A to Z JRPG Platinum Challenge

[Dr_Mayus]

Hope you enjoy Earthlock. I mean not greatest RPG of all time but a good sleeper hit

[MyNameIs_Rainman]

Letter "D" Destroyed!

Death end re;Quest 

Completed : 7/15/2021

 

Rainman's Ratings & Review

How JP is this RPG? : 7.5/10

Story/Plot : 5.5/10

Gameplay: 3/10

Music : 5.5/10

Time To Platinum : 40 Hours

 

Similar to Crystar, Death end re;Quest is another JRPG that has a plot with good potential, but the shortcomings in other areas are hard to ignore.

 

How JP is this RPG? : 7.5/10

Main character Arata is a game developer, who goes out of his way to remind you, the player, that he is one and all of his skills, qualities and heroics seem to be based of the "because I'm a developer" cheesy tagline. The story itself maybe is a play on the notion of creating worlds and experiences thus, developers are sorts of gods in this realm, but when the virtual world and physical world begin to mesh together (think Metaverse and real world in Persona colliding), he believes that his developer skills can save BOTH. And they do of course, because it's video game logic, just like how sending oil drillers onto an asteroid or meteor or whatever made sense for Armageddon. Virtual world ends up spilling out into the real world, real world people are kidnapped and made into NPCs that of course all coincidentally join your journey, and in the end it's all because an AI of sorts became sentient, attached to a character and then things went even weirder? Still really can't wrap my head around some of it, so that definitely means its very JP of an RPG. Also, extra JP points for odd spelling and punctuation that doesn't seem to make sense, unless its like some meta meaning that requires more thought than I want to put into it.

 

Story/Plot : 5.5/10

Kind of briefly touched upon the story in the earlier blurb, and while I'm always down for some virtual world stuff, I feel like the best part about the whole thing was the writing and descriptions. Let me be clear though, I'm talking about the writing as it pertains to the game world and happenings, not necessarily the character's themselves. I thought the writing was actually pretty good, I found it to be way better than Crystar. The character dialogue however, was pretty tropey and generic, main girl loses her memories as to how or why she's in the game, busty girl clearly sexually attracted to the main girl but always stops short of shooting her shot, younger but spunky girl who always gets into a problem due to carelessness, merchant girl who is a swindler and never. stops. swindling, no matter the stakes at hand, ominous elf mage girl, and headstrong but aloof warrior girl. You can find these types of characters in almost any JRPG, just close your eyes and point and you'll find them someway or another. It's used and abused, not even trying to make it unique, but that's not the real problem here.

 

Gameplay: 3/10

This is the problem right here. Combat has this gimmick of enemies that are attacked can bounce off off the fighting areas outer wall, kind of like Billiards, and collide into other enemies. Sure, it can damage other enemies but other than being comical the first few times, it just didn't feel like it made much of an impact (no pun intended) to really change the tides of combat or be a technique you needed to master; it just felt like it was tacked on. The battle field is riddled with bugs than can affect your characters negatively or even heal them, but if your character gets infected too much they get into a glitchy state where their power increases and yes...their clothes come off because everyone knows that is crucial to strength increases. Aerodynamics, right? The glitch state is clearly just fanservice, just skimpy coverings on the girls privates, and it's not even useful much considering it activates at 80%? and if you get to 100 you are KO'd, and it goes down every turn. 

Outside of combat isn't any better: level design is pretty bland and uninspired, character designs are ok at best, gameplay feels very uneven when switching to the "real" world. When you come to an impasse in a dungeon, you switch to Arata in the real world and have to find clues that will unlock some door in the virtual world. It's basically a map with locations, and it's all in a VN format with choices that can lead to Game Overs. You can save right before making like 99% of the choices which renders it moot. I guess the VN part is a nice breather from the monotony of the rest of the game.

 

Music : 5.5/10

Another Crystar like score, the OST was ok but nothing really stood out as Oh Shit or hit you in the feels. Just pretty average, but I guess it could be worse.

