Tide's Review text dump - Take 2

[Tide]

Boards moved, so regrouping all the reviews I've written into one spot. Motivates me to a) write more and b) get something into this empty forum/project

So....let's start. Reviews hoping to be written in the future:
- Ar Tonelico
- Atelier Iris 2
- Final Fantasy Tactics
- Final Fantasy X
- Fire Emblem 10
- Front Mission 3
- Persona 3
- Super Mario RPG
- Wild ARMS 4
- Wild ARMS 5
- Wild ARMS ACF

Game: Tales of the Abyss
Reviewer: Tide
The game’s strongest point: Excellent character interaction
The game’s weakest point: Pacing issues

I will be honest with you: I haven’t actually touched a Tales game until the Abyss came out. And even then, it took much convincing from various sources before I decided to give it a try. I tried playing Symphonia before but couldn’t get 2 hours into it. So buying Abyss and having to invest time into it, I was really skeptical. But I decided to give it a shot anyway. It’s not like I don’t try new games or lack a sense of adventure after all. So one afternoon, after finishing my readings, I pulled the disc from the box and plugged it into my PS2. After putting close to 60 hours into it, I finally pulled the disc back out, having finished the game and developing an opinion on it. One that is generally positive on the whole.

General Thoughts:
First, let start with the basics: the graphics on the whole are well done. They aren’t as detailed as I thought, but they are still pretty nonetheless. The character designs weren’t atrocious and there was a good use of color all around. The opening was catchy and later on playing the game, I would find that it has flashy animations at various times too.

The sound…well, the music isn’t all too memorable. I specifically remember only two tracks: The first being the big boss battle theme, the second being the opening movie. None of the other tracks struck out at me all that much otherwise. They weren’t ear-grating (ie: I could still turn on the volume!), but I didn’t find myself having a need to search out the sound track disc for it. The voice acting was very well done. In fact, I think the English voices are probably done better than the Japanese ones for the most part. The various dialogues the game has in battles were also a nice addition and were loud enough so that you can actually hear them.

The controls are decent. I would have preferred the use of less buttons such that it is easier to pick up. But they are at the very least responsive. It may take a while to get used to using so many buttons, but the different modes of control plus the in-game tutorials will help the ease of use.

The Good:
Aside from the three basic obvious elements being good, Tales of the Abyss manages to do a couple of other things pretty well. For example, I don’t think I’ve been as impressed as I have from watching the amount of character interaction within the game. The cast chemistry on the whole is very well done and everyone from the PC side benefits greatly as a result, allowing the multitude of emotions that each character shows to bounce around. The skits help add on to this, allowing the player to see various thoughts and feelings of the characters especially after major events or revelations. Along the same lines, the PC cast is also done fairly well. To be more specific, the main character Luke, goes through one of the most believable character changes I have seen. He goes through various stages of change, but each one builds on top of the other and he is very impressive as a character during the last 5 hours of the game or so.

The plot is fairly solid. It touches on the issues of free will, along with the ideas of cloning, life and death. And for the most part, this reviewer personally feels they handled each of them well. I don’t recall being disappointed with the development of the plot direction or having something cop out on me. When coordinated with the various issues that Luke eventually has to confront, it builds a tale that becomes very intriguing to witness.

The battles involve a 3-dimensional field, or what the game calls a linear flex system. Essentially, characters move in a line towards the enemy. But they can move out of this line with the help of a skill called “Free Run” and a designated button. As a result, characters can move all around the feel and attack from various angles instead of just forward or requiring the characters to jump behind. It is based on an action RPG style, so battles are real time and constantly moving. The game concentrates on trying to build hits – or combos if you will - together so enemies are locked and can’t retaliate. Each character has a designated role and fight differently. You are only responsible for the control of one character, although you can switch control in battle. Those not controlled by a human player are handled by the Tales AI. On the whole, the system is handled well. It takes a while to learn, but the boss fights are fairly fun. Giving the system a 3D field aspect makes it more manageable to play and the basic idea of linking combos together has been in multiple games before with a generally good degree of success.

The Bad:
Where the game kind of falls down is at a lot of little minor things. Minor, but they do add up. For starters, the game requires a lot of backtracking and moving on the world map. This gets better later on when you have an airship and can fly instantly. But before, there’s a decent amount of traveling which lags the game’s general pace. It gets even worse if you decide to pursue the various side quests in the game.

Speaking of side quests, another problem with this one is that most of them are either hidden or require (see above) various degrees of backtracking. Still they are side quests, so up to a certain point this is acceptable. The game also has cut-off points, which means if you pass those events in the plot, certain quests becomes inaccessible. Not something I prefer, but again, there’s some leeway given due to the fact that they are side quests.

