Coven and Labyrinth of Galleria
released on Nov 26, 2020
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Now this was a journey. There's 2-3 games worth of stuff in here; I don't just mean in the sense that it's long (123 hours for the true ending) but it genuinely shakes things up more than once in terms of both setting and how you actually play it. It remains a grid-style dungeon RPG throughout but it swaps between being a 'normal' one where you map everything out meticulously and fight a boss to one where you have to react to the landscape and watch out for landscape features and enemies alike. The final stretch in the postgame is a marathon crossed with a sprint that could have been sold on its own, I've not played a DRPG like that before. I can't really go into much more detail as it'd spoil things and there are some things where seeing them yourself is a lot of fun.
Story ended up delivering as well; it has some of the nasty tone changes as seen in previous Izumi games (though it's not as bad as some previous efforts) but a bit more editing to rein some of the stuff in would be nice next time around. Or maybe a therapy session for the guy, I think he's got a couple of Akira Tsuchiya-style unresolved issues.
Anyway, great dungeon crawler, highly recommended for anyone familiar with the genre. Not one for first timers though - although system wise it's actually very accommodating, not only is the difficulty level a bit uneven, but the whole thing's a bit sprawling in terms of maps and systems for someone not familiar with the genre. Hope to see another one, with a bit less than a 4 year wait this time around.
Story ended up delivering as well; it has some of the nasty tone changes as seen in previous Izumi games (though it's not as bad as some previous efforts) but a bit more editing to rein some of the stuff in would be nice next time around. Or maybe a therapy session for the guy, I think he's got a couple of Akira Tsuchiya-style unresolved issues.
Anyway, great dungeon crawler, highly recommended for anyone familiar with the genre. Not one for first timers though - although system wise it's actually very accommodating, not only is the difficulty level a bit uneven, but the whole thing's a bit sprawling in terms of maps and systems for someone not familiar with the genre. Hope to see another one, with a bit less than a 4 year wait this time around.
Probably the most well-written JRPG in years with a protagonist that feels real.
i like the narrative.
if LoR was a character study bonsai, LoG is the garden of versailles. it is meticulously crafted, with every spiral and hedge in the path -eventually- made lucid.
and at first blush, this craftsmanship carries into the dungeons which feature new biomes, movement technology, and innumerable improvements over LoR's core systems.
but tread deeper and the quality will start to deteriorate, the patterns will start to repeat, and finally - you will be asked to endure one of the most unforgivable post-"games" in recent history.
a journey not to be taken lightly.
if LoR was a character study bonsai, LoG is the garden of versailles. it is meticulously crafted, with every spiral and hedge in the path -eventually- made lucid.
and at first blush, this craftsmanship carries into the dungeons which feature new biomes, movement technology, and innumerable improvements over LoR's core systems.
but tread deeper and the quality will start to deteriorate, the patterns will start to repeat, and finally - you will be asked to endure one of the most unforgivable post-"games" in recent history.
a journey not to be taken lightly.
Fun dungeon crawler with a super interesting story. The soundtrack is also surprisingly good and features Emi Evans tracks that play in special scenes. This game is very, very long though; the tutorial itself takes 30 hours to complete. It was worth it in the end, the story was excellent and I really grew attached to and loved all of the characters. The True Ending was very emotional.
The final dungeon is completely terrible.
The final dungeon is completely terrible.