Deus Ex: Invisible War

Deus Ex is one of the most highly acclaimed games of all time and was an enormous success for Ion Storm, so I understand why a sequel was made.  What I don't understand is why it was made this way.  Invisible War makes the leap to a new engine (Unreal 2) and jumps ahead to the future, where somehow all three endings of the original game have occurred simultaneously and somehow have all canceled each other out, resulting in the world being in the same violent, dystopian state it was at the beginning of the first Deus Ex.  A fact I'm sure Ubisoft took note of, as they've since engineered every sequel they ever make to nullify everything that occurred in the previous game.  The engine does IW no favors right away - the awkward, buggy physics and severely shrunken-down levels (clearly from being built as a console game first and the PC port being an afterthought) greatly subtract from the grandiose, interconnected feel of the original.  It hits the gameplay beats of Deus Ex, having the player find upgrades via augmentation cansisters and tweak weapons to make them more useful, but virtually nothing new is added and everything is scaled down.  Weapons all inexplicably run off the same ammunition pool, so the "strongest weapons" will drain your reserves in only a few shots and once you run out you have no backup save possibly a melee weapon (which I ended up using the majority of the game as a result).  The story is just a retread of the first game with none of the subtlety, ominous mood or grounded real-world conspiracies to lend it credibility, and as a result it all just rings of going through the motions to make more money.  Go here, go there, learn about the generic "new" bad guys, see a few familiar faces from the first game, rinse and repeat until the final showdown where all three factions convene at Liberty Island (from the first game!  again!) and you choose to spare one of them to guide humanity's future or destroy them all and plunge the world into chaos.  Just like the first game.  It looks pretty enough for a 2003 game and it does feature substantially better voiceover, but with an overabundance of rote repetition and an absence of any decent ideas of its own, Invisible War just falls flat on its face. What a lame, unnecessary sequel.

Developer: Ion Storm
Publisher: Eidos Interactive
Released: 2003
Platforms: XBox, PC

Shining Soul

The Sega-owned Shining series is one of their oldest and longest-running RPG franchises, seeing release across a wide variety of platforms and genres over the years and having widely varying quality to match.  Shining Soul for the Game Boy Advance attempts to turn the series into a top-down hack-and-slash somewhat in the vein of games like Diablo, though with very underwhelming results.  The experience just feels shallow overall - you pick one of four character classes, walk through repetitious corridors, battling the a handful of enemies on each screen, slowly powering up and hoping to eventually fell the boss at the end after several hours of throwing yourself at his minions and then him and hoping that's finally enough.  There's relatively little strategy regardless of your class choice, and while the semi-3D visual style looked pretty neat at the time, it's not nearly enough to save it from being a bland experience.  Even in 2003 there were much better co-op action RPG experiences available.

Developer: Nextech/Grasshopper Manufacture
Publisher: Sega, Atlus
Released: 2003
Platforms: Game Boy Advance

Drakengard

 Drakengard was a game met with both praise and criticism upon its release in 2003, and upon playing it, I can certainly see why.  It's a generic hack-and-slash reminiscent of the Dynasty Warriors series, though it lacks the smooth design and strategic bent of those games - the controls are stiff and movement somewhat clunky, and gameplay mostly consists of monotonous enemy bashing with the same two-second music loop repeating constantly for the entire level (which can sometimes go on upwards of thirty minutes).  There is also the occasional Panzer Dragoon inspired aerial combat stage, where one can lock on to enemies and unleash a barrage of homing fireballs to take them down, but these also get very repetitious because there simply isn't a lot to them beyond point-and-fire.  Drakengard is one of many games that tried to carry itself solely on its writing, presentation and production design rather than putting any real focus on its gameplay, but it does at least do an admirable job there - the story is a rather complex one despite its simple premise, cutscenes are well-animated and the voiceover is surprisingly good for 2003, and the characters are all complex and morally ambiguous, fitting perfectly into the grim setting.  It may not be worth the inflated prices it commands ever since Yoko Taro's newfound popularity with NieR: Automata, but if you can find a copy, you're in for a good story wrapped in a rather tedious gameplay experience.

Developer: Cavia

Publisher: Square Enix, Gathering of Developers

Released: 2003

Platforms: Playstation 2, Mobile

Disgaea: Hour of Darkness

 Released in 2003 to little attention at first (probably in no small part due to graphics just barely better than the PS1's Final Fantasy Tactics and being a limited release by the then-niche publisher Atlus), Disgaea slowly built its way up to being a cult classic thanks to its sense of humor and deceptively deep gameplay despite its cute aesthetics, working in elements of both puzzle-solving and strategy gaming.  But more than that, the game was built as a huge timesink, with randomized dungeons, customized equipment and stats that reached into seven digits, allowing for die-hard gamers to grind out some truly game-breaking possibilities and provide a true challenge in a plethora of super-bosses that would require absolute mastery of the game's mechanics (and tons of grinding) to overcome.  Things which I too enjoyed about the game, but in remembering the 100+ hour slog I endured, I have little will to revisit again.  Still, for the most die-hard of stat grinders, Nippon Ichi has your bases covered.

Developer: Nippon Ichi Software

Publisher: Atlus, Nippon Ichi Software, Koei, Square Enix

Released: 2003

Platforms: Playstation 2, PSP, DS, Windows, Mac OS, Linux, PS4, Switch

Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow

The third Castlevania game to get a Game Boy Advance release, and like most post-SotN releases, it follows in that game's mold, giving the player a vast castle to freely explore and new abilities to explore it as they defeat bigger and tougher bosses.  Aria of Sorrow's new twist is the Tactical Soul system - by defeating enemies you have a chance to absorb their abilities and use them for yourself.  These abilities can be offensive (throwing bones, daggers, fireballs etc), defensive (restoring health or deflecting projectiles), or give passive benefits like higher stats, spotting secrets or immunity to certain status effects.  These abilities can also be mixed and matched to suit your playstyle, which is quite a lot of fun to experiment with.  I can also say its easily the most entertaining game in the series after SotN, so if you can track down a copy, it's well worth a look.

Developer: Konami

Publisher: Konami

Released: 2003

Platforms: GBA, Wii U Virtual Console, also released as part of Castlevania Advance Collection

Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga

Demand had long been high for a Super Mario RPG followup ever since the SNES era, though neither Nintendo nor Square showed any interest in producing one.  Nevertheless, Nintendo did make a couple of attempts to revive the format through their second parties; first with Intelligent Systems' Paper Mario and later with Alphadream producing their own take on the format, Mario and Luigi.  But does the first game of the latter series prove to be a worthy successor, or is this just one of many minigame-driven RPGs that falls short of capturing the original's magic?

1996's Super Mario RPG remains a fan favorite even today, with a lot of attachment from fans; it was one of the last RPGs released by Square before they switched platforms and primarily developed games for the Playstation platform.  Because of this, Nintendo's plans for a Square-produced sequel fell through, and they were forced to rely on their second party developers instead.  Intelligent Systems produced the Paper Mario series beginning with the Nintendo 64, while several years later they would commission AlphaDream to produce a second series, starting first on the Game Boy Advance with "Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga".

Both games have a heavy focus on minigame-driven mechanics and Mario's long-established trademark of platforming and puzzle-solving.  Superstar Saga definitely takes a more novel approach, though, with some inventive mechanics both in battle and out.  In-battle, you control Mario and Luigi in a turn-based combat style, with timed button presses being utilized both to deal extra damage when landing hits on enemies, as well as mitigating or avoiding enemy attacks when they come your way.  Each brother is mapped two a face button (A or B) and commands are executed solely with that button for that brother - something to keep in mind when an enemy turn comes and you have to press the right button to jump and avoid an attack.  Each enemy has a tell for whom they're about to attack, though - for example, they will speak in red or green text, or throw spiked balls with their left or right arm to telegraph whom they're attacking, giving you a moment to prepare and counter the move.

