10/10 music, 10/10 art and 10/10 story hitting all the emotions (contains a bunch of short stories,a general storyline AND a secret central plotline, besides some of the voice acting is even pretty nice!).

The only 60 hours long RPG I played twice in a row because it's just that good ( and because the hard mode and extra ending changes a bunch of the content!)
Absolute masterpiece.

Fun fact: Whenever someone punches me IRL there is a 30% chance I say "Hhmnmhnot bad!" in a Lezard Valeth voice before running away (with that said, this character is a horrible creep).

I won't be rating this game because I don't want to come at it from any serious point of judgement. My issues with it are entirely personal, coming from a point of preference. The music, character designs, and combat are all to die for. This game, without question, is a must play. I love everything about this game -- except the dungeons.

The platforming is incredibly frustrating and flimsy, all the while the dungeons hide doors and pathways from you. This could be seen as a positive, but it happens in ways that can't be interfaced with by standard means of game play. If you don't pick up on a slight shadow in the corner of the room, you will be running in circles. Finally, an attempt at a puzzle in the 2D space was what took all the wind out of my sails.

I'll be playing the sequels and returning to this one if any of those strike my fancy.

In a very PS1 fashion way, this game is unique, for good and for bad.

The good:
>Battle system is very original, the real time combo system is fun and kind of deep if played in Hard.
>NO RANDOM ENCOUNTERS... In a PS1 JRPG! That's really awesome.
>Dungeons again, very original, you explore them like a 2D platformer. They look great, lot of different themes, labyrinthine design and full of puzzles and without holding hands.
>20+ character to choose, each with a unique move set and unique Finisher attack. Tho I would have preferred less characters but with more evolution to them, like a 4th move or a 2nd Finisher when reaching certain level.
>Good blend of 2D sprites with 3D light effects.
>Beautiful art design.

The Bad:
>Like most JRPG of this generation, the game is quite slow; mandatory dialogues, no cutscene skip, etc.
>There is no visual change on characters; armors or weapons does not reflect on the battles, not even on effects, like fire or ice damage.
>As good as dungeons are, the towns feels useless, there is close to nothing to do on them. Go there, get the Einherjar, get out.
>The World map is pointless.
>The Story seems good but it get nowhere, it's like everything got cut at the end, also VERY ANTICLIMATIC Ending, i know there's a secret Ending, but the normal ending should feel like and Ending.

I feel the game is good but overstay it welcome.

Wonderful little game.

Going into it I was surprised at how little story it has, instead mostly just focused on bite-sized short stories for your recruitable characters and an undercooked overarching plot with the whole ragnarok thing.

This wasn't an issue for me however, as I'm a huge fan of Tri-Ace's habit of having games with tons of recruitable funny little guys with not much depth to their story yet they always end up being oddly charming right out of the gate. Sure characters aren't developed that much, but I grew pretty attached to a bunch of the characters I recruited and used them over the 'main' story characters. Specifically, I beat the game with Aelia, Suou, and Yumei in my party.

The battle system is probably the most striking aspect of this game and I have to say I fell in love with the battle system and would love to see more games done in this style. It was always so satisfying getting all your allies to combo and air juggle enemies.

Entre as várias coisas que chamam atenção aqui, como dungeons em 2D, visuais extremamente detalhados ou a estrutura narrativa unido da total distorção criativa da mitologia nórdica a seu bel-prazer, chegando até a misturar a porra do Japão feudal com ela. O principal, é seu combate.

Uma mescla sublime de um jogo de ação com turnos. Exigindo coordenação para conectar os ataques de cada personagem, estimulando o player a fazer combos com os inimigos estando no solo ou no ar e sendo constantemente julgado por um medidor de combo que também acrescenta na performance da batalha. E o grande número de Einherjar e seus movesets cria um leque excelente de combinações.

A experimentação e o treino são constantes e o jogo realmente te recompensa por isso, fiz o Seraphic Gate e zerei novamente pra ficar testando partys diferentes e foi bem satisfatório. Até hoje descubro combos, truques e exploits, tipo se aproveitar do knockback que os ataques dão aos inimigos pra criar vantagem pros arqueiros, com o PWS do Suo para jogar inimigos no canto direito da tela e conectar com o PWS do Llewelyn (transformando o especial mediano dele em um dos melhores) ou aproximar os inimigos o mais perto do Badrach, fazendo com que o mesmo acerte todos (ou quase todos) os tiros e drope uma grande quantidade de magic gems e fire stones. Porém, o jogo tá longe de ter um balanceamento perfeito, principalmente com os magos overpowers pra krl, uns PWS fraquíssimos e desequilíbrio de armas no Seraphic Gate.

O fato da história se interligar com a gameplay, você estar transformando almas em armas, em gados de Odin, e a Lenneth ser só mais uma vítima disso tudo é a parte mais genial da coisa. O jeito que a obra conversa sobre desumanização é excepcionalmente bem trabalhado.

E só um adendo de que eu adoro a liberdade da progressão desse jogo. Eu sempre faço tudo, mas ainda é hilário ver speedrunners skipando o jogo todo