Finished playing Final Fantasy Tactics War of the Lions

Finished playing Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions (2007, TOSE, Square Enix, PSP) on 3/19/2018 for the second time.

Play Time: +600 hours

After a gruesome conflict known as the Fifty Year War, another grim chapter awaits the land of Ivalice whose political strife and economical instability are now topped with the recent death of its king. And with the only heir to the throne being an infant, the kingdom is split yet again on the decision of a regent between Prince Goltana, represented by a Black Lion, and Prince Larg, symbolized by a White Lion. This comes to be known as the War of the Lions, and in the midst of all its conflicts is a boy named Ramza Beowulve whose major role in the history of this war was covered up by an influential religious institution known as the Church of Glabados.

Man, oh man, oh man! I've never had such a wild ride of ups and downs with a game before. I've also never played a single player campaign for this long!
So, Final Fantasy Tactics takes place in a medieval setting where magical abilities and mystical creatures abound. The game's political plot is complex and mature played by a varied array of characters. While the plot's maturity is welcome, the number of characters might make it a bit hard to follow along. But their Shakespearean dialogue makes it only more interesting to pay close attention to. I believe it wasn't so Shakespearean in the original PlayStation release.
I've never played the original western release of this game, but from what I've heard War of the Lions brought the difficulty level up to the original Japanese release, which sometimes can be very unforgiving to the point of some battles feeling unnecessarily punishing. This is especially frustrating with story battles that can't be skipped, and is only made worse if you decide to overwrite your save file in between battles with multiple fights as you'll find yourself stuck in the character select screen with no option to go back to the overworld map, leaving you with the only option to start the game all over again or keep trying to beat the battle you're stuck on by hoping for a miracle. This sort of happened to me, but not because I overwrote my save file as such, it was because I had to collect and steal certain rare items (not required) before defeating all the enemies. But because the enemies were so powerful compared to mine, I ended up resetting the game an unbelievable amount of times over the period of two of three weeks before I was miraculously able to do it. And it's not like leveling up my team would've mattered as enemy levels grow with you.
And then there's the very limited amount of character units you can recruit. It's about 32, I think, which doesn't leave much room for ordinary recruits when you're trying to obtain every single special and story character there is. This was a struggle for me as I ended up having to sacrifice characters I had spent hours upon hours of training and leveling up, just to make room for folks like Cloud or Balthier to join the party. Had I known how many spots I should have reserved when I started the game, I wouldn't have recruited and trained so many folks. That's really one of the major contributors to my insane playtime. Next time I'll know better, I suppose. But I'm probably not going to play this game again. I wouldn't want to put myself through another round of this sadistic game difficulty. And if I do, it won't be for a long time. Maybe if there's a remake, I don't know.
But I'm not trying to say the game is completely terrible for that. In fact, I very much enjoyed it for its story, characters and battle mechanics. The whole job system and the thinking you have to do on the battlefield is very engaging. And the cutscenes are great too! The cell shaded models combined with the cross-hatching render gives them a very magical storybook kind of feel. I love it! It's really just the punishing difficulty of this game that ruined the experience for me.

8.5/10 - *whine* The game is too haaaard! ( T ^ T)

Finished playing Xenogears

Finished playing Xenogears (1998, SquareSoft, PlayStation) on 06/13/2017.
Hours: 115

Well versed in both the martial- and fine-arts, Fei Fong Wong is a young man who has lost his memory of everything before he was taken in by the peaceful village of Lahan. On his way back from the mountains one night, where his wise friend, Citan lives with his family, Fei watches as giant, humanoid battle-machines called Gears turn Lahan into their battleground. When one of the machines' pilot falls in battle, Fei decides to take control of that Gear in hopes of fighting the other ones off the village. But as he watches his friends and neighbors die, something in Fei's mind triggers and the Gear malfunctions decimating the village in the process. Without a home and shunned by the few survivors, Fei is advised by Citan to leave the village with his new Gear in search of answers.

Playing Xenogears has been the most intriguing experience I've ever had as a gamer and I feel like my usual, short "Finished Review" would not be enough for this game. Soooo, without further ado... it's story time...

