14 years after Grandia III (PS2), and we never got Grandia IV. We might have to blame the aforementioned 3rd iteration of the franchise (I refuse to acknowledge Grandia Xtreme’s existence) for the death of the series. True, the JRPG genre in general, peaked in the late 90’s and early 00’s, then gradually declined back…
Tag: PlayStation 2
The Top Ten Greatest Consoles of All-Time
Editor’s foreword: There are two separate rankings listed: The official ranking which is the ‘NER’ ranking, and the Personal Ranking. The entire list is mostly subjective, as quality of games and my experiences with said games are the biggest deciding factor in terms of ranking. However, the NER ranking takes many other things into consideration,…
Xenosaga: Episode 1 (PS2) Review
Reviewing Xenosaga: Episode 1 is a lot like reviewing the latest Final Fantasy on the market. Simply put the production values of Xenosaga are only rivaled by those of the FF series. The Xeno series might also be the only series capable of giving the Final Fantasies a run for their money. When Xenogears debuted…
The Bard’s Tale (PS2/XBOX) Review
An Average Action RPG That Is Worth The Price of Admission Thanks to the Jackass Protagonist The Bards Tale is a weird game… in an era where every action RPG not named Zelda or Kingdom Hearts sucks, The Bards Tale is a welcome breath of fresh air, for one reason alone…its plot. No it’s not…
Tales of Legendia (PS2) Review
As readers of this website know, I am a firm believer that the Golden Era of Traditional RPGs occurred during the 32-bit epoch, a time that saw the release of many good titles that even today two generations later, can be enjoyed and appreciated by faithful hardcore RPG maniacs and new comers to the genre…
Suikoden IV (PS2) Review
The Suikoden Series hasn’t made the transition to modern consoles; Suikoden I+II are legendary, mostly because they are hard finds unless you go on e-bay. There are also many Suikoden spin offs on different systems. Konami definitely had, at least until the 3rd installment, a decent RPG franchise. Suikoden 3 made its debut on the…
Suikoden 3 (PS2) Review
Speechless…That’s is how Suikoden 3 left me. I am one of the few who had played and finished the original Suikoden some 7-8 years ago. That game was good, it was one of the very first RPGs for the PS1 and it featured the at the time unprecedented ability to recruit 108 characters, to fight…
Star Ocean 3: Till the End of Time (PS2) Review
More than three years in the making, and backed, perhaps, by the biggest budget that an Enix game has ever had. Star Ocean 3 was an RPG groomed for greatness. But all of those factors don’t necessarily make a great game (See Legend of Dragoon). However, given Tri Ace’s (the Developer) excellent recent track record…
Shadow of the Colossus (PS2) Review
Shadow of the Colossus is the closest thing I have played to 1998’s GREAT The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, in this generation. Colossus, is innovative, huge, and simply a work of art. It also features a guy with a sword, a bow and Arrows, that rides on a horse across the open fields….
Rogue Galaxy (PS2) Review
In the PS2 era developer Level-5 established itself as one of the more reliable teams when it came to delivering console RPG goodness. Dark Cloud and its sequel were well received by critics, and the talented team was chosen to help flesh out Dragon Quest VIII for the PS2. In 2006 they released what will…