#i started an awakening playthrough recently and am excited to go through it with this context in mind and squint at grima more

[ro-botany]

I never ended up finishing Shadows of Valentia (I know, I know, I’m getting to it), so it was... probably about a year or so after the game came out that I heard anything about the extra Grima backstory it introduced. At first I wasn’t sure how I felt about it. I didn’t know if the Big Bad Evil Guy in Awakening really needed that much backstory, given that at the time I felt their role in the story was as a force of nature more than an individual.

Now that it’s had time to stew though, and my interest in Awakening has been piqued again by that Risen King Chrom unit in FEH... I’ve been doing some thinking on that whole situation, and I might be changing my mind. It adds some interesting flavour to Grima and to Robin.

I’m a bit fuzzy on the timeline of Archanea’s history, but the important part for right now is, of course, Forneus. The man who created Grima. There’s a lot of Frankenstein DNA in Grima’s origins, enough that I feel like it HAS to be intentional.

We’ve got a scientist consumed by grief over the death of a loved one who starts experimenting with creating life, who manages to make a creature, only to near immediately find terrifying. The scientist eventually tries to kill their creation and dies in the process. Similar too is the stories’ insistence that the creations are inherently bad, were evil from the very start... in direct contradiction to the order of events begging you to sympathize with the creature.

A young Grima, barely a baby, smiled at their creator; and their creator thought that terrifying. They were only a few months old when their own father tried to kill them and they were forced to defend themself. They were sealed in a labyrinth for centuries, in total isolation save for the risen dead. When they finally lay eyes on another living human—Alm and Celica and allies, bearing weapons no less—of course they attack. The only contact they’ve had with living humans thus far is their dad who tried to kill them. Alm and Celica destroy Grima’s physical body, and... presumably, they find a way out after that, since the seal on the door is gone now.

(I know Forneus writes about the young Grima supposedly planting “violent thoughts” in his head. But that feels a bit like bullshit to me, honestly. One of Awakening’s themes is that you are not defined by your bloodline. Why would we backtrack on that and say this baby came out of the test tube already advocating for genocide? Hell, why are we trusting Forneus’ opinions on that to begin with? He’s a deeply unethical mad scientist who regularly murdered people for his experiments, I’m pretty sure he was having and acting on violent thoughts long before Grima grew a consciousness.)

Despite that fantastically rocky start to life, m!Grima’s 5* level 40 dialogue in Heroes suggests that Grima might have even tried to get along with humans for a time. I mean, just look at this.

[Humans] have no qualms asking for divine assistance when it meets their fickle needs... But how quick they are to shun their benefactors once they get what they desire. They become arrogant and make the same mistakes repeatedly, incapable of learning the folly of their ways. They claim their actions are for the good of others, but that's merely a show of self-indulgence. Humans are selfish.

That sounds like they’ve had time to observe humans. After they got out of the labyrinth they must’ve spent time just... around people. Either they witnessed what happened to other dragons-regarded-as-gods, or they themselves tried out being a god for a while (seems likely, given Plegia), and felt like their early experiences with humans were only getting proved on the large scale over and over again.

And if all of Forneus, Alm, Celica, and the allies of the latter two decided at a glance that Grima was evil and needed to be destroyed, how many more times did people try to destroy Grima after that? How many people took advantage of their powers, only to “shun their benefactor” later? What does that do to a person’s worldview and their view of themselves when they’re already predisposed to fear and hatred due to their early experiences?

Grima’s insistence that one’s destiny is rigid and immutable, their self image as an incarnation of despair—it all makes a lot more sense with this context. Grima is Frankenstein’s monster writ large, born of a man’s grief, named an abomination from birth, given the powers of a god and a thousand years of reasons to wield them for destruction. “The ugliness of mankind has turned me repulsive. It's the world that wants me to be evil.”

Whatever else you think of them, there’s a tragedy in a monster that is only so because they were never given the chance to be anything else.

[iturbide]

I love how this whole chain went from:

grab your mini pitchforks -> grab the popcorn

really fast. Anywho, other than that jazz, how are you doing overall?

I will gladly take popcorn over pitchforks any day (the pitchforks are their own brand of entertainment, but the popcorn is always fun)

Other than that I'm doing okay, though! Still really excited that the Lodestar.sys zine is out (I still think my piece in there is one of the best things I've ever written), but besides that most of my energy is spent keeping track of kittens so other things have been put on the backburner:

I mean. Look at these little hellions.

don't let Hubert's murderous look fool you, Ferdinand is equally naughty

With them in mind, my bookbinding experiments have been put on the backburner for a while; I'm about halfway through my test copy of Crown of Shadows, though -- the signatures are all folded and stitched, the textblock has been sanded, the endpapers are attached (though I want to give the whole thing a final sanding to get things nice and even), and the covers have been cut to size -- and I think it's coming together really nicely so far! I'm thinking about kicking into it again this weekend, since I'd like to get a few copies of Proof of Life together to use as a testing ground for some cover stuff I want to play with before going all-out on the hardcover.

After Crown of Shadows (which I might make another copy or two of, just to keep trying my hand at the flat back book format, we'll see) I'd really like to do a copy of Heart of the Moon with a rounded back, since that one's so much bigger: Crown of Shadows clocks in around 41.5k words and I managed to fit it into 6 signatures (a little big for a flat back, but still reasonably in range for it), while Heart of the Moon sits at 60k and looks like it'll need 11 signatures total, making it a good choice for experimenting with rounding.

(Once I have a little more experience with different formats under my belt, I'd really like to start binding more of my favorite fics and trying to get in touch with the authors to gift them copies of their works; I'm starting with mine since they're just for me, so it's fine if they go sidways...though I guess if anyone would want a hard copy of something I've written, let me know?)

Aside from there, I've been thinking about picking up a video game again but haven't done it yet (again, in part because of kittens who are Too Interested in the TV sometimes). Choices are between Legends Arceus again since I still want a shiny Hisuian Zorua or two, Horizon: Zero Dawn since I picked that one up a while ago and still haven't finished out the damn intro, the latest God of War because it's all Norse mythology and I'm predictable, or Three Houses to finish out that Azure Moon playthrough and go back to Claude because I love and miss him...but I haven't committed.

Instead I've just been playing stuff in the background and occasionally paying attention. I had a craving for Retro Anime recently and picked up Detective Conan again (I love this comedy murder show but it messes me up sometimes, there are some heavy episodes). Also finished Spy x Family and I'm sobbing I love them and October can't get here soon enough because then I get both the second half of Spy x Family's first season and Season 3 of Mob Psycho 100 which I am so stoked for you have no idea. And lucky for me, Nona the Ninth comes out in September, which should tide me over until the new anime I yearn for arrives.

Writing has been stalled basically since the start of the year and continues as such. I'm still stuck with just chapter 7 of last year's Chrobin Week to finish, and I have a bunch of other ideas that I'd like to start exploring, both for Awakening and Three Houses (since I'm desperately missing Claude), as well as an original piece that I've been rolling around for years that's come back to the forefront recently. We'll see what if anything comes out of any of that, but it might just end up being a sparse year on writing.

Anyway yes that's my long-winded status update ramble

[aegir-emblem]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY FIRE EMBLEM!!!

Y’all, the 30 year anniversary!!!!

