Harvestella is one of those games you feel like you randomly found cheaply at a garage sale but then you play it and can feel the passion and all the oddities come together somehow.
Harvestella to me is a game that deserves a lot more attention. I loved the story, freedom, the characters and art style. Had a few gripes like the pacing (side quests could have been more spread out imo) and the Cinderella mechanic I found a bit annoying but put over 100 hours in and feel like I could still go back and enjoy more time with it. Unfortunately heard someone high up on the project left Square shortly after the restructuring so doubt we’ll ever get anymore like it. For me Crystar sits on one end of the spectrum of story vs gameplay while something like Scarlet Nexus sits on the other. I enjoyed both games but for opposite reasons. Crystar’s story was strong enough to overcome the tedious gameplay loop while Scarlet Nexus needed amazing gameplay to compensate for its mediocre story.
Persona 3 FES was my start into the franchise, and while I can understand why some people were disappointed with aspects of Reload, I straight up disagree with most of those criticisms. P3R, in my opinion, was phenomenal. Out right the best way to experience the game in the modern day. I have a hard time playing longer games these days, but P3R had me totally hooked for my entire 90 hour playthrough despite already knowing the story. My only real issue with the game is Theurgy being totally unbalanced. Imo they should just drop the unresistable aspect of the theurgy moves. Let players make that mistake instead of giving them a win button against puzzle enemies.
Maybe so, but not for over $100 just to play the game plus The Answer. I played FES and frankly think P3R is disgustingly overpriced. Waiting on a pretty significant sale. I know they changed and added stuff, but it's still a story I've played before, I know what'll happen. So, I don't mind waiting to get everything for 50-60 bucks. At least people can actually get their hands on Persona 3 though. I'm happy that story can be introduced to a new audience.
I'm so happy you love the Baten Kaitos games; I was never able to convince anyone to play the original back in 2003. Also I had the same experiences with Sea of Stars. The game was massively hyped but I found it on the tedious side, plus the main characters lacked depth and were so overshadowed it was crazy.
I recognized it since it didn't sound like the OST from a JRPG, but the track played at 0:00 is 'Limbus' by Sakuzyo. It's not currently listed in the description of the music used, but it should probably be mentioned, especially as it's a fantastic track!
I think Chained Echoes beat Sea of Stars for me of the "member those good ole days" type game. Its story also has its flaws, but it's way more solid as a whole. But the gameplay loop is just way more interesting with a ton of things to keep it interesting, the whole way through. The worse thing about Chained Echoes is the actual physical release fiasco that still is giving people problems.
I think we are almost there with the physical release of Chained Echoes. Or should I say I hope so 😊 I took a peek into the game using the Steam code they did send us and I think it’s worth the wait 👍 And I’m pretty sure Chained Echoes beats Sea of Stars easily from what I have seen 👍
I really loved Harvestella and I hope they make a follow up. I agree with a lot of your thoughts and I think they could improve on the incredible foundation they’ve laid with the first one! I plan on playing Eiyuden by the end of the year. Tales of the Abyss has been on my list, but I’ve been putting it on the back burner with the hope they’ll remaster it like the others they’ve done.
Funny enough, I’m working on Harvestella right now. I personally like it. The time limit for days makes me feel pressed for time, so I’m always hurried to do something in the day. So mostly the character stories. Also why is all the music so good? This game, of all games, has one of the best OSTs I’ve heard in a while.
Harvestella is like the ultimate 7 out of 10 game haha, It's got like the perfect balance of every single aspect of it being a solid 7 out of 10 except music which is just like a given for Square. But to sum it up in a perfect comparison, this is the Krillan from DBZ of games. When all said and done, just like Krillan it ended up in a good place lol.
Definitely jealous that P3R was your first time playing P3 TKN. The visuals and gameplay plus the voice acting made me want to keep playing it again when I started. I can't wait for Sky remake. Even though I know the story I have never played it myself. I can't wait to play the remake as my first Sky playthrough.
Just as a note on the devs of Sea of Stars, it’s worth noting that The Messenger is intentionally subversive and hugely tongue-in-cheek. So it’s not surprising to me that Sea of Stars would fall into that even when trying to play things straight.
Great video! 🙏 Thank you! May I ask how long you play, on average, on a daily/weekly basis? Some days I feel I may never be able to play through my backlog 😅
I average about 3 hours a day, but there are some days where I put A LOT of time in to a game (over 7 hours) but other times won't game at all if I'm feeling a bit burnt out. Once I finished Reload, outside of the original DQ which took about 5 hours to complete, I didn't play any JRPGs for a week.
While I dont want to be that guy that recommended games but I'll do it anyways. There is 2 games I would recommend: Crosscode, 2D isometric action RPG that is fast pace and the zelda-like dungeons imo the best in the genre. Library of Ruina, a turn based deckbuilding RPG, unlike most deckbulder RPGs (Slay the Spire, etc.), this game is heavily leans more into strategy and luck with tons of reading, aside from that I believe the story of the game itself is one of my favorites in gaming. (Edit: get the pc version the console ports is just bad)
I’ve wanted to jump into a Persona game for years!! Been at the top of my wish list. And never knew where to start. Thanks so much for your detailed review of Persona 3 Reload. The fact that it was your first game in the series, makes me confident to start there as well! Wow does it seem fantastic in every aspect 😊 I was worried about the time constraints and consequences. As I’m not used to that. But you made them seem fun and not too hard. I’m excited!!
Megaton Musashi W had almost no marketing. It's a good game, but I think they were worried that people wouldn't be into it, because it's just so unusual.
Level 5 put very little effort in to the Western market after Yokai Watch flopped and they closed their western branch. The thing is they make awesome games, but they don't know how to sell them.
I'm on the same page as you for Sea of Stars. I was hyped for it before it was released, but rapidly cooled down when I started playing. It was fun and fast enough to finish it, but the writing was very weak and the two "main characters" were fighters with a personality that's less developed that an NPC. I didn't like Garl like some others did... everything was about him all the time, which was quite annoying. Couldn't care enough to get all the conches, but after watching the true ending on UA-cam I'm glad to see I didn't waste my time for it.
If you want another card combat game to check out I recommend From Software's Lost Kingdoms series. They're more like an action RPG Yugioh or Magic the Gathering where you use monster attacks or can summon independent monsters to fight alongside you. They're kind of rough around the edges and both games are pretty short, but I think they're pretty cool hidden gems on the Gamecube.
I really don’t know how you beat P3R in 67 hours. I think it took me an extra 100 hours to beat - I swear there’s something wrong with me! Loved the first 90 hours or so but it really dragged for me after that and I think I must have played it wrong seeing other peoples play time. Would love to know how you beat games so fast.
@@ludwig-aliceyeah it’s definitely a me problem 😂 I talk to too many npcs and spend too much time agonising over fusions in the velvet room. Any other advice to speed through rpgs?
Thank you for the video. Did you play both Baten Kaitos games on the Switch? The showed footage suggests that. If so I would like to know how they performed in your opinion regarding load times and frame rate. Sea of Stars annoyed me too. Slightly overrated in my opinion. Had to stop playing it, just didn’t resonate with me.
I've gone nuts the first third of the year and finished around 30 games in that time but after that, only 3 games. 1 of them was Eiyuden, and they really goofed on that one. The combo attacks, magic, no accessoire which increases your attack range, the minigames, etc.. The title theme is top.
Thank you for that very solid Video. Im actually working on my Sword Art Online Gameverse Marathon. Im platining all the games. 4 out of 6 are finished and im playing alicization Lycoris at the Moment. I find it better than Hollow Realization. Keep up the good work. My favourite JRPG Source on UA-cam. Cheers from germany
Appreciate the review on harvest. It is on my backlog for this year. I've heard a lot of goods things about it but I appreciate the critic portions so that way I don't have so much hype going into that game.
Sea of Stars was free for me (unless you count my subscription,) and I think that definately affected my opinion. Because I definately love the game, but I can agree with a lot of what your saying.
