Silverae’s Video Game Reviews and Blog

Hey guys, this is Silverae! You might know me as a league streamer, (I’ve got two high diamond accounts, gunning for a third) or just a guy who plays a lot of video games. I’m gonna start writing out game reviews so you know what to pick up or what I think of a game, and link it back to my backlog at backloggery.com/silverae!
This is a review site just for me, but feel free to check it out if you enjoy what I think about the games I play. My complete reviews will contain spoilers, but you can just check the score I put for each game as well.

Review Format is different for each genre of game I play! You can also find my socials at the top of the page.

The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero

Please play the Sky trilogy before playing Zero, folks. Played with the great Geofront patch, please support those guys.

Gameplay – 9/10

+ Slot upgrading and opening slots means you start right from zero, but obtain progression quickly which is rare in a first entry in a Trails arc.
+ Both crafts and arts are utilized well, and boss battles are super fun.
= Something I found interesting was how little the ATS stat mattered as opposed to actually having the strongest spells in the game, so I can imagine people that didn’t understand the line system well might have struggled.
– Battles without preemptive strike take way too long and aren’t really a struggle either so it can feel a little annoying not getting the preemptive strike.

Visuals – 8/10

+ Sprite art is nice and cute, and crafts and S-Crafts have nice visuals.
+ You can tell they worked really hard on backgrounds this time around, Zero is a really pretty game looking at the backgrounds. Probably why you couldn’t change the camera angle in this game haha.
+ Animations were also quite impressive at times.. see the entire Arc-en-Ciel show.

Story – 10/10

+ The classic strength of a Legend of Heroes game, but Zero’s story is seriously phenomenal. I really like the detective/police angle they spin on the classic story, and it really feels like a high-stakes game at all times, even for the smaller missions.
+ All the characters are there for a reason, and the SSS is an unforgettable group of 4, even if I haven’t played Azure/Ao yet, it just makes me want to know more of their story.

Content – 9.5/10

+ There’s so much to do in this game, including little optional events that are just there for world building. The only pain about sidequests is how much walking you have to do, but it’s all worth it in the end.
+ Lots of quartz setups to try out for gameplay, and fishing and cooking are both rewarding if done. Small point is you kinda need to spec someone for field stuff though.

Music – 10/10

+ Falcom JDK really did an insane job with this game. The music sets the mood so well in all the scenes and adds a Crossbellan flair to the game, I would say.
+ Notable tracks include Scene of a Street Corner, C.S.P.D. – Crossbell State Police Department, Geofront, Get Over The Barrier!, Special Support Section, Arrest the Criminal!, St. Ursula Medical College, Crossing the Iron Bridge, Formidable Enemy, Someday Surely, and of course Zero no Kiseki.
+ Scene of a Street Corner made me so happy to walk around Crossbell City.. and everytime I saw a monster chest I got excited to hear Arrest the Criminal. CSPD and Special Support Section were perfect mood setters for me.
+ St. Ursula Medical College feels reminiscent of the past, which really fits Lloyd meeting Cecile after 3 long years. I’m pretty sure I teared up every time Someday Surely played. Zero no Kiseki is the perfect climax song, and also a great menu screen theme. It’s also such a great leitmotif, for other songs like Crossing the Iron Bridge.
+ If I type up something about the whole OST you and I would be here forever, so just do yourself a favor and play the game and listen to the tracks.

Extra Notes

46.5/50

Silverae Notes

– The thematic in this game was so strong.. I was really surprised at how competent the SSS and Lloyd were, but for each of them there were circumstances preventing them from moving forward even if they were talented and this game was all about them moving forward in their own ways. Even for the Sky cast that showed up in this game.
– I can’t believe Falcom was gonna skip Crossbell and go straight into Erebonia and they came up with a game this good honestly.
– Watching Arc-en-Ciel in game was kind of like how I felt watching a performance outside, that was pretty special honestly.
– This game was really good at making you feel like the SSS were in deep shit sometimes. A lot of games don’t make me feel like the events that happen in game was actually high stakes scenarios, so I thought that was pretty special.
– Still surprised Joshua fell for Randy’s trap in the chase sequence.
– Joshua looks pretty weird though, seriously.
– I really like the SSS, Noel, and Dudley.

Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim

Gameplay – 8/10

+ Felt pretty straight forward for the most part, but bosses were fun besides Orjugan who I didn’t know how to fight properly, and even then I fought it incorrectly probably just by deflecting it’s missiles lmao.
= Additional sword techniques like the charge fire slash or the tornado comboes were nice, but it kinda felt like they weren’t really necessary to actually use most of the time.
+ Solid YS gameplay, but not enough skill expression imo for the system which is a little unfortunate, but still fun.
– Some stuff feels a little stat-checky based on your equipment/levels, I wish this game wouldn’t let you do 0 damage and let you do 1 or something.