My first video game ever was Fire Emblem Sacred Stones on my brother’s black Game Boy Advanced “console”... I still remember being so shocked by that main intro, my god - hhhh it was so pretty!!!

Just... shoutout to this texture. This game was so amazing and colourful, I would love to see it remade.

My first crush ever was Joshua from this very game, who I have made posts about before... and Lyon’s theme still makes me cry every time I hear it. Those flashbacks hit different. GAH!

Between 6-years-old and middle school, I played a lot more Fire Emblem games, like Shadow Dragon and Tellius... and while they were good, none of them hit as hard as Awakening did when it dropped. Do y’all remember when Awakening dropped and you first saw that customisation page?? And those cutscenes for the first time?

It was nothing like I had ever seen, and even as the games continue to get better and better in quality both of writing and graphics, Awakening will always hold a very close spot in my heart as the game that really shaped a lot of my childhood and personality, to be honest.

Id: Purpose makes me sob every time I hear it. I just remember the emotional roller coaster this game brought me through, through roadtrips and trainrides and plane flights across the US. I have logged over 500 hours on Awakening that are recorded, let alone all the times I started and stopped new playthroughs. My peak achievement was defeating Grima in 2 hits using Ricken equipped with a ladle.

That brings us to Fates... I know that Fates has a tricky rep within the fandom, so I won’t go too into detail. I have fond memories of the day my brother and I went to the store to buy the games, and we didn’t tell each other which game we would be purchasing. Until we walked up to the counter, me with Conquest in my hands and him with Birthright. From then we knew it would be a battle within the home, haha.

My brother is the better strategist than I am, but I grind my characters. It was really hard in Conquest, but I found a way, and whenever we would do castle battles, it was always evenly matched; my powerful Nohrian team against his brilliant tactics.

Additionally, although it was limited, the option of Bisexual S-ranks for Niles and Rhajat was very nice. I understand the contract rules that go into making games, especially in this franchise, but it was a step forward, and the representation for me as someone of the LGBTQ+ community was very nice. I understand that some people in the community remain frustrated with the minimization of the representation, but it was a step in the right direction for me.

Also, just the energy of Fates... The full creation of both kingdoms was so satisfying, and the cutscenes were crisp and lovely. And Corrin/Kamui’s design!!! The dragon blood techniques... I loved Fates. It was very exciting.

And more recently... Three Houses. The most I can say to start off... WOWZA.

I have more to say about this game than I can put into words, really. I bought my switch only aware of this game, and still to this day I don’t own many other games for my switch since Three Houses has taken up so much of my time.

Three Houses is incredible. The extent to it all, with the full voice lines and the quality of production, depth of character and story and the fact that it’s essentially THREE (four/five) games in one is so fantastic. Every character has such depth and detail, and it has inspired so much incredible art and writing. 

I, for one, have always struggled with writer’s block, but had a passion to write. This game changed that. By coming out on the Nintendo Switch, it opened up Fire Emblem to a broader community and gained an onslaught of fans passionate about the experience and ready to share what they could do. For once, I had a much more solid base of people to receive my writing. Recently, I finished my first multichapter fanfic, and have (since January of this year) written over 250 pages of fanfiction just for Three Houses. It’s utterly incredible.

And going onward with representation, this game deals with such depth of character that it is impossible to ignore their values. It deals with topics of racism, mental illness, sexuality and identity... and throughout it all, it remains a Fire Emblem game as if to encourage people that despite how scary the world can seem with those things, it always moves on. Despite the real-life topics, it is set against a backdrop of Kings and Queens and Emperors, Knights and magic and the question of chivalry with a goal in mind and so many allies to support you along the way.

The cast of this game has been lovely, and the quality resonates clearly with the value and the legacy that the game has. It’s fantastic.

I didn’t mention some of the games, but also - thanks to Heroes!! It has opened Fire Emblem to a whole new audience, and brings together so many more creative artists and fun communities... It’s amazing.

In short, I would not trade Fire Emblem - the series, the producers and studio, anything - for the world. It has shaped so much of who I am as a character, provided me solace in times where everything is changing too fast and I can retreat into a world with friends, allies, and goals. 

Whenever I think of these games, I think of my brother as well. He introduced them to me, and it’s something we’ve been able to share this whole time even when real life divided us.

I wish I had more words to articulate how this series makes me feel, but I truly do not. My passion for this series is beyond words. So - all I guess I can say is: 

Happy Birthday, Fire Emblem Series!!! Congrats on 30 years, and thank you so much for everything!!!

Fanfiction.net @ Thirth Floor; AO3 @ ThirthFloor

[four-loose-screws]

What would you rank all the fire emblem games that you have played.

Thank you for waiting, anon! This essay is finally finished! XD I don’t know if either of us ever intended for this to end up so long, but it did.

It’s interesting to see how each person experiences each game, so I hope everyone enjoys reading this. If anyone wants to ask questions for more details or just for conversation, please do!

I did a tier grouping ranking as well as ordering from bottom -> top, because that helped explain my feelings a little better. This isn’t really reflecting my nostalgia or personal feelings for the characters/world quite as much as “how much fun I had in my initial playthrough(s).” Because I think that’s what these sorts of lists are generally asking for.

First, I’d like to make a general statement about why I love FE games so much: Well, most simply it’s because I have more fun playing FE than any other series. That much is obvious though, right? I also love them because they all stand out in their own way, with their own unique combination of features, and because they are all super ambitious titles. It may lead to some rushing and half-baked ideas, but ambition is what excites me the most in any series. Even if the creators are not able to fully realize the ideas they had, the hard work still wows me as I play, and I can see hints of the full vision they had in every nook and cranny. Even the lowest games on this list are pretty high up there for me in fun level. The “fun but flawed” games just had glaring issues that interrupted the fun from time to time.

...FEs 1 & 3 are overall exceptions to the “unique and standing out rule,” being early games in the series; and FE6 set up post-Famicom FE, so it’s pretty basic, too - but they still get their own awards for setting a solid foundation for a fun video game series that withstands the test of time.

I can’t fully explain it, why I attached to FE the most over all other game series out there. But when I play FE, I usually don’t think about what’s not so great about the games. I just have fun. The gameplay always has me thinking, and I get engrossed in the stories and unlocking convos and supports.

Basic Tier

These games are really hard to judge properly in the ranking system, because they are just so basic for the series.

FE1 / FE11

When FE11 came out, I remember it getting so much flack for being really, really boring. But I didn’t get that. I like FE gameplay and storytelling at its core, so I don’t need the bells and whistles to have a good time. I knew this is where the series started, and was surprised with what content there was considering this is a remake of a game on the Famicom (NES).

FE1 set a very solid foundation for what the core of the series would be. Load it up next to a modern game, and it feels so the same and different all at once. I’ve only played a little bit of FE1 itself. I just can’t get through it because FE11 is SO similar to FE1, so you really only have to play one to get the whole experience. I didn’t feel like playing the same game over again at the time, so FE1 is still on my unfinished list.

Basic, solid foundation for the ages / 10

FE3 / FE12

After FE11 played it “safe” and took an “upgraded graphics with a few new ideas tacked on” approach, I was blown away by how much FE12 did, even if it was more for worse than better sometimes. It added so many conversations, was the first to tinker with the idea of a more fleshed out Avatar, added more story… and so on.