 

Verdict:

All around meh. The concept of virtual worlds have so much potential especially given that we in the real world are on the cusp of seeing these meta worlds and VR worlds start impacting our daily lives, but as far as the game goes it just wasn't enough to get past the weaknesses of the core gameplay. I really hope the sequel adds a lot of substance, because I think there's potential, it just needs some rough polishing.

 

 

__________

 

PROGRESS:

Ar Nosurge: Ode To An Unborn Star - 100% 

Battle Chasers: Nightwar - 100% 

Crystar - 100% 

Death end re;Quest - 100% 

Earthlock - 0%

Fate/Extella Link - 90%

Granblue Fantasy Versus - 2%

Hack//G.U Last Recode - 0%

I Am Setsuna - 0%

J (Time And Eternity) - 0%

Katana Kami - 0%

Langrisser I & II - 0%

Megadimension Neptunia VII - 0%

Nights Of Azure - 0%

Onechanbara Z2 Chaos - 0%

Pier Solar And The Great Architects - 0%

Omega Quintet - 0%

Romancing SaGa 3 - 0%

Shining Resonance Refrain - 0%

The Caligula Effect: Overdose - 0%

Utawarerumono: Prelude To The Fallen - 0%

Valkyria Chronicles Remastered - 0%

Wild Arms 3 - 0%

Xuan Yuan Sword VII - 0%

YIIK A Postmodern RPG - 0%

Zone Of The Enders: Mars 2nd Runner - 0%

 

[Mesopithecus]

6 hours ago, MyNameIs_Rainman said:

I might have to take you up on Earthlock cause...Exist Archive is not that great whatsoever ?

 

 

I completely understand where you're coming from with Exist Archive, I started it a while ago because I thought the art style looked cool and it's been sat on my profile at 2% completed ever since.  It just felt like 2% story and 98% grind

[MyNameIs_Rainman]

Letter "F" Finished!

Fate/EXTELLA Link 

Completed : 7/18/2021

 

Rainman's Ratings & Review

How JP is this RPG? : 6.5/10

Story/Plot : 5/10

Gameplay: 4/10

Music : 5/10

Time To Platinum : 35 Hours

 

How JP is this RPG? : 6.5/10

DW-esque musou games are nothing new, but Fate/Extella has a varied lineup of characters inspired by real life and fictional/mythical figures from history so you can be King Arthur. But King Arthur is Artoria, and is a girl, so yes, it can be confusing at first but I like how they are just representations of the legacy or heroics of the characters they represent, so whether they are male/female etc doesn't actually matter, they are still pretty well designed. They still seem to fit many tropes, and I can't really comment much on the character's personalities and intentions as I don't know much about them since, surprised, this is a sequel and I didn't play the first. Also, I was just recently made aware that not only is there a sequel, there is apparently a Fate series including other games, an anime, etc. So I have only experienced a small drop in the bucket. Either way, from my playthrough I've seen the typical dancer/magic enchantress girls that definitely have some furry vibes going on, Drake who is a busty vixen Pirate, Medusa is a cyberpunk-visor-wearing temptress who always talks about eating me, Gilles definitely has a tentacle fetish, Lancelot and the other "Berserkers" are just brute strength dummies who cant communicate because of an enchantment, which to me seems like it makes them seem like they had a lobotomy. All of this is taking place on the moon but the warriors being summon are digital incarnations of said heroes? So yeah, it's pretty out there. Add in a Bonding system because why not, and you get an RPG that is definitely quite JP.

 

Story/Plot : 5/10

You are the last Master on the Moon. As a Master, you are able to bond with Servants (reaaalllllyyyy terrible choice of terms here) when need be to fight in these digital holy wars for the Holy Chalice, which gives said person power to shape the area as they see fit. So, being the last Master, you are pivotal to stopping the Holy Chalice from falling into the wrong hands and messing shit up on the moon. Your ragtag group of servants will grow with time as you fight more servants who are under a mind control spell (or virus, I cant remember, I was just hear to slaughter bad guys), called Oraclization, by the avatar of Charles the Great who is the big baddie. The guy literally has a cross like embedded in his chest. Anyways, he is trying to control the region known as SE.RA.PH using this mind control technique. The story dribbles out in the scenarios but I feel like it just felt very convoluted and scattered at times. Almost like the story was added last, it just wasn't very memorable. Perhaps playing the previous game I can grow a bigger appreciation for this one, but at least was a decent musou game.

