163 public written 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.
I have some mixed feelings about Suikoden, I liked the battle system, it reminded me of Breath of Fire a little bit. I liked the "Unite" attacks too, but they seemed underutilized in this game, not quite the power that Chrono Trigger had or anything. You could only use the Unite attacks with relating characters, say for example the two fishing brothers, if you have them on your party then they can both use a special…
I kinda liked Sudeki, but I was also frustrated with it too. The combat was shallow, the worst parts of action rpgs and the worst parts of First Person shooters. I never felt comfortable with using either hack and slasher character, so I always ended up using one of the FPS, despite it feeling like Goldeneye 64. I liked the graphics for the most part, the character models and dialog scenes could of used more polish,…
This is my first Star Ocean game, not exactly a good start with the series I guess. This game was a very tedious and linear experience. A few things that bugged me was the poor controls. While Star Ocean is similar to a modern Tales of.. game, it just isn't as user friendly as one. You can switch between the characters on the fly in battle, but you have to make sure the character you are changing from is turned on…
I haven't played a Star Fox game since the original came out on the SNES. So I'm not exactly a huge Star Fox fan, but I am a huge fan of Zelda and similar adventure / RPGs, so I'm glad they made a game like this rather than a space shooter. Star Fox Adventures will never touch Zelda's qualities, graphics, controls, storyline or length, but I still had a ton of fun. The game was pretty easy up until the last battle,…
I enjoyed the game itself, but was disappointed with a few areas of it. The biggest disappoint was with the lack of voice overs. What were they thinking with that? Another expectation that didn't live up to the commercials was Sphinx and the Mummy never interact with each other. In fact, they don't even have any lines in the whole game! The biggest annoyance in the game was the bugs. I was 8 hours into the game and…
When I started playing Skies of Arcadia, it was the summer of last year. I didn't exactly know what to think of it, the booklet really scared me a bit with the ship battles, pirates, gangs, crew members, etc.. so I eventually stopped playing it and shelved it for a good year. Then about 2 months ago I was tired of reading all the Skies of Arcadia threads and wanted in on that action, so i decided to start it over…
Silver is an average or slightly below average RPG at best. I don't think I can recommend this to anyone, because the story, graphics and battle system was all weak. There was a few shinning moments in the game though, I like the Zelda isms that can be found with this game, like leveling up after a boss, killing each monster to advance stages, and to find all 8 Orbs to advance the game. Silver had a few bugs with…
Shining Wisdom is not a great game by any means. The story is decent enough, but the characters are bland. The challenge is huge, but the enemies and bosses are easy. The lack of a real world map within the game makes exploring a little harder, but that could be a good or a bad thing. The game doesn't shy away from the Zelda formula to much. Puzzle solving is similar, the world map is similar, you even go into…
For a pure and simple dungeon hack, Shining Force Neo did alot of things right, and many things wrong. The things Shining Force Neo did correctly (for a dungeon hack) was the storyline. If you've played any dungeon hacks like Dark Alliance, Champions of Norrath, etc then you'll notice that those games barely have a plot to stand on, with forgettable characters and generic dialog you could sleep through. Shining…
There was some things I thought they improved on from the first Shadow Hearts (graphics, voice, music, battle system, map) but there was some things I thought they messed up on (dialog, dungeons, lack of horror) but I think the good out weights the bad on this one. Covenant was a much simpler game, easier to play, longer filled out storyline, even though the story seemed to be all over the place at times. The lack…
I had fun with this game for the most part, but towards the end I was just wishing it would of ended sooner. I was forced to spend to much time leveling up, so that was really getting to me. I normally wouldn't have a problem with that but since you use the Ring to fight, you can't just keep hitting X constantly and zone out. You are forced to pay attention to every battle no matter what. I liked the storylines to…
There isn't much I can say that hasn't been said already, so I'll make this short. Resident Evil 4 is one of the best Gamecube games to be released, and one of the best games to ever be made. This is the pinnacle of the Resident Evil series and I would love to see Capcom top this. There's a ton of differences between the classic Resident Evil games and 4, as the controls and camera angles have been completely…
I loved the characters on this game, but the battle system is rather shallow. All you do is just hack, hack, hack, then slash your way to an easy victory. There was rarely any strategy to the game. The dungeons were short, and were also easy to go through since there pretty linear with easy to find dead ends. I never had trouble with this game, if you are lost, then check the map and it will point you to your…
