8th September 2010, 12:12 AM
Some thoughts on all the games I have for a platform: Playstation
I'd been thinking of doing something like this for a while, but finally got around to actually doing it. I don't know why I started with the PSX, you have to start somewhere I guess...
I'm not using the word "review" because I only would use that for games I've beaten or at least played a LOT of, and with only two exceptions, the only PSX games I've beaten are the fighting games and shmups. (The two exceptions are Threads of Fate and Tenchu: Stealth Assassins)
Note that I have no import titles for Playstation -- these are all US releases.
I've done A-L, which is about half, so far; I'll post the second half after I write stuff up for those games, probably in another post. :)
(Addendum: M-Z is indeed posted, in post #2.)
Followup for titles from later in September 2010 to January 2011 is available in this post: http://www.tcforums.com/forums/showpost....stcount=16
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A-L
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Activision's collection of 30 classic games for the Atari 2600, Alundra 2, Ape Escape, Battle Arena Toshinden 3, BattleTanx: Global Assault, Board Game Top Shop, Bomberman Fantasy Race, Bomberman: Party Edition, Brave Fencer Musashi, Bubsy 3D, Bushido Blade 2, Castlevania Chronicles, Clock Tower, College Slam, Colony Wars: Vengeance, Colony Wars, Crash Team Racing, Croc 2, Croc: Legend of the Gobbos, Darkstalkers 3, Darkstone, Dead or Alive, Destruction Derby, Dino Crisis, Driver, Evil Zone, Fear Effect, Final Fantasy IX, Final Fantasy Tactics, Final Fantasy VII, Ghost in the Shell, Grandia, Granstream Saga, Heart of Darkness, In the Hunt, Jade Cocoon: Story of the Tamamayu, Jet Moto, Kartia: The Word of Fate, The King of Fighters '99, King's Field, Koudelka, The Legend of Dragoon, Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete (Four Disc Collector's Edition)
Activision's collection of 30 classic games for the Atari 2600
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Okay collection of 30 Activision games for the 2600. It does save, but only a game in progress -- it's just rom emulation here, no high-score saving here. Write them down yourself or something. That really is a problem with these games, most of which have no ending, you just play until you lose... I really don't get why so many games back then had no endings, it's bad design really I think. And with a modern collection at least figure out how to save the scores, that's the only thing the games have, score... still, the games are classics, and the emulation is okay. The manual is nice and has a little blurb for each game, explaining the difficulty/game select options. (Oh, you can save a game in progress, but that's all.)
Ape Escape
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Decently good 3d platformer game, and the first major title to require the dual analog controller, which obviously makes 3d platformer games much more fun. It's not the greatest game ever, but it's okay. The levels have a decent amount to do in them, and the platforming can be fun. I didn't get that far into it before quitting, though. Graphics are okay for PSX 3d, but aren't great.
Alundra 2
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Bland and not that great 3d action-RPG. Nothing special here, it's neither great or awful. Not too fun, but not the worst game ever. I haven't gotten that far in this game...
Battle Arena Toshinden 3
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Mediocre third game in the Toshinden series, and the worst game so far. Toshinden 1 is a far better game than this. There are lots of characters, and you can choose 30 or 60 (with limited graphics in 60 fps mode) fps modes, but it's just far too slow and not very fun. Play a better fighting game instead.
BattleTanx: Global Assault
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Mediocre PSX version of the N64 classic. The N64 version is a favorite of mine, I've played many hours over the years and really love it. This one just isn't the same, though. First, the campaign. There are more levels in the single player campaign in this version, but they are shorter and smaller, so the overall length isn't that different. The PSX version may be slightly longer, but the levels are more boring and less fun because of their reduced size and complexity, so overall the N64 version is definitely superior. Cutscenes are fully voiced FMV now, instead of pictures with text; it's really not an improvement, they made the story even stupider. I mean, the intro before the first level... they made it so that now Cassandra personally attacks Madison and the baby, and Griffin shows up to save her, but instead of shooting Cassandra, who is just standing there right in front of him, he just leaves, "never actually defeat the bad guy" style. Um, no, that's not what happened in the original... on the N64 Cassandra never has a face-to-face meeting with our heroes, it's just that her army is attacking. The change was for the worse, that's for sure. And then from there you go to the new, smaller, less interesting levels, and it may be hard to see why this game was so great on the N64. At least the graphics are decently good, for a PSX game.
Multiplayer was one of the great strengths of BattleTanx on the N64. The four player multiplayer, with numerous modes, and the two player campaign, were both fantastic. Well, the game is two player only here. Even though otherwise it's not that different, some smaller map sizes aside, that limitation really hurts the game a lot. Again, much better on N64.
Board Game: Top Shop
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One of my most recent PSX purchases, and I haven't played it yet. It's a boardgame where you buy shops, stock them, move around and try to dominate the mall, etc. Sounds a little like Monopoly with anime characters, but we'll see. It was a cheap budget release in all regions, so my expectations aren't too high. Could be okay, we'll see.
Bomberman Fantasy Race
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Okay but not great 3d kart racing game with Bomberman characters. Poor graphics, mediocre options... don't bother, I think.
Bomberman: Party Edition
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2d classic Bomberman, with 5 player play. Nothing original here, but a fine, solid 2d-style Bomberman game. Not much to say really... it's Bomberman, just like it usually is. It is nice to have one 2d Bomberman game on each system, though. It's not too compelling in single player though, as usual for 2d Bomberman, so this is mostly a party game, as the title suggests.
Brave Fencer Musashi
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This is a game I really should play a lot more before reviewing. As far as I've gotten it seems pretty good, though the graphics aren't great, but I got stuck not too far in and stopped. I think one problem I have is that I played Threads of Fate first, which sort of is like a sequel to this game, and has better graphics and gameplay, so going back to this one is tough. Still, it is a pretty good game. It has a simple but amusingly comical story, and fun 3d plaform-RPG gameplay. It feels somewhat 2.5d, as you are often going right or left, but areas are 3d and you do move around in 3d. It's a good mix and works well.
Bubsy 3D
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Bubsy 3D is widely despised as one of the worst 3d platformers ever, so my expectations were absolutely bottom of the barrel when I got it. Well, I was quite pleasantly surprised -- Bubsy 3D really is not that bad. The controls are a challenge -- this is a d-pad only game, as expected for an early PSX title, and the controls really suffer for it. It's too bad that there wasn't a version of this game released on some system with an analog controller, it'd make a huge difference. Also, the controls are slippery so landing on platforms can be tricky. Finally, for the graphics, at the time textures were the new big thing, so the fact that it has lots of shaded polygons instead, with only some that are textured, bothered people. Today this shouldn't be too much of a problem though, it gives the game a different style. The graphics actually are reasonably good. The game has a sharp, clear look that I almost never see in Playstation games -- it almost makes me think it's running in hi-res or something. There are a good number of levels, and there are things to go back and find in them too, after you beat them the first time. Really, once I got used to the game's eccentricities, I found this game to be both fun and quite challenging. It is frustrating and hard so it's easy to give up when you die over and over trying to figure out your way through the complex, jumping-puzzles-between-lots-of-small-moving-platforms-over-bottomless-pits-filled levels. Still though, that kind of thing is both fun as well as frustrating, so it's not all bad. Overall, it's really not that bad. Yes, I can easily see why Mario 64 destroyed it in the press because Bubsy 3D is nothing like that and obviously is much simpler and inferior, but on its own, really, despite some definite flaws, it's a decent game.