We're eating good this year yall, we still got Dragon age, Metaphor, Ys X and god knows how many more RPG's im missing for the remainder of the year. Q1 2025 is shaping to up to be hype as well with KCD2 and Atelier Yumia!
Harvestella has been my largest surprise in the recent year. I went in expecting nothing and the story + character growth had me very surprised. A bit more depth compared to rune factory with the job system too in combat. I can get the dislike with sea of stars but for me I had a great time with it. I don't feel like the rainbow conches really took that much time if you got them as you went along rather than skipped and felt like it was a giant task to complete later. The free dlc is coming soon too.
The thing is with the rainbow conches is that you'd have to use a guide to efficiently grab all the conches along the way, I don't use guides on my first playthroughs. No intention of going back and getting them all.
@@TheKisekiNut Again I understand, although I didn't use a guide until the end and I was only missing around 10-15 conches. I just wrote down where I saw them so I could go back later. There were a few obscure ones that had you run between some of the towns though which I will agree were kinda ridiculous
Hey, I felt pretty similarly about Sea of Stars and have usually felt like the odd man out, but glad I'm not alone. Eiyuden may have had its own set of issues (undercooked on the polishing/bug side, story on the more by-the-numbers side, and way too many minigames promised that likely sucked the dev time from those other things), but I greatly preferred it over Sea of Stars. A stunning looking facade can only go so far for me. And also I know that Suikoden 1 was a pretty straightforward story too (not too dissimilar in that regard to Sky FC), so that may have been intentional on Eiyuden's part. Here's hoping they pull a Suikoden 2 out of the sequel.
Eiyuden is a classic case of 'too much candy'. They wanted to make the game grand like it's predecessor, but didn't have enough resource to make it happen. It's core premise is excellent though.
59:00 hmmm... my experience with the cooking is a bit different. I can not locate my spreadsheet right now but, while there were some quite good dishes that seemed to work with many people, relying on them could make you lose given the wrong set of judges. Could be I am experiencing it like that due to me needing some time to finish the game and thus receiving patches fixing issues there.
I thought you maybe hadn't played any Suikoden when you were talking about Eiyuden (the Ei- is pronounced like the -ei in sensei, not like E). The game is such a nostalgia hit for those of us who played them back in the 90s/00s.
As much as I love Sea of Garls, I definitely agree with your review. I wish they had pushed most of the plot and character arcs further. For me, it was still a fun enough ride that I still love it, but I can totally understand it not landing for others.
Gotta say you I'll agree with you on Sea of Stars as far as the characters issue. It becomes quite evident the further you progress that the two main characters, Zale and Valere, are just boring, and really only there to give the player a vessel in order to follow Garl as he leads the quest. I do wonder if the creator wanted a blank slate for the protagonists to immerse the player, but then didn't commit and tried to give the (false) impression that they are their own fully developed characters. Leaving the issues with Garl aside, I feel there was at least no need to have Zale and Valere at all. Unless you gave both characters a complete overhaul, it may have been better to just make them a choice between the two at the start, and simply be a completely silent protagonist.
I've just finished Ender Lilies and I wholeheartedly recommend it. It was "free" for PS+ subscribers last month. A mix of atmosphere between Nier and Dark Souls with 2D soulslike gameplay and beautiful soundtrack though I wished there was more. Some scenes were oddly without music and it didn't fit them.
Finally, some real and honest views on these games. I learned never to trust UA-camrs and Redditors after playing through Crystar and Sea of Stars. There seems to be a trend of bowing down to JRPGs if they just have an anime presentation with cute characters or if they aesthetically fit a nostalgic style. When you actually play them. They're. So. Fucking. Boring. Wastes of money. Eiyuden Chronicles was fucking amazing. I'm 40 hours in and highly motivated to 100% it. I'm playing the newest patch on Switch and it runs well. Not smooth as better, but well.
gonna pop in here to say Eiyuden is incredible but if anyone is considering buying it, don't buy it for Switch if you can avoid it, even with the updates
Yep, came to the same conclusion about reviews on UA-cam after trying out ‘Sea of Stars’. Couldn’t believe it and had to stop playing it. Saw someone calling the game a ‘graphic pony’ and I thought it fits well.
I wasn't interested in Sea of Stars mostly just because of the price it's WAY too high for a Indie. I might be more interested in Eiyuden Chronicles if I had played Suikoden, but right now I'm not sure although I would get it on Switch. I kinda agree about youtubers most the time youtubers will rave about the same rpgs with the blandest reasons why.
Crystar is incredibly based and underrated! ...in terms of story and character at least, the rest kinda sucks or is bang average at best. Completely agreed on your gameplay takes for it tbh. I too just blazed through on Easy after a while. I also share your opinion on Abyss being the best next to Berseria. Also glad you enjoyed P3R! Do recommend you go back and play FES at some point though, since it does hit differently due to the different tone in style at points (if you can get your head around the party system in that version at least, or play P3P for the FEMC experience). You cooked this vid though tbh.
Everyone I've heard talk about Harvestella had positive things to say about it. I've been hesitant because I just do not like farming games. I find them boring. Even after being told the farming is not a huge focus I'm not chomping at the bit to dive in. But I'm still intrigued - it sounds interesting and I love the art direction. Also still plan to eventually play Crystar (and Crymachina), Megaton Musashi, and Eiyuuden Chronicles. Love to see you keep going with the Atelier series. Escha & Logy is my favorite of the entire franchise. It was everything I loved about the Arland games, but executed even better. Personally I actually enjoy the time limits in these games. Or actually the time limits don't bother me, and there is even some enjoyment in the puzzle aspect of squeezing everything in to get the best endings. But truly my opinion is that until Ryza Gust really struggled to give the player goals and directions without involving a strict time limit. They either give you a defined goal with a deadline, or they just have you wander around aimlessly until something happens seemingly at random. You liked Sea of Stars far more than I did. I found it boring and dropped it after a few hours. Outside the spritework I found it had no redeeming qualities in the time I gave it.
Love a lot of the games mentioned in this video. I dropped sea of stars and eiyuden and I really wanna experience megaton musashi Like A Dragon Infinite Wealth still holds the crown of JRPG of the year for me personally.
harvestella not perfect yet i loved it , i had over 200 hours in it took me 7 months to beat it ,ugh i need a sequel .as a new gamer i needed that learning and develop genre for skill training and game understanding as a step up to others games and it did it all, it s a special game for me .
Wow - good list of games. I enjoyed Harvestella very much.Abyss and Baten Kaitos (both games) I played ages ago on the PS2 and Game Cube.Shin Megami Tensei 5 Vengeance I am enjoying now as well as working my way through Sea of Stars. I started Persona 3 Reload but the whole shooting yourself in the head to start the battles really creeps me out (SERIOUSLY!). Not sure if I will go back to finish it.
Megaton musashi has already gone on sale for half off ($25) so I scooped ot up around then. The weirdest thing about shallie is I couldnt figure out the lifetasks. Like itd say 'jump 25 times' and when I did it wouldnt go up. Couldnt figure out if I wasnt following the systems logic or it was a weird localization bug.
Dang, I really liked "Crystar", even found the gameplay to be mostly okay. It's kind of sad to see so many RPG youtubers absolutely hate it but I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Niche is niche for a reason after all. Oh well.
Am still in the middle of playing Trails Through Daybreak, might jump back to Sky FC since a remake was announced. Granblue Fantasy Relink, Scarlet Nexus, Caligula Effect, Attack on Titans 2, Tails of Arise, any Trails and Persona games are worth playing imo. Am actually holding back on playing Persona 3 Reload in the hopes of getting a FeMC or wait for the incredible modders to finish their work on it.
