Agarest: Generations of War - Standard Edition (PS3)

Agarest: Generations of War is another in the long line of Strategy RPG games out for the PS3. The easiest thing to do with it is compare it to the likes of Disgaea 3, Final Fantasy Tactics or Fire Emblem however with a few little differences.

Story: Ok. So the general synopsis of the story isn't exactly going to blow anyone away. You play as the Hero and decide what you are doing isn't 'right' and so strike out on your own. Along the way you'll gain more and more companions including 3 marry-able girls and end up fighting against. Surprise Surprise. The army you were against at first. After each little story (or chapter.) you get to choose between the three girls and marry them. The next moment you are playing a few years down the line with their child. And so the story continues. The fact alone that you can get different heroes from the different girls and whether you are light/dark makes this utterly re-playable.

Graphics: Ok. So it's not exactly going to win best Graphical game is it? However it makes up for that for having some rather nice and crisp graphics with easy to read stat charts and battlefields which is important in a game like this. You'll also be treated to some anime style conversations including some rather 'ecchi' images of the girls.

Sound: Each character is Voice Acted and so adds onto of the experience. The music is quite nice and always manages to fit the atmosphere.

Gameplay: This is what makes the game get the score it did. Most Strategy RPGs have gameplay that just sucks you in and drains your time until there's nothing left and this one isn't any different. Sure it won't beat Disgaea's almost limitless hours of play but it does take a good while to get through it. The game starts off easy enough but eventually becomes quite difficult. Which some of the bosses becoming very frustrating early on meaning you'll be going back to earlier areas to level up or 'grind'

Overall: If you are into Strategy RPGs or RPGs in general then this should be one the high end of your list. While it's no Disgaea it still manages to hold its own. The game is frustrating at times and the ecchi may not be for everyone however. What you do have is a solid game with no real weakness in what it does.

8/10 (83%)

Agarest is a good game, however it is not a casual rpg or spoon-fed rpg that the majority are used to playing, you have to give this game some dedicated hours. Im on about 50-80 hours of gameplay now and tackling the end part (no spoilers ^_^) and I know for sure I will be replaying this for a comeplete 100% clear. It starts off like Cross-Edge then gradually builds itself into a dam hardcore rpg.

This is a first generation jrpg when the PS3 came out thus it appears PS2-like however if you check out trailers for Agarest: Senki Zero (the next upcoming) its gone through ALOT of improvements.

Overall its a game where it will give you a sense of satisfaction and can be very challenging even on "Normal Mode", a multitude of things to tackle and a plethora of ways to do so. To be perfectly honest I have spent more time on this game than FF13 (25 hours to complete) which is picking up dust. This just shows how much content there is to go through in Agarest. Its a JRPG made by hardcore devs for hardcore jrpg gamers.

Being in general a RPG genre liking person, even such as JRPG style and turn based combat I view as sometimes favorable this title... Well it felt like Disgaea + Hentai mixed in. If you like the type of games where you can power up over long periods of time (I don't like term grindfest) trying to reach the top be the best hit max stats or best gear, then you'll like this title. The generations aspect of the game picking a wife from 3 possible female team members to have an offspring to lead next generation (the three you get to choose from are decided without your input) using light and dark choices and responses and actions to boost your chances with any of the three per generation was not a bad game mechanic it oddly seemed to be ok. However it doesn'r distract from the issue each generation is basically turn based battles between locations as you move from one part of story to the next can become tedious at times. There are multiple endings, the hentai sexual innuendo and even some cases actual 'soft' hentai adds some interest to the mix however as mentioned before it's alot like disgaea, same level of grinding to beat bosses or even normal monsters with snippets of story added into the mix. The learning curve is sharp dificulty wise the first half of the game can be easy if choose to download all the free DLC on PSN while the second half is like climbing mount everest with only one leg where normal monsters you find wiping you out on route to a boss or next part of story. It's a hard one to judge as on the whole while can be irratating especially when a boss encounter comes without warning sometimes, if you haven't saved in while you lose all that time (hours or minutes)which happened to me alot.

+ Has soft hentai imagery
+ Can keep you occupied for many hours if wish to kill all bosses gain best gear and experience it all much like Disgaea.
+ Online ranking system where can compare your feats against others.
+ Generation aspect is interesting.
+ Multiple endings and for the hardcore there's whats called True Ending.
+ Lots of free DLC stat boosts and such on PSN.
+ Story isn't that bad and even has some funny parts that were rather entertaining but not as funny as Disgaea.

- Grindfest I guess would describe the style of progression.
- Limit choices regarding generations who you can or cannot choose.
- The turn based battles can be set to Auto mode however the difficulty scale goes up so fast before long if set to Auto your team doesn't stand chance, once someone in team is killed on Auto they never seem to ressurect them unless push the button to change back to manual mode and if someone dies there's time limit to ressurect them before requires heading back to nearest village to bring them back to life instead if they vanish before can bring them back to life during the battle.
- Rarely asks you to save in which case if you forget may lose hours if team gets wiped out, so it's a save often style game.

If like Disgaea and anime sexual innuendo via pictures and scenes then you will probably very much like this title, the reason I keep mentioning Disgaea is because this having played it thats how it felt to m only replace alot of the humour with cute anime girls wearing very little and some soft hentai style nude scenes about sums it for me.