Special attacks are based around timed button presses as well, and these make way to one of the game's most memorable mechanics - Bros. Attacks.  Basically, Mario and Luigi spend BP (Bros. Points) do a tandem attack against the enemy, and at certain points in the animation you'll be prompted to make a timed button press to prolong the attack.  Doing all the attacks in a sequence successfully will result in an elaborate and flashy move that deals considerable damage, while missing it will play a shorter but often humorous animation of them botching the attack (for example, one brother will trip and send them both flying into the enemy); it still does some damage, but not as much as if you'd successfully timed the press (though the 'botch' animations are worth seeing at least once regardless).  You're also given the opportunity to boost the "challenge" of performing the move to potentially bolster its damage even further - challenge level 2 removes the slow motion window before the button press, while 3 will remove the prompt showing what button you're supposed to press (though that should be a minimal concern once you've done the move enough times).

Mario and Luigi work in tandem in combat, but also outside of battle as well; the game is loaded to the brim with puzzles that require them both to interact in a lot of clever ways.  There are coin blocks that move back and forth, requiring you to position both brothers and hit them back and forth to get maximum coins, but you also get a variety of abilities to traverse obstacles.  Luigi can use Mario as a platform to bounce them both to a higher ledge, Mario can use Luigi to spin and fly over gaps, and Luigi can flatten Mario with his hammer, letting him slip into narrow gaps he couldn't reach while full-sized, to name a few.  These get used liberally to traverse the game's many maps, and also add greatly to the slapstick humor present throughout the game.

Of course, the game is still an RPG at its core - using items to restore HP and BP, gaining experience and levels and upgrading equipment with money remain key elements of the experience.  Even these get their own flourishes, though - some gear will add beneficial effects, like causing enemies to always drop items when defeated, guaranteeing you get the first move in combat, or regenerating a small amount of HP every turn, so strategy doesn't just boil down to which piece of gear gives the best numbers.  As in Mario RPG, gaining levels isn't a fully straightforward process, as you're also given the choice of one additional stat to grant a semi-random bonus to, letting you shape your party's stats to a degree (though if you're a die-hard min-maxer, this may also result in a lot of tedious reloading to get the maximum bonuses each time).  Using items mid-battle further shows off the game's polish - rather than simply having a character toss an item into the air and have it take effect, it will actually show an animation of them eating or drinking it (or, if reviving a downed character, they will stuff the 1-UP mushroom into their mouth to have it take effect).

Superstar Saga is another attempt by Nintendo to recapture the charm of Super Mario RPG, and I think it honestly does an admirable job; even moreso than Paper Mario in some ways.  The fundamental  gameplay of Mario-style platforming with RPG elements and minigames is represented quite well here, and the expressive characters and polished animations (especially for the Game Boy Advance) fit in perfectly with the Mario series.  The manic sense of humor throughout, with characters constantly  having hilarious dialog and showing exaggerated stretch-and-squash animations, make it quite a funny game to experience, outshining even many of the officially licensed Looney Tunes games in that regard.  It may not have quite the same style and high-quality presentation as Square's RPGs, nor the in-depth customization of its cousin Paper Mario, but Superstar Saga is another worthy Mario-branded RPG that proves to be quite fun with its madcap style and inventive game design.

Developer: AlphaDream
Publisher: Nintendo
Platform: Game Boy Advance, Wii U (Virtual Console)
Released: 2003
Recommended Version: The Wii U VC version is a direct emulation of the GBA original.  The game also had a remake on the 3DS, which actually does a pretty good job capturing the stretch-and-squash style of animation despite the leap to 3D-rendered graphics over sprites.  The original's hand-drawn animation and 2D graphics still hold more charm in my book, though.

Xenosaga Episode I: Der Wille zur Macht

 The first game created by several of the Xenogears alumni after their split from Square Enix, Xenosaga was planned to carry on the epic feel and planned episodic format of that game while pushing an original tale in a science fiction universe. But does Xenosaga's aiming for the stars pay off, or does it simply crash and burn on the launchpad?

Xenogears was a heavily divisive game on the PS1, with fans praising its dark storytelling, complex characters, philosophical themes and impressive production design while others criticized it heavily for its clunky game design, dragging pace and being released in a very unfinished state: the second disk of the game was infamously almost nothing but flat exposition peppered with boss battles.  It was also clear that Tetsuya Takahashi had much bigger plans for Xenogears than Square was willing to accommodate - according to the Xenogears Perfect Works book, it was planned as one part of a six-episode saga, with numerous branches into other media as well.

As a result of this, Tetsuya Takahashi was one of many Square alumni to split from Square and form his own studio - in his case, forming Monilith Soft under Namco's banner. His first project there alongside Soraya Saga (Co-writer of Xenogears and his wife) was Xenosaga - a spiritual successor indented to carry on Xenogears' legacy and realize many of the ideas he originally had in mind for that franchise, theoretically free of company meddling.  Things didn't quite pan out as originally planned, but that's a tale we'll get into once I visit the sequels.

It's clear right away that Xenosaga was built on the same model as its predecessor, becoming less of a game and more of an epic anime series with some gameplay sprinkled in.  Indeed, a common criticism of the series is its brutally long cutscenes, which can stretch upwards of 30 minutes at times (which is especially prominent in the first game, but somewhat better in the sequels). However, they do put in a lot of effort to make sure they're always worth watching - they're well-staged and shot, smartly written and even have some very high quality voice over for the time, featuring well known  talent like Lia Sargent, Richard Epcar and Derek Stephen Prince as key characters.  Certainly a nice contrast to many modern RPGs, which seem to mostly consist of dull incidental dialog warbled out by apathetic actors while their characters just stand around and the camera cuts spastically between 300 random angles to keep you from falling asleep; waste of good money if you ask me. 

The writing in Xenosaga also proves to be a stark contrast in another big regard.  Like it's predecessor it doesn't shy away from philosophical themes; hell, every game's title is a direct reference to one of Friedrich Nietzsche's works, all of which also get name-dropped (in English) in their respective games. However, its storytelling doesn't get swallowed up by its themes and become pretentious; the onscreen events are very much driven by the characters, and each one shows their own flaws, talents and motivations that lead them to do what they do.  Nobody fits into the mold of a cliché or becomes an overt Mary Sue, and even the villains are relatable on some level.  It really does highlight Takahashi and Saga's talents that made Final Fantasy 6 and Xenogears shine, and definitely lends Xenosaga a human element that few other RPGs I've ever played have matched. 

But while Xenosaga's primary focus is on its narrative and not its gameplay, that isn't to say what gameplay is there is lacking; far from it.  Combat operates on a somewhat similar principle to Xenogears, letting the player chain together moves into combination attacks; they will regenerate 4 AP a turn and can bank up to 6, which equals out to a three-hit combo from a full bar (two normal attacks and a more powerful "Tech Attack" which generally must be unlocked and equipped first).  In addition, dealing damage will fill up the "BG" bar; once full, the player can use a Boost to immediately grant one of their players a turn, superceding all turns following theirs; enemies can use this too, however, so one must be wary of that, particularly later in the game when they will abuse it liberally to give themselves several turns in a row.  It quickly proves to be integral to winning some fights, too - in particular, one boss fight features an enemy that will immediately heal themself back to full once their health drops below half, so building up BG to sneak in enough turns and deal enough damage to defeat them before they can heal is key to winning.  Some characters can also summon an AGWS - essentially, a mecha - to fight within, effectively replacing their normal moveset and giving them an HP buffer.  However, I found that these generally weren't very worthwhile - unlike Xenogears, their stats aren't a huge leap over your base characters, and they tend to do too little damage and die too quickly to be effective, even after several upgrades.  I usually just stuck to fighting on foot for the duration, save for a few story scenes where I was forced to use an AGWS.

Another somewhat odd element of combat is the "Event Slot".  At the bottom right of the screen you will see a small icon that shifts every turn, and depending on what icon it displays, you will earn various bonuses on that turn.  For example, you may get extra Boost gauge from attacks, have a higher chance of inflicting a critical, or get extra Tech, Ether and Skill points from an enemy you defeat that turn (with a 2x, 4x or even 10x multiplier).  Indeed, sometimes it's better to manipulate turns and try to get a bonus than to let a battle end too soon.  That said, enemies also benefit from higher critical chance or Boost gains, so spending a Boost to deny them those bonuses can also prove important.

