Troubleshooter is quite a video game, it's surprising how much is in it given the small Korean development team. So much artwork (a new CG for every little thing, I'm honestly shocked how much there is), cutscenes (that should have had voice acting in some important ones), and thought clearly went into this one....
And there in lies the problem, it's all too much at times.
There are so many complicated systems in play that makes strategizing tricky
The maps are absolutely huge which makes navigating them a pain in the ass, especially since every map is Fog of War (with a generous line of sight but not enough) . You could trim their size by 1/3rd with no issues. The Fog of War also hides the existence of enemies, which is really silly when one mission is "Don't let the animals escape!" when you can't see where they could be on the massive map.
There are way too many enemies on each map, two of them practically hitting 100. This gets compounded with some enemies possessing the skill that prevents them from taking more than half their health in damage, as well as the skill that makes them block every attack if they are below 25% health to really drag them out. This is made worse with 90% of missions being "Take out every enemy" which makes me beg for more mission variety.
Systems like paying rent/employees and character motivation feel solely there to justify the use of money. You'll also never have any issues with this since the game constantly throws money at you that I often gave them bonuses without even thinking about it. They're just pointless busywork after each mission.
The turn system is mostly functional and a neat idea with using time to account for actions, and losing time if you are attacked by enemies, but if they gang up on a unit they will never get a turn until they die which creates some hilarious stalemate situations that thank heaven there's an abandon mission button because you'd be there for hours watching it play out otherwise.
Crafting Masteries isn't explained how it works all that much but you can figure it out by the end, but given there's no way for you to just obtain easy masteries to use as ingredients if you ran out you'd have to grind, and you can't make undiscovered Masteries, you have to find them on the field. It wants you to grind but I only did that for Irene in the final mission and that was just recompleting an earlier mission.
Crafting items and machines is hardly explained at all, you're given a workbench and some other menus and have fun! Which I rarely used outside upgrading some gear with whatever I had and crafting one Drone. He's a good boy, but the complicated crafty systems aren't explained at all.
Stats stats stats stats stats. Everything has a stat of incredibly minor skill associated with it. Take for example character arcana, an element clearly lifted from Persona: Everyone has one, as nonsensical as some may be (Anne is Hermit? She fits better as Star, while Sion has The World but is very clearly The Sun with his endless optimism) but it doesn't contribute anything and just feels like fluff. There are a handful of stats like this but the Arcana was just the one off the top of my head. Meanwhile Weapons and Armor have plenty of little attributes that make it confusing if a new one is truly an upgrade or not that I wind up not wanting to change my gear at all unless they died too easily last mission or something.
Before I get into spoilers I do want to offer the game some praises. Its combat is fun and what grasps of the systems you do get over time definitely add to the experience. Even though your party can range from one man killing machine Albus to slow and not as useful Anne you can still find ways for everyone to have a purpose in battle. The story takes a while to get invested in but it's a long game so you eventually will anyways and appreciate everyone. My favorites were probably Sion for his ray of sunshine while showing an underlying understanding of the world around him, Irene for being a Hero of Justice and without question the funnest party member, and Heixing who's all around a really cool guy with how he handles his life. The conspiracies that are introduced are really fun too. If you like XCOM and Persona this game is absolutely worth giving a shot.
(Spoiler Time)
And lastly, the main problem that dominates every aspect of the game, it's way too wordy. Item descriptions are incredibly bloated with words and stats, some Masteries, notably the Sets, have more text than a YuGiOh card that are just too long to read. The Story itself is affected by this, the devs should have found places to cut the fat and even take out a few filler missions. It's just so wordy that at points I found myself clicking away, acknowledging the ambition of their story but wishing they could have cut to the chase faster in spots. There''s a lot of smaller gang drama that should have just been cut early on. Another notable example of its tendency to word dump is that you can tell without fail when someone is going to join you because you will get their whole life's story then and there (excluding Anne oddly enough) , which while it works in a few instances (Irene at least has her chapter revolve around her to excuse it, and is told through NPCs you meet along the way rather than flashback text walls) in most it's just me wishing this could have been a short glimpse into it and the rest put in some side content if you want to know more about them. By the time of Leton joining I had enough of seeing the same attack on Alley over and over. That goes with a lot of elements too, like the former Troubleshooter Team Silverlining. If they had just put more of these elements in side content that the player would be rewarded for clearing the story would have been better paced, had its cake, and ate it too.
