Elusian Roserade's Adventurous Archive

[Elusian Roserade]

Welcome to my very first blog project. I'm Elusian Roserade, the mysterious adventurer, and a huge fan of JRPG and platformer games.

As of today (July 15th 2025), I've been on this forum for one entire year, and thought I'd try to do something special for the anniversary - make a blog to talk about some of the video games I've played, sort of like an archive of my adventures (that's how I thought of the blog title). Not sure if I should call these reviews, since I don't plan to give them ratings, scores, or anything like that. Mostly just talk about the games, and share my opinions on them.

Also, I apologize if anything I say feels too stoic or awkward, I've never had any blog before, and I'm not entirely confident in my writing. I often have a difficult time expressing my thoughts, but I want to improve, and learn to be more expressive.

 

[Unovia]

Welcome to my very first blog project. I'm Elusian Roserade, the mysterious adventurer, and a huge fan of JRPG and platformer games.

As of today (July 15th 2025), I've been on this forum for one entire year, and thought I'd try to do something special for the anniversary - make a blog to talk about some of the video games I've played, sort of like an archive of my adventures (that's how I thought of the blog title). Not sure if I should call these reviews, since I don't plan to give them ratings, scores, or anything like that. Mostly just talk about the games, and share my opinions on them.

Also, I apologize if anything I say feels too stoic or awkward, I've never had any blog before, and I'm not entirely confident in my writing. I often have a difficult time expressing my thoughts, but I want to improve, and learn to be more expressive.

Well, you know there are a lot of supportive folks here (I myself being one), and we will encourage you through your journey.

 

[Elusian Roserade]

To get started, let's a go with this game

Super Mario RPG

This Super Mario spin-off was developed by Square Enix (formerly Squaresoft), the same developers of the Final Fantasy series. I first played the original version in 2018 and played the Nintendo Switch remake earlier this year.

Super Mario RPG starts the same way as any Mario game usually does: Bowser captures Princess Peach, and Mario goes to the rescue. But this time, a massive sword falls from the sky and crashes into Bowser's castle, sending all three of them flying. Mario will go on an adventure to collect the Star Pieces and defeat the Smithy Gang, a group of living weapons that invaded the world. Pretty lighthearted, like most Mario games.

The battle system is turn-based, and introduced the Action Command gameplay mechanic. With the right timing or controller input (like pushing A at the right moment, holding Y until a gauge fills, or rotating the control stick), you can boost your attack power, defend against enemy attacks, and use powerful special moves. This made its battle system more interactive than most other turn-based RPGs at the time, which were typically "choose a command and watch the result" with no additional input from the player. Later on, other Mario RPG series (Paper Mario and Mario & Luigi) would keep this mechanic.

Although it is fun and charming, Super Mario RPG is also a very short game compared to most other RPGs, and can easily be completed in about 15 to 20 hours. Which can be a double-edged sword - players who don't have the free time to invest in large 60+ hour RPGs might enjoy a less time-consuming game like this, but there are definitely other games that offer a lot more content for the same price (the Switch remake is $60, actually the same as the Paper Mario TTYD remake). That said, being short also gives it an advantage in replayability compared to a longer game, Super Mario RPG is an easy game to play through several times because it doesn't take long.

And these are a few of the gameplay differences in the Nintendo Switch remake of the game:

Spoiler: Remake Additions

• In the remake, enemies can sometimes appear as a "Special Enemy" with more HP and attack power than normal, and defeating them gives you a Frog Coin. It's much easier to collect a lot of Frog Coins now, even if you don't find many hidden treasures or play the mini-games, you'll still get these coins from Special Enemies. Some enemies can be unexpectedly tough, though.
• There are several new battle mechanics. You can now swap party members during battle (but Mario cannot be changed out), using successful Action Commands builds a Chain that makes you more powerful until you fail a command, and there is a gauge that allows your team to use new special moves when it reaches 100%. Being able to swap members is my favorite addition.
• The item inventory works differently. In the original version, you could hold a certain total of items with no limitations on how many of one type (for example, if you wanted an entire inventory of only Mushrooms then you could). In the remake, you can hold a specific amount of every different item. There is also an item storage in Mario's house, and items you cannot hold will be sent there automatically, so you don't have to throw away extra items.
• The remake has a post-game with challenging boss rematches. These battles are much more difficult than anything in the main story, even at the highest possible levels with the best gear. I've only beat the first one so far, need to get back to this eventually...