The traveling between places would be better as well if the world map was handled better. The camera moves a little too slow. This is coupled along with the fact that the game purposely barricades you from reaching certain areas. I understand that it is probably done to hide secrets or preventing your party from getting slaughtered, but it is incredibly annoying to have to maneuver AROUND certain obstacles on the maps to reach a location. The solution to this is auto-pilot, but still unnecessary towards the end. The loading times are also questionable at points, but bearable at the very least.

In battle, the Tales AI has varying degrees of stupidity. I cannot recall the amount of times I’ve set my characters to attack with only magic, only to watch them walk face up to the enemy and use a physical. Not only that, but when an enemy spell is locked on to the character, you would think that they would be smart enough to at least run away from it. But again, there’s a little problem with the AI instead of deciding to run headfirst into an enemy attack. Still, you can at least attempt to switch characters and move them away quickly. The documentation on learning Additional battle skills isn’t done too well. Heck, I didn’t even know they contributed to learning which skills. The battles also run into the problem of the random monsters being uninteresting to fight. You will notice that I mentioned boss fights are fun. In fact, they are. But the regular enemy battles are not. There are ways around this such as not fighting those random monsters in the first place, but it is still something of minor concern.

Finally, between the characters, there’s just some untapped potential for growth within the supporting cast. Not too big of a deal, since for the most part, they are enjoyable and not extremely offensive, but it would’ve been nice to see some work there.

The Ugly:
The biggest complaint by far though with the game is the pacing issues. It takes a very long time before the plot, battle system or game play builds up, making the beginning a very long slog. Should you past through the beginning, the pacing doesn’t necessarily improve. The game IS long, and part of the reason is due to the fact that the pacing isn’t handled particularly well.

The other complaint is probably about the villain side of the game. I believe personally that villains are a little more difficult to write for since they only have so much screen time, but some of the villains Abyss throws out are just outright unbearable. A couple of them are well done, but some (like Sync) just outright tick me off. I’m not sure if I was supposed to feel sympathetic towards some of them, but if I was, boy, did they fail at doing so for a good portion of the villains.

Recapping:
Good –
- Good graphics
- Play control generally spot on
- Excellent PC chemistry and main character’s development
- Story was handled fairly well
- Boss fights are fun for the most part

Bad –
- World map issues in general
- Some untapped cast potential
- AI could be better

The Ugly –
- Pacing issues
- Villain cast needs work

Overall: 8/10
It was a very enjoyable game, although it had its own flaws, some of which could be worked around. I’ve heard various people tell me that it is possibly the best Tales game to date, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it was. Aside from the minor details penned out, the game constructs itself as an epic and it delivers fairly well. If you can work around the pacing and slow starting issues of the game, it should be a fairly enjoyable experience.

[Tide]

Game: Xenosaga 3
Reviewer: Tide
The game’s strongest point: Choking Shion, not having to play it anymore, game does not kill you when you turn if off
The game’s weakest point: Characters/Plot. Dear GOD

Xenosaga 3. 36 hours. 54 dollars. 1 CD box. 1 CD. 12 pages of instructions. However many hours it took for the development team to design this…uh… “masterpiece”. The above that you have just read is all the wasted efforts that have been placed into this game. Yes, it’s Xenosaga 3, and let’s be blunt right off the bat - It is horrible. Having played the first and second episodes, and found them to be enjoyable overall, I was expecting at the very least a decent ending to the trilogy. What we ended up getting instead is one of the worst scenes in gaming history and a mess of nonsensical religious references made to appeal to the fanboys and girls everywhere.

General Thoughts:
On the surface, the game doesn’t look too terrible. The controls are responsive. Nothing too difficult to learn, with just a simple interface of confirm/cancel. The graphics are pretty good and you can see this when you take a look at the special attack designs throughout the game. The music could probably use some work overall, but not completely unbearable and not just a few bars repeated over and over. So at the VERY least, it beats the likes of things like Quest 64.

The Good:
What else can be said for this game otherwise? Well the first disc of the game does provide some closure of the side stories built in Episode 1 and 2. We get to see Old Miltia which has been referenced to many times in the other games. We see an awesome exit of one of the testaments. In fact, Disc 1 as a whole probably doesn’t have all that many problems. It wouldn’t have gotten a very high score, but it wouldn’t have been the fantastical mess that Disc 2 ends up generating.

The addition of the bonus mini-game, Ha-Kox was pretty neat. It’s basically lemmings, except with Xenosaga characters and its pretty fun overall, although nothing too spectacular.

The Bad:
The entire pacing of the second disc needs work. It is as if the designers realized they need to end the game off soon so decided to group almost EVERY villain there is within the last disc and kill them all off in stupid fights. It is painful to watch this in action. The fights themselves aren’t, but the fact that you’re going through one boss fight after another and having all these supposedly big characters die off that fast within 3 hours of each other? I know I complained about pacing in Tales of the Abyss, but this is almost just as bad, if not WORSE.