While the narrative is a "it gets good like 20 hours in" and boy does it, it still has some fumblings in spots. An odd note in the narrative is the cult Spoonists (it is a stupid name but the game treats it with utmost seriousness which I can respect, run by the even sillier named Sharky) were the main focus of the plot, but the final boss of this Season (that's what the game calls it) was Foo of the White Tiger Gang. He could have used a bit more build up to his status of Final Boss especially since he's been fought like 5 times already. Rather than build him up they establish that he's going to be a scapegoat of the government used to bolster the mayor's votes in re-election which is good for me the player to know but for the characters the showdown with Foo should have been built up with some sense of finality to it (while not the end of everything, should have felt special rather than just another day on the job). This is made weaker with the final mission not even having unique music. Just a shitload of annoying snipers with the new Follow-Up Fire skill that gets annoying to deal with. The game has a chapter before it that's supposed to be a teaching element but it doesn't introduce the main annoyance so you just go into it thinking it's the same as any other chapter with snipers and will quickly get ganged up on by reinforcement snipers.
There are other missions like this too, with needless difficulty. I remember Angry Tiger being really irritating for some reason, and Kylie's recruitment mission has only two enemies but one is an absolute tank the two characters are not equipped to deal with that ultimately came down to luck to win.
That's enough bashing the game though. There are plenty of praises to give it. I really do enjoy where the story is headed, with the conspiracy and Carter throwing a wrench into all of it by taking the Spoonists in as his own. Like I mentioned before, the characters are all enjoyable in their own right and I don't think there was any I disliked. Some bits seemed contrived sure like how much Anne cares about Luna despite only hanging out twice but part of that is who Anne is so it gets a pass. She's also 15 but acts more like she's 9 or 10 but she's still cute. The standout characters of Sion, Irene, and Heixing make it all worth it. Irene's recruitment mission, Way Up High, is also a highlight as an incredibly cozy day off of Albus and Sion meeting people Irene protects and getting her to warm up to your group, all while Somewhere Over the Rainbow plays. Sure there just had to be a mission at the end, but that comfy Irene recruitment was a great moment.
I am very interested in these conspiracies and where they go, I just hope that the devs and learn a few things from this, simplify a few systems and trim off some fat, and they could really knock it out of the park next time with this game as a remarkable foundation!
It's a 3.75 /5 game but there's so much effort on display from such a small team that I figure it deserves the 4 rather than 3.5. Apologies for complaining about the wordy game with a wordy review. But like I said, this is still worth checking out, especially if you like XCOM and Persona.
And there in lies the problem, it's all too much at times.
There are so many complicated systems in play that makes strategizing tricky
The maps are absolutely huge which makes navigating them a pain in the ass, especially since every map is Fog of War (with a generous line of sight but not enough) . You could trim their size by 1/3rd with no issues. The Fog of War also hides the existence of enemies, which is really silly when one mission is "Don't let the animals escape!" when you can't see where they could be on the massive map.
There are way too many enemies on each map, two of them practically hitting 100. This gets compounded with some enemies possessing the skill that prevents them from taking more than half their health in damage, as well as the skill that makes them block every attack if they are below 25% health to really drag them out. This is made worse with 90% of missions being "Take out every enemy" which makes me beg for more mission variety.
Systems like paying rent/employees and character motivation feel solely there to justify the use of money. You'll also never have any issues with this since the game constantly throws money at you that I often gave them bonuses without even thinking about it. They're just pointless busywork after each mission.
The turn system is mostly functional and a neat idea with using time to account for actions, and losing time if you are attacked by enemies, but if they gang up on a unit they will never get a turn until they die which creates some hilarious stalemate situations that thank heaven there's an abandon mission button because you'd be there for hours watching it play out otherwise.
Crafting Masteries isn't explained how it works all that much but you can figure it out by the end, but given there's no way for you to just obtain easy masteries to use as ingredients if you ran out you'd have to grind, and you can't make undiscovered Masteries, you have to find them on the field. It wants you to grind but I only did that for Irene in the final mission and that was just recompleting an earlier mission.
Crafting items and machines is hardly explained at all, you're given a workbench and some other menus and have fun! Which I rarely used outside upgrading some gear with whatever I had and crafting one Drone. He's a good boy, but the complicated crafty systems aren't explained at all.
Stats stats stats stats stats. Everything has a stat of incredibly minor skill associated with it. Take for example character arcana, an element clearly lifted from Persona: Everyone has one, as nonsensical as some may be (Anne is Hermit? She fits better as Star, while Sion has The World but is very clearly The Sun with his endless optimism) but it doesn't contribute anything and just feels like fluff. There are a handful of stats like this but the Arcana was just the one off the top of my head. Meanwhile Weapons and Armor have plenty of little attributes that make it confusing if a new one is truly an upgrade or not that I wind up not wanting to change my gear at all unless they died too easily last mission or something.
