Recent reviews by PhpHphPH

Total War: WARHAMMER III is the last title in the Warhammer Fantasy saga of the Total War franchise. Unlike Troy or Three Kingdom which are a blend of history and fantasy, Total War: WARHAMMER is purely from a fantasy aspect but people at Games Workshop and CA keep this fantasy grounded enough to not be something completely absurd.

This game has its rough and smooth edge along its journey and updates after updates and contrary to those who purely play history titles of Total War, this game is enjoyable to play and really ambitious for them to have this scale of a game.

There are some negative points here and there for example the pacing of campaigns encourage you to just steamroll everything and a sense of actual plan your campaign has is gone, and some other balancing stuff. But all in all, give this game a try if you are a fan of real time strategy games. You may uncover hundreds of hours in this game.

Metaphor ReFantazio is the latest title of ATLUS celebrating their 35th Anniversary of the company. This game fills to the brim with elements from a lot of their games within SMT and other games they worked on such as Etrian Odyssey. What really impresses me is how they integrate each mechanic without feeling forceful and it plays really well together. You can easily clock in 80-100 hours in this game and what it gives back to you, it definitely worth the price.

The story follows a protagonist who is on the mission to save a prince, protag’s childhood friend, from a curse. The curse can be dispelled by killing its caster. Just before taking on the mission, Louis, a military genius commander, assassinates the current king. He is also the mastermind for the prince’s curse. But before we can do anything about Louis, the Royal Magic which triggers after the king dies leads to a tournament for the throne where anyone from any tribe, social status, regardless of any circumstances, can be the next king. It is now our mission to enter the tournament to bested Louis to prevent him from taking the throne.
The story itself is by no means unique. What is really impressive is how the stories are told to the player. The pacing is perfect and at no point did I think the arc was too long or unnecessary. Every point and beat of the story serves its own purpose for our goal in the tournament. The story also acts as metaphor(hehe), allegory to what can happen to our world if we decide the arbitrary rules or beliefs will be our only guide to the future instead of working together as one. I will say no more about the story as it is something you really need to experience yourself.

Overall it plays like a typical Persona game. The Followers mechanic is the Social Link of Persona, max at rank 8 and as you progress, each follower will give you some benefit in your normal gameplay or combat. The Followers give you more lenient and headway to progress than in Persona. Royal Virtues is the social status mechanic in Persona. Some followers do require a certain virtue rank to progress. The final obvious mechanic from Persona is the Calendar system. Main quest and some side-quests do have a time limit like in Persona, but what Persona doesn't have is travel time. In this game however, when you go to a dungeon for a quest, it will take some time to travel to, minimum of a day. During this time, we will be at the Gauntlet Runner, a vehicle we use to travel around. In the runner, we can improve our Royal Virtues, hang out with followers or do some other things like cooking.

The combat has to be one of the most refined in ATLUS history. There are 2 types of combat in this game; Field and Squad combat. Field combat is used to either stunned the enemy before going in with Squad, or as a quicker way to go through lower level enemies without initiating Squad combat. Squad combat is your turn-based battle or I should say Press-turn system from SMT. Moreover the form of Press-turn this game took from is from Digital Devil Saga. The turn icon is a resource which is not exactly one action/skill equal to one icon. There are Synthesis Attacks like DDS Fusion skills where it can consume more than one turn icon. The party also has a formation; backline and frontline. Teammates in the backline will gain more defence but the physical attack will decrease and vise-versa in the frontline. The combat plays smoothly and feels snappier than their previous titles, particularly before P5R.

They reuse a lot of effects from Persona 5 in particular which I always have a problem with because the sounds are so high-pitch I got my ears ringing. It’s not as bad here as P5 but still some improvement is nice. The highlight of this section has to be music. Once again this OST is done by legendary ATLUS composer Shoji Meguro. The theme this time is fantasy grandeur music with an underlying religious theme. Even though this orchestral music is not my preferred style (although I do like Strange Journey music a lot), this is by no means bad or so-so. They are really good tracks on there and some of the cutscene music or later boss theme make me shiver at how powerful the track is. The most creative thing about this is the “chant” in some tracks to invoke some religious feel in the music. The chant is done by Japanese Buddhist monk Chief Priest Keisuke Honryo chanting in Esperanto, a constructed international auxiliary language. To be frank, the OST is not my most favourite from ATLUS (that has to go to either Persona 3 or SMT IV tbh) but they are not bad, far from bad. And as someone who, let’s say, doesn't like symphony/orchestral music, the fact that this can get me to hum battle themes or area themes is impressive.

