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 to Azure

I played this pre-Geofront patch release. 5th game in the Kiseki franchise.

Gameplay – 7.5/10
= Pretty standard Trails battle system, although characters are not made equal in this equal due to the master quartz system. A step down from Zero for me, where it was fun to use every character you got in the game, whereas in this game it definitely feels rough to use a few at certain points.
– Arts are way superior to crafts for a majority of the game, leading to uninteresting battles compared to the other games in this series. Additionally, status effect crafts are plenty, but they don’t work on most enemies anyways, leaving characters like Randy in the dust besides just S-Crafting.
– Battles you aren’t meant to win just feel like stat checks, often you have to have Adamantine Shield up the whole time, otherwise you just take too much damage. Additionally, there is a notorious timed fight in this game, where it is actually a mechanic to skip animations to save time. There are better ways to design challenging you shouldn’t win sort of fights, in my opinion at least.

Visuals – 8/10

+ Nice art, essentially the same score as Zero. Some of the new S-Crafts are really cool like Berserker or Divine Crusade.

Story – 8/10
+ High notes of this game were pretty amazing. Crossbell Trade Conference, Lloyd meeting Guy, the circumstances surrounding Arios and Guy really elevate this game above the other sections of the game.
– Pacing was all over the place in this game, I feel. The chapters weren’t made equally, so there is stuff that is way more interesting, and stuff I couldn’t care less about. Stuff like the Crossbell Trade Conference, or the Fragments chapter were really interesting, while I couldn’t care less about stuff like Cryptid hunting. Additionally, I thought having to find all your party members in the last chapter was a bit of padding as well.
– Character motivations didn’t feel very strongly written and didn’t have enough context, especially some like Wald or Grimwood. Additionally, the final bonding event scene is pretty important to some characters like Wazy or Rixia, so you miss context without seeing those scenes as well.

Content – 8.5/10
+ There’s a good amount of stuff to do as usual, lots of hidden master quartz to unlock. Cooking, fishing, playing Pom are all important, amongst the sidequests.
– The content is really hurt by the general pacing of this game though, when the events around you aren’t interesting already it makes it harder to do the side content. This game suffers from having really high peaks, and then pretty long lulls for sure in my opinion.

Music – 8/10
+ A good Falcom OST for sure, but certainly takes a step down compared to the other games in this series having one of the weaker main battle themes in the series. Conflicting Passions is one of my favorite event battle tracks of all time. Mystic Core is such a good song, I’m really happy they used it in Cold Steel 4. I miss Momiyama’s compositions a whole lot.
+ Momiyama: Conflicting Passions, A Barrier to Get Over, Mystic Core, The Truth of the Rainy Day, Unfathomed Force.
+ Sonoda: Aoki Shizuku.

Extra Notes
+ This game really executes on the thematic behind the SSS really well; to find the truth, and to do it the right way, even if it’ll be harder in the end. No character really takes the easy way out, from Noel to Rixia.

40/50

Silverae Notes
– Rising Sun is cooler than Meteor Breaker, sorry.
– Favorite characters would be Lloyd, Elie, Randy, Wazy, Dudley.

Fire Emblem: Binding Blade

Gameplay – 9/10
+ Some really solid and challenging gameplay.
– Same turn reinforcements are really not cool, especially when they don’t tell you when they’ll show up, or where. Most of the time you sorta can infer it, but to be punished for playing too fast or too slow is pretty lame.

Visuals – 8/10

+ Impressive spritework as always from GBA FE games. Features the legendary Zephiel King animation.

Story – 5.5/10
= Pretty barebones story, it’s easy to see why they made FE7 in order to explain a lot especially about Zephiel. It takes a really long time for the game to explain certain things like why Zephiel turned out the way he did or the stuff about Idunn. I can only imagine how confused people are if they don’t unlock every gaiden chapter for the true ending.

Content – 8/10
+ Chapters are fun, tons of gaiden chapters. Even the trial maps are pretty fun. Additionally, the two route splits give some incentive to replay the game.
+ Tons of characters to use, you could make a new team for at least 3 playthroughs easily, even if some units are hard to use and not very good. You get a lot of options, which is nice.

