Recent reviews by Aesica

Full disclosure, I made a very tiny contribution toward this game's creation. I still intend for this review to be honest and fair, pointing out both the good and the bad. So having said that, let's begin!

The Good
- Well-done battle aesthetics and battle system overall. The attacks are very satisfying.
- No random encounters--you can see (and thus avoid) enemies on the map. And sometimes, you need to do exactly that.
- Lots of characters to unlock, each with their own skillets and you can control what skills they unlock as they level.
- Lots of customization for your characters in general--skills they learn, bonuses applied to equipment, permanent stat boost items you can either spread out or pool into a favorite, etc.
- Gameplay is nice and bite-sized. You can sit down and clear (or die in) a dungeon, then save and close it until later.

The Bad
- Healing is very scarce. There are places in dungeons that will heal you once only. There's a few healing items, but so far I haven't found a proper shop that sells them so they feel very limited in supply. Nobody I have so far has healing skill either, except for the witch who only has a weak HP drain. There's finally a free-to-use skill in battle that recovers HP and MP, but it does so in very small amounts. Finally, you will recover HP each time a character levels up or by returning to the home base. That's it so far, though.
- As nice as the environments look, sometimes the effects can obscure visibility. Darker areas make sense, but in others you'll have clouds, etc making it hard to see where you're going.
- There isn't much explanation of what each status effect does.
- There also isn't any indication of a given skill's power level.

Things to be wary of
- This game isn't going to hold your hand other than to give you some basic tips and a general idea of what your goal is. I like that about it, but not everyone will.
- You really really need to save in between trips out into the world. You can be doing really great until one wrong move kills you off without warning, or worse. There are single-use interactable objects and events you might not do "correctly" on your first encounter. Get ready to save scum when dealing with certain areas!
- Things can get very difficult very quickly if you don't engage in the various character development mechanics. Unlock skills as you can, favoring those that will let you use the Enhance Vessel feature as soon as possible. Characters (called vessels) that aren't fully enhanced will start to feel very weak very quickly.
- This game is very light on story and dialog. It's focus is exploring, building characters/parties, and fighting stuff.

Overall, pretty enjoyable.

Did you enjoy the Final Fantasy Legend series from the Game Boy era with all of their weird quirks? Have you ever wanted more like it? Well strap in, because this game nails the classic-era aesthetic, mechanics, and the overall feel perfectly, all with some nice, modern QoL improvements thrown in. Everything you may remember from FFL1 and FFL2 in terms of game mechanics is present here as well, so if you've played them, you know exactly what you're getting into.

The Good

• Fully customizable party out of the familiar-from-FFL humans, mutants/espers, robots, or monsters each with their own unique progression mechanics.
  
• Can choose whether encounters are visible on the map or old-school random.
  
• Plot feels like a FFL-style story, only its a lot more refined.
  
• Previously-obfuscated mechanics are now mostly transparent--no more guessing what your monster will turn into when it eats meat, or what your mutant/esper will learn.
  
• Balance feels a lot better.
  
• Game is very transparent with equipment and spells, etc. You can view a lot of details for each one and know exactly what you're using instead of guessing or referring to some online guide.
  
• Just like the previous games, you can save anywhere.
  
• The soundtrack goes hard~

The Bad
...you know, I really don't have anything to say here, however I'm a big fan of FFL1 and FFL2, so I'm a bit biased.

The Ugly

• The game's mechanics borrow more from FFL1 than FFL2, which is mostly fine unless you're an esper/mutant. Just like in FFL1, your espers have 4 out of the 8 slots hard-reserved for skills, and whatever they learn will pop in and out of those 4 slots at random, rather than in FFL2 where only the bottom-most skill would be replaced. To make this less painful, the game at least shows you what you'll be replacing and what will replace it, and gives you a choice between that change and one other random mutation.
  
• Similar to the above, the game borrows FFL1's very low number of uses for esper abilities. So you'll learn a Thunder skill with only 3 charges in between inn visits, which is mostly unusable unless you mutate-swap them out all the time. You're better off taking stat upgrades or passive resists, like oFire, or if you're lucky, oAll.
  
