Thousand Arms

One of many RPGs released on the Playstation in the late '90s, Thousand Arms was relatively novel for the time in that it's also something of a dating sim - you build relationships with several women over the course of the game through dialog choices and minigames, which in turn boosts your ability to forge stronger weapons and unlock spells.  The presentation is surprisingly polished for the time as well, transitioning between chibi-style sprites and larger anime-styled animated characters for scenes of dialog (complete with voiceover!).  That said, the rest of the gameplay is rather pedestrian, with a simplistic combat system with one active character and up to two others who mostly support the point character by weakening enemies or bolstering their abilities, and some rather generic dungeons and minigames to fill out the rest of the time.  It's not hard to see why the game has a small but loyal following - after all, it arguably inspired the social sim element of the later Persona games - but it's a bit too simplistic to hold my attention.

Developer: TOSE/RED Entertainment
Publisher: Atlus
Released: 1999
Platforms: PlayStation

Nostalgia

An original RPG offering from Matrix on the DS sounded like a promising idea.  After all, they were behind the Alundra series and several remakes for the Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest franchises, so they clearly have an eye for what makes RPGs work.  But what makes an RPG function and what makes one distinct and memorable are two very different realms of expertise.  Like many, Nostalgia's developers don't seem to recognize that the appeal of classic RPGs was not in looking a certain way or adhering to rigid design customs even to the detriment of the gaming experience, but because they made efforts to stand out from the pack. Whether a strong presentation or an engrossing storyline or gameplay that felt more streamlined while losing none of the depth, they all stood out in their own ways; old and new RPGs alike are scarcely remembered for going through the motions. Hell, even long-running formulaic franchises like Mario, Zelda, Mega Man, Castlevania and Dragon Quest have to add new twists in every now and then and maintain a high quality standard to stay relevant.  Nostalgia never got that memo, proving its dated design philosophy right away with all-too-frequent random encounters, unengaging mash-A-to-win battles and the all time low bar for introductory quests, killing rats in a switch-flipping sewer maze level.  But even if you somehow still keep playing after that, the lack of any decent story hooks, interesting characters or anything else to do other than more tiresome monster-bopping quests in the same vein quickly made me put this one down and never look back.  Nostalgia certainly isn't the word I would choose for this title; maybe they should have gone with "Ennui" instead.  Or perhaps "Blasé".

Developer: Matrix Software/RED Entertainment
Publisher: Ignition Entertainment
Released: 2009
Platforms: Nintendo DS