On top of that, the dungeon design for the entire second disc is extremely awful. Just as an example, there is one dungeon that is done entirely with your mechas and it takes close to 4 hours for the entire thing to be completed. Not only that, but you fight close to 4 bosses in a row, with nonsensical random encounters that die with the spamming of your lasers or something. I don’t know what they were thinking, but the fact that I need 4 FREAKING hours to finish ONE dungeon is pretty much unacceptable. This dungeon isn’t even the last one in the game. What kind of lame excuse is this?

4 hours of the same dungeon would be a little more tolerable if the battles were at the very least interesting. But the problem is they aren’t. Whether it is on land or in a machine, battles are tedious, usually non-challenging and tend to be very boring. Around the only good thing about battles is watching the pretty graphics and that gets old the 100th time you encounter a monster. Why is the battle system bad? Well, the enemies on land are way too easy. As a result, you don’t even get to see the more interesting aspects of the system. Usually, you just get a couple of characters to perform attacks that hit everyone, keep boosting until they are either all in “Break” status (stunned), or they are all dead. Sure they try to keep things interesting by letting you build characters in the way you want with 2 different branches. But very rarely do you need to deviate from the above strategy in order to win. On top of that, some of the insanely good accessories are incredibly easy to get. Not necessarily docking points for this, but it makes the already easy battle system, even easier. Boosting is also no longer as fun since they are also required for your special attacks to generate bonuses when you win. Now, some of you might be thinking, “But Tide, this creates a balance since you can’t boost spam to win”. This would be true if it wasn’t for the fact that you could keep spamming your hit-all attacks after the enemies are stunned, generate enough boost, then pound the opposition to death with a special attack. It gets to the point of monotony, and later on, there’s very little reason to keep fighting random monsters.

The mecha battles are also incredibly easy as for the most part, most enemies die in one character’s turn with the spamming of basic weaponry as long as you keep them updated. I seemingly recall myself hitting “lasers” almost every time and watching it blast enemies to death without even really trying. Later on, replace “lasers” with “machine guns” or whatever updated weapon you had. That’s pretty much it. It’s almost not even necessary to use your special attacks unless it is required by the fight or basically just to make it faster. This matters because bosses end up having ridiculous HP scores, but are easy enough to the point that the HP is only there to serve as a punching bag. Furthermore, there’s various equipment that ends up providing even more insane advantages such as 50% recovery when you defend. AND as a further insult to injury for mecha battles, the game even sells you 50% full healing at stores for machines. There are just so many problems in “tedious” and “easy” that the battle system simply isn’t fun.

The Ugly:
You know your game has problems when one of the best features is being able to strangle the main character. There is something fundamentally wrong in your character’s personality when that happens. And when you sell yourself to be a plot orientated game, it creates further problems as you simply don’t give a damn as to what happens to the characters. By the end of Xenosaga 3, I wanted to stab Shion in the face. I didn’t care about her problems or the epicness of story when I didn’t give a flying fuck about what happened to her. What’s wrong with Shion? She’s a whiny, hypocritical bitch, who basically at the turn of being re-united with the biggest dick of this century decides to turn against her friends at the drop of a hat. It’s sickening and she’s incredibly rude to the people that actually care about her. If you thought she was BAD in Xenosaga 2, Xenosaga 3 will redefine it. She is absolutely terrible in almost every sense.

But it isn’t just Shion that’s the problem (I can’t believe I’m saying this). The fact that the game tries to make itself into a deep, complicated plot game, but never really revealing all that we need to know just turns it into a bunch of ridiculous cryptic bullshit. You don’t need to go around hiding the meaning of everything to get a decent game plot. Tales of the Abyss didn’t do this. Final Fantasy Tactics didn’t do this. What were the writers of Xenosaga 3 doing? God knows. But it just doesn’t end up working into being the big OMG story that it’s supposed to create. And it is an incredible disappointment as a result to the first 2 games trying to build it up to be something big. The other characters are also lame. In particular, chaos, KOS-MOS and T-ELOS all need to burn in a deep pit of fire. Young and old Kevin is an incredible dick (guess that’s where Shion learnt it from), and Wilhelm has one of the worst, if not the worst motivation in the history of villains ever. These 6 characters are an incredible trainwreck and end up being a terrible insult to what the series has been trying to create. It’s not deep, it’s not awesome. It is incredibly offensive.

Finally, the big revelation between KOS-MOS, chaos and T-ELOS occurs in one of the most retarded scenes by having two scantily clad robots shoot at each with machine guns. More than one of the reviews here mention it and it’s for a good reason: It is the very definition of terrible execution at its finest. This scene also needs fire for more than one reason. The revelation is one, the delivery is the other.

