This review contains spoilers
What's that? An RPG that I've not only played but have completed and am able to review? I shit ye not comrades, it can happen and it did. For those unaware I have several RPGs and have played them all to some extent, but have not finished them. Going by how long my mates take with RPGs, it seems clear that I spend more time with RPGs than most. I take the time to talk to all NPCs at different points throughout the story, I explore places to the fullest, I spend a lot of time grinding, and other things that take up a lot of time. Including the final battle, I believe I'm at 112 hours for this game. A buddy of mine who has much more experience with RPGs and does have an account on here and has reviewed some Final Fantasy games(I'll bring them up again later) said they beat the game after around 70 hours. I do not know what the average playtime is for this game, but that difference alone should put things into perspective.
The game itself has many positives, but there are some problems as well. The battle system on foot is very interesting and a lot of fun. The gear battle system, to me, was not that great. Certain aspects of it were not explained well, some were not explained at all. You can not repair the gear conventionally as any healing abilities only restore defence in a gear and healing items do not work on gears. The only way to restore "health" is through an expensive ability, expensive in the sense of fuel, which is how you do everything in a gear.
The story is engaging and interesting, but it does become hard to follow at times. I learned some interesting information about the game from my mate, the same one mentioned before. I will try to summarise it, but I have not spoken to them about the game like this in some time, so I may get details wrong. Early on, the game. or at least the story, was supposed to be Final Fantasy VII. The story of the game was thought to be too dark for Final Fantasy, and that's saying something considering how dark the actual Final Fantasy VII can get. This game also has heavy religious references, imagery, and undertones. The heavy references and parallels to religion are lost on me, which does not exactly help with story comprehension. The way the second disc handles the story gets messy, 'cos it is clear that they ran out of time while making the game and had to rush the second disc. The second disc is cutscene and reading-heavy broken up by a dungeon or two and boss battles, with every battle being a gear battle.
The characters have depth to them and the protagonist is one of the most interesting characters I've seen. We are getting into serious spoiler territory here, I have marked the review with a spoiler warning in the editor, but I have no idea how it actually works or if it even does at all, so I'm outright warning here. The protagonist has dealt with serious trauma and has developed Dissociative Identity Disorder. The way the game presents his internalised struggle with his other identities and tries to come to terms with his trauma and overcome the disorder is incredibly fascinating to me as a Psychology student with a deep interest in abnormal psychology and is a strong point of the game for me.
The music in this game is fantastic, composed by the legendary Yasunori Mitsuda and the game has an interesting art style. The environments, gears, and bosses were 3D models, the characters themselves were sprites that had a 3D look when they moved or the camera rotated around them and the cutscenes were illustrated animation. In other words, anime. The game was really enjoyable and I wholeheartedly recommend it, but do keep in mind that the story may be hard to follow at times, disc 2 is not as good as it could've been, and it could potentially be a bit much for someone who doesn't play a lot of RPGs to get through. I enjoyed it despite its flaws.
The game itself has many positives, but there are some problems as well. The battle system on foot is very interesting and a lot of fun. The gear battle system, to me, was not that great. Certain aspects of it were not explained well, some were not explained at all. You can not repair the gear conventionally as any healing abilities only restore defence in a gear and healing items do not work on gears. The only way to restore "health" is through an expensive ability, expensive in the sense of fuel, which is how you do everything in a gear.
The story is engaging and interesting, but it does become hard to follow at times. I learned some interesting information about the game from my mate, the same one mentioned before. I will try to summarise it, but I have not spoken to them about the game like this in some time, so I may get details wrong. Early on, the game. or at least the story, was supposed to be Final Fantasy VII. The story of the game was thought to be too dark for Final Fantasy, and that's saying something considering how dark the actual Final Fantasy VII can get. This game also has heavy religious references, imagery, and undertones. The heavy references and parallels to religion are lost on me, which does not exactly help with story comprehension. The way the second disc handles the story gets messy, 'cos it is clear that they ran out of time while making the game and had to rush the second disc. The second disc is cutscene and reading-heavy broken up by a dungeon or two and boss battles, with every battle being a gear battle.
The characters have depth to them and the protagonist is one of the most interesting characters I've seen. We are getting into serious spoiler territory here, I have marked the review with a spoiler warning in the editor, but I have no idea how it actually works or if it even does at all, so I'm outright warning here. The protagonist has dealt with serious trauma and has developed Dissociative Identity Disorder. The way the game presents his internalised struggle with his other identities and tries to come to terms with his trauma and overcome the disorder is incredibly fascinating to me as a Psychology student with a deep interest in abnormal psychology and is a strong point of the game for me.
The music in this game is fantastic, composed by the legendary Yasunori Mitsuda and the game has an interesting art style. The environments, gears, and bosses were 3D models, the characters themselves were sprites that had a 3D look when they moved or the camera rotated around them and the cutscenes were illustrated animation. In other words, anime. The game was really enjoyable and I wholeheartedly recommend it, but do keep in mind that the story may be hard to follow at times, disc 2 is not as good as it could've been, and it could potentially be a bit much for someone who doesn't play a lot of RPGs to get through. I enjoyed it despite its flaws.