The sheer dissonance between the opening theme being called "Don't Talk to Me" and the protagonist just smiling like he just told you to have a nice day is staggering.
The Generation of Chaos universe is ironically very very large. Like theres a Pokemon like game where you play a kid who tames monsters. Then in a later game that kid becomes the legendary hero that kills the demon king and throws the balance of the world into disorder causing a whole bunch of issues. Then theres a game for GameCube where you play that kid/hero's grand daughter as she attends a magic school. Like they just have a shit ton of games that basically cover like 100+ years of that world's history.
06:29 I literally laughed out loud when this smiling anime boy popped up onscreen to thrashing electric guitars. Some incredible choices here. Oh, and I looked it up--this is from the same developer as Chaos Wars, which tells me *everything* I need to know. 😂
@@TitaniumLegmanI literally only know the name because a countdowner I used to watch put it at the top of a “worst voice acting in video games” list. You are in for a laugh riot if you play it in English.
There’s only two kinds of idea factory games. Interesting ideas that could be refined further into something amazing (they never do), or an absolute dumpster fire of weird systems smashed together in as confusing a way as possible seemingly only to torture the player. I have a learned dread response when I see the logo now.
I think the closest I’ve gotten to Idea Factory is Nisa being a character that exists. Honestly one of the better things to come out of their work. I also say that as someone who has only played with Neptunia’s DISGAEA reference character when she looped back around to be a guest character in DISGAEA itself.
@Nathan-rb3qp I'm convinced they're a Yakuza front. They've been in the game so long, but have never really gotten any better. By all logic, they should have either gotten better, or gone under, but neither has happened. Maybe they're just super good at managing overhead and are existing as a company that maintains more or less neutral economic standing in defiance of the "infinite expansion forever" model, but it's weirder to assume they have this winning formula, but can't figure out game development, than to assume their actual business output is irrelevant, and the company mainly exists to launder money and pay Yakuza members in an on the table, taxable way, or something. They don't really have a deciecive niche they're anchored to, to justify such ling term mediocrity either. I've never met a die hard IF fan, at most I've encountered people that have a soft spot for them. With the Yakuza model, it would make sense that they have a skeleton crew actually making games for legitimacy, and on that team there is one, tragic figure, a guy who has this cool idea for some kind of massive, 4x, map painting, grand strategy title covering an entire simulated world's military history; some pipe dream masterpiece that is something like the lovechild of Dwarf Fortress' simulation mode, Total War/Civilization, and like JRPG Dynasty warriors that will just never happen, especially now that they have Compile Heart's business model of "make a mediocre game as an excuse to sell anime girls doing cute thing". It's the mob pizzeria that has to be ready to make a pizza on short notice in case the police show up, that has one guy who actually dreams of making pizza. Of course, I have nothing to back this up whatsoever. It's just a hypothetical explanation for the anomaly that is Idea Factory.
@@aprinnyonbreak1290 If they're a cooperative or private company they don't actually need to make infinite plus one dollars every quarter because that bullshit is only pushed by professional loan sharks and their legal crime syndicates such as BlackRock. When you own your company you can make trash products for fun and so long as your employees and taxes are paid, you can ignore every single "market force" and "economic trend".
Is the choice for the type of voices for characters a part of their reputation? Never had I heard a more annoying voice coming from a character that look nothing like a child nor a monkey nor a monkey child.
@@DustinBarlow8PIdea Factory very often makes mediocre JRPGs and SRPGs. Sometimes the entire design is bad, more often they just have a few bizarre decisions that really bog down game. For example, Agarest: Generations of War is a 150+ hour game, but there's nothing going on for a good portion of those hours, just needless grinding. Cut that out and the game improves tremendously.
@@DustinBarlow8P I like some Idea Factory games but I reconize they are 100% an adquiered taste and are objectively serviceable at best. Their objectively best game is probably like Fairy Fencer. My personal favorite is Omega Quintet though.
Oh shoot, THAT'S what this was! I found a UMD of this in Japanese inside a PSP I was fixing up a couple years ago, and was surprised how low the reviews were at the time. Definitely lives up to that Chaos title, but man seeing knights fighting UFOs is certainly something else.
Oh I wonder what- Idea Factory Yeeeeahh. It's kind of a shame when you see them have an actually good idea for a game and just bungle it so hard. The Neptunia series carries them and Compile Heart purely through its characters. Imagine making a series of games THAT successful and to this day the newest games in the franchise still have the same dungeons as the first entry.
I’m so fucking offended. I genuinely adored the previous Generation of Chaos game as a kid, and thought this was a sidegrade or a slight step down but still enjoyed it. This video feels like an attack on my very personality. Subscribed.
I Didn't think it was fair to compare it to Final Fantasy Tactics, when this game was likely inspirited by Langrisser or Dragon Force. I too enjoyed the previous one more cause it was like fantasy anime total war with a huge risk style map with nations, make allies, upgrade buildings, when you lost troops you need to buy/train new ones. The Previous one was sort of too grand for the psp, it had massive fps/slow down issues, so I can see why they changed it to be small map, next level, next level, tons of nations, tons of triggers and events all on one huge map. I kind wish Idea Factory would release a collection of all the Generation of Chaos games maybe even fix or add more surprise new units/heros. They moved on more into Hyper Neptunia, games that people love and adore.
Honestly 2 SRPGs I'd love to see you cover are Zone of the Enders: Fist of Mars on the GBA and Operation Darkness on the XBOX 360. The former has a truly AWFUL combat system where every attack from you or the enemy results in this targeting mini game that takes up to 20 seconds in a game where you have 10+ units and the enemy might have upwards of 30. The latter is an unhinged retelling of WW2 with werewolves and stuff with some of the most baffling balancing choices I've ever seen. Things like hitting 3 specific tiles that are all 10+ spaces apart thus making that move almost entirely useless. Definitely worth a look for both of them if you want trash to cover lol
At one point, my brother and I gave Ati (I forget his full name) the nickname of Lord of leveling up, because any time we brought that edgy evil looking dude with the elf ears to a base, the base would get that lvl up rainbow effect.
Seeing this video pop up was oddly vindicating for me. I picked up Generations of Chaos (I guess it's this game's predecessor because that's the full name, but it is almost identical but with different characters/setting) for the PSP many years ago thinking "Oh man, this is a neat looking strategy game. I love this kind of stuff!" But then it was total garbage that was nearly unplayable, for many of the same reasons that you describe in this video. It was so bad, I'm fact, that I don't think I ever even cleared the first full map because the game just drops you in with NO IDEA AT ALL what to do. Seriously...so terrible.
I don't mind if a game universe/world has different themes as long as the story flows properly into each zone. But this sounds like a jumbled mess. If you want to check out and react to another bad jrpg, I recommend Dark Rose Valkyrie. The MC talks like the typical happygolucky best friend of an MC and also is very self deprecating. Like "why is he even the MC?" It makes no sense. I haven't played it in awhile and I don't remember the music. But I remember the game play was ok and the characters look nice, and the story iirc wasn't terrible. It's literally just the MC bringing down the quality of the story
I played this game a few times and think your review is spot on. This game should have just tried to improve upon the prior PSP entry which is also a flawed but fun game. The problem this game has is many times special characters are too OP, but near the end of the game you need to have leveled different characters as their are difficulty spikes that require a bit of grinding at random bases. The previous psp entry was better, but also extremely flawed. That game has such an interesting premise and similar gameplay, but once you figure out that you should just spam Specials to wipe all enemy troops and then have your troops stun lock the commander, then its game over. These games have a nonsensical plot, but had very unique combat that i had fun learning (but fully understood why most people would give up). Thanks again for covering this childhood game that i enjoy, but agree with your assessment over the flaw!
Oh god I played this and I still have flashbacks. Idea Factory was known for shoddy RPGs with menus that means nothing -- Chaos Wars was also made by them and somehow manages to be as bad or even worse, with the cherry on top of having one of the WORST localizations ever. Idea Factory was the master of the kusoge games, literally s**tty games, and the Japanese themselves used to call it "Idea F**k". Yup, that bad. But I did find the character designer for you. Yoji Hiraiwa (as Youji Hiraiwa) with the sprites by Toshikazu Arai and Yūta Kawamoto. All of them vanished after the series ended or something, with Arai being an effect design in JUMP Force and Rune Factory 5 but that's it.
