C-
Revisiting I Am Setsuna: A good idea that loses steam near the end.
It's fine if you just have an itch for a "throwback" RPG.
Party Based
Status
Game Feature
C-
B-
C+
Experiencing Tales of Arise: 'Arising' From A Dream About Lunar (from Working Designs/GameArts)
Wow. What a slog that was.
C+
Experiencing Bravely Default II: As A Fan, It Hits You "Right In The Soft Bits".
Not a Bravely Default game. Call it anything else and it's fine.
B+
Experiencing Adol Trek: Deep Ys Nine (IX). (Read On, It Will Make Sense)
A step back from VIII, but not a bad experience.
C
Experiencing Trails of Cold Steel IV: Mechanically brilliant, but failed to take risks with the characters.
Mechanically brilliant, but too "safe" and lacking in voice acting.
D+
Dragon Quest IX (9): Clearly, they were spent after the greatness that was Dragon Quest VIII (PS2).
Lacks strong emotional storytelling; leans on nonsense quests.
B-
Bravely Second: I never realized just how short this was.
I couldn't understand why so many of the series' fans didn't like Second (and still don't).
C+
Bravely Default: Good story, unique engine, mashed like Play-Doh instead of sculpted to fine art.
Unique for its time. Frustrating at points.
C-
Final Fantasy X-2: Improved gameplay, regressed on (almost) everything else.
A better game, but not a better story or experience.