If you're familiar with Mario RPG for the SNES, Mario and Luigi for the GBA or DS, or Paper Mario for the N64, then you should know what to except from Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door. I had a ton of fun with Paper Mario. This is one of the funniest game I've played as well. My only complaints are no voice overs and the train level. The train level went on for way to long and you had to keep talking to the same…
I loved Paper Mario, from the fun battle system (that had a strange amount of depth to it) to the weird storyline / characters, to the charming graphics, it was a blast to play. I had a few complaints but nothing to harsh that brought the game down or anything. I liked Thousand Year Door loads better, since the storyline was so much crazier, and the battle system was overall improved, but I like this game much more…
The game was really hard at first. I had the hardest difficulty fight in Chapter 9 : White Tiger Camp Conclusion. Once I got over that hump, the game just got way to simple and dumbed down. I just zoomed by the game after that. I would say it's about 15 hours long if you skip over the Phantom Realm. I spent atleast 5 hours in that getting recipes and stones. You don't visit towns, you don't talk to townspeople, you…
I'm on the edge with Okage, it had alot of flaws, but the creative storyline, funny dialog and great characters saved it for me. The characters could get a little long winded in the tooth though. The dungeons were repetitive and generic, but luckily they're short. The random battles can get really hard at times, but you can run away very easily. The loading times are terrible, and I had some really bad slow-downs in…
Musashi wasn't to bad, but it wasn't great either. This game could of been alot better if it had a more fully developed story, and about 3 more dungeons. I liked the graphical style alot though, but the controls were a little frustrating and the lack of save spots was annoying. This isn't as good as the original, but even that game disappointed me when I first played it, so take that with what you will. This game in…
I wasn't expecting much out of this game. It was cheap and I heard it was short and easy. While the game itself was easy, the bosses gave some amount of challenge. I put over 24 hours into the game, while the main review claims it can be beaten in 16 hours. While I'm sure that’s perfectly possible, I just don't think you'll get any enjoyment out of a game rushing through it. There was plenty of sidequests in the…
I was expecting bad things out of this game. It didn't all come out smelling like roses, but I did overall enjoy it. The game started off way to hard, and that really sucked the fun out of the game, it wasn't until I figured out how to really use chips and get power ups until I started to enjoy this game. The story was ok, but the overall nostalgia made me want to find a new stage or boss in the game. There was a…
I haven't played the original M&L game for the GBA yet, but I didn't think I would need to, to enjoy this game. The game was extremely short and there really wasn't any worthwhile sidequests in the game, but for the meat of the game I really enjoyed it, although I would say the replay value was pretty love, since I had it the week it came out and never once thought to played it since. The puzzles were simple but the…
Lunar: Dragon Song was the only reason I picked up my DS in the first place. I didn't read anything about the game prior to purchasing it, I wanted a free view and a new RPG. This was the first RPG for the DS, so I went to Wal-Mart and throw down $40 + tax for this game and went home to play it. I eventually found out that when you run you lose HP, you can't gain items or experience at the same time, and the map is…
This is a huge improvement over the first game. I totally recommend this for anyone looking for a decent RPG to play for their Gamecube. I would also recommend them to skip the first Lost Kingdoms game because there's only a few reference to the first one and it might also be more enjoyable if you haven't fought all the monsters or used all the cards from the first. ----------Battle System---------- Lost Kingdoms II…
I was a little skeptical about these Lost Kingdom games when I bought them, but the lack of RPGs on the Gamecube made me get them anyways. Lost Kingdoms had some great ideas but everything seemed rushed and unfinished, from the story to the battle system. ----------Battle System---------- Lost Kingdoms is a 3rd person Card-Based Action-RPG. There's 3 kinds of cards you can use in this game. The first is an action /…
Legend of Legaia is a run of the mills RPG with a slightly unique battle system. Other than that battle system (which is different, but it still BORED me), the rest of the game is linear and by the books. Vahn is a silent protagonist, with only 2 other people in your party makes for weak dialog at times. At times you get to pick or choose what Vahn says, but compared to Link he is a very lackluster character. I…
