Finished: January 5th. Platform: Playstation 2. Time: 6h:12m:19s. Rating: 9/10

Ingame timer 5:43:07. Absolutely fantastic sequel, and one of the biggest steps up of any second game in a series ever. Like the first game it's very light on content, and combat still isn't especially nuanced or challenging. But what it is is really, really fun. Few games make the player feel as powerful or cool as piloting Jehuty does in this, and between that, the awesome set pieces, and the fantastic presentation and wild story, it's just a joy to play for nearly all of its admittedly too short runtime. Let down just a little by one or two gimmicky battles that don't entirely work and the fact that it leaves you wanting much more, but I loved this, and think it still stands among the best action games of its generation.

Finished: January 11th. Platform: Nintendo DS. Time: 26h:19m:05s. Rating: 7/10

It's no Skies of Arcadia, but a nice old school RPG that evokes many giddy adventures of the past. Fantastic soundtrack, with some lovely tunes and a rousing main theme. And 3D visuals are quite good for DS! Doesn't do enough with its alternate history setting, but story is a cute steampunk-y adventure with some sweet moments and brisk, fun dialogue that brings just enough life to the simple characters. Unfortunately the encounter rate is a little high, and game feels a bit rough around the edges design-wise, with the airship battles, especially, being very poorly conceived and balanced. It's not game ruining, but with a bit more fine tuning, this could have been more than the decent effort that it is, so a bit of a shame.

Finished: January 13th. Platform: XBox. Time: 13h:09m:44s. Rating: 9/10

The removal of the timer gives this a very different feel to JSR, transforming that game's arcadey action into something closer to a free flowing sandbox. But if you can roll with that, this is amazing fun. Camera can frustrate at times, and a few story beats did feel like padding to me. I also don't think combat serves much of a purpose, and the framerate can be spotty. But story, setting, visuals, movement, and sense of speed are just an absolute joy, and its huge dollop of early 2000s attitude is a massive nostalgia rush today. Music is also a perfect fit for the game - not all of it is the kind of thing I'd listen to outside of the game, but it complements the action so well. A thoroughly enjoyable genre hybrid.

Finished: January 16th. Platform: XBox. Time: 9h:46m:21s. Rating: 8/10

Could pass for a 360 title, and a staggering technical achievement on Xbox. Voice acting is stellar, and game feels like a forerunner to the kind of cinematic, genre-blending action games that became so popular in subsequent generations. Shooting, story, and stealth are each too weak to carry the game alone, but the mixture of elements is fun and accomplished, and anchored by the oppressive atmosphere and Diesel's total commitment to the project. At the time I suspect I would have rated this even higher, but a bit less impressive now, when so many of the things it does have become commonplace. Still, this is one of the better licensed games out there, and a fun ride that was wildly ahead of its time.

Finished: January 27th. Platform: XBox. Time: 14h:28m:02s. Rating: 9/10

A seriously beautiful game - the Xbox was wildly overpowered for its era, and these late big budget exclusives really show it. Also a very interesting mix of genres with a cool weapon loadout and nice level of challenge. Story is minimal and I saw where it was going early on, but what it has to say it says well, and it's executed so beautifully that I really enjoyed. Admit I wasn't completely onboard with the shift in structure for the last act even though it's narratively interesting, and think it lost a little of what made the game unique. And a few bosses are awfully trial and error if you're set on taking them alive, as I was. But I really enjoyed this, and think it's among the cooler, more interesting games of its generation.

Finished: February 13th. Platform: Dreamcast. Time: 2h:15m:43s. Rating: 7/10

Really quite good! Excellent art that really does feel like a next gen Turrican. And the game's emphasis on cautious, careful progression and exploration captures the appeal of that series perfectly. Music is good too - not on the level of Huelsbeck's, but lovely in its own right and does a good job evoking a similar mood. Like Turrican 2, weapons are unbalanced - there's no point using anything but Phoenix. And I encountered a lot of small bugs, cheap hits, and general rough edges that I think would have been sorted with a bigger budget. Still, easy to forgive for an indie release on old hardware, and this is largely a quality game in a genre that isn't well represented on Dreamcast.

Finished: February 26th. Platform: SNES. Time: 21h:01m:19s. Rating: 8/10

Has its share of warts, with uneven difficulty, often uninspired level design, rather unbalanced weapons, and a weapon progression system that feels like it discourages experimentation mission to mission. The AI allies are also pretty worthless - they're a fun bunch of characters, but combat-wise they mostly range from useless liabilities to active hindrances, and I generally tackled levels alone. Still, the A+ presentation, killer soundtrack by a dream team of Square legends, and unique mixture of a hefty, story-driven action RPG quest with satisfyingly weighty mech action makes for such an addictive, unique little game that I was more than willing to look past the bits that don't work. A great spinoff that works far better than it ought to.

Finished: February 27th. Platform: Playstation 2. Time: 8h:53m:45s. Rating: 7/10

All endings. A lovely, intricately branching mystery story that still holds up very well, and feels far ahead of its era. But as a game it's little more than the prototype of a good idea, with no more than a handful of very simple puzzles to solve. And it's held back by some extremely rough voice acting. I thought Charles Martinet was great and the rest has its moments of endearing camp, but by and large it's terrible and undermines a great script. Not normally a deal breaker for me, but when nearly all of the game's appeal is in its story and cutscenes, it's hard for it not to hurt the experience. Still, this gets big points for uniqueness, and I found it hugely endearing.

