I’ve been playing three games:
Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin
I remember trying a friend’s copy briefly seven years ago but never owned it myself…until recently. Having played through a significant chunk of the game on normal I have to say it’s pretty underappreciated. It’s the most interesting Igavania since Symphony of the Night because of the partner mechanics, and the portrait worlds lend its locales terrific variety and pacing. I’m not really doing any of the sidequests or backtracking and I’m surprised by how challenging some of the boss fights have been. In general the healing items also feel pretty balanced. They are hard to come by without using the shop, which I like, and they are expensive to buy. If you play through the game without grinding or bothering with the quests it’s pretty challenging at points even on normal.
Baroque (Wii remake)
I’d love to play more of this roguelike/dungeon crawler. It’s invitingly atmospheric, and the amount of exposition is purposefully kept to a minimum to rouse an air of mystery about the setting, and why you’re even doing what you’re told to do. I’m playing it in first person mode to match the Saturn original, and traversing its Neuro Tower dungeon has proven to be interesting - the number of ways you can equip your character and items means every playthrough can be tackled in a different way.
The reason why I say I’d love to play more is I’ve dropped the game for now - progressing the story requires many successful and unsuccessful attempts at the Neuro tower, including experimenting with items and NPCs. While this in theory sounds great it does mean a lot of repetition in the dungeon crawling and the challenge (At least on normal) isn’t really there.
Valkyrie Profile 2
Picked this one up because it’s from the team and director within Tri-Ace that worked on Labyrinth no Kanata and Resonance of Fate. I’ve only played three hours but it’s made a good first impression: It’s got an unconventional battle system that relies on splitting up your party to best position your attacks, the level design is promising, and the visuals are gorgeous. One of the best looking games on the format, everything feels designed to work best within the limitations of the PS2 while simultaneously delivering detailed graphics at either 60fps (gameplay) or 30fps (cutscenes). My only complaint is it’s been pretty easy so far, while the battle system offers a lot of tweaking and freedom you can still dispatch most enemies by just locating the leader and mashing buttons…