I didn't play sea of stars but I heard this opinion in more videos and I won't talk about it because I haven't experienced it yet ( don't think I will) But probably the reason why the combat got stale despite the interactive elements and gorgeous pixel art is probably "Purpose" because I think when I play an RPJ I always look for a reason to invest in the combat mechanics take like a game such as SMT 3 were the game is probably much harder and offers more challenges were I will be forced to grind or put more thought in my play but also on the opposite side you have the trails series (mainly talking about sky and crossbell) While you are able to save whenever so it allows it to ramp up the difficulty especially with optional bosses like a certain fight before the actual final boss in Sky 2 Were the game lays the challenge and leave it to you to engage with it So I don't want to be harsh Sea of stars looks amazing just from screen shots and lots of people will enjoy it but very few will love or hate it
Sea of Stars wasn’t bad nor was it great. However, I did like it and I probably liked it a bit more because I played and saw the complete story of “The Messenger” which is connected to the story of Sea of Stars. I see and agree with everything you said but I still liked it. Despite liking it so much I did take a break after baking a loaf of bread that made a dragon “forgive” humanity
also enjoyed Eiyuden quite a lot. I can say to anyone reading this that they definitely patched the issue with the one character who couldn't be recruited, and the issue with the cooking minigame (which still sucks). what's funny about Harvestella is that I agree with your review but think it's much LESS than the sum of its parts. it's beautiful, the story is solid, the gameplay is dull but inoffensive... and overall I just didn't care and ditched it pretty early. I love cozy and comfortable games and it did nothing for me. I LOVE the 2D art from the game though, like all the food and veggies and character portraits and stuff. I liked Sea of Stars even less than you did. I wouldn't even call it a good game. it completely failed at gameplay and story and characters and well, all you have aside from that is a beautiful shell (oh yeah, the Rainbow Shell thing was awful FOR sure) with some nice music. also oh my god another Garl hater!!! yes!!!!!!! YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! the WORST character!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
Harvestella is designed with my two most hated aspects in a game. Farming simulator and time constraints. The antithesis of fun. I gave it a shot after this video but I couldn't do it. Felt like a job and not a game lol
Despite all the whines and complains from fans who wanted a female protagonist, P3R was my GOTY for my first half of 2024. I enjoyed it so much, even more than Yakuza Infinite Wealth. Well I've played P3 and P3 FES in the past, but I never finished them because honestly the gameplay sucks (we can only control the main character while the rest of the party is on auto attack) and Tartarus is so freakin' boring. So when I finally got my hand on P3R, I'm having a blast. The new soundtracks are phenomenal and I'm loving the improved battle system. Exploring Tartarus is still a tedious task compared to P5's Castle, but P3R made it bearable. And for those who still whines about the lack of female protagonist in P3R, we already got a female protagonist. Her name is Aigis.
I've played a number of these too! Here's my hot takes on some of them: Sea of Stars- _AWFUL._ I want to hit Garl over the head with a chair. Eiyuden Chronicle- a few faults but still felt grand and adventurous; but it was a NIGHTMARE to earn the platinum trophy, which I did. Harvestella- Beautiful, charming, gorgeous music... the combat is a tad weak but this game is a true hidden gem.
Your Sea of Stars review was honestly bang-on. I wrote a pretty hard hitting (and popular / well-received) review on Steam that leveled many of the very same criticisms you had against it. I'm glad the game exists, but its wide and uncritical praise sort of grates me, because the writing is... awful, and the characters are even worse.
I'm a huge fan of Persona 3 FES, but I passed on Reload. It seems like mostly a downgrade. The original had great art design and still looks fine. The graphical improvements are very minor. The awakening scene looked so disappointing. It was those scenes, the art and music that made the game so cool. The mechanical changes were not necessary. I didn't mind not controlling the other members as it fit the game and was a refreshing take on the genre, and the AI was actually good. The new battle mechanics from what I've heard seems broken, and they dumbed down Tartarus. You can just run from encounters and even grab items because the rooms are so big. The fatigue system was actually great. Primarily it's a time restriction that keeps your Tartarus runs short. This made Tartarus feel less grindy to me, as I had to finish it in bite sizes rather than all in one go. P4 removed fatigue and SP restoration, and had the SP pool fill a similar role as the fatigue system. But this just encouraged you to preserve SP, which slowed down battles. The new voices also didn't click with me. They are not bad, and there are hits and misses in both versions. I just think the original core 5 (Yukari, Mitsuri, Junpei, Akihiko and Aigis) were all perfectly casted. In particular I'm not a fan of Yukari who sounds too nice, and Akihiko who sounds like a middle aged man. Maybe the japanese voices would be a compromise. But what really disappointed me was the music. Meguro's original arrangements tends to amplify one or a few lead instruments. A lot of the new backing arrangements are louder. It makes the songs sound messy and less catchy. The cool techno/drum music influences are mostly erased. A good example is Shadow which had a huge snare beat and a multilayered rhythmic instrumental progression. The snare is now toned down and the new backing strings dominate the lead instruments. During the Exams is another song with a cool bass-line that gets drowned in the new mix. In songs like Joy and Mass Destruction the guitars sound sloppy, with more generic tones. Memories of the City were straight out butchered. The echoing piano line sounds like a cheap midi keyboard and the guitar solo lacks overdrive and sustain, so the notes don't ring out. There is so much more emotion in the original solo. Thematically the new singer doesn't fit. Her voice and singing style doesn't have the cool aesthetic of the original singer. It's especially jarring on Mass Destruction. Her performance in the falsetto on Burn my Dread Last Battle despite the chorus effect sounds so underwhelming. The original version is so intense and iconic. This plays at the climax of the story. I also hate what they did to Changing Seasons. The random french added contrast to the song. Removing it and adding english vocals makes it sound so cheesy. The new arrangements just feel lackluster a lot of the times, and overall, that cool Persona 3 aesthetic doesn't shine as brightly.
Yeah, I admit liking Crystar but only for the story/acting. The gameplay is atrocious. I also didn't grind it one go. I played a couple levels one week at a time. ( I was so bummed when Crymachina didn't have a dub acting.) I had an inverse reaction with Sea of Stars. Great presentation but crippled with heinous narrative and shallow characters. While I think fondly of Crystar, I don't for Sea of Stars. (I didn't have too much trouble tracking those conches down without a guide, but I'm a completionist.) Also, The Messenger is a great game by itself, and the relationship between the two games are tongue-in-cheek. Also, the story is better handled - even though there's less of it. I would have finished Persona 3 FES back in the day, but the final boss was kickin' my butt, and then my PS3 bricked and I lost all my PS2 save data. Haven't had the heart to go back.
On Switch I found it very poor on the technical side. Frequently and long loading screens for what? Really annoying and one of the reasons I couldn’t go on with it 🤷♂️
yeah i agree with sea of stars starts off great then when you get some freedom to explore it falls off a cliff on it's face it's boring after a select plot point. Harvestia i was warned the combat was horrible and yep i glad i dodged that one.
Persona 3 has the issue of the great and spacious somewhat boring Tartarus. Persona 5 on the other hand has handcrafted dungeons that change and are unique to the progressing story. I personally find the gameplay of Persona 5 Royal more enjoyable. However, I find the story and characters to be more compelling in persona 3. I also think I like persona 3 music slightly more. I highly recommend persona 5 royal to any JRPG fans.
Honestly, all the drama about the answer, and I've never liked that part of FES. I always liked more how the main game ended and how the story wrapped up then. That whole part of the game has always been boring for me, every single run of the game I made after my first one, I've always skipped the Answer. It breaks a lot of character development from the SEES gang just to add drama. Will I buy the DLC when it comes out? Perhaps, if the script has been revised. I have no objection to the playable epilogue, but the character derailment was horrible
i recently played sea of stars and its up there is the 3rd best game i have played this year. the combat was honestly second favorite part of the game, to me the combat never got old the only time where i didn't enjoy it was the true ending finale boss cos fuck that it took me 2 and a half hours to beat and i didn't die once. im not gonna say what my favorite part of the game is cos its a spoiler.