Let’s just say that this game deserves a GOTY. It is the pinnacle of ATLUS game elements in one huge package that is called “Metaphor ReFantazio”. Even though nothing is really novel, or a completely new idea, you gotta hand it to them to create this masterpiece of a game from their own formula and still feel like it’s something new and fresh. Of course there are some nitpicks here and there which I came to call “ATLUS Jank”, but they are all minor compared to easily 80+ hours experience. Worth every single cents.

Persona 3 Reload is the latest ATLUS’s release title of the original Persona 3 that was released back in 2006, and to keep the tldr short; This is fantastic and for me, worth any price I paid to play this game. In all 80-90 hrs that I have spent on P3R, they were filled with joy, excitement, sadness and I have no single regret playing this game.

The story follows a group of high school students who possessed the power of Persona fighting with the enemies called Shadows during the time hidden in between midnight of each day, the Dark Hour. Their job is to exterminate and eliminate all shadows that threaten the life of innocents and one they cared for.
There's nothing special to the overarching plot but what makes Persona one of the most engaging stories that I have ever experienced is the progressions and bonds that we, the player, can make with Social Link surrounding us. Persona 3, specifically, has done the best job in my opinion with the relationship between teammates and it really shows the relationship evolves from just being an acquaintance to best friend.
The progression of the story is like any other mainline Persona where there’s day-to-day stuff like going to school, hanging out with friends, and by the night you can go into this game only dungeon, Tartarus.

Like mentioned above, if you have played Persona before, you can easily transition into this game without any hitch. There are some differences from previous titles which in this game were extended or improved upon.
First of this that I really enjoy is the Link Episode. This is where you can hang out with your teammate, learn about them and gain benefits when completing a series of Link Episodes.
There are also some new activities that you can do such as gardening for some consumable items, cooking with your teammate also for consumables, watching TV with them for additional Social Status points or reading a book with them for the same purpose. If you do activities with them, you can gain additional skills that can help in battle which we’ll get to later. There are a lot of minor things dotted around the game which is going to be better of you experience this yourself in game so we’ll move on.

As mentioned before, a primary dungeon for this game is Tartarus, a tower that appeared only during the Dark Hour and believed to be the nest for all of the Shadows. As the story progresses, the Tartarus will unlock for you to progress higher and higher up the Tower of Demise.
As for the combat itself, it is pretty standard Persona turn-based combat. Once you have exploited an enemy's weakness, you will have an ability to go “1-more” which means that it is your turn again. You can choose to attack the enemy again yourself or “Shift” and let one of your teammates do the job. “Shift” is like baton pass in Persona 5 Royal but without any buffs which I don’t really have any problem with due to Baton Pass can get pretty OP later on in the game.
One more that they add for this game is Theurgy. Theurgy is like an ultimate skill for each teammate which has a meter you need to increase to max first before use like Magatsuhi Skill in Shin Megami Tensei V. Everybody apart from the protag got 2 Theurgies at your disposal. Protag’s Theurgy is the former Fusion Skill in the original Persona 3.
The part where I mentioned about the daily activities with your teammates can get you some new additional skills in battle is about Theurgy as well. Each teammate has a different condition to increase their Theurgy and for some of them, the additional activities can boost the Theurgy gauge when in battle.
One complaint that I have about Theurgy is that it makes the game a tad bit easier than usual because in the old game, Fusion skill (now Theurgy for Protag) requires you to have one of the Persona that is required in the fusion, but Theurgy doesn’t. So apart from having 2 Personas required to unlock the Theurgy, there is no real challenge to just use the Theurgy anytime you like.

