Review that game

Just adding this thread in here to start again
Quick Review of Mass Effect 2
this game is sweet, amazing, mind blowing, and sweet.....so if you haven't played Mass Effect, play that and then get this sequel because there is so much great things to say about this game it will take too much time to write about them all, simply put, your decisions mean everything, and not just for the game, but for the trilogy, you may not even survive this game, IT IS a possibility, pure customization in this game, plus choices galore, and you can interrupt in cutscenes, probably one of the coolest things I have ever done in a game. Not to mention using your same character throughout the whole series. love, love., love this game 10/10 no question

White Knight Chronicles (Only on PS3)

I've just this minute finished this game. I haven't been able to put it down since I got it. I suggest anyone with a PS3 to atleast try this game. You love FF's then you'll love this. The battle system takes a little time to get used to but the story is brilliant.

It keeps you guessing things from beginning to the end. The characters are brilliant, some with their humour others with their stupidity.

You get to create your own person/avatar to start the game off, adventuring with your companion and main character Leonard. Using your avatar you can also quest online with other people gaining levels, building your own little hometown and gaining new armour and weapons.

I can tell you for certain there is going to be a second one and I can't wait for that to come out.

Okay time for a big review--Final Fantasy 13

Gameplay: 9/10--the battle system for ff13 is really refreshing. It takes the old and blends it with the new, you have your ATB system like the ones of old up until ff10, but now it has changed bc the characters make their own decisions, or you can choose for yourself. However you only control the leader of your group, the other two characters act for themselves. You can change your leader after each battle if you wish. The battle system is fast paced, and the new paradigm system is much like an improved job system, that allows you to change the roles of each character in the middle of a battle. The crystarium is also a nice way of strengthening your characters, it is similar to the sphere grid, but makes more sense. Some negatives of the battle system would be how fast it is, and not having the power of giving each character their own commands, it also take valuable time to paradigm shift, while the enemy can still attack you in the process. If the leader of your group dies, it is game over, even if the other two characters have full health, this is stupid.

Visuals--9/10
The environments of this game are beatiful, the cutscenes are amazing and the characters are well put together, however nothing is innovative in any way, and it isn't something we haven't seen already from 360 or ps3 games

Story--8/10
The story is very convoluted at first, but the pieces start to fall together towards the end of the game, and then in the last chapter, things become confusing again, and with the ending everything seems to make sense...I think. Anyways it is a great story, with plenty of love connections, and get the feel of what the characters are fighting for, it actually makes sense why they are risking their lives to save the world unlike some other ff titles. The only problem is I felt confused at times, and I didn't get to see as much of how the backstories turned out as I would have liked. Solid story, but not the best ever

Length/Replay value--9/10
The story has good length, and you don't really have to grind until about chapter 11, there is a ton of gameplay value after the story and that is what helps ff13 get this score, however the side quests don't really appear until after you complete the story, and they are lackluster for the most part, I think the side quests are one of things that make ff7,ff9, and ff10 so great

Characters--8/10
Three epic characters in this game: Lightning, Sazh, and Snow. Lightning does remind me a lot of Cloud, and she is really dynamic and changes throughout the game, Sazh is humurous and he feels the most human to me, a father fighting to get his son back. Snow is just a lovable character who will sacrifice anything for the ones he loves, he is also a badass dude. Two terrible characters: Hope and Vanille. Hope is whiney and never shuts up. He spends half of the game trying to kill Snow for no good reason. When he finally does come around, he seems to think he some tough dude, but he is still just annoying, plus his clothes annoy me lol. Vanille is the same way, never shuts up, and and always makes these stupid groaning noises, this isn't a porno, geez. Besides her accent which I began to tolerate a third through the game, she always does this praying thing with her hands that is annoying. One okay character--Fang. Not annoying, but not really dynamic either. She doesn't have a ton of backstory tied to her other than the fact that she and Vanille are family. She has some internal battles with herself, but she isn't really a character worth remembering forever.
Music--8/10
The music is good just like most ff titles. The only soundtrack in this game that is epic though is Snow's theme, I love it, we don't get to hear it enough. The rest of the music is pretty soft and has good melodies, but nothing amazing
Overall this game gets 9/10 to me, I have it listed as my number 6 all time favorite game, and my second favorite final fantasy title. Give your thoughts if you would like

Alan Wake
Gameplay: 7/10
The gameplay is fun, but it takes a little while to get used to. The flashlight and the gun feel a bit awkward and clunky at first, but after a few battles with the taken you get a feel for it, and it starts to become natural. Another thing I like about the gameplay is it feels realistic and frantic at times
Visuals: 8/10
The visuals are good, but didn't blow me away by any means. It is obvious that they spent most of the time on the environments and lighting effects rather than on the character models, which isn't too big of a deal. Some really cool visuals are the TV shows that you watch in the game, the first time I have seen a show inside a game look that good.

Story: 10/10
This is the best part of Alan Wake. The story is so unique and gripping, you are always wondering what is going to happen next. There are relaxing moments during the daylight, but then you get anxious for nightfall, when the shit hits the fan. This is a survival horror game so don't go looking for the gore and cheap thrills, this is more of a psychological thriller, so it makes you think, but is spooky at times and keeps you on your toes. The story somewhat reminds of Shutter Island, for anyone who has seen that movie. Not the story itself, but the way it is structured.
Length: 8/10
The game isn't super long, but it isn't dragged out either, they didn't force it to be too long to where it waters down the story, it is a good length and it fits the story well.
Characters: 10/10
I love the characters in this game, from Alan's smug attitude, to Barry's humor which is great. The characters are detailed and dynamic, you feel their personalities and emotions shift throughout the story, that is the way classic characters are made.
Music: 9/10
This was probably the most pleasant surprise about the game. I didn't think that the music would be a big sellpoint, but I love it. They have some good full tracks, and a little David Bowie in there as well, with Space Oddity. There is some spooky sounds here and there too that add to the thriller aspect.

Overall I loved this game and put it slightly above FF13 as my number 6 all time favorite game

Red Dead Redemption
Gameplay 8/10
The gameplay is fun and unique. From herding cattle to breaking horses and hogtieing criminals, everything you do in this game is fun. There are a ton of side missions as well as games such as blackjack, poker, liars dice, and armwrestling games that you can play. My only complaints with the gameplay is that the controls are kind of clunky and hard to get used to. Horse riding takes some work, and sometimes I found the character wouldn't do what I wanted him to do, as well as some glitches here and there.


