Final Fantasy The 4 Heroes of Light

If you felt that the later Final Fantasies are straying too far from its roots, then this game is for you. It brings back many story and gameplay mechanics from the olden days of RPG's. The premise of the game is not unheard of for the franchise: four young heroes go out on an adventure to rescue the world from the evils that plague it.

Story:

You begin as the boy Brandt and it is his 14th birthday and you have just been summoned to appear before the King. He mentions how Princess Aire was kidnapped by the Wicked Witch of the North and he wants you to rescue her. You are then joined by your friend Jusqua to go save the princess. Then you meet up with the castle guard Yunita and together, the three of you save Princess Aire by defeating the witch, only to return to your hometown to discover it has turned to stone!

The four of you must search for a way to save the kingdom.

/spoiling the first hour of the game

If you're expecting an in-depth, or very story driven game, then look far away. This game harbors back to the NES and SNES days where the story is a bit "episodic". You visit a village, discover there's a problem, someone in the town tells you where to find the dungeon, slay the boss, save the village, and then be off to the next town. There's very little connecting the various mini-stories together outside of the main mission of figuring out how to save your hometown.

Characters:

While there is a cast of characters, and have a bit of personality, they're not really that interesting individually, and don't display much character growth. They're mostly just vessels to play through, and it's kind of struggling to remember a damn thing about any of them.

Brandt: He's the first character you play as, and is the typical adventurous hero character. He has a bright personality and is loyal to his friends, yadda yadda.

Jusqua: He's primarily the opposite of Brandt. The king sent Jusqua to check up on Brandt, but his job in the castle is never really explained. 

Yunita: she's a knight of Horne. She's Aire's bodyguard and is a great fighter, but she lacks confidence in difficult situations.

Aire: The youngest princess of Horne. She's the typical spoiled princess, and has little knowledge of the outside world. 

Gameplay:
The game largely follows a basic template for JRPG's, from the overworld, and random encounters, but it does add a bit of a twist for the battle system. While the battle system is largely a traditional turn based system, it has a system of action points. There are no magic points in this game, and any action uses these points. Everybody in your party has 5 action points, you never gain any more. Each action takes up one or more AP, and you regain a single point each time it is the character's turn. So if you use a move that takes up several AP, then you must plot out how to conduct your next moves, or risk getting in trouble. A faster way to regain your AP is to use the Boost option, as you can regain two points, but at the cost of not doing anything on your turn.

One aspect of the battle system that many would find a bit cumbersome, is that there is no targeting system. You are unable to target any of your opponents or your party members. This is a bit annoying at first, but if you have a party member low on HP, the cure spell will automatically target the member with the lowest HP, so luckily it won't just randomly select any character.

Next is the return of the popular job system (called crowns) from classic Final Fantasy games. With this there are a few familiar faces, like the white and black mages, monk, and paladin. There are a few that are fairly pointless, like the party host, and musician crowns... Some crowns are more helpful than others, especially when it comes to magic, as casting fire 1 as any other class takes two AP, but casting fire as a black mage now only costs 1 AP. So if you want to be a magic user, then it's highly advised to equip a mage crown.

Unlike Final Fantasy III, where you had to have a certain number of points to change jobs, this one allows you to change them on the fly with largely no penalties. This is quite helpful, as you spend the first half of the game with your party split up. So you don't have to relegate one character to be the healer, and one to be the magic user. Also unlike the other Final Fantasies, the jobs don't level up from battle like your character does, you level them up by filling their slots with the respectively shaped gems, and the max level for a job is level 3.

Speaking of gems, they are very valuable items, and you need them for basically EVERYTHING. At the beginning of the game they seem pointless. You grind your characters and you collect these gems, and they don't do anything, but you can sell them at the stores for money, as they're basically the only way to earn money, as you don't earn gil in battle like normal FF games.

As the game progresses, and you gain more crowns, you discover that you can use these gems to not only level up your crowns, you will also gain access to a shop that allows you to use gems to upgrade your weapons and armor. So now these gems are more valuable than ever. You now must figure out which is more important, buying new equipment, or leveling up your equipment. Luckily the game makes you change your equipment to something that is strong against the upcoming area boss, so you at least are forced to buy equipment instead. Only near the end of the game is leveling up your armor important.

One minor gameplay issue, is limited inventory space. In this day and age, it seems a bit silly that there isn't a party inventory, and your inventory is limited to a certain number of slots the characters hold, and that includes your equipment. This isn't too huge of an issue, and is only a problem when your party is relegated to a single person, but of all the modern conveniences, did they have to revert the inventory down? Luckily your key item inventory is separate from your characters' individual inventory, so at least that issue is taken care of.