 

[Elusian Roserade]

Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove

Back in early 2019, I wanted to find something new, found this cute looking game on sale, and decided to try it on a whim. This was pretty much my introduction to indie gaming, I rarely played any indie games before. I enjoyed it a lot, and this is when I learned how good that a well-made indie game can really be.

Shovel Knight is a 2D platformer with retro graphics and sounds, pretty memorable characters, and challenging gameplay inspired by classic 2D platformers such as Mega Man and Castlevania. Treasure Trove is a collection that includes five different Shovel Knight campaigns:

Spoiler: This is kind of long

Shovel of Hope, the base game. You play as Shovel Knight on a quest to reach the Tower of Fate, while fighting against The Enchantress and her knights, the Order of No Quarter. In addition to wielding the Shovel Blade and bouncing on enemies with the shovel drop technique, Shovel Knight will also collect magical Relics like a Flare Wand that launches fireballs, or a Propeller Dagger that can be used to glide through the air. As the very first campaign, Shovel of Hope is sort of clunky, and I honestly prefer the other campaigns over it (though I'm not saying it's bad, I just like Shovel of Hope slightly less than the others). To this day, Shovel of Hope is the only campaign I haven't actually completed...

Plague of Shadows, an alternate version of the base game where you'll play as Plague Knight, an alchemist who wants to collect Essences from the other knights for his experiments. Plague Knight has a different gameplay style, throwing potions that can be customized with many different effects, blasting into the air, and using Arcana to cause explosive chaos. Plague Knight can be difficult to control, but can also be very powerful with his long range attacks and ability to heal himself at any time by using Health Tonics.

Specter of Torment, a prequel where you play as Specter Knight, a phantom with a dark past who serves The Enchantress, recruiting knights to form the Order of No Quarter. He has a much more aggressive playstyle, Specter Knight is able to dash through things with his scythe, wall jump, and use the power of darkness to wield Curios. In my opinion, Specter Knight has the easiest learning curve and a slightly less difficult campaign, it was the first one I actually completed. (He was also the first knight who got an armor upgrade that can save you from falling, so that's helpful.)

King of Cards, another prequel, this time playing as King Knight on a journey to actually become a real king and get his own kingdom to rule. His playstyle is unusual, using his Shoulder Bash to slam into enemies and bounce off walls. King Knight can also use Heirlooms with powerful effects, and compete in the card game Joustus. King Knight's campaign is divided into multiple shorter stages, and not every stage has a boss. I liked this change, since some stages in the other campaigns felt really long.

Shovel Knight Showdown, a 2D platformer fighting game, basically Shovel Knight's own Smash Bros. spin-off. You can play as any of the knights from the main game, including all the knights who didn't get their own story such as Mole Knight and Propeller Knight, and even NPCs like Mona, Mr. Hat, and Reize are playable fighters.

 

[Elusian Roserade]

Hyrule Warriors

I still remember back when this crossover of The Legend of Zelda and Dynasty Warriors was first announced. I only played one Dynasty Warriors game before (Dynasty Warriors 5 on the PS2), and thought it was okay, but watching the trailers for Hyrule Warriors, I was amazed by how fun it looked with all the Zelda characters I know and love. This game was one of the reasons I got a Wii U in 2014.

Hyrule Warriors doesn't have very much story, but I think it still does good enough using very little, and it works for the type of game this is. When a horde of monsters suddenly attacks Hyrule Castle, the Hylian knight trainee Link charges to the battlefield, fighting along with the royal guard Impa and Princess Zelda herself. This is the beginning of their battle against a dark sorceress who has distorted Hyrule.