Bushido Blade 2
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This is a great, and original, 3d fighting game. The concept is a more "realistic" weapon-based fighting game, where a single hit can kill. The game's theme, though, is very much anime-styled, so the "realism" is only in the combat system, really. Still, it's a very good game, unlike anything else. The challenge and uniqueness of the system really makes it interesting, and fighting game fans should consider this a must play. It's a lot of fun, and has good replay value as well.
Castlevania Chronicles
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This is a port of the Sharp X68000 (a Japanese computer) game Akamajou Dracula, or Castlevania as we know it. This was the game's first Western release, and it's a great, but very difficult, classic-style Castlevania platformer. The game has good 16-bit graphics and sound, a good length, and lots of challenge. I haven't finished it; it's very difficult. Still, if you can find it cheap, buy this game -- it's very good. It's great that we finally got this "lost" Castlevania game.
Clock Tower
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This is actually Clock Tower 2, the sequel to a Japan-only Super Famicom (also later remade for PSX, also Japan only) game called Clock Tower. The Clock Tower series is a horror series, but the first three games for the SFC and PSX are not the Resident Evil clones you might expect. Instead, they are classic style graphic adventure games with a horror theme. There are two main playable characters and several secondary ones you play as for short periods of time, and there are many paths through the game -- like the first game, Clock Tower 2 has lots of endings, most of them bad endings where the characters get killed, as you'd expect from a horror game. Your goal is to survive the second appearance of the evil killer with the giant sissors who terrorized (and killed) his way through the first game. This is a direct sequel, set several years later; it must have been be a little confusing for US audiences, given that we never got either version of the original title. Still, it has its own story, and does stand on its own decently well enough that it works, and it's great that we got the game -- we didn't get many graphic adventures on consoles! Talk to people, pick up items, solve puzzles, try to avoid the killer, and try to defeat him somehow... I'm early in the game of course, but it's fun. Oh, it is slow paced -- slow text speed, slow walking speed, only somewhat useful run. Oh well. The graphics have average prerendered/drawn backdrops (no Resident Evil quality stuff here) with mediocre 3d polygon characters. It's obviously not a big budget production, but it's fun.
College Slam
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This is a Good port of this "NBA Jam TE with college players" game Acclaim made. And it really is NBA Jam T.E., it uses the same engine and has an identical set of options, just with college teams instead of pro. That's good, because T.E. is the best NBA Jam game, but this is not quite as good as the original. Still, it's a fun game, and does have 4 player multitap support, which is nice. The 2d graphics also work well.
Colony Wars
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Haven't actually played this game yet. This game does work with the Playstation Analog Joystick, so if I ever get one I can play it with good controls... that's cool.
Colony Wars: Vengeance
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I played one mission of this game, a while ago. I thought that space combat games like this are no fun with a gamepad, but really should be played with a joystick, and quit and never came back. What it is, though, is a simple 3d space flight combat game. Fly around and shoot the baddies. It's not much compared to an X-Wing or Wing Commander game, that's for sure... not terrible, I guess, but nothing too interesting.
CTR: Crash Team Racing
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CTR is a good 3d kart racing game, in the Mario Kart mold. Playstation fans like to say that this game is better than MK64 or DKR on the N64, but I definitely disagree. It's an okay game, and for PSX 3d the graphics are decent, but in both gameplay and graphics this game gets blown away by any of the Rare or Nintendo N64 kart racing games, no question about it. The game mechanics don't match up, and the graphics of course aren't even close. It does have 4 player splitscreen with a multitap, though, so at least there it is even.
Croc: Legend of the Gobbos
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I've always liked Croc. It's a 3d platformer game from 1997 that started development before the release of Mario 64, but came out the year after it. I first played the demo of the PC version of this Argonaut classic back in the '90s and liked it, and it's just as good on Playstation. It does take a while to get used to the jumping, because making jumps can be a challenge due to perspective issues and the controls take a little getting used to, but you do eventually get used to it, and the nice graphics, cute and fun characters, and good gameplay and level designs hold it up even so. Good game, in my opinion.
Croc 2
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Croc 2 has better graphics, better controls, and a bigger, contiguous world, but I don't think it's that much better than the first one. It's not worse either though, which is good -- it's most just similar, and maybe slightly better. It is, obviously, another 3d platformer, and Croc has another adventure to go on. The controls are definitely better this time, and the analog support is good. I like the overworld too, it's better than the simple level-select system of the first game. It's too bad that the Croc series didn't continue and that Argonaut is out of business now, I'd love to see another Croc game. You can't have too many cute, high quality 3d platformers starring adorable cartoon-style animals. :)
Darkstalkers 3
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Darkstalkers 3 is a great 2d fighting game. This version isn't the best version of Darkstalkers 3 (Vampire Savior in Japan) graphics or load times-wise, but it makes up for it with an unbeatable in the series lineup of extras. Saturn Vampire Savior may have shorter load times and better graphics and animation, but the PSX version is the only one with multiple hidden extra options menus, modes to play the game with the "Vampire Hunter 2" and "Vampire Savior 2" rulesets instead of the basic original "Vampire Savior" one, music options so you can play with any version of the soundtrack from the original game up to Darkstalkers 3, the Original mode where you color-edit a character and then build up their level in fights from 1 to 99, and more. It's a great package, and any Darkstalkers, or 2d fighting, game fan should get this. The Darkstalkers series isn't as well known as Street Fighter, but it's a great series of simple but fun fighting games. Darkstalkers characters are unique and really cool looking monsters with simple, straightforward movesets full of basic quarter circles and stuff -- this is not a hyper-technical fighter, but one designed to be easy to play and fun. It works, the game is fun and the characters are just awesome. Have the manual though, as with most fighting games of this era, that's where the moves are listed, there's no ingame movelist.
Darkstone
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This is a port of the PC Diablo clone of the same name. The PSX version is a little cut down from the PC original, losing things such as the voice acting in towns (on the PC townsfolk all talk, here it's just text) and more, and the game requires a full six blocks of memory card space to save, but it's a decent Diablo clone, and fans of clickfest action-RPGs should give it a try. It's not too bad, flaws aside, and while the graphics are quite simple and low detail top-down 3d, they work and look decently good.