Visuals:
The visuals are pretty fantastic for a DS game. Instead of using Final Fantasy III and IV's engine, they use a different engine, and a drastically different artstyle. It has a nice chibi storybook aspect of it, and gives you a nice nostalgic feeling of reading a children's storybook.

For a game on the DS, it does an okay job utilizing both screens. Most of the gameplay is on the touch screen, and you can use the stylus to control your character, but the D-Pad works just fine, and in battle, the menus are also on the touch screen. Outside of battle, the top screen really only shows your party's HP and AP, and is really only useful when you go to the world map, and the map is viewable on the top screen. It would have been nice to have a dungeon and town map on the top screen, but it's not a necessity, it does use both screens better than Final Fantasy III.

Music:

For the soundtrack, it's fantastic. It's like your typical old school RPG soundtrack except they mix between the bleeps and bloops of the NES days and with the modern midi sounds of the DS. The end result is a unique experience.

So if you're looking for a game that caters to your nostalgia needs, but with a new twist, Final Fantasy 4 Heroes of Light is the game for you. Just don't let its cute exterior fool you into thinking this is a stroll through the park

Music: 9/10.

Visuals: 9/10.

Story: 7/10.

Content 8/10.

Overall score: 8/10

Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory Review

Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory is your average anime themed RPG. It was also the third game released for the Neptunia series, it also takes place after the events of Hyperdimension Neptunia mk.2 which was released February 28th 2012. So is this game worth a look and can it interest you? Well there certainly is promising aspects but also its fair share of knacks as well. See if this anime RPG is the right kinda game for you to buy.

Story
The story takes place after the events of Hyperdimension Neptunia mk.2 and not much of recent has gone on in the nation of Gamindustri. Besides the nations of Lowee, Leanbox, Planeptune, and Lastation competing for dominance though, and a odd girl trying to promote the uselessness of CPU's. One day though when Neptune and Nepgear get in a argument and Neptune leaves Planeptune she encounters the odd girl and is later sucked into a void. This throws her into a alternate dimension where she doesn't exist as Planeptunes CPU goddess but another girl named Plutia instead. How will Neptune get return to her dimension which is also experiencing issues of its own while she is gone.

Gameplay
The gameplay is like your average RPG where you level up, buy equipment that can make your character stronger, and explore dungeons and such where you can battle enemies. Other features were included too but that will be looked over later in this review. Starting with the battle system it is the same as what was incorporated in mk.2 when you entered a battle. Basically there is a set area on the map and that area is the size of the battlefield space, you move your characters freely around in this space to get close and attack enemies. If you push against the border of the battle space it will allow you to retreat and leave the battle.

Up next is the button combination moves where you can mix and match different moves to unleash stronger attacks against your foes. Its a interesting way of doing things being able to string together different combos which unleash all sorts of attacks you can unlock down the road as you progress in level. There are indeed special attacks for each of the CPU's that can as well be learned and utilized through the game. It certainly overall adds a different feeling then the normal means for attacking you see in RPG games, and can be fun creating lots of combos that you feel gives you the best chance to win. The game itself also has adequate difficulty, but not too difficult.

Like most RPGs you will traverse many dungeons and you do so in this game as well traversing through the 3D environments provided. Of course enemies roam the areas and if you hit them first you can get the jump on them in the battle, of course it goes vice versa as well if you get hit first.There are also lots of areas to unlock for each continent and some are even references to certain game titles released, depending if you are in Lowee, Leanbox, Lastation and such. When you also go into a CPU's city like Lastation you can also talk with the random NPC's whom always have something to say and also are references to other games.

Quests are also a thing and do help you with the goodies they reward you with. Though some make it so you need a second playthrough so you can take on their challenge in defeating some of the strongest foes in the game. Completing the quests is important though especially if you want to get the maximum grade for each chapter of the game. Though quests can be halted though not only by lack of level but also lack of areas unlocked.

Unlocking new areas however in this game goes hand in hand with the new scout system. You are allowed to send scouts out and while you are fighting enemies in dungeons they search for things. Sometimes they are unsuccessful and bring you nothing, sometimes they bring you money, new scouts, unlock new areas or adding bonuses like more money aquired after battles or stronger enemies in dungeons. You also can give them more money for hopes of greater success, and if this scouts are successful in doing their duties they level up. Overall it is a very interesting system added into the game that you will indeed use a lot for quests and such.

