Can't be bothered writing such a detailed write up (with proper grammar) but here's something right here for a couple of games I just beat the last couple of weeks:
I predict Ryudo will hate me for this review, but here goes:
The Last Story. (Wii)
http://i.imgur.com/TKFhICh.jpg
Pros:
Great aesthetics. Really appealing to me, I love this style of Medieval Fantasy. It would fit right in with an Ivalice game, at least in terms of environments and dungeons. The game has a sort of baroque styling to it. The game is both very bright and dark at the same time, which sort of ties in to the mood of the game as well. Some of the character designs are good and some are just okay, not Fujisaka's best work by any means (I much preferred the style he employed in dark fantasy games, especially for the original concepts of the game) but still good.
The combat system is fun. I enjoy the RTS elements in there a lot. It's ncie to have an Action RPG that doesn't just phone it in with its design either, there's plenty of dungeons and they are all well varied in their design and theme.
The story has a great ending.
Jirall. Best character in the game.
Indifferent about:
The music is alright. Uematsu really changed his musical style here to fit in with the "modern" musical stylings, but eh, he really got lazy and asked the interns to do a lot of the composition (at least, going by the notes in the soundtrack, he only contributed a few tracks himself!) In fact, some of the music sounds like stuff straight out of Metal Gear (I also found that one of the composers did work on MGS4's OST) which just...doesn't fit in with the Medieval Fantasy setting here, at all. Just doesn't mesh well at all. That and the fact that there is only one battle theme throughout the game means you will have to get used to the same music over and over again. Having said that, I actually liked listening to some of it, it's just a shame there was pretty much no variation and it got old fast.
I liked some of the characters, hated some of the others (who were very irritating). Yurick and Syrenne especially, all the former does is mope and stay quiet and the latter just moans throughout the game with her over done "Northern" accent.
I sort of liked the storyline , but some of it was just...so cliche and been done better before. To break it down, I liked the Gurak's storyline and history, but we spent so little time with that until right near the end of the game, the vast majority of the game's story is spent running around one castle and one bar, getting to know the Count and the man character's fellow Mercenaries, which I found rather boring. I did not take to the Mercenaries
Cons:
Fighting the same enemies over and over again. Yeah, fighting that Giant Turtle enemy like five times each time employing the same (annoying) tactic to beat it each time over and over again gets old quick. So does fighting the Gurak so many times over. The game would have really benefited from better enemy variety. I guess there's also the pirates, but they're so rare.
The voice acting. It sucks. That's all I have to say about that.
Whilst I said before that the combat is good for an Action RPG with RTS elements, it does get a few scrapes along the path for its clunkiness. For example, I am fighting some enemies just get knocked back into a corner, as soon as he eventually gets up (which can takes ages), my character suddenly runs up the wall to perform an attack I didn't mean to. A more pressing example is when there is so many party members on one map at once that we all get in each other's way when we try to attack specific powerful enemies who are stunned and ready to receive massive damage.
MASSIVE SPOILERS:
Dagran's sudden descent into madness felt really rushed to me. I much preferred it when the Gurak, were a sympathetic villain and much preferred Zangurak as the main villain. Dagran suddenly appearing out of nowhere wanting to kill everybody was just wrong to me. He and Zael had this inseparable bond, they were practically brothers, but to turn him into a Delita clone was terrible. Since he was my favourite of the Mercenaries by far, I felt really annoyed by this. Also was not a fan of the constant cheesy romance in the game, it didn't help that the voice acting sucked, but really Zael and Calista couldn't have sounded more bored by the whole thing.
I felt that when things went batshit insane near the end, what with Jirall, Zangurak AND Dagran all fighting Zael and crew near the end, felt a bit like they could have placed those boss battles a bit further apart.
And even though Zangurak hinted at returning, I think it's a done deal, he's dead, unless they make a sequel, I guess, but I felt it was all self contained pretty nicely. Jirall is dead. Zangurak is dead. Dagran is dead. It's over.
Having said that, the amount of craziness going on near the end was incredibly satisfying and a certifiably big pay off.
Overall:
Sakaguchi's third new IP Role Playing Game and the first game he has directed since Final Fantasy V is a nice sort of return to form, but it has a lot of flaws to it, which are very hard for me to ignore. It just depends how much you get into it and have the patience for a flawed and clunky, yet very enjoyable combat system. The next game that Sakaguchi makes, I would imagine could have a more smoothed out overall experience. It sort of reminds me of a janky European RPG in some respects, you're either going to like it for where it experiments, or you are not and are going to get a bit peeved off with it. Unfortunately, I ended up feeling a bit indifferent to the whole thing, sort of liking it and sort of pissed off with the whole thing (the combat, that is).
The last three or four hours of the game sort of make up for the very slow slog middle part of the game, since it all gets just so damned crazy. Like, totally insane. And it all ends rather nicely in a self contained storyline.
I will be there to play Mistwalker's next game anyway.
Devil May Cry 2
http://i.imgur.com/QJT4wJH.jpg
Pros:
Errr...art style? It's really good, well, Dante is anyway, the enemies are a bit lacking. They all seem to be animals you kill in this game...
And the random old lady at the start of the game, for making me laugh (that voice acting and character design...)
Cons:
Everything. The combat sucks (guns>swords in this game, it seems and it takes forever to kill enemies, plus the same four hit combo throughout the game, no variety), the same three or four enemies throughout the game, you even fight the same bosses multiple times and boy, does it get drawn out. the music forgettable, the art design okay-ish, the bosses infuriating, the design of the game lazy and haphazard (feels really rushed). In fact, the whole game just feels rushed, straight up. It's an insult, really.
Overall:
The first and (hopefully) only bad Capcom game on the PS2 that I have played.
REmake , which I beat again this time playing Jill's scenario:
http://i.imgur.com/bLwAWxZ.jpg
Pros:
Best horror game on GameCube. (Not played Zero yet).
Crimson Heads. Next to the Lickers, Regenerators and the Hunters as my favourite regular enemies in the series.
The Trevor family. One of the best new additions of the game is the really disturbing story of the Trevor family.
The music.
The design of the mansion.
The weapons have such a powerful force to them - when you shoot a zombie in the head with a magnum, you really get that feedback from the game.
Barry Burton.
Albert Wesker.
Best cast in the series? Almost. Think I prefer 2's, but 1 has a really great cast of characters.
The great bosses. Neptune, Lisa Trevor, Plant 42, Yawn, Black Tiger, the Tyrant. Great, one and all.
Cons:
Erm...getting lost? That's the only flaw I can think of, I got lost a couple of times, sometimes it' a bit hard to figure out what to do next.
Overall:
Masterpiece.