Tag Archives: RPG

Temtem Review

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It’s time for another super long Switch game in Temtem. This one’s basically a Pokemon homage for the modern audience. In some ways it definitely surpasses Pokemon like the fact that the story can get a lot more out there but on the other hand it does have some extra issues like endless battles that do bog it down somewhat. So it’s a good game but not nearly as good as it could have been.

The game starts off simply enough with your character getting his first Temtem. He can finally travel the world and fight all of the Dojo Masters. Unfortunately his journey is interrupted by the fact that a big terrorist organization is making a move on the planet. They are building some kind of super Temtem to take over the world. The lead will have to stop these guys while also improving his skills, but what can one kid do?

Basically this is like the plot of the original Pokemon game but with a few additions and twists. Additionally the game definitely has fun being really self aware about the whole thing. You are often given 3 dialogue options, usually a nice one, a mean one, and a random one. I certainly had fun playing around with the responses. Note that this doesn’t actually change the story or anything like that but at the same time it does give the lead some personality. Also the characters do actually react to what you’re saying which is nice. In Harvestella this didn’t really happen as the two options were almost always pretty much identical.

I wouldn’t say that most of the characters are all that memorable but I did like the final boss because of how insane he got and I also enjoyed the general. The rival Max started out good but basically fell off a cliff. Where the game gets a bit dicey is it tries to be as edgy and modern as possible which works in some ways like this game having a body count and you getting to fight unwinnable battles. Where it doesn’t work is with the game getting rather PC and shoving a bunch of iffy romances at your face. The game constantly trying to ship me with the rival was pretty awful. At least there’s always an option for you to tell him to back off or just be really mean to keep it from happening but making that a main plot point was definitely not a good idea. A ton of the NPCs you beat up also have romance drama going on, at least two being story plots you can’t skip so the game wanted you to absolutely know where it stood on the gender politics. It’d be nice if all of that could have been sidelined so I can focus on the actual game!

To the rest of the plot, at least the lead actually has real character and can talk. That’s a big departure from the classic Pokemon games where this was absolutely not the case. Even now Pokemon doesn’t really do that and I think it will be years before it’s ready to be more of a full RPG the way this one was. The game doesn’t want to invite too many comparisons to Pokemon beyond all of the inevitable ones so it does go and switch all of the type advantages. Because of this it took me forever to learn them and even by the end I was mostly working off of memory from when I fought the Temtems. I still couldn’t tell you most of the types.

As this is one of those games where you are always online, the game is constantly saving. That’s good because the game crashed several times where I definitely would have lost some data but fortunately in this game when you restart it takes you to the exact point where it crashed. Literally if you’re mid battle you will respawn on the same turn within the same battle. So that was definitely cool. You also have a portable Pokemon center of sorts which you can use to recover all of your health once after every poke center visit. This is huge because otherwise I would have to be going there constantly.

As I mentioned earlier there are tons and tons of fights and they generally keep really close pace with your Temtem. So you can probably beat maybe 2 of them before you have to go and heal. So with this item you can do 4 fights before you have to reset. There is no EXP share or anything like that so most likely by the end of the game you will have 2 super powerful Temtem and the other 4 would be fodders. I basically resorted to just catching my last ones in the wild since they would at least be level 70 that way but my main two were both over level 90. This made the final fight tough since there’s a timer and I had to keep on reviving the main two but it worked out.

You need to watch out for the fact that money is hard to come by from Pokemon encounters though. In fact I think you don’t get any money from those so you need to fight with trainers a lot and that money goes really quickly. It makes losing really high stakes since the game saves so often and then you don’t have enough cash to buy more revives. You can always grind out more levels of course if it gets to be too much though. Fortunately I didn’t have to much after the first chunk of the game, for the most part it stays manageable. Just pick your main two Temtem carefully so that you have a balanced form of attack. I used a thunder type and a bug type which covers most matchups.

The soundtrack is a bit more on the forgettable side so you likely won’t be remembering too many themes. The graphics are also not super impressive, they do the job but ultimately I wouldn’t say that they’re high tier or anything. This could pass for a much older game than on the Switch but it feels like it’s an indie title to an extent so this isn’t exactly coming with a Mario budget or anything like that. It could have probably put some more effort into it, but it’s not bad at least.

