Recent reviews by Grandy

its a decent remake that add new depth and spin let it be on mechanic or even story from the old games to keep it fresh. They also balanced some gamebreaking skills to make it more grounded yet still useful (im looking at Hasten time)

Romancing Saga 2 itself has a rather fresh concept in the old era and even for games nowadays where you are expected to die a lot and dying made you stronger as can inherit your abilities to your predecessor

my only complain after 100% the game is... i wish they use this resource, effort and concept for a new sequel or even a new franchise and not simply a "remake"

played for 1200 days (immigrants from SEA) but quit due to nerf and without a proper compensation (recall is not a proper compensation for those that have max dupes and all characters)

So as an avid suikoden fan that finished 1-5, how does this game hold up?
well im happy to call this game Suikoden 6 in my book

for my review, i will be strictly comparing this to previous suikodens

lets get the elephant out of the room first, hows the game translation? Bad
I almost gave this game a negative review,especially with seeing people getting banned from voicing this opinion

but I refrain from doing it as i can see the game has a lot of heart and positive moment

Story : 6.5/10

I almost gave this a 3/10 since some of the translation devalue the characters a lot, like Garr breaking his cool calm characters to say he gonna embarass Nowa ?? . Luckily it is less apparent later on

This game has a lot of amazing combination of dialogue depending on who you recruited and who you bring on a story segments. Some dialogue choice you do or winning some "unwinnable battles" actually affect the dialogue later on down the line, which is interesting.

Game could have benefit from Usable True Runes or a more charismatic final boss the game is also straightforward and lack of memorable moments, but the story does ramp up a lot at latter half and kinda save it for me

Though suikoden story are never too complex so its not much of a gripe for me



Gameplay: 8/10

lets get the bad out first, The duel is a direct downgrade from previous series. They emphasise on cool cinematic moments and making the duel as just stat check. There are some optimal dialogue choice but you can still lose if your stat is too low or RNG not on your side, the battle cutscene are not doing great job telling you the outcome of each choice well too

game also too slow at times, some cut-scenes like certain boss animation or minigames should have been skippable. Multiple character attacking different enemies does not seem to support more than 2 simultaneous attacks

I just recently replayed suikoden 1 and 2 to refresh my memory. Comparing this game to the past seems unfair, but this game has a lot of reallly fun moments for me. Upgrading castle seems far more rewarding and more fun than having it upgraded passively (with no of chars you recruited)

Thank god for 8th-10th attendant slot so story locked characters are never a burden. 7th slot are so fun w various support slot making the non-battle characters seems more useful and playing to their strength.

Thank god too for no permadeath in war

as for battle, some characters are outright better than the others, but that seems to be classic problem w suikoden

The rune lens slot are fun to play and optimise with and to break the game (like outright a character dealing 4k dmg per turn), though this can make the game too easy (even on HARD), luckily there are optional side content like endless dungeons that are really fun for challenge (and to make your characters even more broken)

Game has a lot of minigames too, some are more polished than the others, though locking some characters behind progressing the minigames maybe a bit much. But seeing story lines tied to the minigames with their own endings are pretty great. Some minigames like cooking and beigoma can be downright frustrating, though some others like cards are fun and engaging


Affection system was a nice surprise but could have been developed further than just "how many times you talk to that person" and should have greater outcome for the ending

New Game+ is tonnes of fun too, imagine have all the recruited characters available from beginning of the game, which can lead to some super wacky moment


Music : 10/10

composed by legendary composers Michiko Naruke and Motoi Sakuraba should be good enough a reason
but looking at them play at key moment of the game just make the bgm memorable
Suikoden rarely have any good tracks anyway, but this game i have been listening on some of the tracks on repeat


All in all, i really can see heart and love being put into this game, like having soooooo many dialogue combinations i never expect and even having them being voiced? Sure translation is bad, but how can i downplay the effort of the devs?

All in all i really enjoy my time w this game

the good:
cute costumes

the bad:
very p2w especially if you pvp
a lot of bots and RMT gold sellers
very stubborn and tonedeaf customer service

why the portcrystal DLC doesnt come w ferrystones? :(

i am in love w this game since 1999, i mean look at my pfp, and i been using that for years, way before this remake is announced

this remake is my dream come true,
its not a "remaster" either, its really a remake w some modification done to the level designs, music, battle system, various qol, and sooooooooooooooo many more

if you re star ocean fans, especially SO2, this game is worth every buck
heck i even bought this game for my friends

was just feeling to dabble a short game

i didnt know it can rekindle my childhood and love for platformer run jump and shoot genre

Brief disclosure : you are not the target audience if you have not been playing the previous trails series

if trails of cold steel 4 was the climax of all trails, trails of reverie is a send-off, an epilogue, a long farewell to tie all close end of the beloved characters of trails of sky, azure and cold steel

the main storyline, you will be playing as 3 team and all of them have their own battle theme and all, amazing

there is also dungeon a bit like trails of sky 3, with a dungeon where you can set your dream party and all or taking a look at their flashbacks of what happened in between trails cold steel 4 till this point, most of your beloved characters from previous installments are here and playable to boot, even some unexpected overpowered lineup join the party in this final installment before we jump to calvard saga

slight minor gripe ig is that there will be more spotlight on lloyd and rean than "???" and trails of sky characters

this quench my thirst for phoenix wright series.

Its a spiritual successor true and true, there are various adjustment can be made like more detailed profile or crime scene maps,

but heres my rating:
story 8/10 - it really picked up at latter half
music 7.5/10 - it doesnt have much variety but dam all of them are satisfying
graphics 8/10 - very well done illustration, they re crisp and detailed, there are a lot of CG cutscene too
gameplay 7/10 - its Phoenix Wright, but slightly shorter and a bit simplified

if theres a sequel ill definitely jump for it without a hesitation

pros:
- environmental graphic is good
- story is meh but turn decent later on
- combat is fun if you have decent gears

cons:
- this is a gacha game and not your common mmorpg
- severe p2w and powercreep, whatever you paid will be overshadowed or even useless in next elemental chars
- your playstyle is dictated by what is meta, if you want to play what you like, better have carries helping you
- you also need "at least 2 of latest chars of your element", just one is not enough
- v harsh for new players to catchup due to a lot of upgrades are timegated and lock behind weeklies
- the only "events" are mostly minigames where you have to grind repetitively for currencies
- exploration rewards are very underwhelming
- bad track record of hacking and cheaters
- severe lag, game cant handle more than 10 chars on world boss
- nothing to do once you re done w monthlies and ur stamina