Xenosaga also goes out of its way to avoid a lot of things that were criticized about Xenogears.  Cutscenes are now skippable, so you no longer have to view them all again if you die on a boss fight after a long sequence of them.  You are also given warning before you pass a point of no return - generally entering an area much tougher than the previous one, giving you chance to power up and restock if need be.  In addition, while the plot is a mostly linear one, one can use the EVS at specially-marked save points to revisit any area they've previously been to, allowing them to grind or pick up items they may have missed the first time through.

Of course, there is also no shortage of side-content in the game.  There are four prominent minigames to play; AGWS Battle is just for fun and plays like a simpler version of Armored Core or Virtual On (albeit with a surprisingly large number of playable AGWS).  The Drill Game is a simple claw machine style game that allows you to win prizes, with better ones generally inside smaller objects.  XenoCard is a collectible card game which is also just for fun, but surprisingly complex (and collecting all the cards proves to be quite a time investment).  And finally, my personal favorite, the Casino, where you can play Poker or Blackjack to collect coins, which in turn can be traded for some very powerful items if you have enough patience to rack up a large enough total.  Basically, you won't be hurting for content  if you're a die-hard completionist, but if you're not, all of these can also safely be skipped as you make your way through the story.

While not flawless, Xenosaga is a well executed experience; arguably the best yet seen from the Monolith camp.  Its gameplay ultimately takes a back seat to the story, but remains fun and engaging regardless, and its world building is excellent, effectively immersing the player in a well-realized science fiction universe with a lot of religious and philosophical themes, yet never feeling overdone or pretentious in doing so.  Characters are wonderfully realized, getting you fully immersed in their tale, and the voice acting is of very high quality for 2003; easily on par with any prominent big-name anime that was popular at the time (and utilizing several actors thereof).  It may be largely ignored nowadays by its publisher (save for KOS-MOS appearing in the odd crossover game like Project X Zone), but it's widely regarded as one of the best RPGs on the PS2 for good reason, and is a game that more than a few modern "cinematic RPGs" should take some cues from in its production design. 

Developer: Monolith Soft
Publisher: Namco
Platform: Playstation 2
Released: 2003
Recommended Version:  N/A

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance

The first official sequel to Final Fantasy Tactics was helmed by a very different team from the first (Yasumi Matsuno returned, though as the project's producer rather than writer/director), and was controversially made for a younger audience, with more cartoonish visuals and the grim tone of the original mostly absent. But does Tactics Advance prove to be a worthwhile return to Ivalice, or is this just a misstep for a sequel to a Playstation 1 classic?

Final Fantasy Tactics was a big hit on the Playstation 1, taking the innovative class system of Final Fantasy and combining it with the complex and challenging turn-based strategy gameplay of Tactics Ogre, as well as a grim storyline on the backdrop of a country torn apart by war and famine. It is still a favorite of many to this day, myself included; in fact, I consider it to be the single best game to ever bear the Final Fantasy moniker.

Being a popular game and a successful spinoff for an already huge series, demand for a followup was high.  Another entry was announced five years later, though you can imagine the surprise at the announcement that it was being made for the Game Boy Advance, especially after Square's famous split from Nintendo years prior.  Not only that, but it was a sharp departure in tone from the original, set in an alternate Ivalice with several other races and a distinctly lighter, almost cartoony feel. In fact, like most Final Fantasy sequels, the only direct link to the original were its similar concepts and themes. Notable also is the fact that the game does lay a lot of the Ivalice Alliance series' groundwork -  numerous elements featured here would later be integrated into the mainline Ivalice with Final Fantasy XII, and Montblanc, first introduced in this game, would become the series' most prominent recurring character.

While a stark contrast in tone from the first game, Tactics Advance opens with a similar framing device to the original - the events of the game telling a story chronicled in a book - though it quickly goes more meta with the concept.  The game's three main characters are drawn into the story and end up in a fantasy world where they find their deepest desires coming true, though as the story unfolds, the implications of this steadily become more and more sinister.  A relatively archetypal concept, but it manages to put a clever twist on the idea while working in a few self-referential nods, so I ended up enjoying it regardless. 

The gameplay remains mostly similar to the original game's, though with a somewhat simplified UI and mechanics. Like the first, the main story unfolds through a series of battles throughout the game, though there is much emphasis put in the game's mission-based layout here.  Besides the story quest, one can undertake numerous side-quests for various rewards (usually bonus items), generally placing restrictions on what units the player can utilize or requiring certain items to be undertaken first.  There are a total of 300 missions in the game, so it's certainly not lacking for content or longevity, and completing all of them will even earn the player an alternate ending.  Interestingly, as new locations are revealed by undertaking missions, the player can freely place them in empty slots on the map, effectively customizing Ivalice's layout.  Certain locations placed in certain slots can also unlock hidden items via "treasure hunts", though I'm unaware if the game itself provides any clues to this fact. 

Final Fantasy's famous job system returns here too, with a grand total of 34 classes for the player to use.  However, there are now five playable races as well - Humans, Bangaa, Moogles, Viera and Nu Mou, and several jobs are exclusive to a particular race.  Nu Mous, for example, focus on magic and are the only ones who can utilize powerful classes like Alchemist, Sage and Morpher, while Bangaas are almost exclusively geared toward physical fighting.  Humans, as in most RPGs, are the versatile jack-of-all trades, able to do a little of everything but lacking many highly specialized classes or abilities. 

The skill system is a slight departure from the first game's, however, and bears some resemblance to Final Fantasy IX's.  Many pieces of equipment have skills associated with them, and earning AP through actions in battle will distribute points among them; once the player has acquired a set amount of AP toward an ability, it is "mastered" and permanently added to their repertoire, allowing them to continue using it even if they change classes (though with some restrictions - obviously, one can't use a gun-based skill with a class that primarily uses swords, for example).  Mastering abilities is also required to unlock new classes; one cannot change class to Paladin unless they've mastered at least two abilities for the Soldier class, while the Alchemist can only be unlocked after mastering three White Mage skills and five Black Mage skills.

Another controversial gameplay change comes in the form of the Judge system.  Almost every battle in the game is governed by a Judge, who imposes bonuses and penalties on certain actions depending on the date.  For example, White Magic spells may be listed as "forbidden" while attacking with bows or swords could be encouraged.  Forbidden actions will be punished with a yellow card (imposing a penalty after the battle) or a red card (causing them to be imprisoned until freed by the player, usually at hefty cost, or a game over if the main character is red-carded).  As the game goes on, more and more laws are in play at once, encouraging the player to vary their team composition and strategies to prevent being locked down.  On the other hand, most enemies are bound by the same rules, so it can be to your advantage to take certain missions when certain laws are in effect to stop them from using their best moves. Performing an encouraged action will earn the player "Judge Points"; collecting enough of these will let the player do a Combo with all adjacent units, or summon a Totema, both of which can do hefty damage to enemies.  Sadly, even though the Judge is an active unit on the field at all times, one cannot target and defeat them to remove them from the fight.  However, the player can randomly earn "Law Cards" through battles that allow them to add or negate laws for a single fight, and there are a few lawless areas called "Jagd" where Judges will not appear, leaving the player to use whatever strategies they wish; however, any units that are KO'd at the end of the battle die permanently, so they come with significant risk as well.

Tactics Advance was one of many games to jump on the Game Boy Advance's multiplayer bandwagon too.  As one expects, they can pit their teams against one another in combat and win a few extra prizes, but players can also trade units and items, and even earn a few exclusive items and undertake missions not available when playing solo.  Nothing you'd sorely miss if you skipped it, but if you're really into the game, it can provide a few interesting new twists.

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance is an odd beast, carrying on the distinct gameplay style of its predecessor but bearing little resemblance to it in terms of storytelling or tone. If you're looking for a direct follow-up to the grim themes and high difficulty of the original Tactics, well, this isn't it. However, if you judge it on its own merits, you'll find a decent turn based strategy experience that tells a good tale in its own right, with some interesting and creative elements strewn throughout. It's worth checking out whether you're a newcomer or a long-time Final Fantasy fan, but either way, you'll get the most mileage from it if you keep an open mind. 

Developer: Square Enix Product Development Division 4
Publisher: Square Enix, Nintendo
Platform: Game Boy Advance, Wii U
Released: 2003, 2016
Recommended Version:  The Wii U version is an emulated port of the original GBA game.

