 or so at the time and it did not go well for her. So I do know (admitedly through secondhand experience) that it'll take some serious dedication on your part.

I'll just stick with hello, goodbye, a few swear words and get my partner to deal with the rest! Not that I, or her really, have to deal with japanese much on a day to day basis

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy Many fine folks have recommended the Yakuza series to me, despite knowing that I usually need a dub. People tend to consider those games an exception to their rule, so I'm not surprised to see you highlight it as a positive example of a language restriction.

Oh, neat! Hope you enjoy UNS 3 as and when, and that I haven't steered you wrong!

And yeah, I think Maile Flanagan does an excellent job as Naruto! For me, her voice is so effective for the character that I'm always confused when people say that Naruto sounds like a girl because, as far as I'm concerned, it's Ms. Flanagan who sounds like a teenage boy! I say that with full respect, in the hopes that it's the highest praise I can give her performance; there are other female voice actors who voice young male characters, who aren't always as consistent (for example, I absolutely love Colleen O'Shaughnessey as Tails, but there are brief moments where he very obviously stops being a boy).

Of course, given the way gender is constantly evolving nowadays, such stuff is becoming less and less important to me anyway. As long as the actor is giving it their all, I'm usually happy!

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy I don't mind the change to buffs at all. Most of Nocturne is so easy once you figure out fog breath + sukukaja trivializes 90% of the boss fights in that game. I did kind of like the whole buff stacking element, but I think the Persona approach will be more tactical when paired with a combat system that isn't ridiculously unbalanced.

The weird thing about the EO director being involved is that the EO series is PURE dungeon crawling, and, based on the footage, SMT V looks like the least dungeon-crawlery entry in the series to date, with the focus shifting to huge overworld landscapes instead.

So your partner can read Japanese? That's interesting. And yeah, I'm not surprised your daughter bounced off of it if she wasn't really invested in the idea of learning it. It's like trying to learn to read hieroglyphics, lol. I had a few Japanese friends in my university (the school attracted a ton of overseas learners from asian countries), and one of them effectively told me they'd have never learned to read in Japanese if it hadn't been what they'd grown up with, lol.

Yeah the performances I thought were pretty well done in Yakuza 0 @RogerRoger. I think there was only one scene for me of a flashback pretty early on that was a smidge over the top. Otherwise yeah it really drew me in. Helps it has a pretty great script for the localisation.

I've already spent about two/three hours on it getting used to playing one of these again. I went through the prologue of the story mode and it seemed quite cinematic in presentation compared to what I remember of the previous title? 😄

I wouldn't say Naruto sounds like a girl in any way rog but I can tell it's a woman doing the voice though if that makes sense?

Yeah that's true @Ralizah. Like you rightfully point out the SMT battle system is a lot more balanced then persona's so it should work out for it just fine.

I believe I played a demo for an EO game. 4 I think? Never fully played one though I did enjoy that demo. I actually didn't realise that series was in house... I assumed it was something they just helped publish and the Persona Q titles were a collab 😅

My partner's fully fluent in Russian, English, Japanese. She was in Mandarin Chinese as well as a kid and could read simplified chinese... But she hasn't kept up with that in years. She also knows a smidge of Korean.

... It helps she was a bit of a wunderkind

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy Good to hear! Especially since everybody who posts around here seems to fall prey to the Yakuza series sooner or later. It's only a matter of time before it gets me, too!

The cinematic stuff is definitely more prevalent in UNS 3 than before. It's incredible to think that the first game only had four similarly-scaled fights in it. CyberConnect2 knew what the fans wanted, and dialled it up to eleven. Expect a lot more epic, a lot more often!

And yeah, that makes total sense! Apologies if my tangent yesterday got a bit soapbox-esque.

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy The same division of Atlus (R&D1, which houses Team Maniax) that develops Etrian Odyssey also develops everything SMT-related other than Persona. EO itself feels very much like a successor to classic SMT in certain respects, with the hardcore level of difficulty (before the inclusion of difficulty setting in the last few games, anyhow), focus on gameplay over narrative, deep skill customization, labyrinthine dungeons, eldritch superbosses, a fusion of rock and orchestral pieces in the soundtracks, etc. With that said, it's sufficiently different from the MegaTen franchise that the two have fairly distinct fanbases, although I deeply love both.

They teased a next-gen EO game years ago, but SMT V looks like a very big, very expensive project for the company, and I imagine development efforts at that division have probably been laser-focused on that game for years now. Even after SMT V releases, though, I'm not entirely sold on the idea of another Etrian Odyssey game, since the focus on using the DS/3DS touchscreens to construct giant, elaborate dungeon maps have been a huge element of this series over the years. We'll see.

The Persona Q titles were actually a collab between R&D1 and P-Studio (which develops everything related to Persona). The only outside collaboration with this series was with the Mystery Dungeon series. Unfortunately, the first Etrian Mystery Dungeon sold terribly overseas, and so the sequel never released outside of Japan.

