Two-Minute Game Reviews: Revived!

[Shale]

Bringing back the topic Super used to run at the old boards. Brief thoughts on one game a week, for as long as I can keep thinking of games that people other than Niu, Gourry and I have played.

Let's kick this off with...

Game: Tales of the Abyss

Rating:

Best feature/element:
Worst feature/element:

Best character:
Worst character:

Best PC in-game:
Worst PC in-game:

Favorite moment:
Least favorite moment:

Favorite/least favorite moment replace best/worst scene. They can be scenes, and also fights, gameplay sequences, single lines of dialogue, whatever stands out to you.

[Shale]

Game: Tales of the Abyss

Rating: 7/10, or thereabouts.

Best feature/element: Battle system. Good controls, free movement, variety, even good challenge if you avoid normal mode.
Worst feature/element: The Natalia glitch. *mutters*

Best character: Jade. A funny sociopath type who's actually got some depth to him? Shock!
Worst character: Anise. FAIL.

Best PC in-game: Guy. Luke and Jade are also up there, but Luke is basically Guy-Lite for most things that matter and Jade can't do his thing if there's no melee fighter running interference.
Worst PC in-game: Hard to say. TotA is definitely an "anybody can be good" sort of game, and while my LVP is Natalia, it's not her fault that she was gimped by a glitch. I'll go with Anise for being worse than Guy/Luke at physicals and worse than Jade at magic, but she's still useful with either.

Favorite moment: Dist's introduction. Hilarious.
Least favorite moment: Ion's death. Not a bad scene in itself, but it sealed Anise's transition from annoying to offensively bad.

[superaielman]

Rating: 9/10. Great gameplay, a fun story and great character work held back by a lot of backtracking and some glitches. One of the best games released in the PS2 era.

Best feature/element: Good party interaction and combat.
Worst feature/element: The actual villains were pretty lame.

Best character: Jade? Luke? Tear? Asch? Natalia? Take your pick. Going to go with Tear today.
Worst character: Sync. Completely worthless emo kid. Largo also blows.

Best PC in-game: Guy by far. Range, speed, damage. He can do it all.
Worst PC in-game: Anise. There's no reason to ever use her.

Favorite moment: Mieu abuse was great.
Least favorite moment: Arietta's death scene. Burn in hell for that Largo.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Rating: 2.5/10. It sucks. Beyond one or two shining redeeming features I hate it. You've been warned, before you read this.

Best feature/element: Luke and Tear. Actually a decent RPG couple, as well as being fine characters in their own right.
Worst feature/element: Battle system? World map? Pathetic supporting cast filled with stock anime archetypes? I dunno. Battle system is fundamentally the reason why the game sucks, though.

Best character: Luke and Tear. Indecisive today. Also don't think I'd like one nearly as much without the other, on the balance. Dist is also cool.
Worst character: Anise or Asch, the dilemma! Diferent types of idiots, and the writers seem to expect us to sympathise with them. Jade, Natalia, and Sync are all pretty bad too.

Best PC in-game: Natalia. Whee range.
Worst PC in-game: Anise. I think. See Shale?

Favorite moment: Revenge journals. Dist rules. Also: Luke/Tear in the clinic, sleep spell on the poor guy under Fon Knight HQ and the party's reaction to it.
Least favorite moment: Uh sure, the volcano. For all that "everything after Absorption Gate except the final battle" works as a general, overblown, KNOW-WHEN-TO-END,-GAME answer.

Ugh. Worthless gameplay, so it's a 50 hour plot game trying to tell a 20 hour story or so, with over half the PC cast worthless and the villains no better off. Nice if you like lots of stock anime cliches I guess. Luke and Tear deserved a better game, but on the other hand, if the game lacked them, I would never have finished it.

[Dunefar]

Game: Tales of the Abyss

Rating: 10/10. Tales of the Abyss is an incredible game that only gets better as I have time to reflect on it.

Best feature/element: PC cast. Each character barring Anise is at least good as well as being interesting.  Further, they have superb interactions with each other, flushing out their characters far more.
Worst feature/element: I'll say the baddie cast today, as it had a few flops.

Best character: Luke. His transformation throughout the game is always riveting to watch. Guy and Tear are also extremely good.
Worst character: Sync. While there is something to be said for the argument of: Sync sucks, but it's to show that you're the good guys and that the bad guys are ultimately misguided idiots; Sync still sucks huge balls.