• If you remember robots from FFL2, you'll recall that they can restore the uses of their equipped weapons to half of the original weapon's value. One difference that might catch you off guard in this game is that items equipped by robots will only restore to half of the amount they had when equipped rather than the item's original max value. This means if you use a sword with 40 base uses, then put it on your robot when it only has 3 uses left, when the robot recovers at an inn, that sword will refresh up to 1 use rather than the expected 20. Be aware of this.

Overall, a really great game so far. Even if you haven't played FFL1 or FFL2, the game is worth a try, especially if you want an RPG with quirky mechanics that isn't about teenage depression nonsense.

This was my first ever online game back when I was but a snotnosed, angsty teenager, and here I am all those years later, still playing it. It's a great game that I've no doubt sunk thousands of hours into (don't mind my play time, I don't run it through steam really at all) and while its age makes it seem rough around the edges, that's also what makes it so charming.

A few things to consider:

1. The "Massive" in MMO is a bit misleading, as it's a pretty small game world by today's standards. The community is also smaller, but unless you're in the tutorial area (which is over pretty quickly) or on during odd hours of the night, you'll most certainly run into other people.

2. Character development is very open. You can make pretty much any kind of character you want with a great selection of skills/spells to choose from. There's some good templates in the guides, but ultimately what you make is entirely up to you. Don't be disheartened if you screw things up on your first try--I certainly did, back in the day.

3. The admins are quite friendly and helpful, despite what some of the negative reviews from disgruntled players might try to imply. Several of those bad reviews are actually just trying to recruit for the private servers they try to casually mention--these reviews should be disregarded. Server 101 is the real deal and a piece of MMO history. Accept no imitations!

4. Meridian 59 is a 100% pure, uncorrupted free to play online game. No ingame ads to watch, no cash shop, no pay to win. A donation link on the game website is the closest it ever gets to asking for money.

So...should you play it? Well, maybe! Due to its age, it's definitely not for everyone, but if you have a soft spot for vintage games, want something that's 100% free to play with no strings attached, and like the idea of open character growth, give it a try! Just watch out for those pesky red-named PKers. :D

PS: The game has 2 servers: 101 and 102. 102 might be pitched as the more newbie-friendly server, but it's also not very active. Come to 101 for sure.

Full disclosure: I was given a copy of this game and asked to leave a review. That said, I intend to be honest in my takes on this game regardless of that fact. I'm also only a few hours in at the time of writing this, so keep that in mind, but I'll update it as I play further into it.

Pros:
- Story had my interest right from the start. It's quite mature and dark.
- Music and atmospherics fit quite well.
- Lots of neat little side-quests/mini-objectives and such.
- Good worldbuilding. You can pick up little tidbits of game lore if you want to take your time and examine everything.
- Scifi rpg! They seem pretty rare.
- Both Ramirez and Meiling are very flawed, and Meiling in particular seems to hate Ramirez (and everything else), and yet this dynamic makes for much more interesting storytelling than just "yay we're all bffs, lets save the crystals!"
- Random encounters appear as visible dots on the map that (sort of) chase you, but are surprisingly easy to avoid.

Neutral: (these may be pros or cons depending on how you roll)
- It utilizes keys like shift and such, and while most of it can be played with a controller, you might need your keyboard close by for some parts. (Unless I'm missing something)
- The weirdly-rendered character portraits clash horribly with the rest of the game's pixel style.

Cons:
- Combat starts out harsh and unforgiving rather than the game easing you into the mechanics. My first battle on the world map was a rather painful wipe.
- Some combat elements have QTEs, which I absolutely despise. Really wish there was some way to opt out of them, but at least they're only stuck on certain abilities.

It's Capcom, so this kind of thing is kind of what I expected from a free product with their name stamped on it.

For anyone wondering, the "free" part is just an unnecessarily-bloated launcher with one of the worst game selection menus I think I've ever seen in...well literally anything. It pops things up that you just want to close when you first start it because you haven't even had a chance to get your bearings. And then, it presents you with the game selection menu which is...well there's just nothing else out there like it in terms of how unusable it is.