For a game that is supposed to be plot and character centered, Xenosaga 3 fails to do this. And when you fail to do what you were trying to accomplish, not impressing anybody else with whatever you have to offer, what ends up being created? A horrible, horrible game.

Recapping –
The Good:
- Graphics are good, Controls are spot on.
- Ties up some loose ends about Old Miltia
- Ha-Kox is a decent minigame
- Disc 1 exit villain

The Bad:
- Battle system is incredibly tedious
- Both on foot and in mechas.
- Disc 2 dungeon design
- Disc 2 pacing
- Disc 2 in general

The Ugly:
- Shion
- The big 6 characters (Shion, KOS-MOS, chaos, T-ELOS, Kevin, Wilhelm)
- Plot ends up being a non-factor due to characters being incredibly bad
- The worst scene ever

Overall: 2/10
Having played the first two episodes of the Xenosaga series, I can’t really recommend this to anybody who is a Xenosaga fan. It is such a massive disappointment and practically offensive to what the series was trying to accomplish. It doesn’t do what it’s supposed to do, the battle system is lame, the story is lame, and the characters are beyond help. I was talking to my sister about this and she ended up asking me about who my favourite character was. My response? Ziggy: because he barely gets any screen time. And just like Ziggy, who doesn’t get any screen time, your best bet of keeping good memories of the Xenosaga series is to have minimal exposure to Xenosaga 3. Don’t buy this game. Please. There’s better stuff to put money and time into, like Valkyrie Profile 2 or Wild ARMS 4.

[Tide]

Game: Valkyrie Profile 2
Reviewer: Tide
The game’s strongest point: Battle system, provides closure to some missing points of VP: Lenneth’s storyline
The game’s weakest point: Chapter 3 lag

I can still recall playing Valkyrie Profile way back when I first started university. At that time, the game struck me as it was a creative way to flesh out the game’s story and a pretty fun battle system altogether. So when Valkyrie Profile 2 was first announced, I was preparing myself for a similar experience. What I got wasn’t what I expected; it was better than what I had hoped for. Valkyrie Profile 2 was just mesmerizing

General Thoughts:
Valkyrie Profile 2’s art style may be a little different than what you expect from most other games. The art design has a little more flavor of realism, but the models and characters are all designed well. Color use is generally good and the details in the battle grounds are very well done.

Controls are excellent. Valkyrie Profile 2 has platforming elements as well as the battle system uses button presses to chain attacks together. So the fact that this is spot on is a pretty good sign. Because the field platforming elements are done on a 2D plane, the camera is at a fixed angle and it rarely creates any problems.

Music is the only thing I would consider a step down from the original, but even then, the tracks are still used well in-game. I myself find them good, although the number of memorable tracks isn’t as high as the original.

The Good:
Other than the fundamentals, Valkyrie Profile 2 combines together the other elements of plot, character and game play well enough into a beautiful package. Unlike some other games, Valkyrie Profile 2 retells the tale from the perspective of the youngest Valkyrie sister, Silmeria, and the princess of Dipan, Alicia, who are bound together into one body as an unfortunate result of Odin’s work. This tale actually explains a lot of some of the missing details in the original Valkyrie Profile, making now the entire plot (spanned across 2 games) to be quite an interesting read. And it actually makes sense instead of being convoluted and confusing.

Most of the characters within the story are also done well. Alicia and Silmeria’s interaction scenes show the conflicting thoughts and actions between the two. Rufus, an archer who they meet up early in the game has a bit of a sarcastic wit, but is generally good natured and becomes likable. There are another 2 characters whose name I won’t reveal for massive spoiler reasons, but they are also done very well, possibly better than the 3 just mentioned.

The battle system is now a modified version of the original. You can still juggle enemies in the air, hit them on the ground and the basis is still to link several attacks together to form combos, but now, Valkyrie Profile 2 plays slightly differently in the flow of battle. Instead of turn based, it runs on a CTB based system (which probably won’t seem like it for a while) and mixes it with some field and terrain considerations, as well as positioning and targeting proper enemies. No longer do you destroy all monsters, instead, you just now have to take down a dedicated enemy in each fight labeled the Leader. Once the leader is down, the fight is over in your favor. Getting to the leader, might require some strategic maneuvering and you have different ways of doing it. For example, if the situation seems a little risky, you can always split your party of four into two teams. Or you might prefer moving in a group and using the ability to dash across enemy lines to the leader for greater efficiency. On top of that, if you strike from behind, all the attacks of your allies will generate more damage. Then there are seal stones, which provide a variety of effects that can help or hinder your party with a correct set up. What it feels like as a result, is that Valkyrie Profile 2 plays more on strategic decisions over powerleveling and simple “Hack and Slash” strategies. The original Valkyrie Profile had you choose a party, a chain of attacks and a Special Attack order. Valkyrie Profile 2 does this, but adds on these other elements into the mix, and surprisingly makes it even more fun than before. There are also a few little neat quirks like wall bounces and floor bounces that enhance the ways you can chain attacks together. Overall, the system just feels very well done. Let’s not forget the important “Skip animation” sequence for special attacks for extra polish.