From what I’ve read recently, the new story stuff isn’t that great, but I don’t remember now. I’ve only played this game once. Overall, despite some clunk with the giant maps and so on, this game really challenged itself to improve from FE11, and it’s how I learned to love remakes that aren’t afraid to deviate from and add a lot to the original!

Set the stage for what kind of fun and ambition an FE remake could have / 10

FE3 is way more of a classic than any of us in the West can truly understand. It sold insanely well (the best in the series until Awakening I believe?), challenged the programmers to put FE1 on the cart as well, long before re-releases were a thing in the industry, and the game even made it to the Super Famicom Mini! I haven’t played it yet because again, it’s hard to get the motivation to play through the slow speed and clunkiness when I’ve already experienced the remake, but I’m looking forward to it some day.

The good ol’ days of the Super Famicom & SNES / 10

FE6

This was the first game without Kaga (the series original creator), so it set the stage for a future without him. The series might have strayed far from his plans for story and such, but this game, while it was pretty basic, firmly established a new foundation for the series on a new system, and gave a glimpse of what greatness the future had in store.

Overall though, this game is harder to commit to memory than others, except for classic characteristics like how terrible Roy is until, finally, BAM he gets his sword in the final stretches of the game; and running in circles from Douglas so you can avoid fighting him and successfully recruit him after the chapter.

Awkward, but sets a solid foundation for post-Kaga and post-Famicom FE / 10

Fun But Flaws Distracted From The Fun A Lot Tier

FE16

I really, really hate to say it, because this game tries to mix up the FE formula with the school setting and other new features and changes, and brought in a good mix of old and new, just like all the other FE games. But this game left very little impact on me for such a big experience. And I’m leaving out the fact that trying to play all four routes is dull as heck when I place the game this low. I’m basing it off of just how much I enjoyed the first playthrough.

Overall, I was most turned off by the class system. Which is funny, because I’ve seen others praise this as FE’s best class system. Everyone’s different. Classic classes like troubadours are just gone. The top tier classes are super limiting. Of course, you can just stop one tier down, but that’s not emotionally satisfying to me - I want my characters to reach the top! Despite having such free choice, I feel more limited than anything. If they’d just stopped at 4 tiers and not tried to go to 5, I think that would have been best. They had to stretch out the available classes too much to get to 5. ...Although being able to have an army of dragon riders is awesome, I’ll give it that. Dragons are too cool. 

I was also really disappointed by the story. Fire Emblem has established that it can write a really emotional plot, and not be afraid to pull punches, with games like 4 and 8. I was expecting a huge contrast between part 1, where everyone is friends and classmates, and part 2, where war rips them apart, transforms them into different people, and forces them to brutally slaughter each other.

But in reality…the hate between Dimitri and Edelgard has nothing to do with the school at all… That was jarring to me. Of course there is no one right direction to take a story in. But the worldbuilding and story writing… feels even less coherent than Fates. That’s an accomplishment.

This is the one time I say ambition was really just too much. The game didn’t get enough polish. A game about the seasons doesn’t even have seasonal differences...

While my friends who don’t usually play Fire Emblem have had a fantastic experience with this one, after all I’ve been through, I found that I liked other FE’s more.

I think the best part about this game is the characters and supports. After Fates had a ton of supports in it just because it had to have them, the creators of this game weren’t afraid to change up the support formula once more, so they could balance quality and quantity. ...And then, ironically, this game went for the (almost entirely) mute, personality-less avatar character. Funny how that works out. XD

Dragon Lord Army Go! / 10

FE14

I feel this game deserves way more credit than it gets, while also agreeing with the critiques. The ambition was as great as ever. But then it got stuck in development hell and we got what we got. (For those who don’t know, the team was divided in two - the team that wanted a more fanservic-y experience, and the one that wanted to make a standard FE.)

I think the gameplay is the best part of this game, Conquest is great, and the gimmicks are indeed gimmicks, but still fun. In offering three different experiences, the entire package will please few, but that was the point of the multiple routes, to give everyone one route they would like, not to please everyone with all three.

But beyond the gameplay, the story is all over the place, the multiple routes just create more questions than answers; and features like an increased number of support convos and children feel like they are there only because of a desire to bring back “popular” features. After multiple food/cooking supports in a row, I couldn’t take it any more. There was so little that the characters were actually talking about in their supports vs. Awakening. I generally feel that more supports = better, because character interaction through supports is of course a highlight of post-Famicom FE, but in this case, the numbers did not do any favors.

Bringing back weapons that don’t break didn’t feel well done, either. I just ended up using basic weapons the whole time because I didn’t want to deal with the drawbacks of the higher level weapons.

Back to a positive for me: The hub world was neat, though it needed some convoluted story writing to be included. I was amused by going through the different features and collecting the items. I agree with Nintendo of America taking out the “petting minigame,” but since I lived in Japan when Fates released, it was amusing to do on the train and weird out the bored Japanese people who peered over my shoulder.

Since all three routes were different, this game was fun enough until the end in comparison to Three Houses, of which I am STILL trying to slog through the last route one year after release. But Fates was made for every route to be different, whereas Three Houses was not, so it’s not surprising I feel like that.

But time for the real talk about this game… why is everyone’s HP so low??? What happened?????

Up and down and all around in quality from start to finish / 10

FE15

I really want to like this game more. Oh, do I. It’s absolutely GORGEOUS, the character art makes my heart skip a beat, the game proved that full voice acting does fit FE really well, it fleshed out things like the dungeon crawling & story, and added support conversations & skills, etc. while still staying kind of basic, retaining the feeling that the original was on the NES. The momentum for the fun and ambition that an FE remake could have transitioned well from FE12 to here and led to this being a stunningly presented game.

But the creators totally missed the point on what were the defining features of the game in my opinion, and that mismatch of vision ruined a lot for me. I loved the imbalance, struggling as I placed my units in corners of maps just to survive, until I obtained all those OP items, and my super soldiers marched into battle and did wild and amazing things. Valbar with +5 move and 40 speed with the Speed Ring is the one thing I remember the best of FE2 and oh man was it fun, and did I love it.

And I mean, I understand why the creators weren’t going to keep that imbalance, it doesn’t make the game good for everyone. It’s just something I found fun, and made the game stand out among the other FEs. But the developers really just replaced old imbalance with new imbalance, the dread fighters being the one thing I remember in particular.

And they defined FE2’s best defining features as “the maps and the terrain effects” and I just did not agree. That was the stuff I DISLIKED about FE2! And that’s what they wanted to keep most? The terrain that made battles one giant miss, and the gigantic maps where I’d spend half the time just getting to the enemies? No thanks.

Then the story only cranked up the horrible treatment of the women, with Faye… being Faye, and I hated the direction they went in with Celica’s story...  Ugh.

For every step or two forward, there’s one back / 10

FE10

FE games are always ambitious, but this one cranked the dial up to 10 and tripped over itself a lot. Still, it provided (even if it is info dumped) an intense and satisfying ending to the Tellius saga, and is another classic for the ages. I found the pacing boring and slow until then, though.

I think now that I’m older I can appreciate the story much, much more - and how it shows the story and aftermath of the Mad King’s War from multiple points of view -  but the lack of the support conversations, and too much going on for any aspect of this game to be properly refined, still make this one lower on my list.

