This game was a complete surprise to me. A friend in a discord recommended it a couple months ago and if not for that I’d have not heard of this game. A brief search shows barely any media coverage. Just a handful of english reviews and only a couple of those from niche sites I was actually aware of but never would visit.
It was developed since 2007 and by only the sole original developer for most of that time until he had help for developing this Steam version (before the Steam version there was a freeware version). This background reminds me a lot of the story of Dwarf Fortress albeit not as long a dev time. It’s great seeing a passion project like this succeeding. Knowing its background makes a lot of the smaller issues I have more forgivable too.
The combat is easily its greatest strength. It's a fairly straightforward side-scrolling ARPG at the beginning but as you play you get new combat techniques and possession skills (magic basically) that keep things fresh and add depth. For example as you explore you’ll find scrolls that unlock techniques like a sky slash and backdash. Regarding the possession skills that gets very interesting as using them gives you i-frames and proper usage of them makes a big difference in boss fights and it's balanced by preventing you from spamming possession skills by needing ST which you build by attacking monsters with your weapon.It’s fantastic when this all comes together in boss fights.
The story is rather interesting. Wont say too much to avoid spoilers but it has some good twists. Whenever I thought I had things figured out, new story information had me reconsidering.
Weakest point is its sub-par translation. It's like that of a JRPG from 20+ years ago. You’ll understand it fine. Issue more is characters dialogue is less natural then it could be and word choices at times are slightly off. This translation, and occasional though not too often pervy dialogue, can take away from the narrative at times. Good news is a recent post from the publisher recognized criticism of the translation and confirmed they will be improving it, presumably in time for the Switch port the post also announced.
There are A LOT of systems in this game. None of them are bad but it does hit a point where I question if it needed some of them. For example you have a basic leveling where each level you get 5 points to distribute among your stats, perfectly normal so fine. Then your weapons and armor acquire proficiency as you use them which unlocks new abilities and you set these abilities in a menu that requires you have enough magic crystals for whatever the ability costs and you can change your ability loadout at any time. Then there’s also a growth chart where you can spend Force (an elemental currency dropped by monsters) and this also increases your stats and unlocks new possession skills and some weapons and more magic crystals. None of these are unheard of systems but usually games don’t have this many. Why overcomplicate things by increasing stats by distributing points every level and spending Force to increase them too? One makes the other a bit redundant. Could easily drop one or two of these systems. Those aren’t even all of them but the other major one is more unique and justifies its existence, explaining it would need some spoilers.
For the background visuals they stitched together stock photos to make everything and at times it was really odd looking where it's clear they pieced photos together or it clashes with the anime style characters and monsters. At its best it does show some great looking scenery though. The character and monster designs are nice looking but their animations can be a bit stiff.
Took me 30+ hours to finish the main game and having looked at the japanese wiki with google translate, the post-game is ridiculously beefy. It was much longer than I’d have initially expected but I was impressed with how it kept me engaged the whole time. Easily can get 10’s of hours more of this without starting a new game.
Very enjoyable experience overall, especially considering its background. One last note for anyone who plans to play it, there’s an arena that unlocks new challenges after every chapter. Always do it when you can. There’s a few extremely important items locked behind that and the game doesn’t tell you this. Odd choice but I assume is a consequence of the developer wanting it to have meaningful rewards.
It was developed since 2007 and by only the sole original developer for most of that time until he had help for developing this Steam version (before the Steam version there was a freeware version). This background reminds me a lot of the story of Dwarf Fortress albeit not as long a dev time. It’s great seeing a passion project like this succeeding. Knowing its background makes a lot of the smaller issues I have more forgivable too.
The combat is easily its greatest strength. It's a fairly straightforward side-scrolling ARPG at the beginning but as you play you get new combat techniques and possession skills (magic basically) that keep things fresh and add depth. For example as you explore you’ll find scrolls that unlock techniques like a sky slash and backdash. Regarding the possession skills that gets very interesting as using them gives you i-frames and proper usage of them makes a big difference in boss fights and it's balanced by preventing you from spamming possession skills by needing ST which you build by attacking monsters with your weapon.It’s fantastic when this all comes together in boss fights.
The story is rather interesting. Wont say too much to avoid spoilers but it has some good twists. Whenever I thought I had things figured out, new story information had me reconsidering.
Weakest point is its sub-par translation. It's like that of a JRPG from 20+ years ago. You’ll understand it fine. Issue more is characters dialogue is less natural then it could be and word choices at times are slightly off. This translation, and occasional though not too often pervy dialogue, can take away from the narrative at times. Good news is a recent post from the publisher recognized criticism of the translation and confirmed they will be improving it, presumably in time for the Switch port the post also announced.
There are A LOT of systems in this game. None of them are bad but it does hit a point where I question if it needed some of them. For example you have a basic leveling where each level you get 5 points to distribute among your stats, perfectly normal so fine. Then your weapons and armor acquire proficiency as you use them which unlocks new abilities and you set these abilities in a menu that requires you have enough magic crystals for whatever the ability costs and you can change your ability loadout at any time. Then there’s also a growth chart where you can spend Force (an elemental currency dropped by monsters) and this also increases your stats and unlocks new possession skills and some weapons and more magic crystals. None of these are unheard of systems but usually games don’t have this many. Why overcomplicate things by increasing stats by distributing points every level and spending Force to increase them too? One makes the other a bit redundant. Could easily drop one or two of these systems. Those aren’t even all of them but the other major one is more unique and justifies its existence, explaining it would need some spoilers.
For the background visuals they stitched together stock photos to make everything and at times it was really odd looking where it's clear they pieced photos together or it clashes with the anime style characters and monsters. At its best it does show some great looking scenery though. The character and monster designs are nice looking but their animations can be a bit stiff.
Took me 30+ hours to finish the main game and having looked at the japanese wiki with google translate, the post-game is ridiculously beefy. It was much longer than I’d have initially expected but I was impressed with how it kept me engaged the whole time. Easily can get 10’s of hours more of this without starting a new game.
Very enjoyable experience overall, especially considering its background. One last note for anyone who plans to play it, there’s an arena that unlocks new challenges after every chapter. Always do it when you can. There’s a few extremely important items locked behind that and the game doesn’t tell you this. Odd choice but I assume is a consequence of the developer wanting it to have meaningful rewards.