Best PC in-game: Luke.
Worst PC in-game: That's a hard one. I'll say Jade, since mages aren't competitive with fighters in game for various reasons. (Normal mode, I hear this changes in Very Hard and Unknown.)

Favorite moment: The ending movie. It's understated and seems to be unclear, but it rewards you with a solid answer if you've paid attention to the the skits and the plot discussions. The answers to it are right in front of you and I love that they trusted the player enough to figure it out on their own terms.
Least favorite moment: Dist. Pick a scene, really.

[OblivionKnight]

Game: Tales of the Abyss

Rating: 10/10.  It has fallings, but damn if it isn't great.  Love it.  Best in the series, one of the best modern-era games.

Best feature/element: The general feel.  The game overall feels very complete, fun and good in all categories.
Worst feature/element: Slow pacing.  It really is a slow game that drags at points. 

Best character: DIST. 
Worst character: Uh...probably...honestly, I don't know.  Anise is very weak and the game could have done without her - not necessary for the story.  So yeah, her, for all that I don't hate her.

Best PC in-game: Natalia.  Guy's awesome, yes, but Natalia solos the game.  The range and overall good stats everywhere else do it.
Worst PC in-game: Asch.  By far. 

Favorite moment: The battle with Asch in Eldrant.  It just...was so fitting.  Really good climax of the life of the two.
Least favorite moment: Mmm...nothing is jumping out at me.  Although I suppose in general, there were some random scenes, short, that just didn't feel worth it...OH!  WORLD MAP DUNGEONS!  That's a moment!

[Cmdr_King]

Game: Tales of the Abyss

Rating: 9/10.

Best feature/element: Cast.  Although they put a lot more detail into the setting than I'd have expected, making that stand out more (few games bother on that end...)
Worst feature/element: World Map.

Best character: Hmm.  Nah, Luke.
Worst character: Largo.  The other offenders (Sync, Anise, Asch) have semi-plausible excuses to be utter retards and have a handful of decent scenes otherwise.  Largo's "no, my daughter is dead, time to die!" speech?  No.

Best PC in-game: Guy.  Most fun/fluid to handle.
Worst PC in-game: Anise?  Never used her much, but didn't seem fun to control or especially handy on AI.

Favorite moment: "But... I don't want to die..." "THEN DON'T!"  Chills, man.
Least favorite moment: That time I wandered into the highlands map-dungeon before I was supposed to.  ye gods.

[Talaysen]

Game: Tales of the Abyss

Rating: 7/10 - For all that I probably hype it more than this.  Probably should raise it sometime or something.

Best feature/element: Free run, characters, plot, setting.  One of those.
Worst feature/element: World map.

Best character: Natalia~
Worst character: Anise.  Die.

Best PC in-game: Natalia~  Solos the game on Hard?  Yes please.
Worst PC in-game: Uh... Anise, I think?  Seemed kind of slow, and everyone else had something to keep them ahead, I think.  Whatever.  Natalia needs no help.

Favorite moment: Jade owning Dist in... Ketelsberg?  Wherever.  Jade owning Dist.  Also, "I'M BEING MOCKED BY SAVAGES!"
Least favorite moment: Anise failing.  I know this happens a lot, but you know what I'm talking about.

[Lord Ephraim]

Game: Tales of the Abyss

Rating: 9/10.  I said that this game is the perfect game for me if not for that one awful feature.

Best feature/element:  Gameplay, character variety, fun difficulity modes, polish not related to loading times and world map.
Worst feature/element:  The World Map.  Laggy, glitchly, and you're on it a lot. Also, World Map-like dungeons. *Punts the highlands and swamp*

Best character:  Dist.  Dist is <3
Worst character:  Mohs.  Random Fat evil priest #54534575876113

Best PC in-game:  Guy, but I don't think there's a clear MVP in this game
Worst PC in-game: Anise.  Again, she does have some use. (Secondary spell casting)

Favorite moment:  Almost every scene with Dist.
Least favorite moment: Scenes with Largo and Natalia. "YOU'RE NOT A PRINCESS" "YES I AM" "NO U R NOT" "YES I AM" blahblah

[Ultradude]

Game: Tales of the Abyss

Rating: 10/10 The characters, the plot, the battle system, all a blast. Solid music and good graphics are nice... and the pacing failed to bother me at all. Yeah.