Music
The music in the game is enjoyable and has some good tracks to offer. You have some of the more calmer tracks and places like the desert and forest dungeons for some tranquility followed by more upbeat tracks when you reach the retro cyber themed stages. Of course many more exist down the list and provide for a good listen. Below are some tracks from the game series you can take a listen to:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=VDd7-_OzchY#t=0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=7uvbUy5mfFg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=rHh_-xvmcOg

Visual
The game itself has good in it with its visuals, the characters designs and portraits are nice and the areas are something to look at as well. There are also CG's that get provided throughout the game at certain points which adds as a plus as well. Graphically the game will not wow you but hits the bullseye as a solid looking game. Unfortunately in terms of dungeon layout and design thats where things get rocky. As an example in the game there will be a forest dungeon you can enter, lets say one in Lastation's continent another in Leanbox's continent, the issue arises when the layout for the dungeon is not different and there is really not much variety to the stage. Many more forest dungeons exist in different continents but the result is still the same with the layout being a rehash with barely any changes. The same goes for dungeons with desert themed areas having almost a photocopy layout of eachother. So overall you will really start feeling like you've been to the same place multiple times without change.

Conclusion

Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory can certainly offer enjoyment to your average anime or PRG gamer providing a fair experience. While some things could have been done better such as the environment layouts in dungeons which is a major negative do to it being what you spend a good sum of time in there are things the game does fair in. It may not be the game you will take for a second playthrough unless you are barking for a different ending and completing all quests but is something that will last you a good amount of time. Overall it can give you a fairly good experience and with funny humor, and a adequate challenge making for a solid game.

Story:8/10
Graphics:7.5/10
Music:8/10
Final:8/10

Terranigma

Released in 1995 and published by Enix and developed by Quintet, Terranigma is an Action RPG that's very reminiscent of the Legend of Zelda series. Sadly it was never released in North America, but it was released in PAL regions, so there is an official English translation available. Quintet is known for other games like Soul Blazer and The Illusion of Gaia and shares similar gameplay with the two.

Story:

You play as the protagonist, the troublemaking Ark who lives in the village of Crysta, the only known village and nobody enters or leaves. There is a forbidden door that is closely guarded by the Village Elder, Ark finds the opportunity and opens the door and discovers a strange box. The box then casts a curse on the entire village freezing everybody but Ark and the Elder. The Elder informs Ark that to lift the curse, he must be the first to leave the and defeat the masters of the various towers strewn across the world. Defeating each tower breaks the seals on one of the various continents of the world (they're the same as our continents) and makes them reappear in the world.

Gameplay:

The game is your typical top-down SNES game like the other RPGs and The Legend of Zelda. Like the Legend of Zelda, the various dungeons and caves have various obstacles and puzzles that hinder your progression. Combat is also very similar to Zelda, but you have a few extra moves and you can perform magic. Like RPGs, killing the monsters give you experience and you can gain money.

The various dungeons strewn across the world either have tricky puzzles to figure out, or you go through a lengthy terrain and there are tricky obstacles and tough monsters to get through. Much of the game is difficult enough to make it not an easy stroll, but you can end up getting confused on what to do or where to go. While a walkthrough isn't required, it's very helpful.

Visuals:

Terranigma's graphics are pretty good for a SNES game. As it's a later release, the game takes advantage of what the SNES is capable of and the graphics are pretty comparable to Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy VI. While some of the dungeons at the beginning of the game are pretty sameish, after the world is unlocked, a lot of the game's various regions are very well detailed.

Music:

As typical SNES RPGs from Enix and Square, the soundtrack is symphonic MIDI and there's some pretty good tracks on there. The initial gameplay feels a bit repetitive, but after the world opens up, the soundtrack also diversifies to give you a more diverse experience with the various regions you now have to explore

Crysta Theme

Overworld Theme

Verdict:

Terranigma is a great addition to anyone's collection who is fond of Zelda type games and looking into healthy alternatives. If you like challenging puzzles, fun boss fights, and a great story, then Terranigma is a great addition to anyone's SNES collection.

Music: 7/10.

Visuals (Or Graphics): 7/10.

Story: 8/10.

Content: 7/10.

Conclusion: 7/10

Persona 3 FES Review

Persona 3 FES for the PS2 later PS3 is a upgraded version of the original Persona 3 game for the PS2 released in 2006. The game combines your average highschool life and also your average RPG styled elements all in one in a very fulfilling experience. So what does Persona 3 bring to the table and is it a game worth looking at? Though more so if you have played the original Persona 3 FES is playing this upgraded version worth your time?