Fun fact, that "Idea F**k" thing is not even true apparently. All sources lead back to a single English article that claimed as such cause they hated one of their games, despite no evidence whatsoever. There were even people who looked for it by searching Japanese gaming boards, like Land of Obscusion who in general has done some extensive coverage of IF's early history in gaming and animation work, and nothing like that was ever found. But hey, if you still want to believe it, more power to you. Not like it's stopped most of you from parroting it anyway.
You telling me an Idea Factory game is janky, weird and kind off bad? Please don't say it is so! For real, considering this company just...PUSHED out game after game after game within like a literal dozen of series or sub series who also all cross over with each other at some point, yeah, no shit. Considering the released AT MINIMUM a game each year, the name Idea FACTORY is absolutely warranted, producing rpg shovelware by the truck load. Honestly a bit sad tho, because as you point out you got nuggets of good in these games, and the amount of like, cross-referencing between game series all existing within a shared multiverse at this point rivals stuff like SMT or Final Fantasy or the Nihon Falcom catalogue.
I just did a quick check on this because I was interested and this in no way is a defense of the game more an here is the explanation this game Aedis Eclispe is the 4th game in the Generation of Chaos series and was indeed the first one localized in English so there are 3 other Generation of Chaos games on the PS2 that were never released in English so there are probably a lot of established mechanics in the game that are established for long time followers of the franchise but as someone just going into the game are not explained very well
This is the second “worst RPG” video I’ve seen today that has the quote “This game was made by Idea Factory.” Honestly the fact that there is basically a company that exclusively makes terrible rpgs is kind of impressive
Three seconds in: "This smells like Idea Factory." "It's made by Idea Factory." *sighs, begrudgingly pouring myself another drink* The part about having 14-year-old brain is FAR too relatable, I made the same mistake picking up Mimana: Iyar Chronicle. I... didn't like it very much and gave it away, LOL Wait, is that Barbara? (Laharl's VA). Yeah, it is... and it isn't listed on her wikipedia page or IMDB! If the English Voiceover wiki is to be believed though, they apparently had an unlimited Dub VA budget because they've got an all-star cast! Mary McGlynn, Michelle Ruff, Wendee Lee... Mona Marshall! (I love her) and other heavy-hitting names, holy cow. Honestly though I can't hate dubs from this era. They felt still unrefined, kinda awkward, but the cheesiness sells it. Chaos Wars being one of the most memorable for how bad it was. Combined with a crappy game, though... doesn't exactly enrich the experience haha. Good video! I like your vibes :D
Omg I forgot this game existed! The first minute of this video was me slowly realizing “yes, I HAVE played this before! How did I forget? Oh, I’m remembering how I forgot” 😂
I like that you can tell the developers must of been huge fans of Langrisser or Dragon Force with these titles. I always wished squad's troops got a bonus from leader's Chrisma stat or something. I think this is the second Genentions of Chaos game on the psp, lot of the event cameos characters from 1st one on the psp. Most of the Cameo were like legendary lords. Which is sort why some of them are so powerful, they were faction leaders. This game has an art book as well as a gallery I think when you beat the game on the front menu. You need to have unlocked or obtained character to be able see the full artwork in the gallery. I've put ton of hours into these games, I had like 6 Memory item accessory, think the optional grind it takes to fight Baal but you can only obtain 1 each run and have to new game plus and grind from lv.1 and do all the story stuff to get another. This game having 3 lords/story helps. Once you figure out each time you attack an enemy they gets a small stun all you have to do is find someone with a double attack, give them a partner who can also double attack and your front and back squad is made up of vampires with range attack, there you go, you can beat the post game super boss just by keeping him stun locked. This one is WAY too easy like the level up stats in this one are crazy to the point where you'd only put your level up stats in HP cause you'll naturally cap every stats with how much point you get from level ups. There's a previous Generation of Chao on the PSP thats more of a Risk focused with a giant map and tons of factions you can make alliances, level ups from stats and stats in general are smaller so the troops can be threating, upgrading the buildings and land was more worth wild cause it played like a huge Free for all you'd want to defend points and get those bonuses, it was like a huge grand scale war instead of little maps, next level next level. Shame the previous one runs horribly and is slow, whatever coding problem they had was fixed for this one, but the huge risk style map had to be lost. I wish Idea Factory would re release all the Generations of Chaos games, these game are fun and good way to pass time. I don't remember the story, but I remember collecting captains, or doing monster run, or magic only. Enjoyable Anime total War game on hand held.
I completely forgot about this game. I almost couldn't believe at first that I found PSP sRPG game I didn't try out, but turns out I did. And I just don't remember anything about it at all 🤣🤣
Man, I had a weird parallel experience very similar to you. While I never played this game, I DID play Spectral Souls: Resurrection of the Ethereal Empires, also released by Idea Factory a year before it. (I was also considering getting Jeanne d'Arc, BUT, never did.) One thing that sold me on the game, is that they said you could choose which of the three armies warring against one another you wanted to play as. (Unfortunately I found out later that you didn't just pick one to play, you had to swap back and forth between different armies to progress the story / do so in a certain way if you wanted the true ending. One of the worst parts about this being that you couldn't entirely focus on one army as much I wanted. The other armies / characters you had to use to progress the story would be underleveled if you only used them for that.) But what *REALLY* sold me on the game: I remember going to the website and looking up characters and such for the different armies, and *MY GOD* Hillo was cool. She fought with a scythe, her left hand was just this giant skull with black claws sticking out of it, and her nickname was the Exploding Godhand. The artwork for her looked awesome. Just, fantastic on every level. I wanted nothing more than to play as her, power her up ridiculously, and cleave through absolutely everything in my path. I wish she could be given a much better game, her whole concept and design seriously deserves it. Unfortunately she's stuck in Idea Factory Hell. It's wild seeing how similarly the openings to these games are designed, though I DEFINITELY got the better end of the deal there, as the opening for Spectral Souls was like, one of the high points of the game for me. I really recommend looking it up if you haven't seen it, the song is called "Blue Sky" by the same band that made this opening, Dogschool. Blue Sky is a much better song in my opinion, I actually quite like it a lot, and it feels a shame that it's virtually unknown. The tone fits a lot better with what you're seeing, too. It always got me pumped to play the game. But then I actually had to play it. The game itself was... Okay-ish. A mostly serviceable but also slower / boringer FFT or maybe more Disgaea-style game. You had AP which you could use to perform multiple attacks in a turn, and you could "hold" a character's attack on an enemy. So that when another of your characters attacked that enemy, the other character would unleash the attacks you "held" in a chain, and certain attacks could combine, and it was kinda neat. You could "hold" multiple characters against the same target too, for some nice massive overkill combos. I remember loading times being quite the annoyance though, even in the middle of a battle I believe it had to take a moment to load attacks in and such. I think the framerate of the game would even slow down at times. (And I remember at least one skill, Purify, not even having an animation. For the longest time I thought it was just because my disc got scratched, but after playing on an emulator years later, I realized nope, it's just got a broken animation.) A hell of a lot better than the mess Aedis Eclipse seems to be, at least.
Wow I remember playing this is highschool. Barely remember this game but watching this reminded me of so much. I also remember quitting around the 3rd world because it got boring and was just recycling the first 2 worlds.
Idk about its quality because it's been way too long, but I played Hoshigami: Ruining Blue Earth Remix on the DS as a kid and when I went to try and find other people who even knew it existed, I found out the original PS1 version of the game is incredibly disliked for its difficulty. I wish I remembered the remake better (I don't even think I knew it was one at the time) but I know I definitely finished it? But that's about it. XD
@@TitaniumLegman I haven't yet because of my own game from like 20 years ago! There are similar aims and ideas in the game, so I want to gain the trust of the devs to not cause any problems. I never intended a temporal controversy...
So.... I thought at first your artist may have been a younger version of the team that made Radiant Historia based off the splash arts. For reference, I'm a HUGE little known Atlus RPG type of guy. I had not heard of this game. So, I went a googling. From what I can pull up, the character designer was Yoji Hiraiwa. As far as I can tell, he only worked on this game, a majong game, and a few other little known games that sound like they have something to do with this game. Hope it helps. Sorry if someone already answered you.