@@omensoffate if you are talking about the fights then yes thats how all turn based games work except this time i got to tine attacks which makes more engaging. I personally don't really like action jrpgs as all of the ones I have played gave insanely bare-bones combat especially ys and Tokyo xanadu.
Sea of Stars Gurl was so annoying I was playing on Game Pass and I looked up his character and see how much he will impact the story and then I was like nope he is not the prince in White Knight Chronicles this is not that story LOL
Sea of star could've been great but the main characters are so, so, so damn boring and unmemorable. Spamming lunar boomerang for the 420th time got boring fairly fast. The healing combo is ridiculously OP to the point where I didn't feel threatened by anything and never died.
Eiyuden Chronicles has more weaknesses than strengths but just like you it'll still be in my top 10 of 2024, probably even top 3. Weaknesses include: -bugs. Even 4 months after release I had to skip three scenes because they didn't continue even after waiting 2 minutes. Some of the duel scenes also looked bugged to me. -base building is boring. Basic is okay, boring isn't. Even Ni No Kuni 2 did this better. -recruitment is either a total breeze or really bothersome (Beyblade and Cooking). Something in the middle would have been better for some characters. -the tactical battles only worked as storytelling, the gameplay gave me nothing. It's a good there were only a few of them. -very little not-story-related exploration. Give your players a reason to look around the world you created The only part that was outstanding on it's own was the music. The game managed to pull all these things together though and it just worked. Now I wish Trails would have been a bit inspired by Suikoden. Imagine instead of a normal fight between Lloyd and Noel in Trails of Azure to re-recruit her they would have had a duel like in Eiyuden. One on one fights never felt good in Trails.
Suikoden was very much an inspiration for Trails. Suikoden 1's protag had a bo staff. Suikoden 2's protag had tonfas. (Tell me any other series that gave the protags such rare weapons, and in that order to boot.) Suikoden 3 is very much like a proto-Reverie. There are also other characters that seem way too much like they are ripped from Suikoden, even if Trails did them much better (Lechter and Walter come to mind). Quartz and Master Quartz feel pretty reminiscent of Runes and True Runes, even if their exact mechanics and lore relevance differ. The mech battles in CS1/2 feel like a riff on the paper-rock-scissors of Suikoden duels, just more fleshed out. (Then CS3/4 made it more of a fully-formed combat system.) There's also the part of CS2 where you recruit the other students to your cause, which is 1000% a Suikoden nod. Then there's the scale of the worldbuilding-which while it can't hold a candle to Trails, Suikoden's five games and spinoffs very much craft a world rife with politics and history of conflicts that are head and shoulders above every other JRPG series besides Trails.
I agree with Sea of Stars. It started out great... but got really bland, boring and mundane quick. The combat fell off quick, and only the great visuals and OST kept me interested to finish it. Garl really went from being a sweet cool guy to someone you just wanted to see get killed off and I think he was one of the main reasons us and most people didnt end up liking the game overall.
About TAles of Abyss i remembered, that ot has a anime end anime has a little bit better ending than game) Imteresting thing many Tales of games have anime adaptation, aaaaand anime ussually are much better than games in story-telling. Vesperia are better (even if its just a prequel), Zestria are better, Abyss too)
Turn based battle system that require giving orders to ALL characters prior are very outdated. I wanted to try 100 heroes but now seeing that it's like that I'm way less interested. I believe moving away from this system is what made DQ11 a masterpiece.
I did think Seraï had good character development and a nice arc in Sea of Stars. She wasn't bland like the protagonists or shoved down your throat like Garl. Also, I don't think Sea of Stars is a dead serious game. Look at the pirate gang lamp-shading every RPG trope.
A few humorous moments don't take away from the overall serious tone of Sea of Stars. It has jokes, but it also has a town getting straight up nuked. Many JRPGs have some humour while maintaining their overall serious angle.
Garl takes the cake for me as the most _insufferable_ RPG character I've ever endured. Sea of Stars can't shut up about him. Every 5 minutes it's all about how swell and fantastic and faultless Garl is. Character development for Valere and Zale? No way - their dialogue revolves entirely on praising Garl. Couple that with a battle system that never evolves into anything beyond what you experience in the beginning portions of the game and I think Sea of Stars is just awful.
I'd like to think that the reason garl never develops in the game because all of the character development happened off-screen...while zale and valere are locked away in the temple
@@TheKisekiNut if they wanted to make garl the focal point (or at least really important), I can easily come up with the reasoning that he is indispensable is that in those 10 years he has spent it travelling the world meeting people and learning local knowledge noting down places he'd want to visit with his friends, so when they go to a new place he'd be the tour guide of the group and demonstrate those 10 years by introducing someone who could help them at each location, it'd fit much better since zale and Valerie were essentially hermits who only trained in combat and to me it'd also at least explain why everyone loves him, because he had 10 years to bond with all these people in the outside world
![[LIVE] PoE 2 Detonate Dead Bloodmage - NEW PLAYERS WELCOME to Ask Questions !guide](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/AAFBKgV-PNg/mqdefault.jpg)
Full reviews for games mentioned in description.
Part 1 for 'RPGs I've played in 2024' is here - ua-cam.com/video/W3zmlm5SrJg/v-deo.html
Totally agree Sea of Stars is good but I didn't think it was great. Enjoyable but not great the story never fully clicked with me.
Have you got any plans to try out Chrono Cross? 🤔
Harvestella is one of those games you feel like you randomly found cheaply at a garage sale but then you play it and can feel the passion and all the oddities come together somehow.
Pretty much, it's one of the weirdest 'good' games I've played.
@@Regithegamer I also thought you could describe it as “the best game that SHOULD be mid.”
I wanted to like it, but it felt unfinished, and the animations felt very stiff
Glad to hear your Sea of Stars review. The story would drive me nuts
I sacrificed myself for you guys.
In seriousness, it's not a terrible story, but it's nothing exemplary either.
@@TheKisekiNut the way you described the fake Samewise sounded like a Steven Universe character. You’re sacrifice will be remembered
This has quickly become my favourite JRPG channel. Thanks!
Harvestella to me is a game that deserves a lot more attention. I loved the story, freedom, the characters and art style. Had a few gripes like the pacing (side quests could have been more spread out imo) and the Cinderella mechanic I found a bit annoying but put over 100 hours in and feel like I could still go back and enjoy more time with it. Unfortunately heard someone high up on the project left Square shortly after the restructuring so doubt we’ll ever get anymore like it. For me Crystar sits on one end of the spectrum of story vs gameplay while something like Scarlet Nexus sits on the other. I enjoyed both games but for opposite reasons. Crystar’s story was strong enough to overcome the tedious gameplay loop while Scarlet Nexus needed amazing gameplay to compensate for its mediocre story.
Love these videos I find them so helpful when you end up playing a game that I have been on the fence about. Keep em coming!
Persona 3 FES was my start into the franchise, and while I can understand why some people were disappointed with aspects of Reload, I straight up disagree with most of those criticisms.
P3R, in my opinion, was phenomenal. Out right the best way to experience the game in the modern day. I have a hard time playing longer games these days, but P3R had me totally hooked for my entire 90 hour playthrough despite already knowing the story.
My only real issue with the game is Theurgy being totally unbalanced. Imo they should just drop the unresistable aspect of the theurgy moves. Let players make that mistake instead of giving them a win button against puzzle enemies.
Reload is a worse version of it P3
@@marcusclark1339 we're both allowed to have our opinions.
Maybe so, but not for over $100 just to play the game plus The Answer. I played FES and frankly think P3R is disgustingly overpriced. Waiting on a pretty significant sale. I know they changed and added stuff, but it's still a story I've played before, I know what'll happen. So, I don't mind waiting to get everything for 50-60 bucks. At least people can actually get their hands on Persona 3 though. I'm happy that story can be introduced to a new audience.
@@ExireHG The price for the full package is absolutely too high, but the price for just the Journey is totally fine imo.