Legaia 2 was slightly improved from the first game, but storyline and length. The battles were way to long and drawn out. The random encounter rate was just ridiculous. The story was cliche in almost every way. There was only a little bit of voice overs during battle, but they're pretty bad to begin with. ----------Battle System---------- Legaia 2: Duel Saga is a turn-based RPG. Your turns are in a round-based…
La Pucelle was an ok game I guess. It reminds me alot of Eternal Eyes for the Playstation. It has a similar art style, similar monster capturing, and how you venturing from town to dungeon are almost identical. On both La Pucelle and Eternal Eyes, the battle systems are mediocre at best. I do like the weird humor this game has, I love the art style. I really dislike the barebones world map, and how tiny this game…
Don't let my review fool you, I did enjoy Kingdom Hearts II, but there was to much about it that annoyed me. They tried to make the game more complex, in the end it was still a button masher. The story was interesting, but it was completely slowed down by all the side worlds. The game was shorter than the first and not even as fun. I rarely had to use magic and I didn't even use a Summon once. The first game just…
Kingdom Hearts is an easy game to get into. The original characters and story didn't exactly grab me, and the Battle system wasn't all the hot either but visiting Disney worlds and finding all the sidequests was really fun and a good challenge. If you're wanting alot of Final Fantasy out of this, then you'll be sorely disappointed. Despite some small dislikes, the game was pretty fun to play. ----------Battle…
So Jade Empire was a pretty good game, but with a few flaws that bugged me. The battle system just wasn't that good to begin with, there isn't much action, and the game was just extremely easy, that it only took a few hits to kill an enemy. Boss battles were pretty simple as well and easy to figure out. I was expecting a very open-ended game, but only 2 of the 7 chapters had any amount of freedom, everything else…
Ico was a great concept, but there wasn't much to it. The game was just way too short, and the puzzles started to wear thin towards the end. I loved the style and atmosphere this game had but the gameplay was pretty weak compared to any other action / adventure game out there. It was a great experience for what it was atleast. ----------Battle System---------- Ico is an action / adventure game. There's a ton of…
This wasn't the worst game I've ever played, but the battle system was repetitive, the graphics were dated and the game was short. The story didn't really hold up to well, but it was comical in places and there was enough good characters to keep your interest throughout. I expected more out of the "Virutal Pet" aspects that was hyped about this game, it was never an important issue. If you want to collect monsters…
While I enjoyed the battle system alot, I just wished it was a little faster. Some battles can take forever, even regular battles you fight in dungeons. It felt like a chore sometimes and that's no fun. I appreciate and enjoy the voice work in the game, but I hate the fact that they didn't include subtitles during the cutscenes. It just throws you off a little bit, and if you are playing at a low volume you might…
This is my first Grandia experience. The game itself was ugly, had a ton of bugs, extremely linear, but the fun battle system and decent storyline made up for all the flaws. Speaking of being extremely linear, this game moves in a straight line all the way through, there's no turning back ever. Grandia II felt really short also. ----------Battle System---------- Grandia II prides itself on the innovative battle…
Golden Sun was a good game overall, there's nothing extremely bad about it or extremely great, but it does everything right and hardly anything wrong, does that make sense? Well I enjoyed it for the most part, it's far from being original, it took alot of elements from Dragon Warrior and a ton from Wild Arms, but that's hardly a bad thing. You had to keep taping the A button to scroll through each message during…
I loved God of War, it was a short experience, but I'm kinda glad it was. The story was great, the graphics were impressive, and they took a boring hack and slasher game and turned it into a fun puzzle solving platformer. Overall it wasn't the most original game ever made, but I was still pretty impressed by it. A few things about this game that doesn't warrant it a 9.0 or higher for me. For one, Video Game Nudity,…
When you start the game, you can pick between Valen's story or Ursula's story. I was planning on playing them both for the review, but Ursula's story was alot longer than I had expected. I wasn't expecting no more than a 30 hour game, but I well exceeded that deadline. Just based on Ursula's story, I really enjoyed this game and the game play. Just the fact that there's two storylines, Co-Op AND Versus mode boosts…
I loved Worms on the PS1, I haven't played any since then, but this reminds me of Worms for the most part. The only difference is Worms was fun, and had a ton of weapons to use against your enemies. This game lacks both of those. Future Tactics is really really hard. They made it this hard to make it feel longer than it really is, this game would be alot shorter if you could beat a level without dying 20 times…
Read the full review Future Tactics is a poorly developed strategy RPG.