Good lord! Your partner sounds like a language genius. I'm a bit jealous, tbh: I've struggled to learn foreign languages over the years. If I ever master Japanese, I'll probably go back to German and try to achieve fluency in that. I probably should learn Spanish, but I just... don't really enjoy the language.

You never have to apologise @RogerRoger. Soapboxy-Tangent to your heart's content! I didn't have much to say about it because it was a great point. As long as the voice fits the character and they way they're written then it doesn't matter who's voicing them!

I can't remember anything being on that similar sort've scale from UNS2... I guess there must've been a Pain fight... But I got nothin'! 😅

... The Yakuza inevitability strikes us all!

I humbly bow to your knowledge of Atlus' inner workings @Ralizah! It was really informative and very useful to know all that though so cheers!

As for my partner... I shouldn't really say too much but let's just say it's not just languages & she was in uni a bit earlier then your average joe/jane Ral 😄

I learnt french at school myself and uhh... Yeah I ain't gonna remember any of that beyond the basics. So good luck if you try re-learning German and have to do some spanish as well (Which is no doubt actually very useful to know in America)

Just finished Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition on Switch after roughly 47 hours of playtime. For the first 15 hours, the game was so unappealing to me due to numerous things but over time it became better and in the end, I really enjoyed my time with the game so I'm glad that I stuck with it. I wouldn't say that it's one of the best JRPGs ever made, but it's still a good one that's worth experiencing (as long as it's not your first JRPG that is).

When it comes to the story, I thought it was interesting once you got past the first 20 hours or so because of the characters. The protagonist Yuri is actually quite dark, which surprised me as JRPGs tend to have "good guys" as the protagonists. Once I realised that, the story and the characters started becoming more appealing to me. But it honestly shouldn't have taken that long for that to happen. I think my main issue with the story is that they use all these made-up terms like blastia, aer crene, apatheia and so on, and it's really hard to follow along, not to mention be interested when it gets so heavy on the exposition. Furthermore, the story is all over the place for the first 20 hours and that makes it even more difficult to follow along. Like in one moment you have this objective, but then you run into another objective, and then another one, and you keep getting side-tracked. This is less of an issue during the second half of the game as you always have one clear goal at a given time, which is good.

In terms of the characters, what is fundamentally there is good but the problem is the awful execution of these characters through poor voice acting as well as poor writing. Whenever something serious happened, it was hard for me to sympathise because these moments weren't executed well at all. On top of that, the game has very stiff animations and so it makes it even harder to care about the characters when they're not expressed in the best way possible. However, I'll admit that when you play a game for almost 50 hours, you can't help but grow attached to these characters. There were even some moments towards the end of the game that genuinely made me smile (Flynn is definitely best boy! Gotta love his relationship with Yuri).

With regards to gameplay, it was hard for me to find it enjoyable due to the stiff movement in battles. The battles take place in real time on a 3D area but you only move in a 2D plane and while there is an option to move in 3D, you can't attack while doing so. My problem is that whenever you attack and finish a combo, the character just stands there for a whole second and it leaves you open for attacks. There's also no dodge button (there is guarding however), and overall the combat just feels incredibly clunky and not smooth at all. Moreover, there are a lot of difficulty spikes with the boss battles and after a certain point, I had to lower the difficulty from normal to easy just because I wasn't enjoying the game anymore. But once I did that, the combat became more fun because the stiff movement was a non-issue when you barely took any damage from normal enemies at that difficulty level (boss fights were still challenging though).

Now that I've talked about most of the stuff that I didn't like about the game, I'm going to mention the things that I did like. For starters, the soundtrack for this game is phenomenal. There are so many different tracks for each area and whenever you explore a new dungeon, there will always be a new tune to listen to and they were all fitting for that place. Not to mention that as you progress through the game, the battle theme will actually change over time to a completely new one and I thought that was really cool, I don't think I've ever seen a JRPG do that before. And the battle themes were great as well!

Secondly, I absolutely loved the variety in dungeons. There are so many different environments that these dungeons take place in, such as castles, ruins, sewers, forests, deserts, snowy places, cavern, crystallised caverns and so on. It was a sheer joy to arrive to a new area and explore the new environment there. Consequently, I loved that the dungeons weren't too long. Typically when you play a JRPG, dungeons tend to last for a long time and are confusing to navigate. However, in this game the dungeons are very brief and are mostly linear except for a few instances. Because the dungeons were short, there are tons of them in this game and I like that. As some already know this about me, I just love variety in all kinds of things and this game had a huge amount of that. That's something that I'll definitely commend the developers for.

So all in all, this game was an enjoyable experience once you get past a certain point (which I'm sure will differ from person to person) and I'm glad that I played through it. This was my first Tales of game and honestly, I think this title was a good starting point for me since it's on the Switch and it felt easy to pick up and play. I don't recommend it to people who are new to JRPGs since there are much better alternatives, but if you haven't played this series before and you're curious about it, then I'd recommend Tales of Vesperia.