One thing this game really lacked was a better fast travel system. There are large parts of the game where you’re running from place to place and it just takes a very long time. Being able to teleport to a town once you have been there would be huge. The main Pokemon games have always done this so Temtem deciding not to bring that feature along was a big mistake. Maybe they thought it would feel too similar but there are tons of ways around that and most RPGs have fast travel so it shouldn’t have been a big deal. In short, this game’s biggest weakness is easily that it is missing a ton of quality of life features. It feels a lot grindier than it needs to be with all of the constant fighting and that means there is less time to just enjoy the story even if the story could have also been better. There are a lot of elements that I liked but also things left on the table. For example the climax is a huge missed opportunity. Lets just say that you’re expecting one more huge battle at the end the whole time and then it just doesn’t happen. I was really surprised about that. It may have also been a budget thing but it was absolutely not a good idea.

Overall, Temtem is a good game. It’s held back a bit by how hard the game is being drawn out towards the end though. There are just so many battles. They may not be super tough but you still have to go back to the healing station each time after fighting them and this gets old quick. Especially because the minion spawn rate is rather high too so you have to be running away a lot. This is a game where you will need to have a book or something with you while you are playing for all of the dead time. It’s a turn based combat game after all so there are a lot of animations and the battles tend to be a little on the long side. It could use some Asdivine Hearts quality of life features to cut out animations and speed things up if you ask me. Still if you want a Pokemon type game with a story that can go a bit harder than the main games then this should be right up your alley. It’s not like there are a ton of Pokemon type games out there either so you need to grab each one that you see.

Overall 6/10

Harvestella Review

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It’s time to look at a farming game and this is the first time that I’ve bought one like this. I was a little hesitant because farming isn’t necessarily my thing but I had heard that this game had a really good story and was still in large part a full RPG with lots of combat. So I decided to take the plunge and it really is a great game. Certainly on the long side as it took me over 50 hours though and nearly ended up catching up to Tears of the Kingdom. The Switch has definitely gotten a whole lot of playtime lately!

The basic plot is that one day you wake up in the middle of nowhere during an event call Quietus. You have complete amnesia but fortunately the local doctor nurses you back to health and even gives you a little farm. You are determined to make this the best farm of all! Eventually an alien ship lands and a girl appears from it. She claims to be from the future and needs a way back to her time. So now you have to help her, tend to your farm, and you also need a way to save the world. See these Quietus events are dangerous since if you stand outside during one you could die and they’re happening very regularly now. Something’s up, but what? As you travel to different towns to buy farming ingredients you meet more people to add to your party and find out more about this time traveler. Ultimately the pieces will fit together but you’ve got time.

There’s a lot to enjoy here but the one thing I will take away from the game is that I would have liked more voice acting. For a modern day Switch title it’s pretty odd to just be reading text the whole time. It’s not like they couldn’t have voice acting either since your fairies call out to you every day when you leave the house and when you return. For two of the final bosses we suddenly get full voice acting as well. So to me it just seems like a budget thing or they were hurrying a lot but it’s unfortunate since voice acting could have helped to elevate this further.

The actual graphics are really good though. I really like the colors and the overall atmosphere of the game. It has a bit of a sci-fi feel to it even when you’re on the farm because of the crystals everywhere. The visuals and the fun soundtrack do a lot to make this game feel grand. It’s an RPG that is taking itself very seriously and I can definitely appreciate that. As a mild negative it would be nice if the fairies didn’t have to greet you home or say goodbye every time. They only have 1-2 sound clips so this gets really old fast. It’s one of those audio things the devs really need to think about since you will be performing those actions well over 100 times.

The RPG combat is really solid, if a bit complicated. Basically you have around 10 different job classes which all change up your attacks and element type. You can use a sword and just slash away at the enemies or you can use futuristic energy blades to fire at opponents from long range. Each job seems to have some advantages to it. I used the Mage class for around 80% of the game and then went to the fighter and holographic classes for the climax. I didn’t experiment too much with the others but they all seemed pretty fun.

There is a stamina system like Breath of the Wild which can get a little annoying. You can’t regenerate it naturally so the only way is to eat some food or go to sleep and start the next day. Not ideal when you’re in the middle of a dungeon though. Additionally you have a hunger meter so after a point you can’t eat anymore. You want to stock up on fruit juices because those you can continue to have even once your character is fully full. This is probably the main point where the game is being just a tad too realistic. I think the game should have dialed that back a bit.