This was my first Fire Emblem experience, and I really didn't know anything about this game before I bought it, other than it was an RPG and I needed a game for my brand new GBA (first title I bought too) so I was pleasantly surprised how it turned out. ----------Battle System---------- Fire Emblem: Sacred Stones is a turn-based strategy rpg. At the start of a chapter you get to pick and choose your party before…
Much like Sacred Stones (the only other Fire Emblem game I've played), this game has a ton of charm, is fun but can ultimately be frustrating. As you probably know by now, Fire Emblem has a system where if your character dies, they don't go into limbo where you can revive them later, they're just DEAD. So if you care enough about story archs and your characters, then you're going to want to keep everyone alive. This…
I was really skeptical towards Final Fantasy 12. The last main Final Fantasy I really loved was Final Fantasy 9. All the changes towards the seires really turned me off to Final Fantasy 12, but I wanted to find out what the hub-bub was about so I decided to break down and finally play it hands on. Despite the slow start, I was surprised how good it ended up being. What can be said about Final Fantasy 12 that hasn't…
I was not a big fan of Final Fantasy X's storyline, so I really didn't care for this universe. I've always had low expectations for this game, from everything I've read to everything I've seen, I just had no interest in this game. I must say though, Final Fantasy X-2 turned out alot better than those expectations. I really loved the battle system, I loved the job classes and learning new skills. The game was fairly…
Ok ok. While this is the first time I played through Final Fantasy X, this isn't the first time I experienced it though. I remember day one when this game came out and watched a friend play through it for about 10 hours. I was completely wowed by the graphics, as it was the first PS2 game I've actually seen in motion, but I was disgusted by the lame main characters. I could never get over it, so I never had the urge…
I went through the motions with this game. At first I loved it, then I hated it, then by the end of the game I started to enjoy it again. I just hate needless backtracking, and this game is full of it. This isn't a very big game in the first place, but the end got really really hard, so you're forced to backtrack through dungeons multiple times to get strong enough. I loved the graphics and the music, but the…
I haven't played the previous Fallout games, so this review is completely unbiased in that sense, but I have played Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance, and other games of that ilk, and really don't like them, so take that for what you want. I thought the graphics was a complete step back from Dark Alliance (a three year older game). The character models looked like crap. The three main avatars in the game are completely…
Fable features about 15 hours of gameplay, slightly clunky controls, buggy graphics and a bunk story with a dumb main character and forgettable non-playable characters. I can't say this is a great game with any confidences, but it did have some nice ideas, so I'll give it a D for effort. I did like the art style (for a WRPG) and I liked how the character aged over the years in the game (despite how the NPC did NOT…
Evolution Worlds was a hard game to get through. Even though it was really short and simple to play, trying to finish the Tower of Despair was a complete chore. It could easily take up 10-12 hours if you fought every monster there, that's half the game. The repetitive nature of the game was hard to swallow. It seems like a rushed RPG to appear on the Dreamcast as early as possible, and this port was a chopped up…
The story is generic, the battle system is unoriginal AND bad, the graphics are ugly. There isn't any challenge, no sidequests, and it's extremely linear. There's only 10 chapters in the game, and 7 areas to visit, 2 of them being towns. A few dungeons you have to revisit, and one is just a compilation of older dungeons you already visited disguised as "Illusions". There might be about 5 bosses in the game. Overall…