Visuals: 10/10
Simply put, this is one of the best games I have seen on any console, along with Mass Effect 2

Story: 9/10
The story is pretty straightforward, and can get frustrating at times because you feel like you are doing a ton of missions and are getting nowhere, however as you get closer with each mission the tension and your excitement build, and the climax and ending to this game are awesome, one of the best ever

Length: 10/10
Plenty to do. The story is long and there are plenty of things to do on the side to keep you busy including hunting animals such as cougars and grizzly bears

Characters: 9/10
The voice acting in this game is great. It fits each character perfectly and really adds to the atmosphere. I feel like more backdrop could have been added to some of the characters, but in the overall product, you feel emotions to each character, so they did a good job.

Music 5/10
Music fit the western style, but nothing that impressed me in this department.

Amazing game, my number 3 game all time, right behind Mass Effect 2 and Final Fantasy 7, and I never would have thought I would say that coming from a Rockstar game

just finished the original god of war game for the ps2, here is what i thought

gameplay--8/10
i loved the blades of chaos, and the abilities you get to use as well. It is pretty typical hack and slash gameplay however. The puzzles and traps are fun, but not impossible to conquer which is a good thing

visuals--7/10
the visuals were pretty much standard for the ps2, nothing really pushed the limits, and the environments were cool, but nothing that really stood out to me

story--8/10
it was a good story, but it was pretty straightforward, you knew your goal, and there wasn't many plot turns along the way

length--8/10
doesn't get too long, but i think some more encounters with other gods could have pushed the game a bit longer and made it a better story

characters--8/10
not many to account for, but kratos past, and a lot of his personality show throughout the game, so he is a pretty well developed character

music/sound--6/10
nothing too great, just sounded mostly like middle eastern or arabic music along the way

overall i thought that this was a fun title, and hack and slash adventures usually are, im looking forward to playing the next game in the series. I ranked this tied for my 20th favorite all time with fable 2, and right ahead of borderlands

someone else give me some damn reviews to read jjjjeeeesssuuuss, im super cereal right now

Halo Reach

Gameplay 9/10
The final halo game has the best gameplay of all of them by far, the online multiplayer is a ton of fun with the new loadouts and abilities. And in the campaign the enemy has some really good AI and it makes it a fun challenge, the only problem I had with the gameplay is that during the campaign your friendly AI is pretty bad, and it can become frustrating at times

Visuals 8/10
The visuals are good, probably the best of any halo game, but I wasn't blown away by them. They look nice, just not as nice as mass effect 2 or red dead redemption. The environments are good, I think where they lacked was the human character models.

Story/Campaign 7/10
The story was way too short to begin with. Maybe 6-7 hours of gameplay on normal difficulty. I'm sorry, I understand it is a shooter and the game is meant more for the online multiplayer, but if you want to be considered a classic or even a goty candidate you have to have some depth put into your single player aspect of the game for me to give you some credit. The story is good, and the ending is pretty cool, but it feels really rushed, each time someone dies, you don't get more than a second to let it soak in, not to mention some story holes in the game. What happens to Jun? Why is Keyes so young in Reach? So I think 7/10 is fair

Characters 7/10
Not really much going on in this department, sure there are some new characters, but you don't learn much about them or really get a good connection with any of them, they are just there to make up the Noble Team.

Length/Replayability 7/10
I would have gave it a 6/10 since there are only about six hours or so of the campaign but since you can play online for as long as your heart desires and have fun doing it I decided to up the score for that reason, still I was a bit disappointed with how short this game was.

Music 9/10
As with all halo games the music was awesome, definitely some memorable music in there and it definitely fits the tempo of the game. Great stuff

All in all this game fits its purpose--online multiplayer. In that aspect it is the best game in the series. I could the mp for a long time and not get bored. However I don't think that a game is great just because you can kill your friends and talk smack to some people for a couple of hours at a time. It lacks substance in the single player realm, and I was disappointed in that area. Halo Reach is number 21 on my all time list, and overall I would give it an 8.5/10

Enslaved: Odyssey to the West (360, PS3)

Gameplay: 8/10--the gameplay was action packed and the use of the staff made it a lot of fun, as well as some shooting aspects that the staff has. I liked the upgrading system for health, shield, staff, and combat. The tech orbs that needed to be collected to upgrade items worked well, and the cloud, which is a hoverdisc on some sort was awesome in this game, cruising around it was some of the best times in the game, the platforming aspect was fun and easy, maybe too easy for some, but I liked it. Some minor complaints would be the camera and how you don't see a lot of back attacks.

Visuals--8/10
Nice graphics, the characters looked good, and the environments were really colorful and imaginative

Length--8/10
The game has 14 chapters, it isn't super long, but it doesn't have to be, it is long enough for the story to be told in a good way, and doesn't drag on like some games do

Story:--9/10
For anyone who likes a good story, this a really good one. Two slaves escape a slave ship and the female (trip) uses a magical headband to enslave the male (monkey) in order to have him protect her on her voyage back home to her father. As they ensue on their journey their are quite a few twists and turns, and you watch as the characters grow as well as their relationship, and the ending leaves yourself asking some questions.

Characters--8.5/10
Good voice acting, and later in the game some really good humor from Pigsy, who is a character who looks like a....pig. Trip and Monkey have distinct personalities that the player can relate with, and they change throughout the game

Music/Sound--8/10
The music is really nice in this game, and has some good tracks, just another bonus

The game gets a 8/10 overall or a 41.5/50 on my scale, my number 16 favorite game all time on my list

Fable 3
Gameplay 8.5/10--some things I love about the gameplay of fable 3 is the simplified combat, the enemies are stronger, but the attacks feel more responsive, and you don't have to go through a spell list like you did in previous games. Also the pause menu takes you to a place called the sanctuary and you can just about everything from here, including change clothes, weapon, spells, and manage properties. Also co-op gameplay is much smoother and works a lot better. Some complaints in gameplay include upgrading your legendary weapons as this takes a lot of time and it doesn't allow you to take full command of the combat like you are supposed to. Also I don't like repairing your property every so often as it falls apart and people refuse to pay their rent. Lastly there are a few bugs here and there but nothing major.

Visuals 8/10--the graphics are awesome and all of the environments are unique. My only problem with the graphics is that a lot of the villagers look the same, I would have liked to see more diversity in the character models, but for the most part the graphics are the best in the fable series.

Story 9/10--by far the best story of all of the fable games. The story actually has good content and you have to go through a lot to gain people's trust and loyalty to join the revolution as well as make promises. Once you become king, you can fulfill these promises or not, it is up to you. I really enjoyed the story for this game.