Story

In Persona 3 FES you fill the shoes of a nameless protagonist in the scenario called "The Journey" whom is set to live at the dorms of the city of Iwatodai to attend Gekkoukan High. What our protagonist does not know is the city is a victim to an incident 10 years ago that unleashed the beings called "Shadows", it is not until he first encounters one that he unlocks the power called "Persona". The power of the Persona's is the main means of destroying the creatures called shadows, and due to having the potential our protagonist is then joined with the group called "S.E.E.S" with their leader Mitsuru Kirijo. From there on out he, along with other group members such as Yukari Takeba, Junpei Iori, and Akihito Sanada plus more are tasked with venturing the tall tower of Tartarus, to not only discover its purpose but to destroy it, and eliminate the Dark Hour.

The added story then follows after "The Journey" and moves on to "The Answer" which is one of the bonuses in Persona 3 FES in which takes place very shortly after the first stories events. The group S.E.E.S is going to be disbanded, and most people go their separate ways. Though a girl named "Metis" stirs up trouble before loose ends get tied in a mission to protect her sister Aigis, as she says. Not only that but a area called "The Abyss of Time" exists beneath the dorm which is the main cause of a apparent time freeze. Now the member of S.E.E.S must band back together to solve this final incident with the peculiar new robot girl Metis as their guide, and also find out the answer to the tragedy of their leader. Its now Aigi's turn to step in the shoes as the leader and bring everything to a close.

Gameplay

In terms of gameplay for the battle aspects you take your average four persona party into a dungeon and battle monsters. You can however command your party certain things such as focusing on a single enemy, supporting or healing, or even fully assaulting, disregarding support. This adds some control to your party members and allows you to have some power over them. One other thing to be noted is the use of "Analysis" where you scan enemies to reveal their weaknesses and strengths against your attacks in battle. These remain the same in both "The Journey" and "The Answer".

The next thing that should be discusses is the encounters. The game has a 3D environment and you waltz around Tartarus where you can find treasure boxes and a quick getaway out from the dungeon. Enemies patrol certain areas and sometimes might be guarded rare treasure boxes. Depending if you sneak up and hit an enemy before it notices you or hits you first will depend if you get a player advantage in the battle. This allows you and your party members to attack the enemies disregarding their turn order for one turn cycle. Though if you get hit first the enemies get the edge and can attack you. If you also manage to hit all enemies with their weakness and knock them down you can preform a all out attack in which all your party members attack at once against the enemy. Though you can choose to relent and not do so.

Next is the after battle rewards as sometimes after a battle you don't have to settle with just XP and items. You also have a shuffle event where tarot cards appear before your screen. These can have Persona's you can get, bonus XP cards, healing cards, and money cards. There are also cards though that are possessed with Death and if chosen can summon him. Blanks are also another type of card which gives you nothing. To chose a card you simple press any button and watch them as they shuffle away in different patterns. Once they are done you select the card you want, sometimes you get a "second chance" event where if you choose a particular card you can get another. You also have a extra chance even that will pop up every now and then which will let you try the shuffle again if you chose a blank or death card.

The unique aspects of the battles for Persona however are targeted at the Persona's themselves. Your party members are stuck with what they have but you are a special exception and can use vast amounts of Personas and switch between them in battle. Each Persona has their own abilities and of course strengths and weaknesses. Mind you if your Persona is weak against Agi then you will be knocked down by the attack due to it being your weakness. So when choosing a Persona be mindful of its strengths or weaknesses. Keep in mind that Personas also have "heart items" which are rare items attached to a Persona. You may also level up your Persona but over time it won't bring the same impact to battle even if you level up, making it so you need to fuse certain Personas and obtain stronger and stronger ones which can be done in the "Velvet Room". Keep in mind that Personas also have "heart items" which are rare items attached to a Persona. When you level up a Persona a certain amount you get the heart item for that Persona. Back regarding the Velevet Room it is a place where you can also accept Elizabeth's side quests which gives you new items, quite useful as a matter of fact upon completion. She also bears holding to the Compendium where you register your Persona and can re draw them out at anytime if they are needed, of course at a fee mind you. Unfortunately this was taken out of "The Answer" making you have to search extensively around and re visit dungeons for past Persona you may need for a certain fusion.

Next is the social link system in the game. This allows you to build closer bonds with your school friends, and fellow S.E.E.S group members, though only the girls from S.E.E.S can be bonded closer with. This gives you more perspective on the characters life, and a chance to better know them. You can rank a social link to level 10 which completes the link for the particular character, each character also have a designated arcana such as the death, chariot, and hanged man. Leveling links important because it also impacts your Personas. If you want to make a Persona of the death arcana and have a lvl 7 link it will receive lots of bonus XP leveling it up, but making a Persona of the Emperor with no social link level will give it nothing. Plus maxing out a link will give you the strongest Persona of that link, such as Asura being the maximum of the Sun arcana social link and Surt the maximum of the magician. Though overtime if you abandon a social link or if you decline to hangout with a friend in place of another that can cause a reversal or decrease in the level. If you are also aiming for a peculiar girl and have her at the point where she develops feelings for you things will go bad if she sees you are also paying attention to other girls as well. This can also cause a reversal so it is wise to max out one girl characters link, then do the next. Though there are no links in "The Answer" so now all Personas must be leveled up manually.