I’m also not typically a fan of the day system and you can bet that this was not an exception. Having to rush home because the day was ending is not really my idea of a good time. I like to just relax and do things as they come so that goes against my gaming style. I’ll make it work of course but yeah these are all mechanics that I could do without. I suppose the most satisfying part of the farming is gathering resources though. It was always nice to finally build something.

By the end of the game I had completed all side quests and managed to build almost all of the items. So I really got a whole lot done and it shows jut how tough the final boss is because I needed all of that in order to win. I would recommend creating a juicer as early as possible because that is really what let me beat the game. I saved up over 40 fruit juices and had to spam almost all of them in order to win.

You could probably do with less of those if you got more level ups I suppose but I capped out in the early 50s so I didn’t have a ton of health. Without all of the health recoveries I would have certainly gone down. You can only get one juice per day too so the earlier you start the better. I ended up beating the game in around 1 year in-game time since I got to experience each of the seasons once so that was pretty cool.

It goes without saying that there is pretty much unlimited replay value here. You can keep on playing for a very long time as you keep upgrading your farm and getting level ups. I imagine it would take an extremely long amount of time for you to 100% this game but at least you do have a final goal of sorts. So the game never feels aimless. I can’t picture myself ever trying for the 100% but at least it is there should you ever be tempted to try and pull that off. Beating the story was satisfying enough for me.

Finally one of the big things about this game is how you can’t do everything you want to do within the day since it goes fast. You always have to decide between resource grinding, progressing the story, doing side quests, or working on equipment. Some of those categories can be broken down even further as well. I would usually focus on resources since there are always enemies to fight along the way but attacking enemies uses stamina which you need to pick up items so it’s still a tough call. Go with your gut on this one and remember there’s no time limit so eventually you will have what you need to get the win.

Overall, Harvestella is a pretty great game. I do think it survives entirely based on the combat gameplay and the great story though. You really get to know all of the characters after being with them for 50 hours so the climax hits really hard. You also had some tough moral decisions to make and ultimately this was just a very complete story. Ultimately this tells me that I still wouldn’t be fully on board with a big farming title. It doesn’t hold the game back enough to hurt it but it would absolutely be really bad news if the whole game had to rely on that. So if you’ve ever been curious about the genre, check this game out. As long as you like RPGs you will still enjoy it and this way you get to have a taste of what the farming is like. It’s really a full win/win for you. There’s also so much depth to the game that it’s hard to mention it all in one shot so trust me you will come across a lot of things that I didn’t even touch on here. The main thing to remember is that this is a game with a serious amount of grinding so pretty much all power ups and equipment really have to be earned. Prepare for a long journey right there!

Overall 8/10

Final Fantasy III Review

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It’s been a very long time since I completed Final Fantasy II. Finally it was time to get back in there for the third game. This one changes some things up with the mechanics and it’s pretty interesting how each of the first 3 games have had something experimental going on. I wonder if that will keep going with each title or if it’ll eventually settle into what I consider to be the classic RPG type.

The story starts with a vague message about light and darkness as we then cut to the main characters who are about to be tasked with saving the world. We’ve got a fairly varied crew here with a princess who is being a bit of a rebel, a classic hero type, a body guard, and other colorful characters. They have to bring the light back to the world and it turns out there are two worlds around as well. As you go to each land you learn more about the people and the troubles befalling them. The game’s early enough where I wouldn’t say the story is particularly deep but it is definitely there throughout compared to the first two games where often times there wasn’t really much dialogue happening at all.

Additionally a big change is that the main character himself can actually talk here. Trust me that’s a big change from the first two games where he was completely silent. I wouldn’t say that any of the characters particularly stand out though so that will be a job for the 4th game or maybe the installments after that. For now that just hasn’t happened yet and I would say the same is true of the villains. So that’s also part of why you won’t remember the story too clearly by the end either. You’re really here for the gameplay more than anything else so lets jump into that.

This game uses a classic level up system. You fight enemies in turn based combat and get stronger. One big change though is instead of an MP system you have magic divided into levels and none are learned as you level up. You have to buy each spell and then equip into the level slots for each character. Whether the character can actually use the spell will ultimately come down to which class you have equipped. Some classes simply can’t learn any spells and others can learn some but not others.