Visuals – 6/10

+ Environments were nice.
= I feel like otherwise, there wasn’t a whole lot to look at.

Story – 5/10

+ Again, not a whole lot to talk about here, though it is nice to see the continuation of Adol’s story.
+ A short, simple story to round off the gameplay. Geis was an interesting character at the very least.

Content – 6/10

+ A couple of optional bosses and sidequests here and there. Dungeons had hidden passages and hidden stuff to see, some of it pretty hard to find.
= Game content wasn’t very long though itself, my Steam clocked in around 10-11 hours.

Music – 9.5/10

+ I really love Ys 6’s OST though. It’s a good mixture of fast paced energetic music, and good adventuring music.
+ The first song you hear on the island is Gratitude for Nature’s Blessings, and it’s just such a relaxing song.
+ Quatera Woods is the perfect exploration music as well, to me. It’s one of my favorite field themes in any game.
+ Other personal favorites from this soundtrack would include Mighty Obstacle, Ultramarine Deep, The Ruined City ‘Kishgal’, and of course Ernst.

Extra Notes

34.5/50

Silverae Notes

– Ernst fight was definitely the highlight of this game imo. For someone who comes in only near the end of the game, he sure knew how to make an entrance.
– Dash jumping was neat but it really was annoying to do platformer puzzles that you’d have to repeat if you fell off, not to mention the amount of hidden stuff locked behind dash jumping in-between like 4 pillars. Not really sure how one is supposed to figure that out without a guide.
– I didn’t play the PS2 version of this game, but I wanted to give a shoutout to Konami’s team for adding Alma’s Trials, I’ve always really loved this song and wanted to play Ys VI cause of it.

The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III

Gameplay – 9/10

+ Brave Order system was really fun, albeit probably a little broken. Gave more usage to the BP the first two Cold Steel games introduced though, so you had to meter manage a little more instead of just mashing burst/rush.
+ Break system was neat, although using burst to rush break was a little broken. Still, it wouldn’t be Trails without seeing how broken you can make your party! Bosses should have recovered a lot faster, but other than that, the battle system felt really great compared to previous Cold Steel entries.
= Some of the monster fights felt like they dragged on due to high HP bars that you couldn’t get through without breaking them, and as a result I stopped doing every monster encounter.

Visuals – 8.5/10

+ Animation quality went up a huge amount since CS1 and 2, I’m proud to see Falcom working hard on touching stuff up.
+ The environments were pretty nice, honestly I loved a lot of it, but they could do a little more with their fields.
+ Some S-Crafts were really nice to watch–like Gaius’ Howling Heavens.

Story – 10/10

+ This game was fucking insane lmao. The amount of setup it had was pretty ridiculous, and the buildup from CS2 finally paid off considering how much filler it felt like CS2 had.
+ All the new characters they added were really lovely and the returning characters from the past series were treated quite well.
+ Seeing Rean as an instructor and seeing him not struggle in fights was such a good feeling after the first two games, he’s really grown up.
+ The way they finally tie all the arcs together is some huge fanservice, but all the characters feel like they’re there for a purpose.

Content – 10/10

+ This game had so much in it actually, from the main story to sidequests to just collection stuff. I also found that the content in the game didn’t drag on at all like how I feel sometimes with longer games, and that most of the content added to the game universe in some way.

Music – 9.5/10

+ Falcom JDK does it again, although I don’t think this is their strongest OST, it’s still a Falcom OST.
+ Singa is definitely not up to par with the other two composers, but I’m not that nitpicky. His work on Beyond the Journey, Step Ahead, Cheap Trap, Brilliant Escape.
+ Sonoda seemed to do a lot of field themes, personal favorites are Briefing Time, Power or Technique, Hamel -Remains-, The Caged Crossbell, Raquel, the Amusement Town.
+ Unisuga’s a god. Anything this guy makes is literally amazing. Favorites include Einhel Keep, Brave Steel, Start Line, Endless Possibilities, Saint-Arkh, the Old Capital, Lift-off!, Erosion of Madness, Ordis, the Azure Port Town, Spiral of Erebos.
+ Brave Steel might be my favorite regular battle theme in the series. It’s definitely up there with Determination of Fight.
+ I usually don’t stay on title screens very long anymore, but Start Line was so good it kept me there.
+ Every time Power or Technique came on I’d get pretty hyped ngl. I’m happy they got a chance to work with saxophones on stuff like the Raquel theme as well.
+ The chase scenes with Brilliant Escape were so funny, but also fun to watch.

Extra Notes

= Quartz usage was minimal, I didn’t have to craft a single quartz the entire game. I guess it’s for people who don’t do sidequests or don’t hunt all the treasure like me though.
+ The game was quite optimized, it was really nice to enter an encounter and have it instantly swap to a battle screen.