Dead or Alive
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This is the best version of this classic 2.5d fighting game. Like Virtua Fighter, Dead or Alive is a Sega Model 2 arcade game with polygonal graphics, but no real 3d movement -- the 3d is mostly for show. It is a fun game, though, surprisingly so -- I wasn't expecting to like this game that much when I got it as I do not like Virtua Fighter very much, but I got hooked and played it a lot. The game has its own style and isn't that much like Virtua Fighter, aside from the hardware and superficial basics. It's a fast, fluid fighting game with a decently varied character list and a good amount of stuff to do. You have a punch button, a kick button, and an "avoid" button that sort of is 3d movement, but not really, and takes some time to learn how to use. Simple, but it works. Arenas are squares, but instead of VF-style automatic loss when pushed out of the arena, the outer area has an explosive floor and if knocked down there, the hit player takes damage and gets blown into the air. It's a cool effect, and makes for some different gameplay. While graphically the PSX version is about even with the Japan-only Saturn version of the game, they look different but which is better is a matter of opinion (though one the Saturn usually seems to win), features-wise the Playstation blows the Saturn away -- it has one new character, Ayane, who in my opinion is the best one in the game, and increases the costume count from two to four costumes each to three to twenty. The female characters in this version have 20 costumes each, and the male ones 3-8 or so each. You unlock one costume each time you beat the game with the character, so you'll need to beat it a lot of times to get them all, which I did, eventually, because it was fun. Other than arcade mode costume unlocking there's not a lot here, but it's a fighting game so what do you expect? It's got some odd "30 battles" and "100 battles" where you fight that number of fights in a row and see at the end what your win percentage is, but you can't unlock costumes (or anything else) there so it's of limited use before you've gotten them all, and even then, 100 battles is a lot and gets boring played all in a row. Oh, yes, the breast bounce in this game is truly crazy, it's by far the most in the series when on. It is optional, though, the game has a great options screen with all kinds of options for not just that but also arena size, making the whole floor explosive, etc. Overall, good game. Simple, but fun. This is the best version -- the many added costumes and Ayane more than make up for the perhaps slightly weaker graphics.
Destruction Derby
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A good, early Playstation racing game. It has the bad 3d graphics you expect from the early Playstation, and no multiplayer without a system link cable, and is only analog with a neGcon or wheel, but the gameplay is much better than the visuals. I remember playing the demo of Destruction Derby 2 for the PC back in the mid '90s and really liking it, but while this game isn't quite as good as the second one, it is still good. Destruction Derby is a racing game where car damage is central. Cars all have damage zones, so different areas take different damage, and you, or your opponents, will be eliminated if you or they take too much damage. The amount of damage you can take is not too high, so the first two Destruction Derby games really are quite challenging. Still, it's pretty fun, and I definitely like the game. There are both racing series and crash arena modes, and both are fun. But yes, the graphics are pretty bad.
Dino Crisis
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Resident Evil with dinosaurs. (What, isn't that pretty much a complete review of this game? :) It's okay.)
Driver
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Driver is a port of the PC game of the same name. I got the PC version of this game back in 2000 or so when it came out and loved it, with one major qualm -- the game was insanely, "not fun anymore" hard. The first mission, in fact, is probably the hardest first level of any game I have ever played in my life. The "tutorial" level is a complete nightmare that will haunt your dreams... As for this PSX port, it's the same thing as the PC game, but with the expected much worse graphics. The graphics are okay for the Playstation I guess, but Playstation 3d looks pretty bad compared to PC 3d of the same age, so that's not saying much. At least you do get the same huge cities to drive around in and the same driving action, though. Driver 1 is by far the best game in its series, because it's the only one with no guns and no killing -- Driver is not Grand Theft Auto, but its own thing, entirely focused on driving missions where you get from point to point and evade the police along the way. You can't run over pedestrians either, they're there but always avoid your car. Instead of trying to be GTA like the series has tried to do since this one, Driver 1 is focused and great at what it does. It's far too hard, but a great game -- though play it on the PC if you can, the graphics there are far better.
Evil Zone
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Evil Zone, or Eretzvaju in Japan, is a quite original 3d fighting game from Yuke's, who mostly makes wrestling games but made this as well. The game is both simple and complex, with many moves that have very basic, unified commands, and utterly unique gameplay. There is really nothing else out there like this game, and that's too bad because it's probably my favorite 3d fighting game on the Playstation. Evil Zone almost feels like a projectile-heavy 3d fighting game version of Super Smash Bros., in its simplicity -- moves are all done with a single or double tap of a direction arrow and then a button press, no complex button moves (not even quarter-circles) here -- and there are only two buttons, an attack button and a block button. That's all. Despite that, there are over 12 moves at your disposal, including different moves for single and double taps of a direction followed by a press of the button, plus several moves that change depending on how far you are from the other character, and a few that change depending on how you press attack -- the long-distance grab for example has two attack patterns, and you switch by pressing attack again after you start the move. The characters and story are heavily anime styled, and all characters are based on an anime stereotype. In fact, the Story mode for each character is designed like an anime series, with different, and character type appropriate, plots, "episode intros", and "next episode previews" before and after each fight. Story mode fights are one round matches, so the game moves quickly and you only need to win once to move on. There aren't a huge number of characters, but there are enough and they are varied enough; the base moves are similar for all characters, but each one has their own twist on things.
It's very difficult to describe Evil Zone to someone who hasn't played it, really -- it just plays so differently. You need to learn all the different kinds of moves to get good. While the controls are simple, the great variety of moves available means that the game is by no means simple or easy. The moves include a long-distance grab (that can be avoided by moving outside of the target circle or attacking the other player), normal projectile attacks (done just by hitting attack from a distance), stronger projectiles, a jumping attack, a move where you fly towards the opponent fast and try to repeatedly hit them, the charge move (hold the button) which charges a meter in your health bar, so that the less health you have, the faster you charge up meter levels -- a great and balancing mechanic that gives the player who is behind a chance, the super attack (a projectile which uses a level of charge power) which does huge damage if it successfully hits the enemy (plus there's a special animation for each character if you finish someone with the super attack, sort of the "fatality" move of the game), melee attacks, and more. It may sound confusing, but using the moves is simple and you learn them with time. Great game, lots of fun.
Oh, one last thing -- Titus, the Western publisher, did censor the game. They changed all characters under age 21 to be "21", and censored Erel's (one of the female characters) outfit as well, to cover more skin through texture color change. It's kind of lame, but oh well. Oh yes, and the voice acting is kind of bad, but it fits with the game perfectly -- perfect bad English voice acting for the somewhat lame, stereotypical anime knockoff stories the various characters have. It's good stuff. :)
Fear Effect
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Survival horror game on four CDs. I haven't gotten past early on disc 1, so I can't say too much except that the prerendered backdrops look very nice, and the game seems promising, for fans of the genre.
(Note -- I sort of have Final Fantasy VII, but only discs two and three, not disc 1. I haven't played this on the PSX really. I played the PC version demo back in the late '90s, but nothing since. I know stuff about the game, sure, but don't think I should say anything, I haven't played it myself enough.)
Final Fantasy IX
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Okay game, very nice backdrops with Playstation 3d polygon models -- they tried, but there's only so much you can do with PSX 3d so the bad polygon visuals definitely stand out on the nice CG backdrops, and battle mode looks worse. I also always have disliked that Final Fantasy style of "two lines of characters jump forward and hit eachother" battles, and the amount of grind always required in this game. Still, it seems okay. Nice graphics, okay story, some decent gameplay, through the first few hours. I don't know how much I'll actually play it though. I'm not exactly a series fan...
Final Fantasy Tactics
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Because I am a strategy game fan you might think I'd love this, but ... eh. This was one of the first Playstation games I bought, but I've barely touched it in all that time, and I didn't get past a couple of missions into the game before quitting. It's okay, but not great. The 3d visuals are not so good looking, the story is depressing, the camera can be a real pain...
Ghost in the Shell
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Another one I haven't played yet. I will say though, they made a GitS game and you play as... a Tachikoma? Huh?