I’d say Persona 3 Reload has improved a lot with the sound effect being much softer and not a high pitch noise like in Persona 5 and older games.
Instead of Shoji Meguro for a main composer, this time it is Atsushi Kitajoh at the helm of the main composer for Persona 3 Reload. His work has been featured in Persona Q/Q2, Persona dancing games, Persona 4 Arena/Arena Ultimax, Persona 5 Striker, and some mainline songs. Despite what someone said about a new singer this time, Azumi Takahashi, and some remake tracks, I’d say they are suitable for what they're going for in this Persona 3 remake. New tracks in Persona 3 Reload are such a treat to have and really show how much Kitajoh is capable of. Tracks that are really stand out to me are Full Moon Full Life(OP theme), It’s Going Down Now(Ambush battle theme), Color Your Night(Overworld Nighttime theme), Changing Season -Reload-, and of course Kimi no Kioku -Reload-


Overall, I really adore this game and despite being February when it came out, I feel like it is going to be really hard to top Persona 3 Reload. The game though as perfect as I could have imagined it may be, sometimes the good old weird ATLUS quirk came up. For example; the lighting in the overworld feels weird sometimes, there’s no save button in the Velvet Room like in Persona 5, and some more minor things. This game objectively is 8.5-9 out of 10. But my personal experience will give it a full 10.

Honestly for the game that its original is in 1995 and made open-source in 2004, this is A LOT better than what modern games can offer. My first 3 hrs playing with my friend was a bit confusing because the game doesn't have a tutorial, but learning bit by bit is what make it fun for me.

Recommend to anyone who are interested in this game, download it, play it.

If you haven't play Persona games yet. Just any game in the series 4 or 5 or waiting for 3 next year. If you have time to spare, please try the game.
You just need to have enough curiosity to purchase any title. That will be it for me. Detail review later.

No introduction need for this game. Everyone knows what is Skyrim, what is the Elder Scroll series. Truly, this game is packed with content and hidden stories scattered throughout the province of Skyrim. This review is not going to be what I usually do, explain each of my categories, instead, this will be some kind of rant.

For Anniversary Edition, skip to the bottom section.

I still remember when I played Skyrim back when this game is still a baby. I was 13 at the time and I was dumb. I was really confused and got bored of the game. Then I started to play Fallout 4 two years later, started to get the hang of the RPG game, and begin to like this genre. About a year pass the Special Edition for Skyrim came out and I figured that this would be a good time to come back to Skyrim once again. In my most honest opinion, I kinda don't like Skyrim. Everything is too clunky and slow, ridden with bugs - some game-breaking even. Still, what got me to currently 900 hrs is mod. Even though I said that I don’t like this game, the presence of modding in this game is nothing I have ever seen. The GINORMOUS amounts of mods can customize this game to whatever you want. You want to play a knock-off Soul game, you CAN. Do you want to play an Adult game, but will not tarnish your Steam inventory with Futa Fix? YOU CAN WITH MODS!
I absolutely recommend playing Skyrim with mod(s). Even if you don’t want mods to change your game at the least download the bugs fixes and QOL mod. If we use mods to get past the annoying aspect of the game, Skyrim can offer you countless hours in this game and you will not regret it for even a sec.

Well, the Anniversary edition. What can I say about this and not come out as too harsh. I am a mod user and it doesn’t translate well into my opinion about “Is Anniversary Edition good?”. Simply said, it breaks all mods. There is a workaround though (thank god!) and for anyone who is interested in buying Anniversary Edition and wants to play all the mod then I recommend this video from Apoqsi explain how to play Skyrim Anniversary Edition but still can use the mod for normal Special Edition. God bless that man.
A final word about Anniversary Edition. For its value, I believe it’s 19 USD (I use Thai Baht so I’m not sure. It's 660 THB), I think it’s worth the money. But if you don’t give a crap about Creation Club mod then just don’t buy it that’s all. You will face a hiccup when using mods but there is a fix I mentioned before so all in all, Anniversary Edition is a nice addition to the game for my mind.

If you are looking for a Monster-Collecting Turn-based JRPG. This is the game you are looking for.

The Megami Tensei series is a very old one; it even predated the rise of Pokemon. But the MegaTen series, at least the few first game, is not localize. So Pokemon takes the market there. Later ATLUS publish its own Megami Tensei and call it "Shin Megami Tensei" or "New Reincarnation of the Goddess" and this series has been a ATLUS's flagship games.
For the purpose of the review, I WILL compare this with its Spin-off series "Persona".

