Sigma Star Saga - Game Boy Advance Review

This is a unique game.  It's a shoot 'em up, adventure, and RPG combined.  There is a story tied to the game that is actually pretty good.  When you are walking around exploring, you will get random battles where you go into shoot 'em up mode and have to eliminate a certain number of enemies to win the battle.  There are plenty of upgrades for weapons that you will find while adventuring.  Graphics are decent and on par with the GBA and sound is pretty good.  Some of the music gets repetitive after awhile.  The game play is pretty good, but you will find the game to play really slow at times.  Sometimes you have to play a level 5 or 6 times to learn it before you can beat it and move on to the next stage.  There are experience points in the game and you can level up to make your ship stronger and more powerful.  Overall, I give this game a 7 out of 10 stars.  I recommend that you pick it up and play it.  You can get a loose copy on ebay for about $10.

Vay - Sega CD Review

I played through about 3/4 of  this game.  Why not all the way you ask?  It was becoming a chore to play the game and not enjoyable anymore.  This game is very basic.  It had a Final Fantasy Mystic Quest feel throughout pretty much the entire game.  There is really nothing to explore.  The over world is pretty much linear as well as most of the dungeons.  The battle system is generic, turn based, J-RPG style (which is not always a bad thing).  It seemed like about 1/3 of the way through the game, there were a few bosses that were extremely hard to beat, and then it got super easy after that.  The game is pretty unbalanced in difficulty, which can be frustrating at times.  It also doesn't seem like there are a lot of cut scenes or voice for a CD based game.  The graphics, music, and sound seem just a bit sub par for the Sega CD.  The game play is ok.  It is typical J-RPG style game play / grinding / walking around.  Overall, I give this game a 5 out of 10.  Some people may think this is a great game and may think it deserves a much higher score.  I think it is just middle of the road and actually a bit boring.     

Actraiser - SNES Review

If you have never played this game before, you must immediately drop whatever you are doing and play it now!  I am serious, this game is a must play.  It is a combination of a sim, an RPG, and an action platformer.  You play the role of a god that comes down to the land and rids it of monsters so people can live and build there.  Once you clear the first stage, you go into sim mode.  You control an angel with a bow and arrow which you can use to shoot enemies.  You also can use natural disasters like lightning, rain, earthquakes, etc.  You have to solve puzzles and figure things out quite often.  The people will ask you to help with various things throughout the game.  There are 2 bosses on each level / area.  There are even some emotional parts in the story that make it really interesting.  The graphics are amazing, the sound and music some of the best for its time, and the game play is excellent.  Overall, I give this game a perfect 10.  There is nothing wrong with it at all and you will replay it over and over again because it is so fun.

Evergrace - PS2 Review

This is an early release action / RPG for the PS2.  Released in 2000 and you can tell it is an early release game for sure.  First off, the music is terrible.  This game contains the worst music I have ever heard in any video game, seriously.  The graphics are terrible and twitchy.  The game play is painfully slow to the point that the game gets boring real fast.  In the 10 minutes that I played this garbage, I couldn't tell how you leveled up the character or really the point of the game.  I walked around slowly for a bit and killed about 10 monster very slowly.  I talked to a guy and he jumped off a cliff.  I then jumped off that same cliff ending the game.  Seriously though, this is just lazy programming to put a game out like this.  Overall, I give this game a 1 out of 10 stars.  Terrible, don't bother with it at all.  Maybe I will revisit this one in the future and see if it is any better.

Times Of Lore NES Review

This is supposed to be an RPG, however I found no way of leveling up while playing it.  The game is terrible.  It is slow, repetitive and hard to control.  The game play is horrible, borderline unplayable.  The game reminds me of a slower, easier, Hydlide.  You have to bring a menu up to talk to people and to pick things up.  The path from town to town is linear so there is no exploring.  Graphics and music are both sub par for the NES.  Overall, I give this game a 2 out of 10.  Horrible, don't even bother with it.

Final Fantasy VIII PS1 Review

Released in 1998 on the PlayStation.  A lot of people dislike this second installment on the PS1.  I don't dislike the game, but it is not one of my favorites either.  The story line in this game is pretty good and the CG animations are awesome for the time.  The characters are alright, nothing special.  Game play is pretty decent, and the battle mode is turn based like all the Final Fantasy games up to this point.  The game is kind of weird though because you mainly use physical attacks in the random battles but rely heavily on Guardian Forces for boss battles.  Boss battles are really easy because of this.  Guardian Forces are summoned and come out and do heavy damage to enemies.  Another strange thing about this game is that you have to use a draw command to draw magic out of enemies, stocking it, and junctioning it to your character.  A lot of elements of this game turn people off due to the tediousness of playing.  That is the beauty of Final Fantasy games though right?  Every game has something different and new to do.  The music and CG animation in this game is extraordinary and the game play is good.  As you get towards the end of the game on the 4th disc, it just seems to wear at you and never end.  Overall, I give the game 7 out of 10 stars.  If you are a RPG gamer, you definitely have to play through it at least once.   

