A real diamond in the rough. If you are even slightly interested in this game just do yourself a favor and play it. It´s not a perfect game, on the contrary, it´s a rather flawed one, but it´s an experience greater than the sum of its parts. A beautiful story told rather oddly, the pacing is off and is rather disjointed by nature of its release and its structure. The movie is pretty good and should have been bundled with the game somehow, the short anime series can be found on Youtube and is a great introduction to the best aspect of this game and what has hooked me so. The main cast. I would just die for these boys.
What this game does so well is put you in the shoes of a group of friends, trying to have some fun along the way in a path filled of adversities, and it manages to build such a complete picture of these characters as fully formed people as I have rarely seen achieved in other games. It´s the sense of having embarked on a journey, having seen them grow and evolve together, what makes this game such a memorable experience.
The open world element and its design, just most level design in general, and combat as well, is rather simplistic, and it will depend on how much you enjoy each of these aspects how much you´ll want to engage with the side content, and later end game. The world is quite beautiful but rather empty and traversing it is quite a pain after a while. Dungeons look great and each have a distinct and epic style but are rather linear and end up feeling too similar after having completed a couple. Combat is an interesting aspect, it´s extremely simple, constantly looking to reach epic heights, but it mostly ends up feeling janky, unpolished and uninteresting. There´s nothing epic about pressing one button and the enemies being damage sponges. Side content can become dull very quick once you notice that side-quests are just checking things off lists and doing chores for non-characters. The “epicness” though comes from the visuals and the music. It still looks gorgeous in every level, the art design is wonderful, and the sense of scale it manages to convey is outstanding. The musical score is just on another level altogether.
The DLC “episodes” are must plays. I wish they had found the way to better integrate them into the main game in this “Royal” or “Windows” editions. Other than that, they serve as condensed and streamlined scenarios that showcase the best things the main game has to offer all while further developing these wonderful characters and their stories.
I nearly cried at the end. Highest praise I can give.
What this game does so well is put you in the shoes of a group of friends, trying to have some fun along the way in a path filled of adversities, and it manages to build such a complete picture of these characters as fully formed people as I have rarely seen achieved in other games. It´s the sense of having embarked on a journey, having seen them grow and evolve together, what makes this game such a memorable experience.
The open world element and its design, just most level design in general, and combat as well, is rather simplistic, and it will depend on how much you enjoy each of these aspects how much you´ll want to engage with the side content, and later end game. The world is quite beautiful but rather empty and traversing it is quite a pain after a while. Dungeons look great and each have a distinct and epic style but are rather linear and end up feeling too similar after having completed a couple. Combat is an interesting aspect, it´s extremely simple, constantly looking to reach epic heights, but it mostly ends up feeling janky, unpolished and uninteresting. There´s nothing epic about pressing one button and the enemies being damage sponges. Side content can become dull very quick once you notice that side-quests are just checking things off lists and doing chores for non-characters. The “epicness” though comes from the visuals and the music. It still looks gorgeous in every level, the art design is wonderful, and the sense of scale it manages to convey is outstanding. The musical score is just on another level altogether.
The DLC “episodes” are must plays. I wish they had found the way to better integrate them into the main game in this “Royal” or “Windows” editions. Other than that, they serve as condensed and streamlined scenarios that showcase the best things the main game has to offer all while further developing these wonderful characters and their stories.
I nearly cried at the end. Highest praise I can give.