@@TitaniumLegman Might I interest you in some Knights in the Knightmare action for a video? I REALLY think it actually deserves someone to give it some spotlight. You seem like the type of chap, based off all the strat RPG content, who would appreciate a gem of a game with some janky elements. You also seem like the type of guy who already knows about this game, but I figure I'd throw it out there and see what we get.
This seems like 1/3 of 3 different games, haphazardly stitched together. Plenty of decent ideas, but no cohesion between them. At least the art and music is decent.
Have you ever played Lunar: Dragon Song for DS? I’m obsessed with JRPGs, especially for GBA and DS-but holy hell this game was hot garbage. It was like the developers were having a pissing contest of how many horrible game mechanics they could fit into a single game. At least this game has some neat-looking character designs and decent art. LDS was very…generic across the board, including story, designs, art, etc.
As fan of Idea Factory's games... what you have put in the description... that is pretty much my entire summary of them as a brand, but I love them for it... because Megaman X Command Mission... is the worst RPG of all time because it does all the same thing as far as having potential go, but it lacks ANY payoff at all... just seeds and then the harvest with no growth. But Aedis Eclipse is, like so many Idea factory games, sort of? It's own timeline. But they are all united by the same dragon connected BS... it is... I just love how crazy their games are plot and character wise. There was an actual conversation in the game that came out before this one just called Generation of Chaos in the US, where an elf chick tells a dog lady that she is going to put her on a leash in like a highly suggestive way... And I've never found what combination it was anymore but I love it because those are side characters. They don't even have unique battle sprites, just portraits. And the game is dripping with charm every five seconds.
I think a pretty good positive / negative review episode could just be to look at Final Fantasy Tactics and the FF Tactics Advance version, also bc. of the popularity of this. Arguably the second one is a smaller game for a handheld system, mostly aimed at 12 year olds who had that system (and the numbers compared to the Tactics Ogre advance games showed tha tthe devs totally understood the target audience on the console and developed accordingly) But it is for sure interesting to look at it from a neutral stance. Comparing systems, how they got simplified. But also looking at a couple of things the Advance game did better (e.g. different races, the clan levelup system)
At first I misread the title as "The worst SNES RPG" and I was going to be SUPER impressed with the graphical fidelity of the game! Took me a second to realize ".......oh."
Well written characters. Horribly time wasting execution of combat. You will literally spend 3/4ths of the game in mandatory battles, 1/5 in rigged boss battles that you literally have to cheat to beat and the rest in a... somewhat decently written war drama.
Hm. I wouldn't call them bad games, but Galaxy Angel series is definitely a bit shallow when it comes to the gameplay. They are a trilogy of RTS games where you command a ship and a squadron of fighters, each piloted by a girl with unique characteristics to each. If anything, I would say that the gameplay is more spectacle than substance, since we have flashy ultimate attacks. Honestly, I would like a remaster and integration of the games into a single title.
@@shytendeakatamanoir9740 Yup. Honestly, I think the SRPG-VN was far better than the anime, as I found the anime too goofy in a clumsy way. Slayers, Patlabor, and Irresponsible Captain Tylor are much better anime IMO. IIRC, it was the VNs that came first, so it was probably a case of not being able to transfer the good qualities of the VN to other mediums.
!f Idea Factory alone says it all, I really want to like their soectral and chaos games too... Oh but excited for you to experience Chaos Wars, its dub is pure entertainment.
They got laharl voice actor, It seems like they were very overly ambitious for a handheld game they probably could have broken it up into three different games, and in fact released them. I do like that has a similar combat style of dragon force though you don't see that enough.
fuuuuuuck man, I knew those portraits immediately. I played a lot of this game back on the psp, but when I downloaded a rom later on to play again?.... cant believe I liked this game at one point
Sometimes a strategy RPG just doesn't click, and it can be really frustrating. On the flip side, I've recently developed a knack for RTS games, and they’ve been a blast. Games like Gates of Pyre are offering me some great strategic challenges and tactical depth.
@@TitaniumLegman Unsung Story was that cursed Kickstarter game with a plot outline/game design by Yasumi Matsuno where the studio was shady, then a new studio bought the rights, then they vanished two years ago. But they did get a demo out for the backers via Steam early access. I think it hurts to play because hopes were so high and everyone had their hearts broken by the original studio to do the Kickstarter. I think it's now a decade past the projected release date? I was just curious how your disappointing in this game compared to the disappointment an unpublished Matsuno game was =] If you haven't played it, though, don't seek it out on my account! That way lies only tears.
Alright, it looks like I might be the only one in the comment section who actually enjoys this game so I'll try to defend it a little. First I want to say that I agree with plenty of points made. I won't go on about the game's presentation, artstyle or anything outside of the core gameplay, because I have little, if anything, to add to that. 2ndly, I want to add that it's been a couple years since I last played it some I'm going largely off memory so I might get some details wrong. That said, let's talk about the gameplay. I actually think it's deceptively deep. On it surface, it would appear that the best way to win simply slam your biggest units into the enemies. In reality there are a lot of ways to win battles and others skew things into your favor. For example, bases/forts are extremely powerful, but only (iirc) 3~ units can actually defend them. IIRC it's possible to actually rush past defending units to fight the main defender, but it's risky because the main defender will have fort defenses helping him. If you aren't able defeat the main defender, he will have his health partial restored (bases/forts restore your health and sp) the next round and possible switched out, so it's generally better to slowly take out all the officers to wear down their numbers (and potentially recruit them) then to blitz them as the other defenders (IIRC) do not have the fort shooting arrows or cannons in the background. That said, it's not always a bad idea to rush past them in a desperate moment The game heavily incentivizes slow, lengthy wars/strategies over quick victories. It's possible that you may have had problems with the pacing, expecting it to play more like FFT or something similar. The game gives you a ton of things to do mid including shopping, recruiting (you can use all recruited allies immediately) base building, and then some. The game heavily focuses around bases and what you can do with them and in them. You mentioned the random events that can happen in turns. I want to point out that you have both positive and negative. I actually like this system because the game is entirely pve and strategy game ai is notoriously abuseable. These random event add an extra level of chaos to matches which would otherwise end in you simply abusing the predictable ai. Losing a turn isn't as bad as it sounds as your enemies don't get free attacks on you. They still have to fight the rts battles in which you still have full control of your units. Whats more, is all your based units will still heal (if most of your units aren't in some sort of building, you're doing it wrong). So if your strategies are sound, losing a turn shouldn't be much more an annoying. I actually forgot that you could lose a turn, because I don't usually lose anything as a result. The random events shake things up and also reward you (occasionally) for your patience/perseverance (sometimes you get things like free level ups). If this were a pvp game, I'd think the events would be awful for pretty obvious reason. The point about characters being bad is something that actually baffled me. While I would agree that the secret characters are very strong (mostly because their starting army is very strong), I've never felt any of my characters were weak or otherwise not worth using, including the generic units. This is especially true because of how customizable the characters are and the fact that you can pair units together (you unlock this feature later on). You can (and should) switch our your starter armies with stronger versions as you gain access to stronger arms via recruitment of generic units. The whole recruitment thing is meant to be unreliable because it would be incredibly powerful otherwise. If you could reliably recruit guys, your armies would grow too powerful too quickly as you could use them immediately and the downside to doing it would be negligible. By making it a stat-based rng system you actually have to weigh your options. You could execute the prisoner to prevent yourself from ever having to fight that enemy again (units can rescue prisoners). You can release the prisoner so you can potentially recruit later (either by taking him a prisoner again or finding him via explore), recruit the prisoner, or execute the prisoners so you don't have to deal with them later. IIRC characters can only take one prisoner at a time and bases can only hold up to four so the RNG makes you consider if it's worth the potential time sink to recruit a unit.
I wanted to love this game when it first came out, never could. I think I just finished the game for the sake of completing it and getting my money's diminished worth.
Bruh, you said Idea Factory and my brain catapulted itself 10 years in the past to when my (incredibly dumb, incredibly weeb) teenage self had a massive Hyperdimension Neptunia phase, and, to be completely real, I would have rather these memories been kept buried 6 feet under where they belong because goddamn was it embarrassing to be a Neptunia fan. Glad it was just a phase.
1:24 "There was nothing there" [starts laughing uncontrollably] What a terribly, terribly fitting line, hee hee! 1:50 "Created by Idea Factory" ...Why am I not surprised? [looks at her Hyperdimension Neptunia collection] ...Umm...you saw nothing!