Dragon's Curse TurboGrafx-16 Review

This is a platform / RPG / adventure game for the TurboGrafx-16.  It is an alright game, nothing special.  It has a password feature for continuing.  It is a pretty straightforward game although there is some exploring that you have to do in order to find items.  You can buy weapon and armor upgrades and there are plenty of power ups throughout the game that enemies drop or you can find.  The graphics are great for the TurboGrafx and the sound and music are OK.  Overall, I give this game a 5 out of 10.  It is just your basic adventure / RPG.  It is not something that I would regularly play but is cool to mess with every now and then.  

Phantasy Star 3 Sega Genesis Review

I just played through this game again recently and I didn't find it as enjoyable as previously.  This game is the 3rd in the series of 4 and it doesn't really pick up where 2 left off.  It is kind of a spin off from the series.  The graphics and music are pretty good and it is pretty much your typical J-RPG.  When you first start the game it seems like it is going to take forever but the game is actually pretty short compared to the other games in the series.  The dungeons are not hard and are almost linear.  There are only 4 bosses in the game including the end boss.  There are techniques in the game but they are almost nonexistent and not really required even to fight the extremely easy bosses.  You play through three generations of main characters but the storyline is kind of dry and there is no real attachment to the game at all.  I would classify this game as mainly a hack n slash RPG due to the use of mainly weapons and not techniques.  Is it a bad game? No.  Is it a great game? No.  It's just an average game, my least favorite in the series.  Overall, I give it a 5 out of 10 stars.  Nothing special but semi enjoyable to play through for the hardcore RPG fan.

Final Fantasy Mystic Quest SNES Review

This game came out between the US releases of Final Fantasy 2 and 3 on the Super Nintendo.  It was designed and marketed as an entry level RPG for younger inexperienced players.  Its not a bad game overall.  The game play is very linear and there is not much exploring to do.  You always have a NPC that joins you and help you through each level.  The weapons throughout the game have different uses and help you get past certain parts of the levels.  You do get experience points and you level up and get gold.  The way you fight is that you have to run into visible enemies that are in fixed locations in the levels.  There are also monster tiles that you can clear by fighting 10 battles.  Your reward for clearing these monster tiles is something like gold or a cure item.  The game is not real long and not too in depth.  I enjoy playing through it every now and then because it is a pretty mindless RPG that you can just veg out and play.  Music is pretty decent but the graphics are a little under par for the SNES.  Overall I give this game a 7 out of 10.

Rings Of Power Genesis Review

OK, so I have read other reviews of this game online and people love it.  I don't get it.  Maybe I am missing something?  This game is complete shit and unplayable.  I would rather play Dr Mario for hours than play this crap.  I love RPGs, but this is beyond destroyed.  Number 1, I hate "3D aspect" games, they are difficult to control, always.  Number 2, see that controller? It is on the screen constantly, blocking the view of the game.  I don't really have anything else to say about this, it is just poor.  I give it 1 out of 10 overall.  If I am missing something, please let me know and I will play it again <shrug>.

Phantasy Star Collection Game Boy Advance Review

This game is a collection of 3 classic RPG's by Sega.  The collection was released in 2002 for the Game Boy Advance.  I am not going to review each game in the collection individually.  I will review the collection as a whole.  I am a big fan of the Phantasy Star series so I was happy when this came out.  This collection has Phantasy Star for the Sega Master System, Phantasy Star 2 for the Sega Genesis, and Phantasy Star 3 for the Sega Genesis.  The only one missing for the 8 bit / 16 bit systems is Phantasy Star 4.  If you have never played any of these games, I highly recommend them.  This collection contains the roms of these three games and they play and sound identical to the single versions.  There is a battery back up so you can save your progress just like the originals.  I give this a 9 out of 10 overall.  It would have gotten a perfect 10 if it contained part 4. 

Drakkhen SNES Review

Drakkhen is a RPG.  I think it was originally a PC game.  It plays like one anyway.  A lot of people hate this game.  You have to give it a chance.  It is a very slow, tedious game.  Sometimes you can play it for about an hour and seem like you are making no progress.  I like the game.  It is challenging and decent to play.  You do have to be in the right kind of mood to enjoy it though.  This game had awesome graphics and sound for its time.  I remember when it first came out being blown away by it.  You have 4 characters which you can select male or female and then their attribute points.  You have a fighter, scout, magician, and a priest or priestess.  Weapons and armor are sometimes dropped by enemies.  The battles are automatic and hit points regenerate automatically.  You will have to explore to find out what you even have to do to advance because the game is not straightforward.  That is sometimes frustrating but makes the game challenging and allows you to level up and collect more items.  I recommend trying this game out it you are a RPG fan and are looking for something different.  I give it a 6 out of 10 overall.