The influences and homages this game does to 90s (and 2000s, there's FFXII all over this) JRPGs are painfully obvious - some might call that "generic" or "unoriginal", to me it was comfy. I knew exactly what to expect, and sure enough it hit all those notes - but not in a "ugh, this is so overdone...", but more in a "HA, I knew this would happen". Your mileage may vary of course.
Good cast of characters that sort of remind me of Radiant Historia - fairly one-dimensional, but with enough well done characterization and interactions between them to have a good cast, with good enough motivations, and a couple of fairly interesting backstories sprinkled.
The story itself goes crazy in a very JRPG way, and I'm all in for it. That being said, this game would clearly benefit from an actual dev team rather than just a single guy - the world building is sort of insane, but not in a good way. Very overwhelming, the game throws MANY names at you, and it's incredibly difficult to keep up. I think there's a whole unexplored world that was hinted at, but I'll be damned if I know the details.
I have some criticism with the combat: regular battles can take too long (I found myself turning it down to Easy during exploration), level ups happening only after bosses robs the game of that gratifying JRPG loop of getting incrementally stronger with every battle, switching party members around is a core mechanic, so buffs not affecting those in reserve feels like an oversight, and there are too many playable characters - should have been just eight characters instead of TWELVE - clearly, the dev is a fan of FFVI's huge cast of playable characters, for reasons that elude me, and was adamant in having that in his game.
That being said, I loved that every character is very distinct - though I'm not sure of the difference between the two tanks, and the tank role itself with the hate mechanic feels fairly tacked on, like the dev REALLY wanted to have tanks, no matter what. Sky Armor fights also became meh and same-y after not too long.
The crystals thing also felt tacked on, as you swap weapons around ALL the time, and most bonuses feel more like small perks than anything. You'll end up not bothering at all.
Regarding exploration though, I have virtually no criticism? Fucking hell I loved it, and it's the most impressive thing about this game, especially considering it was mostly just one person doing it.
Not sure if this is "92 on Metacritic" good, but yeah. Had a great time.
Good cast of characters that sort of remind me of Radiant Historia - fairly one-dimensional, but with enough well done characterization and interactions between them to have a good cast, with good enough motivations, and a couple of fairly interesting backstories sprinkled.
The story itself goes crazy in a very JRPG way, and I'm all in for it. That being said, this game would clearly benefit from an actual dev team rather than just a single guy - the world building is sort of insane, but not in a good way. Very overwhelming, the game throws MANY names at you, and it's incredibly difficult to keep up. I think there's a whole unexplored world that was hinted at, but I'll be damned if I know the details.
I have some criticism with the combat: regular battles can take too long (I found myself turning it down to Easy during exploration), level ups happening only after bosses robs the game of that gratifying JRPG loop of getting incrementally stronger with every battle, switching party members around is a core mechanic, so buffs not affecting those in reserve feels like an oversight, and there are too many playable characters - should have been just eight characters instead of TWELVE - clearly, the dev is a fan of FFVI's huge cast of playable characters, for reasons that elude me, and was adamant in having that in his game.
That being said, I loved that every character is very distinct - though I'm not sure of the difference between the two tanks, and the tank role itself with the hate mechanic feels fairly tacked on, like the dev REALLY wanted to have tanks, no matter what. Sky Armor fights also became meh and same-y after not too long.
The crystals thing also felt tacked on, as you swap weapons around ALL the time, and most bonuses feel more like small perks than anything. You'll end up not bothering at all.
Regarding exploration though, I have virtually no criticism? Fucking hell I loved it, and it's the most impressive thing about this game, especially considering it was mostly just one person doing it.
Not sure if this is "92 on Metacritic" good, but yeah. Had a great time.