Speaking of low-to-mid tier strategy games... Pit People, by the beloved developer Behemoth, famous for Castle Crashers and Battleblock Theater. I am in the camp that this game is utter garbage. Despite the 90% positive reviews, which I think is solely because of rabid fans of the developers, the gameplay is very poor. All character stats are invisible so level ups feel like mere mid-battle full heals. Most weapons are reskins focusing on wacky customizable themes with superior weapons sprinkled in. There will be a point in the game where you simply cannot win because there is *no* strategy. You push your guys forward and everyone beat each other to death. Pit People is barely a strategy game.
Have you done: Hoshigami - Ruining Blue Earth, Kartia, or Onimusha Tactics? I don't think any of them are particularly bad, but I'm hardly an expert on TRPG/SRPGs as a genre.
Speaking of Thunder God Cid, do you think he should be removed from the game if a remaster/remake ever roll out? No-charge long-ranged heavy damage AoE magic sword attacks and permanent haste is a *little* overpowered at *any* point of FFT.
I grew up with this game as the only "RPG" in my PSP at the time. I "liked" it but and liked the characters... but I do admit it's something I won't recommend to anyone. English dub is nice, though. But I never looked back to it after I discovered Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions.
Wow.. I still have my UMD for this game. I tried SO very hard to like it. This started my dive into the rabbit hole that is IF games. I can say the same for each of the IF titles I had.
If I remember right.This is actually the sequel game is a game before this anime. I actually end up playing this 1 1st.But I liked it enough to see if there were other games too.And I believe there's a third which I have and the first one I tracked him down.Cause I enjoyed it that much. My only real complaint was how long battles took
the only critique I don't care for in this vid is the whole "keeping rosters separate or blending them better" thing. It's not wrong per say, but I would never care myself haha.
Hello so I just came by randomly thanks to 1 video I found 3 days ago about you discussing a certain hidden gem PSP SRPG that just came out rather recently on modern platforms which by the way I am enjoying the hell out of it........ And wow the fact that even engage has stuff that makes sense in it more than this game, it is definitely a huge sign that this srpg is just garbage. I know I heard about it from X play when they gave this game a 2 out of 5 years ago and they were right, although I think a 2 out of 5 is too nice I think a one would have been a Better rating for this 1 and if you can Go back to the past I'm pretty sure you should have told your past self Don't buy this game play Jeanne Da' Arc instead lol. But still great review of this awful game!
@@TitaniumLegman Yeah I have been rewatching a good chunk of Xplay's old reviews and reached the realization that while some of the reviews were soild, there were WAY more of them that screamed bias, lazy, lame and they REALLY did not give that anime game a chance until you play it and realize oh wait this is GOOD! But at least they gave Jeanne Da' Arc a 4 out of 5 sooooo that is a victory.
"This is, the WORST Strategy RPG I've ever played" Me: This is that ONE PSP game huh? *Waits* I FUCKING Called it. It has a lot of good ideas when it comes to some things, like you nailed it, the building and building side of the game is fun, heck even the board game side could be fun, letting you build what you need or what you think you need as forward bases but like.... it just doesn't work.
@@Elyseon Say what you want about Agarest but the plot and world building are just fantastic,And the back story of the gods of Darkness and their minions are pretty good The first Agarest just have this elegance to it thank to the Tolkien inspired world building
@Elyseon I only ever like the OG one,With a grudging soft spot for the second one and zero because it adds to the Og lore a bit The marriage I don't know anything about
Funny I intended to ask this very thing in a Q&A and here's a whole video for me to watch lol. Never heard of this one and I guess it's a good thing that I haven't until now.
The general plot sounds like a "rip-off" of SMT 4. It must be a part of the series that involves el shaddai: ascension of the metatron, and the lost child On top of that, it has really strong devil survivor vibes. The battles aren't at all similar though. Some of the character art looks like late 90s ps1 art, like chrono chross and suikoden specifically
Oh I had this game a bit after it came out, from what I remember I quite liked it, never finished it tho I seen to remember doing one of the factions I even bought the JP PS3 one but had no idea how to play it
I remember downloading the rom or did I buy it? I don't remember I just knew I had to play it back day because the artwork was so good to me at the time, I made up whole stories about various characters simply because of the artwork long before I ever played the game,
I feel like I've played a game from this series. Not this particular game tho. It looks super familiar, but I don't remember the story having the weird three-tier world going on. I remember playing a custom scenario that had no story whatsoever.
the cut in the opening theme from like HARDCORE ROCK to this generic-ass anime dude just standing there like :) cracked me up
Lol, same
I also lol'd. I can't picture a cute anime boy that breedable headbanging to that song.
HAHAHAHAHAHAH same!!!!! I can't believe they did that
“DISGAEA without the humor.” Never have I heard a more terrifying phrase uttered.
"Its made by Idea Factory"
Well that's already damning right there.
The sheer dissonance between the opening theme being called "Don't Talk to Me" and the protagonist just smiling like he just told you to have a nice day is staggering.
The Generation of Chaos universe is ironically very very large.
Like theres a Pokemon like game where you play a kid who tames monsters. Then in a later game that kid becomes the legendary hero that kills the demon king and throws the balance of the world into disorder causing a whole bunch of issues. Then theres a game for GameCube where you play that kid/hero's grand daughter as she attends a magic school.
Like they just have a shit ton of games that basically cover like 100+ years of that world's history.
That actually sounds pretty cool. I wonder if anyone made a video on the lore.
Unless you speak Japanese you can only experience 3 out of the 10(including spectral souls) games. At least the Anime is dubbed.
I love when series do that like clastlevania pre reboot covering almost 1000 years of history
A game that fails to live up to its potential is so much worse than just a game that never offers the potential for anything to begin with.
My foolish heart was excited from the art.
"Badass military older woman? How is the game bad?"
*22 minutes later*
Oh that's just boring...
@@Demonboy007 yeah, the art is by far the best part
06:29 I literally laughed out loud when this smiling anime boy popped up onscreen to thrashing electric guitars. Some incredible choices here.
Oh, and I looked it up--this is from the same developer as Chaos Wars, which tells me *everything* I need to know. 😂
I've seen multiple people reference Chaos Wars in the comments, and I'm scared. I gotta check that out now.
@@TitaniumLegman All I can say is, gird your ears!
@@TitaniumLegmanI literally only know the name because a countdowner I used to watch put it at the top of a “worst voice acting in video games” list. You are in for a laugh riot if you play it in English.
@@TitaniumLegman i played this game for 15 minutes and then gave up if that tells you something
There’s only two kinds of idea factory games. Interesting ideas that could be refined further into something amazing (they never do), or an absolute dumpster fire of weird systems smashed together in as confusing a way as possible seemingly only to torture the player. I have a learned dread response when I see the logo now.
Hey, what about Mary Skelter trilogy? One of the best dungeon crawlers. Or are you talking about IF before holding with compile heart?
I think the closest I’ve gotten to Idea Factory is Nisa being a character that exists. Honestly one of the better things to come out of their work.
I also say that as someone who has only played with Neptunia’s DISGAEA reference character when she looped back around to be a guest character in DISGAEA itself.
How tf are they still around?
@Nathan-rb3qp
I'm convinced they're a Yakuza front.
They've been in the game so long, but have never really gotten any better. By all logic, they should have either gotten better, or gone under, but neither has happened. Maybe they're just super good at managing overhead and are existing as a company that maintains more or less neutral economic standing in defiance of the "infinite expansion forever" model, but it's weirder to assume they have this winning formula, but can't figure out game development, than to assume their actual business output is irrelevant, and the company mainly exists to launder money and pay Yakuza members in an on the table, taxable way, or something.
They don't really have a deciecive niche they're anchored to, to justify such ling term mediocrity either. I've never met a die hard IF fan, at most I've encountered people that have a soft spot for them.
With the Yakuza model, it would make sense that they have a skeleton crew actually making games for legitimacy, and on that team there is one, tragic figure, a guy who has this cool idea for some kind of massive, 4x, map painting, grand strategy title covering an entire simulated world's military history; some pipe dream masterpiece that is something like the lovechild of Dwarf Fortress' simulation mode, Total War/Civilization, and like JRPG Dynasty warriors that will just never happen, especially now that they have Compile Heart's business model of "make a mediocre game as an excuse to sell anime girls doing cute thing".