If only I could have played it more than once, to really get a good memory of the events of the game. My Wii actually scratched up my disk (How this happened, I don’t know, and it’s the ONLY disk my Wii ever slaughtered). It only held out long enough for my sibling and I to enjoy one playthrough each. I’ll get to playing my Japanese copy eventually!

Part 4 = Laguz Royals Emblem / 10

Somewhere Inbetween Tier

FE5

The last of the Kaga games. Still clunky and difficult, but with it’s own super unique features in capturing, stamina, and stealing weapons.

The brokenness of staves is not at all a flaw, but a feature in my opinion. Encouraging bizarre thinking and finding new ways to plow through maps is fun. I would probably be critical if this was a modern game, but I think older games need these quirks to stand out among modern titles with better graphics and decades of gaming history behind them.

And you still can complete the maps in a more traditional manner if you are determined. I did even for Reinhardt’s map.

Also, I gotta say... I don’t agree that this is the most difficult FE overall… it just has the hardest individual maps. The difficulty spikes are all over the place. The game goes from bashing your head against a wall to snoozefest constantly.

Fog of war was a mistake though, if I was a time traveler, I’d go back and make sure the programmers never figured out how to include it. XD

Steal ALL the tomes! / 10

FE13

Experiencing this game and its release in real time was an experience. The fandom really, truly thought this game might not only be the last FE ever, but also that it might not get a localization. Thinking there would never be a localization, I spent a night of my first trip to Japan buying a Japanese 3DS and a copy of the game. I only had 2 weeks on that study tour, but I was so determined that I used some of my precious free time to go shopping for it. To afford it, I even used the money my college gave to me for food, then subsided off of cheap convenience store meals with what little I had left. I barely had any true understanding of Japanese at the time, but I wanted other fans to experience this game, so I worked as hard as I could to translate as many supports as I could. This game is why I got into translation, and was what I really thought might be the end, so it will always have a special place in my heart for that.

Now to actually talk about playing the game itself. I really enjoyed it the first couple of times. Who cares that pair-up and the kids were OP, you either blast through the game with them and have a good laugh, or ignore them, set some challenging rules, and enjoy having at least a little challenge. I didn’t care much that the supports were a little lower quality because of the sheer number of them, I eagerly awaited unlocking each one, and reading what the two characters would talk about. (We fans have fanfiction to turn to if we hunger for more development. :p) The bonus content was plentiful, and a great fanservice-y way to bring the series to a close.

After all is said and done though, the game left me feeling empty when I thought about replaying it any further. The maps and story felt empty in comparison to previous games. Now that it’s been 8 years since the initial release, I’d of course enjoy a replay or two, but after having played FEs7-9 5 or 6 times in a row before moving on to the next game… anything less than that level of excitement was surprising for me. I placed this game kinda high on the list because it’s fun when you play it. It’s just doesn’t have as much replay value, I feel.

Also, as a group, the children characters are my favorite in the series. They all come from deeply traumatic backgrounds, and the way they work through that trauma and navigate being given a second chance, but also not a true second chance because this timeline is different from their own, is endlessly fascinating for me. I don’t know if other fans give them enough credit, so I wanted to point them out in particular.

Would have been a fantastic way to send off the series, despite the flaws / 10

FE2

This game is flawed, imbalanced, makes me want to throw things, and it’s all, somehow, in a way that makes me LOVE IT. ...So long as I’m playing using an emulator with a speed up button.

This game is so hard, and the hit percentages are such garbage. But as I played, and unlocked more and more OP weapons and items, until I reached a point where the zombie dragons - what once took all my efforts - were an enemy that can easily be slaughtered in 1-on-1 combat... I felt so satisfied.

Old games need some kind of charm to make them still worth revisiting in a world of much better graphics and features that have now had decades to be refined. For me, this game has that perfect kind of quirky charm in spades.

The maps and terrain though… I have no words, just bash your head into the wall and you will understand how I feel.

Also, this game reminds me of Zelda 2 in it being a black sheep of its respective series… that’s a fun little nugget of info.

Duma’s sprite / 10

FE7

I don’t remember this game as well, despite it being one that I’ve played about 5 times? I don’t know why, it’s yet another fantastic Fire Emblem with its own ways that it stands out, managing not one, not two, but three lords, introducing the tactician, and so on. Guess time has just not been kind to my memory on this one.

I remember being really impressed with the length of this game back in the day, and Hector’s mode offering enough differences to make it totally fun to replay the main game again.

Lyn gets kind of pushed to the side (because that’s what generally happens to women main characters in Fire Emblem, if there’s a male lord around), but having the three lords was really fun. With three people, you get a great balance between all of their personalities, and they all play off of each other well.

Of course I loved Lyn and Hector, most everyone does, but I was always just as much of an Eliwood fan. His average stats pushed people away from liking him as much as the others, but I always looked up to his kindness. Eliwood / Ninian was an especially favorite pairing for my sappy teenage heart. Eliwood was just so romantic and sweet to me.

And though the game was made easier with international audiences in mind, the developers hadn’t invented all of the “easier/for convenience” features yet, so this is the last time we got to enjoy some “harder” features like needing to buy weapons during battles, and a convoy separate from the main lord. That’s cool if you like that stuff.

Unlocking the paralogues is hard though / 10

Favorites Tier

FE8

When it comes to FE8, while there’s plenty to like about the gameplay (despite the game being so easy, but again, like I said with Awakening, you can just set your own challenge rules), what I really love to ramble on about is the story and its emotional impact. Lyon is so precious and kind, but has so many inner conflicts stewing deep inside of him, leading him to elder magics, and… The Demon King is just ends up as a sideshow compared to Lyon coming face to face with his own demons. Both the characters - and many players, I’m sure - hope and hope to find a way to save him, but there just isn’t one. There are never any real leads. There’s nothing. Only the harrowing reality that some people cannot be saved, no, that some people do not want to be saved. The inevitability of Lyon’s demise, and seeing it all play out, packs a punch most plots can only dream of.

But it’s not like I won’t talk about the gameplay features either. Bringing back much of the best of FE2, the overworld map and everything to do really enhances the experience. I mean, yeah, I guess two side dungeons isn’t that much to get excited over, I can see that critique… but I didn’t care, it allowed me to easily chase support conversations, and (with some RNG abusing to obtain enough Boots and money to buy the stat-boosting items, but hey, whatever it takes) I could max out my characters’ stats and truly “complete” a Fire Emblem game.

Sacred Stones is so awesome.

Finally! A postgame! I sure hope the developers keep this up in all the future games… oh. / 10

FE9

This is the first FE game I ever played, so it will always occupy the most dear and special place in my heart, even if FE4 eventually won over as my favorite.

Do you believe in first sight? I do, and this is what taught me it’s real. From the first second of the first cutscene, I was enthralled. ...And that’s saying something, when the FE9 cutscenes are the kind of thing only a mother could love. But I just knew. I may have been a wee lass of 14, but I knew a love that would last a lifetime was being born. ...Or that would at least last 14 more years. I can’t predict the future. Maybe I’ll wake up tomorrow and hate Fire Emblem with a burning passion? 2020 has taught me that tomorrow is always a big fat question mark.