Grandia
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Fantasic RPG! This is one of the best RPGs of the generation, no question. I'm pretty far into it, maybe 30 hours (that's almost halfway, this is a long game -- I'm near the end of disc 1...), and it's one that I keep going back to now and then to get farther in. The characters, music, world design, and artwork are fantastic. It's an upbeat, uplifting game most of the time, which I like in RPGs -- among JRPGs, after Skies of Arcadia, Game Arts' Lunar and Grandia games are my favorites. It's such a great counterpoint to your usual depressing Final Fantasy grindfests. The negatives are few, but important -- the game is fairly easy, so most of the time there is little challenge. As a result, even though the battle system is great and actually has some pretty interesting depth, you are rarely actually required to learn it -- you'll barely have to even think about learning the depth of the battle system, because it's so easy that just setting everyone to basic attack will work 95% of the time. It's unfortunate, really. I mean, I would not want grind, I hate that far more than the game just being a little easy, but I'd like if it was challenging enough that you did have to think and use the depth of the system. I prefer thought in my RPGs, JRPGs are just too mindless and repetitive for me to find them fun way too much of the time. Grandia does not escape that. Also, though the art design is fantastic, the 3d polygonal graphics are technically iffy, due to the limitations of the platform. Oh well, not everything is perfect, and overall, Grandia is a very, very good game. Justin, Feena, and the others are great, likable characters, the story is good, and the game has a sense of adventure and exploration matched by very few other JRPGs. It's a great game.
The Granstream Saga
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This game is an action-RPG from some of the people behind SoulBlazer, Illusion of Gaia, and Terranigma. It's not quite as good as any of those three games, but it is good. The 3d graphics are somewhat simple, and some people complained that the people do not have faces, but it's really not so bad, and the game is fun and has a solid anime-style story. My main complaint would be that it's too easy to get lost in the dungeons, and you do not have a decent map, as you really do need. It can be frustrating and made me want to stop playing several times, due to the irritation factor of the dungeon designs. Still, it's a pretty solid game, probably a little under-rated.
Heart of Darkness
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This game was long in the making, and released on PSX and PC in 1998 after many years. It was made by Eric Chahi, the developer of Out of this World, and has quite similar gameplay to that classic platform-puzzle game. Like in Out of this World, the graphics are beautiful, though hand-drawn here instead of polygon style, and the game is a sidescroller where you need to figure out the right action at each moment or you die. Once you figure out what to do it's easy, but before that point it's quite hard. The game has a fun, cartoony story and some nice cartoon-style character designs and cutscenes, as it tells a story of a boy trying to save his dog from monstrous shadow creatures which kidnapped the dog. It's a two disc game because of the cutscenes. Good stuff. :)
In the Hunt
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Submarine-themed Irem shmup with fantastic, Metal Slug style 2d artwork. In the Hunt is one of the last games that the people who would later leave to form Nazca and make the Metal Slug series made for Irem before leaving the company, and it really does play sort of like "Metal Slug: Submarine Edition". The art design is the same, and has that same extremely detailed and amazing looking style. The shooting action is frenetic and extremely well designed as well, with lots of variety and challenge. The Playstation version is by far the superior version, versus the Saturn -- that version has only the original arcade PCM (chiptune) soundtrack, lots of slowdown, and no saving, while on Playstation the game saves your high scores, has a Playstation-exclusive CD audio soundtrack option as well as an option for the original PCM music, and has much less slowdown. This game is kind of hard to find (I was lucky to find a cheap copy), but recommended!
Jade Cocoon: Story of the Tamamayu
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RPG I knew little about before playing. I haven't gotten far, but based on impressions from playing for a few hours, it's actually pretty good. The story is fairly generic, but is told well. The background art is prerendered CG, and looks fantastic -- this is a good looking game. As always the polygon characters look awful in comparison, but oh well. The gameplay is simple RPG fare with a Pokemon dash, but works well enough. It's not incredibly deep or complex, but it's a decently good game.
Jet Moto
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Futuristic hover-ski racing game. The horrific early Playstation graphics hold the game back for sure, and do impact fun. The bad controls do not help much either. Really, this game isn't that good. Maybe if you don't mind the visuals and can get used to the controls it could eventually be fun, but I didn't have that much patience... it's this kind of thing that is why I disliked the Playstation back in the day, really. I had a little hope for this game, but it's just not very good.
Kartia: The Word of Fate
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Kartia is a somewhat little known strategy-RPG, but it's good, I think. I only got a few missions into it, but the story's somewhat interesting anime style stuff, and teh gameplay is fun enough for a Tactics Ogre/FFT-style game. Pretty good. (As usual for JRPG fantasy worlds the world makes no sense though, the mixture of stuff from different ages is so bizarre... still though, good game. Not the greatest, but good.)
The King of Fighters '99
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KOF'99 on the PSX has some nice added features, like color edit mode, but the load times are just too long. I love the KOF series, and SNK fighting games in general, so this was one of the first PSX games I got when I got the system in early 2006, but while it is still good, the loading is very annoying and makes it so the game just isn't that fun. You wait too long. And supposedly KOF'95 (the other US PSX KOF release) has even worse loading... I do not want to even try it. Play this somewhere where you don't have to deal with all the loading -- it's a fantastic game, great fighting game all around.
King's Field
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I bought this Story of the Tamamayu game a while ago, but never have really played it for more than a few minutes... it's a first-person action-RPG. Doesn't look incredibly intresting, but I haven't played it for long either. This is actually the second game in the series, the first one was Japan-only (and also was on Playstation).
Koudelka
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Actually the first game in the Shadow Hearts series, this four disc game stars the female character Koudelka, who is also on the cover. It's kind of a horror RPG, and that's the problem -- it's half survival horror game, half random-battles JRPG, and the battles ruin the pacing and tension of the survival horror side of the game. The story's interesting survival horror style stuff, I like the characters, and the battle system is a pretty good, strategic combat system with a grid your characters move around on, but the issue between the contrast between battles and survival horror style tension really is an issue that hurts the game. It's also somewhat short, despite being on four discs. Still, it's not bad, and overall I like the game, I think. Koudelka herself is kind of cool, none of the Shadow Hearts games have a female main character.
The Legend of Dragoon
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Another RPG I haven't started yet.
Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete (four disc collector's edition ver.)
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Ah, Lunar 1, a true classic and one of the best RPGs of the 16-bit console generation... this 32-bit remake is arguably the best version of the game. Some people prefer the Sega CD original, but while that version has some advantages over this one, I like the PSX version more overall, I think. Some of the changes, like making Luna playable for many hours instead of just for a few minutes, was definitely for the better. Making the enemies visible instead of having random battles is also fantastic, that's a great change that makes the game a lot less annoying. The redone visuals are also great looking -- the game's 2d and looks fantastic. The battle system is the same as in the original version, and is just as great here as it was on the Sega CD. The music is outstanding, too -- I really love the Lunar game soundtracks. The characters and story are great, too. The story is a classic by now of course, but it's a good one, sweet and romantic with lots of optimism and a human focus. It's really too bad that the game's a little expensive, because it's such a great game; any JRPG fan should definitely try out Lunar and Lunar 2 for the Sega CD or Playstation (or Saturn, if you know Japanese)!