It's the mob pizzeria that has to be ready to make a pizza on short notice in case the police show up, that has one guy who actually dreams of making pizza.
Of course, I have nothing to back this up whatsoever. It's just a hypothetical explanation for the anomaly that is Idea Factory.
@@aprinnyonbreak1290 If they're a cooperative or private company they don't actually need to make infinite plus one dollars every quarter because that bullshit is only pushed by professional loan sharks and their legal crime syndicates such as BlackRock.
When you own your company you can make trash products for fun and so long as your employees and taxes are paid, you can ignore every single "market force" and "economic trend".
*Sees Idea Factory*
Ah I get. Ima still enjoy the video but no more words needed.
Whats wrong with Idea Factory? I like their games...
Is the choice for the type of voices for characters a part of their reputation? Never had I heard a more annoying voice coming from a character that look nothing like a child nor a monkey nor a monkey child.
@@DustinBarlow8PIdea Factory very often makes mediocre JRPGs and SRPGs. Sometimes the entire design is bad, more often they just have a few bizarre decisions that really bog down game. For example, Agarest: Generations of War is a 150+ hour game, but there's nothing going on for a good portion of those hours, just needless grinding. Cut that out and the game improves tremendously.
@@DustinBarlow8P You're the first person I have ever heard say that
What are you favorite games of theirs, if you don't mind me asking?
@@DustinBarlow8P I like some Idea Factory games but I reconize they are 100% an adquiered taste and are objectively serviceable at best.
Their objectively best game is probably like Fairy Fencer. My personal favorite is Omega Quintet though.
Oh shoot, THAT'S what this was! I found a UMD of this in Japanese inside a PSP I was fixing up a couple years ago, and was surprised how low the reviews were at the time. Definitely lives up to that Chaos title, but man seeing knights fighting UFOs is certainly something else.
Oh I wonder what-
Idea Factory
Yeeeeahh.
It's kind of a shame when you see them have an actually good idea for a game and just bungle it so hard. The Neptunia series carries them and Compile Heart purely through its characters. Imagine making a series of games THAT successful and to this day the newest games in the franchise still have the same dungeons as the first entry.
Maybe thats why they’re called Idea Factory, they can make good ideas… not good games.
@@dntknonuttin the stereotype of an "idea guy" applied to an entire company lmao
"I'm so tired" of that audio
bro the moan before hand tho 💀💀💀
@@Sambrostar bro did not need to do all that 💀
"The WORST strategy RPG I ever played"
"It's made by idea factory"
WOOOOOOOOW, what a surprise... 🤣
Idk if they have ever made a good game lol
Screw you.
The Mary Skelter games and the first death end re;quest? before the sequel dropped the ball. Only ones that come to mind
@@eeyuupsecond DERQ is actually better tho, first one is better if the first half and becomes a complete mess in the second half
@@kurtsavage7511 Neptunia
I’m so fucking offended. I genuinely adored the previous Generation of Chaos game as a kid, and thought this was a sidegrade or a slight step down but still enjoyed it. This video feels like an attack on my very personality.
Subscribed.
@@lucentlacuna I respect your mental fortitude and your support, my friend. 🫡
I Didn't think it was fair to compare it to Final Fantasy Tactics, when this game was likely inspirited by Langrisser or Dragon Force. I too enjoyed the previous one more cause it was like fantasy anime total war with a huge risk style map with nations, make allies, upgrade buildings, when you lost troops you need to buy/train new ones. The Previous one was sort of too grand for the psp, it had massive fps/slow down issues, so I can see why they changed it to be small map, next level, next level, tons of nations, tons of triggers and events all on one huge map. I kind wish Idea Factory would release a collection of all the Generation of Chaos games maybe even fix or add more surprise new units/heros. They moved on more into Hyper Neptunia, games that people love and adore.
1:48 Wow, this man saw the Mark of the Beast on this game and still picked it up. Mad respect.
Honestly 2 SRPGs I'd love to see you cover are Zone of the Enders: Fist of Mars on the GBA and Operation Darkness on the XBOX 360. The former has a truly AWFUL combat system where every attack from you or the enemy results in this targeting mini game that takes up to 20 seconds in a game where you have 10+ units and the enemy might have upwards of 30. The latter is an unhinged retelling of WW2 with werewolves and stuff with some of the most baffling balancing choices I've ever seen. Things like hitting 3 specific tiles that are all 10+ spaces apart thus making that move almost entirely useless. Definitely worth a look for both of them if you want trash to cover lol
At one point, my brother and I gave Ati (I forget his full name) the nickname of Lord of leveling up, because any time we brought that edgy evil looking dude with the elf ears to a base, the base would get that lvl up rainbow effect.
15 seconds into the video, I was like, "no way he's talking about Generations of Chaos"...
all of the generations games are bad
If i remember correcty, the artist for all of idea factory's Generation of Chaos/Spectral souls/Agarest War games is Hirano Katsuyuki.
Seeing this video pop up was oddly vindicating for me. I picked up Generations of Chaos (I guess it's this game's predecessor because that's the full name, but it is almost identical but with different characters/setting) for the PSP many years ago thinking "Oh man, this is a neat looking strategy game. I love this kind of stuff!" But then it was total garbage that was nearly unplayable, for many of the same reasons that you describe in this video. It was so bad, I'm fact, that I don't think I ever even cleared the first full map because the game just drops you in with NO IDEA AT ALL what to do. Seriously...so terrible.
I don't mind if a game universe/world has different themes as long as the story flows properly into each zone. But this sounds like a jumbled mess. If you want to check out and react to another bad jrpg, I recommend Dark Rose Valkyrie. The MC talks like the typical happygolucky best friend of an MC and also is very self deprecating. Like "why is he even the MC?" It makes no sense. I haven't played it in awhile and I don't remember the music. But I remember the game play was ok and the characters look nice, and the story iirc wasn't terrible. It's literally just the MC bringing down the quality of the story
Another idea factory classic let me guess?
Maybe? I don't remember, would have to google it. I kinda doubt it has good reviews though after trying it myself
must say 3 world tiers sound really interesting, it just seems it wasn't put well together into one cohesive story
I played this game a few times and think your review is spot on. This game should have just tried to improve upon the prior PSP entry which is also a flawed but fun game.
The problem this game has is many times special characters are too OP, but near the end of the game you need to have leveled different characters as their are difficulty spikes that require a bit of grinding at random bases.
The previous psp entry was better, but also extremely flawed. That game has such an interesting premise and similar gameplay, but once you figure out that you should just spam Specials to wipe all enemy troops and then have your troops stun lock the commander, then its game over.
These games have a nonsensical plot, but had very unique combat that i had fun learning (but fully understood why most people would give up).
Thanks again for covering this childhood game that i enjoy, but agree with your assessment over the flaw!
Oh god I played this and I still have flashbacks. Idea Factory was known for shoddy RPGs with menus that means nothing -- Chaos Wars was also made by them and somehow manages to be as bad or even worse, with the cherry on top of having one of the WORST localizations ever. Idea Factory was the master of the kusoge games, literally s**tty games, and the Japanese themselves used to call it "Idea F**k". Yup, that bad.
But I did find the character designer for you. Yoji Hiraiwa (as Youji Hiraiwa) with the sprites by Toshikazu Arai and Yūta Kawamoto. All of them vanished after the series ended or something, with Arai being an effect design in JUMP Force and Rune Factory 5 but that's it.
Fun fact, that "Idea F**k" thing is not even true apparently.
All sources lead back to a single English article that claimed as such cause they hated one of their games, despite no evidence whatsoever. There were even people who looked for it by searching Japanese gaming boards, like Land of Obscusion who in general has done some extensive coverage of IF's early history in gaming and animation work, and nothing like that was ever found.
But hey, if you still want to believe it, more power to you. Not like it's stopped most of you from parroting it anyway.
You telling me an Idea Factory game is janky, weird and kind off bad? Please don't say it is so!
For real, considering this company just...PUSHED out game after game after game within like a literal dozen of series or sub series who also all cross over with each other at some point, yeah, no shit. Considering the released AT MINIMUM a game each year, the name Idea FACTORY is absolutely warranted, producing rpg shovelware by the truck load.
Honestly a bit sad tho, because as you point out you got nuggets of good in these games, and the amount of like, cross-referencing between game series all existing within a shared multiverse at this point rivals stuff like SMT or Final Fantasy or the Nihon Falcom catalogue.