Length 10/10--no doubt on this one, the story isn't super long, maybe 15 hours, but with all of the side quests and extras in this game, you can easily put in 50 hours. The side quest system is similar to those in the first game and you are awarded guild seals as you complete the quests.

Characters 8/10--the characters have an emotionally connection with your character especially your boy/girlfriend in the beginning of the game, the only problem is that there isn't a ton of depth or background on the characters and this could have been added on to.

Music/Sound 8/10--just like all of the the other fable games, the music in fable 3 is awesome, and has some great orchestral pieces in it.

Overall this game is awesome and I would give it a 9/10. It is my number 4 favorite game of all time.

Assassins Creed: Brotherhood

Gameplay--8.5/10
The gameplay is virtually the same from AC2, however new combo kills are possible as well as the use of a secondary weapon while you are in battle such as the gun. I love the new multiplayer that was introduced into brotherhood, it really enhances the assassins creed experience. The only faults that I had with gameplay was some jumps didn't go where I wanted them to ( but not many) and no counter strikes don't always seem really responsive. Multiplayer is great, so if you were having any doubts about that, don't worry, you will enjoy it.


Visuals--9/10
Simply put. Rome is beautiful. The colisseum looks perfect and the sights and sounds are right on. Just as good as they were in AC2.

Story--8/10
The story is a good one, and continues from the ending of AC2. You continue to play as Ezio in this title and continue on through his story until the end. The best part of the story are the scenes that take place with Desmond and the ending is the best in the series thus far, but yes it is a cliffhanger...sooorry. The thing that I didn't like about the story in this game however is that it felt a bit rushed and too short overall, that may be because the developers were focusing on the multiplayer experience for this title which is awesome.

Length/Replay--9/10
This is probably the biggest improvement in this series. There is a ton to do in AC:B. After the story, you can complete guild challenges and train recruits into full fledged assassins. Not to mention the multiplayer, and the fact that you have to rebuild Rome little by little, this game will keep you busy for hours.

Characters--8/10
The characters are good in this game, but it is mostly the same characters that we already know, and there isn't much more development in these characters. Since the story is shorter, the characters don't get a ton of time individually.

Music/Sound--7/10
I personally think that Brotherhood has the best music and sound out of the series, it fits the gameplay well, and just blends well altogether, I was pretty impressed with it and suprised as well.

Overall I would give the game 8.5/10 if you love Assassins Creed games and online multiplayer this is a must buy. It continues the great story of Ezio and is a beautiful game. I have it listed as my number 8 favorite game of all time.

Nier (360, PS3)

Gameplay--8/10
The game is set as an adventure RPG, and somewhat of a hack and slash game. The game does a real nice job of combining the physical attack mechanics along the use of magic. All of the traditional RPG elements are here as well including HP, MP, ugrading equipment etc. Another gameplay feature I liked about the game was some of the sidequests which include fishing and gardening, however the fishing takes some getting used to and can be frustrating at times to say the least. Sometimes your attacks don't always go execute perfectly, not it isn't a big enough problem to affect the outcome of a battle.

Visuals--7.5/10
The visuals aren't bad, but nothing that blows me away, they didn't try to push themselves in this area, and they didn't really take advantage of the next-gen consoles like Final Fantasy XIII did. However, this isn't much of an issue because the environments still look nice.

Length--9/10
The storyline of the game is about 15-20 hours long, if you did every single quest you are probably looking at 25 hours for one playthrough. The thing that makes the length of the game so good however, is that there are four different endings to the game, each revealing different pieces of the backstory that the first ending didn't provide. This is a creative way to create replayability while making it fun to beat the game over and over again.

Story--8/10
The story is unique in that it is a father fighting to find a cure for his daughter's disease. Not a story you typically see in most RPG's. However the story has some amazing moments and really pulls you in. It is a pretty sad and dark story for the most parts, and there are a lot of parts that can bring out a lot of emotional responses from the player based on the relationships that you build with the characters.

Characters--7/10
My problem with the characters is the voice acting mainly. Nier (the main character) I have no problem with, however Kaine curses all the time, and I understand that is part of her reputation, but I don't know, it sometimes feels forced, and Grimoire Weiss is a floating book--yes a floating book with a somewhat annoying voice, not too bad however, that award goes to Emil, who is a young boy who simply annoyed the hell out of me. The characters are dynamic however and they do change with the story, and you build relationships with them so that is a good note.

Music/Sound--9/10
Awesome music, classical Square style, the music never wore on me, and all of it just fit so well, and it was very soothing to the ears. This might be the best aspect of the game along with its replayability.

Overall this is a fun game, I would give it an 8/10 and suggest it to any fans of ARPG's who like Square. It has a classical feel to it and really pulls you in, especially at a bargain price, pick this one up. My number 19 all time

Devil May Cry (PS2)

Gameplay: 8/10
One of the more addicting games I've ever played, Capcom has a tendency to make games with awfully short, sometimes disappointing stories and making it up with rather addicting gameplay. There are some parts about the battle system that bug me, namely, when Dante completes a sword combo, he tends to keep his stance in the direction he's facing and holds his gun out. So for a second after a sword combo, you're stuck standing there. Devil Trigger was insanely helpful in tense battles and required in others, but I wish they had a pop-up tutorial explaioning it, instead of having to search for it.

Visuals: 9/10
One of the earliest games to release for the PS2, so graphics wouldn't be terribly impressive, but I thought they were more than perfect, especially given how early it released. The only flaw I found with the visuals was the charater model design, which is unfortunately what you're paying most attention to in the game. The faces of the characters kind of looked like plastic mold, but were still impressive, imo.

Story: 4/10
Given how this game was 98% gameplay, 2% story, there's almost nothing to judge. But, it was still a good, original story, so it earns a couple points.

Length/Replay value: 10/10
Capcom is popular for making games with a New Game + feature, so you can run back through and grab what you missed, and have an easier time in the game. This function is always fun, at least if the gameplay is good, and with the rating up there, it's a done deal that you'll probably play this over and over for a while.

Characters: 6/10
The only characters I find completely pointless in this game are Trish and Virgil. Trish helps Dante into the castle, and then just disappears for 85% of the game, then when she's appeared to have died, Dante's heart is all of a sudden broken. Someone like Dante wouldn't care if someone he'd known for fifteen minutes just died. As for Virgil, his only real importance to this game was giving Dante the amulet, other than that, there's really no reason for him to be there. The other characters all have meangful purpose, I feel.

Music: 9/10
Excellent, all befitting to the theme of this game and all very moving and sometimes thrilling. The final battle was a bit disappointing and pretty unfitting, imo.