Finally other things you can do is visit places like the arcade and increase your character stats like academics or charm. Or do some karaoke to increase your courage. This pays off as some social links can become locked if you don't have a high enough character trait, this can also impede Elizabeth's quests. Outside of that there are your average shops that get updated after every full moon incident and stuff like interacting with random NPC's too or finding a new person that is possible to develop a link with. Though for "The Answer" for the whole story you are mainly confined in the dorms and the Abyss of Time and its dungeons so not much other environment gets introduced.

Music

The music that plays in the game when visiting certain areas around the city is nice as well. Mainly jazz styled or rap based in a sense. There are of course some rock tones and instrumentals as well. There are tracks that give off the dark feeling something is amiss and other tracks which feel vibrant. The soundtracks for the school and Tartarus change those which add a bit of a refreshing tone, when killing shadows or roaming around the school halls. Below you can see some examples of the music you can expect in the game, starting off with "Mass Destruction" which is a theme you will hear a lot of, "Battle for Everyone's Souls" a more rock feeling song, and "Memories of You" the games ending song.

Graphics

Graphically wise the game isn't bad, the Personas look pretty nice and each and every one of them have a nice design to them. Enemies also have a nice outlook to them as well as the character portraits that appear when a character is speaking. The visuals though for Tartarus aren't necessarily bad but through most of the floors in a single block/section of the tower are repetitive. Plus it is the only real place you consecutively visit, though due to its importance it is obviously understandable why. Stuff like the design of the city is also nice too, from the backstreets of Port Island to the livelihood of Gekkoukan, there is certainly a broad scale of stuff to see in the game. There are also animated cutscenes that appear from time to time, and though they may not be the best looking of things they are not bad by any means.

Conclusion

Persona 3 FES can be a very fulfilling experience for a first timer into the Persona series, or a persona whom has played the original but wants to experience the bonuses. The Journey scenario will definitley give you lots of gameplay fulfillment that will leave you putting many hours into it. The added scenario "The Answer" is quite fulfilling itself. Though it requires more backtracking to get certain things, you shouldn't miss the compendium if you aren't looking to create a Lucifer to fight alongside you. Overall both stories make for a pretty good experience, to the average RPG gamer and fans of the Persona series. It also will give you a good challenge and a game that will require lots of hours of time into it before completing the dark yet wonderful story.

Story:8.5/10
Graphics:8/10
Music:9/10
Final:8.5/10

Star Ocean: First Departure

Released in 2007 in Japan and 2008 in Europe and North America, First Departure is the remake of the first game in Tri-Ace's Star Ocean series and is published by Square Enix. The original game was titled Star Ocean: Fantastic Space Odyssey, and was released in 1995 on the Super Famicom (SNES). It was developed by the group Wolf Team, and they previously released another RPG on the same console called Tales of Phantasia. After several creative disputes with their publisher Namco, after the released of Tales of Phantasia much of the development team left and started Tri-Ace and ran to another publisher, Enix. this is the reason why the Star Ocean series and the Tales series both share many similarities, and even the early games shared some of the same spells. They decided to stay way from some aspects of the typical high fantasy setting of many RPG games and focused on a heavily Star Trek influenced story and follows it up with science fiction elements.

The original version of Star Ocean was considered ahead of its time, and completely pushed the limits of the SNES. Sadly this game never saw the light of day outside of Japan, largely due to Enix closing it's North American market, and also due to it being a late SNES release, and Nintendo of America pushing the then new Nintendo 64. There is a fan translation available of this game.

In 2007 the game was finally remade for the Playstation Portable and released in the West. This version uses an updated version of the engine for Star Ocean: Second Story, and was developed alongside the enhanced port of that game, now called Star Ocean: Second Evolution. With this remake, they had help with the animation company Production IG, famous for Ghost in the Shell, and more recently Attack on Titan. There are many updates compared to the SNES version, as they added a few bonus characters, new soundtrack, and updated character designs and cutscenes. Despite all these changes, the story and gameplay is pretty unchanged.

Now for the actual review:

Story:

You play as a young warrior named Roddick Farrence who lives in the small town of Kratus. He runs a Defense Force team with his friends Dorne Murtough and Millie Chilette, and together they defend the village from robbers and thieves. They're young Fellpools who are a race of humanoid beings who have tails and pointy ears and live on the planet Roak.