I'm so happy you love the Baten Kaitos games; I was never able to convince anyone to play the original back in 2003. Also I had the same experiences with Sea of Stars. The game was massively hyped but I found it on the tedious side, plus the main characters lacked depth and were so overshadowed it was crazy.
They're both sleeper hits. I loved the first game way more than I thought I would. Origins was a given after that.
I recognized it since it didn't sound like the OST from a JRPG, but the track played at 0:00 is 'Limbus' by Sakuzyo.
It's not currently listed in the description of the music used, but it should probably be mentioned, especially as it's a fantastic track!
I think Chained Echoes beat Sea of Stars for me of the "member those good ole days" type game. Its story also has its flaws, but it's way more solid as a whole. But the gameplay loop is just way more interesting with a ton of things to keep it interesting, the whole way through. The worse thing about Chained Echoes is the actual physical release fiasco that still is giving people problems.
I think we are almost there with the physical release of Chained Echoes. Or should I say I hope so 😊
I took a peek into the game using the Steam code they did send us and I think it’s worth the wait 👍
And I’m pretty sure Chained Echoes beats Sea of Stars easily from what I have seen 👍
That issue with the physical release of Chained Echoes is insane.
@@TheKisekiNut the Regular Edition for PS4 is now available 👍
Oh yeah Chained Echoes smokes Sea of Stars tbh.
I just finished Astlibra and I recommend you play it, the story, gameplay, characters and music were all amazing to me
47:33 Haha, that’s my favorite line in the kiseki series.
Trails has nothing on Sea of Stars - HHPM (Hahas per minute) is definitely higher in SoS.
I really loved Harvestella and I hope they make a follow up. I agree with a lot of your thoughts and I think they could improve on the incredible foundation they’ve laid with the first one! I plan on playing Eiyuden by the end of the year. Tales of the Abyss has been on my list, but I’ve been putting it on the back burner with the hope they’ll remaster it like the others they’ve done.
I really need to play more of Harvestella but you’re right, it is somehow so much more than the sum of its parts.
Funny enough, I’m working on Harvestella right now. I personally like it. The time limit for days makes me feel pressed for time, so I’m always hurried to do something in the day. So mostly the character stories.
Also why is all the music so good? This game, of all games, has one of the best OSTs I’ve heard in a while.
Music is excellent in Harvestella, really fits the theme.
Harvestella is like the ultimate 7 out of 10 game haha, It's got like the perfect balance of every single aspect of it being a solid 7 out of 10 except music which is just like a given for Square. But to sum it up in a perfect comparison, this is the Krillan from DBZ of games. When all said and done, just like Krillan it ended up in a good place lol.
Definitely jealous that P3R was your first time playing P3 TKN.
The visuals and gameplay plus the voice acting made me want to keep playing it again when I started.
I can't wait for Sky remake. Even though I know the story I have never played it myself. I can't wait to play the remake as my first Sky playthrough.
Just as a note on the devs of Sea of Stars, it’s worth noting that The Messenger is intentionally subversive and hugely tongue-in-cheek. So it’s not surprising to me that Sea of Stars would fall into that even when trying to play things straight.
Great video! 🙏 Thank you! May I ask how long you play, on average, on a daily/weekly basis? Some days I feel I may never be able to play through my backlog 😅
I average about 3 hours a day, but there are some days where I put A LOT of time in to a game (over 7 hours) but other times won't game at all if I'm feeling a bit burnt out.
Once I finished Reload, outside of the original DQ which took about 5 hours to complete, I didn't play any JRPGs for a week.
While I dont want to be that guy that recommended games but I'll do it anyways.
There is 2 games I would recommend:
Crosscode, 2D isometric action RPG that is fast pace and the zelda-like dungeons imo the best in the genre.
Library of Ruina, a turn based deckbuilding RPG, unlike most deckbulder RPGs (Slay the Spire, etc.), this game is heavily leans more into strategy and luck with tons of reading, aside from that I believe the story of the game itself is one of my favorites in gaming. (Edit: get the pc version the console ports is just bad)
I’ve wanted to jump into a Persona game for years!! Been at the top of my wish list. And never knew where to start. Thanks so much for your detailed review of Persona 3 Reload. The fact that it was your first game in the series, makes me confident to start there as well! Wow does it seem fantastic in every aspect 😊 I was worried about the time constraints and consequences. As I’m not used to that. But you made them seem fun and not too hard. I’m excited!!
Megaton Musashi W had almost no marketing. It's a good game, but I think they were worried that people wouldn't be into it, because it's just so unusual.
Level 5 put very little effort in to the Western market after Yokai Watch flopped and they closed their western branch. The thing is they make awesome games, but they don't know how to sell them.
Great video I’ve been trying to get into more jrpgs other than p5 and octo traveler 😅
I'm on the same page as you for Sea of Stars. I was hyped for it before it was released, but rapidly cooled down when I started playing. It was fun and fast enough to finish it, but the writing was very weak and the two "main characters" were fighters with a personality that's less developed that an NPC. I didn't like Garl like some others did... everything was about him all the time, which was quite annoying. Couldn't care enough to get all the conches, but after watching the true ending on UA-cam I'm glad to see I didn't waste my time for it.
Same, I never bothered to finish it. Well made, but I didn’t connect with it at all.
I lasted about 5 hours. The lack of changing skills + poor writing I was just bored AF. Very disappointed.
@@gilded_ladysame here, most overrated game I ever started playing.
Good gravy a 1 hour long video 😅I'm gonna need a snack 😋 😊
44:49 I wonder if The Messenger fills some of the gaps in the story. Really can’t remember.
If you want another card combat game to check out I recommend From Software's Lost Kingdoms series. They're more like an action RPG Yugioh or Magic the Gathering where you use monster attacks or can summon independent monsters to fight alongside you. They're kind of rough around the edges and both games are pretty short, but I think they're pretty cool hidden gems on the Gamecube.
Yes good games
I'll keep these in mind!
You are a machine. I can never play these RPGs back to back.
Your Sea of Stars review mades me happy that I don't have a YT Channel reviewing games
Have you tried Fuga: Melodies of Steel?
I loved Crystar, does it compete with the best of the genre? No. Is it a casual fun run? Yes.
Nice work on that back log this year!
I really don’t know how you beat P3R in 67 hours. I think it took me an extra 100 hours to beat - I swear there’s something wrong with me! Loved the first 90 hours or so but it really dragged for me after that and I think I must have played it wrong seeing other peoples play time. Would love to know how you beat games so fast.
66 hours here
@@ludwig-aliceyeah it’s definitely a me problem 😂 I talk to too many npcs and spend too much time agonising over fusions in the velvet room. Any other advice to speed through rpgs?
I was pretty much doing everything in Reload so I don't know how some got to the triple digits, but we all have different ways of playing.
Thank you for the video.
Did you play both Baten Kaitos games on the Switch? The showed footage suggests that. If so I would like to know how they performed in your opinion regarding load times and frame rate.
Sea of Stars annoyed me too. Slightly overrated in my opinion. Had to stop playing it, just didn’t resonate with me.
Baten Kaitos was fine on Switch. It had some frame dips but was mostly inoffensive. If you have the choice though, PC all the way.
I've gone nuts the first third of the year and finished around 30 games in that time but after that, only 3 games. 1 of them was Eiyuden, and they really goofed on that one. The combo attacks, magic, no accessoire which increases your attack range, the minigames, etc.. The title theme is top.
Thank you for that very solid Video. Im actually working on my Sword Art Online Gameverse Marathon. Im platining all the games. 4 out of 6 are finished and im playing alicization Lycoris at the Moment. I find it better than Hollow Realization. Keep up the good work. My favourite JRPG Source on UA-cam. Cheers from germany
Appreciate the review on harvest. It is on my backlog for this year. I've heard a lot of goods things about it but I appreciate the critic portions so that way I don't have so much hype going into that game.
Sea of Stars was free for me (unless you count my subscription,) and I think that definately affected my opinion. Because I definately love the game, but I can agree with a lot of what your saying.