Phantasy Star Portable 2 (Playstation Portable)

Gameplay: 7.5/10
While the gameplay mechanics have been changed a little since the original phantasy star portable, (EG: you can now use shields, the addition of an armor palette on top of the item and weapons palettes) and the attack button was switched to square instead of X. There is also a new class called Vanguard which skills in one handed weapons, while the souped-up versions of hunter, ranger, and force, as well as Protranser and Acromaster were both removed because when you level up in your class you get extend points which you use to increase your weapon rank, and add new ones that the class couldn't normally use. All in all, the game's been improved slightly while still keeping it simple.

Visuals: 6/10

Its a handheld game so it can't really stand up to the awesome visuals of its bigger counterparts, that coupled with Online Multimode, the developers toned down the graphics on the characters to save bandwidth and keep gameplay speeds up whilst playing, but overall, its not terrible.

Story: 8/10

Thank god that for once you have a game set in the Phantasy Star Universe......er universe where the SEED isint the main antagonist, instead it has a new plethora of story arcs and characters that aren't your basic cookie cutter game. So it ranks high there.

Length/ Replay Value: 10/10
When you beat this game the first time, instead of going through the same low level enemies at level 70 something like the first Phantasy Star Portable, this game unlocks Hard Mode, which is as it says, harder, than normal, too keep your level and skills up to par, plus when you beat hard mode you get more things unlocked at the end of it, as I have yet to beat this mode, i have no idea if a Very Hard mode is unlocked next, given that the level cap is now 200 as compared to 100 in PSP1 this game has a high replay value, in addition to Downloadable Content that adds new missions to the 50-60+ open missions already there, this game should keep you playing for a few hundred hours at the least.

Characters: 8/10

Since the characters here are more mercenary than GUARDIAN, they tend to be a little more laid back, and some of them are downright funny, while others are more........serious, however altogether the entire cast is very memorable without being in your face at the same time.

Music: 5/10

This has to be the game's lowest scoring point considering that all this game does is re-use the majority of the same music pieces that were used ever since 2006 with the original Phantasy Star Universe, with the exception of course being the main title music, that is always redone. Overall, the music is still good, but its been re-used too much.

holy shit other ppl are writing reviews now, and they are using the same categories as me to score the games, what the hell is going on! This is a miracle

Plageurism, it's so wonderful. :3

Well, as review writers we all use the same criteria and scoring, so............thats all there is too it. On the downside however, reviews can be written by just about anyone, like say you get a hardcore FF7 freak in here, trust me, they're not the best kind of people...........they would give FF7 10s in every category, and while I will say it wasn't a terrible game, it shouldn't get all 10s.

I am a hardcore ff7 fan myself, not ALL tens from me heres how I have it
Gameplay--8/10
Visuals--7/10
Story--10/10
Length/Replay--10/10
Characters--10/10
Music/Sound--9/10
so ya some great scores, but not perfect

I'm a hardcore X fan, but I'm well aware of the flaws it contains, Tidus' voice is about 50/50 at a professional standpoint, but James Arnold Taylor is my personal favorite VA ever. :p

But, I think these reviews are pretty much personal, anyway, since none of us are professional critics.

I'd go more along the lines of....

Final Fantasy VII
Gameplay- 8/10: Same Square recipe with a few new mixes. The materia system is a welcomed addition that allows players to customize their characters to their pleasing and will be delighted to find a fun combination or two to make the gameplay more involving. The materia bites you in the butt as well as rewards you so it's good to find the perfect balance of what materia should be equipped and what should not.

Visuals: 6/10: Although the FMV scenes are breathtaking for it's time, the character models for both in and out of battle are poor and very clunky looking. The backgrounds are reused for a good chunk through metal hallways, forests and caverns not to mention their high quality looks with the lego people walking poorly on top of them takes away from the game's visual stance.

Story: 8/10: One of VII's saving graces, the story of FFVII is very memorable full of surprising twists and good chunk of background information on the world. Unfortunately that does not the game from it's long moments of nothing happening but of people moving with a load of shit stuck inbetween the lines until the main villain of the story, JENOVA and Sephiroth, appear from random moments then are not seen again for long periods of time. The layout of the world is very random given the "Industrial" world that Midgar tried to show. When I first left Midgar, I was expecting a more industrial impact on the world. I was expecting to see more technology. Cars, trains, other moments of travel yet the world is boring with the exclusion of the main points of the story such as Junion, Corel, Gongaga, Neibleheim and the City of the Ancients. The rest of the world is boring and certain things involving machines are absolutely retarded in some areas. Rocket Town being a large one since a large fucking rocket is shot into outer space while a little village sits literally STEPS away from it yet when the rocket is launches, there is no damage done to the city. Then there are other moments in the story where it calls for you to move to locations "hidden" by the rest of the world yet they stand out in the open and given Shinra's economic status and it's technology, these temples and cities should have been found very easily. The story has reasonably large plot holes and although some are completely full by the end of the game, there are others that are half full and others that have not even attempted to be closed up.

Characters: 7/10: Between the main cast and the supporting characters, there was more involvement in story involving NPC's than the main cast. The main cast is hardly original but their involvement in the story covers up their edges and you are won over by several. The characters are based on lead character designer Tetsuya Nomura's love of Japanese Anime and it's influence on him. The designs of the main characters fits the world of being stand out to know these characters are important but also not being so flashy that they stick out like sore thumbs. The involvement of characters don't seem very strong either. Each character seem to have a bond with Cloud but not with the others with the exception of a few. Vincent and Yuffie are hardly involved with a lot of characters but that's normal since the two are optional characters. Other characters, Main Characters introduced, have little to do with others. Barret has a moment of bonding with Red XIII in the very beginning but it's broken off very soon. Cait Sith seems to only be involved in conversation with Barret while no one else hardly speaks with him, even with his background in the story there would be moments of characters questioning his motifs but is never executed. The game's strongest and best developed characters are Cloud and Tifa while the others receive a few moments of attention but then are almost completely forgotten about. Cid's introduction doesn't make a large impact after his joining until he goes into space then is once again dropped, even when he's made party leader. Barret seemed to be a strong character in the story but after the involvement of Dyne, he dies off quickly serving as just the Black Sidekick. The NPC's are very interesting however and you get a stronger feeling towards their backgrounds rather than the main cast's.

