Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift

Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift

Operating System: Nintendo DS
Website:  Official Website
Rating: 3.5/5
Comments: Ok, first up, longest name in history! Kinda like Delaware St. John. Geez people, I hope they don't make another from that series! Despite the name, I do like this game. Turn-based strategy is always my thing. The story is very familiar: a boy at school finds a strange book that is empty, when he flips through it the books magic sucks him into another world. Sounds familiar yet? Yeah, that's right, FF Tactics Advanced used that story too! Mind you, they have very different outcomes in the end.

There's a lot to get through with this game. For starters, there's 300 extra quests to complete (including the main plot ones). Seriously, 300! Not to mention the auctions you have for the clan areas. And then there's the best part, trying to figure out what the hell class you want your character to be. There's so many different ones it gets a bit ridiculous (although the Seeq only have 4...).

The art follows the same 'Square Enix' style and is very cute. It's a nice upgrade from the gameboy advance version. The portraits are lovely and the dialogue for the main part is pretty good. I enjoyed seeing some of the old characters (aww, grown up Mewt) reoccur at the start but have yet to finish this EPIC game.

EvoCraft

EvoCraft / Landgrabbers

Operating System: PC
Rating: 2/5
Comments: I wasn't impressed with this game when I first played it. It wasn't what I thought it would be at all. You pretty much just have to conquer all the towns on the map to win. After 2 rounds I realised just how strangely addictive this game was. I was trying to come up with all these sneaky plans to demolish the enemy before they could get a firm hold over the rest of the map but to no avail! I just ended up sending out so many guys all the time, no strategy. It worked though, mind you it didn't help me beat the high scores most the time.

The achievement system was kinda cool. It was a statue, and every time you got a new one, you added somethign to the statue like a pair of sunglasses or wings. Unfortunately the game seems to have been made for a wider screen so I couldn't really see what was needed for the achievements, just had to wing it. The graphic are pretty cute too, which always helped making the game more playable and enjoyable overall.

Phantasmat

Phantasmat

Operating System: PC/Mac
Website: Official Website
Rating: 3/5
Comments: It has nice graphics for the cutscenes which is always a bonus. You couldn't skip or quicken dialogue which was a tad annoying but not a big problem. The most annoying part was how it would replay the scene of her driving her car every time you access the main menu. The cursor was cool in that it changed for what you could do (inspect, look, etc.). Very helpful for when you're not sure what to do.

The HO scenes were in the same style as the rest of the game, which is good because I see so many that don't follow the style and make the game look ugly. The items seemed rather large but it didn't make it too easy to find things (damn burnt matches!). Always a bonus, there's an in-built strategy guide in case you get too stuck.

Persona 4

Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4

Operating System: Playstation 2
Website: Official Website
Rating: 3.5/5
Comments: Another turn-based strategy game that I love so much. Turn based ones are always easy to master.

Anyway, in this game you are some guy. He doesn't come with a default name but I have heard many refer to him by his name in the manga. So you have just moved to this country town from the city and shit. goes. down! Some anchorwoman is murdered rather gruesomely, her body found hanging from a TV antenna. Then a few days later, some schoolgirl is killed the same way. Then you discover that you can enter the TV and there's another world!

There's a lot to do in this game. The side quests are difficult to find because people will randomly show up depending on the day/weather situation. Even your friends can be hard to find at times (damn you Yosuke!). I'm trying to level up my friendship levels with everyone, as well as trying to go to my extra clubs, trying to get stronger by battling (where the hell is Kanji?! I HATE THIS BATH HOUSE!!) I'm finding it difficult to keep some sort of balance.

The good thing with this game is people don't get shitty at you if you miss hanging out with them (which I like, sorry Chie!). The bad thing is... you can create SOO many different personas via merging. And I seriously don't know which one is best. I have a variety at the moment in case I need different elements but other than that, it's just luck if something is weak to my persona. I was also wondering why you can give friends different persona but maybe that will come up later in the game? The protagonist is pretty mysterious, after all. Didn't have to fight with his inner self and all...

Dokapon Journey

Dokapon Journey

Operating System: Nintendo DS
Website: Official Website
Rating: 2.5/5
Comments: This is a very typical adventure-fighter game. You get to pick out of several classes, each with its own gender difference, and what colour they should be. There are 3 different modes but I only choose story mode for now as I'm yet to complete it. It's a long and tedious game, but I still enjoy finding new monsters and being totally awesome in my complete monopoly of the Dokapon world.

For me this gets really frustrating because I don't like losing. So every time I do something wrong or end up dying, I reload. T__T

I've gotta say though, this is not really like the GBA version at all. It has so many new things (like picking classes, gender, colour, the movement, stat, etc.) and the art style is so different too. It also has nothing to do with the other game's story but I don't think that really matters much.