Aside from leveling up your own level you also level up the class that you have equipped as you go through the game. Everyone starts off with a standard class and then as the game goes on you can go into other ones. Ultimately I would say to leave Standard as soon as possible since it won’t help at all in the end. Also the reason you want to switch sooner than later is each class starts back at level 1 which lowers your attack power by a whole lot. For example if you’re level 70 but with a level 1 class then you’ll be hitting so weak that you may get folded by a level 40 opponent. Your equipment still comes into play as well but it can be tough enough to find strong weapons as it is.

I changed my class several times during the game which isn’t optimal so find your favorite one soon. I recommend one top tier healer class, 2 attacking ones, and then a dark mage. With that squad you will be well equipped to take on just about every challenge. I’m not going to say it is literally unbeatable or anything like that but it will be a very strong squad that is hard to stop. I was finally able to beat the game after getting everyone to level 75 and it still wasn’t what I would call easy so keep that in mind.

The final level is a boss rush of around 10 bosses which is really hard to deal with. You do get healed after 5 of those fights at least so you should plan them out well. In general this is one of my issues with the game though which is that you can only save outside of a dungeon. Some of these dungeons are fairly long so going all the way through one and then dying is rough. I lost to the final boss several times and it would always take around an hour to get back to where I was. It did help inflate the play time to over 40 hours but I think the game could have been a little more user friendly in that respect.

Meanwhile I also think the equipment could be a little less fussy. When you change classes all of your equipment is taken off because different classes accept different things. So often times you would have to go find a shop to get some equipment but most of the time the shop wouldn’t have all of the options. This then takes you back to square 1 which isn’t easy. Mix that in with a lack of a good map and that could make things tricky as well. Some of these issues really just come down to the game’s age but others are just game design choices that I would say did not work particularly well.

The graphics look pretty solid though and the soundtrack is on point. I would say the technical aspects are on point and of course I really can’t complain about the length. Being over 40 hours is really fantastic so I can’t possibly fault that. I don’t think you’re going to get much better than that in any RPG when going through the story since that’s not even counting the post game. There’s definitely a lot to do here so you’re getting a ton of bang for your buck. While it will take you a while to beat the game, there is always a lot of hope due to the nature of a level up system like this. For example if I had still been stuck I could have tried switching classes again, hard grinding to level 80, etc.

Now there is one huge pro tip I would mention now since I didn’t learn about this until the final boss. You can use any kind of spell on all allies at once by pressing the right arrow on your D Pad. Why? Who knows, but it’s a really good hidden feature. I started using the heal on everyone at once which was a massive game changer. I can tell you now that I would not have been able to defeat the final boss without that. Honestly I wonder if I could have beaten him at a lower level if I’d known about it sooner. So yeah this is a tip I recommend you really take to heart.

Overall, Final Fantasy III is a pretty fun game. The gameplay is fun and the overall experience is solid. I had some problems with a few of the gameplay mechanics here and there but in the end you’ll spend dozens of hours here and will be glad that you did. Final Fantasy is always the first title you think of when discussing long RPGs and the length here certainly lives up to it. You have to put in a lot of work to get to the end of the game but it’s all worth it and you will feel a tremendous sense of pride and accomplishment.

Overall 7/10

Star Ocean The Last Hope International Review

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Star Ocean’s a pretty fun franchise so far. I’ve only played a handful of games in the series but each one has been high quality. This one in particular does take a little while for the story to really get going but by the end it is delivering with the high end/explosive climax that you would expect from the series. The Last Hope is a fairly long game too so that’s enough time to really get used to the characters. Ultimately you’re going to want to pick this one up for sure.

The game starts by introducing us to the state of the world. Earth has developed enough to send ships into space in order to explore the universe. Sort of like Star Trek you are not allowed to have excessive contact which can change the course of a planet’s history. The main character here is Edge who finally gets to be the captain for this mission. He may not have a ton of experience but he is ready to do good. Unfortunately he’s in for an adventure with a lot of hurdles that threaten to shatter his confidence entirely. Will he be able to salvage the operation?

This story definitely gets very dramatic. Get ready for a lot of self doubt here as the characters all wrestle with their dilemmas. There are also a ton of cinematics in this game, more than I have seen for most other titles which is pretty impressive. The game is already super long as it is, throw in all of these cinematics and now the game is that much longer. It’s always good to see of course since cutscenes make a game more immersive but as mentioned earlier, the pacing can be a little slow at first.