Fun fact: in case you are wondering exactly what inspired my very initial interest in this series, it was a TV commercial. Probably this one. I just remember Ike running, of all things. My sibling and I both thought FE9 looked interesting from this commercial, and sought out the game all on our own with zero private knowledge that anything FE even existed.

This is where obsessions are born. Or mine at least. / 10 

FE4

As I’ve established, this is my favorite of favorites. The bizarre way money, arenas, items, and more were handled, actually made the game more and more fun for me. Big maps are just so fun. Gen 1’s story is a tale for the ages, and Gen 2’s story is… well, classic FE, which never gets old for me. It will never cease to amaze me even today what the SNES/S Famicom could handle.

All I’d want added is a “warp between conquered castles” feature. I’m completely neutral on a remake otherwise. Of course a lot more could be added and detailed upon that I’d be happy for, but that’s my one specific wish.

Calvary Emblem Forever / 10

Bonus:

FEH

I played this game every day for around 2 ½ years before I finally felt I had to break the habit, so I’m not leaving it out! This title got a lot of flack for simplifying FE gameplay, but… looking at it that way completely disregards the niche app games fill, and the interesting ways developers view what type of games app games should be, and how the developers work hard to both innovate for the format yet stay faithful to the source. It is surprisingly deep, and the maps + higher focus on unit skills make you think entirely differently about how to win in what is, in essence, the same gameplay as the main series.

Plus, what fan couldn’t get suckered into the fanservice of it? My best moments include attaining a +10 Nephenee while only spending money to get 2 of her, the other 9 were all F2P orbs; and becoming a Narcian/Valter shipper after supporting them on impulse because they were both on my flier team, and realizing the sick, twisted chemistry afterwards. Discovering rare-pairs is fun.

Also, finally, this game dared to nerf magic users a bit by making them RNG 2 only. If only the main series could do something like that.

I really enjoyed Heroes a lot, I just quit solely because it was a time drain. It was time to move on and play other things. And I’m glad I got out when I did. Seeing the game stoop to over-the-top powercreep (above and beyond what it was always implementing) and add the monthly service to keep the $$$$$ raking in was hard to watch.

Perfect app-style game gameplay-wise and fanservice-wise, but why aren’t gacha illegal yet / 10

FE Warriors

Oh yeah, this game exists too! It’s a Warriors game. If you like the formula and it never gets old for you, you’ll have fun with this game. If you don’t mind the limited game representation too much, you’ll have fun with this game. For me, the answers to those questions were a yes, so I enjoyed FE Warriors. Yay for wailing on hordes of enemies / 10

[couslandofhighever-sb]

My First Fandom-Specific Blog

Hello Dragon Age tag(s)!

My best friend recently gave me DAO and DA2 as gifts, because she wanted me to join her in Dragon Hell. Well, I am here now, and I have decided to make a fandom-specific sideblog for the first time. My main blog is currently @amanesuzuha​, but I change the URL sometimes and rarely use it. I can’t follow back from this blog, obviously, but don’t let that stop you from interacting with me! I will interact back as I can.

I used to be a more active tumblr user, but I archived my old blog back at the end of 2018 and started scrolling down twitter every day instead. At first, that felt like freedom, but I miss tumblr being what it used to be for me.

I decided to make a fandom-specific sideblog, because I do my best to be socially aware and to do what I can to better the world. But sometimes what I can do is really, really small, especially given Current Events and a lack of gainful employment. I’m doing my best, but I realized that it might be a good mental health exercise for me to have a space where I don’t feel compelled to constantly engage in real life human suffering when I am powerless to do anything about it.

Dragon Age is my first “new” fandom in a long time, and I thought it would be fun to document what’s going on with me for something I like a lot and that’s giving me those new fandom endorphins.

I have finished my first playthrough of Dragon Age Origins, and I am working my way through Awakening.

This is my first Warden, Rosamunde Cousland:

I am excited to eventually play through other origins, but I have had so much fun doing the sort of half-OC building that making one’s Warden into a fleshed out character is, for fandom purposes. In general, I hate doing ground-up worldbuilding or OC creation, but I really like the way in which I can fill in negative space in a story that does give me something to work with like this.

However, I am also super excited to play purple Hawke next.

I have started a character page on my blog, too.

Rosamunde’s canon LI is Alistair, and I made Alistair king and Rosamunde queen. I keep laughing at how strange some of the Awakening story elements are as a result of these decisions, but I had to stop playing and internally spin around for a while at the dialogue they did for Alistair’s cameo in it if the Warden is his wife.

I love all of the companion characters so far!

I love Alistair and Morrigan the most, I think, though. Maybe it’s just that they were the first two, but... I just do.

I expect that when... the time comes... I will be an Anders critical sort of person, but I don’t think I will despise him either, in case that informs your decision about interaction, since I understand that’s a controversial topic to this day.

My plans are to play as purple Garrett Hawke in DA2. I am less certain about DAI, but I will probably play a male Inquisitor too because my friends tell me I will want to romance Dorian.

I hope to write fanfic and meta and make things and what not. Also just to have a place to reblog things I like. So if you are also a Dragon Age blog or a multifandom person who likes Dragon Age, feel free to follow here!

[violetiris-ak]

I got tagged by @weirdnproudofit​. Guess you all get to learn a little bit more about me than my obsession with Dragon Age, Reylo, Realm of the Elderlings and writing.

Rules: Tag 9 people you want to get to know better and answer the questions. I’ll probably won’t tag as many though cause I don’t wanna spam half my followers. 

Relationship status: Single.

Favorite Color: Purple usually, though I can be swayed by pretty shade of just about anything. 

Top 3 ships: Oh, now this is going to be hard. Like, super, super hard. So I’m gonna cheat again.

I guess I’ll start with one of the easiest: Ereri/Riren, Eren/Levi from Attack on Titan. I know canonically it’ll never be thing and I’m totally fine with that. Romance of any kind isn’t really much of a thing in the anime and manga, besides the sort of hinted at relationship between Ymir and Christa which I also ship, but the fanfic, fan art, and just fandom related content around this ship has just been incredible.  I came to it during the early days of the anime’s airing in 2013 and never left. I am so blown away and moved by it to this day. So much laughter and smiles and delicious angst and swoon worthy content. Seriously, some of the fanfics for this pairing were so addictive and impressive and also just warm and comforting. And from some of them, I even learned about myself like in the way the best of books do. I’m not as immersed in the community as I used to, but I still follow it and was only reading a fanfic for this pairing a month ago and it was like coming home.

Pre Eren/Levi the last big ship of mine was Dramione aka Draco/Hermione from Harry Potter. I never expected them to get together canonically. I actually came to the series after it was finished, and it wasn’t until after I was finished when I browsing the internet that I came across my first Dramione fic. Intrigued I gave it a go and was hooked. It was like an innocent, PG rated one where Draco and Hermione have a spell go wrong and must stick close together until the spell wears off, and in the meantime, learn to first tolerate each other and then eventually like each other. I was done for and consume such an incredible amount of fanfic it was unreal. 