Length/Replay: 7.9/10: The length of the story is a good one. Around 40-50 hours for the main story if you do some sidequests and grinding in between. The replay however is not very great. There's nothing that screws with the story too well but are moments of trying to accomplish a few meager scenes to boost fan couplings. The "Date" with one of 4 characters is a moment of replay but to try and get the date with the two hidden characters is more of a chore and not very rewarding in the end because one is just a joke involving the characters and the other doesn't matter because you can progress the story without meeting this character. Moments of dialogue are not different, just the wording with Barret's south side accent, Red XIII's moments of "Braniac" and Cait Sith's odd change of dialect throughout the story. Everything else is said the same. Rare moments of characters bringing up points from the past is rewarding but it's only with one or two characters at very unimportant scenes. The length is a thumbs up but the replay is a thumbs down.

Music and Sound: 6/10: Uematsu seemed to be very lazy in this department. A few songs really stick out like the main theme, One Winged Angel and the Highwind while there are literally dozens of songs that can be forgotten. The writing for some songs seem to have little effort with low bass tones that repeat over and over and is reused for many many areas in the game leaving some dungeons and towns with nothing remarkable about them. The sound effects are poor and have very low quality so slicing noises sound more like punching sounds and punching sounds sound more like someone gagging on a chicken bone.



All reviews are personal opinion, there is no "Correct Review". That's why I've avoided making reviews and just give my opinion on the game. I say what I think is good, what's bad and that's it. If the bad overpowers the good then I will mostly bitch about a game. The good overpowers then I praise the game. If I wrote a review on IX, I'd constantly say the great over the bad compared to VII, although a powerful title in the series it's not perfect in my mind. Then if I wrote on on VIII, I'd probably give it like a 4/10 because I personally hate the game. I have looked at games through a gamers view but people have so many preferences on what makes a good game that reviews are always going off the wall between good and bad with reviews giving some games very high scores and others very low ones.

^Truth. It's pretty impossible to be 50/50 on every game you play, so you have to be completely honest and not let the fan/hater side take over on anything. If I honestly did an FFVII review, I'd give it a 7/10 from what I've seen so far, but I haven't completed it yet, so I can't give one. :/

Now, if I reviewed X honestly, I'm not sure what I'd give it, I love it too much to be professional about it. x_x

Very true, it all depends on the person who's reviewing the game beliefs on what makes a great game, for me story and character development are always my top two priorities, everyone's opinion will differ slightly, but if you can find someone who reviews games, close to the way that you would review them, it gives you a good idea whether you would like the game or not, that's why I write reviews for GameFaqs, simply bc I know I like reading what other ppl thought about a game, and I also try to help ppl who are on the fence about buying a game, if they hold the same values that I do. On a final note, anyone can say what they want about FF7, FF9 or FF10, but there is a reason these are the most beloved Final Fantasy titles, that many ppl can't be wrong.

I'm bored...


Final Fantasy IX

The ninth installment in the series, Final Fantasy IX is the last time series creator Hironobu Sakaguchi had any say in the series before he was fired for nearly putting the company in ruin with Final Fantasy: Spirits Within.

Gameplay: FFIX returns to its roots in this game, dropping nearly everything that the past two games have done in customization to give newer players to the series a good feeling for what the first VI games were like but not without changing too much of VII and VIII's systems that you feel lost. In the overworld, you play as the main character and runaround towns, dungeons and the world map to your next location. While in the overworld you have the chance to do sidequests, shopping and exploring the world for treasure and new locations. The battle system is completely in tact as the ATB Gauge returns with your choice of either making the game easier by battles freezing while you make commands or harder by making commands and enemies can still strike you while you're deciding on the moves to use. When you make a party of 4 characters, you assign them to either the front or back row depending on their stats and abilities. Characters in the back row do not do as much damage with their equipped weapons but they are safer from attacks so sticking to physical characters in the front and magical in the back is what makes a good balance of the line. As you go through the game with it's 12 playable characters (4 are Temporary), each have a set of 4 abilities to use in combat. Two of which everyone has (Attack and Item) but then have their special character class abilities like Steal for Zidane and Sword Skills for Steiner. By pressing right and left on the command screen in battle, you also have the choice of defending from enemy attacks or changing the row you are in. Then there is IX's leveling system, the Equipment. In the past two entries, you customize your characters through the use of Materia and GF's to turn your character into anything you wish. Well in IX, you lose that feeling for 8 playable characters with their own set of skills and abilities. Now although some characters share the same "Add-On" abilities like Auto-Haste and Antibody, there are some very special abilities that only one or two characters may learn. As you win battles to level up, you gain AP which is needed to get your abilities learned. When you equip yourself, you can junction yourself with special side abilities that prevent status infliction or make you a better mage fighter but at a cost. Each characters gets a number of crystals and each ability needs a number of crystals to enable them. As you level up, the number of crystals increases so you can keep equipping abilities. The good thing about the abilities is that as soon as you put on the weapon or armor, you can initiate the ability. So say you equipped the Silk Shirt, which teaches Vivi Thunder. He can now cast Thunder but as long as he is equipped with the Silk Shirt. Each ability takes a certain amount of AP, some more than others even for the same abilities on different characters, and when the amount of AP is reached the character permanently learns this move. But if you remove a piece of armor and the required AP is not met for the abilities that come with that piece of armor, they will still not learned that ability. But the good thing is that if you remove the armor, you can always return to it to continue learning the attacks and the AP bar will not reset. Last is the Trance System, IX's version of Limit Breaks. Trance is without a doubt the worst part of the battle system. Whenever a character is hit, their trance gauge fills until the go Trance. As the characters make more commands, the Trance Gauge depletes until its empty and the character returns to normal. Each of the 8 Main Characters in trance break out into their inner selves to use attacks that they cannot do normally in battle. Each character has their own special abilities when Tranced. Zidane's Thieving Skills turn into Dyne Skills which are powerful physical attacks that cannot be deflected, Steiner's normal attack power triples, Vivi gains the ability to cast two black magic spells at once, Garnet's Summon Attacks will constantly pop up throughout the battle to do damage at random points, Freya's Jump makes her stay in midair to contantly use spear attacks without receiving any damage, Quina's Eat becomes Cook where s/he can eat enemies with 2/3 of their starting HP, Eiko can cast 2 white magic skills at once and Amarant's Flair skills become Elan where the attacks can hit all enemies or allies. Although a cool concept, you cannot control when your character goes into Trance as in say to prepare for a boss fight. Then when a battle is over, no matter how much time you have left in the Trance Gauge, after you trance and the battle ends, the gauge is reset. You can not even make a single attack in Trance and the battle can end, resulting in the gauge to completely deplete. IX made things simple with the Equipment system that doesn't hurt you for doing something wrong but there's not a lot of customization that makes it worth constantly trying out new attack combos. The Trance Gauge is a failed attempt at anything and the game's super attacks unlocked by these abilities are wasted because the gauge fills even against the weakest of monsters and instead of using the abilities against tough bosses, they're wasted on very weak foes.
7/10

