This is another game I grabbed in this week’s PSN sale, and it’s definitely scratching that JRPG itch I get every once in while. I’ve only played about an hour, so it’s of course too early to tell how much I’ll like this, but so far I’m certainly enjoying the beautiful visuals – some of the best cel-shading I’ve ever seen in a game. The battle system is pretty fun too – basically, what you expect from a Tales game. We’ll see how long I last.
I started playing this earlier in the week – I recently grabbed it at the crazy sales price of $10 on the PSN Store – and boy am I loving it. I do still enjoy getting into a good JRPG every once in a while, and this feels like it’s going to scratch that itch perfectly. Ghibli fan that I am, I’m of course digging the Ghibli touches in this, from the character designs all the way to the lovely animated cut scenes that pop up every once in a while. The combat is also interesting – a bit more involved than simple menu selections – and some of the boss battles so far have already been challenging. As for the graphics, sure, it’s not what I now want from PS4-era games, but for something on the PS3 it looks lovely, and I especially love the way the world is rendered, with an almost painted quality. I also love the way your magic tome is presented, with beautifully designed and illustrated pages that you zoom in to read, giving you info on all aspects of the world, as well as offering up some fun fables. I’m only about 5 hours in, but so far this feels like it should have gotten way more attention that it did.
As you may have noticed, I’ve really been enjoying playing games on the 3DS of late, and so it’s no big surprise that I was fairly excited at the idea of playing Mario & Luigi: Dream Team, to the point that I got the game pretty much as it was released (midnight release on August 11). I’m not that familiar with the Mario RPG series, having only played one (Partners in Time), and not to completion, but man, I’m really enjoying this game. I’ve always been one to enjoy JRPGs, and so turn-based battles are something I like, but it’s really fun how these games build on that, adding so much “action” as part of the battles, to keep you on your toes. The story is fun but silly – as you’d expect – but the real fun is in exploring the world by way of Luigi’s dreams, activating various gimmicks to advance further. I can definitely see myself getting to the end of this.