The game is very reminiscent of early FF games and Earthbound in terms of general gameplay feel, graphics and design.
Luckily, the game decides to remove a lot of the more punishing features of those games. Winning a battle will restore your party to max HP and revive all your downed characters, coupled with the fact that if you roam and fight in a dungeon for long enough, you'll stop getting random encounters being the two most prominent examples.
The story is good for what it is. It's meant to be a parody and I enjoyed a large part of the dialogue and self-awareness the game had. It also isn't long and can be beaten in 6-7 hours.
The gameplay is classical turn-based with the twist that enemies become stronger every turn, so stalling is not recommended as it will make any battle unnecessarily difficult.
Being able to branch your characters out further and further with each level-up was a nice addition, which adds some replay value.
The one thing that really hurts this game is how they deal with MP regen. You need MP if you're gonna deal a lot of damage, but the only way to regen it outside of save points is to battle by only using normal attacks and finishing a battle quickly on top of that. That's not easy to do in later stages because enemies get tougher and tougher. It would be fine if you could run away from these encounters, but here the only way to run away from battle is to have a character from your party who has a skill that costs 25 MP to use. Not to mention if the enemies kill her, you're screwed. This made the last two dungeons in the game annoying to go through.
Overall, if you're a fan of early 80s JRPGs and are looking for a game that is far more forgiving in its design while still retaining that 80s feel, this is a decent choice.
Luckily, the game decides to remove a lot of the more punishing features of those games. Winning a battle will restore your party to max HP and revive all your downed characters, coupled with the fact that if you roam and fight in a dungeon for long enough, you'll stop getting random encounters being the two most prominent examples.
The story is good for what it is. It's meant to be a parody and I enjoyed a large part of the dialogue and self-awareness the game had. It also isn't long and can be beaten in 6-7 hours.
The gameplay is classical turn-based with the twist that enemies become stronger every turn, so stalling is not recommended as it will make any battle unnecessarily difficult.
Being able to branch your characters out further and further with each level-up was a nice addition, which adds some replay value.
The one thing that really hurts this game is how they deal with MP regen. You need MP if you're gonna deal a lot of damage, but the only way to regen it outside of save points is to battle by only using normal attacks and finishing a battle quickly on top of that. That's not easy to do in later stages because enemies get tougher and tougher. It would be fine if you could run away from these encounters, but here the only way to run away from battle is to have a character from your party who has a skill that costs 25 MP to use. Not to mention if the enemies kill her, you're screwed. This made the last two dungeons in the game annoying to go through.
Overall, if you're a fan of early 80s JRPGs and are looking for a game that is far more forgiving in its design while still retaining that 80s feel, this is a decent choice.