We're eating good this year yall, we still got Dragon age, Metaphor, Ys X and god knows how many more RPG's im missing for the remainder of the year.
Q1 2025 is shaping to up to be hype as well with KCD2 and Atelier Yumia!
Veilguard and Metaphor in the same month. What shall i play first 😆
Dragon age is going to be awful
nah DA is terrible
what is KCD2 if you dont mind me asking?
@@inevitable-armageddon kingdom come deliverance 2
Harvestella has been my largest surprise in the recent year. I went in expecting nothing and the story + character growth had me very surprised. A bit more depth compared to rune factory with the job system too in combat.
I can get the dislike with sea of stars but for me I had a great time with it. I don't feel like the rainbow conches really took that much time if you got them as you went along rather than skipped and felt like it was a giant task to complete later. The free dlc is coming soon too.
Agreed
The thing is with the rainbow conches is that you'd have to use a guide to efficiently grab all the conches along the way, I don't use guides on my first playthroughs. No intention of going back and getting them all.
@@TheKisekiNut Again I understand, although I didn't use a guide until the end and I was only missing around 10-15 conches. I just wrote down where I saw them so I could go back later.
There were a few obscure ones that had you run between some of the towns though which I will agree were kinda ridiculous
Hey, I felt pretty similarly about Sea of Stars and have usually felt like the odd man out, but glad I'm not alone. Eiyuden may have had its own set of issues (undercooked on the polishing/bug side, story on the more by-the-numbers side, and way too many minigames promised that likely sucked the dev time from those other things), but I greatly preferred it over Sea of Stars. A stunning looking facade can only go so far for me. And also I know that Suikoden 1 was a pretty straightforward story too (not too dissimilar in that regard to Sky FC), so that may have been intentional on Eiyuden's part. Here's hoping they pull a Suikoden 2 out of the sequel.
Eiyuden is a classic case of 'too much candy'. They wanted to make the game grand like it's predecessor, but didn't have enough resource to make it happen. It's core premise is excellent though.
I do highly recommend unicorn overlord
59:00 hmmm... my experience with the cooking is a bit different. I can not locate my spreadsheet right now but, while there were some quite good dishes that seemed to work with many people, relying on them could make you lose given the wrong set of judges. Could be I am experiencing it like that due to me needing some time to finish the game and thus receiving patches fixing issues there.
I thought you maybe hadn't played any Suikoden when you were talking about Eiyuden (the Ei- is pronounced like the -ei in sensei, not like E). The game is such a nostalgia hit for those of us who played them back in the 90s/00s.
after I played chained echos sea of stars was a huge let down
As much as I love Sea of Garls, I definitely agree with your review. I wish they had pushed most of the plot and character arcs further. For me, it was still a fun enough ride that I still love it, but I can totally understand it not landing for others.
Gotta say you I'll agree with you on Sea of Stars as far as the characters issue. It becomes quite evident the further you progress that the two main characters, Zale and Valere, are just boring, and really only there to give the player a vessel in order to follow Garl as he leads the quest. I do wonder if the creator wanted a blank slate for the protagonists to immerse the player, but then didn't commit and tried to give the (false) impression that they are their own fully developed characters. Leaving the issues with Garl aside, I feel there was at least no need to have Zale and Valere at all. Unless you gave both characters a complete overhaul, it may have been better to just make them a choice between the two at the start, and simply be a completely silent protagonist.
It would have been better if they went full on DQ and had a silent protag. Their attempts to characterise Zale and Valere were woeful.
I've just finished Ender Lilies and I wholeheartedly recommend it. It was "free" for PS+ subscribers last month. A mix of atmosphere between Nier and Dark Souls with 2D soulslike gameplay and beautiful soundtrack though I wished there was more. Some scenes were oddly without music and it didn't fit them.
Great video
Will you be giving LoH: Gagharv a go?
Finally, some real and honest views on these games. I learned never to trust UA-camrs and Redditors after playing through Crystar and Sea of Stars.
There seems to be a trend of bowing down to JRPGs if they just have an anime presentation with cute characters or if they aesthetically fit a nostalgic style.
When you actually play them. They're. So. Fucking. Boring. Wastes of money.
Eiyuden Chronicles was fucking amazing. I'm 40 hours in and highly motivated to 100% it. I'm playing the newest patch on Switch and it runs well. Not smooth as better, but well.
I'm enjoying sea of stars but yeah not the game everyone sold me on
gonna pop in here to say Eiyuden is incredible but if anyone is considering buying it, don't buy it for Switch if you can avoid it, even with the updates
Yep, came to the same conclusion about reviews on UA-cam after trying out ‘Sea of Stars’. Couldn’t believe it and had to stop playing it. Saw someone calling the game a ‘graphic pony’ and I thought it fits well.
@@mrp1234I bought it on PS4 but it’s still sealed. I’m not sure if it’s worth it to open or if I should better try to sell it.
I wasn't interested in Sea of Stars mostly just because of the price it's WAY too high for a Indie. I might be more interested in Eiyuden Chronicles if I had played Suikoden, but right now I'm not sure although I would get it on Switch. I kinda agree about youtubers most the time youtubers will rave about the same rpgs with the blandest reasons why.
Crystar is incredibly based and underrated! ...in terms of story and character at least, the rest kinda sucks or is bang average at best. Completely agreed on your gameplay takes for it tbh. I too just blazed through on Easy after a while.
I also share your opinion on Abyss being the best next to Berseria. Also glad you enjoyed P3R! Do recommend you go back and play FES at some point though, since it does hit differently due to the different tone in style at points (if you can get your head around the party system in that version at least, or play P3P for the FEMC experience).
You cooked this vid though tbh.
I likely won't play FES due to accessibility, but Reload is more than sufficient for me.
tales of abyss is a classic !
Harvestella on PS5 when? I can keep hoping right? They shadow dropped Octopath Traveler 1 on playstation not long ago.
I've been playing Growlanser 1, 2, and 3. They're so good!
I enjoyed Eiyuden Chronicles when I played it. Took me a long time to beat it though. And Baten Kaitos is definitely on my list of jrpgs to play.
Thank you for the test of Sea of Stars. Have it here but haven't touched it yet. Won't play it after your review - that story sounds awefull!
Everyone I've heard talk about Harvestella had positive things to say about it. I've been hesitant because I just do not like farming games. I find them boring. Even after being told the farming is not a huge focus I'm not chomping at the bit to dive in. But I'm still intrigued - it sounds interesting and I love the art direction.
Also still plan to eventually play Crystar (and Crymachina), Megaton Musashi, and Eiyuuden Chronicles.
Love to see you keep going with the Atelier series. Escha & Logy is my favorite of the entire franchise. It was everything I loved about the Arland games, but executed even better.
Personally I actually enjoy the time limits in these games. Or actually the time limits don't bother me, and there is even some enjoyment in the puzzle aspect of squeezing everything in to get the best endings. But truly my opinion is that until Ryza Gust really struggled to give the player goals and directions without involving a strict time limit. They either give you a defined goal with a deadline, or they just have you wander around aimlessly until something happens seemingly at random.
You liked Sea of Stars far more than I did. I found it boring and dropped it after a few hours. Outside the spritework I found it had no redeeming qualities in the time I gave it.
Love a lot of the games mentioned in this video. I dropped sea of stars and eiyuden and I really wanna experience megaton musashi
Like A Dragon Infinite Wealth still holds the crown of JRPG of the year for me personally.
harvestella not perfect yet i loved it , i had over 200 hours in it took me 7 months to beat it ,ugh i need a sequel .as a new gamer i needed that learning and develop genre for skill training and game understanding as a step up to others games and it did it all, it s a special game for me .
Wow - good list of games. I enjoyed Harvestella very much.Abyss and Baten Kaitos (both games) I played ages ago on the PS2 and Game Cube.Shin Megami Tensei 5 Vengeance I am enjoying now as well as working my way through Sea of Stars. I started Persona 3 Reload but the whole shooting yourself in the head to start the battles really creeps me out (SERIOUSLY!). Not sure if I will go back to finish it.