Dragon Ball Z: The Legacy of Goku (Trilogy)

I'm trying something a bit different for this week's entry.  Since all three games in the Legacy of Goku trilogy play similarly and are based on the continuing storyline of the same franchise, I'll be covering all of them with one review.  So, is this RPG adaptation of a beloved anime franchise worth a look, or is the Legacy of Goku one that should just be forgotten?

 I'm sure the Dragon Ball franchise is one that needs no introduction.  If you have even a passing interest in anime you've probably at least seen it in action and have an idea of what it's all about; over-the-top combat and fantastic magical elements mesh in a franchise of pure imagination.  Naturally, that and its evergreen popularity have led to countless video game adaptations over the years spanning all number of genres; from fighting games to platformers to card-based RPGs to beat-em-ups, Dragon Ball is as much a presence in the world of gaming as it is in the world of anime and manga.

I've personally never been a huge fan of the series, but I did watch quite a bit of it back in the early 2000s on Cartoon Network's Toonami block and am fairly familiar with the storyline thereof.  However, being a fan of RPGs and hearing that Dragon Ball Z's storyline got a trilogy of such adaptations on the Game Boy Advance, I was naturally curious to see how they turned out.

Well, in the first game's case, I can say it definitely did not turn out very well.  Sure, the basic storyline of the series is laid out early on, but you're quickly waylaid by a long trek through the woods where even crabs and wolves can deplete Goku's health and kill him in a matter of seconds.  Not aiding this fact is the extremely awkward hit detection on Goku's punches, requiring you to stand slightly below the enemy you intend to hit so that his fist lines up with the enemy's sprite, and even then they're almost certain to hit you before his arm is fully extended.  Stranger still, Goku's signature special attack (the Kamehameha) is virtually useless, with even a fully-charged strike not being able to put down anything but the weakest enemies.  Goku has an extremely limited flight mechanic to cross over some obstacles, with emphasis on "extreme" - you get barely a second of flight at the start of the game and, until you pick up an icon, you can't fly any further.  Only by leveling up can you get more flight time, and even then, it's really not very much.

Combat in the game - the central focus of Dragon Ball Z - is a frustrating chore, and without that the whole experience quickly falls apart.  Moreso when there are long breaks between story beats that force the player to complete a number of menial, non-optional sub-quests (retrieving eggs, building bridges out of rocks, rescuing cats, and so forth).  Completing these does reward the player with experience points to let them gain a few levels, at least, but even then I still had to take my chances quite a bit with enemies.  This, plus the extremely limited amount of healing items you're provided, makes it seem as if he only way to progress is to utilize an exploit - when one saves the game and reloads, they will be put back at the start of the current screen, with full health and any experience they'd gained.  I ended up doing that for nearly an hour until I could defeat the wolves in one hit before I had any luck making progress through the story, then repeating the process each time I made it to a new area with a different set of enemies.  Boss fights are equally arduous, mostly just consisting of throwing a punch or two, running away, and burning through healing items to outlast them rather than employing any actual gaming skills.  Basically, Legacy of Goku is a slog and completely squanders the best elements of the series it's based on.

So with all of that in mind, I didn't really bother finishing the first game.  I can say, however, that Legacy of Goku 2 is a vast improvement over its predecessor in every way.  This is even evident right away with the introductory cinematic, which is much more clean and less compressed-looking than the first game's intro.  Even the first few minutes of gameplay show vast improvement, with your character's attacks having more range (and a bit of a wide arc to them a la Link's sword in the Zelda games), making hitting enemies much less of a problem.  Enemies do significantly less damage per hit and defeating them (as well as breaking open rocks) frequently drop power-ups to restore a bit of health, reducing one's reliance on save-scumming and limited inventory items.  Ki blasts are now much more useful, though to compensate the ki bar does not regenerate over time like the first game's, requiring the player to collect power-ups from enemies and rocks to refill it. And of course, many of the characters now have the ability to turn into a Super Saiyan, boosting their stats dramatically but causing their ki bar to rapidly deplete (and reverting once it's completely emptied).

The game does still require a fair amount of grinding, though because of the above factors, it's now far less of a chore to carry out.  Less so as enemies generally give far more experience points and there is even an experience meter on the HUD that shows how close your character is to leveling up, ensuring that you don't have to constantly check the pause menu for that information.  The game even provides a plausible, in-universe explanation for why you have to fight mundane animals in some areas, which I thought was a very nice touch.

The game does have a distinctly more "RPG-like" feel in some of its elements too, with the most prominent one being that you can actually see your character's stat loadout on the pause screen, visibly gain more stats with levels, and can find items throughout the world to boost stats by a point or two.  While the storyline is still a linear one, the player is afforded a bit of free-roaming exploration via a Mode-7 world map reminiscent of 16-bit RPGs like Final Fantasy 6.  Finally, instead of being able to save at any time via the menu, there are now pre-determined save points throughout the world, requiring the player to be a bit more cautious when in an unfamiliar area.

Despite the title of the game, Goku is not actually playable for a good chunk of it, instead focusing primarily on the other protagonists of the series.  However, you do unlock numerous playable characters as you progress through the story, each with subtle differences in their attacks, stats and specials.  There is even a bit of a Metroid-esque element worked in in the form of various gates one finds, with each requiring a specific character to be at a specific level or higher to open them, which encourages exploration and experimentation with all of the characters one has at their disposal.

Legacy of Goku's third entry, Buu's Fury, confusingly dropped the subtitle but retains all of the hallmarks of the first two games.  However, even more RPG elements are now fit into the formula.  This is most evident in the fact that one can now find "armor", fitting into head, hands, feet and accessory slots.  Generally these are straightforward stat boosts, though others may have secondary effects (like the Weighted Clothing, which lowers your stats but causes you to gain more experience from defeated enemies).  Likewise, items play a more prominent role in the gameplay too, with enemies frequently dropping food items one can pick up and use later to restore health.  Money is finally incorporated into the gameplay as well, allowing the player to purchase food and equipment at shops for later use, though I rarely had to use this seeing as drops from enemies and containers are pretty generous.

Buu's Fury also has two two more nice touches that the previous games lacked.  One is now afforded a degree of character customization; when a level is gained, the player is given three points to distribute among that character's stats however they wish, and if you're undecided, you can stockpile them and allocate them later.  One can also manually recharge their character's ki meter with a special command, though as their character is left stationary and unable to fight back while doing so, it's a bit impractical to do mid-fight.  Still, it's a nice nod to the series.

In short, the first Legacy of Goku game is a lackluster effort, using a license to try and pass off a shallow and clunky game.  However, its developers clearly had passion for the franchise within them, which showed through much more in the sequels; much more polished, longer games that provided a fair challenge and quite a lot of content in between the familiar story beats.  If you're a fan of the series and want a couple of basic, but enjoyable action-RPG titles, definitely check out Legacy of Goku 2 and Buu's Fury.

Developer: Webfoot Technologies
Publisher: Infogrames, Atari, Banpresto
Platform: Game Boy Advance
Released: 2002, 2003, 2004
Recommended Version: N/A

Legend of Zelda: the Wind Waker

The Zelda franchise's third 3D outing went for a softer and more cartoony style while polishing up many of the rougher aspects of the N64 games' design.  But does it prove to be another title worthy of the franchise's name, or does it prove to be a detriment to Zelda's prestige?

Wind Waker naturally met with a lot of anticipation before its release, being the franchise's first outing on the then-new Gamecube.  However, fan reaction in the end was somewhat mixed; while the game carried on the series' format and brought a lot of improvements to the table in terms of its design, its heavy emphasis on sailing across a broad ocean-like environment, rather than the dense land-based worlds of previous Zeldas, met with criticism from fans.

Its visual style met with some controversy too.  In contrast to the realistic, darker aesthetic of the N64 games (which found appeal among older and newer fans alike), Wind Waker was very bright and colorful, with prevalent use of cel-shading to give it a much more cartoonish style.  This is present throughout the game's environments, but especially for the characters, all of whom are very expressive and fluidly animated; Link in particular has some amazing (and downright hilarious) reactions to in-game events, and enemies will often react in exaggerated, comical ways when the player has them at a disadvantage, further adding to the lighter mood.  Still, those who got on board with the series while it was building up its fanbase in a darker place saw this as a step back in some respects.