One of the things that actually made 2016 bearable was my discovering the Dragon Age series and then mass playing them 2x through (still slowly working on my third). By the end of my first playthrough, I just wasn’t ready to leave the world. I couldn’t let go. So I Googled the top fanfics for it and read Zute’s “A Californian in King Cailan’s Court” and sequel “Post Blight Management for Dummies,” which is hysterical by the way. And I binge read so much DA fanfic after that. Seriously, some of my fellow DA fanfic writers are amazing. And as I was looking through one fic where Zevran tries to broker a truce between Fenris and Anders, I became curious about Fenders. And so I looked to see what was out there and got hooked. Now this is another ship that isn’t canon, but these fics showed something I longed for in the game: for these two to realize that despite all their arguments and differences that they both long for the same thing: freedom and justice for those like them that are oppressed. Both have had their freedom denied, both traumatized by their past, Anders by the Chantry and the Templars and the Circle and Fenris by the slavers and magisters of Tevinter. What so many of the fics handled so gracefully was having these two broken people find healing and understanding through one another to a beautiful effect. I recommend giving @nikki-66​ fics a go for great examples of this.

And I said I was gonna cheat, right? Okay, so here are two other ships I’m fully sailing on that I didn’t put in my top three. The first being Reylo because anyone who follows my blog will have probably noticed that I totally ship this. I shipped it from The Force Awakens and was ecstatic when The Last Jedi came out. I went on such a fanfic reading binge for this in late 2017/early to mid 2018. It was the only thing that toned down DA fanfic reading to reasonable levels. All I can is if Ben Solo dies in the next movie and/or if Reylo doesn’t happen in some way I’m going to be so pissed lol

Finally, to one of the most complicated and moving and hard to define relationships I’ve ever read in fantasy fiction: Fitz and the Fool from Robin Hobb’s the Realm of the Elderlings. Fitz is the bastard of the crown prince of the Six Duchies turned assassin for the king and the Fool is the court jester and also someone he refers to as the White Prophet. Their relationship in the books spans a lifetime, and it grows and evolves. Are they friends? Or are they more? But they’re not lovers, not in the way most of us would think of them but also something more. All I knew was that in some way the two of them needed to end up together in some way, and I just couldn’t bear the thought that they wouldn’t be. I put off reading the last trilogy for months because of it. And when I did... I won’t say because you really need to read these books. All sixteen of them and in order. Please. 

lipstick or chapstick: I always have a chapstick in my pocket. Always. I can’t stand having dry lips. And while I do love lipstick for all the pretty colors and also the way it brightens my face, I hate when a lipstick can just settle on your lips and look super bad. But in recent years there’s been more lip butters and other hydrating formulas that I can regularly use, so that’s nice.

Last song: Don’t Stop Me Now by Queen. I’ve been on a Queen kick after watching Bohemian Rhapsody. 

Last movie: I was hanging out with my mom post her knee surgery and got her to finally watch Mulan. Before that it was Outlaw King on Netflix (with a friend) and then Bohemian Rhapsody (with a sister). I don’t watch a whole lot of movies. And if we’re talking TV shows then Outlander (with a friend). I’m more likely to be found reading, writing or gaming than I am to be watching something. 

currently reading: Ummmmm where do I begin? Ha. Like I just read a Reylo oneshot this morning. The other day I just finished Kingdom of Ash by Sarah J. Maas (which was so good!) and because I was in such a Maas kick I decided to make my 100th book read of the year her Catwoman Soulstealer one (good so far!). Also, I just started reading the novella Neutral by Jane Washington and Jaymin Eve which is part of the Curse of the Gods series (the protagonist Willa is the funniest main character I’ve read in years; the most recent one being the Warden in Zute’s Dragon Age fanfic). 

And yes, I did say 100 books. I am counting novel lengths fanfics, books of poetry and plays along with any novels and books of nonfiction. In 2017, I wanted to see how much I was actually reading and challenged myself to get to at 50 (I ended up somewhere in the 80s) and write them all down in a notebook. I gave myself the 50 challenge again this year at the bare minimum with the ultimate goal of 100 books read. So unless I lose all access to the written word for the rest of the year, I’ll be meeting my goal in the next day or so, which is super exciting. 

So here I’m going to tag four of my followers! If you’ve already done this or find the whole thing annoying feel free to ignore it.  @orkindofamazing @amervalk @latebuthere @nekoamamori

[actutrends]

GamesBeat editor Jeff Grubb’s top 20 games of 2019

We’ve had a lot of really good years in gaming recently, but 2019 is at the top of the list for me. I get that not everyone feels that way. For me, however, I got to play so many games I was looking forward to. And then several other games caught me by surprise.

So sure, we didn’t get the Gods of War or Red Dead Redemptions, but … I don’t even like those games. What do I like? Well, how about these 20 games right here?

20. Untitled Goose Game

Goose is the breakout video game of the year. It has the most viral buzz, and that’s for a good reason: It’s fun to watch. I also enjoy playing it, but it’s significantly better as a game you play for others. It’s a joy to do something silly and make everyone in your family laugh. And Untitled Goose Game is great at creating those moments.

19. Resident Evil 2

I’m not a Resident Evil guy. I adored Resident Evil 4 and Resident Evil 1 Remake on the GameCube, but I had never even played the original Resident Evil 2. Thankfully, Capcom gave me a chance to go back to this game in an exquisite reimagining. While I didn’t find the game all that frightening, it’s still fun to work my way through the Raccoon City police department while avoiding the indestructible Mr. X.

18. Ape Out

Ape Out is a game where you you help an ape get out. As a ferocious and unjustly imprisoned gorilla, you can smash enemies like the Hulk or use them as human shields. And your goal is just to run to the exit on every stage. But the game’s top-down view, simple art, and dynamic percussion soundtrack make it one of the most stylish games of the year as well.

17. The Outer Worlds

I’m a fan of the recent Fallout games, but I’ve always wanted a similar game that took place in space. The Outer Worlds definitely delivers that. It might not have all of the interlocking systems of a Bethesda RPG, but it does well with its slimmer scope.

16. Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey

Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey is a bizarre and challenging game. It has you guiding a lineage of primates through eons of time and evolutionary progress. If that sounds like an obtuse, high-concept idea, that’s because it is, but that’s also why I love it.

15. A Short Hike

A Short Hike is exactly what its name suggests. It’s a short game where you hike through a woodsy terrain. But it is so charming and packed with different little things to do that it feels much bigger than its 2-hour playtime. I also love the charming, aliased visual style that is like Animal Crossing on PS1.

14. Disco Elysium

I haven’t played enough Disco Elysium to put it much higher on my list than this. But even after only a handful of hours, I can see why people are so enamored with it. Its reactive world is always aware of the context players are working from. And its mystery is genuinely interesting. But the best part is the conversation system where almost all of the game happens. Even as someone who has never really gotten into an RPG like this, it’s winning me over.

13. Shovel Knight: King of Cards

Shovel Knight is such an accomplishment. Developer Yacht Club Games has packed it with tons of content. And King of Cards is the exclamation point on years of work. This is a completely new release, with excellent platforming mechanics and a full card game. I haven’t finished it, but I keep sneaking in more time with it when I should be playing other games.

12. Tetris 99

Tetris continues to prove itself as one of the most resilient games of all time. It can come back year after year, and it did just that with Tetris 99. Despite Tetris Effect ending up on my list last year, Tetris as a battle royale was just as fun and impressive. I’m probably going to play different versions of Tetris for the rest of my life, and I’m OK with that.