Megaton musashi has already gone on sale for half off ($25) so I scooped ot up around then.
The weirdest thing about shallie is I couldnt figure out the lifetasks. Like itd say 'jump 25 times' and when I did it wouldnt go up. Couldnt figure out if I wasnt following the systems logic or it was a weird localization bug.
Which platform you bought Megaton Musashi on?
Dang, I really liked "Crystar", even found the gameplay to be mostly okay. It's kind of sad to see so many RPG youtubers absolutely hate it but I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Niche is niche for a reason after all.
Oh well.
I download from game pass stars and persona 3 ,I agree with stars quite boring while persona is well written
Am still in the middle of playing Trails Through Daybreak, might jump back to Sky FC since a remake was announced. Granblue Fantasy Relink, Scarlet Nexus, Caligula Effect, Attack on Titans 2, Tails of Arise, any Trails and Persona games are worth playing imo.
Am actually holding back on playing Persona 3 Reload in the hopes of getting a FeMC or wait for the incredible modders to finish their work on it.
If the translation of 100 heroes is fixed I'll buy it.
If you were forced to reply one of the two games, crystar or sea of stars?
I loved p3 reload and spent 120 hrs trying to get everything.
Agree great game!!!
I have heard that The Answer was divisive even when it first came out
I didn't play sea of stars but I heard this opinion in more videos and I won't talk about it because I haven't experienced it yet ( don't think I will)
But probably the reason why the combat got stale despite the interactive elements and gorgeous pixel art is probably
"Purpose" because I think when I play an RPJ I always look for a reason to invest in the combat mechanics take like a game such as SMT 3 were the game is probably much harder and offers more challenges were I will be forced to grind or put more thought in my play but also on the opposite side you have the trails series
(mainly talking about sky and crossbell)
While you are able to save whenever so it allows it to ramp up the difficulty especially with optional bosses
like a certain fight before the actual final boss in Sky 2
Were the game lays the challenge and leave it to you to engage with it
So I don't want to be harsh
Sea of stars looks amazing just from screen shots and lots of people will enjoy it but very few will love or hate it
Sea of Stars wasn’t bad nor was it great. However, I did like it and I probably liked it a bit more because I played and saw the complete story of “The Messenger” which is connected to the story of Sea of Stars. I see and agree with everything you said but I still liked it. Despite liking it so much I did take a break after baking a loaf of bread that made a dragon “forgive” humanity
also enjoyed Eiyuden quite a lot. I can say to anyone reading this that they definitely patched the issue with the one character who couldn't be recruited, and the issue with the cooking minigame (which still sucks).
what's funny about Harvestella is that I agree with your review but think it's much LESS than the sum of its parts. it's beautiful, the story is solid, the gameplay is dull but inoffensive... and overall I just didn't care and ditched it pretty early. I love cozy and comfortable games and it did nothing for me. I LOVE the 2D art from the game though, like all the food and veggies and character portraits and stuff.
I liked Sea of Stars even less than you did. I wouldn't even call it a good game. it completely failed at gameplay and story and characters and well, all you have aside from that is a beautiful shell (oh yeah, the Rainbow Shell thing was awful FOR sure) with some nice music. also oh my god another Garl hater!!! yes!!!!!!! YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! the WORST character!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
That’s what I felt about Sea of Stars. What a shallow game 😐
Harvestella is designed with my two most hated aspects in a game. Farming simulator and time constraints. The antithesis of fun. I gave it a shot after this video but I couldn't do it. Felt like a job and not a game lol
Reload is my game of the year so far. Loved it!!
Crystar gameplay is how I felt with sky 1
Despite all the whines and complains from fans who wanted a female protagonist, P3R was my GOTY for my first half of 2024. I enjoyed it so much, even more than Yakuza Infinite Wealth. Well I've played P3 and P3 FES in the past, but I never finished them because honestly the gameplay sucks (we can only control the main character while the rest of the party is on auto attack) and Tartarus is so freakin' boring. So when I finally got my hand on P3R, I'm having a blast. The new soundtracks are phenomenal and I'm loving the improved battle system. Exploring Tartarus is still a tedious task compared to P5's Castle, but P3R made it bearable.
And for those who still whines about the lack of female protagonist in P3R, we already got a female protagonist.
Her name is Aigis.
persona 3 reload took me over 100 hours to complete the first time.
I think Sea of stars lack in some world-building. I dontr understand who all those alchemists-gods and other things are(
I've played a number of these too! Here's my hot takes on some of them:
Sea of Stars- _AWFUL._ I want to hit Garl over the head with a chair.
Eiyuden Chronicle- a few faults but still felt grand and adventurous; but it was a NIGHTMARE to earn the platinum trophy, which I did.
Harvestella- Beautiful, charming, gorgeous music... the combat is a tad weak but this game is a true hidden gem.
Your Sea of Stars review was honestly bang-on. I wrote a pretty hard hitting (and popular / well-received) review on Steam that leveled many of the very same criticisms you had against it. I'm glad the game exists, but its wide and uncritical praise sort of grates me, because the writing is... awful, and the characters are even worse.
I'm a huge fan of Persona 3 FES, but I passed on Reload. It seems like mostly a downgrade. The original had great art design and still looks fine. The graphical improvements are very minor. The awakening scene looked so disappointing. It was those scenes, the art and music that made the game so cool.
The mechanical changes were not necessary. I didn't mind not controlling the other members as it fit the game and was a refreshing take on the genre, and the AI was actually good. The new battle mechanics from what I've heard seems broken, and they dumbed down Tartarus. You can just run from encounters and even grab items because the rooms are so big. The fatigue system was actually great. Primarily it's a time restriction that keeps your Tartarus runs short. This made Tartarus feel less grindy to me, as I had to finish it in bite sizes rather than all in one go. P4 removed fatigue and SP restoration, and had the SP pool fill a similar role as the fatigue system. But this just encouraged you to preserve SP, which slowed down battles.
The new voices also didn't click with me. They are not bad, and there are hits and misses in both versions. I just think the original core 5 (Yukari, Mitsuri, Junpei, Akihiko and Aigis) were all perfectly casted. In particular I'm not a fan of Yukari who sounds too nice, and Akihiko who sounds like a middle aged man. Maybe the japanese voices would be a compromise.
But what really disappointed me was the music. Meguro's original arrangements tends to amplify one or a few lead instruments. A lot of the new backing arrangements are louder. It makes the songs sound messy and less catchy. The cool techno/drum music influences are mostly erased. A good example is Shadow which had a huge snare beat and a multilayered rhythmic instrumental progression. The snare is now toned down and the new backing strings dominate the lead instruments. During the Exams is another song with a cool bass-line that gets drowned in the new mix.
In songs like Joy and Mass Destruction the guitars sound sloppy, with more generic tones. Memories of the City were straight out butchered. The echoing piano line sounds like a cheap midi keyboard and the guitar solo lacks overdrive and sustain, so the notes don't ring out. There is so much more emotion in the original solo.
Thematically the new singer doesn't fit. Her voice and singing style doesn't have the cool aesthetic of the original singer. It's especially jarring on Mass Destruction.
Her performance in the falsetto on Burn my Dread Last Battle despite the chorus effect sounds so underwhelming. The original version is so intense and iconic. This plays at the climax of the story. I also hate what they did to Changing Seasons. The random french added contrast to the song. Removing it and adding english vocals makes it sound so cheesy.
The new arrangements just feel lackluster a lot of the times, and overall, that cool Persona 3 aesthetic doesn't shine as brightly.
Garl feels like Ramus From LSSC to me.
Yeah, I admit liking Crystar but only for the story/acting. The gameplay is atrocious. I also didn't grind it one go. I played a couple levels one week at a time. ( I was so bummed when Crymachina didn't have a dub acting.)