PSP was full of these kinds of games.
I just did a quick check on this because I was interested and this in no way is a defense of the game more an here is the explanation this game Aedis Eclispe is the 4th game in the Generation of Chaos series and was indeed the first one localized in English so there are 3 other Generation of Chaos games on the PS2 that were never released in English so there are probably a lot of established mechanics in the game that are established for long time followers of the franchise but as someone just going into the game are not explained very well
This is the second “worst RPG” video I’ve seen today that has the quote “This game was made by Idea Factory.” Honestly the fact that there is basically a company that exclusively makes terrible rpgs is kind of impressive
Check out Kemco's output. Shit is Impressive.
Three seconds in: "This smells like Idea Factory."
"It's made by Idea Factory."
*sighs, begrudgingly pouring myself another drink*
The part about having 14-year-old brain is FAR too relatable, I made the same mistake picking up Mimana: Iyar Chronicle. I... didn't like it very much and gave it away, LOL
Wait, is that Barbara? (Laharl's VA). Yeah, it is... and it isn't listed on her wikipedia page or IMDB! If the English Voiceover wiki is to be believed though, they apparently had an unlimited Dub VA budget because they've got an all-star cast! Mary McGlynn, Michelle Ruff, Wendee Lee... Mona Marshall! (I love her) and other heavy-hitting names, holy cow. Honestly though I can't hate dubs from this era. They felt still unrefined, kinda awkward, but the cheesiness sells it. Chaos Wars being one of the most memorable for how bad it was. Combined with a crappy game, though... doesn't exactly enrich the experience haha.
Good video! I like your vibes :D
I'm glad we can understand each other's pain. 🥹
Omg I forgot this game existed! The first minute of this video was me slowly realizing “yes, I HAVE played this before! How did I forget? Oh, I’m remembering how I forgot” 😂
I like that you can tell the developers must of been huge fans of Langrisser or Dragon Force with these titles. I always wished squad's troops got a bonus from leader's Chrisma stat or something. I think this is the second Genentions of Chaos game on the psp, lot of the event cameos characters from 1st one on the psp. Most of the Cameo were like legendary lords. Which is sort why some of them are so powerful, they were faction leaders. This game has an art book as well as a gallery I think when you beat the game on the front menu. You need to have unlocked or obtained character to be able see the full artwork in the gallery. I've put ton of hours into these games, I had like 6 Memory item accessory, think the optional grind it takes to fight Baal but you can only obtain 1 each run and have to new game plus and grind from lv.1 and do all the story stuff to get another. This game having 3 lords/story helps. Once you figure out each time you attack an enemy they gets a small stun all you have to do is find someone with a double attack, give them a partner who can also double attack and your front and back squad is made up of vampires with range attack, there you go, you can beat the post game super boss just by keeping him stun locked. This one is WAY too easy like the level up stats in this one are crazy to the point where you'd only put your level up stats in HP cause you'll naturally cap every stats with how much point you get from level ups. There's a previous Generation of Chao on the PSP thats more of a Risk focused with a giant map and tons of factions you can make alliances, level ups from stats and stats in general are smaller so the troops can be threating, upgrading the buildings and land was more worth wild cause it played like a huge Free for all you'd want to defend points and get those bonuses, it was like a huge grand scale war instead of little maps, next level next level. Shame the previous one runs horribly and is slow, whatever coding problem they had was fixed for this one, but the huge risk style map had to be lost. I wish Idea Factory would re release all the Generations of Chaos games, these game are fun and good way to pass time. I don't remember the story, but I remember collecting captains, or doing monster run, or magic only. Enjoyable Anime total War game on hand held.
I completely forgot about this game. I almost couldn't believe at first that I found PSP sRPG game I didn't try out, but turns out I did. And I just don't remember anything about it at all 🤣🤣
Man, I had a weird parallel experience very similar to you. While I never played this game, I DID play Spectral Souls: Resurrection of the Ethereal Empires, also released by Idea Factory a year before it. (I was also considering getting Jeanne d'Arc, BUT, never did.) One thing that sold me on the game, is that they said you could choose which of the three armies warring against one another you wanted to play as. (Unfortunately I found out later that you didn't just pick one to play, you had to swap back and forth between different armies to progress the story / do so in a certain way if you wanted the true ending. One of the worst parts about this being that you couldn't entirely focus on one army as much I wanted. The other armies / characters you had to use to progress the story would be underleveled if you only used them for that.)
But what *REALLY* sold me on the game: I remember going to the website and looking up characters and such for the different armies, and *MY GOD* Hillo was cool. She fought with a scythe, her left hand was just this giant skull with black claws sticking out of it, and her nickname was the Exploding Godhand. The artwork for her looked awesome. Just, fantastic on every level. I wanted nothing more than to play as her, power her up ridiculously, and cleave through absolutely everything in my path. I wish she could be given a much better game, her whole concept and design seriously deserves it. Unfortunately she's stuck in Idea Factory Hell.
It's wild seeing how similarly the openings to these games are designed, though I DEFINITELY got the better end of the deal there, as the opening for Spectral Souls was like, one of the high points of the game for me. I really recommend looking it up if you haven't seen it, the song is called "Blue Sky" by the same band that made this opening, Dogschool. Blue Sky is a much better song in my opinion, I actually quite like it a lot, and it feels a shame that it's virtually unknown. The tone fits a lot better with what you're seeing, too. It always got me pumped to play the game. But then I actually had to play it.
The game itself was... Okay-ish. A mostly serviceable but also slower / boringer FFT or maybe more Disgaea-style game. You had AP which you could use to perform multiple attacks in a turn, and you could "hold" a character's attack on an enemy. So that when another of your characters attacked that enemy, the other character would unleash the attacks you "held" in a chain, and certain attacks could combine, and it was kinda neat. You could "hold" multiple characters against the same target too, for some nice massive overkill combos.
I remember loading times being quite the annoyance though, even in the middle of a battle I believe it had to take a moment to load attacks in and such. I think the framerate of the game would even slow down at times. (And I remember at least one skill, Purify, not even having an animation. For the longest time I thought it was just because my disc got scratched, but after playing on an emulator years later, I realized nope, it's just got a broken animation.) A hell of a lot better than the mess Aedis Eclipse seems to be, at least.
Wow I remember playing this is highschool. Barely remember this game but watching this reminded me of so much. I also remember quitting around the 3rd world because it got boring and was just recycling the first 2 worlds.
@@infiniteswords yup, that's where I fell off too. 😅
>created by Idea factory
Say less
looking at this comments section i kinda feel like i might be the only person that actually likes idea factory and gust >.>
idea factory, gust, compile heart are all bottom of the barrel
8:19 I see where you got that disgeae feel from
now I'm thinking of that dub for chaos wars. it's...iconic.
For Generation of Chaos, I would recommend Pandora's Reflection. It was made by Sting with Idea Factory. The story and gameplay is quite good.
This is how I found out Jeanne d'Arc got a re-release. Thanks b
Any time chief. 😁
Idk about its quality because it's been way too long, but I played Hoshigami: Ruining Blue Earth Remix on the DS as a kid and when I went to try and find other people who even knew it existed, I found out the original PS1 version of the game is incredibly disliked for its difficulty. I wish I remembered the remake better (I don't even think I knew it was one at the time) but I know I definitely finished it? But that's about it. XD
"Fell's Seal: Arbiter's Mark" needs your review.
It does indeed. I played a good chunk of it in early access and enjoyed what I saw, but haven't picked it back up in years.
@@TitaniumLegman I haven't yet because of my own game from like 20 years ago! There are similar aims and ideas in the game, so I want to gain the trust of the devs to not cause any problems. I never intended a temporal controversy...
God PSP had a bunch of weird experimental games. I kinda miss it as it was alot like the PS1 era.
So.... I thought at first your artist may have been a younger version of the team that made Radiant Historia based off the splash arts. For reference, I'm a HUGE little known Atlus RPG type of guy. I had not heard of this game. So, I went a googling. From what I can pull up, the character designer was Yoji Hiraiwa. As far as I can tell, he only worked on this game, a majong game, and a few other little known games that sound like they have something to do with this game. Hope it helps. Sorry if someone already answered you.