Finished: March 4th. Platform: Playstation 2. Time: 23h:13m:16s. Rating: 4/10

There's obvious talent at work here, with remarkably rich and well-animated melee combat, the kernel of a cool story, and a silly faux anime vibe that is appealingly of its era. But had to be rushed to market, and sadly it shows. Level design is anemic, storytelling is clumsy, gunplay is poor, and difficulty curve and checkpointing are nonsensical and truly punishing at times. Part of my low score is down to the abysmal PS2 port, as it really compounds the game's issues. And I'd like to replay on PC, as I think it's fascinating and far more competent than it should be given the time Bungie had. But feels like a beta of what it might have been, and it's such a shame that a game with so much potential had to be rushed out in this state.

Finished: April 30th. Platform: Playstation. Time: 16h:15m:49s. Rating: 8/10

Time includes deaths and retries. Lovely sequel to a game I already liked. Visual presentation is even better than the first and makes for one of the prettiest 3D games on the console. Controls are vastly improved and actually feel fairly modern, even if there's still a bit of early 3D clunk. Story is darker and a little bit more dramatic, but still maintains a lot of the whimsical joy of the first and is very enjoyable. Not everything is perfect - there's one really dud dungeon, and the pricing of items and upgrades is wacky and feels like it's there to pad game time. It also leaves story threads hanging, which stings when there's likely never going to be a sequel. But I had a great time with this one, and think it's probably the slightly better of the two.

Finished: June 1st. Platform: Playstation. Time: 7h:09m:30s. Rating: 9/10

Game timer is wonky and said 3:30:26, timed according to stopwatch. Wildly good for a game I only bought because it had a funny name, and can only assume the apparently dodgy localisation and difficulty changes of the English version are what's kept it from getting more attention. Eerily atmospheric, and excellent level design with appealing verticality and tons of fun secrets. Controls and performs extremely well for something from 1996, and story is presented in endearingly cinematic fashion. Possibly becomes a little too easy in the final stretch, but I really think this is a top tier PS1 action game, and so far ahead of most of its 1996 contemporaries. A hidden gem in the truest sense.

Finished: June 5th. Platform: Playstation 3. Time: 7h:23m:02s. Rating: 6/10

With the analogue control patch, this is not the disaster I was expecting. Often gorgeous environmental design, and an amazing cinematic score worthy of a major movie. Story is also mostly likeable cheese, and while gameplay is very unrefined and janky, I think when everything works, you can see a genuinely enjoyable game in there struggling to get out. Performance is incredibly rough though, even for a generation full of games that ran terribly, and it really does hurt the experience. And while a lot of the jank is the fun kind, certain parts of the game like the lock on system are broken in a much more frustrating way. Still, while this is by no means a great game, I had more fun than I expected. A little better than I had heard.

Finished: June 30th. Platform: PSP. Time: 51h:55m:24s. Rating: 6/10

An even worse game than White Witch from a gameplay perspective, as while it makes greater efforts towards being a proper RPG, it's all so sloppy and half-hearted that it's just an annoyance. And the story is held back by a weak, filler-y middle act with tons of backtracking, a lot of quite superfluous side characters, and an unwillingness to make the game's most important and touching relationship the focus of the story. But music is still fantastic, writing for the central cast is largely great, and the first and final acts are really exciting and fun and tie together with White Witch in lovely ways, so there's still lots to like. The weakest game in the series I've played, but still a story worth enjoying, and I'll play the third Gagharv game for sure.

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One of the pet games of fellow Completionator user Hystericmoon, who streamed it and still speaks highly of it as one of his best niche PS1 discoveries. Thought it seemed like a really cool wee game from what I saw, and always down for more odd, underappreciated PS1 RPGs.

Cute wee 3-D adventure game from Gust back in the days before they were famous. Have wanted to play for years, and finally tracked down a copy in 2024. Hear it's not very long either, so hopefully a nice brisk adventure to offset the many longer games on this year's list.

Not going to lie, I'm mainly playing this one so I can also play the sequel that Yasunori Mitsuda composed for. But it does look like a lovely wee beginners' RPG with some very pleasing art (Ghibli were involved!) and a cool premise. So appeals in its own right. Also, while this one doesn't feature Mitsuda's music, it does have music by Zuntata, which is hardly a downgrade. Looking forward to it! Think it's meant to be on the shorter side as far as RPGs go, too, which is no bad thing for me these days.

Very strange looking PAL exclusive for PS1 with some impressive visuals and what looks like a very odd mix of genres. I hadn't heard of it at all until last year when I stumbled across the cover on eBay, but it seems interesting if nothing else!

I watched a Matt McMuscles video on this one and thought it looked extremely cool, so I bought it and put it on my shelf. I then forgot it was on my shelf for several years until a friend mentioned the game in passing. Thought I should add it to one of these yearly lists before I forget again.

This has been the slowest series playthrough for me ever - I finished Infection in 2022, and Mutation and Outbreak were entries on my 2023 and 2024 lists respectively. Outbreak was the weakest chapter so far for me, but still totally invested in the story, and hyped to see how it ends here. Might start the GU games this year too, though not committing to anything there list-wise.

After finally finishing Earthbound for the first time a few years ago, I think this is very probably the most famous RPG of the 90s that I still haven't seriously played. And I have absolutely no idea why. I love Yasumi Matsuno, and am a big fan of both Tactics Ogre and Vagrant Story. And I've played most of Square's other PS1 titles and the vast majority of the notable English language RPGs on the console. Just one that fell through the cracks for whatever reason, despite a few failed attempts here and there. Want to stick it on one of these lists so I finally play it before I'm old and grey.

As someone who was mostly out of games during the PS3 / 360 / Wii generation, I wasn't actually aware of this one until just a few years ago. But I've heard only good things, and it seems super-cool! Excited to find out what the fuss was about.

The original SNES title has so many fond memories, as it was one my little brother and I started a new coop file on every year at New Year's Eve for about four years running. Remake seems super-lovely, and while I don't think it'll be quite the same playing alone, looking forward to revisiting such a fond part of my personal gaming history in a new format.