Top 10 Best Jrpg Openings EVER! (Part 2)

Number 5: Wild Arms 3 The 3rd Advanced

Back in the heyday of the PS1 and PS2 Era of Jrpgs, not many could match the Tales series' openings, that is, with the exception of Wild Arms. An Rpg set in the fictional world of Filgaia, each game has a heavy Wild West theme, with cowboys and guns being intricate to the plot and gameplay. Wild Arms 3's opening captures it very well with the song having a very western sound. This was also the 1st and only game in the series to have the song re-recorded with English vocals.


Number 4: Tales of the Abyss

Tales of the Abyss is no where close to my favorite in the series but damn it if it doesn't have a close to perfect opening. If it was shown to most anime fans, it would be mistaken for a really good anime opening. The song is KARMA by Bump of Chicken and it's amazing! It showcases the characters and setting perfectly with the visual and movement matching the tempo of the song. Thumbs up!


Number 3: Chrono Trigger

The Playstation 1 port of Chrono Trigger added little outside of the amazing opening! Which was fine because the game was near perfect to begin with. The opening has the feeling of a massive adventure and shows off the fighting style and to a lesser point, the personality of the characters. 


Number 2: Tales of Graces f

In my opinion, the best Opening for a Tales game, by the best game in the Tales series. Sung by the amazing BoA, they managed to get her to re-record her smash hit 'White Wishes' (used in the Japanese vers.) in English and it sounds amazing. The visuals are mostly a mix of fighting scenes and scenes from the game. They start the opening with quick glimpse into each character's personality. It is an amazing opening.


Honorable Mention : Thousand Arms

Number 1: Wild Arms 2 The 2nd Ignition

Arguably the best game in the Wild Arms series, it also plays host to the best Opening in Jrpg EVER! It is perfect in the context of showing off the setting and characters via compelling visuals and  theme appropriate music. There's not much I can say that playing the youtube video I've hotlinked doesn't. It is perfect. 

Pokemon 20th Anniversary Soul (Leaf Green) Road to Brock!

Hello everyone! Rpg Soul here with a new series commemorating the 20th Anniversary of Pokemon by replaying Pokemon the first generation! I will be playing the remake for the Gameboy Advance so the pictures look a little more colorful. 

This NEW Series will be divided by gyms and a quick overview of what I went through before fighting the gym leaders. I will try and catch as many Pokemons as I can manage along the way but I will not be attempting the insane task of  'Gotta Catch em' All'. Also the format and how I write these posts might change as I do them. Let's GO!

So I named my character Soul (ik cute) and my Rival, Xillia after the worst game I've reviewed so far. After the intro, I'm introduced to prof. Oak who asks me to pick one of 3 pokemon.

I chose Squirtle as it's the most obvious choice because 1) it's a water squirrel! and 2) it leaves the rival with the worst pokemon of the 3, Bulbasaur! Now with our pokemon in tow, let's head towards the first gym leader, Brock~

Along the way, Pokemons were caught (+1 Weedle, I forgot to take a picture of it)

Pokemons evolved. (P.S: My soul is always free like a Butterfree)

Finally I arrived in Pewter City to challenge the sight impaired Gym Leader.

But not before sightseeing and visiting the Museum of extinct Pokemons.

Finally I was ready to face the Gym leader and my Pokemons we're pumped and ready.

The battle was short with both Mankey and Squirtle being strong against Rock type Pokemons.

Sorry Brock, but with you down it's time to make my way to the always wet Gym Leader, Misty!

Sad Soul Strikes Back (Dragon Quest IX Review)

Let me start this review by saying I liked this game, I played it and finished it but I felt like certain parts of the game failed while the good parts were expected from a flasgship DQ title. There will be no character section for this game and immediately gets a 0/5 Soul from me because of reasons I will state in the gameplay section. Ready? Let's tango!

Plot: The plot for DQ9 is centered around angels and the world tree Yggdrasil. The angels are trying to get into a higher plane via a fruit called Fygg. They earned it but right before take off, the train is shot down by a mysterious force causing the main character to lose his/her wings and ending up in the human realm. It's up to him/her to help the humans, as a human him/herself.

