Ar Tonelico

A VNRPG where songs of a Reyvateil are the source of magic.

Pro
+ Great Ost
+ Well developed plot
+ As Grindy as you want it to be
+ Good Pacing (No dungeon felt too long or dragged)

Neu
= Really easy game (Didn't get close to a game over for the whole game)
= Graphics

Con
- Lots of lag and slowdown while doing certain things
- Some game-breaking glitches

Don't know why it took me so long to pick up this game, it basically combined most of the things I like into one game. Item creation was lacking from what I wanted so it's not worth playing the game for only that. The variance of the different endings are a bit lacking but it's the differences of what happened in the two different branches you can go through is nice. Overall if you wind up liking one of the two main heroine you'll probably like this game.

Extra Note: if you don't have a Reyvateil in your party, you can't run from battle... which bugged me in certain sections of the game.

Total Playtime 40:00~ (All 7 endings)

Overall Rating 8.6/10

Radiant Historia

Jrpg with time travel, conspiracies, backstabbing and a world that is about to end.

Pro
+ Great story and pacing
+ Fun and Unique battle system
+ Good length (20-30 Hours for regular ending, 30-40 hours for true)
+ Good closure (For true end)
+ Not a grind heavy game
+ Overall likable characters

Neu
= Soundtrack
= Graphics

Con
- Elusive and tedious side quests that are required for true end
- Certain boss fights are painful when under leveled/geared and may require some grinding

Extra note: There is a really high amount of bad ends in this game, 20+ but they won't lead you to game overs and will just bring you back to before the choice that you made that caused the bad end, so you are free to watch them without worries. Most of the bad endings are interesting and worth a read.

Overall one of the best games I've played of this type. If certain sidequests and chest weren't near impossible to find without a guide, this would be a near perfect game for me.

Total Playtime 32:25 (True Ending)

Score 9/10

999: 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors

A VN where 9 people get kidnapped and shoved into a sinking ship in which they have 9 hours to figure out the mystery of the 9 doors.

Pro
+ Amazing story
+ Great Character development
+ good BGM

Con
- Text speed is so SLOOOOOOOOOOOW
- Tedious puzzles

The main attraction of this game is the story, so if you are looking into playing it for the puzzles, look else where. Most of the puzzles are basically and really easy, just it's tedious to find all the parts of the puzzle before you can actually start working on it. If you have read other works by Kotaro Uchikoshi (infinity series), then you can probably see the true end coming from a mile away, otherwise it's a nice surprise. Lastly this game is kinda open ended so that there are some details you need to figure out on your own. Not as open ended as Remember 11, but nowhere near as conclusive as Ever 17 either.

Playing Time: 20~ Hours (Safe + True End)

Overall Rating: 8.8/10