Main-line Megaten's story is not "conventional", means that SMT deals a lot with the philosophy, even more than a Persona sometimes. I mean even the endings of SMT, in the case of Nocturne, are called "Reason". The Reason will align with a specific character and the way of their thinking. For example, one of the character reason is "Yosuga", or "the world only needs beautiful things", based on that character way of thinking that the world only need the strongest one. SMT endings are not like a Persona, which is either white or black, or Good or Bad, it is some kind of Gray area depends on what you, the player, think.
Progression of the story runs a little different than a Persona (at least to Persona 3, 4, and 5) which you progress to each day. But since most of the time in SMT, the world is... well... screwed. The progression of the story is like a normal JRPG, you go there and do something, return, then off again.
There is no side story or quests but you can get side track with all the grinding before facing a difficult boss. Although if you choose to play a Maniax or Chronicle, you can play an optional Dungeon, Labyrinth of Amala, and can get a True Demon Ending if you want but it's optional.

At first glance, SMT: Nocturne's combat system seems to be similar to Persona. But when you play it. Hoooo boy are you wrong.
Even though it is still a turn-based, it is not. It's called "Press-Turn system". To put it simply, it is kind of like "One More" in Persona, but with more punishment. You can gain an extra turn by landing a critical hit to enemy or with using a Turn-Increasing skill like "Guardian's Eye"(But that is in SMT IV). Or you can loose ALL of your turn by missing the enemy. "Target the weaknesses" is a key in SMT; it can turn a difficult boss fight into the easy one. And unlike Persona, the -Kaja(buff) and -Unda(de-buff) skills play a key role in Press-turn. BE ABSOLUTELY SURE TO USE THEM.
The enemy in this game use Random-Encounter system. When you walk around, you can see in the radar (Lower right of Screen); Blue for no enemy then yellow, orange, red for a higher chance of encounter the enemy. So, be ready when you walk around.
And There is one more element that similar a Combat with Persona and SMT Nocturne, which is Magatama. Magatama is kind of like a persona in Persona in some way that you can choose a different Magatama and it gives you different weaknesses/strengths, different level-up skills and attribute.
The Demon Negotiation System is also present in Nocturne like Persona 1(I think), 2(Both Innocent Sin and Eternal Punishment), and 5/5R, and this is the main way to recruit any demons in this game. HOWEVER... the negotiation is a PAIN to get it right. Most of the time(for me) it is based on RNG and your luck whether or not the demon will join you. You can loose a thousands of Macca and tens of healing items(over-exacturate) and the demon STILL will NOT join you. Although if your luck is good, try every time if you can.

I have no clue what ATLUS is thinking because all of the audio in this game are still a compress version like in the Original. So, the audio is kinda crappy quality. Other than that, after ignoring the quality, Nocturne music are done by the ATLUS legend, Shoji Meguro, who is at this point, did the music almost all of the Persona games and other Spin-off as well series such as Digital Devil Saga; so the music is DOPE. All the sounds and music suit the style of the game and even sometimes creepy which I'm not complaining.
Nocturne music is more like a style of Meguro before Persona though; a combination of Electronic and Rock. Don't expect a Jazz track or the style you hear in Persona.

Overall, when look at a Remaster stand point, I think Nocturne can improve more to be a good remaster. All Cinematic cutscenes are rip from the Original and Sounds and Music that I have mention. Other than that, for anyone who is interested in Old-Hardcore-JRPG or Monster Collecting games; give this series a try. If you are a casual player or not familiar with this style, you can play in MERCIFUL difficulty (although I recommend playing in Normal first), I don't mind. I'm sure, it will be an experience.

The unexpected persona game to say the least but ATLUS did a very good job of keeping this game, well... still in the theme of Persona.

To be simple, Turn-based JRPG turn Real-Time.
A lot combat aspects are still there, surprisingly. Exploit weaknesses, All-Out-Attack, Baton Pass. THEY ARE ALL STILL THERE! I'm surprise of how they are manage to do that and make it work flawlessly. And the most exciting of all, the Showtime is just gorgeous!