Opinion: I like the story, I love the lore surrounding angels and I think it's done tastefully in this game. Also I like the idea of angels losing their wings and learning to adapt and fight their way back to the top. 5/5 Soul



Setting and graphics: The setting for Dragon Quest 9 does not stray far from it's predecessor. It's a fantasy medieval world that is full of life and cute quirky feeling to them. It's done very well and the graphics looked so well done for a massive game on the Nintendo DS. 5/5 Soul



Gameplay: The game retains most of its charm and adventure from the previous installments. The game feels massive and grand and the areas are beautiful. The towns feel lively with npcs bustling around and has an interesting cast of supporting characters.

The biggest flaw in my OPINION is the main characters. The playable characters in your party are created by you and have 0 impact outside of battles. I know a lot of people like this feature but I'm sadly in the minority. It felt lonely travelling with hired puppets. This feature was added to encourage multiplayer, but this required having friends with their own Nintendo DS and I never had gamer friends. The only one I had was my brother and we shared the same DS. Big sad face!

As I've already given the character section 0/5 Soul , I will be judging the gameplay separately and give it a 4/5 Soul


Overall: Dragon Quest IX was a fun play and I enjoyed being able to re-enter the world of Dragon Quest. This is not my favorite in the series as that honor belongs to Dragon Quest VII, but it's a solid addition. I wanted to be able to rip into this game (as its supposed to be my bad game review) but I cant. Despite giving the character section 0/5 Soul, I will have to give the overall game 4/5 Soul just for being everything I know and remember from Dragon Quest.

Join me soon as I review Beyond the Beyond (1995) for the Nostalgia Soul Series!

Nostalgia Soul Review (Earthbound Review) (1994)

Where do I start with this game. It was the first game I ever played that was set in present day and I just feel so much love and nostalgia for this game. It was colourful and did a lot for its time. Marketed as Mother in Japan, it has developed a cult following over the years and I can see why. Lezzgo!


Plot and Setting: It's present day America (or a place resembling America) and our young unnamed protagonist (we'll call him by his unofficial name 'Ness') is woken up by a space saucer that crashes in the hill near his house. Upon investigating it he discovers a sinister plan by aliens to take over the world. With his faithful dog by his side and 3 friends he meet along the way. He has to battle evil hippies, politicians and of course aliens to save the world!

Moe Soul :3 (Atelier Rorona Plus: Alchemist of Arland Review)

Hey everyone, it's Rpg Soul back with a game I enjoyed very much. Atelier Rorona was one of the first Jrpg to come out for the Playstation 3 and not being to afford the console, I dreamt about playing it for a long time. It's a great game and I can't wait to review it! Ikuyooo!

Plot: Rorona is a clumsy alchemist in-training with big dreams of opening her own workshop one day. Her life gets turned upside down when her teacher abandons her and she's forced to work for the Ministry or risk having her teacher's workshop closed down. In her adventures she meets a colourful set of characters with goals that coincide with hers and a love interest who used to date her teacher (!!)

Opinion: With the exception of the Atelier Iris series for the Playstation 2, the Atelier series has never had very dark or complicated plots. They're normally light-hearted and fun. I enjoy it as a nice alternative in the Jrpg genre, it is more in the veins of a Harvest Moon game with it's lightheartedness. 3/5 Soul

 

Setting: The setting of Atelier Rorona is very simple, it's a medieval fantasy setting with lots of magical creatures and colourful monsters. You're based in a town so you prepare from trips around the area to gather materials and it's all beautiful animated with its cell shaded graphics. 4/5 Soul

Characters: The characters in Rorona are not the most fleshed out characters in all of gaming, they have traits about them that stands out a lot more than others and some are sadly lame stereotypes like the tsundere and the bad drunk. But it's okay because this game is not supposed to be about the about character depth.

This does not mean the characters are unlikeable or shallow. A lot of them have backstories that help keep you invested in these guys and some are sadder than others.

Rorona's character is ditzy and can be annoying at times as the aim is to be as MOEEE as possible. This game is a moe game and doesn't try to hide it, in fact it embraces it with all its moe glory.