 

Gameplay: 4/10

I gave this a 4 not because its bad, but just because the loop is set from the onset and you are pretty much doing the same thing over and over again. The lack of variety and monotony is what gives it such a low score. Do Story Mode, clear X missions within each mission and clear the scenario, clear all scenarios, see Ending. Get access to alternate ending, clear those scenarios and get the final ending. Do EXTRA mode, which is just rehashed story scenarios and additional created EX scenarios, once again clear the missions for the respective scenario, do it for all of them and get the final ending. But that's not all, max out bond levels with each Servant, which is done by fulfilling a random task they ask of you each mission. Acquire Caster Codes which are done through story missions, EXTRA missions, and bond levels, just another thing to collect. All of this fills out a compendium of story events, cutscenes, BGM, caster codes, skills, etc.

 

The saving grace is that the grind for the platinum is considerably less than most musou games, but the lack of varied content still is glaringly apparent. But, at the same time, I feel like musou games suffer from this the most, where it becomes rinse and repeat, so I'm not really surprised. At least the bonding episodes and the format of the game sort of gives some VN vibes, but the bonding just adds ANOTHER layer of grinding. Basically, I felt like a lot of the content is just there to inflate pay time. The actual story is somewhat short, why is the additional mode, EXTRA mode, almost twice as long as the main campaign? If it was at least all newer content fine, but with 80% of it being story missions just rehashed with higher difficulty, it left a lot to be desired.

 

Music : 5/10

Nothing to scoff at, but typical musou fanfare, lots of upbeat and energizing melodies, but overall none of the tracks really stood out to me or felt like they gave the game any sort of additional depth.

 

Verdict:

Story is ok, Gameplay is fine at first, but unless you are a fan you may not find the gameplay loop as satisfying. Fans of musou or DW style games will know what to expect since Fate/Extella isnt trying to reinvent the wheel...which I think given its eccentric cast of characters it could have done more in terms of innovation and features.

 

 

__________

 

PROGRESS:

Ar Nosurge: Ode To An Unborn Star - 100% 

Battle Chasers: Nightwar - 100% 

Crystar - 100% 

Death end re;Quest - 100% 

Earthlock - 0%

Fate/Extella Link - 100% 

Granblue Fantasy Versus - 2%

Hack//G.U Last Recode - 0%

I Am Setsuna - 0%

J (Time And Eternity) - 0%

Katana Kami - 0%

Langrisser I & II - 0%

Megadimension Neptunia VII - 0%

Nights Of Azure - 0%

Onechanbara Z2 Chaos - 0%

Pier Solar And The Great Architects - 0%

Omega Quintet - 0%

Romancing SaGa 3 - 0%

Shining Resonance Refrain - 0%

The Caligula Effect: Overdose - 0%

Utawarerumono: Prelude To The Fallen - 0%

Valkyria Chronicles Remastered - 0%

Wild Arms 3 - 0%

Xuan Yuan Sword VII - 0%

YIIK A Postmodern RPG - 0%

Zone Of The Enders: Mars 2nd Runner - 0%

[MyNameIs_Rainman]

On 7/17/2021 at 3:28 PM, Mesopithecus said:

 

I completely understand where you're coming from with Exist Archive, I started it a while ago because I thought the art style looked cool and it's been sat on my profile at 2% completed ever since.  It just felt like 2% story and 98% grind

Gonna suck it up and finish Exist Archive, still have Earthlock picked up so I'll play it regardless in the near future, but finishing a bunch of games that I had close to plat gave me a bit of motivation to keep going so we will see. If and when I do, the review probably wont be that great ?

[MyNameIs_Rainman]

Letter "E" Excommunicated!

Exist Archive: The Other Side Of The Sky 

Completed : 7/26/2021

 

Rainman's Ratings & Review

How JP is this RPG? : 6.5/10

Story/Plot : 4/10

Gameplay: 3/10

Music : 4/10

Time To Platinum : 60 Hours

 

How JP is this RPG? : 6.5/10

Dead kids on a strange floaty islands-planets with two gods who may or may not have banged each other, and probably hate each other but clearly something more is going on? It's up there on the JP side.

