I love this game. It has a lot of heart in it, and it had me wanting more at the end.
This is a budget title, and it shows. Do not expect perfection from this. That being said, I'll go into more detail.
Gameplay wise, it's a fine action game. You start off with barely any movement or abilities that feel good, but once you start bonding with the other characters, that in turn unlocks the ability to spend points into some very fun mechanics. By the end of the game, I was stun locking bosses and tougher enemies and they never once got a hit on me. It felt really good.
I do wish there was a block button. Dodging is fine, but I found it can be a little off. Sometimes I would nail a dodge with perfect timing but the game just didn't bother to recognize it. At first I was blaming myself, but then the next time I would do the exact same timing on the dodge, with the enemy using the same attack, and it worked. I'm still not sure what I was doing wrong there, or if it was a game flaw, can't really figure it out. It happened rarely, so it wasn't that annoying, but it's still there.
I liked the little minigames you can do for training with each of the main characters. Nothing groundbreaking but they are at least easy enough.
The one negative about gameplay is the looting/scavenge missions. Characters will ask you to go help them find something at night, you get a choice of three locations, and you guess where an item is. Pretty quickly I figured out that items are not randomized, and if you memorize or write down where they are, you will have an easy time with this. I just didn't really like them all that much. Feels like it could have been cut from the game and you wouldn't be missing anything.
There are puzzles out in the world to solve, but I found them not annoying and pretty simple. It does break up the action a bit, and it's a nice distraction.
Bonding with characters is fun. I chose to pick the silliest options I could, and to my surprise, these aren't just written off. They are brought back up later. What was the most fun for me is the game just flowed with it. I appreciate a game just letting me be a goof and having fun.
Characters have personality and while it can seem a bit rushed to learn about them and bond with them, it works in the game's favor by not wasting your time. I rarely get a game where I actually like every character that is in it, and this is one of those games.
I think the graphics and art direction are honestly really well done. You aren't getting the best in the business, obviously, but world design is pretty neat and characters just look good to me. It's a style that I like.
I played with all the voice options. I found the Korean and Japanese voices to be the most interesting in terms of direction, but the English VAs also do a very good job. I wasn't expecting this game to be mostly voice acted, but it is, with rare scenes not having any. Loved all the animated cutscenes as well.
I don't really want to spoil the story for anyone who might be interested in playing. I will say at the end, there is a very simple but also very cool thing the game does. Once again, showing there is clear passion for this game from the people who made it.
Also for those curious, my run took me about 9 hours. And beating it gave me New Game+, so I expect do another run pretty soon.
I recommend playing this! It's a low price game but there is a demo too, so at least give it a shot!
This is a budget title, and it shows. Do not expect perfection from this. That being said, I'll go into more detail.
Gameplay wise, it's a fine action game. You start off with barely any movement or abilities that feel good, but once you start bonding with the other characters, that in turn unlocks the ability to spend points into some very fun mechanics. By the end of the game, I was stun locking bosses and tougher enemies and they never once got a hit on me. It felt really good.
I do wish there was a block button. Dodging is fine, but I found it can be a little off. Sometimes I would nail a dodge with perfect timing but the game just didn't bother to recognize it. At first I was blaming myself, but then the next time I would do the exact same timing on the dodge, with the enemy using the same attack, and it worked. I'm still not sure what I was doing wrong there, or if it was a game flaw, can't really figure it out. It happened rarely, so it wasn't that annoying, but it's still there.
I liked the little minigames you can do for training with each of the main characters. Nothing groundbreaking but they are at least easy enough.
The one negative about gameplay is the looting/scavenge missions. Characters will ask you to go help them find something at night, you get a choice of three locations, and you guess where an item is. Pretty quickly I figured out that items are not randomized, and if you memorize or write down where they are, you will have an easy time with this. I just didn't really like them all that much. Feels like it could have been cut from the game and you wouldn't be missing anything.
There are puzzles out in the world to solve, but I found them not annoying and pretty simple. It does break up the action a bit, and it's a nice distraction.
Bonding with characters is fun. I chose to pick the silliest options I could, and to my surprise, these aren't just written off. They are brought back up later. What was the most fun for me is the game just flowed with it. I appreciate a game just letting me be a goof and having fun.
Characters have personality and while it can seem a bit rushed to learn about them and bond with them, it works in the game's favor by not wasting your time. I rarely get a game where I actually like every character that is in it, and this is one of those games.
I think the graphics and art direction are honestly really well done. You aren't getting the best in the business, obviously, but world design is pretty neat and characters just look good to me. It's a style that I like.
I played with all the voice options. I found the Korean and Japanese voices to be the most interesting in terms of direction, but the English VAs also do a very good job. I wasn't expecting this game to be mostly voice acted, but it is, with rare scenes not having any. Loved all the animated cutscenes as well.
I don't really want to spoil the story for anyone who might be interested in playing. I will say at the end, there is a very simple but also very cool thing the game does. Once again, showing there is clear passion for this game from the people who made it.
Also for those curious, my run took me about 9 hours. And beating it gave me New Game+, so I expect do another run pretty soon.
I recommend playing this! It's a low price game but there is a demo too, so at least give it a shot!