I've seen that Dynasty Warriors gameplay can be somewhat controversial, either really loved or utterly hated. For me, I enjoy it, even though I don't think of myself as a huge fan of the "hack-and-slash" genre, I do like action games enough to have fun with Warriors crossovers using fan-favorite characters. In my opinion, outside the massive number of enemies at once, the combat is not really so different from a lot of action RPGs, such as Trials of Mana or Ys. But maybe that's just me...

The original Wii U base game had an okay amount of content, but the DLC added tons of things to the game, then the 3DS version had more new additions and DLC, and finally the Definitive Edition on Switch has everything from both versions all in one, plus some balance changes. Honestly, the Definitive Edition has an overwhelming amount of content.

What really makes this game brilliant is the moveset design and all of its chaotic spectacle. Some examples: Link using massively oversized Silver Gauntlets in combination with the Ball & Chain, under-used items like the Spinner and Dominion Rod getting another chance to shine, Fierce Deity Link being able to smash the Termina Moon in one swing, Marin fighting with musical notes, water bubbles, and dropping the Wind Fish on enemies, or even characters like Agitha and Medli can blow away dozens of enemies at a time.

That said, this game is definitely not flawless. It's repetitive, grind-heavy, I've been annoyed with it several times in the past, and recently I can only play it in short bursts. But even with the undeniable flaws it has, Hyrule Warriors is still quite a spectacle that's full of creativity and passion for the Legend of Zelda series, and it's always going to be one of my favorite Zelda games for that reason.

 

[Elusian Roserade]

Sorry that it's been quite a while, I've been busy with other things and haven't felt like writing much during the past few weeks.

Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade

Also known simply as "Fire Emblem" on the GBA. Although it's actually the 7th game in the series, Blazing Blade was the first localized game, and Nintendo chose to not give it any subtitle in the localization. I first played it in 2020 on the Wii U virtual console (never had the original GBA version, unfortunately), and it was the 6th FE game that I played.

The story starts with Lyn, a nomad girl from the plains of Sacae. Her story is mostly a tutorial, introducing players to the world of Elibe. Afterwards, the story changes to Eliwood and his friend Hector in a conflict against the Black Fang and scheming sorcerer Nergal. After completing Eliwood's story, you unlock a new mode where Hector is the main character, which has a few additional chapters, side quests, and some different dialogue.

Fire Emblem is a strategy RPG, where your army and the enemy army will take turns moving across spaces on a map. Stats in FE use small numbers that are easy to calculate. For example, if your unit has 15 physical attack and the enemy has 4 physical defense, your attack will deal 11 damage. If the enemy has 10 attack and your unit has 8 defense, your unit will take 2 damage from that enemy. I like how simple this is, compared to a lot of other RPGs.

Blazing Blade is an older FE game that didn't have the Casual Mode option, so if a unit is defeated, they are permanently lost for the rest of the game (unless you reset and try the chapter again). The older FE games can have a pretty harsh learning curve for beginners, speaking from my own experience when I first learned about the Fire Emblem series 14 years ago.

One thing about the gameplay that makes Fire Emblem so interesting is that when a unit levels up, the stats they gain are decided by random chance. Every playthrough, your units can be wildly different. There could be one time that a unit becomes amazingly powerful, but in another playthrough the same unit could get very unlucky growths and not be impressive. While the unpredictable growths can be slightly annoying at times, it's also part of why Fire Emblem has so much replayability. No playthrough is ever the exact same, there is always something that will be different from the last time.

I've completed three playthroughs of Blazing Blade so far (one Eliwood and two Hector), and my current top 5 favorite Blazing Blade characters are Nino, Legault, Hector, Farina, and Canas, in that order. Although I still have plenty of supports left to unlock in this game, so my favorites might change someday.

 

[Elusian Roserade]

Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince

This is the most recent game in Dragon Quest's monster collecting spin-off series, and one that was finally localized! Square Enix tends to not localize some Dragon Quest spin-offs for unknown reasons, so I was glad they didn't ignore this one. I first played this game in 2024.

The story is about Psaro, a half-human, half-monster prince who is cursed and unable to fight other monsters. In order to get around his curse, Psaro learns to train monsters that will fight for him on a journey to defeat his father and become the Master of Monsterkind. My opinion of the story was mostly neutral, I didn't think it was very impressive, but I also didn't think it was particularly bad. It had potential, but could have been better.