Best feature/element: Characters. An excellent PC cast with a number of solid supporting characters, with a great deal of development and backstory throughout.
Worst feature/element: World map dungeons?

Best character: Ehhhh... I'll go... Tear today, for all that Luke and Jade also belong here.
Worst character: Sync I guess. Arietta and Largo get honorable mention.

Best PC in-game: Guy. Unfairly fast against most bosses, fluid, and powerful.
Worst PC in-game: Anise. Slow physical fighter, magic damage isn't any good.

Favorite moment: Hmmm... mmmm... ending scene was a pretty excellent way to finish things.
Least favorite moment: Someone's lame death scene. Hard to pick just one, though I can safely say that Asch doesn't go here.

[AAA]

Game: Tales of the Abyss

Rating: 9/10

Best feature/element: Battle system
Worst feature/element: World Map

Best character: Luke
Worst character: Sync

Best PC in-game: Natalia
Worst PC in-game: Anise

Favorite moment: Anything with Dist
Least favorite moment: Everytime Sync opens his fucking mouth

[Fudozukushi]

Game: Tales of the Abyss

Rating: 10/10

Best feature/element: Cast.
Worst feature/element: The last 1/3rd of the game's plot.

Best character: Jade.
Worst character: Sync.

Best PC in-game: For control, Guy.  Otherwise Anise.
Worst PC in-game: Luke.  Completely worthless.

Favorite moment: Luke vs Asch fight 2.
Least favorite moment: Tower of Rem.

[Luther Lansfeld]

Rating: 3/10.

Best feature/element: Luke and Tear and all the plot surrounding them.
Worst feature/element: The fact that it is 35 hours too long.

Best character: Tear. She started out pretty weak, but she just kept getting better and better. Just a really good character, is shown to clearly have emotion without the breakdown of some of her castmembers.
Worst character: Anise. Um, yeah, there are no words for the volcano.

Best PC in-game: Guy.
Worst PC in-game: Anise.

Favorite moment: I loved the scene near the beginning where Van plays Luke like a fiddle. "You trust me, right?". Honorary mention to "realizing TotA has an auto mode I can use in the last dungeons so I can chat on the Internet during randoms" Not that I didn't do this beforehand, I just didn't have the guy I controlled moving. <_<
Least favorite moment: When I realized Van had gone all rawr I eat babies/want to clone the world because MANKIND SUCKS!! on me. Honorary mention to the Fun Master stuff in the volcano. Grah rage.

[Cotigo]

Game: Tales of the Abyss

Rating: 10/10 (NEB and Ciato are, of course, morons and I move that their ratings be discounted on grounds that I hate them.)

Best feature/element:  Plot, most of the characters (Re: Not most of the God Generals and not Anise).
Worst feature/element: World Map.  So god damn glitchy.

Best character:  Jade
Worst character: Arietta.  Sync's an emo jackass but Arietta managed to piss me off far more with her idiocy.

Best PC in-game: Guy.  Can solo things with a strategy other than "stay on the other side of the battlefield."  Honorable mention to Jade, though he's less good by himself and more good for his fonic circles and using magic in conjunction to your control character's physicals.
Worst PC in-game:  Asch.  Anise is bad, yes, but Asch has... MIDGAME EQUPZ ZOMG

Favorite moment:  Everybody turning against Luke for being the dumbass that he is.
Least favorite moment:  Anytime Arietta opened her mouth, crying about the death of her human-eating mommy.

[Grefter]

Game: Tales of the Abyss

Rating: 7/10  Everything NEB says is pretty much true, I just like the combat system even if a Tales fan like myself found it grating by the end (but then this is sometimes a trait throughout the series)

Best feature/element:  Respect for the player with regards to the plot.  It really is told in such a way that it lets you draw your own conclusions.  They should be obvious ones, but I am sick to death of being told the answers and having everything sugar coated.
Worst feature/element:  World map woooo.

Best character:  Jade.  I can understand disliking him.  I cannot understand disliking him but liking me.
Worst character: Arietta and for like the exact same reasons Anise.  Fail.

Best PC in-game: Guy, because he is the easiest to control due to being the most similar to Tales Swordsman defaults who are pretty much universally the easiest to play in their respective games.
Worst PC in-game:  Anise.  She is not worth using for physicals and it takes to long for her to learn a decent spell.

Favorite moment:  Child drowning after the town of people dies.  Not pulling punches and showing some semblance of the grim reality of what just happened is win.
Least favorite moment:  Anything with Asch plot.

