Of all the retro dungeon crawlers, it had to be this one?

[Wyrdwad]

I agree with Tom that every game has its audience, but I do feel that if a game plays poorly, a reviewer should be able to say so as long as he or she is able to back up why he or she feels that way.

I agree with this as well. Can't identify the audience for a game without digging deep into how it plays, after all. (:

-Tom

[commodorewheeler]

... WHOA. What a coincidence. I read your Dawn of Ys review yesterday. 'Twas nice, and I found myself agreeing with you during the entirety of it. ^_^

Thanks for the kind words, I appreciate it! Hard to believe that that it's been almost 14 years since I wrote that review.

Looking back at it, I would probably say some things in it differently if I were writing it today, but I still stand by my opinion on just about everything in that review. Dawn of Ys was a truly great game, especially for its time.

[Savin877]

As someone who used to review games, I personally always tried to avoid scoring a game lower on matters of subjective preference, such as JRPG cliches, linearity in an RPG, a theme that didn't appeal to me, etc. and tried to only ding games on more universal issues such as poorly executed gameplay mechanics, unresponsive controls, and the like.

I agree with Tom that every game has its audience, but I do feel that if a game plays poorly, a reviewer should be able to say so as long as he or she is able to back up why he or she feels that way.

Which is why I haven't read a review from any major gaming website in.......10+ years now or so for the exact reasons you stated. They play a game from a specific genre (lets take JRPG for example) and then proceed to bash it and give it a low score just because it has the typical tropes you find in other JRPGs. You seriously have to wonder how these guys are honestly getting paid to do this.

This may be stretching it just a tad but hell, go to GameFaqs if you actually want to read a "decent" review on your game of choice. Barring all the troll/joke reviews the actual serious ones usually hit home with what you are wanting to see regardless of the score they give it.

[commodorewheeler]

Which is why I haven't read a review from any major gaming website in.......10+ years now or so for the exact reasons you stated. They play a game from a specific genre (lets take JRPG for example) and then proceed to bash it and give it a low score just because it has the typical tropes you find in other JRPGs. You seriously have to wonder how these guys are honestly getting paid to do this.

This may be stretching it just a tad but hell, go to GameFaqs if you actually want to read a "decent" review on your game of choice. Barring all the troll/joke reviews the actual serious ones usually hit home with what you are wanting to see regardless of the score they give it.

Some of the reviews on Amazon are actually pretty good, too. A lot of crap there, but some decent info there in some of those reviews for sure.