The Bad:
For all the praises I’m singing it, there are a few things the game could have done better. One of the concerns is that the system may be a little intimidating to learn. I know I was trying to get my sister to play it, and even after teaching her that essentially all you have to do in battle, is to hit the buttons at the correct time, she still had trouble understanding some of the pre-battle motions, such as seal stones and equipment linking. The skills system also isn’t documented, so it can be difficult to realize that you’re missing pieces to building a good set up for the characters you use.

The recruitment scenes for Einherjar are gone. While this is probably because Valkryie Profile 2 has a separate plot focus, it would have been nice to have more of an introduction to them. The game does give you a history or background on them in the description to make up for this, but its not really the same. On top of this, Einherjar are now generic instead of unique. They have similar sets of attacks and same special attacks within certain classes. It’s a pretty big change from the original Valkyrie Profile (and one that’s probably for the worst), but the rest of the game supports the deviation from this, so it is not terrible.

Some of the platforming puzzles could be handled better. Photons are not bad for puzzling elements, but there wasn’t as much as could be done. The warping was fun, and made traveling easier, but you didn’t get the stacking or light reflecting for puzzles. I don’t think they are any worse, more of a breath of fresh air. There are interesting puzzles that can be done as a result from photons as mentioned, but it is done too little, too late, making the potential wasted.

Villain castings were a bit of a wild card and very hit or miss. They either seem to be trying to do something too hard, have certain points emphasized to the point of silliness or really questionable motives. As an example, the mages you encounter earlier in game are constantly emphasized that they are evil. This is fine of course, since they are meant to fill that role, but it comes off as nothing other than “RAR I AM EVIL”. For the most part, what they needed to do, they got done. But they weren’t outstanding. And the main antagonist left a sour taste in my mouth after watching all the scenes with.

Finally, the last chapter of the game has some problems on its own. On the whole, its introduction felt it was designed for fan service. It leaves some questions in the otherwise good plot up to that point and opens a whole new can of worms as a result. Closure in that chapter also wasn’t summed up too well and could have definitely ended off much better.

The Ugly:
The only part of the game that I recall having bad experiences with was the mid chapter 3 lag. Chapter 3 is the longest chapter of the game and for good reason: it is essentially one big fetch quest. Of course, once you finish it, the game keeps moving. But to get there, it takes a lot of time and at one point, I almost wanted to quit the game since it felt like the game wasn’t getting anywhere at that time.

Recapping:
Good
- Unique art style, good controls
- Wraps up some loose ends in VP1 very nicely
- Enhanced battle system
- Likable playable characters

Bad
- Einherjar are more generic now
- Music not as memorable
- Photon puzzle potential not as realized in the main game
- Hit or miss villains
- Can be complicated to pick up if this is your first game
- Chapter 6 creates more questions that we otherwise did not need

The Ugly
- Chapter 3 is rather long and boring

Overall: 9/10
It is excellent in the areas that are important. I really enjoyed many of the characters and the plot before chapter 6 was deliciously good at surmising what was supposed to occur in VP1. The battle system is wonderfully good, utilizing more strategic elements and the game provides a lot of replay value through a bonus dungeon and the ability to increase difficulty each time upon replay. The artwork and animations are very pretty and the controls are responsive. There are a few bumps here and there, but the overall experience is still excellent and a game I would definitely recommend for many to try out if they are looking for a unique but good RPG experience.

[Tide]

Game: Wild ARMS 4
Reviewer: Tide
The game’s strongest point: Innovative Battle System
The game’s weakest point: Villain cast

The Wild ARMS series has always been about barren landscapes, wastelands and struggles to live in a decaying world. With Wild ARMS 4, a lot of the common traditions have been put away and new ideas were introduced. While a lot of fans generally disliked a lot of the common elements in the Wild ARMS series taking a back seat, were the changes in general for better or worse?

General Thoughts:
To put my own opinion into perspective, I didn’t become a fan of the Wild ARMS series until this game. The number of times I must have replayed this game since its release is probably at least 10-15 times. This makes it the ONLY game that probably matches to the number of Final Fantasy Tactics playthroughs I have done.

That being said, one must wonder, where does the game score this many points with me then? For starters, it does all the basic stuff well. The graphics are not overly flashy, but they do what they’re supposed to do. The other really nice thing about the graphics is that animation time for each attack or spell does not take an overly long decade to complete. Some games like the original Valkyrie Profile, have very nice animations on the larger special attacks, but no way to cut them. And after the 100th time, you just wish to have a scene skip. Having each attack animation relatively short is very nice in and of itself. Aside from that, the game even provides a menu option to CUT animation movies. Wild ARMS 4 originally promised a fast paced game, and it doesn’t disappoint. Part of the reason being the graphics don’t lag up the game while you’re playing it.