After a day's work, they receive a letter that a nearby village has been plagued with a contagious disease causing everyone to turn to stone, and Dorne has the disease. They hear of an herb that is claimed to heal the stone sickness, and head off to Mount Metorx. Once they reach mount Metorx, they see a flash of light and two beings appear in front of them. They introduce themselves as Ronyx J Kenny and Illia Silvestri, and are part of a Galactic Federation, and are from the planet Earth. They have to bring the sad news that the herbs they seek won't cure the disease and bring the trio aboard their spaceship.

After Dorne is placed in medical care, the federation discovers that a rival group are supposedly creating a bio weapon by using the people on Roak. They realize that the only way to stop the disease is to find the host, but the host has been dead for 300 years. So Ronyx and Illia take Roddick and Millie to a planet that carries a time gate, and they travel 300 years to the past to find the demon Asmodeus to receive the cure for the disease. Thus the adventure begins.

Gameplay:

Largely a fairly traditional RPG with random encounters, the battle system is what sets the game apart from other RPG's. The battle system takes place in real time, and is similar to an action RPG where you can mash the action button to attack the enemy. You can assign special skills to the shoulder buttons What separates this from a real action RPG, the battles take place in another screen, and there are still menus to cast other spells, or use items. It's like a pseudo-action RPG with menus.

The rest of your party runs on AI and you can't really control them outside of setting tactics. So if you're tired of that character for always wasting their SP, you can set their tactic and tell them to save that shit up.

There's also a skill system where you can customize characters with various skills. While some of these help in battle, like increasing speed or recovery time, these skills are mostly for other aspects like item creation, via cooking meals, or creating items you can't find in stores.

There is also a feature called Private Actions, where when you enter a town, you can have the party explore the city on their own, and you can talk to them individually. This is an optional feature, and helps a bit with character development. This can also alter what happens in the various endings.

Visuals:

Since it uses the engine from Star Ocean: Second Story, with its 2D sprites on a pre-rendered backgrounds, the game looks like a game from the original Playstation. While not as graphically impressive as other PSP titles, it at least gets the job done like many other PSP ports of PS1 games. The game does feature a portrait of a main character's face in the dialog, and their face changes to depict their emotions.

Unlike the original version of the game, it does have a traditional overworld, and if you've played the original version, this gives the world a much larger feeling.

Music:

Like everything on this remake, the soundtrack was updated. It does sound a lot better than the SNES version, so while the original had a really good soundtrack, an updated version is much nicer. It does have a typical JRPG style soundtrack, but there are a few memorable tracks. The opening of the game even features the anime tradition of having a J-Pop theme song and it's a fairly likable track.

Verdict:

Star Ocean: First Departure is a pretty solid JRPG, and is a very recommendable title for those who are fond of the older RPG's from the SNES and PS1 days. The voice acting is decent, while not the best acting, and is patchy at times, it's definitely not something to cringe over. This game does show some of its age, so it may not appeal to those who want a more modern approach to their RPG's, but for those who either like RPG's in general, or want to play a lost classic, this is a very solid game to add to your collection.

Music: 7/10

Visuals: 7/10

Story: 8/10

Content: 8/10

Conclusion: 8/10

Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4

Released in 2008 by Atlus on the PS2, the latest main entry into the subseries of the Shin Megami Tensei games known as Persona. Persona 4 takes the template set up by Persona 3 and adds a few tweaks to the system incorporated with an all new story and cast. Persona 4 also seems to break the cycle of the series being redesigned from the ground up as the predecessors have, which may have angered a few hardcore SMT fans, but the rest of the gaming world seems deeply satisfied.

Gameplay:

Like Persona 3, Persona 4 is a mix between life simulation and dungeon crawling, and the game progresses day by day. The days are separated into morning, afternoon, and night; each with different actions being available. The mornings largely consist of you being in class, the game usually fast forwards through this, but occasionally you'll get quizzed on random trivia and if you get it right, you'll increase certain stats. In the afternoon, you get either a choice between progressing into the TV world to complete the various dungeons, or to hang out with various students (or get a job) to increase your social link levels (more on this later). At night, there isn't much to do but study to increase your knowledge, read a book to increase other stats, or go to sleep to go to the next day. Occasionally there'll be mandatory story events at night.