[DjinnAndTonic]

Game: Tales of the Abyss

Rating: 10/10 - One of my favorite games. It has its problems, but it stands out among its brethren (Tales games and JRPGs in general). You have been warned that this is my bias.

Best feature/element: The setting is an intriguing one. Even minor characters have pretty decent characterization (The Malkuth and Kimlascan generals' romance stands out here). Moreover, the game is logical narrative about a world where the Future is (literally) written in stone for everyone to read. And they read it and follow it daily, with a world-encompassing religion built around it. The characters' individual reactions to this part of the story in particular really stood out to me.
Worst feature/element: Battle system was slower than I liked. Though playing the game multi-player made for some good times. Especially when we were able to pull off huge FOF effect/Mystic Arte combos. Still, Battle system was a bit too slow. Abuse-able map glitch broke the game.

Best character: Objectively, Luke, Tear, and Dist get this spot. Jade is really high up there, too. Van was an enjoyable final villain, and deserves some mention here. The rest of the cast were tropes, most of which were well-done. Even Ion was fun.
Worst character: Sync was pretty bland, though I can see him being subverted for great effect. I still don't quite see all the anti-Anise hate. I think there's an overall distaste for little girl characters in this community. Which... when you consider 90% of the pedophilic fanservice associated with characters like that in JRPGs (and Anime), it's completely understandable and well-founded. Anise, though, I found her to be at least mildly entertaining and I felt sympathy for her during her -quote- Fail moments.

Best PC in-game: Guy is pretty awesome to destroy the game with. I personally enjoyed playing as Tear and my brother destroyed everything with Anise (o_O!). The whole cast is pretty balanced.
Worst PC in-game: Logically, I can see why Anise ends up here, she's the hardest to use. But once she gets the TP-refilling doll, she's pretty monstrous. Also, Asch exists which takes the spot away from Anise.

Favorite moment: Victory dialogue was fun. Also, I took particular note of the cinematography the designers employed in many of the cutscenes. It was pretty understated, but it was there. Kind of an unfair advantage to the 2D games, but I appreciated it. Also, the use of the Score as almost a character unto itself was a part of the story that wasn't lost on me. Anise and Natalia's banter was always fun, too, on the lighter side of the story.
Least favorite moment: Game played out a little too long towards the end. Parts with Sync played too much with the melodramatic. Earlygame Luke could irritate immensely... though I suppose that was the point?

-Djinn

[OblivionKnight]

Is this alive?  Seems like the talk has died down.  Results (hope I'm not stepping on your territory, Shaley-poo):

Tales of the Abyss

Rating: 8.17 (15 raters total)
For the Zennies: 8.99 (13 raters total)

Consensus: Anise wins worst PC in-game, and is pretty high for worst character as well (with Sync and Asch too).  World Map "wins" worst feature/element.  Most everything else is kind of all over the place, although the cast (Luke/Tear specifically) get praise as best feature a good deal.

Not bad overall.  I was expecting a decent ranking, and some of the general thoughts turned out about as I expected. 

Don't know if you want to continue this or no Shale.  If not, I'll be glad to take over.     

[Cotigo]

DISCUNT ELFONY AND CATIO.  GIVE US VAILD RANKKINGZ.

[Shale]

Argh. Totally forgot about this with the other stuff I was doing, since I meant to give it a week but responses dropped off after the third day or so. Thanks for the kick.

Game: Disgaea 2

Rating:

Best feature/element:
Worst feature/element:

Best character:
Worst character:

Best PC in-game:
Worst PC in-game:

Favorite moment:
Least favorite moment:

[OblivionKnight]

Not a problem. 

Game: Disgaea 2

Rating: 10/10.  It's Disgaea with more stuff to do, and with a different feel.  Changes things, some for the better, some for the worse, but overall kicks ass.

Best feature/element: Redone battle system.  All the classes are now balanced (well, except for the Togabito, and even they have theoretical use) and useful in some way throughout the game.  Healers level up easier now.  There's more variety in each class, and even the plot characters.  Tower attacks have been added, weapons are a HELL OF A LOT MORE BALANCED, monsters don't suck...yeah.  More combined arms mix and lots of other cool stuff.  Great game in the battle system regards.
Worst feature/element: Game's humour value and character appeal is down from the original, present mostly in the non-required portions of the game.  The game is more serious than the original, though this is not bad by any means.  It's just a bit of a let-down compared to the original.  I suppose outside of that, I can't think of any major feature that's bad. 