11. The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening

The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening for Game Boy is my favorite game of all time. That makes this near one-to-one remake for the Switch difficult for me to assess. It’s still that game with some new visuals and an improved interface. And while it’s dense with discoveries, it is also simple. I also can’t help that I prefer the look of the original black-and-white game. Still, I played through this version back-to-back when I got it for review, and it’s still excellent. It’s also the first Zelda I would give to any kid looking to get into the series.

10. Factory Town

Factory Town was an obsession of mine this year that I wish I could have given into more than I did. This is just one entry in the growing automated-production genre where you must design a world to process resources into currency you can spend to expand your processing capabilities. You have a lot of options in this category, but I’m glad I went with Factory Town. It’s in 3D, so you have to deal with elevations. But it’s also streamlined enough that I felt like I could always deal with any issues. And now I want to go back and check on my town.

9. Trials Rising

Trials Rising is exactly what I want from the motorcycle-platforming franchise. It has excellent courses that are exciting to run over and over, and it has a wild and irreverent tone and sense of humor. It definitely has some issues with progression that are going to turn a lot of people off, but it’s a game I’m still going back to regularly as a Trials fan.

8. Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night

Bloodstained came out, and it is great. This is Castlevania: Symphony of the Night spiritual successor from former Castlevania director Koji Igarashi, and it lived up to that legacy. It has fun, fast-paced combat, great exploration, and a bizarre roster of enemies.

7. Luigi’s Mansion 3

I wish Nintendo would’ve released this earlier in October. It came out on Halloween, and I didn’t have time to play it. And then suddenly it was November, and the timing didn’t feel right. But I’m playing through it now, and I’m enjoying it. That’s the right word, too. It is nice to play with really satisfying vacuuming action and incredible animations. But I hope that I end up loving it.

6. Super Mario Maker 2

Super Mario Maker 2 should be higher, but Nintendo is not great about some key things. Mostly, it doesn’t integrate your Switch friends list to make it easy to track your friends’ creations or their leaderboard times. But the game is still excellent — especially after its most recent update to include Link. That completely changes how the game works. I’ve also had a great time racing against people in the Vs. mode even if I’ve had little luck winning.

5. Sekiro: Shadow’s Die Twice

This is the game that got me into From Software’s style of punishing combat. It took a while to win me over, but it did. I love its battles that force you to get creative with attacks and items. And I also love its world and grim characters.

4. Lonely Mountains: Downhill

Lonely Mountains: Downhill is exactly the kind of game I want to discover when I open up Xbox Game Pass. It’s a game about guiding a bicycle through a hilly obstacle course. And while it starts out laid back with the goal of just getting to the bottom, it quickly turns into a significant challenge where you need to get to the bottom as quickly as possible without wiping out too often. This leads you to searching out the plentiful shortcuts, which is a satisfying experience in itself.

3. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is exactly my kind of game. I jive with all of Respawn Entertainment’s design decisions. And then the studio also nailed the implementation of the Star Wars universe.

The game is an expert combination of Dark Souls combat and progression, Metroid Prime environments and exploration, and a sprinkle of Uncharted set pieces at the beginning and the end. And all of that worked for me. I especially love slowly pushing through a world, getting a new power, and then having an easier time working my way back out. And I am so impressed by the boss fights that always find a way to stay interesting and push the story and state of the world forward.

And then I totally fell in love with the characters. I especially appreciate the relationship between hero Cal Kestis and the Nightsister, Merrin. That friendship/budding romance was handled deftly and has me rooting for Cal, which is not where I thought I was going to end up when his adventure started.

Respawn nailed this game, and I am desperate to see a sequel.

I’ve gone back and forth about placing it as my No. 1 of the year, and I may regret leaving it at No. 3 once I actually publish this list.

2. Fire Emblem: Three Houses

I’ve played Fire Emblem: Three Houses for 90 hours. That’s for one playthrough. I guess some of that is idle time, but not much. Still, I think it’s a testament to how engaging that game’s characters, writing, and tactical battles are. I don’t have time to play games for 90 hours, and yet Fire Emblem proves that I still will for the right game.

This is another game that could easily end up as my No. 1 of the year.

1. Outer Wilds

Outer Wilds was such a surprise. It’s a game that is technically only 22 minutes long. But you’ll repeat those 22 minutes over and over until you discover all of the secrets contained within its clockwork solar system. When I look back, it’s amazing how many moments left me astonished and in awe.

At its core, Outer Wilds is a game about learning rules and then deploying that knowledge to solve larger and larger puzzles. Eventually, you will know enough to go from the beginning of the game to the end before your 22 minutes are up. And along the way, you’ll jump across the surface of the sun, ride debris beyond a planet’s atmosphere, and travel through a wormhole.

Outer Wilds is good enough to be my game of the year, but I had a pretty rough experience getting through the end. It was not a game I could play uninterrupted due to my many children, and that made it difficult to keep all of its secrets in my head at once. So I had to turn to guides for help enough that I didn’t get to experience the “aha!” moments for myself. I’m not gonna hold that against the game — except for on my personal GOTY list.

The post GamesBeat editor Jeff Grubb’s top 20 games of 2019 appeared first on Actu Trends.

[smartstartblogging]

Top 21 Games I Would Want On A PS2 Classic Edition

Let’s start off by saying that getting a PS2 Classic Edition, in a similar vein to the NES and SNES Classic Mini, is almost certainly never going to happen. Sure, we’ve got the MegaDrive Flashback but the idea of Classic Editions is largely a Nintendo thing. That said, it doesn’t hurt to dream and since the PlayStation 2 is my favourite console ever, the idea of a PS2 Classic Edition would be amazing!

During a recent Twitter chat with Mohammed Fi, we started talking about the idea of a PS2 Mini. That, of course, led to the question of what games could be featured on such a re-release, especially as the PlayStation 2 has thousands of games in its library. So I decided to put together a list of the games that I would include.

This is based entirely on personal preference though, so I would also love to know what games you would put on a PS2 Classic Edition if there were ever to be one.

I chose to do 21 simply because that is the amount of games that the SNES Classic Mini featured.

21. Bully

We’ll start off with a game that was a very different take on the Grand Theft Auto style of gameplay; Bully. In this game, you take the role of a new transfer student to a very posh school. You have to take on bullies, complete missions and cause havoc whilst also going to lessons and avoiding detention. The game got a lot of bad press at the time, even getting renamed in Europe, but it’s a really good game with a strong anti-bullying message.

20. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

Next up we have the first in a trilogy of great action games; Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. The combat is extremely fun and the time control mechanic is both extremely useful and embedded into the plot and events of the game. The world is extremely well realised with great graphics for the PS2. The voice acting could have been better, but it doesn’t detract from an otherwise awesome game!

19. Soulcalibur 2

On to one of the best fighting games on the PlayStation 2 now. Soulcalibur 2 featured a great roster of characters, each with distinct fighting styles and weaponry to use. My character of choice was always Tali (pictured above on the right) due to her speed and attack style. However, there is certainly a character and fighting style to suit you, no matter how you want to play. That makes for a brilliant fighting game that anyone can pick up.

18. Shadow Hearts

Shadow Hearts is a game I’ve covered quite a lot, most recently in my PS2 games you probably haven’t played post (here), and now I’m going to include it here as well. Why? Because it is a very unique and different type of RPG that really needs to get more attention and awareness than it did. The storyline is so dark and mature, completely going against the idea of happy fantasy storylines full of bright colours.