For the dungeon crawling, you are tasked with reaching the top of the tower and defeating the boss by the specific deadline, or risk having a game over. Unlike Persona 3, the dungeon layouts aren't randomly generated, and you also have the ability to go down to lower floors if the enemies are getting too tough for you. Dungeon navigation is done in full 3D, and you get to see your character, and your party members following you around. The monsters (called shadows) are visible on screen, so there's none of the annoyance of random encounters. You are unable to tell what kind of shadows you'll fight, as they are displayed by a generic shadow sprite. You are also able to swing your sword at the shadows to initiate the battles, if you successfully swing it, you can have an initiative at the beginning of battle. If you fail, or just touch the shadow, you just have a regular battle. The shadows are also able to chase after you, so if they catch you, they get the initiative. Though if you are above a certain level in each dungeon, you are able to scare off the shadows.

The battle system is largely your traditional turn based battle system, but most of your abilities focus on you summoning various Personas. Personas are what the series calls the various monsters you summon into battle. Many of them are based on various mythological characters from various cultures around the world. Each Persona has their own stats, abilities, and weaknesses, and the hero is the only one with the ability to have multiple Personas while the rest of your party only has their own special Persona. To gain more Personas, you get an event after certain battles to collect the cards with Personas on them. They briefly flash you the cards and you have to get the card right, the penalty will risk you leaving empty handed, and possibly losing all the experience you got from the battle. For your party, you have a choice between having the rest of your party under tactics to let the AI do the thinking for you, or for full manual. Luckily the AI in this game is fairly smart, and you can go through the game with tactics with no problems.

The big deal with the Personas is fusion. While the ones you gain from battles have their abilities, they are fairly weak and only know one or two moves. Your task is to go to the Velvet Room and fuse Personas together to gain stronger Personas with more, and stronger, moves. You are also able to save Personas into a compendium to recall them later if you want them back, but they cost money.

Your character has two different sets of stats: one for battle, and one for social. The battle stats are your basic RPG stats, but the social stats can help you along with the social aspect of the game. Allowing you to be able to talk to certain people, or to initiate certain story events.

The beauty of Persona 4 is how the social aspects of the game, and the dungeon crawling aspects are fairly dependent on each other. The social links are corresponded with a certain tarot card arcana, one social link for one arcana. The various Personas are also categorized by tarot card arcana. If you hang out with the social link people enough, the corresponding link will level up, this in turn gives your Persona an experience boost when you fuse to make them even stronger, and saves you grinding time. Each of your party members also have social links, so if you max out a party member's social link, their Persona evolves into a stronger one.

With the social links, you basically hang out with a person and help them through their dilemma. You get to watch various people work through their life problems, and you get a warm fuzzy feeling inside when you help them out. The girls' social links have a slightly different ending, if you max out a girl's social link, they will ask you out and you can start dating. The problem with this is if you have a bunch of girls around a certain social link level, they'll start to get jealous and leave you with a broken social link that you must then mend! If you do time everything right, you are able to have multiple girlfriends in the game, and end up dating all of the girls in your party (and then some) what a stud!

Story:

The protagonist has no default name, but if you watched the anime, or played Persona 4 Arena, he is known as Yu Narukami, and for the sake of this review, we shall also associate him as such.

You play as Yu Narukami as he has to spend a year of high school at a new school in the small town of Inaba. Your parents are going to be working for the entire year overseas and you must live with your uncle Dojima and your elementary school cousin, Nanako. As you enter the school, you soon befriend 3 students: the goofy Yosuke, tomboy Chie, and the elegant Yukiko, who are all friends.

Chie tells you of a rumor flying around school about something known as the Midnight Channel, where if you watch TV at midnight when it's raining, you'll see your destined lover on there. As the game goes on, you discover that the people on the channel show up missing, and appear dead a few days later, and you and your friends begin to notice something suspicious, as clearly you can't have a Shin Megami Tensei game without murder victims. You then discover that there's a hidden world inside the TV and there's a strange bear known as Teddie who tells you about a stranger throwing people inside and you find out that those people were the kidnapped victims.

Most of the game cycles around you seeing a person on the Midnight Channel, and jumping into the channel to prevent them from dying. All while trying to figure out who the culprit behind the murders and kidnapping. They also tend to mix in stories revolving around your high school experience which tends to follow some typical tropes from anime school shows like: summer vacation, school camping trip, school festival, swimsuit scene, etc. While the story may have a dark demeanor in it, there's also a mix of comedy into it to lighten the mood. While the game can feel a bit repetitive after awhile, the story events can be quite enjoyable and give very nice breaks away from the grinding. While there are plot twists in the story, you won't have to worry about M Night Shyamalan style twists like a few Final Fantasy games, and the story is a bit straightforward.

The game is largely voice acted, with only the social links not being voiced. There is only the English voice cast, so if you're a Japanese voice purist, then you will be disappointed. Though if you're okay with English voices, the voice cast is very well done and has some big names like Johnny Yong Bosche of Bleach and Code Geass fame and Ali Hillis from Final Fantasy XIII and Mass Effect.