With the new hardware came a number of gameplay improvements, not the least of which was a fully-controllable camera via the C-stick, making combat and navigation much less cumbersome than in the N64 Zelda titles.  The context-sensitive action button returns, though is considerably less cumbersome than it was in Ocarine of Time and Majora's Mask, making performing precise actions (especially in combat) much simpler.  Link also controls much more smoothly on the whole, with actions like precise turning, jumping and aiming now proving much simpler to pull off.  A fun new combat feature is present in "counterattacks" - with a well-timed press of the A button, the player can have Link perform a special animation to simultaneously dodge an enemy's attack and do a powerful counter-move for heavy damage (though it may not always work - you can still be hit while the animation plays, which can be troublesome as you can't control the exact type of counter you will do).  And of course, the stronger hardware of the Gamecube ensured that the notorious "Nintendo 64 fog" to mask draw distance and keep the framerate steady was no longer present.  In fact, the game as a whole also feels much more cohesive, with almost no instances of visible "loading zones" and the environments feeling much like an open world instead of tightly-packed downs and dungeons.

The improved engine gives way to a number of new ways for Link to interact with his environment as well.  While the old mainstays of bow, bombs and the Hookshot remain, Link can now swing from branches and beams via a grappling hook, drift through the air on a magic leaf (and ride updrafts to gain altitude) and even use a unique take on the Boomerang that can lock on up to five targets, and will actually strike said targets in the same order the player locks onto them.  The sailing aspect ties into this as well, allowing for surprisingly smooth navigation between islands, through a number of obstacle courses, and even cannon battles with pirates and outposts.

The sailing does prove to be a detriment in some ways, though, primarily because you're doing so much of it over the course of the game; getting from place to place does take quite a while at times.  There are at least attempts to mitigate this by giving you a fast-travel option after a certain point in the story, and the HD version on the Wii U even goes a step further by allowing you to purchase the "Speed Sail", which lets you travel 50% faster than normal and even automatically adjusts the wind to always be at your back.  Still, you'll be doing quite a lot of travelling across open seas if you're going for full completion, especially as most of the items in the game can only be found by following "treasure maps" to specific locations and dropping your grappling hook to fish them up from the depths.  While I personally didn't mind this in either version of the game (and found it quite fun, especially with the sheer variety of locations to visit, enemies to face and secrets to discover), those more used to land-based exploration may not like it as much.

One thing I do take issue with, though, is the game's overall difficulty.  Simply put, Wind Waker is almost insultingly easy; outside of dungeons, enemies almost never do more than a quarter of a heart of damage per hit, and until late in the game, it's rare that they'll even do more than a single heart there.  Hearts, potions and fairies are plentiful throughout, meaning that you're almost never in danger of running out of health.  The Wii U version attempts to address this with "Hero Mode", which gets rid of heart drops and doubles the damage you take, but I still didn't end up dying once throughout my entire playthrough.  Of course, this is based on the words of someone who has been playing Zelda since the early 1990s, so your mileage may vary a bit, but this is definitely one of the easiest Zelda experiences I've had.

Despite a few shortcomings, though, Wind Waker was a huge leap forward for the series not just in terms of aesthetics, but design.  With its near-seamless game world, huge environments, creative levels and boss battles and a downright awe-inspiring storybook aesthetic throughout, Wind Waker is just as fun to watch as it is to play.  It's no easy task to take a beloved 2D franchise and make it work in the third dimension, and while I was still ambivalent about the franchise's future after playing OOT and Majora's Mask, the sheer amount of refinement Wind Waker had over those games made me a believer that a 3D Zelda could feel just as fluid and polished as its 2D entries.

Developer: Nintendo EAD
Publisher: Nintendo
Platform: Gamecube, Wii U
Released: 2002, 2013
Recommended Version:  The Wii U version features a number of improvements over the original release, allowing the player to utilize the gamepad to quickly manage their inventory and view the world map in real-time as they navigate the sea.  Some animations (such as the grappling hook and crane) are now much faster, some quests streamlined (particularly the unpopular quest where one must track down pieces of the Triforce) and there are a few new features like the aforementioned Speed Sail and the Tingle Bottle (which lets the player take screenshots and post them to Miiverse).  On the whole, a significantly more streamlined and entertaining experience than the original release.

Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter

After a string of successes with the Breath of Fire series, Capcom takes the franchise in a new direction, radically mixing up its gameplay and setting into something unlike anything else in the series.  But does this combination of elements work out in the end, or does it just end up alienating franchise and genre fans alike?

A few things about the Breath of Fire franchise have remained relatively consistent since its inception - a protagonist named Ryu who wields dragon-powers, a heroine named Nina who acts as the primary party mage, and a fantasy world with some dark elements that lend themselves to a compelling narrative.  They would also feature relatively traditional turn-based JRPG gameplay with a few creative mechanics like character fusion, learning enemy skills and having hunting and fishing minigames to earn extra resources.

Dragon Quarter retains a handful of these elements, but for the most part strives to make itself into something very distinct and new.  The setting is only faintly related to earlier games, becoming more of a dystopian science fiction tale than a dark fantasy.  Characters named Ryu and Nina return once again, though fulfilling much different parts in the tale - Nina being a biological experiment sought out by the corrupt government overseeing the game's world and Ryu being a government agent who goes rogue to protect her, gaining the power of a dragon in the process.

The gameplay itself is drastically changed up as well.  While combat in the game is still turn-based, the design of the game itself is like no other RPG before it, combining elements of survival horror and roguelikes into the mix.  The player is afforded a very limited supply of inventory space and resources and no inns to easily restore health, saves are heavily restricted (requiring the use of scarce "Save Tokens" to make a permanent checkpoint of one's progress) and enemies are now visible on the map, meaning that avoiding combat is just as important a part of the game's overall strategy as knowing how and when to fight.  While the game world itself is fixed, the roguelike element comes in the randomized contents of chests and the fact that the player often finds unlabeled gear that must be taken to a town and identified before it can be used, often having bonuses over standard gear like extra skill slots or higher statistics.

The skill system in the game is an odd one.  Players learn skills by  finding items (earned as combat rewards or found in chests), but they are no longer simply accessible from a dedicated menu option like in previous Breath of Fire games.  Instead, the item must be used to add it to the character's repertoire, then it must be added to slots on the character's weapon or shield in order to become usable.  One of the most important skills one earns is one of the few in the game whose location is fixed - the Steal skill.  When equipped on a shield, this grants the character a chance to "steal" any usable skills used on them by an enemy.  This adds a risk-versus-reward element to the game - the player naturally wants to conserve their health and items, but the only way to get many powerful skills is to bait an enemy into hitting them with said skills.

Dragon Quarter's combat is a strange breed as well, primarily because what the player does outside of the combat system proper is just as integral to the overall strategy as what they do within it.  Outside of battle, the player can get a free turn by hitting their enemy first, and the enemy can do the same.  They are also afforded the opportunity to set traps in order to weaken their foes before beginning the fight proper - meat to lure them to a set location, bombs to deal damage (and possibly kill them outright without even having to enter the combat system itself) and other traps that can do things like inflict Poison, Paralysis or Bind status, putting enemies at a disadvantage in combat proper.  Utilizing traps effectively quickly becomes an essential part of the game's strategy, allowing the player to overcome particular encounters that must be beaten in order to progress (and which would be nearly impossible in a straight-up fight).

The combat system - dubbed PETS (Positive Encounter and Tactics System) -  is another innovation.  Somewhat akin to Chrono Trigger, battles take place on the same screen where the player touches the enemy and with character positioning playing an important tactical role.  Unlike that game, however, the player can move freely (not bound to a defined "grid") and utilize the terrain to their advantage - attacking from atop slopes or retreating behind cover to prevent enemies from approaching as easily, for example.  Each turn, every character gets a set amount of AP, and any unspent AP is carried over to the next turn, up to double the maximum.  Movement and attacking cost AP, with attacks coming in three "tiers" that cost 10, 20 and 30 AP respectively.  These can be chained together for a cumulative 10% bonus to each attack after the first, and occasionally creating new moves in the process (chaining Side Slash and Vert Slash in one continuous combo will do an "X Blade" attack that deals extra damage, for example).  Oddly, there is no AP cost to using items mid-fight - perhaps a way to both give the player a fighting chance in tougher encounters (and the fact that they are as limited as they are means the player will want to conserve them whenever possible anyhow).  Winning battles quickly will earn the party bonus experience, as well as more "Party Experience" - points which are stored in a separate counter and can be freely distributed among party members at any time in order to level them up.