Music – 7/10
+ Yuka Tsujiyoko had some really cool songs in this game, although the rest were not very memorable. I liked For the Commander, Beneath a New Light, In the Name of Bern, Priestess in the Dark, Join Us (very cool arrangement of the FE4 recruit theme),

Extra Notes
= They could really relax on status effect staves, feel like most of the time they’re just turn stallers.

37.5/50

Silverae Notes
* You really gotta use what you have that is good in order to clear relatively well in this game, nothing feels blatantly overpowered besides the Sword of Seals and you don’t get that until late-game, which I really like. I feel like it’s really easy for certain characters to get RNG screwed moreso than other FE games due to the low growths, so you really have to use the characters that get blessed unless you have hard mode bonuses.
* I like Thea, Lilina, and Miledy the most. Out of most FE games, I’m definitely not too attached to the characters.
* Replaying this game was way more fun for me than replaying FE7.

Fire Emblem (The Blazing Blade/FE7)

I hate WordPress’ new formatting actually.

Gameplay – 7/10
+ FE gameplay loop is always addicting.
– Map design leaves a lot to be desired, especially certain maps. (see 26x)
– Lyn mode is definitely a slog, even when you can play Lyn Hard.
– Takes multiple playthroughs to get to Hector Hard Mode, when stuff like Eliwood Normal you can just brute force while not thinking most of the time.

Visuals – 8/10

+ Sprite animations are really nice, adding onto the already good spritework of FE6.
= Portrait palettes don’t have the most vibrant colors, but this could be seen as a stylistic choice.

Story – 6/10
+ Pretty vanilla story, but that isn’t a bad thing.
+ The lore in this game is pretty cool, especially with stuff like Chapter 19xx. It’s a shame the conditions for unlocking that map are pretty strict, so I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of people didn’t play it, but learning more about who Nergal really is and why Ninian and Nils are so important besides just being dragons is really neat.
+ They provide nice setup for events in FE6.
= Not the most compelling plot twists.

Content – 7.5/10
+ One of the highest FE chapter counts in the series, although quantity =/= quality.
+ A good amount of characters to use for replayability, most have their purposes. You can’t get all the characters on one playthrough, so there’s replayability in a recruitment sense as well.

Music – 7/10
+ History Unveiled is actually such a cool track, pretty surreal to hear it on GBA speakers.
+ Not my favorite FE OST, but it’s still got some pretty good songs in Fire Emblem Theme, Companions, Strike, Rise To The Challenge, Eyes of Sorrow (really great arrange of Companions),
= I have a love-hate relationship with Wind Across The Plains, I don’t really enjoy listening to the intro bit, but the part after is really nice.
= Yuka Tsujiyoko composes some really cool stuff, I think she deserves more recognition than she receives.

Extra Notes

35.5/50

Silverae Notes
* It’s a solid game, but pretty low on my FE tier list because I don’t think it really has any strengths that propel it higher than other FE games. It isn’t offensive in the fact that there isn’t anything that is super annoying to deal with for most of the game.
* Favorite characters would probably be Fiora, Eliwood, Ninian, Raven, Pent, Louise, Lloyd, and Ursula.
* Ninian really grew on me, I started off not really caring about her but every playthrough I enjoy her character more.

Chrono Trigger

Gameplay – 9/10

+ ATB system is pretty fun in this game, although the game itself isn’t too challenging so you don’t have to think too much. The final boss in the Black Omen can be pretty tough, though.
+ Double tech and triple techs were pretty cool.
+ Everything in this game is pretty snappy.
= While there were no random encounters, some encounters felt pretty forced anyways while in your path.

Visuals – 8.5/10

+ For a game released in 1995, this game looks pretty stellar. It’s easy to tell what’s going on, and there are some really cool moments like Crono jumping in the air and stabbing straight down.
+ Seamless battle transitions in the background are really nice, even some modern games fail to do that.
+ Spell effects and attacks are snappy.

Story – 7/10

+ A consistent storyline to say the least within the time travel elements of this game.
+ Some of the side quests were really cool, like leaving Robo behind and Lucca’s backstory.

Content – 8/10

+ Quite a bit to do in this game, including getting ultimate weapons for everyone and some extra backstory.
+ Main story is pretty comfy.
+ Multiple endings are pretty cool.