I had an inverse reaction with Sea of Stars. Great presentation but crippled with heinous narrative and shallow characters. While I think fondly of Crystar, I don't for Sea of Stars. (I didn't have too much trouble tracking those conches down without a guide, but I'm a completionist.) Also, The Messenger is a great game by itself, and the relationship between the two games are tongue-in-cheek. Also, the story is better handled - even though there's less of it.
I would have finished Persona 3 FES back in the day, but the final boss was kickin' my butt, and then my PS3 bricked and I lost all my PS2 save data. Haven't had the heart to go back.
Sea of stars just looked amazing, sounded amazing and was fun to play. Was enough reason for me to love it. I just thought the storytelling was bogus.
On Switch I found it very poor on the technical side. Frequently and long loading screens for what? Really annoying and one of the reasons I couldn’t go on with it 🤷♂️
@@MaI2MeI played it on the switch, too. Don't remember they were that long, though.
yeah i agree with sea of stars starts off great then when you get some freedom to explore it falls off a cliff on it's face it's boring after a select plot point. Harvestia i was warned the combat was horrible and yep i glad i dodged that one.
Persona 3 has the issue of the great and spacious somewhat boring Tartarus. Persona 5 on the other hand has handcrafted dungeons that change and are unique to the progressing story. I personally find the gameplay of Persona 5 Royal more enjoyable. However, I find the story and characters to be more compelling in persona 3. I also think I like persona 3 music slightly more. I highly recommend persona 5 royal to any JRPG fans.
Honestly, all the drama about the answer, and I've never liked that part of FES. I always liked more how the main game ended and how the story wrapped up then. That whole part of the game has always been boring for me, every single run of the game I made after my first one, I've always skipped the Answer. It breaks a lot of character development from the SEES gang just to add drama.
Will I buy the DLC when it comes out? Perhaps, if the script has been revised. I have no objection to the playable epilogue, but the character derailment was horrible
i recently played sea of stars and its up there is the 3rd best game i have played this year. the combat was honestly second favorite part of the game, to me the combat never got old the only time where i didn't enjoy it was the true ending finale boss cos fuck that it took me 2 and a half hours to beat and i didn't die once. im not gonna say what my favorite part of the game is cos its a spoiler.
You did the same thing over and over and over again
@@omensoffate if you are talking about the fights then yes thats how all turn based games work except this time i got to tine attacks which makes more engaging. I personally don't really like action jrpgs as all of the ones I have played gave insanely bare-bones combat especially ys and Tokyo xanadu.
@@niles8576I prefer turn-based combat too, but Sea of Stars just didn’t do it for me. I don’t know but it felt slow and tedious.
@@MaI2Me not liking it is fine. i can see why it would feel tedious but it didn't feel that way to me.
If only Eiyuuden had a proper translation
Sea of Stars Gurl was so annoying I was playing on Game Pass and I looked up his character and see how much he will impact the story and then I was like nope he is not the prince in White Knight Chronicles this is not that story LOL
My favorite channel uploads again!
Sea of star could've been great but the main characters are so, so, so damn boring and unmemorable. Spamming lunar boomerang for the 420th time got boring fairly fast. The healing combo is ridiculously OP to the point where I didn't feel threatened by anything and never died.
JRPG inspired Western games just never get it.
Eiyuden Chronicles has more weaknesses than strengths but just like you it'll still be in my top 10 of 2024, probably even top 3.
Weaknesses include:
-bugs. Even 4 months after release I had to skip three scenes because they didn't continue even after waiting 2 minutes. Some of the duel scenes also looked bugged to me.
-base building is boring. Basic is okay, boring isn't. Even Ni No Kuni 2 did this better.
-recruitment is either a total breeze or really bothersome (Beyblade and Cooking). Something in the middle would have been better for some characters.
-the tactical battles only worked as storytelling, the gameplay gave me nothing. It's a good there were only a few of them.
-very little not-story-related exploration. Give your players a reason to look around the world you created
The only part that was outstanding on it's own was the music. The game managed to pull all these things together though and it just worked.
Now I wish Trails would have been a bit inspired by Suikoden. Imagine instead of a normal fight between Lloyd and Noel in Trails of Azure to re-recruit her they would have had a duel like in Eiyuden. One on one fights never felt good in Trails.
Suikoden was very much an inspiration for Trails. Suikoden 1's protag had a bo staff. Suikoden 2's protag had tonfas. (Tell me any other series that gave the protags such rare weapons, and in that order to boot.) Suikoden 3 is very much like a proto-Reverie. There are also other characters that seem way too much like they are ripped from Suikoden, even if Trails did them much better (Lechter and Walter come to mind).
Quartz and Master Quartz feel pretty reminiscent of Runes and True Runes, even if their exact mechanics and lore relevance differ. The mech battles in CS1/2 feel like a riff on the paper-rock-scissors of Suikoden duels, just more fleshed out. (Then CS3/4 made it more of a fully-formed combat system.) There's also the part of CS2 where you recruit the other students to your cause, which is 1000% a Suikoden nod.
Then there's the scale of the worldbuilding-which while it can't hold a candle to Trails, Suikoden's five games and spinoffs very much craft a world rife with politics and history of conflicts that are head and shoulders above every other JRPG series besides Trails.
Don't forget that the localizaton was also butchered with cringe western slang put into it and entire sentences changed.
I agree with Sea of Stars. It started out great... but got really bland, boring and mundane quick. The combat fell off quick, and only the great visuals and OST kept me interested to finish it. Garl really went from being a sweet cool guy to someone you just wanted to see get killed off and I think he was one of the main reasons us and most people didnt end up liking the game overall.
They tipped the Garl needle too far.
About TAles of Abyss i remembered, that ot has a anime end anime has a little bit better ending than game)
Imteresting thing many Tales of games have anime adaptation, aaaaand anime ussually are much better than games in story-telling.
Vesperia are better (even if its just a prequel), Zestria are better, Abyss too)
Turn based battle system that require giving orders to ALL characters prior are very outdated. I wanted to try 100 heroes but now seeing that it's like that I'm way less interested. I believe moving away from this system is what made DQ11 a masterpiece.
I did think Seraï had good character development and a nice arc in Sea of Stars. She wasn't bland like the protagonists or shoved down your throat like Garl. Also, I don't think Sea of Stars is a dead serious game. Look at the pirate gang lamp-shading every RPG trope.
A few humorous moments don't take away from the overall serious tone of Sea of Stars. It has jokes, but it also has a town getting straight up nuked. Many JRPGs have some humour while maintaining their overall serious angle.
I know you’ve done videos in the past on this but I don’t know where you find the time to play all these games 😊. Love your videos keep it up.
yeah sea of stars is a real disappointment
Garl takes the cake for me as the most _insufferable_ RPG character I've ever endured. Sea of Stars can't shut up about him. Every 5 minutes it's all about how swell and fantastic and faultless Garl is.
Character development for Valere and Zale? No way - their dialogue revolves entirely on praising Garl.
Couple that with a battle system that never evolves into anything beyond what you experience in the beginning portions of the game and I think Sea of Stars is just awful.
I'd like to think that the reason garl never develops in the game because all of the character development happened off-screen...while zale and valere are locked away in the temple
All about the opinions, it got praised to the roof. I just didn't see it.
@@TheKisekiNutagree. On the other hand I played through chained echoes twice. Masterpiece tribute to the genre.
@@TheKisekiNut if they wanted to make garl the focal point (or at least really important), I can easily come up with the reasoning that he is indispensable is that in those 10 years he has spent it travelling the world meeting people and learning local knowledge noting down places he'd want to visit with his friends, so when they go to a new place he'd be the tour guide of the group and demonstrate those 10 years by introducing someone who could help them at each location, it'd fit much better since zale and Valerie were essentially hermits who only trained in combat and to me it'd also at least explain why everyone loves him, because he had 10 years to bond with all these people in the outside world