Next, the controls are responsive and very basic. Not very many buttons are used in general. The R1 key being the most important to enter into a game mode called “Accelerator”, but I’ll cover more of this later. Wild ARMS 4 is also more platformish than its predecessors, which focused more on complex puzzles. So it is a very good thing for the controls to be working in proper order, as well as a nice breath of fresh air.

And the music? It is probably one of my favourite original sound tracks. I love a lot of the pieces played throughout the game. The only complaint being that some of those tracks are not used as well as they could’ve been. Otherwise, this is one of the games where I blast the volume up since the tracks are just very awesome. And the voice acting in general is very spot on too! A couple of the voices may be a bit ear grating, but on the whole, they are very clear and match the moods of the characters very well.

The Good:
Where the good really scores points (over and above at that) is the Battle system. Words can NOT describe how much I love it and how well it is implemented. First, when you enter a battle, the screen is then divided into 7 hexagons, referred to as a HEX. In addition, each battle field has 3 HEXes that have an elemental attribute attached to it. To understand how the rest of the battle system works, you have to think of every action as now effecting a HEX instead of a character. For example, if two characters stand in the same HEX, and an enemy attacks that HEX, both characters will take damage. Likewise, if you cast Heal on the HEX, any character standing within that HEX will recover health. As a result, the game makes movement and positioning matter despite the fact that there are only 7 spots for characters and enemies to stand. Elemental HEXes also have opposing attributes, making it such that standing in one of those HEXes CAN bolster your damage, but you risk taking more damage back in return. There are lots of strategic decisions you can make despite each battle being short.

How are the battles short then? Well Wild ARMS 4’s battle system also works on making things fast paced. So instead of having enemies gradually wear you out, you are often faced with random monsters and bosses who are capable of dealing lots of damage out in a short while. Your HP is fully recovered to mitigate the difficulty factor, but as a result, each fight poses a risk of dying since bad starting positions can quickly turn the tide over with enemies piling on damage so quickly. Thankfully though, a lot of balanced was also placed into designing all the characters that ends up making this system very fun. You have Raquel, a massive physical powerhouse who is horrendously slow. In fact, she is so powerful, she can even one shot several bosses in the game with little effort. However, due to the way enemies can rack up damage, you may end up wanting to utilize the skills of another party member, such as Arnaud, to make sure you can give her that turn. Of course, this is just one example of many. But the balance of the characters makes the battle system work very well. Speaking of bosses, most bosses you fight in the game also have gimmicks that make good use out of the way the battle system is designed. It becomes a very enjoyable experience to witness. And that’s what ultimately makes it so fun to play.

Outside of the battle system, the PC cast is also enjoyable to read. Arnaud and Raquel to me are excellent characters and end up developing very well throughout the course of the game. Jude and Yulie are not as strong alone, but interact together along with the before mentioned PCs well. I always enjoy reading the party meetings and conversations rather than actually focusing on the villain side or important story elements. It’s just much more amusing and better done.

In the past, I’ve complaint about the game being too short. But recent playing with the game made me realize, this is probably one of the game’s other charms: It’s short. Instead of playing through 60 hours of gameplay where things eventually either become stale or drag out too long with the plot and cause you to lose interest, Wild ARMS 4 focuses on using shorter playthroughs. This effectively keeps the game moving fast and the story rarely ever slows down as a result.

The Bad:
It feels in general that they COULD’VE done more with the story. What’s there is fine, but it seems as if there was just a lot of potential they could’ve used, but decided in the end not to. I understand they were rushing to get the game out, and this could be one of the most effected areas. The story ISN’T horrible per say (its better than Xenosaga 3!), but it’s not exactly good either. How should I put it? It feels more like fluff and exists so you have a reason to play through it. The concept it introduces isn’t bad (again, there’s worse stuff out there) and some of concepts are in fact, pretty well done with the symbolisms and all. But overall? Not a high point and you can feel the fact that it’s rushed when you play it.

The over world map is gone. This isn’t a giant issue and of itself as much as the fact that there seems to be a lot of the map areas that they didn’t cover. Other than that, the traditional puzzle elements are gone. Tools still exist, but they aren’t used in the same way or assigned the same way as in previous Wild ARMS game. Bit of a shame, since I would have liked a little bit of puzzling. I’m not a huge fan of it though, so the lack of it will probably annoy me less than it will to you if you really liked those. Thankfully, the platforming elements at least work. So hopefully, you won’t be too disappointed.

