Mercenaries Saga: Will of the White Lions (Switch)

 Part one of a three part saga, the first game definitely is a little rough but a solid strategy RPG.  Although not as deep as something like Final Fantasy Tactics and definitely not groundbreaking for the genre, it wasn't a terrible game.

If you have played Final Fantasy Tactics or a game similar, this will be very familiar.  You command your team around an isometric map.  Moving to strategic points to rout the enemy and win.  Each unit has unique abilities and certain strengths.  They run the typical roles, like warrior or mage.  You can learn skills and use them forever, so your healer can become a figurative tank or the warrior can also use long range wind attacks.  

This said, the combat is pretty bare bones.  There are not really flashy attacks, very few attacks that target multiple enemies, or things like summons.  Most battles are decently quick but they get longer as you get closer to the end of the game.  Leveling isn't usually difficult but you can grind if you run into any trouble as there is always a free battle to do.  Some of the units you get through the story, I didn't find a good use for.  The guy that starts with an axe quickly fell behind for me because he couldn't take a fireball.  The thief seemed worthless and didn't really meet any needs I had.  Honestly, the best units I had were the mage, the nun, and her sister who becomes a monk.  Even the main character, Leon, isn't all that useful because magic just destroys anybody who doesn't have high magic defense.  Magic is very powerful.

The game is pixel art based and none of the character designs or enemies really stand out.  The music is tolerable but forgettable.  The story is a complete snooze fest.  They tried to make something epic by allowing the character influence the path you take with certain choices but at one point the game basically asked, "Hey, there is this thing you should go get for this really sketchy dude that we showed you being sketchy in a scene the characters you are controlling wouldn't have seen.  You want to do it and get him the thingy?"  and if you answer "No", it just plays out like your party is insane and doesn't care about doing stuff.  I played it like a true mercenary and the story shows it, the path of least resistance is boring.  I don't think the other path would have been better though.

For a mobile game port to the Switch, this wasn't great.  The frame rate on some of the larger maps is absolutely terrible and there isn't even anything really moving.  The story is forgettable, the music is boring, and the characters are mediocre.  The only saving grace is the two sequels are included in the collection.  If you really like Final Fantasy Tactics and want a short game (I beat it in under 15 hours) to mess with, it is worth it.

Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth (3DS)

 What do you get when you mix the dungeon traversal, map-making, and combat of Etrian Odyssey with the skill system, characters, and difficulty of the Persona series?  Well, a huge unbalanced mess but also this game.  Persona Q is a blend of various elements from the previously mentioned two series, that strangely works but doesn't work.

To start, the game is canon to the stories of both Persona 3 and 4.  Although, you don't have to played either game to understand what is going on in this game.  It is probably a good idea because you won't understand a lot of the character development.  I will say, the game is very good at blending both the themes of Persona 3 and Persona 4.  Having the two casts meet was really neat and the scenes where the velvet residents are poking at each other is pretty good.  Without spoiling the game, I think the themes are definitely on par with the Persona series.

Dungeon crawling is where the Etrian Odyssey series is mostly seen.  You move through 3D mazes, building your map, finding treasure and shortcuts.  Coming to this game soon after Etrian Odyssey IV, I felt right at home.  The biggest different though, there are many puzzles and especially in the last two dungeons.  They are incredibly tedious and sometimes just frustrating.  Having to deal with the various FOEs as well was just a slap in the face.  They definitely did not hold back in punishing the player for making one misstep.  I am actually very glad I was playing on SAFETY and could just power through FOEs if I needed to because the last puzzle in the last labyrinth was absurdly long and esoteric and just completely unfun.

Having two casts of characters, there are a lot to choose from and each has their strengths and weaknesses in battle.  Once I had my full team though, I never switched it up because trying to raise levels on lower characters was painful.  Just as a tip, if you want an easier time, make sure to have Naoto with you.  You'll figure out soon enough why.  The normal fights range from tedious slogs to downright annoyances.  Bosses are at least a little bit better as you can develop working strategies that don't immediately go off the rails for reasons outside of your control.  In classic SMT fashion though, don't sleep on buffs/debuffs, they are crucial to winning.  Hitting weaknesses was useful until about the midway point when magic becomes pretty much impossible given the SP usage.  Even with good sub-personas and SP boosts, 4-5 fights can easily drain your SP and you are trekking back to replenish.

If you are a fan of either Etrian Odyssey or Persona, this game is worth it.  Don't go into expecting an easy time, even on SAFETY there were times when I just had to bite the bullet and power through, letting my characters continually die just to get through.  It wasn't a fun journey and at the end, I just wanted it to be over.  I really have no desire to play the game ever again and I really don't want to recommend it to anybody.  It really isn't fun to get into a random encounter, be surprise attacked when you have a skill that is supposed to greatly reduce that from happening, and then getting killed in two attacks.  If I had lost progress when that happened to me, I would have given up.  Luckily SAFETY means you are unkillable for the most part.