I was SUPER excited to play this when I read the manual. It's very clearly inspired by Star Trek and promises a massive galactic map, interstellar trade, lots of alien species who remember your interactions (ish), discovering new planets, and unfolding a broader story.
I really tried to get through this game! I swear! PPSSPP says I have 22 hours on it (I'm playing the Tengai Makyou Collection there) and when I think about how I am still only about halfway through the game, I feel only a sense of impending doom. I will admit that most of those 22 hours were probably spent on fast-forwarded grinding, which is why Jiraia is level 45 despite having just beaten the spider woman boss thing, but let me try to explain some other reasons why I don't feel the game is fun anymore, some self-inflicted and some not:
I played the SNES remake (Dragon Quest I & II). The first “JRPG”! It's short and sweet, and you can see how it already has the core elements of future such games.
...is a 3D platformer where you, the unnamed main character, put on a suit with a grappling hook and grapple your way through a trash disposal portal to find your uncle. As you can probably tell, the game's original idea was the grappling hook mechanic and the story came later.
Played these in the last few days. A Short Hike is SO LOVELY. I remember trying to play it some time ago and not really understanding it (in particular I got extremely lost). But now I'm like, what could be more wonderful than playing a meditative game about hiking, exploring a mountain, slowing down your life, and interacting with lots of cute anthropomorphized animals???
Just finished. This picks up some unspecified time after Ys II. Adol and Dogi have been adventuring together and return to Dogi's hometown, where strange things are happening, and it's up to Adol to resolve them.
Unlike Ys I & II, Ys III is a side-scrolling platformer. No more bump combat, either: you have to actually stab people.
I just finished the original Metal Gear included in the second disk of MGS3: Subsistence. Thoughts (contains spoilers)
And God spoke through him, and said, “My children, I am in all your acts of kindness, and when each of you endeavors to help his fellow man, then do you execute my will most purely; and should your fellow man reach out to grant you succor, remember that I am with he, and I am with you, and together you shall be doubly blessed. But he who wields his hand to harm another, nay, he is not with me, though I am with him; he has yielded to the devil, and he does the devil's work. But such a man may choose to walk my path again, and his fellows are my instrument in guiding his return; when they treat him with kindness and compassion, firm and unyielding, never laying hands on him, though he may lay hands on them — then will he understand that the devil has led him astray, onto a lonely and heartless path, while through my works he shall have happiness and companionship and countless blessings.”