Before I get into spoilers I do want to offer the game some praises. Its combat is fun and what grasps of the systems you do get over time definitely add to the experience. Even though your party can range from one man killing machine Albus to slow and not as useful Anne you can still find ways for everyone to have a purpose in battle. The story takes a while to get invested in but it's a long game so you eventually will anyways and appreciate everyone. My favorites were probably Sion for his ray of sunshine while showing an underlying understanding of the world around him, Irene for being a Hero of Justice and without question the funnest party member, and Heixing who's all around a really cool guy with how he handles his life. The conspiracies that are introduced are really fun too. If you like XCOM and Persona this game is absolutely worth giving a shot.
(Spoiler Time)
And lastly, the main problem that dominates every aspect of the game, it's way too wordy. Item descriptions are incredibly bloated with words and stats, some Masteries, notably the Sets, have more text than a YuGiOh card that are just too long to read. The Story itself is affected by this, the devs should have found places to cut the fat and even take out a few filler missions. It's just so wordy that at points I found myself clicking away, acknowledging the ambition of their story but wishing they could have cut to the chase faster in spots. There''s a lot of smaller gang drama that should have just been cut early on. Another notable example of its tendency to word dump is that you can tell without fail when someone is going to join you because you will get their whole life's story then and there (excluding Anne oddly enough) , which while it works in a few instances (Irene at least has her chapter revolve around her to excuse it, and is told through NPCs you meet along the way rather than flashback text walls) in most it's just me wishing this could have been a short glimpse into it and the rest put in some side content if you want to know more about them. By the time of Leton joining I had enough of seeing the same attack on Alley over and over. That goes with a lot of elements too, like the former Troubleshooter Team Silverlining. If they had just put more of these elements in side content that the player would be rewarded for clearing the story would have been better paced, had its cake, and ate it too.
While the narrative is a "it gets good like 20 hours in" and boy does it, it still has some fumblings in spots. An odd note in the narrative is the cult Spoonists (it is a stupid name but the game treats it with utmost seriousness which I can respect, run by the even sillier named Sharky) were the main focus of the plot, but the final boss of this Season (that's what the game calls it) was Foo of the White Tiger Gang. He could have used a bit more build up to his status of Final Boss especially since he's been fought like 5 times already. Rather than build him up they establish that he's going to be a scapegoat of the government used to bolster the mayor's votes in re-election which is good for me the player to know but for the characters the showdown with Foo should have been built up with some sense of finality to it (while not the end of everything, should have felt special rather than just another day on the job). This is made weaker with the final mission not even having unique music. Just a shitload of annoying snipers with the new Follow-Up Fire skill that gets annoying to deal with. The game has a chapter before it that's supposed to be a teaching element but it doesn't introduce the main annoyance so you just go into it thinking it's the same as any other chapter with snipers and will quickly get ganged up on by reinforcement snipers.
There are other missions like this too, with needless difficulty. I remember Angry Tiger being really irritating for some reason, and Kylie's recruitment mission has only two enemies but one is an absolute tank the two characters are not equipped to deal with that ultimately came down to luck to win.
That's enough bashing the game though. There are plenty of praises to give it. I really do enjoy where the story is headed, with the conspiracy and Carter throwing a wrench into all of it by taking the Spoonists in as his own. Like I mentioned before, the characters are all enjoyable in their own right and I don't think there was any I disliked. Some bits seemed contrived sure like how much Anne cares about Luna despite only hanging out twice but part of that is who Anne is so it gets a pass. She's also 15 but acts more like she's 9 or 10 but she's still cute. The standout characters of Sion, Irene, and Heixing make it all worth it. Irene's recruitment mission, Way Up High, is also a highlight as an incredibly cozy day off of Albus and Sion meeting people Irene protects and getting her to warm up to your group, all while Somewhere Over the Rainbow plays. Sure there just had to be a mission at the end, but that comfy Irene recruitment was a great moment.
I am very interested in these conspiracies and where they go, I just hope that the devs and learn a few things from this, simplify a few systems and trim off some fat, and they could really knock it out of the park next time with this game as a remarkable foundation!
It's a 3.75 /5 game but there's so much effort on display from such a small team that I figure it deserves the 4 rather than 3.5. Apologies for complaining about the wordy game with a wordy review. But like I said, this is still worth checking out, especially if you like XCOM and Persona.