It's worth noting that I also got Street Fighter II free as part of the package, which is nice, but who knows if that'll be permanent. The rest of the games are all locked until you buy them for about $2 a pop. That might sound okay at first, but consider that these games are a thousand years old at this point, and if you intend to try most of them or fill out your library or whatever, that's going to add up really quickly. In an age where there are countless numbers of free (and better) games out there just waiting to be played, its hard to justify recommending this to anyone short of the most die-hard arcade game nostalgia seeker.

I really liked Capcom's games as a kid growing up, but my god they're such a terrible and shady company in the modern age that really doesn't deserve your money. It's time for them to get better or get lost.

This is a fun little metroidvania that is very faithful to the NES-era games it's modeled after. It's fairly short, but your first time will probably take you long enough to feel like you got your money's worth so don't worry about that.

The Good:

- Nails the NES aesthetic perfectly, with solid 8 bit graphics and catchy chiptune music
- Bosses can be challenging until you learn them (then they're easy) instead of being NES levels of cheap/unfair
- Controls have several quirks (mid-air block summon/jump, jump/bubble/repeat, etc) that feel rewarding to pull off
- Shorter games like this are generally more pleasant to replay on a whim
- Controls feel precise. You can get right up to the edge of a platform to stand, create a block, etc

The Bad: (mostly related to the protag's movement speed)

- Zoe's name should be Sloe due to her walking speed
- It's easy to get hit while jumping because she does it so slowly. So again, movement speed.
- Backtracking is annoying due to her speed as well as the poor placement and number of warp points
- Enemies are either nonthreatening or super annoying, without a lot in between
- There's also a wall jump, but it's terrible and feels unnecessarily tricky to pull off.
- This game wants you to speedrun it, and even has one (horrible) achievement locked behind doing so. If you're looking for a game you can 100%, beware unless speedrunning is your thing.

Full disclosure: I helped test this game a bit in its later stages and thus, received my copy for free. That said, I love both sci-fi and RPGs and thus, would've most likely bought this game had I stumbled across it in the wild.

Star Shift Origins is a sci-fi RPG with fantastic world (galaxy/local group?) building and storytelling. The story in particular did a great job of drawing me in right from the start, and has taken several twists and turns since then. The combat is a mixture of large-scale tactical battles involving ships and troops as well as more standard turn-based RPG battles focused on exploration with the primary characters.

Some things of note about the starting experience: (without spoiling anything!)

Right out of the gate, the game can feel a bit hard

• Be aware of the fact that there's a fairly-elaborate skill tree system that you're expected to use. Now I'm not the biggest fan of skill trees, and this one dumps a lot of options on you right from the start. Let me offer this bit of advice in dealing with it: Learn some healing skills. On everyone. There's also a skill to convert charge into energy that can fuel those healing skills further. Get that too. After that, go nuts and customize to your heart's content.
  
• In the first area, there's a free, repeatable-use full heal NPC in the medbay. Use it, save consumables.

This game is a sort of lead-up to a bigger project the developer is working on, and it's pretty clear they've poured a lot of love and effort into making this. I've enjoyed this game as much as I hoped I would when I first learned about its existence, and if it's any indication of what the larger one is going to be like, I can't wait to try it out!

Came for the catchy trailer music, stayed for the sometimes-witty banana monologues, finally rage-alt-f4'd after getting knocked back down by those ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ birds for the 387435th time.

I was a little skeptical about this game because Square Enix has a rather checkered past when it comes to their remakes, remasters, and ports of older games. This one, however, is a straight upgrade of the original PS1 version that retains all of the original's charm, quirks, art styles, and...everything, all while adding some nice QoL upgrades. It's true to the original in just about every way and is a perfect example of how remasters should be done.