I would say there isn’t even really a main villain until you’re fairly deep into the game. Once the villain appears more that makes things a bit more interesting. The character cast will also grow on you as you go through the game. Edge makes for a good main character and his comrades are all fairly solid as well. It’s just a shame his rival/friend couldn’t appear more as that guy was a lot of fun. He felt like he would be the hero in most other adventures. The guy always made the right calls and fought hard. Ultimately I would say that Edge has not caught up to him just yet.

The graphics here are definitely sharp. I wouldn’t call it one of the most high end PS3 games but the levels and character designs are always clear. The space backdrops always look good and the attacks have good animations. I definitely had no issues there. The soundtrack can be a little more bland but there are still good tracks to be had here. I may have gotten a bit too used to the hype rock soundtrack from the PS4 title. Regardless there is enough variety here where you will almost certainly like some of the tracks.

The gameplay here is effectively real time action. You have different attacks and supers that you use as you run across the map. Enemies will try to attack you as well and you want to time your attacks just right. Once you start a combo you have to let it play out so make sure that you actually have an opening because if your opponent blocks then you will be wide open. A lot of the enemies are immune to being stunned as well so they will just launch an attack while you are attacking and then you’ll go down.

Part of the learning curve here is knowing when to attack and when to run. The game can actually be rather difficult as a result and I can safely say that I did lose quite a few times. There were many moments where I had to take a step back and start training/prepping to get stronger before replaying the level. There is a full level up system at least so you can always get stronger if you are stuck. That said, one tip I would give is to make sure to check the shop while you can.

For most of the game there are no shops accessible which can be rough if you need better equipment. It’s the first time that resource has felt so scarce in an RPG before. Because of that I was over leveled but underpowered for a while because I still had the basic equipment. Trust me, you absolutely do not want the basic equipment. Ultimately it evens out by the end since more shops will appear but the middle act will go a lot smoother if you are properly prepared before heading out.

As mentioned the game is long so I would expect you will be here for a minimum of 30 hours and likely more. You can’t ask for much more out of an RPG than this. I always like to say that a game over 10 hours is reasonably long so it goes without saying that 30 is most excellent. It’s one of the biggest benefits of RPGs since you always know that you’re getting a lot of bang for your buck.

Overall, Star Ocean brings another fun installment to the franchise. It may not be the best title in the franchise but not everything needs to be the best. The main important thing here is that its fun so I would say to pick it up while you can. The final boss rush is definitely not for the faint of heart so definitely get some good training in beforehand. Nothing worse than losing in the middle of a rush and then having to start again from scratch. It just reminds you that you weren’t ready for this yet.

Overall 7/10

Ruinverse Stats and Records

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Stats time!

Play Time 23h 25m
PS4 Trophies 35/35 (Platinum achieved!)

Total Steps 560811
Plant Harvests 201
Enemies Defeated 9702
Physical Skills Used 5151
Magic Skills Used 1786
Magic Circles Used 9
Max Hit Count 353
Max Overkills 39
Max Damage in 1 turn 6350339
Subquests Cleared 15/15
Equipment from Enemies 1410
Chests Opened 282/520

Character Stats

Kit Level 444
Allie Level 444
Lexor Level 444
Toto Level 444
Nana Level 444

Asdivine Menace Stats and Records

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Stats time!

PS4 Trophies 3/16
Play Time 16h 27m
Total Steps 250647
Enemies Defeated 2224
Skills Used 1127
Magic Used 703
Unisons Used 1
Max Damage Dealt 438000
Max Damage Received 39921
Max Hit Count 218
Max Overkill 89
Total Gold Spent 1438280
Treasure Chests Opened 129/369
Max weapon synthesis level 102
Weapons dropped by enemies 34

Character Levels (light, Dark, Neutral magic levels)

Noelle Level 190 50 99 99
Izayoi Level 191 50 1 99
Litany Level 192 99 99 50
Ratona Level 188 99 50 99

Knighthood Update

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I’ve finally made it to Level 60! The highest level in the whole game so that’s pretty hype. It’s definitely been a long journey and this has been a fun game to the side of Pokemon Go. Like that game this one has enough content to keep you busy for a while even after you’ve beaten the story. There is a post game story after the story I’m still working through though, even after being max level it’s a bit too difficult to take all of those out yet though so I need better gear.