A lot of the talk I found around this game while looking up info about it is kinda centered on it’s reliance on a rather basic and typical JPRG plot and structure, and I can definitely understand that not being to a lot of people’s taste. Heck, a few years ago I’d have probably felt similarly about it. But man, there’s just something so achingly earnest about this whole thing. It is so unconcerned with being clever or subversive or anything, it just has this unwavering love for the RPG as a medium, for its tropes and odd little rituals and wants to present them on this huge, epic scale. You’ve got this big globetrotting adventure, flying around on an airship across the map to all these real world locations, each city and village being its own lovingly crafted little diorama. The contrast of the grandiosity in its scale with it being a DS game adds a lot of charm in that sense, it’s a great looking game for the hardware but the adorably simplified character models really do a lot for it.
The game makes a fair few nods towards Indiana Jones, and it’s a fitting comparison. The game feels really Spielbergian in general, reassembling the elements of old school JRPGS much like the way Raiders of the Lost Ark reassembles the pieces of old adventure serials. It’s a very cinematically minded game in general, really, from the the phenomenal direction and cinematography during cutscenes, drawing emotionality out of inventive, dramatic camerawork. Even the battles themselves are filled with so many different alternating and inspired camera angles that always keep things visually interesting.
It’s hard to really recommend a 40-something hour RPG on the basis of it being “pretty good,” I can understand the lack of interest, but I dunno man. With how much my life lately has felt like I need to be constantly on the move, like there’s always something more I need to be doing and experiencing, that I need to be one step ahead of myself… a game like this that is just has no hangups about being what it is, its embracing of the simple joys that it loves so dearly…. its a really welcome thing. This game’s got soul, man.
Having a game tell me that “the real treasure was the friends made along the way” with 100% sincerity is a welcome reminder, for sure.
The game makes a fair few nods towards Indiana Jones, and it’s a fitting comparison. The game feels really Spielbergian in general, reassembling the elements of old school JRPGS much like the way Raiders of the Lost Ark reassembles the pieces of old adventure serials. It’s a very cinematically minded game in general, really, from the the phenomenal direction and cinematography during cutscenes, drawing emotionality out of inventive, dramatic camerawork. Even the battles themselves are filled with so many different alternating and inspired camera angles that always keep things visually interesting.
It’s hard to really recommend a 40-something hour RPG on the basis of it being “pretty good,” I can understand the lack of interest, but I dunno man. With how much my life lately has felt like I need to be constantly on the move, like there’s always something more I need to be doing and experiencing, that I need to be one step ahead of myself… a game like this that is just has no hangups about being what it is, its embracing of the simple joys that it loves so dearly…. its a really welcome thing. This game’s got soul, man.
Having a game tell me that “the real treasure was the friends made along the way” with 100% sincerity is a welcome reminder, for sure.