3/5 Soul

Gameplay: The game revolves around Rorona going to dangerous monster filled areas to collect materials for Alchemy. Each play through has a 3+1 year and every month you'll have to submit items made from Alchemy to the Ministry. You are then judged on the quality and/or quantity of the item(s). Along the way you also craft weapons, armor and character quest items for the other playable characters.

The battle is straight up turn based and it's awesome! I love turn based combat and Rorona keeps it simple while keeping the battles hard as balls. I did 3play throughs with new game+ and am still unable to defeat some of the optional bosses in the final year and with how fun the game mechanic is and how charming the characters are, it's only a matter of time before I start my 4th Playthrough. 4/5 Soul

Overall: I thoroughly enjoy Atelier Rorona but I understand that it's marketed towards a niche group of English players. I, fortunately, am part of the niche. It also helped that I grew up on Atelier Iris and Mana Khemia, so I am familiar with the interesting play-style. Overall I give the game a very biased and very MOE! 4/5 Soul Because of how much passion and soul went into the production of this game. A passion for fun game making that was carried over and perfected in the next two Atelier Arland series and lost in the newer Trilogy.

Please Follow me as I do my next review in the Nostalgia Soul series....Earthbound 

Nostalgia Soul Series : Vanguard Bandits (1998)

Vanguard Bandits was a game my brother and I played a lot as kids. It had amazing Japanese mechs coupled with branching storylines and colourful characters. So I was surprised to grow up and find out not a lot of people got to play this amazing gem of a game. For the Nostalgia Soul series, I'll discussing everything but the graphics except to note if it stood the test of time and instead of an overall section, it will have 'Does it still hold up' section. Now let's get started!

Plot: The plot to vanguard bandits is a tale of politics and badass mechas! You meet Bastion who lives in seclusion with his father Savaro and in the first scene we see Bastion and his father fighting off bad guys in Mechs called ATACs. They fend them off and meet two girls named Ione and Reyna who join their adventures against the evil Empire. 

Now here's where it gets interesting. During points in the game, if certain criterias or choices are made the game branches off the main storyline into a completely new one with completely different party members, fights, choices and storylines.


Opinion: Vanguard bandits has an amazing amount of replayability for a game made in the late 90s. The first few times I played it as a kid, I only ever went through the main storyline only to accidentally stumble upon one of the other branches replaying it as a teen. Each story line differs considerably from the other and friends you made in one, might try to kill you in another. 4/5 Soul




Setting: The setting for vanguard bandits is weird in a way. Here you have all these amazing fighting robots, and then they fight in a very medieval setting. It's explained that the robots are excavated from ruins of old but other than the robots and ruins, there are no signs of modern technology or even remnants of them.  2/5 Soul




Character(s): I'm not going to talk about each and every character the way I did with my Tales of Xillia review because there are too many to count spanning all the different storylines, so I'll stick to the main character and how he interacts with the rest of the massive cast.

Bastion is a typical mid 90s Shounen anime character, he's hot headed but kind and grows in different ways depending on the branch you pick. The characters that surround him never feel one dimentional aside from a select few like the Loli character who's there to be cute and pilot a massive ugly robot. There's also this amazing princess character who pilots this gigantic blue heirloom ATAC.  4/5 Soul


Gameplay: This game incorporates tactical RPGs ala Final Fantasy Tactics and a dating sim. After every fight you're able to shop in the town you're currently in and interact with each character to improve their impression towards you which may or may not have an effect in the story and their growth. The tactical rpg genre is a dying genre with modern games opting for more fast paced combat and gameplay but if you're nostalgic for the genre, give it a go. 3/5 Soul

How does it hold up? Vanguard bandits is a fun game but I can't sit here and lie to you and say my judgment is not marred by nostalgia because it is. But then again it's the point of the series. My advice is pick it up if you're feeling nostalgic for the genre but have already played and replayed Final Fantasy Tactics a million times and need something new (old). 3/5 Soul

Join me next time when I review Final Fantasy 13!  

Tales for the Soul! (Tales of Zestiria Review)

Hello everyone, my name is Rpg Soul and this is my new blog discussing games I've loved and hated over the years. I'm mainly an rpg player while sometimes playing the occasional 'every other genre'. Here's how the posts on this blog will work, I will discuss setting, character and plot (if there is any) and finally my over all view of the game along with a rating ranging from 0 to 5 souls (based heavily on my opinion). So let's get started!