Befitting this system, each of the three main characters fills a predefined role.  Ryu, as per series norm, is a front-line fighter with Dragon-based powers that should only be used in very desperate moments (more on that later).  Nina is the mage, doing damage with both traditional direct attacks and being able to set up "magic circles" that essentially serve as in-battle traps, damaging and disabling enemies that walk over them (or get pushed into them by other characters).  Finally, Lin is a ranged fighter with skills that slow down foes and knock them back, keeping them out of melee attack distance - very useful for fighting enemies on the player's terms and, ultimately, conserving limited resources.

Ryu's dragon abilities are another source of challenge in the game.  After a certain point in the story, the game becomes a race against Ryu's "D-counter", which slowly ticks up over time and more quickly as he uses his dragon abilities; these come in the form of a Dash that allows the player to knock enemies aside and avoid fights, melee attacks that each raise the gauge by a set percent, a one-turn stat buffer that also raises a set amount (and can be stacked multiple times for exponentially stronger attacks), and a dragon breath attack that essentially allows infinite damage as long as the button is held down but which fills the gauge at a drastic rate.  Once the D-counter hits 100%, Ryu is overtaken by the dragon and the game ends immediately.  However, the game all but forces you to utilize these abilities, as many enemies and bosses are simply too powerful not to require it, so learning where and when to use them in order to progress is key to victory, and even then you probably won't have enough left to make it all the way to the end on a single playthrough.

This in turn ties into the game's SOL (Scenario Overlay) system.  Simply put, this encourages the player to restart the game, which they can do on the game over screen or at any time by pressing R2 from the main menu.  When this happens, the player restarts the campaign from scratch, but retains any equipment, skills, stored inventory items and unspent Party Experience.  This in turn allows you to make more progress the next time through and eventually complete the game in full once you're powerful enough to overcome all the bosses without maxing out the D-counter.  The game also attempts to prevent things from getting too repetitive through this system - as the player completes the game and gets higher ranks (based on a number of factors, but chiefly using fewer saves, gaining levels and taking less time to finish the campaign), their "D-Ratio" will steadily increase, and as it does so, more plot scenes will become visible and new rooms will unlock, allowing the player to see more of the story and get rare items to make themselves more powerful in the long run.  Sadly, while the D-Ratio does play a part in the story (essentially serving as this world's caste system), Ryu's increasing D-Ratio does not play a role in the plot itself - the narrative always treats him as 1/8192 no matter what his actual ratio is.  Still, it does lend a compelling element to the game, with the player wanting to restart and try for better scores to not just see their way to the ending, but to view all the content that gets unlocked as they make their way to D-Ratio 1/4 (the highest rank possible and the titular "Dragon Quarter").

In the end, Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter is an unconventional JRPG that works in elements of strategy games, survival horror and roguelikes; a strange combination, but surprisingly fun once the player figures out its quirks and learns to use the overall design to their advantage.  The game requires a lot of planning and specific tactics - and yes, several playthroughs - to see all it has to offer, but it proves to be a compelling and rewarding experience and well worth the investment it demands.

Developer: Capcom Production Studio 3
Publisher: Capcom
Platform: Playstation 2
Released: 2003
Recommended version: N/A

Dark Cloud 2

Released two years after the first Dark Cloud game, Dark Cloud 2 attempts to polish up its predecessors' weaknesses and provide a much more substantive experience overall.  But does Dark Cloud 2 succeed where its predecessor failed, or was this another game fated to be largely forgotten once the hype of its release blew over?

The original Dark Cloud, while a relatively successful game in terms of scores and sales (enough to get on Sony's Greatest Hits program, at least), was not a game built to last; its gameplay was somewhat clumsy and the hype of its marketing as a "Zelda killer" didn't hold up to close scrutiny, not least because they really don't resemble each other much at all.  But the experience did prove to be a valuable one for Level-5, launching their career as a big-name developer, and as is the case with virtually any successful game, a followup was inevitable.  So two years after the first, Dark Cloud 2 ("Dark Chronicle" outside of North America) was released, promising to add more to the formula that the first game established while polishing up its weaker elements.

This is evident right from the get-go, as the game's overall aesthetic has been drastically reworked.  While the first game was dark and moody with an art style to match, Dark Cloud 2 is very bright and colorful, utilizing lavishly detailed environments and soft cel-shading, as well as a more whimsical and cartoony world, to give the game a much lighter and friendlier feel.  Indeed, every area of the game seems geared to use this fact to its full advantage; very few areas in the game have drab interiors, giving the player plenty of fine details to look at as they explore the game and rebuild its world.

Dark Cloud 2 makes great strides in improving the original game's relatively minimal audio design.  From ambient sound in towns to give them a more alive feel to virtually every enemy the player encounters having unique complement of voice and sound clips accompanying them, there is definitely much more to hold your attention here.  The game also features voiceover of relatively high quality during its story scenes, featuring even a few big names like Paul Eiding, Cam Clarke and Jennifer Hale in supporting roles.

While the core format and design of the game remains relatively intact, there have been many improvements made to it in almost every facet.  Dark Cloud's cast of six playable characters (three melee fighters, three long-ranged) has now been pared down to just two, though they are much more versatile to compensate for this.  Max wields a slow but powerful wrench and a fast-firing but relatively weak gun, and can utilize the "Ridepod" (a steampunk mech with limited fuel) to defeat more powerful enemies.  Monica wields a sword, utilizes a magic bracelet which can be charged for extra damage and can transform into monsters, allowing her to avoid some fights or collect rare items by talking to them in dungeons.  A third character can also be recruited to the active party, taken from a large pool of reserve characters recruited from the first town; they bestow support effects like being able to make Premium Chicken that restores a large amount of HP or earning extra upgrade points for particular types of weapons.

Much improvement has been made to the game's weapon upgrading system as well.  The first and most welcome change is that weapons no longer vanish when their durability hits zero, causing you to lose a weapon you've invested countless hours and items into; instead, their attack power is simply reduced to 0 until they are repaired via a weapon powder.  Similarly, the player no longer has to manually swap between different elements on their weapons in order to accommodate different enemy types; the game will automatically apply these on hit.  This effectively eliminates instances of, for example, being unable to damage a fire-based enemy with a fire-element damage; as long as that weapon has a property they are vulnerable to, they will take some damage.

The game's overall feel is much more tight in Dark Cloud 2 as well.  While the original game had somewhat loose, floaty controls, as well as overlong attack animations that frequently left the player vulnerable until they completed, Dark Cloud 2's combat is much more tight and focused, allowing the player to easily block, counter and combo enemies as needed.  The superfluous "thirst" system is absent this time as well, taking a rather annoying management element out of the game.  Some new moves are even added to the player's repertoire, allowing them to pick up rocks (or other enemies) and throw them at foes to deal damage and stun them momentarily, setting them up for a combination attack.  Interestingly, however, the death system is very much the opposite of Dark Cloud 1's - if one character falls, the other can be immediately swapped in with no penalty (unlike the first game, where this required a "Stand-in Powder").  However, if both characters die, the game ends immediately and the player must reload from a previous save.  Thus, while the first Dark Cloud's characters were largely expendable, but their weapons were an invaluable resource, the opposite is largely true here.

Georama has been expanded upon too.  While the overall concept remains the same (having the player rebuild destroyed areas by finding components in the dungeons), there is much more to it here. Each object the player rebuilds costs raw materials (purchased or found in random chests), and some new layers are added to various requests as well, with houses being able to be painted different colors and populated by various NPCs recruited from the first town.  At times, some Georama goals are not even revealed until the player reaches a certain plot scene and returns later on, all but forcing them to exit an area and return to it later in order to reach 100% completion.  However, the rewards from completing each area tend to very much be worth the hassle, so I didn't particularly mind this change.