 

Story/Plot : 4/10

So there's 12 kids, who I think are like in their late teens...and they are dead. Too bad the game doesnt end right there, because it just gets worse. They end up on some planet that is comprised of a bunch of generic looking maps that have to be traversed with shoddy platforming mechanics. You end up basically caught up between these two deities giving you promises and power, and it all sounds good but the gameplay completely overshadows the story with its mediocrity.

 

Gameplay: 3/10

The best feature of Exist Archive was how characters were mapped to each button and you could create some cool combos by alternating how they attack and the skills associated to those button presses. Nothing was more satisfying than seeing those combo numbers rack up as enemies were brutalized.

 

That being said, everything else sucked. Even Super Neptunia RPG had better platforming, which was pretty laughable. It just felt clunky and made the game feel even more dated than it already was. The story changes based off of what route you took and if you offered/didnt offer up crystals was also interesting, but I feel like it didn't offer up much difference as far as making it feel impacting.

 

Music : 4/10

Meh, these offbeat JRPGs can sometimes have some decent tunes to them but I didn't find anything of interest here...you could say that a good OST didn't...exist...get it?! It was bad, I know, maybe I just was so busy being swallowed by lackluster gameplay that I didn't notice.

 

Verdict:

Spiritual Successor or not, please do not group this with the likes of Valkyrie Profile. Tri-Ace is capable of much better work and this game could have used some additional polishing. Once again, another game I feel is blatantly held back by the limitations of the Vita. Concepts were much better on paper, but the game was just too bland and repetitive. 

 

 

__________

 

PROGRESS:

Ar Nosurge: Ode To An Unborn Star - 100% 

Battle Chasers: Nightwar - 100% 

Crystar - 100% 

Death end re;Quest - 100% 

Exist Archive - 100% 

Fate/Extella Link - 100% 

Granblue Fantasy Versus - 2%

Hack//G.U Last Recode - 0%

I Am Setsuna - 0%

J (Time And Eternity) - 0%

Katana Kami - 0%

Langrisser I & II - 0%

Megadimension Neptunia VII - 0%

Nights Of Azure - 0%

Onechanbara Z2 Chaos - 0%

Pier Solar And The Great Architects - 0%

Omega Quintet - 0%

Romancing SaGa 3 - 0%

Shining Resonance Refrain - 0%

The Caligula Effect: Overdose - 0%

Utawarerumono: Prelude To The Fallen - 0%

Valkyria Chronicles Remastered - 0%

Wild Arms 3 - 0%

Xuan Yuan Sword VII - 0%

YIIK A Postmodern RPG - 0%

Zone Of The Enders: Mars 2nd Runner - 0%

[MyNameIs_Rainman]

Took a bit of a break from the list because as many know..JRPGs (and rpgs in general) can easily burn you out with the grind and everything that encompasses. 

 

I ended up hitting a lull when I got to Letter G. Granblue Fantasy Versus was my choice but I found little desire to play it, and I found myself pushing my list to the side more and more for other games. Eventually I decided I'll just replace it with a different letter G game that I have, and chose God Eater Resurrection. I found myself in the same boat where, honestly, I just wasn't interested in playing that either, and my progress just came to a standstill.

 

Eventually I decided to do another vote (on my gaming IG) and picked a handful of games I had in the backlog. After a few rounds of votes, the winner was Dark Cloud 2. I know obviously this isn't a letter G but..I don't care lol clearing my backlog was the goal and Dark Cloud 2 was heavyyyy back there so either way, it's a win in my book. Have made big strides in it recently up to the last chapter but took a breather to play some other games. Should be making progress in that and a few other games on this list that I will be updating soon enough

[s68sc]

You inspire me to do the same challenge

[MyNameIs_Rainman]

14 hours ago, s68sc said:

You inspire me to do the same challenge

I'm glad I have! I'm still working on the list, I have to post an update because...I completely forgot I had a thread here ??