The after-game depth and number of side quests are also reduced. Wild ARMS 4 still has super bosses and replaces the millennium puzzles with a shorter ROM challenge hack type of mini game but they feel like they’re all shorter.

The Ugly:
I’ll be blunt: The villain cast sucks. Between all the big names, there is the trio of doom who all go through a certain degree of eyeball rolling moments. The twist isn’t so much so it’s out of the blue as much so the reasons for it are just so incredibly stupid. That or said villain character ends up doing a complete double take and 180 to explain for all the strange happenings beforehand. It comes our poorly and would’ve been MUCH better if the writers picked one direction and stuck with it.

Then there are the other villains who rarely get any screen time and die before any development. This is fine! We don’t need 10 page info and background checks on all the villains being introduced. But when you’re main set of villains are just floundering on concepts that don’t really work, this is a problem. You effectively have a story running without a working driving force. There are some saving graces (Augst comes to mind), but on the whole, this is probably the only thing about the game that sticks out like a sore thumb. Thankfully, nowadays I just text and scene skip through all of it. Yes, these functions do exist.

Recapping –
The Good:
- Graphics are good, fast animations
- Controls are good for platforming bits
- Music is excellent
- Battle system
- Good PC interaction
- Fast paced gamed

The Bad:
- Fluff story
- Shorter after-game
- Puzzling elements are removed

The Ugly:
- Villains. Antagonists. Honestly, these could have been MUCH better.

Overall: 10/10
I’m not very fond of giving 10s since on the whole, I reserve the score for games that are truly perfect in almost everyway. Wild ARMS 4 has a lot of things that make it work, and it just has something that makes me come back to it continuously. A lot of the weak points of the game seem to be either matters of preference or could be remedied in some way. I’m not willing to say it is perfect. But I am willing to say that it is damn close to it. I definitely recommend giving it a chance; this was the game that made me a fan of the series after all.

[Tide]

Game: Final Fantasy Tactics
Reviewer: Tide
The game’s strongest point: Battle System
The game’s weakest point: Side character development, poor translation

Believe it or not, I was not always a Final Fantasy Tactics fan. When I first played the game, I was pretty sure I didn’t get past the third mission before I stopped playing the game. I eventually did get back to it. It would be another 2 to 3 years before it becomes one of my favorite games of all time. And now, almost 10 years later, I’m finally putting my thoughts into what I feel about the game. Funny that it’s been so long. But alas, the time has arrived and I will try to do my best to describe what I think is one of the best games that exist to date.

General Thoughts:
Today, another version on the PSP called Final Fantasy Tactics: The Lion War exists, and basically will remove some of the issues I touch upon in this review. I will touch on this more as the review progresses.

Looking back at the game, there are a couple of things that do stand out to me. For one the graphics are now dated. Back then, it was fairly impressive for sure, the 2 1/2D dimensions worked well and the character portraits looked impressive. Today though? It definitely doesn’t compare to the games being recently released in the graphics department.

On the other hand? The sound is still excellent. I love the musical score to his game. Each theme, each song is just used so well for almost every situation the game presents. By far my favourite game track comes from this game. It’s pretty impressive especially since it’s been so long.

Controls are good and standard. It uses a simple button scheme, so you shouldn’t be too confused with the commands.

The Good:
10 years later and still a favourite. That’s pretty impressive if you think about it. Final Fantasy Tactics (FFT from here on) however to me, meets up to those standards. Just almost everything is packaged up very nicely. Sure it has a few flaws here and there, but almost everything else is something I would rank into a top 5 listing.

For starters, the plot. This is one of the few game plots which I really enjoyed all the way through. I will admit, I enjoyed it much better before late chapter 4, but everything else before hand plus all the themes the game manages to handle is simply astounding. FFT starts of as a game more about a political conflict. As the game progresses however, you realize that every party is literally two faced. Betrayal is the name and death and dangers are literally everywhere as there is a massive struggle for power. Along the way, the main character, Ramza and his childhood friend Delita take part in the epic tale. Each having their own course, own path and own decision about the best way to put an end to the conflict. As “The best decisions do not always lead to the best results”, the methods both characters decide to pursue is intriguing. And those early game chapters tie up very well to all the later ones that happen. The course and development when everything comes to a close is simply impressive.

Speaking of Ramza and Delita, the two of them are probably amongst one of my favourite protagonist and antagonist. Delita’s story, from this reviewer, is very well done. It’s one of the better ways I’ve seen an antagonist being developed and his motives make a lot of sense with the story of FFT. Ramza, meanwhile, is a selfless hero, but wasn’t always one from the start. By the end of FFT, you can see that the two have swapped positions on the wheel of fortune and how they move through that wheel along with the conflicts they face and how they are handled makes me feel that the two of them are excellent in almost every regard. It’s always interesting to compare the two of them together. A couple of other characters, such as Wiegraf, an enemy you face early on, along with Dycedarg, Ramza’s eldest brother are also well done characters in general. FFT has a chockfull of other good characters and has one of the best casts I’ve seen.

