1. PasghettiHead

   9

   This game has really struck a chord with me. I set the game to hard and kicked off with as little supplies as possible. I wanted to grind my way to glory! I certainly have not been disappointed. The developers have done a great job at guiding the player into the experience they have crafted without overwhelming hand holding. I love a game that makes me feel like i'm discovering something. As an example, I attempted my first battle without a sword. I quickly realized that I was ill-prepared. A short jaunt down the trail, some dialog with the locals, and I found myself prepared for basic battle. The game provided me tutorials on what I discovered. The game did not tell me when, where, and what I needed to do the whole way. It was a fine blend of discovery and tutorial. The strategic battle is my favorite part of the game so far. The move scheme, sub-turns, skills, and the unconditional escape make the battles very satisfying and scales very nicely. As you character evolves you are able to strategically handle more and more enemies. In recent years I've become more of an action-RPG fan. But, this game has captivated me. The combat is very satisfying. Standard functions like healers and stores are available for staying healthy and buying new junk. The side quests provide that additional challenge to pick up some additional experience, pearls, gold, and equipment. I did find the idea of a "savant" who is used to upgrade attributes in exchange for pearls to be a new one for me. I like the idea. But, it does provide for a bit of a sigh when i have to travel back to a town to find one. The nice part about it though is that you don't have to wait to "level up" in order to update your attributes or spend your attribute points when you level up. You can hoard pearls and wait around to see how your character needs to develop in response to the baddies that are blocking your path to fame and fortune. The storyline is pretty standard so far. But, I have not had a chance to fully experience it. However, I am not entirely focused on the the story since the battles and building up my character are my focus right now. I have yet to experience utilizing material slots, equipment comparison, picking up additional members of my group of my character. My only criticism is that due to the orientation of the screen during battle it is often easy to move in the wrong direction.… Expand

   • Helpful? 4 of 6 users said Yes.
2. blognorg

   6

   I'm still a little up in the air about this game, seeing as I'm not super-far in it yet. However, there are a few things that I wanted to talk about. First off, it's not really a strategy game. It's more of your typical turn-based RPG. Though you do move around a tiled arena, not much actual strategy comes into play, besides just positional tactics. The rest is pretty standard RPG stuff, like when to use which skills and when to block; that sort of stuff. I began on hard/adventurous and I ended up restarting the game on normal, because the grind is a horrendous. The way it works is that you'll encounter a new monster in which you cannot sustain several consecutive battles with, forcing you to go back to the weaker monsters until you are strong enough. This process repeated itself several times, until I decided to restart. Another thing is the other characters. It's a frustrating double-edged sword. On one hand, it's nice to have the extra damage, but on the other hand only characters that land the finishing blow get rainbow pearls (sort of a currency for buying stats when you level). I can't describe what a horrible mechanic this is. It really cripples the strategy element, because I'm constantly having to worry about which characters land the killing blow so that they can get stat points. It doesn't really add any depth, because most of the time it just contradicts whatever established strategy you may have. Kind of like in Oblivion, where you had to carefully plan what skills you were leveing in order to get decent stats bonuses each level. It's poor design, frustrating and not fun. I'm forced to use characters in situations that I don't want because I need them to finish enemies off. Likewise, in Oblivion, I had to use skills that I didn't want to in order to stay ahead of the curve. Ugh. Lastly, I don't really like the way they handled the darkness and food systems. Darkness (like when you're in a cave or when it's dark out) requires that you have torches lit. You can find them or buy them almost anywhere, they don't have terribly long lifespans, and they take up room in your inventory. I don't feel that it was implemented well because it's annoying when you don't have them, but they're not all that hard to acquire; it doesn't really add to the immersion. It's just something else to keep track of, and it doesn't affect any other aspects of the game so far. Food is kind of the same situation; it's not hard to get, but you still need to carry it for when your characters get hungry. Again, it just doesn't really add anything to the game, and it just feels like it was thrown in for the hell of it. A few positives are the music and the colorful visuals. Those kind of things really vary from person to person, though. One thing the game does that I really, really like are the random battles. The way it works is that when you are walking around, you'll get prompted with a battle. It tells you how many of what monsters, and you can choose to engage. I've grown a little tired of randomized battles over the years, and this totally fixes my qualms with them. It's simple, but genius in my opinion. My only issue is that sometimes the prompt doesn't last very long (like less than a second), so I've missed a few battles that way. But it's fine most of the time. Not all of the combat is randomized, though. There are several persistent enemies on the map in which you have to bump into to initiate combat. Much of the time those mobs block paths, so it's mandatory. I also wanted to mention the questing system, not necessarily as a negative or a positive. It has the whole yellow exclamation point thing (which MMOs have made me hate) for the main quest, but all of the side quests are tucked within the dialogue of the NPCs. They don't tell you exactly where or how to complete them (i.e. it doesn't put a marker on your map). However, they're pretty simple at this point (like get this rare drop from this monster). Overall, I think it's a nice mix of giving the player direction, but leaving some to be discovered. There's a crafting system of sorts. Weapons and armor have slots in which you can place in certain drops from monsters that give you extra stats. I'm not sure how deep the system gets, but it's pretty simplistic, early on anyway. I'm taking a little break from it for now. I may go back to it, but it feels I'd just be forcing myself to at this point.… Expand

   • Helpful? 3 of 3 users said Yes.
3. Fissile-Materia

   4

   A videogame RPG in the most classic sense of the word. I use the word "videogame RPG" instead of RPG because the gameplay mechanics are lifted straight out of your favorite NES RPGs. That's a great thing if you love to grind and do meaningless fetch quests. There is some fun character building and progression, but it feels like the developers read an "RPG 101" book from the 1980s. Some people will like this, some won't. I personally did not find hundreds of hours grinding, doing the same repetitive thing, over and over, to be fun. There is not one moment in this game that is surprising. It's very safe, and the ultimate example of formulaic.… Expand

   • Helpful? 1 of 2 users said Yes.

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