I'd been thinking of doing something like this for a while, but finally got around to actually doing it. I don't know why I started with the PSX, you have to start somewhere I guess...
I'm not using the word "review" because I only would use that for games I've beaten or at least played a LOT of, and with only two exceptions, the only PSX games I've beaten are the fighting games and shmups. (The two exceptions are Threads of Fate and Tenchu: Stealth Assassins)
Note that I have no import titles for Playstation -- these are all US releases.
I've done A-L, which is about half, so far; I'll post the second half after I write stuff up for those games, probably in another post. :)
(Addendum: M-Z is indeed posted, in post #2.)
Followup for titles from later in September 2010 to January 2011 is available in this post: http://www.tcforums.com/forums/showpost....stcount=16
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A-L
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Activision's collection of 30 classic games for the Atari 2600, Alundra 2, Ape Escape, Battle Arena Toshinden 3, BattleTanx: Global Assault, Board Game Top Shop, Bomberman Fantasy Race, Bomberman: Party Edition, Brave Fencer Musashi, Bubsy 3D, Bushido Blade 2, Castlevania Chronicles, Clock Tower, College Slam, Colony Wars: Vengeance, Colony Wars, Crash Team Racing, Croc 2, Croc: Legend of the Gobbos, Darkstalkers 3, Darkstone, Dead or Alive, Destruction Derby, Dino Crisis, Driver, Evil Zone, Fear Effect, Final Fantasy IX, Final Fantasy Tactics, Final Fantasy VII, Ghost in the Shell, Grandia, Granstream Saga, Heart of Darkness, In the Hunt, Jade Cocoon: Story of the Tamamayu, Jet Moto, Kartia: The Word of Fate, The King of Fighters '99, King's Field, Koudelka, The Legend of Dragoon, Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete (Four Disc Collector's Edition)
Activision's collection of 30 classic games for the Atari 2600
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Okay collection of 30 Activision games for the 2600. It does save, but only a game in progress -- it's just rom emulation here, no high-score saving here. Write them down yourself or something. That really is a problem with these games, most of which have no ending, you just play until you lose... I really don't get why so many games back then had no endings, it's bad design really I think. And with a modern collection at least figure out how to save the scores, that's the only thing the games have, score... still, the games are classics, and the emulation is okay. The manual is nice and has a little blurb for each game, explaining the difficulty/game select options. (Oh, you can save a game in progress, but that's all.)
Ape Escape
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Decently good 3d platformer game, and the first major title to require the dual analog controller, which obviously makes 3d platformer games much more fun. It's not the greatest game ever, but it's okay. The levels have a decent amount to do in them, and the platforming can be fun. I didn't get that far into it before quitting, though. Graphics are okay for PSX 3d, but aren't great.
Alundra 2
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Bland and not that great 3d action-RPG. Nothing special here, it's neither great or awful. Not too fun, but not the worst game ever. I haven't gotten that far in this game...
Battle Arena Toshinden 3
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Mediocre third game in the Toshinden series, and the worst game so far. Toshinden 1 is a far better game than this. There are lots of characters, and you can choose 30 or 60 (with limited graphics in 60 fps mode) fps modes, but it's just far too slow and not very fun. Play a better fighting game instead.
BattleTanx: Global Assault
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Mediocre PSX version of the N64 classic. The N64 version is a favorite of mine, I've played many hours over the years and really love it. This one just isn't the same, though. First, the campaign. There are more levels in the single player campaign in this version, but they are shorter and smaller, so the overall length isn't that different. The PSX version may be slightly longer, but the levels are more boring and less fun because of their reduced size and complexity, so overall the N64 version is definitely superior. Cutscenes are fully voiced FMV now, instead of pictures with text; it's really not an improvement, they made the story even stupider. I mean, the intro before the first level... they made it so that now Cassandra personally attacks Madison and the baby, and Griffin shows up to save her, but instead of shooting Cassandra, who is just standing there right in front of him, he just leaves, "never actually defeat the bad guy" style. Um, no, that's not what happened in the original... on the N64 Cassandra never has a face-to-face meeting with our heroes, it's just that her army is attacking. The change was for the worse, that's for sure. And then from there you go to the new, smaller, less interesting levels, and it may be hard to see why this game was so great on the N64. At least the graphics are decently good, for a PSX game.
Multiplayer was one of the great strengths of BattleTanx on the N64. The four player multiplayer, with numerous modes, and the two player campaign, were both fantastic. Well, the game is two player only here. Even though otherwise it's not that different, some smaller map sizes aside, that limitation really hurts the game a lot. Again, much better on N64.
Board Game: Top Shop
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One of my most recent PSX purchases, and I haven't played it yet. It's a boardgame where you buy shops, stock them, move around and try to dominate the mall, etc. Sounds a little like Monopoly with anime characters, but we'll see. It was a cheap budget release in all regions, so my expectations aren't too high. Could be okay, we'll see.
Bomberman Fantasy Race
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Okay but not great 3d kart racing game with Bomberman characters. Poor graphics, mediocre options... don't bother, I think.
Bomberman: Party Edition
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2d classic Bomberman, with 5 player play. Nothing original here, but a fine, solid 2d-style Bomberman game. Not much to say really... it's Bomberman, just like it usually is. It is nice to have one 2d Bomberman game on each system, though. It's not too compelling in single player though, as usual for 2d Bomberman, so this is mostly a party game, as the title suggests.
Brave Fencer Musashi
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This is a game I really should play a lot more before reviewing. As far as I've gotten it seems pretty good, though the graphics aren't great, but I got stuck not too far in and stopped. I think one problem I have is that I played Threads of Fate first, which sort of is like a sequel to this game, and has better graphics and gameplay, so going back to this one is tough. Still, it is a pretty good game. It has a simple but amusingly comical story, and fun 3d plaform-RPG gameplay. It feels somewhat 2.5d, as you are often going right or left, but areas are 3d and you do move around in 3d. It's a good mix and works well.
Bubsy 3D
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Bubsy 3D is widely despised as one of the worst 3d platformers ever, so my expectations were absolutely bottom of the barrel when I got it. Well, I was quite pleasantly surprised -- Bubsy 3D really is not that bad. The controls are a challenge -- this is a d-pad only game, as expected for an early PSX title, and the controls really suffer for it. It's too bad that there wasn't a version of this game released on some system with an analog controller, it'd make a huge difference. Also, the controls are slippery so landing on platforms can be tricky. Finally, for the graphics, at the time textures were the new big thing, so the fact that it has lots of shaded polygons instead, with only some that are textured, bothered people. Today this shouldn't be too much of a problem though, it gives the game a different style. The graphics actually are reasonably good. The game has a sharp, clear look that I almost never see in Playstation games -- it almost makes me think it's running in hi-res or something. There are a good number of levels, and there are things to go back and find in them too, after you beat them the first time. Really, once I got used to the game's eccentricities, I found this game to be both fun and quite challenging. It is frustrating and hard so it's easy to give up when you die over and over trying to figure out your way through the complex, jumping-puzzles-between-lots-of-small-moving-platforms-over-bottomless-pits-filled levels. Still though, that kind of thing is both fun as well as frustrating, so it's not all bad. Overall, it's really not that bad. Yes, I can easily see why Mario 64 destroyed it in the press because Bubsy 3D is nothing like that and obviously is much simpler and inferior, but on its own, really, despite some definite flaws, it's a decent game.