Anyway, the gameplay is a standard turn-based RPG with a team of up to four monsters. You can let your monsters decide their own actions depending on what tactics you've chosen, or you can give them specific commands by selecting Orders. Like many other monster collecting games, you can obtain new monsters during battle with them. But unlike Pokemon, no items are required to catch them - instead, you can recruit monsters by impressing them with your own team's power. When using the Scout command, your team's combined attacks will increase a gauge, which is your chance to successfully recruit that monster. And very rarely, a defeated monster might randomly ask to join you at the end of a battle, without needing to scout them.

An important part of the game is monster synthesis - combining two of your monsters to create a new one. The new monster starts at level 1, can inherit abilities from the two used as material, and grows more powerful depending on the stats of the monsters it was synthesized with. This allows really deep monster customization, since any monster can inherit any set of abilities (if you want to create a fire-breathing Slime, or a Hunter Mech that knows healing magic, you can certainly do that), but using the full potential of monster synthesis does need a lot of grinding. And since this is Dragon Quest, metal slimes are as helpful (and annoying) as usual.

This game has over 500 monsters available, and the Dragon Quest series has a wide variety of bizarre monsters. Also, compared to Pokemon, this game doesn't focus on type matchups (elements do exist, but they're far less important than types in Pokemon), so if you really like a monster species such as dragons or slimes, you can build an entire team of them and not worry about having an "unbalanced" team as long as they've inherited good abilities.

 

[Elusian Roserade]

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom

After many years of the LoZ franchise, Princess Zelda finally got her own game. This was the first new 2D LoZ game in a long time, using the cute yet sort of controversial graphics from the Link's Awakening remake. I played this game in March 2025 (honestly, I can't believe it's already been 6 months since I played it...).

In Echoes of Wisdom, rifts are consuming the land of Hyrule, the legendary hero Link has gone missing, and now it's up to Princess Zelda to save the world. She meets an odd little spirit named Tri, who is capable of restoring Hyrule to how it was before. It's pretty much a normal LoZ story, with some fun dialogue and lore to learn about.

Using the Tri Rod, Zelda can learn to create Echoes - copies of objects and monsters. Zelda herself cannot attack enemies directly, she must use echoes to battle enemies or solve puzzles. Zelda will also obtain an enchanted sword that allows her to mimic Link's traditional abilities for a limited time, with an energy gauge that's very similar to the magic gauge in other LoZ games.

Zelda can also jump, and this game has a lot more platforming than most of the other 2D games did. Echoes will be helpful for platforming, like building a bridge made from old beds, or creating stairs with a stack of small tables. There are definitely some creative ways to explore, I found it pretty fun to think "alright, what should I use to get over there?" when something seems out of reach.

Speaking of exploring, Echoes of Wisdom has a pretty big overworld map and multiple dungeons. The game is full of hidden things to find, side quests to complete, and mini-games to play. The dungeons are well designed with good puzzles and bosses, I liked all of them. My playthrough was about 30 hours, although I still haven't collected everything in the game yet.

Echoes of Wisdom was a pretty good game all around, though there was one thing I disliked about it - the controls. Only one echo can be selected at a time, which means you're constantly pausing the game to switch echoes through either the inventory menu or the echo quick select (which is not exactly "quick" when you're scrolling through a huge list of echoes). Remember the original OoT Water Temple and pausing the game to change the Iron Boots on and off so many times? Changing echoes feels a lot like that, and it's the only thing I found annoying about this game.

 

[Elusian Roserade]

Yu-Gi-Oh! Legacy of the Duelist: Link Evolution

I might not talk about it often, but I'm actually a huge fan of the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise. Although, when I first got this game in 2020, I had been away from the franchise for a long time, and wasn't very familiar with anything after 5D's. This was overwhelming at first, it was really difficult to understand the Xyz, Pendulum, and Link cards, but once I started to learn about them, this actually became the most fun I ever had with a Yu-Gi-Oh! video game.