Thanks for the research and answer, you're the first to give me any insight. Surprising to hear that the artist has a relatively small profile
@@TitaniumLegman Might I interest you in some Knights in the Knightmare action for a video? I REALLY think it actually deserves someone to give it some spotlight. You seem like the type of chap, based off all the strat RPG content, who would appreciate a gem of a game with some janky elements. You also seem like the type of guy who already knows about this game, but I figure I'd throw it out there and see what we get.
@iskander0725 people have mentioned it a lot in the comments here but I've not actually seen it before. I'll definitely have to check it out, thanks!
@@TitaniumLegmanPrepare to spend at least an hour in the tutorials.
This seems like 1/3 of 3 different games, haphazardly stitched together. Plenty of decent ideas, but no cohesion between them. At least the art and music is decent.
Have you ever played Lunar: Dragon Song for DS? I’m obsessed with JRPGs, especially for GBA and DS-but holy hell this game was hot garbage. It was like the developers were having a pissing contest of how many horrible game mechanics they could fit into a single game.
At least this game has some neat-looking character designs and decent art. LDS was very…generic across the board, including story, designs, art, etc.
Bro im not even gonna lie though the character art is kinda cold like you get a Fire Emblem game HD with this artist and it could be clean
As fan of Idea Factory's games... what you have put in the description... that is pretty much my entire summary of them as a brand, but I love them for it... because Megaman X Command Mission... is the worst RPG of all time because it does all the same thing as far as having potential go, but it lacks ANY payoff at all... just seeds and then the harvest with no growth.
But Aedis Eclipse is, like so many Idea factory games, sort of? It's own timeline.
But they are all united by the same dragon connected BS... it is... I just love how crazy their games are plot and character wise. There was an actual conversation in the game that came out before this one just called Generation of Chaos in the US, where an elf chick tells a dog lady that she is going to put her on a leash in like a highly suggestive way... And I've never found what combination it was anymore but I love it because those are side characters. They don't even have unique battle sprites, just portraits.
And the game is dripping with charm every five seconds.
if you want to play a game with similar mechanics done right, check out Dragon Force for the Sega Saturn.
Is that fucking Ash Ketchum's VA, lol
Also, I was gonna say, the portrait art is extremely well done.
I think a pretty good positive / negative review episode could just be to look at Final Fantasy Tactics and the FF Tactics Advance version, also bc. of the popularity of this.
Arguably the second one is a smaller game for a handheld system, mostly aimed at 12 year olds who had that system (and the numbers compared to the Tactics Ogre advance games showed tha tthe devs totally understood the target audience on the console and developed accordingly)
But it is for sure interesting to look at it from a neutral stance. Comparing systems, how they got simplified. But also looking at a couple of things the Advance game did better (e.g. different races, the clan levelup system)
I do already have some ideas for a FFT:A video, maybe I can incorporate this. Thanks!
The character designer is Yoji Hiraiwa and they do have a twitter. Seems like they have being doing a lot of FGO art as of late.
Oh shit, I'll check that out. Thank you!
@@TitaniumLegman NP. If you are ever stuck on staff credits for games Moby games is pretty good database for obscure games.
Anyone making videos on strategy/turn based RPGs is someone I want to subscribe to.
At first I misread the title as "The worst SNES RPG" and I was going to be SUPER impressed with the graphical fidelity of the game! Took me a second to realize ".......oh."
Damn, if this came out on the snes it would be an absolute wonder of optimized technology.
You should look at the first Agarest game. I've heard that one has a neat concept but bad execution.
It’s really awful execution. You really have to read or watch videos that tell you how to cheat that Game!
God I miss Cheat Codes.
Well written characters. Horribly time wasting execution of combat. You will literally spend 3/4ths of the game in mandatory battles, 1/5 in rigged boss battles that you literally have to cheat to beat and the rest in a... somewhat decently written war drama.
music in the intro: *edgy as fuck*
characters in the intro: *:D*
Definitely one of the most jarring things I've seen recently.
"If he thinks this is bad, he should play spectral souls....oh crap they made that too!"
Hm. I wouldn't call them bad games, but Galaxy Angel series is definitely a bit shallow when it comes to the gameplay. They are a trilogy of RTS games where you command a ship and a squadron of fighters, each piloted by a girl with unique characteristics to each. If anything, I would say that the gameplay is more spectacle than substance, since we have flashy ultimate attacks. Honestly, I would like a remaster and integration of the games into a single title.
Wait? Like the anime series? I didn't even knew there were games!
@@shytendeakatamanoir9740 Yup. Honestly, I think the SRPG-VN was far better than the anime, as I found the anime too goofy in a clumsy way. Slayers, Patlabor, and Irresponsible Captain Tylor are much better anime IMO.
IIRC, it was the VNs that came first, so it was probably a case of not being able to transfer the good qualities of the VN to other mediums.
@@SabinStargem Yeah, I'd agree. It's too random, and end up being pretty frustrating at times.
I was mainly surprised to see this name in the wild.
I think of idea factory as that game company that has pretty good ideas for games, but has zero clue how to actually make said games good
@@hiopy8131 it's a shame, this game does feel like it could be so sick if a different company had handled it.
At least their name is honest. They got ideas and nothing else lol
Oh shit the generic mc dude is voiced by Romy Park
Aka Edward Elric
@TitaniumLegman Are you planning on reviewing Dynasty Tactics?
!f Idea Factory alone says it all, I really want to like their soectral and chaos games too...
Oh but excited for you to experience Chaos Wars, its dub is pure entertainment.
They got laharl voice actor, It seems like they were very overly ambitious for a handheld game they probably could have broken it up into three different games, and in fact released them. I do like that has a similar combat style of dragon force though you don't see that enough.
16:22 'What? I didn't know there was crap like that!'
fuuuuuuck man, I knew those portraits immediately. I played a lot of this game back on the psp, but when I downloaded a rom later on to play again?.... cant believe I liked this game at one point
'it was ALSO a Mistake'; -P03_smug_emote-
Sometimes a strategy RPG just doesn't click, and it can be really frustrating. On the flip side, I've recently developed a knack for RTS games, and they’ve been a blast. Games like Gates of Pyre are offering me some great strategic challenges and tactical depth.
So... just curious, have you played the demo for Unsung Story?
Been out on EA for 2 years and no updates so...
And that's a game that already has been abandoned before. It really looks like its dead in the water.
I have not, what's that one?
@@TitaniumLegman Unsung Story was that cursed Kickstarter game with a plot outline/game design by Yasumi Matsuno where the studio was shady, then a new studio bought the rights, then they vanished two years ago. But they did get a demo out for the backers via Steam early access. I think it hurts to play because hopes were so high and everyone had their hearts broken by the original studio to do the Kickstarter. I think it's now a decade past the projected release date?
I was just curious how your disappointing in this game compared to the disappointment an unpublished Matsuno game was =] If you haven't played it, though, don't seek it out on my account! That way lies only tears.
Alright, it looks like I might be the only one in the comment section who actually enjoys this game so I'll try to defend it a little. First I want to say that I agree with plenty of points made. I won't go on about the game's presentation, artstyle or anything outside of the core gameplay, because I have little, if anything, to add to that. 2ndly, I want to add that it's been a couple years since I last played it some I'm going largely off memory so I might get some details wrong. That said, let's talk about the gameplay. I actually think it's deceptively deep. On it surface, it would appear that the best way to win simply slam your biggest units into the enemies. In reality there are a lot of ways to win battles and others skew things into your favor. For example, bases/forts are extremely powerful, but only (iirc) 3~ units can actually defend them. IIRC it's possible to actually rush past defending units to fight the main defender, but it's risky because the main defender will have fort defenses helping him. If you aren't able defeat the main defender, he will have his health partial restored (bases/forts restore your health and sp) the next round and possible switched out, so it's generally better to slowly take out all the officers to wear down their numbers (and potentially recruit them) then to blitz them as the other defenders (IIRC) do not have the fort shooting arrows or cannons in the background. That said, it's not always a bad idea to rush past them in a desperate moment The game heavily incentivizes slow, lengthy wars/strategies over quick victories. It's possible that you may have had problems with the pacing, expecting it to play more like FFT or something similar. The game gives you a ton of things to do mid including shopping, recruiting (you can use all recruited allies immediately) base building, and then some. The game heavily focuses around bases and what you can do with them and in them.