Bushido Blade 2
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This is a great, and original, 3d fighting game. The concept is a more "realistic" weapon-based fighting game, where a single hit can kill. The game's theme, though, is very much anime-styled, so the "realism" is only in the combat system, really. Still, it's a very good game, unlike anything else. The challenge and uniqueness of the system really makes it interesting, and fighting game fans should consider this a must play. It's a lot of fun, and has good replay value as well.
Castlevania Chronicles
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This is a port of the Sharp X68000 (a Japanese computer) game Akamajou Dracula, or Castlevania as we know it. This was the game's first Western release, and it's a great, but very difficult, classic-style Castlevania platformer. The game has good 16-bit graphics and sound, a good length, and lots of challenge. I haven't finished it; it's very difficult. Still, if you can find it cheap, buy this game -- it's very good. It's great that we finally got this "lost" Castlevania game.
Clock Tower
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This is actually Clock Tower 2, the sequel to a Japan-only Super Famicom (also later remade for PSX, also Japan only) game called Clock Tower. The Clock Tower series is a horror series, but the first three games for the SFC and PSX are not the Resident Evil clones you might expect. Instead, they are classic style graphic adventure games with a horror theme. There are two main playable characters and several secondary ones you play as for short periods of time, and there are many paths through the game -- like the first game, Clock Tower 2 has lots of endings, most of them bad endings where the characters get killed, as you'd expect from a horror game. Your goal is to survive the second appearance of the evil killer with the giant sissors who terrorized (and killed) his way through the first game. This is a direct sequel, set several years later; it must have been be a little confusing for US audiences, given that we never got either version of the original title. Still, it has its own story, and does stand on its own decently well enough that it works, and it's great that we got the game -- we didn't get many graphic adventures on consoles! Talk to people, pick up items, solve puzzles, try to avoid the killer, and try to defeat him somehow... I'm early in the game of course, but it's fun. Oh, it is slow paced -- slow text speed, slow walking speed, only somewhat useful run. Oh well. The graphics have average prerendered/drawn backdrops (no Resident Evil quality stuff here) with mediocre 3d polygon characters. It's obviously not a big budget production, but it's fun.
College Slam
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This is a Good port of this "NBA Jam TE with college players" game Acclaim made. And it really is NBA Jam T.E., it uses the same engine and has an identical set of options, just with college teams instead of pro. That's good, because T.E. is the best NBA Jam game, but this is not quite as good as the original. Still, it's a fun game, and does have 4 player multitap support, which is nice. The 2d graphics also work well.
Colony Wars
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Haven't actually played this game yet. This game does work with the Playstation Analog Joystick, so if I ever get one I can play it with good controls... that's cool.
Colony Wars: Vengeance
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I played one mission of this game, a while ago. I thought that space combat games like this are no fun with a gamepad, but really should be played with a joystick, and quit and never came back. What it is, though, is a simple 3d space flight combat game. Fly around and shoot the baddies. It's not much compared to an X-Wing or Wing Commander game, that's for sure... not terrible, I guess, but nothing too interesting.
CTR: Crash Team Racing
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CTR is a good 3d kart racing game, in the Mario Kart mold. Playstation fans like to say that this game is better than MK64 or DKR on the N64, but I definitely disagree. It's an okay game, and for PSX 3d the graphics are decent, but in both gameplay and graphics this game gets blown away by any of the Rare or Nintendo N64 kart racing games, no question about it. The game mechanics don't match up, and the graphics of course aren't even close. It does have 4 player splitscreen with a multitap, though, so at least there it is even.
Croc: Legend of the Gobbos
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I've always liked Croc. It's a 3d platformer game from 1997 that started development before the release of Mario 64, but came out the year after it. I first played the demo of the PC version of this Argonaut classic back in the '90s and liked it, and it's just as good on Playstation. It does take a while to get used to the jumping, because making jumps can be a challenge due to perspective issues and the controls take a little getting used to, but you do eventually get used to it, and the nice graphics, cute and fun characters, and good gameplay and level designs hold it up even so. Good game, in my opinion.
Croc 2
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Croc 2 has better graphics, better controls, and a bigger, contiguous world, but I don't think it's that much better than the first one. It's not worse either though, which is good -- it's most just similar, and maybe slightly better. It is, obviously, another 3d platformer, and Croc has another adventure to go on. The controls are definitely better this time, and the analog support is good. I like the overworld too, it's better than the simple level-select system of the first game. It's too bad that the Croc series didn't continue and that Argonaut is out of business now, I'd love to see another Croc game. You can't have too many cute, high quality 3d platformers starring adorable cartoon-style animals. :)
Darkstalkers 3
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Darkstalkers 3 is a great 2d fighting game. This version isn't the best version of Darkstalkers 3 (Vampire Savior in Japan) graphics or load times-wise, but it makes up for it with an unbeatable in the series lineup of extras. Saturn Vampire Savior may have shorter load times and better graphics and animation, but the PSX version is the only one with multiple hidden extra options menus, modes to play the game with the "Vampire Hunter 2" and "Vampire Savior 2" rulesets instead of the basic original "Vampire Savior" one, music options so you can play with any version of the soundtrack from the original game up to Darkstalkers 3, the Original mode where you color-edit a character and then build up their level in fights from 1 to 99, and more. It's a great package, and any Darkstalkers, or 2d fighting, game fan should get this. The Darkstalkers series isn't as well known as Street Fighter, but it's a great series of simple but fun fighting games. Darkstalkers characters are unique and really cool looking monsters with simple, straightforward movesets full of basic quarter circles and stuff -- this is not a hyper-technical fighter, but one designed to be easy to play and fun. It works, the game is fun and the characters are just awesome. Have the manual though, as with most fighting games of this era, that's where the moves are listed, there's no ingame movelist.
Darkstone
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This is a port of the PC Diablo clone of the same name. The PSX version is a little cut down from the PC original, losing things such as the voice acting in towns (on the PC townsfolk all talk, here it's just text) and more, and the game requires a full six blocks of memory card space to save, but it's a decent Diablo clone, and fans of clickfest action-RPGs should give it a try. It's not too bad, flaws aside, and while the graphics are quite simple and low detail top-down 3d, they work and look decently good.