17. TimeSplitters 2

I’ve not been a fan of shooters in recent years. They just haven’t felt as much fun as classic shooters, such as TimeSplitters 2. If you haven’t played the games, then just imagine a shooter where you get to visit a bunch of different time periods through the past and future. Weapons, enemies and level designs change massively, creating a wonderful mix of gameplay that you don’t often get with modern shooters.

16. Burnout 3: Takedown

If you ever wanted to play an incredible racing game full of high octane action and completely insane crash mechanics, you can’t go wrong with the Burnout series. Of that series, my personal favourite is Burnout 3: Takedown. The feeling of sheer speed was addictive, and the cars control and handle beautifully. On top of that, there is just something inherently fun to crash and smash into just about everything to see the damage mechanics.

15. Rule of Rose

I had to include Rule of Rose on this list. The game is so hard to come by now, which is a real shame because it is a truly outstanding Survival Horror game that is both creepy and downright sadistic at the same time. If you enjoy the Clocktower series of games, then Rule of Rose is effectively a spiritual successor to it. I can’t really say too much about the game without spoiling parts of it, but if a PlayStation 2 Classic Edition was ever to be made, it would be the perfect time to let people experience this amazing game.

14. Beyond Good and Evil

Another game that would be great on a PS2 Classic Edition would be Beyond Good and Evil. The game became a cult classic after its release and now it is even getting a PS4 sequel (finally). With that in mind, apart from a remaster of the game, a PlayStation 2 Classic Edition featuring Beyond Good and Evil would be a great way to let people play this game in all of its glory. It certainly would be worth it.

13. Devil May Cry 3: Dante’s Awakening

Going back to the action game side of the PlayStation 2, Devil May Cry 3 would be a must for any PlayStation 2 Classic Edition. It is the most popular in the original trilogy, and for good reason. The combat was stylish and very fast paced, whilst the game could offer difficulty and challenge if you wanted it or be set to just allow you to experience the storyline and game quickly if you don’t have the option for long gaming sessions.

12. Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4

Trying to choose between Persona 3 and Persona 4 was actually really hard. However, the reason why I have put Persona 4 on this list is that it improved on the already excellent Persona 3 when it came to dungeon design (multiple dungeons rather than one huge one) and storyline. The general design and visual presentation of Persona 4 is wonderful as well, so it would make perfect sense to put it on a PS2 Classic Edition, if there ever was one.

11. Ratchet and Clank: Up Your Arsenal

Do you like Platformers? If so, then I am sure you would agree that including Ratchet and Clank in general on a PlayStation 2 Classic Edition would be the right choice. Out of the games in the series from the PS2, my personal favourite is Up Your Arsenal. It just took the formula that the other games had worked on and made it into a near-perfect 3D platformer. I spent hours on this game and would happily do it again

10. Fatal Frame 2: Crimson Butterfly

Going back to Survival Horror, I had to include my favourite game in the genre in a list of games to put on a PS2 Classic Edition, didn’t I? Fatal Frame 2 (also called Project Zero 2 in Europe) is one of the creepiest and scariest games I have ever played. It shows just what a horror game can be if it doesn’t rely on jump scares but focuses on atmosphere instead. If you’re a fan of being scared out of your mind, this would be perfect for you. And a PlayStation 2 Classic Edition would allow so many more people to play it.

9. Silent Hill 2

Continuing on with the Survival Horror games (as we will for the next entry as well), we have Silent Hill 2, a game that really needs no introduction whatsoever. It is the most popular in the Silent Hill series, which is why I put it on this list (even though it isn’t my favourite) and Pyramid Head has pretty much become a mascot of the PS2. Because of this, and the fact that it’s just a really great game, I would definitely put it on a PS2 Classic Edition.

8. Resident Evil 4

Moving on to the franchise that basically started the Survival Horror genre, we have the game that also redefined the genre (for better or worse). Resident Evil 4 was an awesome game that was so exciting to play. Whilst it may have paved the way for some of the worst games in the Resident Evil franchise, RE4 itself is a true gem for the console (even though the Gamecube version looked better). So it would have to be included on this list, wouldn’t it?

7. Ico

Team Ico hit the ground running with this work of art for the PlayStation 2. Despite effectively being one giant escort mission, Ico never felt annoying or stale to me. I was hooked through the entire playthrough of the game, which for an escort mission, is an achievement and a half for the developers. Of course, their more famous and popular game will feature on this list too, but Ico more than deserves a spot as well.

6. God of War 2

What is a PlayStation these days without a God of War game? Seriously… Kratos is one of the most recognised video game characters ever, sitting up there with Mario and Sonic. I don’t think I even need to explain what the God of War games are or why I included one of this list, do I? As for why I chose God of Wars 2; the first game was extraordinary, but the sequel just ramped everything up by 100!

5. Kingdom Hearts

As a child, if you had told me that mixing Disney with Final Fantasy would actually work out well and we would get a good game from it, I would have thought you were crazy. Yet, that’s exactly what happened with Kingdom Hearts. Only, we didn’t get a “good” game… We got an excellent one! The sheer hype surrounding the coming release (finally) of Kingdom Hearts 3, as well as the constant remasters of the Final MIX versions of this and Kingdom Hearts 2 should tell you just why it is on this list.

4. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

Come on, you knew there was going to be a Grand Theft Auto game on this list. What kind of PlayStation 2 Classic Edition wouldn’t feature one of these games? I chose GTA: San Andreas because of its scale, scope and gameplay, as well as the sheer amount of memorable moments that I have with the game. Although, if this ever did happen, I would have they sort out that damn train mission!

3. Shadow of the Colossus

Coming in next is Team Ico’s second work of art, which just happens to be their masterpiece; Shadow of the Colossus. The game is pretty simple in premise; hunt down towering behemoths known as Colossus and slay them. However, the fact that you have to climb on them, each one acting as a puzzle as well, was genius. The ending is also outstanding, with Shadow of the Colossus being the true start of the “video games as an art form” debate.

2. Final Fantasy X

We have another obvious inclusion next, since I tried to save the obvious ones for last; Final Fantasy X. One of the Final Fantasy games was always going to be on this list, but no matter how much I love FF11 and FF12, Final Fantasy X was groundbreaking when it was released. Everything about the game, from the storyline to the battle system felt fresh and exciting (and still does today if you play the HD Remaster). So, naturally, it would be on a PlayStation 2 Classic Edition.

1. Metal Gear Solid 3

The final game in the list should come as no surprise. If we were doing this list for the original PlayStation, then Metal Gear Solid would be on that list immediately. So that also means that Metal Gear Solid is on this list too… However, we’re specifically looking at Metal Gear Solid 3, which added so much to the gameplay, such as a camo system, a beautiful game world and some of the best mechanics in a Metal Gear game to date.

And That’s All Folks

That was my list of the 21 games I would add to a PlayStation 2 Classic Edition, if Sony ever decided to make one. However, there are literally thousands of games for the PS2, so I’m sure you would choose different.

So let me know in the comments what 21 games you would put on a PS2 Classic Edition!

  from More Design Curation https://www.16bitdad.com/top-21-games-i-would-want-on-a-ps2-classic-edition/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=top-21-games-i-would-want-on-a-ps2-classic-edition