They even left in all of the beneficial bugs:

- Scrap junk shop trick: Buy 3 picks, go collect things, sell repair kits, try to sell a Hyperion Bazooka that you don't have to get 7 more picks, repeat until you're loaded up on Cybersuits, Excel Shields, Osc High-Freq Swords, Lethal Guns Dragoons, then go all in on the sword pile until you have about 40, sell them at Shrike.
- Gold Ingot trick: Buy Gold Ingots for 500 per in Nelson, sell them in Koorong in large enough quantities to hike the price way up. Totally bonkers moneymaking trick that they seemingly left in intentionally. <3
- Learn opposing spells: Characters with the gifts for Rune or Mystic magic can learn Realm and Arcane magic, then equip a Rune Sword or Purple Eye and relearn all of their lost spells over time using the spell attached to those items.

Anyway, I played this game to death back in the days and bought it on day 1 of its remaster release when I normally never buy games full-price. I'll admit though, this game isn't for everyone. If you're looking for a hand holder, you'd better stay away. Here's a bunch of things I think might not appeal to first-time, would-be players:

- Weird difficulty spikes. You can be trudging along, fighting weak enemies when suddenly, you find yourself in a boss fight that flattens you without mercy.
- Annoying missable things. Certain ares, like the Luminous Labyrinth, Mospriburg Mountain, etc are one-time-only areas you get sent to when on certain quests. If you miss the goodies there, you're out of luck. If you attempt the magic gift quests too early, anyone who joins later is going to miss out.
- Terrible skill balance. You can't see them, but each skill has a strength modifier. While you'd think the cost and strength would go hand in hand, they don't. It's possible for a skill with a higher cost to be less effective than a skill with a lower cost.
- Vague quest objectives. There's an in-game quest journal, which is a nice addition, but you still might find yourself turning to a guide to figure out where to go next.
- Not everyone's quest is created equal. Characters like Red, T260, Emelia, and Asellus have a lot more story content than characters like Lute. Do not pick Lute as your first character.

If these don't seem like any big deal to you though, give the game a go! You'll probably know well within the refund period whether or not you like this game.

Note: My hours played are misleading since I ran the game directly for most of the playthrough. In reality I've finished this game after about 1.5 hours since I took my time and looked around.

The Good

• It's free, and that's hard to beat.
  
• The developer took a fair amount of time to add unique descriptions to a lot of random objects in the environment. Even objects that look the same (like the random shields in one of the dungeons) each have unique descriptions.
  
• Pretty simple and easy to pick up and play if you've ever played a classic-style RPG and/or RPGMaker game

The Bad

• Rather than using RPGMaker's shop system, which lets you view information about equipment you're buying, the developer decided to create their own much simpler shop system. What sucks about it is that you can't actually get any sort of preview for items before you buy them.
  
• The combat is horribly unbalanced, and while I realize the developer was going for a sort of tactics-based, 1-on-1 battle system, the only real tactic seems to be "hit enemies hard and kill them before they kill you" because you can't outheal in most cases and some even buff themselves. Don't be shy with MP either because your healing skill (once you learn it) also fully restores your MP and can be used between battles.
  
• Even worse with combat is the fact that it uses a time-based system where enemies will continue clubbing you while you read your skill descriptions and attempt to make a decision. I'm going to help you guys out with this, though:

1. Navigate to the game's install location: ???/steamapps/common/Shus Misfortune/data
   
2. Make a backup of "System.json" (not "1System.json") just in case something goes wrong so you can restore it.
   
3. Open System.json in a text editor and search for "battleSystem". Change the entry from 1 to 2, then save.
   
4. Time will now pause when your turn comes up, giving you as much time as you need to enjoy the combat at a more relaxed pace.

The Ugly

• Mapping is kind of messy and the insides of many houses/dungeons look just plain weird as a result.
  
• Lots of passability errors. I've been able to climb up and walk through walls in several places.
  
• Buggy eventing. For example, right when you start and the servant girl talks to you, you can step back on the square to activate the scene with her to trigger it again. And again. And again.
  
• Storywise, there doesn't seem to be any clear motive for why the main character wants to kill her father.

Overall
In all, it was a fun waste of an hour and a half, but given all of its faults, I would've probably put in for a refund had I paid money for something so buggy and unbalanced. But since it's free, I'm going to recommend it to anyone who wants a quick RPG to kill part of an afternoon with.