You mentioned the random events that can happen in turns. I want to point out that you have both positive and negative. I actually like this system because the game is entirely pve and strategy game ai is notoriously abuseable. These random event add an extra level of chaos to matches which would otherwise end in you simply abusing the predictable ai. Losing a turn isn't as bad as it sounds as your enemies don't get free attacks on you. They still have to fight the rts battles in which you still have full control of your units. Whats more, is all your based units will still heal (if most of your units aren't in some sort of building, you're doing it wrong). So if your strategies are sound, losing a turn shouldn't be much more an annoying. I actually forgot that you could lose a turn, because I don't usually lose anything as a result. The random events shake things up and also reward you (occasionally) for your patience/perseverance (sometimes you get things like free level ups). If this were a pvp game, I'd think the events would be awful for pretty obvious reason.
The point about characters being bad is something that actually baffled me. While I would agree that the secret characters are very strong (mostly because their starting army is very strong), I've never felt any of my characters were weak or otherwise not worth using, including the generic units. This is especially true because of how customizable the characters are and the fact that you can pair units together (you unlock this feature later on). You can (and should) switch our your starter armies with stronger versions as you gain access to stronger arms via recruitment of generic units.
The whole recruitment thing is meant to be unreliable because it would be incredibly powerful otherwise. If you could reliably recruit guys, your armies would grow too powerful too quickly as you could use them immediately and the downside to doing it would be negligible. By making it a stat-based rng system you actually have to weigh your options. You could execute the prisoner to prevent yourself from ever having to fight that enemy again (units can rescue prisoners). You can release the prisoner so you can potentially recruit later (either by taking him a prisoner again or finding him via explore), recruit the prisoner, or execute the prisoners so you don't have to deal with them later. IIRC characters can only take one prisoner at a time and bases can only hold up to four so the RNG makes you consider if it's worth the potential time sink to recruit a unit.
I bought this game, played it for an hour, and then threw it out the window.
It was offensively, obnoxiously shitty.
I wanted to love this game when it first came out, never could. I think I just finished the game for the sake of completing it and getting my money's diminished worth.
@@bitterblossom19 how was it by the end? I never could make it to the end.
I'm only here to make sure VALKYRIA CHRONICLES is on your mind 😁
Bruh, you said Idea Factory and my brain catapulted itself 10 years in the past to when my (incredibly dumb, incredibly weeb) teenage self had a massive Hyperdimension Neptunia phase, and, to be completely real, I would have rather these memories been kept buried 6 feet under where they belong because goddamn was it embarrassing to be a Neptunia fan. Glad it was just a phase.
1:24 "There was nothing there"
[starts laughing uncontrollably] What a terribly, terribly fitting line, hee hee!
1:50 "Created by Idea Factory"
...Why am I not surprised?
[looks at her Hyperdimension Neptunia collection]
...Umm...you saw nothing!
Speaking of low-to-mid tier strategy games... Pit People, by the beloved developer Behemoth, famous for Castle Crashers and Battleblock Theater. I am in the camp that this game is utter garbage. Despite the 90% positive reviews, which I think is solely because of rabid fans of the developers, the gameplay is very poor. All character stats are invisible so level ups feel like mere mid-battle full heals. Most weapons are reskins focusing on wacky customizable themes with superior weapons sprinkled in. There will be a point in the game where you simply cannot win because there is *no* strategy. You push your guys forward and everyone beat each other to death. Pit People is barely a strategy game.
Honestly I kinda dig the intro. It reminds me of old Guilty Gear.
The opening theme, leave me alone sounds like a song from Doom 2016
Have you done: Hoshigami - Ruining Blue Earth, Kartia, or Onimusha Tactics? I don't think any of them are particularly bad, but I'm hardly an expert on TRPG/SRPGs as a genre.
~door violently swings open~
more dunking on Idea Factory, YES
Speaking of Thunder God Cid, do you think he should be removed from the game if a remaster/remake ever roll out? No-charge long-ranged heavy damage AoE magic sword attacks and permanent haste is a *little* overpowered at *any* point of FFT.
i wonder what you think of neverland card battles
I grew up with this game as the only "RPG" in my PSP at the time. I "liked" it but and liked the characters... but I do admit it's something I won't recommend to anyone. English dub is nice, though. But I never looked back to it after I discovered Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions.
Wow.. I still have my UMD for this game. I tried SO very hard to like it. This started my dive into the rabbit hole that is IF games. I can say the same for each of the IF titles I had.
If I remember right.This is actually the sequel game is a game before this anime. I actually end up playing this 1 1st.But I liked it enough to see if there were other games too.And I believe there's a third which I have and the first one I tracked him down.Cause I enjoyed it that much. My only real complaint was how long battles took
Considering that I feel like we have very different tastes in trpgs, I'm interested
7:55
Why do those metal crab things look like the crab enemies from Chaos Wars...?
Generations of chaos was so, so weird.
the only critique I don't care for in this vid is the whole "keeping rosters separate or blending them better" thing. It's not wrong per say, but I would never care myself haha.
Hello so I just came by randomly thanks to 1 video I found 3 days ago about you discussing a certain hidden gem PSP SRPG that just came out rather recently on modern platforms which by the way I am enjoying the hell out of it........ And wow the fact that even engage has stuff that makes sense in it more than this game, it is definitely a huge sign that this srpg is just garbage. I know I heard about it from X play when they gave this game a 2 out of 5 years ago and they were right, although I think a 2 out of 5 is too nice I think a one would have been a Better rating for this 1 and if you can Go back to the past I'm pretty sure you should have told your past self Don't buy this game play Jeanne Da' Arc instead lol. But still great review of this awful game!
Holy xplay reference, that's based as hell.
@@TitaniumLegman Yeah I have been rewatching a good chunk of Xplay's old reviews and reached the realization that while some of the reviews were soild, there were WAY more of them that screamed bias, lazy, lame and they REALLY did not give that anime game a chance until you play it and realize oh wait this is GOOD! But at least they gave Jeanne Da' Arc a 4 out of 5 sooooo that is a victory.
"This is, the WORST Strategy RPG I've ever played"
Me: This is that ONE PSP game huh? *Waits* I FUCKING Called it.
It has a lot of good ideas when it comes to some things, like you nailed it, the building and building side of the game is fun, heck even the board game side could be fun, letting you build what you need or what you think you need as forward bases but like.... it just doesn't work.
One of Agarest war predecessor? The art look pretty similar
Same developer, so basically, yeah.
Ah, Agarest. No wonder it's trash. They even had a breeding game to pop out the next "chosen hero".
@@Elyseon Say what you want about Agarest but the plot and world building are just fantastic,And the back story of the gods of Darkness and their minions are pretty good
The first Agarest just have this elegance to it thank to the Tolkien inspired world building
@@theodorsebastian4272 The marriage game killed any interest I might have ever had in that garbage fire.
@Elyseon I only ever like the OG one,With a grudging soft spot for the second one and zero because it adds to the Og lore a bit
The marriage I don't know anything about
Funny I intended to ask this very thing in a Q&A and here's a whole video for me to watch lol. Never heard of this one and I guess it's a good thing that I haven't until now.
Never managed to get far in this, 25 hours in game crashed repeatedly and i couldn't continue
Those battles look so needlessly frustrating, how did they implement pathing so badly in a game that 100% relies on it to work
never heard of it and i usually know about most of the rpgs from this era so you're probably right
The general plot sounds like a "rip-off" of SMT 4. It must be a part of the series that involves el shaddai: ascension of the metatron, and the lost child
On top of that, it has really strong devil survivor vibes. The battles aren't at all similar though. Some of the character art looks like late 90s ps1 art, like chrono chross and suikoden specifically
Oh I had this game a bit after it came out, from what I remember I quite liked it, never finished it tho I seen to remember doing one of the factions I even bought the JP PS3 one but had no idea how to play it
I remember downloading the rom or did I buy it? I don't remember I just knew I had to play it back day because the artwork was so good to me at the time, I made up whole stories about various characters simply because of the artwork long before I ever played the game,
A game I rarely see mentioned is Rondo of Swords for the DS. I rather enjoyed the game, but I can recognize it had its flaws.
I feel like I've played a game from this series. Not this particular game tho. It looks super familiar, but I don't remember the story having the weird three-tier world going on. I remember playing a custom scenario that had no story whatsoever.