Of course, there is also much in the way of new content.  One of the most prominent additions is the Invention system, where the player is tasked with taking photographs of various objects in the environment and various enemy animations (referred to as "Scoops") and utilizing combinations of them to invent new items.  While most of these can be found as random treasures (or bought with money), many of the top-tier weapons and items cannot.  Thus, the player is heavily encouraged to, well, explore the environment and photograph virtually every object in it; even mundane things like the moon or medicine bottles can be an important crafting component.  One thing to note, however, is that Scoops exclusive to boss monsters are generally one-time deals; if you miss them, you won't get a rematch with that boss later, so be sure you check your scoops list before every boss and make sure you don't save your game until you've gotten what's being asked of you!

Other less plot-important, but still entertaining, diversions include fishing (both outside and inside of dungeons), Spheda (golf with a twist - one can only sink the ball if it is the opposite color as the cup, and it swaps each time it bounces off a wall) and even a bit of a monster-raising sim in the Fish Race.  As mentioned, these are almost entirely optional, but do allow the player to earn some rare items when they are successfully completed, as well as Medals that can be traded in for new costumes and the like.

In the end, Dark Cloud 2 very much accomplishes its goal, taking the memorable elements of the first game and giving its weaker elements a drastic upgrade, resulting in a lengthy, but polished and satisfying, game experience overall.  While it can be slightly buggy at times and 100% completion is a task I don't recommend undertaking (a large amount of its content is missable and some of its mechanics are not well explained, not to mention speedrunning every single dungeon floor and completing numerous side-tasks on each gets very tedious), it's nevertheless a game I've always enjoyed revisiting.

Developer: Level-5
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Platform: Playstation 2, Playstation 4
Released: 2003, 2016
Recommended version: The Playstation 4 port is a direct emulation of the Playstation 2 game.

Phantasy Star Generation 1

Phantasy Star Generation 1 serves as a remake of the first Phantasy Star game for the Playstation 2, as well as the start of the Sega Ages line of remakes and ports for the platform.  But is this remake a worthy upgrade to a classic, or does the original stand up better?

Phantasy Star is an undeniable classic among long-time genre fans; not only did it feature surprisingly colorful, smoothly-animated visuals for an 8-bit platform (especially compared to its main competitor, the NES), but it was a well-crafted adventure on the whole, telling a tale of revenge set in a world that drew both fantastic and science fiction elements, and bore more than a few intentional similarities to Star Wars.

Naturally, as acclaimed as the game was, it would get a number of ports to various platforms over the years in various compilations on the Saturn, Game Boy Advance, Playstation 3 and Xbox, and Nintendo's Virtual Console.  In the midst of those, however, a Japanese-only remake came out on the Playstation 2.  Masterminded by a Sega/D3Publisher joint venture called 3DAges, the game was actually a complete remake of Phantasy Star.  Taking the familiar game's storyline and overall design, it was redone with true 3D visuals,  higher-definition sprites, animated enemies and character portraits.  However, like many of D3Publisher's games, it has a distinctly low-budget feel to it - there are no FMVs for story sequences, the 3D overall looks rather generic, and there are very few instances of animations where there were none in the original game. Similarly, the music is done in simple MIDI format (no CD-quality tunes here) and there is no voiceover or similar additions.

Some effort has been made to flesh out the story and characters, at least.  Plot scenes have largely been extended to give the characters more dialog, and there is now a Talk feature similar to Phantasy Star IV's, where the characters will banter about the current objective or just exchange some bits of humorous dialog.  Other small references to later games creep in as well, such as having to buy items to translate Motavian and Dezorian speech (not a factor until the second game in the original series) and having more inter-party dialog during town interactions.  Another interesting addition is that if the player completes the game and keeps a copy of the save file on their memory card, they will unlock some extra content in Phantasy Star Generation 2, including an extra quest to revive Nei.

However, other obstacles have been added in 3DAges' attempts to update the game.  One especially prevalent one is the obtuse plot flags - the player must often to talk to several NPCs multiple times, sometimes within the same visit, to flip arbitrary plot flags in order to allow acces to the next area of the game.  On more than one occasion I found myself moving to the next area only to find that I wasn't able to enter or locate a key item there because of a missed conversation, forcing me to backtrack to previous towns and talk to everyone again.  In some particularly grating instances, this can even require re-traversing entire dungeons.  A very unnecessary and annoying addition that plagued me throughout the experience.

Another unwelcome change is the game's ill-advised attempts to add length to the game.  Phantasy Star Generation 1 is ironically significantly more slow paced and grindy than the original game - combat animations are substantially longer, the encounter rate is startlingly high (and annoyingly still based on an invisible roll), and the level cap is raised from 30 to 100.  Random enemies and bosses alike are made much harder to compensate for this, meaning you'll have to stop and grind quite a bit more to stand a chance in new areas, which can easily take hours on end.  All of this ultimately serves to just slow the game down and ruin the original's well-thought-out pacing, substantially hampering the experience.  Even moreso if you should happen to die in battle, as the ability to save anywhere has inexplicably been removed in favor of using town-based save points.

Some attempts at depth were added to the combat system as well.  Characters now have more options in combat, including some Phantasy Star IV-styled multi-techs that can be activated with certain items and spells for extra damage and added effects like paralyzing enemies.  Other weapon options are added, generally doing less damage per hit but hitting multiple times (such as Alis' daggers and Odin's pistols) or hitting all enemies on the field for reduced damage (Odin's machine guns and Lutz's slashers).  One can also find and equip various Crystals that give benefits like regenerating a small amount of HP each turn or adding elemental-based damage to one's normal attacks, and the addition of full-party healing spells is a welcome one.  However, it feels like they should have gone just a touch further with this idea - Alis's spells still become largely antiquated by the end of the game, and in a remake where enemies can now have hundreds of HP apiece, having some stronger spells to deal with them quickly would be a welcome change; sadly, most still do flat damage and the party stops learning new ones at roughly level forty, all but forcing the player to rely on the new, costly multi-techs and tedious grinding in order to survive.

What it all boils down to is that Phantasy Star Generation 1, like many other remakes in the Sega Ages line, is an attempt at adding new flair to the game that is hampered by its low budget and half-hearted attempt at introducing new elements to the game, feeling poorly planned at the best of times.  While it's certainly not a terrible attempt at remaking Phantasy Star, it is inferior to its predecessor in many respects.  Generation 1 may prove an interesting curiosity for die-hard Phantasy Star fans, but more casual RPG players should stick to the original game, as it's a far more satisfying experience overall.

Developer: 3DAges
Publisher: Sega
Platform: Playstation 2
Released: 2003
Recommended version: N/A

Unlimited Saga

The ninth game in Square's SaGa series was released to a very hostile reception, especially in light of its low budget after the blockbuster movie-like experiences the company's brand became known for. But is there some merit to be found in Unlimited Saga's gameplay, or is this one heavily-maligned RPG that really is as bad as people say?

Akitoshi Kawazu's SaGa franchise is known to be very divisive, even among die-hard RPG fans; those who love it enjoy its experimental nature and quirky, surreal settings while those who don't are quick to criticize its difficult design and bizarre, often unintuitive mechanics.  This primarily stems from the franchise not drawing much inspiration from other Japanese RPGs like Dragon Quest, but rather on the games that inspired their origins - western tabletop games and relatively obscure computer RPGs like Phantasie and Star Command.  Thus, we end up with a series that puts emphasis on powering up stats individually, earning new skills through repeated use of weapons, breakable equipment, having to negotiate with enemies to end battles early, and so forth, with specific mechanics varying wildly from game to game.

Unlimited Saga is no different in that regard, and in fact probably follows the Tabletop/CRPG format more closely than any prior game in the series. "Towns" in the game are more than a bit reminiscent of the old Wizardry titles, consisting of simple menus to purchase equipment, talk with people, craft items and accept quests.  Dungeons play out like a turn-based board game, having the player follow a series of paths where they may encounter enemies, traps and obstacles like collapsing bridges which temporarily divide the party, requiring them to unite at a later point.  One can also choose to pass turns to recover some of their lost HP (via the incredibly intuitive method of pressing R3), which is often a good idea as one does not regain it over time and skills that restore it are relatively hard to come by.  In fact, the interface in general is rather unintuitive, with the player having to navigate a baffling sequence of menus just to perform basic tasks like checking their status screen, changing equipment or interacting with objects on the field (For one example, changing one's equipment in towns can only be done via the inn menu).

