| 1 | Completely unenjoyable experience, possibly unplayable in some way. Reserved for only the worst dregs |
| 2 | Bad. Riddled with poor/frustrating game design and far more cons than pros |
| 3 | Lackluster. Doesn't do anything special nor have any notable qualities |
| 4 | Mediocre. While the game likely has its bright spots, it doesn't really have enough going on for it to make it truly fun. Might be worth it for a bargain bin price |
| 5 | Average. Games that are right along the bar of what a game should be. They're not significantly good or significantly bad, but rather balance out to be right in the middle |
| 6 | Decent. A pretty solid effort by the developer. While it doesn't blow me away, I can appreciate what they did and enjoy it |
| 7 | Good. The mark of a game worth playing. It has several things going for it, even if some games might do what it does better. |
| 8 | Great. Either does 1-2 things extremely well or just a rounded package of good ideas |
| 9 | Near-perfect. One of the best games I've ever played and hits almost all the right notes |
| 10 | Absolute perfection. Don't expect anything to achieve this |
This is chronologically the first game in the Gagharv trilogy, though the second one made. Namco-Bandai made the decision to swap the first two games when localizing them, and I think it was a good decision.
The game sports decent enough graphics for the time, a really good soundtrack, and an interesting battle system. You can sort of see the groundwork for what would become the Trails battle system later. While not as explicitly grid-based, you can still reposition characters and AOE comes into play for certain moves. You also have a special ability that you can use to steal enemy turns and damage them before they have a chance to go.
There are some good characters to be seen here, but I think the NPCs actually shine more than the player cast, interestingly enough. The story starts out slightly generic, but then picks up halfway through with a plot twist that makes it a lot more interesting. I definitely recommend this one to anyone interested in the Legend of Heroes series.
Overall rating: 7/10
Want to be confused? This is the END of the trilogy's timeline, despite being the first game developed in the series. In North America, it was released second. I advise playing this one last and just following the series in plot chronology. It was a bit awkward to see how certain characters ended up without seeing the middle of the story. I know it was intended that way by the devs, but I disagree with the devs.
Anyway, this is like 50 years or something after Tear of Vermillion, so any references are either in legend or just really old versions of a couple of earlier series characters.
Gameplay-wise, it's almost identical to Tear of Vermillion, maybe slightly less polished. The playable cast is slightly more interesting in exchange for the NPC/story characters being less interesting. I think overall, the story kept me more engaged than Tear of Vermillion's.
Overall rating: 6.5/10
This is a direct sequel to Tear of Vermillion, only taking place less than a decade later. It features some of the old cast returning and tries to bridge together the previous two games. Here, you can see the setup of a major plot point of Moonlight Witch.
The battle system sees some minor tweaks to improve upon it. It has a solid cast and the return of familiar faces definitely help. There's also a bonus side mode where you can play as any playable character from the previous games for various series of non-cannon battles.
Overall, the plot is decent. Nothing that stands out too much. I think the game is mostly held up by all the returning characters giving you that nostalgic feeling: something Nihon Falcom ramps up by the time of Cold Steel.
Overall rating: 7/10
The series takes a massive leap forward with this entry. We now have a much richer and more fleshed out world with tons of interesting NPCs with their own stories to tell. The battle system is greatly enhanced and the addition of Orbments adds a new layer of strategy to gameplay.
The cast is stellar with no weak links, every character having their own charms and moments. The only downside is having no real agency over your party's composition until the final dungeon, and just having to make due with whoever the devs give you.
The plot, while good, cannot be fully appreciated when only looking at this game. On the surface, it's somewhat generic with only the slightest hints of more nuances to come. The game is a lot like the first movie in a superhero trilogy where it's just establishing the characters and core premise. It does a good job of laying the groundwork for what's to come, but it lacks the actual meat.
Overall rating: 8/10
And here is the meat. SC takes everything the first game built as a foundation and lets you go wild. This game sort of marks Estelle's growth as a character. She goes from being somewhat of a child in the first game during her trials of Junior Bracer to a responsible and capable adult here as a Senior Bracer.
Gameplay doesn't change much outside of adding some new quartz and another tier. There are also now team skills where you can add multiple characters (for a cost) into an attack to all gang up on an enemy.
Where this game truly shines is the plot. It's very interesting, dropping several bombs on you when you realize how several things in the first game led to what you're dealing with now. Many details hidden in plain sight. You get a new playable member of the cast (albeit for very brief portions of the game) and just about everyone gets paired off with a member of the enemy faction, making for some great dynamics. You also have more control over your party in this game as you go around gathering up all your old friends and once you have them, you can freely swap who's in the active battle party.
Overall rating: 8.5/10
Along with inconsistent naming conventions, the conclusion to this trilogy decides to change protagonists on you. No longer are you experiencing the story of Estelle Bright, but rather, you take control of Father Kevin Graham. Again, this game introduces a new character to be playable as well as giving some characters that were not previously playable to your army.
Again, you have to gather up all your allies to assemble your force. However, you're confined to a single dungeon rather than being able to explore the world. It almost gives me the sensation of playing Person 3's The Answer (or Episode Aigis, for you newer fans) except if some of the floors reused areas of the base game to give you an occasional breather from the generic otherworldly dungeon crawl. The game even has plenty of doors!
