If you've played Bastion, you can clearly spot the handwriting of Supergiant, it's all over the game. Transistor follows an interesting premise in terms of story, the design is beautiful and is complemented by an amazing soundtrack. Combat system is a refreshing mix of tactical thinking and live combat, but I got bored much faster than I expected even though they kept introducing new characteristics and skills to enemies. However, I was left dissatisfied. After finishing the game and reading most of the in-game text, I still know next to nothing about Cloudbank, the Camerata and other story elements. I have the feeling that the game just keeps that to itself. Initially disliking the ending, after reading up on some explanations given by players, I changed my mind -- but a game should be able to convey its message on its own. Even though it only lasts about 5 hours, I would't have wanted it to be longer. For me, it doesn't really have a replay value. It's by no means a bad game, but rather than giving me that feeling of having finished a good game, all I could muster was a "Meh".
Grandia II is by no means a bad game. You get solid 40 hours of adventure for your money, it features a truly unique combat system which really makes up for the pretty standard story premise (two gods and the everlasting fight against good and evil, one male hero whose destiny it becomes to save the world... duh). The characters are, compared to other popular titles, deep and you can clearly see a development. And man, some of the dialogues are funny! Ryudo's dry and sassy comments really made some of my days. In the first half of the game, you enjoy watching the story as it progresses and surprises you with some twists and turns. However, after reaching the 3/4 mark of the game, I started to think "okay, probably a good time to let it end now". But it kept going. And going. It doesn't help that the dialogues turn more and more sappy and disposable the closer you get to the end. Also, half of it can't be skipped. At times, I felt like the story didn't really make sense. If you are a true fan of JRPGs, you can surely overlook these flaws and enjoy this game, like some of the other reviewers. If you want a refreshing and especially consistent storyline, you might wanna look somewhere else.
The Witcher series had always been in the back of my head until I finally decided to play it. I've read a lot of positive feedback and having finished the first game a couple of days ago, I can say that all of it does the game justice. Graphics. While you definitely see the difference between the first Witcher and its sequels, the graphics are pretty neat. Sometimes the character animations are a bit clunky, especially during cutscenes, but the landscapes and character design itself make up for that. Battle System. Very interesting and relatively easy to master. Alchemy potions, bombs etc. add some variety, even though you can more or less easily kill the monsters without all those gimmicks on normal difficulty. I especially loved the group fighting style and I am definitely gonna miss it in the next Witcher games! Story. Definitely the main reason to play this game! Very intriguing storyline, the characters are believable and sophisticated. Witcher also doesn't fail to present some deeper conversations, be it in terms of philosophy, ethics or plain humour. But the moral dilemmas are probably the best part: often enough, there is no clear distinction between good or bad, it's just one choice or the other, which greatly influence the course of the game. Only downpoint for me were the side quests, as they can get rather boring/repetitive in the later chapters. So all in all, I'd definitely recommend to check out this game - I'm very glad that I did.
I have played a lot of RPGs in the past, and even though Silver is already so old, it's is simply one of my all-time favourites. Yes, the graphic tells the age of this game, but don't let that stop you from playing it! The game features a brilliant BGM and voice-over, an interesting (yet at times clumsy) battle system, at least if you haven't read the manual to find out about the keyboard shortcuts which make your game experience so much more smooth actually. Overall, it's not a difficult game, but there are some bosses (or those goddamn treants) that can be tricky if you don't know how to get rid of them efficiently. The story itself is nothing overly creative, it's really just a standard tale with some standard side quests, but it just makes sense. It's authentic and believable. All major elements of a reasonably good storytelling are included. Last but not least, it has a high replay value. I've played it like four times now, and I'm pretty sure it won't have been my last playthrough.