Visuals: The visuals for IX are stunning. The shadings done to the in game characters and sets really makes you feel for the world. People move brilliantly and have great textures showing off their bodily features as against the moving brick people of VII and VIII. Characters move so well when expressing emotions and each character has their own traits of movement that others don't. Amarant swings his massive arms like tree trunks, Steiner angrily stomps his clanking armor and Vivi fiddles with his fingers and his hat when scared or confused. The battle animations are executed perfectly with epic attacks and spells that make battles both terrifying and wonderful at the same time. The only problem with the in game character models is that they are heavily pixelated at close range so making out facial features is pretty hard against the wonderful character movements. The backgrounds are stunning with hardly any repeating passageways and environments that move and shift depending on the weather or the location. The FMV's are stunning and show that this is the pinnacle of what the PSX can do.
10/10

Story: The world of FFIX takes you to Gaia, home to hero Zidane Tribal and his motley crew. Hired by the Regent of Lindblum, the Theater/Thieving Group Tantalus is hired to kidnap Princess Garnet of Alexandria and bring her to the Regent for fear of her mother, Queen Brahne, starting to go mad with power. But after the kidnapping, things turn to worse as the kingdom of Bermecia is ambushed and the true motifs of the antagonists is revealed. The story is a throwback to the original VI Final Fantasy's since Sakaguchi had no say in the past two entries, VII and VIII. It follows a recipe with many references to the past VIII games in the series, making this game more of a tribute than it's own story. The story is not all that original and the twists are not too out of control that it causes it to really be a "Fantastic" story but given the great set of characters and a world that fits so well, it's a charming tale of romance and war. The story is back to a full Fantasy aspect of Knights and kingdoms at war but it still has a few moments of Sci-Fi but not enough to cloud over the magical aspects. The world of Gaia still relies on magic but now kingdoms are starting to become advanced thanks to the city of Lindblum and it's creation of the Airship which is powered by an engine using the mist that surrounds their continent. The only qualms with the story is the layout of the environments. The world is broken into 4 continents and the main aspects of the story take place on the Mist Continent, a continent named thus because of a heavy poisoning mist that surrounds the land polluting the land and corrupting the plants and animals as well as the people living on it. The Mist Continent is practically where everyone lives with very few towns and villages on the other 3 continents. Some areas make sense like the unreachable dungeons because of the rough terrain and the lack of mist so Airships may be powered but others are left in the open and are easily reached by ship yet there is no exploration of them. Gaia's world takes heavily from ancient England with hardly any influence from other European and Asian nations which is in itself a plus keeping the game from getting to ridiculous with pop culture references which Squaresoft had starting pounding VII and VIII with. The story is fun and starts out great but unfortunately it starts to fall flat by the middle of disk 3 and although a lot of background information on the game's main villain, Kuja, and other sources in the story are great and creative, the writing falls flat and the developers seemed to be rushed towards the end so they crumpled up a ball with aspects needed to at least end the game and threw it in our faces. The story is very easy to follow and most of its holes are filled in with the exception of a few elements tagged into the end game and some of its characters. All and all, the story is charming. Although nothing too original, it's still a fun and well written tale.
8/10

Characters: The characters of IX are a mixed batch. Some very cookie cutter while others are very brilliantly created. The story's main characters each have their own character and design but not a lot of the main cast sticks in your head as much as the side characters, a problem Final Fantasy has suffered for many years. The Tantalus Troupe and Beatrix are characters easily won over by the players and its a treat to play as them but you wish they stayed with the main party more than some of the main characters. The story's main cast is Zidane, Garnet (Dagger), Steiner and Vivi. Each of the four characters are heavily entwined with the game's events through Garnet and Steiner's ties to Alexandria, Vivi's ties to the Black Mage Warriors and Zidane ties to the main antagonist. The other four characters are a mix of some involvement to nothing. Freya is tied in since her kingdom, Bermecia is destroyed and Eiko is tied in being the last of a race of people when she discovers that Dagger may be another one of her kind. Quina and Amarant leave no impact on the story and are there to fit their roles, Comic Relief and Brooding Badass. Freya and Eiko are well developed characters but their stories die when Disk 3 starts and their conflicts of loneliness of losing their loved ones is forgotten completely until the very final moments of the game when each character reaches their goals. Try as hard as you want though, the main four characters are very well constructed. They follow a cookie cutter recipe yet then they are altered around to make them feel their own and makes them very easily recognized by players through their designs and personalities. Zidane is a definite needed hero after the brooding Squall and Cloud with his quirky attitude and positive thinking as opposed to several hours of Cloud and Squall "BAWWWing" throughout their respected games.
7/10

Length/Replay: IX's main story will take you around 40-50 hours depending, making it a pretty lengthy game. The dozens of sidequests to take on will add another 10-15 hours and the good thing is the game is relatively easy so you won't spend days grinding your ass off to continue to the next area. The unfortunate thing is the replay value. For the first half of the game, you will have no control on your party so you cannot hear new dialogue of other characters for other events. Some characters don't even say things at certain events so there's not much a point in replaying the game to hear dialogue and see scenes with different characters. The good thing is that you would want to replay to experience the story again but there's not much a reason to replay it.
6/10

Music: Probably IX's best feature, the soundtrack for IX is jaw dropping. The soundtrack for IX is fantastic, full of great emotional songs that fit perfectly with characters, settings and scenes. Nearly every single village, town and castle has its own distinguished song that fits its environment and FMV's have their own special songs written that make use of characters emotional feelings. Drums roar as cannonballs explode and trumpets glare when airships collide, the music really makes you feel apart of this world. There are a few disappointing tracks that are not very exciting or fun to hear but they are very rare in the game's overall fantastic score. Uematsu worked extremely hard for this soundtrack in order to give it a Medieval sound and feel and he did it fantastically.
10/10

In the end, although IX did nothing too original and nothing too risky, what it did was deliver a charming world with likable characters, great visuals and a great score. IX is worth taking a look at and although it's not one of the series best, it is definitely one of it's strongest titles.
8.0/10

The way I see it when it comes to reviews, we may not be professional review writers, but we can detach ourselves from the games long enough to write a somewhat professional looking review and still be a little accurate about it.