This game doesn't have a story of its own, its campaign mode simply re-creates certain duels from various seasons of the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime. You can play a variety of duels and see characters from across the franchise, using either a preset story deck for each duel, or your own user-created decks. (The preset story decks tend to be kind of awful, though...)

Legacy of the Duelist is a game that's entirely about dueling, collecting cards, and building decks. The game can be played at any skill level, because the opponents in each campaign series use decks based on what they had in the anime (sometimes with minor additions). If you're playing through the original series or GX campaigns, you aren't going to see an opponent use any Synchro or Xyz cards, and the early series often use weaker cards than the later series like ZEXAL and ARC-V.

Also have to mention one of my favorite things about the game: when you are playing offline in the campaign or challenge duels, this game allows you to use Limited and Forbidden cards as much as you like. You ever wanted a deck with three copies of Raigeki and Harpie's Feather Duster? More than one of each Exodia part, combined with multiple Pot of Greed and Graceful Charity? Go ahead, have fun with all the overpowered things you can think of. Anything goes as long as you're playing offline.

Legacy of the Duelist has more than 10000 cards available to collect. It's hard to believe how much time I've spent building decks in this game, but I always had a great time with it. Every time I've gone back to this, it felt like I would always find another card I never looked at, or another new technique I never thought of before.

Unfortunately, this game has some problems with crashing during duels. I enjoyed the game a lot, but eventually the crashing started to get too annoying for me. I really miss Legacy of the Duelist sometimes. If not for the crashing problems, I'd probably still be playing this game now.

 

[Elusian Roserade]

For Halloween, here's a game about ghosts

Phantom Brave

Phantom Brave was developed by NIS, the same developers of the Disgaea series, and originally released for the PS2 (it has also been re-released several times with additional content). I actually found this game a long time before learning about Disgaea, when I was still new to the SRPG genre. The Wii version of the game, Phantom Brave: We Meet Again, was the first NIS game I ever owned, and it's still one of my favorite games from them.

This game's story is about Marona, a little girl who has the ability to speak with phantoms, and Ash, a phantom who is Marona's guardian. Marona tries to make money by working as a Chroma (sort of a mercenary) with the help of phantoms, but this ability has made people terrified of her, believing that she is cursed. Although her reputation as the "Possessed One" causes her to be treated badly across the entire world of Ivoire, Marona tirelessly works to help others and believes that one day people will accept her.

In gameplay, Phantom Brave is a turn-based strategy RPG, though it was somewhat different from a lot of other SRPGs. Instead of having grid-based movement (which other SRPGs including Disgaea, Final Fantasy Tactics, and Fire Emblem have), units can freely move around a 3D map, where characters and objects can slide, bounce, or get pushed out of bounds. This game also doesn't have Player / Enemy phases, all units get individual turns with the order of turns decided by their Speed stat.

At the start of a battle, Marona will be your only character on the map. Marona's ability allows her to Confine phantoms into objects on the field, giving them a physical form. Phantoms can only remain Confined for a limited amount of turns each battle (called "Remove" in-game). Ash, for example, can take 5 turns before being Removed from the field, and after being removed, he cannot be Confined again during the same battle. This gives Phantom Brave a different style of strategy.

Units in Phantom Brave can lift and hold one object, giving them increased stats and access to new skills depending on what they're holding. Not only traditional weapons like swords and axes, even objects like trees, rocks, or barrels can be used as weapons. All units and objects in this game are very customizable by using the Fusionist, who can fuse characters and items together to transfer skills and enhance the stats of weapons. There are practically no limits to this mechanic, almost any skill can be transferred to something else by using fusion, and you can build any item in the game into a super weapon that massively increases all of your stats and has access to every type of skill. You could even do this with a loaf of bread if you wanted. I am not joking, this game is flexible enough to actually make a loaf of bread become just as powerful as any sword or axe could be.

Like most games from NIS, Phantom Brave has a level cap of 9999, and you can eventually increase your stats into the millions. Phantom Brave can be a nearly endless game for as long as a player continues to enjoy pushing the gameplay as far as it can go. I put over 200 hours into it and still didn't reach level 9999, I had Marona at somewhere around level 5500.