47/50

Silverae Notes

– Having Machias, Juna, and Sara in the same party was hilarious for accel chains. Sara’s Brave Order wasn’t balanced for sure.
– It’s crazy how important the Hundred Days War and the Hamel incident still are even this late into the series, it really makes me wonder how they had all of this setup since the start. Also it’s a huge treat to us Sky fans.
– I had a huuuuuuge smile on my face when Blue Destination started playing.
– Randy’s a bro.
– Visiting Hamel was a crazy throwback with the Hamel theme playing.. I tripped out crazy hard having Agate in the party too.
– The cuts to black fucking ended me, so I can’t believe they did it to me twice.. Kondo pls.
– I ended up liking the new Class VII more than I thought. I thought going in that I’d like Kurt, Musse, and Altina the most, but Juna and Ash grew on me so much. I hope Kurt gets to punch Cedric in the face though.
– Voice work on this game was splendid.
– The fade to black with shudder sound during CH4 gave me a heart attack honestly, it was so well done.

Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga

Gameplay – 8/10

The opening cutscene is super cool imo.

+ Had a lot of fun with this entry in battle sequences.
+ Anyone can learn any skill tree, allows for a lot of flexibility. I especially liked how Void options were just party nulls but you can only apply one at a time.
+ Lots of strategies for fights, and you can’t cheese your way to an early power charge or good attack all the time.
– I enjoy 4 press turn sequences more than 3, but only a minor nitpick.
– Lategame ailments were pretty bad in this game.

Visuals – 8/10

+ Cutscene fluidity was actually super cool in this game. The opening cutscene was one of my favorite parts of the game actually.
+ Standard SMT fare locales and demon designs.
+ Battle animations are fast so even if you get into a lot of encounters the game speeds by pretty quickly.

Story – 8/10

+ The story had an interesting premise for sure, but it was pretty barebones as well.
+ The characters were quite interesting and had their own motivations.
= Fighting each faction is pretty standard RPG fare.
– A lot of setup and unanswered questions so the story feels unfinished until DDS2.

Content – 7.5/10

+ Game was the perfect length to me, had enough content and ended before it’d get boring.
+ Skill progression was neat and tidy.
– Some sidequests and bosses were a little annoying or felt a little uninspired.

Music – 7.5/10

+ Meguro at it again with another quite good OST. Track list is a bit on the smaller spectrum though.
= Dungeon themes were pretty standard, but battle themes were great.
+ Standouts in this OST to me were Muladhara, Hunting, Hunting – Comrades.
+ I love Hunting so much that for being the games only standard battle theme it never got old. It’s so mellow for a battle theme it makes me feel right at home.

Extra Notes

39/50

Silverae Notes

– I really hate how status effects are balanced in this game. I’d sometimes just get stunned on purpose and not cure it because it was better to be stunned than to have any other status ailment.
– I liked Gale and Cielo the most for characters. I found it interesting how Gale wasn’t part of the “main” group that was in the alternate universe.
– Favorite dungeon was the castle with the story about the Evil and Good Prince. It felt so strange for a SMT game but it set the tone for that area very well with Heat and Serph’s dynamic at that point.

Ys I & II Chronicles

Gameplay – 5/10

+ YS1 Bump system was quite fun. Dark Fact was a challenging boss and every run of it is different.
– YS1 felt a little level gated with how much damage you gain per level and the HP you get.
– YS2 magic was overwhelmingly strong and broke the game for sure, as soon as you get the homing upgrades there’s not much of a point to fighting things normally.

Visuals – 4/10

+ Environments looked pretty nice.
– A lot of the samey areas or areas that felt similar.
= Not many animations as you basically just run into things.

Story – 3/10

= The books of YS and their descendants were an interesting concept at least.
+ Reah and Feena being recurring and seeing the faces from YS1 in YS2 again was cool.
– Nothing really interesting about it though.

Content – 5/10

– Very short games.
+ Some neat sidequests that are hidden here and there or items you can get.
= Low level caps mean you can’t grind yourself out of an undesirable situation. Some fights can remain hard if you aren’t prepared.

Music – 8/10

+ Not Falcom’s best work, but definitely has some good tracks. Bless JDK.
+ Notable tracks include First Step Towards Wars, Tower of the Shadow of Death, Dreaming, Tender People.

Extra Notes

= Some funny stuff in this game, like sleeping in other girl’s beds or sizing them up. Adol is quite the guy, even way back.

25/50

Silverae Notes

– I actually wanted to play this entry eventually especially because of the Zanmai version of First Step Towards Wars.