My soul hurt so bad after that review. Onto another one because once again, I'm bored.




Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 Portible (P3P)

The third remake of this cult hit RPG, P3P is just as good as it's previous releases with a few new quirks for fans and noobies at the same time.

Story: You are the main character, an orphaned child who has returned to Iwatodai in Japan to start your Junior year of High School. As a new member of the dorms to attend Gekkoukan High School. Everything seems fine and dandy with your dormmates and the new friends you meet on the first day but things change once the clock hits midnight and things go from great to terrible. The Dark Hour, the only hour of complete darkness to decend on Iwatodai. During this single hour, the inhabitants of Iwatodai are transformed into coffins and dark creatures called Shadows roam around Iwatodai eating the minds of the inhabitants and causing them to become in an almost coma-like status called The Lost. And the site of Gekkoukan High transforms into the nearly endless dungion called Tartarus. But only a few people can roam around the Dark Hour without being transformed into coffins. You and the members of the dorms are some of the few people who can roam Iwatodai at this time, weilding gun-like devices called Evokers to summon a "Persona" (A demon-esque like monster) that lives inside each of the Evoker holders. But after you are done fighting the Shadows for a night, everything returns to normal by morning and you must resume your school life. The story is surprisingly well crafted and original which is very rare in a JRPG and has some pretty well crafted twists and turns that will make you keep pushing forward for the games final moments. All the events in the game take place in Iwatodai with a few events of the dorm gang going on vacations and school trips. The story has a great way of even filling you in completely with nearly every single detail which is great and the game has a great sense of humor of making fun of its own system with the Evoker for your psudo-suicidal summons. The story is very strong and although it follows the stereotypical moment of "Kids saving the World", it's still very well crafted and has taken your usual RPG for a spin. I think the thing that is very well done is the fact that the player creates the personality of the main character through moments of dialogue for you to say at moments to power how the other characters view you. You can be outgoing, an asshole, mysterious, brash, stupid, whatever fits the way you think. Although the main story will not change, what it does effect is how the characters treat you. Some may avoid you, despise you, admire you and may even love you. All on how you pick the dialogue.

As the main character, you personality wise are picked to do whatever you please. Your ingame story will not change but the choice of crafting the main character to your pleasure is very well done and fun to see what and how you can make characters view you. The other 8 main characters seem like they fill their stereotypical roles of being the comic relief, the bitch, the rich girl, the brooder, the shy girl and so on but what this game does surprisingly well is to develope the characters in a way that moves them out of their stereotype and forms them to become completely new characters that are very charasmatic and fun and original. The villains of the game however are a little dissapointing. The rival Persona users are a joke with very weird and comical designs and are not too threatening but what is humorous is the usual discussion of what villains do, these guys actually do it. The villains don't use rediculous weapons except one member (which is an Ax on a chain which isn't too rediculous as a few main characters) while the other two use grenades and guns. I do have to admit that although the villains do not seem threatening because of their designs, they are however a constant threat to the protagonists and do make an impact to the people of Iwatodai and the story. The main problem found with the characters is their choice of weaponry. Each character weilds a weapon that fits their personality. The main character used to be able to weild any weapon to the players choosing but that is changed in P3P so now the main character is stuck to short swords. A few characters use weapons that make complete sense. Yukari uses a bow and arrow because she's a member of the archery club at school, Junpei uses large broadswords that he weilds like a baseball bat because of his dream to be a pro ball player, Mitsuru uses fencing swords because she's a part of the fencing club, Akihiko uses boxing gloves because he's the star boxing champ of the school and Aigis uses built in guns because she's a robot but the other members of the team start to make no sense. Koromaru, a dog, uses knives in battle, Ken, an elementary student, weilds spears and Shinjiro, a friend of Akihiko and Mitsuru, who uses an ax. Although the weapons are fitting for their characters, it's strange as to WHY they use these. Junpei is a bit rediculous with his weapon but it fits his silly and charasmatic character not to mention he uses his sword like a baseball bat as he swings the weapon and shouts "Home Run!" when delivering critical hits. Ken's choice of weapon is explained though because of his short height it allows him to do blows to Shadows from long range but Koromaru and Shinjiro make little to no sense are are never explained. But that is the biggest complaint with the characters. Some may drive you crazy, like Fuuka, but in the end you'll come to enjoy the cast with little hate for the 8 main characters.
9/10

Gameplay: Persona 3 takes place from the Spring of 2009 to the Spring of 2010 with each day being a day on the callander. There is no rewinding days and when a day is overwith, that's it. It's basically real life with the day system but there is no time limit but just parts of the day (Morning, Afternoon, Night and the Dark Hour). There are 2 separate parts to P3P. First is your normal life and the second is combat in Tartarus. During the day, you must attend school from Monday thu Saturday skip holidays. Days are broken up into 3 parts of the day. First is the morning, which is usually spent attending school, Afternoon, where you are free to roam Iwatodai from its locations and at night where you can either go to the mall and do some part time work and meet a few friends who only show up at night or you can go to Tartarus. Now when roaming Iwatodai before the Dark Hour you take part in many events that boost yourself to make you stronger. The main character has three traits that can be maxed out so you may talk to new people to create social links. Intelligence, Charm and Courage. By boosting all three, you can ask out people you couldn't normally on dates, meet strong people who intimidate you and join clubs that encourage you to stufy more often. By meeting new people, you create a Social link of the Tarot Arcana so that the main character can create new Persona's to use in battle. When meeting people of the Social Link, you must make the correct choice of dialogue in order to continue the link to allow the level of the Link to rise. Like I said before, each Social Link has an Arcana and each Persona also has an Arcana. This is key to leveling not only your Personas but the Social Links as well. If you have a Magician Persona and talk to the person who has the Magician Social Link, then the chances to level up the Social Link rises so the Links can reach their full level and you can create the most powerful Persona of that Arcana. When you want to make new Persona's, you can visit Igor of the Velvet Room and he will create new Persona's by combining two or more personas to make stronger ones. When you make a new Persona, depending on the level of the Social Link of its Arcana, it can gain a level boost so it way learn new abilities. When combining Persona's, some skills from its mother and father Persona are carried over to the new Persona to use that it couldn't normally learn through leveling up. The bad thing is that a Persona can only know 8 abilities and when a Persona learns a new skill when it already knows 8, you must erase one skill to make room for the new one. Now you have complete control on what skills to toss for the main character's Personas but the 8 Main Characters choose which skills to remove as they level up with no control on what they forget and learn. This is good and bad. Although you typically remove the skills that are outdated like replacing the Fire Skill Agi (One Enemy Hit) with Agidyne (Multiple Enemy Hit), you can spread your attacks to more monsters but with the other main characters, they remove the single stat raising/reducing skills with the multiple stat raising/reducing skills so when facing single bosses you waste more Skill Points for a single enemy rather than multiple. A new trait to P3P that the original Persona 3 and Persona 3 FES is that when a Persona reaches a new level, they drop a skill card so you may teach another Persona that skill that it couldn't learn normally. Now each Persona has its own strengths and weaknesses which makes owning multiple Personas key to exploring Tartarus. The main character can change his/her Persona at any time but the other 8 playable characters cannot change their Persona but their Personas learn many skills throughout the game where as the Persona's you create only learn a certain number of skills which makes Persona fusing all the more useful. The other character's Persona have their own strengths and weaknesses too which is a problem sometimes because they are defeated in battle easily. Take for example Yukari. Her Persona is very powerful against Wind attacks but she's very easily beaten by Thunder Skills and Aigis is very strong against Piercing attacks but like Yukari, is easily beaten by lightning.