The similarity to tabletop games only becomes more prominent in the emphasis the game places on player skills, which allow the player to do things like crossing certain obstacles in dungeons, disarming traps and locks with greater chances of success, or avoiding some enemy encounters when used at the right time. The game lacks a proper "experience" system, with characters instead gaining and losing skills and stats only at the end of a quest via a panel system.  Basically, each character has seven slots arranged in a honeycomb-like layout, and each panel is placed in one of these slots.  Each point of the grid tends toward a different stat or elemental affinity, with the player gaining greater benefit by putting, for example, weapon skills on the Strength side of the grid and Magic skills on or near that point. Attaching multiple panels of like types next to one another or three in a row across the grid will grant greater benefit, while placing a panel in the center space will boost all stats to a lesser degree.  However, what panels someone gets to pick from has a hefty random element; while it can be influenced to a degree by using certain abilities between one quest completion and the next, there is no guarantee you'll get something you want, and if you happen to have your grid just the way you like it, too bad - you must replace one panel with a new one at the end of each quest.  (For that reason, having a designated "dump panel" on each characters' grid is a good idea.)  Further exacerbating the problem are panels with negative effects, such as dealing reduced damage to an enemy or even taking damage yourself if a particular enemy type is attacked; once in place, these can only be replaced with other negative panels (or, if plot related, cannot be replaced at all).  While these negative panels do give large stat boosts and can be used effectively because of this, they're far more likely to be a hindrance to the player at a bad time.  While one can scrape by with panels that make them fearful of, say, plants or insects, one should definitely avoid panels that put the player at a disadvantage from undead enemies, as nearly all of the game's strongest enemies (and major bosses) fall into this category.

Unlimited Saga's most infamous element is the large amount of reliance on random chance - not a roll of the dice in this case, but a spinning of slot machine-like reels that have varying effects depending on the context.  Outside of battle, rolls are often brought up when a player is about to trigger a trap or use a skill - hitting a green orb causes them to successfully use the skill or evade the trap, hitting a red X causes it to trigger, and hitting dynamite causes a critical failure, which often results in more damage or a worse outcome overall.  One's skill in timing button presses usually helps to mitigate some of the difficulty, but if one's panel set is lacking, the slots will often "wander" two or three spaces after the button is pressed, which can land the player on a bad result regardless.

The reels are also heavily used within battle, though in a much different fashion.  When a weapon is equipped, a player gains access to a number of basic attack skills with that weapon.  However, as they use them more, they may unlock stronger attack skills, though these cannot simply be picked from the menu - instead, they must spin the reels and hit a blue, red or pink weapon icon among a large plethora of green ones.  Elemental spells spin reels with icons representing the five elements, with the maximum effect only being achieved if the player lands on a slot matching that spell's element.  One is even able to "stack" and activate multiple reels at a time by pressing the circle button, allowing them to chain numerous attacks together for extra damage; however, this comes with two drawbacks.  First is that the player is spinning all of said reels at the same time, each with slightly different timing, and one press of the button stops them all, so unless they have a monstrous amount of skills unlocked they're likely to just get a bunch of weaker attacks.  Second, if an enemy (or enemy group) gets turns whilst the player is doing this, they will also get bonus damage with their own attacks.  Enemies can do team attacks of their own volition as well, which causes combat to quickly devolve into a battle of powerful combinations engineered to deplete the other side's LP.  Paired with the fact that, like most SaGa games, weapons will break after a set number of uses, this quickly adds much to the difficulty factor present in Unlimited Saga.  Managing one's party during fights is an essential part of the strategy as well - any character that doesn't take an action in a particular turn is removed from the field entirely for its duration, and they will recover some of their HP while away, so swapping characters in and out as the situation develops is key to winning many boss fights.

The game works in a crafting system in an attempt to offset weapon wear-and-tear, allowing players to combine weapons and raw materials together in order to restore a weapon's durability or create new equipment that can have higher attack power or durability and can carry over some unlocked skills from its components.  As with many other elements in the game, however, the mechanics of this are not clearly explained in the manual nor anywhere in the game itself, so it quickly turns into a process of trial and error.  Especially when paired with the minuscule amount of money the player is given at the start of the game, and which they can only earn more of by going through dungeons, whether on story missions or just sidequests.  When one also considers that quests can have huge variances in difficulty even at the start of the game, with one quest being almost trivially easy and the next being nearly impossible at your current level and there being no forewarning of this fact whatsoever, Unlimited Saga can quickly become an exercise in frustration.  As a result of this, its limited interface and its overall esoteric design, few have ever had the patience to make their way through the game.  Probably not helping matters was the fact this was one of the few Square games of the era to never receive an official player's guide of any kind; hell, even The Bouncer got a guide from Bradygames, but Unlimited Saga received no such luxury.  The manual included with the game isn't much help either, skimming over several key mechanics and only explaining the most basic skills one finds in any detail.

Of course, one cannot mention Unlimited Saga without also bringing attention to its overall aesthetic.  Unlimited Saga contains oddly low production values for a Square game, with very minimal animation for most elements (even in combat, you'll be seeing the same loops a lot), nearly all cutscenes being composed of little more than still frames, and no rendered dungeons - just flat two-dimensional maps reminiscent of a board game or tabletop RPG.  There are relatively few FMVs in the game, which similarly have only the barest basics in terms of animations, rendered characters and backgrounds.  Voice acting in the game is surprisingly threadbare as well, with only a small handful of recorded lines per character story and the acting ranging from mediocre to laughably campy.  Very out of the norm for a company that practically invented the "cinematic RPG" experience that redefined the entire JRPG genre and dominated the gaming consciousness for the better part of a decade.  Music in the game is at least up to the SaGa series' high standards with some beautifully-composed tracks by Masashi Hamauzu, though curiously absent in many dungeons in favor of simple ambient noise.

Also not aiding matters is the fact that each playable character's quest is a much different undertaking, with some being vastly easier or harder than others and possessing much different mechanics.  Unlimited Saga once again opts for the SaGa Frontier style "Anthology RPG" format, with only a vague backdrop upon which each character has their own short story.  Characters do occasionally cross over and even join one another's parties at times, but for all intents and purposes each story is a standalone excursion.  Some gain access to exclusive gameplay elements as well, such as Ventus; as a "carrier", he is able to perform essentially limitless delivery quests that give him easy access to money, chests and character upgrades, making his quest a good starting point for beginners.  Kurt has a cursed gauntlet that forever occupies the center slot on his skill grid, stifling opportunities to earn stat bonuses and forcing him to fight solo battles against progressively stronger enemies every fifteen minutes (in real-time), which effectively turns his quest into a race against the clock.  Armic's quest mostly consists of collecting various materials through completion of quests, though owing to the random nature of the game, this will likely result in having to do a large amount of crafting, searching and manipulating the in-game economy before the story is finally done.  Many of these probably helped contribute to the game's overall perception of difficulty, as some characters can go through the game with relative ease while others require an absolute mastery of its mechanics and a substantial amount of luck to get everything they need to win.

At the end of the day, Unlimited Saga lives up to the series' reputation of being a bizarre, esoteric, oft-confusing and exceptionally challenging experience with a heavy element of random chance and trial-and-error, which already heavily hampered its appeal in the west.  However, it goes a step further than most in calling back to '80s RPGs, with its minimalist UI, awkward interface, lack of tutorials and punishing gameplay from the get-go only compounding the frustration factor.  Like the early CRPGs that inspired it, Unlimited Saga is not a game geared toward instant gratification - you have to go on a mission to find the enjoyable elements in it.  Those who can push through the opaque design and threadbare presentation and master the finer points of its mechanics will find a game with quite a bit of content, a well-realized setting and some surprisingly clever ideas, but as it requires dealing with a lot of randomized elements, reloading old saves, trial-and-error and reading a novel's worth of online guides to figure out just how everything works, it's not an experience any but the most devoted of build-optimizing, mechanics-mastering RPG fans are bound to enjoy.

Developer: Square Enix

Publisher: Square Enix
Platform: Playstation 2
Released: 2003
Recommended version: N/A