And the gameplay? I’ve been saving this for last since, I can write pages and pages about how well done it is. If I have to rank the top 5 best battle systems of all time, this one is probably first. It’s very encompassing. Recall that the game is called Final Fantasy Tactics. Thus the game needs to introduce some sort of strategic element into it, right? Well it does. FFT presents to you 20 different “job” classes. Each class has a set of abilities and skills they can learn. Each character can then be set with a Primary, a secondary skill set, reaction ability, a Support and a movement skill. With over 400 different abilities, that’s a lot of combinations. While some skills may not be useful at all, there are still lots of stuff you can experiment with. Not only that, but each class has their own strengths and weaknesses. Some more than others. An entire line of challenges has been dedicated to outlining the strengths and weaknesses of the classes. Of course, you don’t have immediate access to these classes, so you have to build up the character. Which is the best way to do? What’s the most efficient way of doing it? There are lots of ways to approach it, but one thing is for certain; a poorly built team will always have more trouble than one which is better constructed. And this is just the beginning of it too.

You further have to think about equipment. What set up is the best? Sometimes, you may want to give up more HP for some sort of elemental protection. You may want to sacrifice some power for more speed. Then there’s also the Zodiac system, which determines that some characters may have better damages against characters of an opposing sign. You may consider raising several generics to gain advantages at certain points. In fact, Ramza’s own birthday has an effect on how difficult some fights can be. The strategy starts RIGHT when you first turn on the game.

The AI has some neat quirks that you can poke holes at. But on the whole, they show well developed mechanics. FFT has probably one of the best enemy AIs in a strategy RPG, making intelligent choices and often selecting the best course of action in a certain situation.

The game also features permanent death. That is if an ally is dead and three turns pass, he or she is removed permanently from the game. It sounds harsh, but considering you have three turns, multiple ways to revive the PC and multiple ways of preventing it from happening, it shows permanent death also being very well handled. FFT simply has one of the BEST battle systems I have seen.

The Bad:
Not without some flaws, FFT has little bits and pieces that can use some improvement. The first of this is the translation. It’s not the worst thing there is. I’ve been told Wild ARMS 2’s translation is even worse, and you can certainly understand some of it. However, on the whole? Play the PSP version, then compare it to the original. I assure you, you will probably be wondering what the heck the original version was saying. Of course, those playing the PSP version have to deal with more lag time between attacks. That’s not a huge deal either (you get used to it), but still a flaw nonetheless.

There’s no town exploration of any sort. You simply move from location to location. Compared to the town interaction in many games, this was a bit disappointing. However, not a massive downfall of the game in the sense.

Related to the graphics issues, the number of FMVs in the game are not really that high. Those with the PSP version can ignore this point. But the original features I count two FMVs. Again, graphics aren’t really a high point, and this kind of hammers it I feel.

The other bad thing about FFT is that it can be incredibly intimidating to play. When I first started, I gave up after 3 missions. I would not touch the game again for another 2 years. At which point obviously, I beat it. But there’s a lot to learn and know. Thankfully, the game makes some things easier for you, but if you’re new to SRPGs, you may be overwhelmed with this game at first. Take some time and read Aerostar’s Battle Mechanics Guide on GameFAQs. It’s literally every FFT player’s holy bible. Don’t be discouraged. Yours truly seriously sucked at the game when he first picked it up.

The Ugly:
Some might have said the translation has to be the worst. I disagree. I find the utter lack of development of characters you recruit into your party to be the worst part of FFT. There was a huge amount of potential for development here but it just wasn’t touched. Once characters join your team, they are just another face. Maybe with different skills, but they won’t speak any lines in the main story anymore. Sure, its one way to handle the perma-death, but its really upsetting. I think this was one of the things that made me really disappointed when I was done with the game. Thankfully a bunch of other characters are excellent, which saves this a bit.

Recapping -
The Good
-   Excellent Music Score
-   Battle System depth
-   Main character development, villain cast development
-   Chapter 1- early 4 plot

The Bad
-   Aged graphics/Low FMV count
-   Can be intimidating to learn
-   No town exploration
-   Lag on PSP version
-   Translation errors on PSX version

The Ugly
-   Lack of character development on anyone after they join your party

Overall: 10/10
The only game, I feel without any doubt is a 10/10 in my books. It does so many things well and packages it up into an incredible game. If you have to get one game for a birthday present, a gift or special occasion, this is the one. Years ago, I would’ve ranked Final Fantasy 7 before this FFT, but 10 years down the line, FFT is superior to many games, even some being released today. This is a PSX classic that you should definitely give a little spin.