    It all began with my wife's obsession with her first contact with the Xeno franchise - Xenoblade Chronicles. Then came Xenoblade Chronicles X. She really enjoyed both and would sometimes tease me to get into them. Eventually she mentioned Xenogears and how she should give it a try because of all the great reviews it had received.
    Then, one day, at a small anime con in NJ, there it was. For $30. I took it without hesitation. At first I didn't plan on playing it. It was just a gift for my wife. I didn't want to get into another game franchise, I already have too many games backlogged as it is. But months passed and she had not touched it. When I finished FFVII I had decided to just get a small taste of Xenogears. Only a few months later would I have found how ironic that decision had been considering the game I had just finished playing. And how naive I had been, thinking I wouldn't get hooked.
    A few weeks later I had found myself on eBay spending money I don't have on the Xenosaga trilogy. I had peeked over the Xeno well and it had sucked me right in without mercy. I knew nothing about Xenogears (or anything really about the franchise) when I watched the words "You shall be as gods" repeating itself on the screen in front of me. But there I was, enjoying every minute of it.
    I found the combat system to be very unique and interesting. The soundtrack was very enjoyable and the characters were believable and entertaining. The anime scenes were nice. It was interesting to find out Production I.G. was behind it. Although the English voice acting left something to be desired.
    Anyways, the concept of 2D sprite characters on a 3D world had also grabbed my attention. I mean, it's nothing I hadn't seen before as Final Fantasy Tactics had done just that, although I have to give props to Xenogears for the amount of frames their sprites have in comparison. But it was different for sure. However, I was forgetting the fact that Xenogears was doing exactly the opposite of what Final Fantasy VII had done in terms of character models and backgrounds, and honestly I think Cloud and company would've looked pretty cool as sprites instead, at least in overworld mode. Not sure how weird the transition to 3D models in fights and cutscenes would've been. Either way I just wish the sprites in Xenogears had been a bit more detailed so as not to look so jagged on camera zoom-ins, for example.
    But I was enjoying Xenogears as I played along, in fact I was even thinking how a remake of the game would be amazing! And so I pressed on with Disc 1. The plot thickened, and became more complex... but the pacing had gradually slowed. I didn't think much of it at first. But the more I progressed the more apparent it became, to the point that playing the game became a bit of a chore. I was 80 hours in and still on the first disc. I began to wonder what Disc 2 contained. 80 hours more? Or maybe just 10? And the soundtrack... it seemed lacking now. No, more like it was becoming repetitive.
    Then, as those of you who have read many reviews on the game before, or even just played the whole thing already know, came the mess that is Disc 2. Suddenly the game had almost lost what makes it a game. Fei sat on a chair as a cross-shaped pendant swung back and forth on the screen, rotating on itself. There, I climbed through walls of text as the story was narrated to me by the characters I had once controlled through menacing caves and towns bustling with life. What was happening? I thought to myself. What was I witnessing? I had never experienced such a gap in production value in a video game before.
    For me, going through this game for the first time without knowing a single thing about it, I was dumbfounded. What had happened to the game? I had to know. This needed to be researched. But not until I finished it. And when I did finish it I was left with a turmoil of mixed emotions I couldn't sort through. I felt frustrated and very confused. I didn't want to review this game without knowing better. I knew it wouldn't be fair.
    And so the next day the research had begun. That's when I came across a man of my age who had put every single thing I was feeling about the game into words. And I felt saved. Dan had played the game a year or so prior to me also for the first time, and as he played he sort of chronicled his experience in three discussion videos before he made a review video. I'll link the videos here:

Xenogears Discussion Part 1

Xenogears Discussion Part 2 (a bit longer)

Xenogears Discussion Part 3 (very long/optional)

Xenogears - Retrospective Review and Analysis

8/10 - Xenogears is an unfinished project that certainly deserved more support from Squaresoft and better management from its director. But I understand how hard it is to take on such a big project on your own, specially when you're so attached to something that is basically your child. So I have to keep all that in mind when giving Xenogears my final rating. That said... I refuse to die until I play a faithful Xenogears remake that will give the story the proper managing and direction it deserved. I also want to play the original game again. I feel like the experience will be drastically different the second time around, so that's something I'll be looking forward to.

WEEKS LATER: Hahahah! The lasting effects of Xenogears. I had started listening to the soundtrack more and more as the days passed. It's so good. I've especially grown fond of a track called "June Mermaid". I've listened to the Myth album as well. And the more I keep listening the more the game keeps calling me back. I will play it again without a doubt. And the experience will be so different from the first time, it's probably going to feel like a different game. Why? Because I'll know what happened. Past, present and future. Real and fictional.