Shin Megami Tensei 3: Nocturne

Gameplay – 7.5/10

+ Press turn system is very punishing., especially early.
+ Some boss fights were pretty fun.
– Buffs and Magatama trivialize a lot of bosses, especially mid-late game. When you get your setup you can stop thinking, if it’s good.
– Endgame enemies are very annoying and all have phys repel/void.

Visuals – 6.5/10

+ Demifiend has some pretty cool looking skills.
+ Demon models in full 3D (seriously they haven’t done this since the PS2 era)
+ Some visual effects look pretty good.
– Some areas look very muddy and the colors are pretty repetitive. (Sewers, similar stations)

Story – 8/10

+ The reasons were really interesting– Chiaki and Isamu are very interesting characters.
+ The true demon ending is pretty nifty as well as the neutral endings.
– Endings aren’t too fleshed out.

Content – 8/10

+ Lots of demons to collect.
+ The labyrinth of Amala not being randomized is pretty nice.
+ Customization is really a strong point in this game, from various builds and magatama to ingest as well as demon party building.
= Dungeon design was mostly interesting, a lot of interesting gimmicks considering you can only move around and press X to interact. However for each interesting gimmick there’s a teleportation dungeon so there’s that as well.
– Not a lot of sidequests. Collectables aren’t too useful.

Music – 7.5/10

+ Shoji Meguro had a lot of strong tracks in this game, as per usual from him. The normal battle theme is a classic imo. The songs really fit the thematic of the game though, they have that post-apocalyptic feel with all the screams.
= Some themes were forgettable, but at least were fitting for the area.
+ Standouts include Large Map, Normal Battle~Town, Ginza, Reason Boss Battle, Last Boss Battle ~ Before Transformation, Fiend Boss Battle, Beelzebub Boss Fight.
+ Probably my personal favorite, the staff roll haha.

Extra Notes

+ Lore tidbits were super cool, especially between the manikins Sakahagi and Futomimi. (+1)

38.5/50

Silverae Notes

– FEATURING DANTE FROM DEVIL MAY CRY.
– The Pyro Jack puzzle made me wanna die for sure.
– I find it super interesting how Chiaki wanted a world of strength but she needed to utilize other powers to become strong in the first place. And Isamu needs the Demifiend in order to accomplish his goals of being alone. All the reasons are created by individuals wanting something that they can’t achieve with their personalities and abilities– really goes to show that people always just want things they can’t have and that the grass is greener on the other side.

Tales of the Abyss

Gameplay – 7.5/10

+ This game is considered the blueprint for future Tales of games, sporting free run and the HP/TP system. AI isn’t too challenging with free run though, and the game does just have better artes for certain characters (Void Tempest, Rending Thrust, etc).
+ Boss battles were fun, especially the six God Generals, All 6 characters were pretty fun to play at times as well.
– Higher difficulties can be statchecky at times, see Unknown mode Liger Queen.

Visuals – 5/10

– Bad framerate makes things look choppy.
+ Some artes/FOFs are pretty cool looking, but overall leave a lot to be expired. Jade’s spells are a highlight.
– Models and animations outside of battle seem choppy or slow.
+ General art assets are fine.

Story – 9.5/10

+ I really enjoyed all the characters in this game, they all have their own motivations for what they do, including the antagonists.
+ Sidequests bolster the amount of lore and backstory between characters like Tear and Legretta, or even minor characters.
+ The world is pretty well built, Auldrant has some really neat lore behind it.
+ I really think life being bound to prophecy and religion was an interesting concept and it was executed well in this game. It was really interesting how the characters fell into the prophecy and the decisions they took regarding their own destinies.

Content – 8/10

= There is always a lot to do in the story, although it doesn’t always feel fulfilling.
+ A lot of sidequests that are meaningful. Jewel of Gardios, Cecile/Frings, and various costumes are nice to have. I like how every playable character has their own artes sidequest line as well.
– Lots of backtracking.

Music – 4/10

= Standard Motoi Sakuraba fare of music. Some really boring music like the Baticul sewers but some pretty good music at times. Motoo Fujiwara’s contributions to the game are very enjoyable though.
+ Standouts include mirrors, finish the promise, abyss.

Extra Notes

+ FOF circles were the gimmick in this game, they actually make the game way more enjoyable in combat. (+1)
+ Multiplayer was good in this game, the camera zooms out further the more players you have. Doing the Arena Team Exhibition Battle with my sister was really a highlight of my younger years. (+1)

36/50

Silverae Notes

– Loading times are pretty bad.
– I love this game despite the lower score, I played it a ton with my sister and I have a lot of nostalgia for this game, but replaying it kinda let me see it’s flaws as well. It’s really fun to play with someone.
– Sunlight Chamber on Guy is super fun.
– I like Jade, Guy, and Tear a lot.