For my first post, I will be discussing a game that I have been excited about since, well it was first announced. Tales of Zestiria! This game came out to mixed reviews from fans and praise from critics. In fact my brother warned me against buying it because of some of the things talked about in forums by longtime fans of the series.I will start with the plot segment which will remain vague and spoiler free.

Plot: So Tales games have never been very adventurous with their plot, they stick to an almost formulaic way of telling a story with each installment having a pre-determined checklist almost(and characters for that matter). So without giving everything away, the game starts with our protagonist living in seclusion (ala Milla from Tales of Xillia) He loves exploring ruins and learning more about the world before it was taken over by demons called 'Hellions'. After meeting the presumed Heroine of the game, him along with a buncha angels no one but him can see are taken upon a typical boy saves the world adventure.

Opinion: I like the plot of Zestiria, it's cheesy as hell but fun. Tales has always been this amazing story-telling vehicle and this one is no different. The twists and turns are fun to uncover and the characters (more about that in detail later) keep you invested in what they're doing. All in all i give it 3/5 Soul.

Setting: Not much to say about the setting, as with all Tales games, it's set in a fantasy world with monsters roaming everywhere. The graphics are beautiful and the world feels big with tons of npc roaming even the smallest towns. 3/5 Soul.



Character(s): The characters in Zesteria while still playing to the usual archetype set by the tales of old, played them at their best. I will mostly be talking about the main character as I feel a good or bad main character makes or breaks a game. Here, we have the horribly named Sorey. His Tales archetype is the same one Milla had in Tales of Xillia but done a lot better. He's sheltered but not boring, he also has elements  of the usual shounen manga/anime main character feel. Honestly, in the first few scenes I wanted to hate him as I do most typical Shounen main characters but it shocked me that I didn't. The biggest reason for me is that he doesn't just rush into dangerous situations. He's careful and smart and unlike Milla (who's personality outside of being clueless about the 'modern' world and eating was as interesting as a wall painted white) he felt more fleshed out and real.

Next I'll be talking about two other characters (So I can leave the characters that appear later for you to discover on your own) Mikleo and Alisha. So Mikleo is your standard male Tsundere you'd find in any dollar store yaoi manga shop. He's cold to everyone but Sorey but later warms up to everyone. Honestly, aside from the fact that he provides us the ability to wield a bow (not a spoiler, it's in every trailer for this game ever!) he's the blandest character in the game. Maybe it's just cos I'm just not a huge fan of tsunderes?

And finally Alisha, the most controversial character in the game. The reason so many fans were disappointed in the game. She was in every promotional poster and trailer for the game and was gone for the majority of the game and honestly, I don't see what all the hoopla is about. She's nothing special and her contribution to the narrative and her interaction with the rest of the party during her short stay were pretty meh.

Despite slamming two of the three characters I've reviewed I am giving the characters 4/5 Soul because honestly, the characters that come later and the interaction they all have is incredible!

Next up....


Battle: Okay so what can I say about the battle system in Tales of Zestiria other than it's amazing.
It has a learning curve of sorts, as with all Tales games. It's like meeting a friend you saw a few years ago and finding out they had a nose job but loving them anyway. Also this is the first game where the transition into battle from the field is practically seamless. Gone are the days where the screen would go black and the field would disintegrate into the battle. This time around you get to DNA digivolve with your Angelic party members! 

Digimon World 2

Over-all this is the best a Tales battle system has been since Tales of Graces f and the best part about it is how epic the battle looks and feels. I hope to see more of this battle system in future Tales games. 5/5 Soul.

Overall: I enjoy Zestiria a lot more than I thought I would. I like the characters overall, the plot and the setting. I came into this mindful of all the mixed reviews and some clear hatred for the game and came out feeling happy and content. After the shitfest that was Xillia, I'm happy to come out of a tales game feeling like I accomplished something. A mega amazing 4/5 Soul overall! 

Stay tuned as I review Tales of Xillia next and it's not going to be pretty!