Gameplay is virtually unchanged from the previous game, and you even start out at like level 100 to simulate the idea of continuing where you left off. The plot is interesting, though very Kevin-focused. There's also a LOT of reading to do in this one. The various characters have a lot of side content that shows glimpses at their backstories or things they were up to between games. You can learn a lot about the world and the characters through this, but it is essentially the bulk of the game's content. Outside of that, you're mostly doing a dungeon crawl with occasional cutscenes.
I'd say it was a letdown for me after what the trilogy had been. It not only failed to innovate, but also scaled back the feeling of playing the game. Having all the characters ever and then some was nice, but it felt like the focus on content went to the wrong places.
Overall rating: 7/10
How do you follow-up a really unique and interesting JRPG that blends traditional menu-based combat with elements of a strategy RPG and the ability to summon puppet allies as units to fight alongside you? If your answer is to make a generic menu-based RPG without any of the SRPG elements or having the puppets fight with you any longer, you must have worked for Nippon Ichi Software.
The original Rhapsody was one of the coolest games we'd ever experienced. A cute little adventure that was innovative. So why then was its sequel stripped of all that charm? They neutered the game to something that's barely more original than your run-of-the-mill JRPG. There's no positioning strategy. You just line up on opposite sides as your enemy and select commands from a menu to be fired off. The puppets are just used to cast spells like some sort of budget Persona. And for that matter, your MP is also your currency? It really discouraged me from buying anything since I didn't know if I'd need to save my money to do attacks.
Maybe the worst part of the game is that it screws with your party worse than Final Fantasy 4. Every 5 minutes, a character gets added or taken away. While the devs at least don't make them steal equipment when they leave, this does mean that you're constantly having to equip your party members due to the frequency of the changes. It slows down gameplay of an already slow game.
The battles are kind of an insult, too. They lack any sort of challenge. If you want to enjoy this a little, put it on the highest difficulty. I almost fell asleep on Normal.
It does have some good characters (except Randy. Randy is useless), so that's one thing going for it. It still is a cute game, but not one worth its full price tag by any means. The plot is… mostly contrived as an excuse to move itself along, but this isn't really anything new for a NIS title. They tend to have writing that doesn't take itself seriously. That's not a point against it, that's just the style. There are some good bits to the story that can get you invested at times, and some of the characters are charming, or at least hilarious.
Overall rating: 4/10
The first thing that hits me with this game is the aesthetics. It is beautiful. I'm a sucker for games with pretty Asian themes and this game delivers on that. Outside of being visually gorgeous, the game sports a solid soundtrack that fits the vibe perfectly. It's also very fun to play. This one is sort of a beat-em-up/platformer hybrid with more emphasis on combat than anything else. Although you sometimes have to jump around to different platforms to progress, there are no death pits or really any penalty for failing a jump. It also has RPG-like progression with levels, experience, stats, items, and equipment. You can collect resources as you progress that are used to forge new blades and make your character stronger.
In the base game, you can play as either Kyosuke or Momohime. Both characters essentially play the same, but I find Kyosuke's route to be a bit easier at times. The Vita port has DLC to add three additional characters. These DLC characters have their own little stories and are more unique in playstyle despite an attempt to mostly fit in with the established mechanics of the base game.
I'd say that Momohime has the most interesting story, but all are worth a try. If nothing else, as an excuse to play more of this wonderful game. The gameplay is very smooth and responsible. Combos feel incredibly satisfying. There are a wide array of techniques you can pull off and have a lot of freedom in how you chain them together. If you're a fan of VanillaWare games or beat-em-ups, definitely give this one a try.
Overall rating: 9/10
This is a platformer game that I'm told takes a lot of cues from Mario 3 and is probably geared toward fans of that. I came across it for the Japanese theming that looked cool. As someone who doesn't play Mario at all, this game was brutal. It's probably meant for people who already mastered the game it's based on and want something more challenging. I couldn't find myself clearing the game on default difficulty, and had to turn it down to Casual to finish the story. On casual mode, you instantly revive in place any time you die so you can just keep cheesing forward.
While I can't say if this is normal for this type of game, I found the characters to be incredibly slippery. This made platforming a nightmare for me. I'd land on a platform, but the character would keep moving forward (despite me not pressing anything) and slide right off. I clearly don't have the precision or skill to play a game like this, so take my opinion with a fistful of salt. It's just not for me. I will give it one thing, though. The boss battles were pretty fun. Even when I switched to Casual, I would always turn it back to Normal for the bosses. These were engaging challenges that I didn't mind playing over again if I failed. There's a puzzle aspect to figuring out how to beat the boss's pattern and land a hit. Some of them were pretty creative, too. I managed to get no-miss victories on each of the game's bosses, too.
The game perhaps shines in terms of characters and story. The characters are cute and have distinct personalities. It's a fun little story where you see the cast grow and learn lessons as they go along. If you like cute stories about friendship and developing romance, you should enjoy this.
Overall rating: 5/10