Apart from the cut confidant, not a lot have change. You start by gather the information about the target and then you go in the dungeon now call "The Jail" and then you go to a total nut job mode. Sometime do a request and spend time talking with teammates or inside the RV. Basically the game loop is that.
Bond system is the new one that they introduce in this game. Similar to Social Links/Confidant but instead of going to each teammates and get their abilities, you get points to upgrades which you will need them.

Since currently at the time of this review I have not finish the game yet and I know that no ones want a spoiler. So the only thing that I'm going to talking about is how they tell the story.
The story goes on like in the Persona 5, you notice that something is going on in Shibuya just when the Thieves are having a summer trip and later they know that the issue is going across the japan in various cities. The story has to deal with trauma of "the Monarch", the ruler of Jail, that works like a Palace with a twist.

Talk about Persona without the music is WRONG.
Although Shoji Meguro, ATLUS house composer, is not the composer in Persona 5 Striker, the music still an absolute banger! Sound effects overall is perfect.
Right now I really dig "Welcome To The Jail", "Counter Strike", "Axe To Grind", "You are Stronger" and a lot more!

To be honest, the things that ATLUS did. This would be a bottom at my list of what ATLUS would do the their games and I have doubt at first about this being the Beat'em Up kind of game because I don't like this kind of game. But they really take my breath away here, got to give it to them.

What I said above is all true, this game is still a fantastic game and I urge anyone who interested in this game to play. HOWEVER, this game-by all means-still is not a traditional Persona experience. I still recommend mainline Persona more than this game overall. And since this is a beat 'em up game and this is a linear-story game, the replay-ability is next to none apart from the completionist gamer. So for me, the flaws of this game is really "It's not normal Persona" which is dumb. ATLUS did a thing that throw us off, and they done a fantastic job. The bitter opening of this paragraph will not effect my verdict.

This. is. still. fantastic.

You can think of this game as "An anime version of Monster Hunter: World", but it is not entirely true.

This game has some unique points that whom had played MHW like me said "This is different.". For example the Devour Attack or the progression of the game. For the convenience of those who read the review, I will compare this with MHW.

The game loop ----- Both of the games have similar loop - you hunt the monster, gain some new blueprints and materials, farm them and get the equipment, and hunt them again. I'd say the missions in GOD EATER 3 is too short for me, I like a good 10+ mins on one mission, but then again GOD EATER is a fast-pace game. So, I think it just fine.

The Main Mechanics ----- This is interesting... These 2 games - when break it down to the core - it is basically the same, but it is so different.
-The weapons here in GOD EATER 3 are easier compare to MHW. The Devour and Burst system is unique to this game and the overall feeling of hunting the Aragami is also more relax and fun(sometimes in MHW I want to kill myself).
-The range weapon is a little bit, I would say "Under-power" for me. I mean it kind of useful when you are the support in the team, but for me it's not that good.
-The crafting system is the only one that I'm not a fan. The game will not tell you directly how you can acquired the materials for crafting - like a hunting log from MHW. You can find the mission reward before select the mission, but if you don't know that, it's just a wild goose chase after something that you don't know yet. When play the game for the first time, I suggest you, open the wiki on how-to something that you want.

The story ----- At first, I expected that it will go on full-anime mode but it's not. Story is interesting, with the mysterious nature of the protagonist(our character), or it's just deserved as a plot point, the character development is also good and I can feel their emotion when enter the dialog or cutscene. I will say that GOD EATER 3's story can hook the player since the start.
**And I recommend that you play with Japanese voice acting**

So, I think this game is as good as MHW. I'll recommend this game to people who is new to this kind of game because it is a fast-pace and easy to understand the use of weapon or tools even though the game doesn't explain much.
Overall, good quality game, as fun as MHW (for me anyway), interesting story, and good mechanics with its unique points.

So...This game is a well made game for Sid Meier's series. Better graphic and AI.
But I like to point out something that bother me and Im sure for some people. AI is too agressive toward player or even themselves. It make people that are new to the game or get use to some new machanics. But other than that...IT IS GOOD GAME.