Fantasian Neo Dimension

• Genre: RPG
• Spoiler Free Review: Pretty much spoiler free, didn't really talk about the story, screenshots have the slightest of spoilers, like party members you get later.
• Time Played: ~85 Hours
• Too Short/Long: It's a little long for what it is. I thought I was going into a PS1-2 era rpg here, and when those pushed over 60 hours back in the day, it was noteworthy. "This is a super long rpg, it's nearly 80 hours!" and you'd see something about the length in everything discussing it. 40-50 hours would have really been the sweet spot for this.
• Soundtrack: There are a couple tracks that are pretty good, and it has the option to play music from a handful of more recent Final Fantasy games. I think it's necessary because this soundtrack isn't always the best on it's own merit.
• Pleased/Disappointed: At first I was extremely pleased, then it waned a little bit as I got tired of grinding, but overall, I'm pretty happy with it.
• Why I played: Fantasian's main draw for me was how it invoked classic JRPGs, and this has been a big year for me in revisiting some old favorites.
• Did I cry: I don't really think this game had any big moments like that. Maybe one or two slightly watery eyed moments.
• Recommend to others: I would recommend Fantasian to anyone who loves classic japanese rpgs, specifically PSX-PS2 era - maybe some weirdo PSP or DS games. It does a good job at invoking nostalgia despite being an entirely new thing.

I really did love this game. I'd have to sit with a bit to think if it's a "favorite of all time", and maybe it's not quite that, but it's really up there. I really enjoyed it and as I mentioned it did a great job at invoking nostalgia while being entirely it's own thing, and I mean it. It has these prerendered backgrounds, but these aren't primitive CG, they're photos/models build from actual real life dioramas, and that's amazing to me. There are so many areas in this game. Hearing about this aspect, I thought there just may not be a ton of areas in the game, but there are, and you can tell each was just so meticulously crafted. It really makes the world come alive in a way that modern games with their basic textured assets that may look "realistic", but in the end are the kind of copy-paste type thing you see in any game.

Metaphor: ReFantazio

• Genre: RPG
• Spoiler Free Review: No story spoilers, mechanical spoilers and minor spoilery screenshots.
• Time Played: 133 Hours
• Too Short/Long: It's not too long necessarily, it just took me way too long. It can probably be wrapped up dozens of hours quicker, but I did everything and fretted over everything I did.
• Soundtrack: For a game in which the universe roots itself in music, the music is just good. It really fits the mood, and style of the game, but I won't be listening to it regularly besides a track or two.
• Pleased/Disappointed: I'm very pleased with this, while I'm not sure it makes the favorite games list, it comes close, and was thoroughly enjoyable.
• Why I played: I liked most of Atlus' games, but I'm tired of the school setting and calendars, which is why I liked Soul Hackers 2 so much. This dropped one of them at least. I wasn't too interested in "generic fantasy" at first, but it seemed to ooze style.
• Did I cry: Choked up a few times here and there a little bit, but it got watery eyed toward the end.
• Recommend to others: I really would recommend Metaphor to everyone, but especially those who like "modern"(as in the past twenty years) Atlus games at all. This is the best of them, by far.

First to address the new sections above. I meant to add them to the template during either FFXV or Visions of Mana and forgot both times. It wasn't as important for the others. But I figured the spoiler note is important, because occasionally more than just my wife reads these and I have as many as 4 whole unique visitors. Soundtrack is more of a reference for, is it worth listening to outside of the game? I think to a degree all soundtracks are, but some have some real bangers and are worth going out of the way for. Did I cry? I can get pretty emotional during a good story. Or just a really well set up moment in an otherwise bad one. I just thought it would be fun to keep track of. Most long story games will at least choke me up. But I probably didn't cry for Flamefrit or Metal Slug. Now on to the main course.

There is so much to say about this game. It was really great, and exceeded my expectations. The story has it's ups and downs, but when it's down its only in the sense of "I get it, I'm along for the ride" rather than downright bad, and when it's up, it's really up.