Music – 8/10

+ Some bangers here and there and some tunes that just set the mood, but overall definitely a solid OST. Mitsuda, Uematsu, and Matsueda did a good job.
+ Some favorites include Memories of Green, Wind Scene, Battle, Decisive Battle with Magus, At the Bottom of Night, Corridors of Time, Undersea Palace, Last Battle,

Extra Notes

40.5/50

Silverae Notes

• Lavos boss marathon feels kinda pointless if you’re going through the Black Omen.
• It was fun to experiment with different party members and everyone had their own uses. I probably liked using Robo and Frog the most.
• I honestly can’t get enough of the bass line in the battle theme.

Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition

Played through the entire game on stream here.

Personally believe that this IS the definitive edition of the game, and should be played over Wii/3DS if possible.

Gameplay – 7.5/10

+ Really enjoyed the fact that they added the ability to see when your attacks were effective, considering some models are hard to read, aggro switches can be quick, and the camera can be a bit wonky.
= Combat still feels pretty barebones, nothing amazing about it but it doesn’t detract from the experience either.

Visuals – 9.5/10

+ This remake is beautiful, the cutscenes are still as good as ever, but are made even better. The environments are so pretty now, comparing Alcamoth in Wii/3DS to this was ridiculous, I couldn’t believe my eyes. Future Connected cutscene direction looked even better, and the Bionis Shoulder was also beautiful.
+ My favorite areas visually would be Satorl Marsh, Eryth Sea, and Mechonis Field.

Story – 9/10

+ Strong plot driven story, carried by some pretty big twists. Some parts are pretty linear, but the overall theme is carried the entire way through.
+ I really enjoyed the more slice of life stuff from Future Connected, as I believed the Fallen Arm segment of the main game was also very well done.

Content – 10/10

+ This game has such a ridiculous amount of things to do, it’d be a crime not to rate it so highly. Lots of things to collect, lots of things to do, hefty story content. The fact that I’ve played through the game this many times and am still noticing new things is a very good sign.
+ Addition of Future Connected and a very strong level in Bionis Shoulder just pushes it over the top for me, it’s so good.

Music – 10/10

+ Ability to choose between the Original OST and the Remastered one is such a nice option.
+ I really love the OST for this game, it’s so wonderful and all the composers did a great job.
+ Yoko Shimomura: Main Theme, Prologue B, Unfinished Business, Shulk and Fiora, Colony 9, Time to Fight!.
+ ACE+: Engage the Enemy (Original), Gaur Plain, An Obstacle in Our Path, Valak Mountain, Valak Mountain (Night), You Will Know Our Names, Mechonis Field, Mechanical Rhythm, Agniratha, Mechonis Capital, Time to Fight (Bionis’ Shoulder), Fog Beast Battle.
+ Manami Kiyota: In the Refugee Camp, Satorl Marsh, Satorl Marsh (Night), Forest of the Nopon, Eryth Sea, The Fallen Land.
+ Things I liked from the remastered tracks. Remastered Engage the Enemy is so beautiful from 2:40 onwards.. the new strings in the Colony 9 remaster are sublime as well. The Time to Fight! remaster actually made me enjoy the battle theme so much more than the original. I miss the kick drums from the original Gaur Plain, but the rest of the remastered version is better. The key change in Obstacle in Our Path was interesting, but I think the rest of the song got so much better. The added bass in Satorl Marsh (Day). The vocals in Eryth Sea boosted that song to one of my favorites. The instrument quality in Mechanical Rhythm..

Extra Notes

46/50

Silverae Notes

– One of my favorite things ever about this game is the cutscene direction, the choreography with themes like Engage the Enemy is just so good.
– This is my 3rd time playing through this game, I’ve played all 3 versions and have 100%’d it twice, and I’m still grateful I got to play this version, thank you Monolith Soft so much.
– I used to actually not like Shulk & Fiora for the beginning string sounds, but 1:17 onwards gives me chills everytime, I love that section so much.
– Seeing Seven show up during Prison Island made me tear up so much, and Seven wasn’t even one of my favorite characters the first times I played through the game. Just couldn’t believe what I was playing, and they looked so good too.
– Favorite characters are Reyn, Dunban, Melia, Kallian! I really liked Kino and Nene too, I thought they were such cute additions.
– So happy FC existed to help Melia’s character arc and Tyrea’s as well. Seeing her mature so much in a year and get over Shulk to be her own strong character was so fulfilling. Too bad they didn’t explain the rift.

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.