Cute little game! At first, it's as fun to play as it seems like it was to make, but it perhaps overstays its welcome and is longer than it should be even though it's kind of short for an action RPG. Still quite a bit of fun!
Adorable and charming aesthetics, banger music (I especially liked the one that plays all the time, so wise choice there) and, above all, simple, understandable and just plain enjoyable mechanics. You spawn into the world, there's a little bit of story prologue, and then it's mostly just mechanics from there. The first thing I liked and noticed is the convenient and enjoyable map system, which is the kind where you "paint in" where you've actually been combined with some simple markers and fast travel points, and from there, it felt like every new revelation felt as convenient and enjoyable and that those two are the lead design terms for this game. I saw a review call it frictionless and I really like that choice of words, because that's exactly what this game is.
You explore a hand-crafted open world, where areas are blocked off by paths requiring a certain ability, delve into randmized combat dungeons that often have little challenge quirks, and level up your base form and the almost too many other forms you can transform into by completing various little character challenges that really come together to form a kind of in-depth tutorial where they encourage you to experiment with the forms and the fact that the game has a Dragon's Dogma-inspired mix-and-match system where you can switch around skills between characters, so the Necromancer can use a Turtle skill and a Ranger skill in addition to his innate abilities. Running around and completing challenges like "set fire to slowed enemies", and figuring out what abilities to obtain and use to progress, since story progress requires "stars" that you primarily obtain by leveling up your huge set of characters. Combat starts simple but expands with the cast and the huge list of abilties you can combine into various builds.
There was a real danger there, with such a large cast, but I was surprised to find that the forms were mostly enjoyable to use, and that many of the forms at least offered a nicely useful skill for other characters if they themselves were boring to play. It was also surprisingly enjoyable - there's that word again - to S-rank every character and complete every quest and dungeon, and it really didn't take as long as I might have feared.
However, and even though the game really isn't that long for what it is, it still felt like the game dragged for too long and, even though they were fun to use, maybe there didn't need to be quite so many forms with quite so many challenges to complete. It doesn't help that the DLC is quite uninspired and is just a boring challenge arena with an assorted list of tasks to complete, plus an annoying version of mini golf. To be clear, though; this game already is fast, simple and easy as it is, and it's very much intended to be, and succeeds, a simplified, smaller and more easy-going action RPG, but it somehow still manages to be a little too long with a little too much to do. I think I landed around 35 hours, and maybe 20 would've been perfect for this tasty but lightweight snack of a game.
I wasn't super excited to read the infobox for NG+, which informed that there is now a new "stars" collection system and that I must beat every dungeon to complete the game, which isn't necessary in the base game. I thought I'd be able to just speed through NG+ and get some revenge on enemies who once killed me, and get the final trophy for the platinum without much effort, but turns out it required massive effort. Oh well, just a bummer to end with 1 trophy remaining that I don't want to get.
Overall quite good and maybe even my new favorite from Drinkbox! It's simple and easy, but that's what it's meant to be, and you just kind of glide through the dungeons of the game while collecting upgrades and fillings bars, which is mindless fun, but damn if isn't very well-produced mindless fun that manages to hit every beat and be addictive for most of the game, until its suddenly not and you just kind of limp across the finish line to finish out the main quest and those final challenges you need for the S. The fun lasts for most of the game, though, and I'll be ranking it pretty highly since the majority of the game is very charismatic, highly playable, frictionless and fun.
Adorable and charming aesthetics, banger music (I especially liked the one that plays all the time, so wise choice there) and, above all, simple, understandable and just plain enjoyable mechanics. You spawn into the world, there's a little bit of story prologue, and then it's mostly just mechanics from there. The first thing I liked and noticed is the convenient and enjoyable map system, which is the kind where you "paint in" where you've actually been combined with some simple markers and fast travel points, and from there, it felt like every new revelation felt as convenient and enjoyable and that those two are the lead design terms for this game. I saw a review call it frictionless and I really like that choice of words, because that's exactly what this game is.
You explore a hand-crafted open world, where areas are blocked off by paths requiring a certain ability, delve into randmized combat dungeons that often have little challenge quirks, and level up your base form and the almost too many other forms you can transform into by completing various little character challenges that really come together to form a kind of in-depth tutorial where they encourage you to experiment with the forms and the fact that the game has a Dragon's Dogma-inspired mix-and-match system where you can switch around skills between characters, so the Necromancer can use a Turtle skill and a Ranger skill in addition to his innate abilities. Running around and completing challenges like "set fire to slowed enemies", and figuring out what abilities to obtain and use to progress, since story progress requires "stars" that you primarily obtain by leveling up your huge set of characters. Combat starts simple but expands with the cast and the huge list of abilties you can combine into various builds.
There was a real danger there, with such a large cast, but I was surprised to find that the forms were mostly enjoyable to use, and that many of the forms at least offered a nicely useful skill for other characters if they themselves were boring to play. It was also surprisingly enjoyable - there's that word again - to S-rank every character and complete every quest and dungeon, and it really didn't take as long as I might have feared.
However, and even though the game really isn't that long for what it is, it still felt like the game dragged for too long and, even though they were fun to use, maybe there didn't need to be quite so many forms with quite so many challenges to complete. It doesn't help that the DLC is quite uninspired and is just a boring challenge arena with an assorted list of tasks to complete, plus an annoying version of mini golf. To be clear, though; this game already is fast, simple and easy as it is, and it's very much intended to be, and succeeds, a simplified, smaller and more easy-going action RPG, but it somehow still manages to be a little too long with a little too much to do. I think I landed around 35 hours, and maybe 20 would've been perfect for this tasty but lightweight snack of a game.
I wasn't super excited to read the infobox for NG+, which informed that there is now a new "stars" collection system and that I must beat every dungeon to complete the game, which isn't necessary in the base game. I thought I'd be able to just speed through NG+ and get some revenge on enemies who once killed me, and get the final trophy for the platinum without much effort, but turns out it required massive effort. Oh well, just a bummer to end with 1 trophy remaining that I don't want to get.
Overall quite good and maybe even my new favorite from Drinkbox! It's simple and easy, but that's what it's meant to be, and you just kind of glide through the dungeons of the game while collecting upgrades and fillings bars, which is mindless fun, but damn if isn't very well-produced mindless fun that manages to hit every beat and be addictive for most of the game, until its suddenly not and you just kind of limp across the finish line to finish out the main quest and those final challenges you need for the S. The fun lasts for most of the game, though, and I'll be ranking it pretty highly since the majority of the game is very charismatic, highly playable, frictionless and fun.