Dead or Alive
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This is the best version of this classic 2.5d fighting game. Like Virtua Fighter, Dead or Alive is a Sega Model 2 arcade game with polygonal graphics, but no real 3d movement -- the 3d is mostly for show. It is a fun game, though, surprisingly so -- I wasn't expecting to like this game that much when I got it as I do not like Virtua Fighter very much, but I got hooked and played it a lot. The game has its own style and isn't that much like Virtua Fighter, aside from the hardware and superficial basics. It's a fast, fluid fighting game with a decently varied character list and a good amount of stuff to do. You have a punch button, a kick button, and an "avoid" button that sort of is 3d movement, but not really, and takes some time to learn how to use. Simple, but it works. Arenas are squares, but instead of VF-style automatic loss when pushed out of the arena, the outer area has an explosive floor and if knocked down there, the hit player takes damage and gets blown into the air. It's a cool effect, and makes for some different gameplay. While graphically the PSX version is about even with the Japan-only Saturn version of the game, they look different but which is better is a matter of opinion (though one the Saturn usually seems to win), features-wise the Playstation blows the Saturn away -- it has one new character, Ayane, who in my opinion is the best one in the game, and increases the costume count from two to four costumes each to three to twenty. The female characters in this version have 20 costumes each, and the male ones 3-8 or so each. You unlock one costume each time you beat the game with the character, so you'll need to beat it a lot of times to get them all, which I did, eventually, because it was fun. Other than arcade mode costume unlocking there's not a lot here, but it's a fighting game so what do you expect? It's got some odd "30 battles" and "100 battles" where you fight that number of fights in a row and see at the end what your win percentage is, but you can't unlock costumes (or anything else) there so it's of limited use before you've gotten them all, and even then, 100 battles is a lot and gets boring played all in a row. Oh, yes, the breast bounce in this game is truly crazy, it's by far the most in the series when on. It is optional, though, the game has a great options screen with all kinds of options for not just that but also arena size, making the whole floor explosive, etc. Overall, good game. Simple, but fun. This is the best version -- the many added costumes and Ayane more than make up for the perhaps slightly weaker graphics.
Destruction Derby
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A good, early Playstation racing game. It has the bad 3d graphics you expect from the early Playstation, and no multiplayer without a system link cable, and is only analog with a neGcon or wheel, but the gameplay is much better than the visuals. I remember playing the demo of Destruction Derby 2 for the PC back in the mid '90s and really liking it, but while this game isn't quite as good as the second one, it is still good. Destruction Derby is a racing game where car damage is central. Cars all have damage zones, so different areas take different damage, and you, or your opponents, will be eliminated if you or they take too much damage. The amount of damage you can take is not too high, so the first two Destruction Derby games really are quite challenging. Still, it's pretty fun, and I definitely like the game. There are both racing series and crash arena modes, and both are fun. But yes, the graphics are pretty bad.
Dino Crisis
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Resident Evil with dinosaurs. (What, isn't that pretty much a complete review of this game? :) It's okay.)
Driver
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Driver is a port of the PC game of the same name. I got the PC version of this game back in 2000 or so when it came out and loved it, with one major qualm -- the game was insanely, "not fun anymore" hard. The first mission, in fact, is probably the hardest first level of any game I have ever played in my life. The "tutorial" level is a complete nightmare that will haunt your dreams... As for this PSX port, it's the same thing as the PC game, but with the expected much worse graphics. The graphics are okay for the Playstation I guess, but Playstation 3d looks pretty bad compared to PC 3d of the same age, so that's not saying much. At least you do get the same huge cities to drive around in and the same driving action, though. Driver 1 is by far the best game in its series, because it's the only one with no guns and no killing -- Driver is not Grand Theft Auto, but its own thing, entirely focused on driving missions where you get from point to point and evade the police along the way. You can't run over pedestrians either, they're there but always avoid your car. Instead of trying to be GTA like the series has tried to do since this one, Driver 1 is focused and great at what it does. It's far too hard, but a great game -- though play it on the PC if you can, the graphics there are far better.
Evil Zone
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Evil Zone, or Eretzvaju in Japan, is a quite original 3d fighting game from Yuke's, who mostly makes wrestling games but made this as well. The game is both simple and complex, with many moves that have very basic, unified commands, and utterly unique gameplay. There is really nothing else out there like this game, and that's too bad because it's probably my favorite 3d fighting game on the Playstation. Evil Zone almost feels like a projectile-heavy 3d fighting game version of Super Smash Bros., in its simplicity -- moves are all done with a single or double tap of a direction arrow and then a button press, no complex button moves (not even quarter-circles) here -- and there are only two buttons, an attack button and a block button. That's all. Despite that, there are over 12 moves at your disposal, including different moves for single and double taps of a direction followed by a press of the button, plus several moves that change depending on how far you are from the other character, and a few that change depending on how you press attack -- the long-distance grab for example has two attack patterns, and you switch by pressing attack again after you start the move. The characters and story are heavily anime styled, and all characters are based on an anime stereotype. In fact, the Story mode for each character is designed like an anime series, with different, and character type appropriate, plots, "episode intros", and "next episode previews" before and after each fight. Story mode fights are one round matches, so the game moves quickly and you only need to win once to move on. There aren't a huge number of characters, but there are enough and they are varied enough; the base moves are similar for all characters, but each one has their own twist on things.
It's very difficult to describe Evil Zone to someone who hasn't played it, really -- it just plays so differently. You need to learn all the different kinds of moves to get good. While the controls are simple, the great variety of moves available means that the game is by no means simple or easy. The moves include a long-distance grab (that can be avoided by moving outside of the target circle or attacking the other player), normal projectile attacks (done just by hitting attack from a distance), stronger projectiles, a jumping attack, a move where you fly towards the opponent fast and try to repeatedly hit them, the charge move (hold the button) which charges a meter in your health bar, so that the less health you have, the faster you charge up meter levels -- a great and balancing mechanic that gives the player who is behind a chance, the super attack (a projectile which uses a level of charge power) which does huge damage if it successfully hits the enemy (plus there's a special animation for each character if you finish someone with the super attack, sort of the "fatality" move of the game), melee attacks, and more. It may sound confusing, but using the moves is simple and you learn them with time. Great game, lots of fun.
Oh, one last thing -- Titus, the Western publisher, did censor the game. They changed all characters under age 21 to be "21", and censored Erel's (one of the female characters) outfit as well, to cover more skin through texture color change. It's kind of lame, but oh well. Oh yes, and the voice acting is kind of bad, but it fits with the game perfectly -- perfect bad English voice acting for the somewhat lame, stereotypical anime knockoff stories the various characters have. It's good stuff. :)
Fear Effect
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Survival horror game on four CDs. I haven't gotten past early on disc 1, so I can't say too much except that the prerendered backdrops look very nice, and the game seems promising, for fans of the genre.
(Note -- I sort of have Final Fantasy VII, but only discs two and three, not disc 1. I haven't played this on the PSX really. I played the PC version demo back in the late '90s, but nothing since. I know stuff about the game, sure, but don't think I should say anything, I haven't played it myself enough.)
Final Fantasy IX
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Okay game, very nice backdrops with Playstation 3d polygon models -- they tried, but there's only so much you can do with PSX 3d so the bad polygon visuals definitely stand out on the nice CG backdrops, and battle mode looks worse. I also always have disliked that Final Fantasy style of "two lines of characters jump forward and hit eachother" battles, and the amount of grind always required in this game. Still, it seems okay. Nice graphics, okay story, some decent gameplay, through the first few hours. I don't know how much I'll actually play it though. I'm not exactly a series fan...
Final Fantasy Tactics
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Because I am a strategy game fan you might think I'd love this, but ... eh. This was one of the first Playstation games I bought, but I've barely touched it in all that time, and I didn't get past a couple of missions into the game before quitting. It's okay, but not great. The 3d visuals are not so good looking, the story is depressing, the camera can be a real pain...
Ghost in the Shell
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Another one I haven't played yet. I will say though, they made a GitS game and you play as... a Tachikoma? Huh?