Best character: Uh...yeah, what I said above applies here.  Probably have to go with Axel, who maintains the humour value and character fun from Disgaea, but still works in the more serious setting.  Honourable mention goes to Mom, she who is a bette summoner than Yuna.
Worst character: Mmm...Yukimaru?  I don't know, none inspire any hate (more apathy than hate), but Yukimaru's 'zam thing was...not as cool as I would have expected Disgaea writers to make it out to be. Felt forced and tacked on, and made me not want to listen to her half the time.  She's also kind of boring overall too >_>

Best PC in-game: Mmm...of the plot characters?  Adell.  Tough overall on all stats, and his special ability was useful overall. Tink gets honourable mentioned for Item World whoring due to his insane movement and ability to ignore zones of control.  Granted, much worse in an actual fight, so...  Of the generics...wow.  Not sure.  Archers are pretty fantastic in this, though, and Thieves are MUCH BETTER.  One of them, probably. 
Worst PC in-game: Mmm...of the plot characters, I really don't know...Etna comes late, but builds up fast.  Tink I already mentioned.  Yukimaru...is good overall, though her special is marginally useful at best.  Hanako and Taro are the last two, and of them...probably Taro.  Hanako's stat-busts I found more useful than Taro's stat-ups, and her damage was a bit better...and she reduced monster damage, which meant she was more durable than she looked in practice.  Togabito's are the worst of the generics, easily.

Favorite moment: Cutscene after the first battle with Laharl (post-game optional stuff).  That was hilarious.
Least favorite moment: 'zam'

Suggestions: Disgaea next time?  Better playership, just as much division as TotA!  We did it already, but it has been a while.

[AAA]

Game: Disgaea 2

Rating: 7/10

Best feature/element: Somewhat smoother battle system
Worst feature/element: Less amusing characters

Best character: Etna
Worst character: Tink, I guess

Best PC in-game: Adell
Worst PC in-game: Tink

Favorite moment: Laharl stuff
Least favorite moment: "Why didn't I think of that!?!?!?!?"

[Tonfa]

Game: Disgaea 2

Rating: 8.5/10

Best feature/element: Improved gameplay.
Worst feature/element: Core cast is less amusing.

Best character: Axel. Honorary mention to Mid-Boss, who doesn't get enough screentime to merit this award.
Worst character: Final boss. Failure, intended to be as such, but failure regardless.

Best PC in-game: TINK. By far.
Worst PC in-game: Etna. Level 1 at almost endgame no thanks.

Favorite moment: "See the ending" ending.
Least favorite moment: Shinra Tower filler before the top.

[Cmdr_King]

Game: Disgaea 2

Rating: 8/10

Best feature/element: Relevant and interesting plot twists.
Worst feature/element: Geopanels.  Not NEARLY as much venom in this as for Disgaea 1 though.

Best character: Rozy.
Worst character: Hanako?  And she's merely okay.

Best PC in-game: Generic Healer.  Buffs are fun.  Taro is also godlike.  Especially with Generic Healer to Buff him.  Yeeesssss.
Worst PC in-game: Tink.

Favorite moment: "Shut up and believe in this."  VSM needs to finish this game.
Least favorite moment: There was probably one really bad geopanel moment, but I don't remember it.

[superaielman]

Game: Disgaea 2

Rating: 7/10. Should probably be higher but this works for now.

Best feature/element: Much improved gameplay works.
Worst feature/element: The villains were all terrible.

Best character: Adell and Rozalin were both good.
Worst character:  The final was meant to fail, so that works. Mm. Hanako was trash. I loathe loli fanservice characters. Going with Hanako.

Best PC in-game: Skull Mage or Adell. Magic got really good in this game.
Worst PC in-game: Hanako.

Favorite moment: See Cmdr.
Least favorite moment:  Geopanel fight in the arena. It sucked.

[Talaysen]

Game: Disgaea 2

Rating: 7/10

Best feature/element: HEALERS GET EXP FINALLY
Worst feature/element: Still don't get a lot of EXP for non-kills.

Best character: Rozalin.
Worst character: Tink.

Best PC in-game: Adell?  Rozalin's probably second?  I'm not counting generics though.
Worst PC in-game: Uh... Hanako?  I don't know.