Now when it's night time, you have the option of going to Tartarus. At Tartarus, you and the gang assemble outside the second floor enterance of the dungion to form your party. The Party is made up of 1-4 characters at a time with the main character always in the party, no matter what. After making your party, you go up Tartarus and solve its mysteries as to why it exists and train to become stronger against the menacing Shadows. Tartarus is split into 6 different levels with more and more powerful Shadows awaiting at each floor. Now Tartarus is always changing its floors so pretty much every single floor is randomly created and is never the same the following day and you cannot return to previous floors after you get to the next one. This may seem tough for people because of the always changing floors but there are several floors where you can teleport to at any time from the first floor so that you may continue reaching new floors of Tartarus. But at each of these teleport floors, there is a tough boss waiting for you but the good thing is you are able to return to the bottom floor before you fight them to heal yourself, save and form a new party and even visit the Velvet room to make a new persona. Some floors prevent you from further exploration of Tartarus until after Full Moon's which serve as moments the party fights a tough Shadow outside Tartarus and once those bosses are beaten, you can continue searching Tartarus. The good thing with Tartarus is you can return to the first floor from anyfloor but like I said before, you can only return to the floors where you fight the bosses inside Tartarus. If you have not reached the special teleporter since the previous one, then you must reclimb those floors until you reach the boss. Now one thing that is new is now the party can split up. At your command, you can make the team split up in order to find treasure and the staircase for the next floor faster. Characters can also engage in combat by themselves without you to lower the ammount of shadows you encounter.

Now onto the combat. In Tartarus, this is where you mainly fight Shadows outside of the Full Moon boss fights in town. When in Tartarus, you will see the shadows roaming around the floors and you have a chance of engaging in a preemptive strike. By pressing the X button when in Tartarus, the main character thrusts his sword into the Shadow to start battle or the Shadow will hit you and fight you with a preemptive strike if you do not hit it in time if the Shadow spots you. Now battles are a mix of being quick but stratigic. As usual in an RPG, you have two main ways to determine your health. HP and SP. HP obviously being Hit Points, SP being Skill Points. The choices of commands are as follow, Attack, Skill, Item, Persona and Tactics. Only the Main Character can use the Persona and Tactics command but the other characters have access to the other commands. Skills are determined by the Persona. Since the main character can change his/her persona at will with multiple strengths, weaknesses and stats, then you can determine the fighting style the Main Character is but the others are all determined by their Persona. For example, Yukari is more Magic oriented and a great healer while Junpei is a heavy hitter with terrible magic but extremely high strength. The skills are in two seperate ranges. Attack Skills and Magic Skills. Attack skills use some of your HP but for more powerful physical attacks so be careful when using the skill because its all the closer to being knocked out. By selecting a tactic for each character from the tactics menu, you can either make the characters follow orders or fight depending on how you want them to fight. The good thing is the AI is very smart for both characters and Shadows so when a Shadow or Character learns of a weakness and strength, they will do their best to exploit the weaknesses with their attacks and skills. When a character or shadow is hit by its weakness or a critical hit, they are knocked down. During a knock down, characters and shadows are easily hit by attacks and if all allies or enemies are knocked down and the main character is standing, then an All-Out Attack can be unleashed by both you and enemies. An All-Out Attack is usually the most powerful attack and it ignores defense. It also targets all enemies making battles easier to end. The main problem I have with the battle system is that if the main character is killed, the game is over. This is very frustrating when fighting enemies in Tartarus and since the game does have a pretty high difficulty, it makes you want to be very cautious when fighting and making sure to usea Persona that will not end up killing you.

In the end, the gaming system is very customizable so making when best fits you as a player, this game will make sure you are happy.
9/10

Presentation: Persona 3 Portible has had its graphics outside Tartarus dumbed down. No longer a fully 3-D world to explore, everything is now in a birds-eye view with a cursor to use when you wish to talk to people, enter places and so on. Cutscenes are replaced outright with pure dialogue and a few images from the original anime cutscenes. The ingame character models however have been placed in to make sure each character can show their expression for certain things said to them. The art is great but it makes the game feel cheap compared to its PS2 counterpart but it does make things load very fast so there's hardly any moment of waiting for the game to load or unfreeze. However in Tartarus, the graphics are finally put to use. But that's not saying much. Although the characters, monsters and environment got a fresh coat of paint to be smoothed out and made more presentable, the dungion of Tartarus is pretty lazily created. Although the dungion levels have new looking floors, the designs are all rehashed and the same. The 6 levels of Tartarus have different designs but the layouts are usually the same labyrinth look. The enemies and most Persona's are also recolored constantly so the few original monsters are overshadowed by the ammount of rehashed ones.

The voice acting is a mix. Some characters are very well voiced such as Yukari, Junpei and Mitsuru but other characters will GRATE your nerves. Especially Fuuka. Some characters sound overly naisled, some have no emotion and others try too hard to sound mysterious, young or tough.

The Music is where the game shines. The music is J-Pop mixed with Jazz and Metal. Although you wouldn't imagine some of the combos of genres to work, they do quite well. But the main battle theme will get on your nerves because of the annoying and really badly written rap lyrics with a great beat. Boss songs are threatening, Tartarus songs are fitting and the music behinds scenes are well constructed and fit very well with the environment.
6/10

In the end, P3P is a very well constructed game with fun combat, great story and best of all a ton of extras to partake in. In the end, P3P is a great game. Not as well in presentation as it's PS2 debut but none the less still as good in story and in gameplay.
8.0/10