Characters:

 These are the initial cast of characters, there are several more important characters that appear throughout the game, but for the sake of keeping this review shorter, and preventing spoilers, we'll stick to these guys.

Yu Narukami:

 The protagonist of the game, he's the typical silent protagonist in many RPG's and has no default name. You get to play as the new kid in town, and cope with your life at a new school. He's also the only character with the ability to summon multiple personas. His default Persona is Izanagi who carries a giant sword, and boasts electricity powers.

Yosuke Hanamura:

Yosuke is one of your first friends, and previously the new kid, as he moved to Inaba six months before you did. His father runs the local Junes department store, and he works there part time. He's the typical comic relief character that people like to hate on as he's kind of annoying. He has a brash personality, and acts before he thinks, usually getting him in trouble with Chie. To get around the fact that you don't have a default name, Yosuke calls you bro, which has caused fans to dub him as Brosuke. Yosuke's Persona is Jiraiya who has wind abilities.

Chie Satonaka:

Chie is the tomboy of the group, and can have a short temper, especially when it comes to Yosuke being well... Yosuke. She's been best friends with Yukiko since they were little, and is always there to protect her. Despite having a short temper with Yosuke, she's pretty friendly and outgoing, which is why she's the first to make friends with you. She's a big fan of kung fu movies, which shows in her fighting style, as she's the kicker. Despite the fact that she fights in her school uniform during much of the game, she wears modesty shorts under her skirt, so you won't get any sneak peaks at her panties, sorry guys. Her Persona is Tomoe who carries a big spear and is a big physical attacker, and also has a few ice moves up her sleeve.

Yukiko Amagi:

Chie's best friend, Yukiko is initially a shy and introverted girl. Her family is rich as the owners of the renowned Amagi Inn. Apparently every guy in the school has the hots for her, and always try asking her out, which causes Chie to scare the guys off, as Yukiko is too shy to talk to them. Despite having the best grades in class, a running gag is where she gets into laughing fits at really bad jokes, which makes Chie wonder about her sometimes. Her persona is Konohana Sakuya and specializes in healing and fire abilities, a very important person to have in your party.

Teddie:

Teddie is a mysterious bearlike creature who lives in the TV world. He helps you out in the game by giving you tips in battle. He has a penchant for having bear related puns, despite nobody, except Yukiko, finds them enjoyable.

Ryotaro Dojima:

Dojima is your uncle who offered to take you in while your parents are abroad. Dojima is a single parent and works as a detective. He has a very authoritative personality. Since he'll be stuck at work a lot, he's not at home most of the time, much to the dismay of his daughter Nanako.

Nanako Dojima:

Nanako is Dojima's daughter/your cousin. Due to her father being gone all the time because of his job, she's a lot more mature than other kids her age, as she manages to do things at home by herself, like fixing meals for the family. Initially shy towards you, she eventually opens up and shows a lot of affection towards you, like calling you big bro.

Visuals:

The art style is largely anime based, and Atlus also doesn't disappoint with the graphics which are quite good for a late PS2 title. Everything is rendered in 3D polygons, and the characters are full sized (none of that super deformed nonsense) and very closely resemble the anime graphic they show when they're talking. Even the anime graphic has different facial expressions when they're talking, to add to their feelings.While you are only able to rotate the camera while you're in a dungeon, or at school, you still feel like you're running around in a small town despite the limited exploration you can do. Occasionally there are full anime cutscenes, but they are fairly rare.

Music:

The game comes with a CD of the soundtrack, luckily it's a fantastic soundtrack. Persona 4 follows the steps of Persona 3 by having a more J-pop influenced soundtrack with vocals sung in English. Luckily, unlike 3, the Japanese vocalist has a much better English accent and you can understand what she is saying, whereas with Persona 3's vocalist, you'd think she's singing in Japanese until you look at the lyrics and it's supposed to be in English.

While some of the songs have a J-pop twist, it's not that fluffy and cute stuff that some people associate J-pop with, and there's several instrumental tracks to keep with the mood of the game when it starts to get dark.

Verdict:

As typical of a Shin Megami Tensei game, this is quite a monstrous game and will be quite lengthy. Luckily there's plenty to do in the game to break from the mundainty, and you will be kept on your toes over who the killer is. With its colorful cast and great story, Persona 4 is perfect for those who want to dedicate time to a lengthy RPG that doesn't crush under its own weight.

Music: 9/10.

Visuals (Or Graphics): 9/10.

Story: 9/10.

Content: 9/10.

Conclusion: 9/10