10 public reviews
The views here are this user’s only and are not representative of Giant Bomb's thoughts and opinions on the discussed video game. GB's official reviews reside at giantbomb.com/reviews.
As a longtime gamer, I place a real premium on originality. Folklore is definitely it's own thing; many aspects will remind you of other games, some parts have rarely if ever been done in other titles. There's nothing else exactly like it, and it works remarkably well for a total gameplay experiment so early on in a console generation. The vibe and feel of the game is tremendous: part Fable, part Nightmare Before…
Viewtiful Joe takes classics such as Final Fight and Double Dragon and gives them a whole new spin with a solid gameplay mechanics and over the top art style and story. The premise and execution is comedy gold: some schmuck that is addicted to action movies is pulled into Movie Land... Pursuing his girlfriend's kidnapper, of course. The whole game is full of throwback references, goofy dialogue sequences, and quirky…
I really like FFX-2. This is not an objective judgment of the various components; this is my appreciation as a JRPG enthusiast of a JRPG that openly flips the bird to convention and expectation. The story itself is ultimately an unnecessary inflation of what was already a fairly long winded main game. The greatness of X-2 is more in the idea behind it: take X, a heavy handed exploration of religion, free will, and…
I originally saw FFX back when it came out in 2001. I never played through it completely myself, rather, I had just seen a friend play through good portions of it. Having finally played it cover to cover myself, I understand now what an achievement it was for its time, and what the couple of gripes were. FFX is an absolute pillar of modern RPG graphics and presentation. When it came out, there hadn't been anything…
Star Ocean 3 just seems like a waste of potential, save for most of the music. There are so many good things to say, though everything good has to include a "but" clause. Coming from Tri-Ace and SE, I had some high expectations and was ultimately let down. SO3 suffers from being diminished in the shadows of peers. Its presentation and VA lag behind even early cycle entry FFX, while the story driven space opera…
Twilight of the Spirits is not a terrible game. Cattle Call had the unenviable task of translating a top down style into 3D. They had to maintain a fairly deep and well realized lore and world. And they had to somehow do this without losing that old school RPG feel that PS1 Arcs brought to the table. The main issue was perhaps that initial design choice; I wouldn't have blamed them for scrapping a lot more of the…
Arc II is a well realized product. It takes the basic engine and gameplay from the first installment and really expands the package into a complete and fully featured deal. While the first game is really more or less a setup introduction, this is the full 40+ hour event you were expecting. Arc II was never designed as a high production value game, but it is well done and accomplishes everything that it set out to…
Arc the Lad is a respectable product. The set of games seems relatively important in SRPG history, as you can see the influence and similarities of these games in later classics like FF Tactics. Arc by no means invented grid combat or strategy gaming, but I feel like it has a significant place in the history of the genre. It often gets a bad rap for being short, but that is by design. It is supposed to be an intro…
Well, that's what someone did. Because they roll out so many new and untested ideas, this leads to a lot of initial confusion. Honestly, my initial reaction was almost to quit, and I never quit. After I settled in and made it through the story in 50 hours or so, I can confidently say that this a gem in the rough. The very, very rough. Seriously, there are some cool ideas here, you just have to work for it. The story…
Overview: Incase that title makes no sense to you, then read this overview. If you either sort of or fully understand, then feel free to skip along to the next section. Games comprising the Suikoden series all take place in the same world and fall at different points in that world's timeline (exception, Suikoden Tierkis, sort of....) . They are based loosely on a Chinese novel, and have a somewhat-gritty medieval…
