Reiko_LJ

Dragon Age: Origins set the scene for a fantastic world and followed your player character through an intense time over a short period as they helped stop the blight. You travelled to different cities and recruited people as you ultimately worked together to best it. DA2 took a different route. You stayed in one city but watched it (and the characters) change over a time period of around 10 years. This meant for a vastly different focus and tighter storylines/dialogue which I thoroughly enjoyed. Like the first game, and Mass Effect you could choose the gender of your character and how they responded to others. But here, the more you chose one 'tone' of response (helpful/sarcastic/dickish for example) the more that character would also act that way when you weren't in control too. Nice touch! The characters you met along the way were great as well. And depending on the combination you chose to take with you on missions they would say some fantastic ambient party 'banter' to each other. Had me howling at times. Isabela and Aveline are insta picks whenever I'm playing this game. All in all, I never understood the hate this game got, to me it was a great journey and gave a punchier Dragon Age experience.

«Underrated»

«Beaten more than once»

When it comes to Final Fantasy the common favourite is always 7. I did play that one first and it was enjoyable yes. But 8 is the one that resonated with me more. I was hyped seeing the trailer for it on my Playstation magazine demo disc then when I finally got to play it I was blown away. Unlike the previous FF games with the 'chibi' style character sprites, these looked like proper people. The world was fascinating, the characters were funny and relatable (I was an early teen myself) it was brilliant! I dived headfirst into the world and probably still know it like the back of my hand now. It will always be my favourite of the lot.

«Blew my mind»

«Just one more turn»

If you like narrative adventures then you'll enjoy this. Much like Life is Strange, this let's you experience a story with some intrigue but this has the added weight of a sibling bond at the heart of it. Some parts are frustrating/slow to replay if you save/exit at a bad time but its decent enough overall.