A wonderful improvement upon the first game in the trilogy. Movement and Exploration have been improved a lot, you can climb, crouch, squeeze, swing, swim and dive, and even have a mount to get around faster. The environments evolved alongside the movement, god this game is pretty.
The Combat is barely recognisable, lots has changed and while it may be confusing at first, after a few battles you'll never want to go back to the old CC system. Itemslinging becomes the new Meta, around the finale Ryza feels like a walking nuke. Battles are dynamic, fast paced, and busy, meaning you don't just wait your turn, you always have something to do, something to manage.
Alchemy is just as fun, if not more than in the first game, thanks to some new mechanics like Evo-links and the skill tree system.
In terms of new characters, lots of new fun faces. Since everyone's in the Capital now, Ryza meets new faces left and right, like the Café worker Zephine or a fellow Farmer's Daughter Cassandra. Their little arcs of "what do i want from life and how do i achieve self-fulfilment in my work" is quite cute to wittness. the three new party members are also very fun to use and have around, Patty is adorable, Serri is elegant and tragic, Clifford thinks he's so cool (he is, okay? nobody tell him otherwise) I was a little saddened that i couldn't play as Lila once more since she was a main stay in my Party during the first game, but my new core of Lent, Ryza, Klaudia with a rotating support from Serri and the others worked wonders too.'
Storywise the game has a lot to offer, multiple ruins to investigate, though after a while the exploration might feel repetetive, since you kinda do the same thing over and over again, so it's smart to do side quests and character driven side stories between main adventures, even if you don't need better gear.
I only really have two complaints about the game and those are A) the sheer amount of dialogue cutscenes to drive the side-plots forward can oftentimes interrupt the player in the middle of an intense Alchemy session. B) the final boss was laughably easy, though, maybe, i was just overprepared, since my Ryza almost took it down herself. The secret boss though.. oh it had me grind a lot, try a bunch until i found a strategy that worked, similarly to the Queen from Ryza 1.
Overall, great game, pretty world, fun characters, good music, addicting gameplay loop, big fun.
The Combat is barely recognisable, lots has changed and while it may be confusing at first, after a few battles you'll never want to go back to the old CC system. Itemslinging becomes the new Meta, around the finale Ryza feels like a walking nuke. Battles are dynamic, fast paced, and busy, meaning you don't just wait your turn, you always have something to do, something to manage.
Alchemy is just as fun, if not more than in the first game, thanks to some new mechanics like Evo-links and the skill tree system.
In terms of new characters, lots of new fun faces. Since everyone's in the Capital now, Ryza meets new faces left and right, like the Café worker Zephine or a fellow Farmer's Daughter Cassandra. Their little arcs of "what do i want from life and how do i achieve self-fulfilment in my work" is quite cute to wittness. the three new party members are also very fun to use and have around, Patty is adorable, Serri is elegant and tragic, Clifford thinks he's so cool (he is, okay? nobody tell him otherwise) I was a little saddened that i couldn't play as Lila once more since she was a main stay in my Party during the first game, but my new core of Lent, Ryza, Klaudia with a rotating support from Serri and the others worked wonders too.'
Storywise the game has a lot to offer, multiple ruins to investigate, though after a while the exploration might feel repetetive, since you kinda do the same thing over and over again, so it's smart to do side quests and character driven side stories between main adventures, even if you don't need better gear.
I only really have two complaints about the game and those are A) the sheer amount of dialogue cutscenes to drive the side-plots forward can oftentimes interrupt the player in the middle of an intense Alchemy session. B) the final boss was laughably easy, though, maybe, i was just overprepared, since my Ryza almost took it down herself. The secret boss though.. oh it had me grind a lot, try a bunch until i found a strategy that worked, similarly to the Queen from Ryza 1.
Overall, great game, pretty world, fun characters, good music, addicting gameplay loop, big fun.