 

I feel like my list has made some decent changes over the years since I've started and where I am at now, but for me the most important thing was to finally tackle some backlog titles.

[Han_the_Dragon]

Since this surfaced and I have a few of those on my backlog, if you still remember can you suggest me guides for Ar Nosurge, and Exist Archive?

 

Quite surprised thar you say that was only 60 hours, I was expecting it to be at least double the amount of time.. (yes, this is the main reason why I'm posting..)

 

Keep the work and good luck!

[s68sc]

4 hours ago, Han_the_Dragon said:

Since this surfaced and I have a few of those on my backlog, if you still remember can you suggest me guides for Ar Nosurge, and Exist Archive?

 

Quite surprised thar you say that was only 60 hours, I was expecting it to be at least double the amount of time.. (yes, this is the main reason why I'm posting..)

 

Keep the work and good luck!

The PSNProfiles guide for Ar Nosurge is great

[MyNameIs_Rainman]

Let me highlight the changes that have been made in the list. For me, as long as I'm finishing games, it's a win, so if the list changes over time it's still serving it's purpose.

 

At this point I just refuse to get hung up on a game that either is not scratching an itch for me, is just downright awful in my opinion, or I'm just burning out on it. 

 

...You also see as time went on I got a bit more...liberal...with the game names.??

 

*italics represent games that have swapped since last update

 

Ar Nosurge: Ode To An Unborn Star - 100% 

Battle Chasers: Nightwar - 100% 

Crystar - 100% 

Death end re;Quest - 100% 

Exist Archive - 100% 

Fate/Extella Link - 100% 

SD Gundam G Generations Crossrays - 100% 

H (?) - 0%

I Am Setsuna - 100%

Atelier Firis: The Alchemist And The Mysterious Journey DX- 100%

Katana Kami: A Way Of The Samurai Story- 100%

Langrisser I & II - 0%

Moon - 100%

Nights Of Azure - 100%

The Caligula Effect: Overdose OR Omega Quintet - 0%

Pier Solar And The Great Architects - 0%

Dragon Quest Builders - 100%

Romancing SaGa 3 - 100%

Super Robot Wars 30 - 100%

The Legend Of Heroes: Trails Of Cold Steel - 100%

Utawarerumono: Prelude To The Fallen OR Undernauts Labyrinth of Yomi- 0%

Dark Rose Vakyrie - 100%

Wild Arms - 100%

Xuan Yuan Sword VII - 100%

Ys VIII: Lacrimosa Of Dana- 100%

Tales Of Zesteria - 100%

[Taruta13]

Glad you enjoyed Dark Cloud 2. I really enjoyed it, and I think that more people should play it. Sorry you couldn't get into your G games. Also, I see you just skipped a bunch of reviews and cleared half of your list without updating.

[MyNameIs_Rainman]

23 hours ago, Taruta13 said:

Glad you enjoyed Dark Cloud 2. I really enjoyed it, and I think that more people should play it. Sorry you couldn't get into your G games. Also, I see you just skipped a bunch of reviews and cleared half of your list without updating.

I've been very scattered between different social media's, forums, etc, and even hobbies, where I'm just so burnt out I have been very behind with updates of all kinds lol

 

This list was a backlog project for me and it's been fulfilling its purpose, but between being a bit burnt out of gaming lately, it's been hard to stay consistent with the updates tbh

 

I will need to make a full post one day with some brief reviews, but right now the though of that is just ughhhhh ?

[Taruta13]

2 hours ago, MyNameIs_Rainman said:

I've been very scattered between different social medias, forums, etc, and even hobbies, where I'm just so burnt out I have been very behind with updates of all kinds lol

 

This list was a backlog project for me and it's been fulfilling its purpose, but between being a bit burnt out of gaming lately, it's been hard to stay consistent with the updates tbh

 

I will need to make a full post one day with some brief reviews, but right now the though of that is just ughhhhh

Okay, understandable. I just finished Chicory for the PS5 and even with skips it was a bit tiring getting all of the collectibles. Had to use an interactive map and even then it didn't have all of the locations. Thank goodness there are NPCs that tell you how many gifts you have left and pieces of litter.