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The Last Remnant is pure, crystalline perfection. Every facet of the game, every element, every design decision, they all work in unison to create the most excruciating experience possible. If you are looking for a thing that can annoy and infuriate you in equal measure, there’s no other option around that is so flawlessly, impeccably constructed to fulfill and even surpass any masochist desire. The Last Remnant’s systems are tailor-made to produce a dreadful sense of utter frustration and make players feel virtually impotent against everything that is happening on the screen. Meanwhile, the story is so nonsensically bad, with an idiotic protagonist, loose plot, and shallow [...]
Bravely Default is a classic JRPG with an interesting story and great gameplay, but that far overstays its welcome. The game aims to revitalize a classic story by problematizing the protagonist’s beliefs and discussing the nature of her conflicts. In addition, it is also concerned with the limitations of the genre, trying to offer solutions that enable a less frustrating experience. The biggest problem of the game, however, is extremely serious: its narrative goes off the rails halfway through the story, forcing the player to repeat missions for countless hours without any significant return.
Bravely Default begins with a great tragedy in the world of Luxendarc. After a [...]
Final Fantasy IX is a very problematic JRPG on all fronts save its presentation. Its story is marred by a lack of character development and some questionable narrative decisions, while the gameplay is structured in a way that encourages trial and error and gridding and the difficulty is all over the place, leading to some frustrating battles.
The story starts simple. Zidane is a sixteen-year-old boy – with a monkey tail – who works for a traveling group of thieves called the Tantalus. One day, he is tasked with kidnapping the princess of the kingdom of Alexandria, Garnet, but when he finally manages to catch her, Zidane discovers that Garnet actually wants to be kidnapped. She [...]
If Octopath Traveler were a book, it wouldn’t be a novel, but a collection of short stories. The game is not your typical epic JRPG, being very modest in scope, telling stories that never intertwine to form a big narrative, while presenting a simplified version of Bravely Default’s combat and job systems. Nonetheless, the game excels in what it sets out to do, presenting a beautiful world and discussing important themes in a modest, but efficient way.
The game has eight main characters and each one has their own story, which is divided into four chapters. Let’s start with the best one to get a grasp of what the narrative is like in Octopath Traveler.
One of the main [...]
Tales of the Abyss is an excellent RPG that tells an engaging story, develops complex characters, and presents mature discussions about identity and free will. Its combat system may be too simple for its own good, but the quality of the narrative makes up for any shortcomings in the gameplay department.
The protagonist of the game is a young man named Luke, the nephew of a king, who had to grow up locked in a mansion after he was rescued from a kidnapping when he was just a child – a traumatic event that erased all his memories of his earlier years. With no contact with the outside world, living a good, but boring life, Luke eventually becomes a spoiled, entitled boy. His only [...]
It is absolutely fitting that the director of The Last Story, Hironobu Sakaguchi, is the creator of the Final Fantasy series. After all, The Last Story is a JRPG that, unlike the latest releases of the famous but ironically endless Square Enix franchise, develops its ideas and characters in a mature, but modest way.
The plot is pretty basic: Zael, the young protagonist, encounters a beautiful but strange girl in the market of a great city one day. And, after helping her escape from the local guards, falls in love with her before discovering that she is, in fact, the princess of that kingdom, Calista.