[PC] Space Quest: The Sarien Encounter (1986)

How:
Never played the game before, got during the Activision Quests sale at GOG.com.
Puzzles:
I only had to look up one puzzle, namely how to get the shard of glass from the crashed pod. I did have the idea of taking glass from there, but couldn't find any. It turns out that it only works if you examine the pod from behind (not from the side).
Pros:
- The command-line based interface is a favorite of mine
- Red herrings and moderately challenging puzzles make the game very satisfying to beat
- Amusing ways to die and optional puzzles (e.g. buying the wrong spaceship)
- The unfolding story remains fascinating, as simple as it is
- Likable main character
- Nice, tense escape moments
Cons:
- Some random, unpredictable deaths
- Parser is not so smart

Getting the maximum possible amount of buckazoids at the slot matchine.

My final score. Will I ever finish a Sierra game with the maximum score?
Basically I didn't talk to and kiss the Sarien guard this time around.

[PC88] Cosmic Soldier (1985)

How:
Found about this game after reading of Psychic War on the レトロゲームの塔 blog.
Pros:
- Nice setting
- The character leveling system is mildly interesting
- You can recruit allies among the enemies
- Generally well balanced, requires some strategy
- Nice variety of monsters
- The accompanying android idea is not bad
Cons:
- No music at all
- The few sound effects are unpleasant
- Requires a considerable amount of grinding
- Junk shops are totally useless
- Limited variety of weapons and armors, and no special attacks whatsoever
- Very limited and repetitive gameplay mechanics
- Only one save slot per party
- Very high encounter rate
- Ugly interface, the game could have looked much better with a bigger first-person view

My winning party. This must have been my fourth or fifth party overall.

The End. All playing characters and enemy sprites are seen dancing with pom-poms as if nothing ever happened.

[PSP] Shin Megami Tensei: Persona (2009)

How:
Heard about it in Japan.
Ending:
I did not play the epilogue part (a few more hours worth of gameplay).
Note:
Press Start during battles to make them considerably quicker. Without this feature, the game is an absolute pain to play.
Pros:
- Cool blend of isometric goodness and first-person dungeon crawling
- A LOT of cool monsters with funny moves and animations
- Handy auto-fight
- Very nice character graphics and animations for the different skills of all personas
- Every monster and every persona has a rationale/story behind it. For example, the くちさけおんな monster actually comes from an urban legend and behaves as the legend tells.
Cons:
- Background music is an annoying collection of distracting and out of place songs. Totally spoiled the cool mood from the original game.
- Most of the personas you create cannot be "equipped" because of level requirements, which is too high for at least the first half of the game.
- Fights can be trivially easy or frustratingly difficult even with the same exact monsters. Charmers can charm you forever, and infinite looping situations can and will take place unexpectedly.
- Too many demon combinations and too many persona skills make the game content overwhelmingly complex.
- Clichéd, unlikable playing characters (the hip-hop type, the bully, etc.).
- Very high encounter rate and repetitive gameplay.
- The game overstays its welcome by a large margin.