Grandia
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Fantasic RPG! This is one of the best RPGs of the generation, no question. I'm pretty far into it, maybe 30 hours (that's almost halfway, this is a long game -- I'm near the end of disc 1...), and it's one that I keep going back to now and then to get farther in. The characters, music, world design, and artwork are fantastic. It's an upbeat, uplifting game most of the time, which I like in RPGs -- among JRPGs, after Skies of Arcadia, Game Arts' Lunar and Grandia games are my favorites. It's such a great counterpoint to your usual depressing Final Fantasy grindfests. The negatives are few, but important -- the game is fairly easy, so most of the time there is little challenge. As a result, even though the battle system is great and actually has some pretty interesting depth, you are rarely actually required to learn it -- you'll barely have to even think about learning the depth of the battle system, because it's so easy that just setting everyone to basic attack will work 95% of the time. It's unfortunate, really. I mean, I would not want grind, I hate that far more than the game just being a little easy, but I'd like if it was challenging enough that you did have to think and use the depth of the system. I prefer thought in my RPGs, JRPGs are just too mindless and repetitive for me to find them fun way too much of the time. Grandia does not escape that. Also, though the art design is fantastic, the 3d polygonal graphics are technically iffy, due to the limitations of the platform. Oh well, not everything is perfect, and overall, Grandia is a very, very good game. Justin, Feena, and the others are great, likable characters, the story is good, and the game has a sense of adventure and exploration matched by very few other JRPGs. It's a great game.
The Granstream Saga
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This game is an action-RPG from some of the people behind SoulBlazer, Illusion of Gaia, and Terranigma. It's not quite as good as any of those three games, but it is good. The 3d graphics are somewhat simple, and some people complained that the people do not have faces, but it's really not so bad, and the game is fun and has a solid anime-style story. My main complaint would be that it's too easy to get lost in the dungeons, and you do not have a decent map, as you really do need. It can be frustrating and made me want to stop playing several times, due to the irritation factor of the dungeon designs. Still, it's a pretty solid game, probably a little under-rated.
Heart of Darkness
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This game was long in the making, and released on PSX and PC in 1998 after many years. It was made by Eric Chahi, the developer of Out of this World, and has quite similar gameplay to that classic platform-puzzle game. Like in Out of this World, the graphics are beautiful, though hand-drawn here instead of polygon style, and the game is a sidescroller where you need to figure out the right action at each moment or you die. Once you figure out what to do it's easy, but before that point it's quite hard. The game has a fun, cartoony story and some nice cartoon-style character designs and cutscenes, as it tells a story of a boy trying to save his dog from monstrous shadow creatures which kidnapped the dog. It's a two disc game because of the cutscenes. Good stuff. :)
In the Hunt
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Submarine-themed Irem shmup with fantastic, Metal Slug style 2d artwork. In the Hunt is one of the last games that the people who would later leave to form Nazca and make the Metal Slug series made for Irem before leaving the company, and it really does play sort of like "Metal Slug: Submarine Edition". The art design is the same, and has that same extremely detailed and amazing looking style. The shooting action is frenetic and extremely well designed as well, with lots of variety and challenge. The Playstation version is by far the superior version, versus the Saturn -- that version has only the original arcade PCM (chiptune) soundtrack, lots of slowdown, and no saving, while on Playstation the game saves your high scores, has a Playstation-exclusive CD audio soundtrack option as well as an option for the original PCM music, and has much less slowdown. This game is kind of hard to find (I was lucky to find a cheap copy), but recommended!
Jade Cocoon: Story of the Tamamayu
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RPG I knew little about before playing. I haven't gotten far, but based on impressions from playing for a few hours, it's actually pretty good. The story is fairly generic, but is told well. The background art is prerendered CG, and looks fantastic -- this is a good looking game. As always the polygon characters look awful in comparison, but oh well. The gameplay is simple RPG fare with a Pokemon dash, but works well enough. It's not incredibly deep or complex, but it's a decently good game.
Jet Moto
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Futuristic hover-ski racing game. The horrific early Playstation graphics hold the game back for sure, and do impact fun. The bad controls do not help much either. Really, this game isn't that good. Maybe if you don't mind the visuals and can get used to the controls it could eventually be fun, but I didn't have that much patience... it's this kind of thing that is why I disliked the Playstation back in the day, really. I had a little hope for this game, but it's just not very good.
Kartia: The Word of Fate
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Kartia is a somewhat little known strategy-RPG, but it's good, I think. I only got a few missions into it, but the story's somewhat interesting anime style stuff, and teh gameplay is fun enough for a Tactics Ogre/FFT-style game. Pretty good. (As usual for JRPG fantasy worlds the world makes no sense though, the mixture of stuff from different ages is so bizarre... still though, good game. Not the greatest, but good.)
The King of Fighters '99
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KOF'99 on the PSX has some nice added features, like color edit mode, but the load times are just too long. I love the KOF series, and SNK fighting games in general, so this was one of the first PSX games I got when I got the system in early 2006, but while it is still good, the loading is very annoying and makes it so the game just isn't that fun. You wait too long. And supposedly KOF'95 (the other US PSX KOF release) has even worse loading... I do not want to even try it. Play this somewhere where you don't have to deal with all the loading -- it's a fantastic game, great fighting game all around.
King's Field
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I bought this Story of the Tamamayu game a while ago, but never have really played it for more than a few minutes... it's a first-person action-RPG. Doesn't look incredibly intresting, but I haven't played it for long either. This is actually the second game in the series, the first one was Japan-only (and also was on Playstation).
Koudelka
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Actually the first game in the Shadow Hearts series, this four disc game stars the female character Koudelka, who is also on the cover. It's kind of a horror RPG, and that's the problem -- it's half survival horror game, half random-battles JRPG, and the battles ruin the pacing and tension of the survival horror side of the game. The story's interesting survival horror style stuff, I like the characters, and the battle system is a pretty good, strategic combat system with a grid your characters move around on, but the issue between the contrast between battles and survival horror style tension really is an issue that hurts the game. It's also somewhat short, despite being on four discs. Still, it's not bad, and overall I like the game, I think. Koudelka herself is kind of cool, none of the Shadow Hearts games have a female main character.
The Legend of Dragoon
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Another RPG I haven't started yet.
Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete (four disc collector's edition ver.)
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Ah, Lunar 1, a true classic and one of the best RPGs of the 16-bit console generation... this 32-bit remake is arguably the best version of the game. Some people prefer the Sega CD original, but while that version has some advantages over this one, I like the PSX version more overall, I think. Some of the changes, like making Luna playable for many hours instead of just for a few minutes, was definitely for the better. Making the enemies visible instead of having random battles is also fantastic, that's a great change that makes the game a lot less annoying. The redone visuals are also great looking -- the game's 2d and looks fantastic. The battle system is the same as in the original version, and is just as great here as it was on the Sega CD. The music is outstanding, too -- I really love the Lunar game soundtracks. The characters and story are great, too. The story is a classic by now of course, but it's a good one, sweet and romantic with lots of optimism and a human focus. It's really too bad that the game's a little expensive, because it's such a great game; any JRPG fan should definitely try out Lunar and Lunar 2 for the Sega CD or Playstation (or Saturn, if you know Japanese)!