@LtSarge Nice review! I actually picked up Vesperia DE in a sale on the Switch a few months back, but have never played it, so it's interesting to hear the perspective of another newcomer to the game and series (I've played a few minutes of another Trails game, but never really dug far into it).

Your issues with the combat actually echo my own experience with the demo for the game way back when it was still an Xbox 360 exclusive. It's a bit discouraging to hear that the combat doesn't really get better for you sans lowering the difficulty to make random encounters a non-issue. I think the combat is probably the biggest thing keeping me from really engaging with these games.

The approach to dungeon design sounds interesting (somewhat more linear and short, but also more frequent, and with more design variety). The issue of a story heavily relying on fictional terminology is an interesting one, as it is a common trap with fantasy fiction and was one of my (many) issues with Final Fantasy XIII.

The music being good is always a prime concern for me in any JRPG, as it can elevate even flawed experiences. And the length sounds very manageable. I think I'll be a little more optimistic now when going into the game, since I have a decent idea of what to expect from it.

Any idea when or if you'll play another Tales game? Arise seems to be getting a lot of positive attention right now. I thought about just jumping into that one, but something cheaper and portable is probably a better way to get my feet wet with these games.

@Ralizah Thanks man!

Yeah, and the thing is that the combat can get quite repetitive as well since you mostly mash the B button and then at the end of a combo, perform a special move. But the thing is that most special moves don't really feel that different in terms of damage output. For example, one special move allows you to deal a heavy amount of damage at once, while another deals smaller amounts across numerous slashes, but both will ultimately deal pretty much the same amount of damage. It's not like there are enemy weaknesses to consider either, so it will never feel like you truly need to use certain special moves. Instead, it's up to you to choose which ones you like using.

In all honesty, I think fictional terminology is interesting when it's introduced at the right times and paced evenly. But when a game like Vesperia throws you right in the middle of things from the beginning and starts using one term after another, it can feel quite overwhelming. But maybe that's just me!

I'm glad that you have better expectations of the game now because I sure didn't. I've been buying numerous Tales of games throughout the years because I love JRPGs and I've always been interested in the Tales of series, thinking it will be another one that I'll love. Then you hear that Tales of Vesperia is pretty much considered the best game in the series and you become intrigued. But then you realise that the game is fairly standard for a JRPG experience and you start to temper your expectations for the series as a whole.

So to answer your question, I'll definitely be playing another Tales of game as I've already bought a bunch to play. However, I don't think I'll play another one anytime soon because the franchise didn't meet my expectations. On a side note, I decided to look up gameplay footage for the other Tales of games that I own and apparently, the PS3 titles I have (Symphonia, Xillia) all seem to share the same gameplay system as Vesperia, while the PS4 titles (Zestiria, Berseria) seem much improved. I even heard that Zestiria apparently has enemy weaknesses, I don't know if it was introduced to the series for the first time with that entry but that game at least sounds more promising to me. Maybe people just have a special fondness for Vesperia, but it does seem like the series has improved across each title and Tales of Arise looks to be the best game from a modern perspective.

Personally, I prefer to play the older titles in a franchise first just so that I can appreciate the later ones more, but that's obviously not everyone's approach to games as gaming in general eats up a lot of your time. Considering you've already bought Vesperia though, you could give it a go and see if it tickles your fancy. Familiarity with the franchise might also help you enjoy Arise more.

@LtSarge tbh the combat does sound like something that's probably more well enjoyed when easily blown through.

There's an art to worldbuilding and familiarizing an audience with made-up terminology. I won't say it's never justified, but, in general, when the player is confused and/or frustrated by a bombardment of new language, it probably means they're also less actively engaged in what's happening in the actual text of the media.

I also have... Berseria, I think... on the PC. Got it as part of a cheap bundle with other games. So I definitely want to get cracking on these games.

With new series, if I'm not sure how engaged I'll end up being, I'll often start with a newer entry to get a sense for how much I like it in general before going back to older entries where game design limitations can get in the way. With that said, it can be genuinely awesome to play a long-running series in order and watch it technologically blossom before your eyes. I did that with DOOM recently, going from the early 90s original to DOOM 2016, and I do think starting from the oldest entry gave me an interesting perspective on how the series evolved over time.

I think I'll probably do that with Final Fantasy if the pixel remasters ever hit the Switch. I could play I - XII on the Switch (sans XI, as it's an MMO), dig into my ancient Xbox 360 copies of the XIII games, and then finish out with XV on the PC. It'd be a cool way to experience the series, as I've always jumped around between entries.

@LtSarge Bit late to the party, but I just wanted to say that I enjoyed the Tales of Vesperia review you posted the other day. I thought you broke the game down well and, despite not being familiar with the series (or JRPGs in general), I could recognise and relate to a lot of the points you made. I'm glad the game wore you down eventually, and that you came away with more positive feelings than those first twenty hours might've otherwise suggested. Good music works wonders, it seems!