This game felt pretty good but when I realized how easy it was to break it and that I didn't really care for the story I lost a lot of fun. It was already relatively easy on expert (highest difficulty before NG), but I would have to limit myself to have any challenge.
They present you with an open world but there is a very clear linear path they expect you to take as the areas are set to specific levels that will give you a hard time if you attempt to overcome them. Even so, it's very easy to come up with a good strategy for one unit and stomp over higher level enemies until you yourself are too high.
I tried very many combinations and there's a lot to work with so it can feel pretty good to come out with something cool. That being said, the game expects you to build around countering specific units, but with a good team and maybe some overleveling, the counter system doesn't really matter. It doesn't feel good to have a few units who just decimate everything and have some units who might be good against a specific type of enemy. Cavalries are stupid broken.
Eventually, your army will grow very large, and it can be extremely cumbersome to have to manage 40-50 people at once. This could also be a part of the appeal, as the tactics system is pretty neat and it is fun to work with usually.
The animations are really good but at some point just feel time consuming and I ended up skipping all of them which is a bummer. The art style in this game is top tier, thank you Vanillaware. That being said though, a HUGE amount of character designs feel undermined by the fact that they look largely the same as mercenaries/common hired units. I was so disappointed when I learned one of the characters I started this game for, Yahna, was basically a carbon copy of the witch mercenary. I think if you someone to care about a character, having them be visually indistinguishable from NPCs is not a good idea.
I think the story ends up being pretty barebones, which is a shame because the rapports/supports and small character moments were all pretty great. The music was nothing to write home about imo but it wasn't bad either.
Overall, I think it's a decent game that I think falls short in aspects that I crave in a tactical RPG, being challenge, story, and music. I could see someone loving this, but for me its a bit too slow and long, with mostly good aspects but nothing great. I feel like I dogged on the game a lot in this review but it does genuinely have good things going for it and I would play it again. This is still the dumbest name I have seen for a serious game. At least you can marry your cousin.
They present you with an open world but there is a very clear linear path they expect you to take as the areas are set to specific levels that will give you a hard time if you attempt to overcome them. Even so, it's very easy to come up with a good strategy for one unit and stomp over higher level enemies until you yourself are too high.
I tried very many combinations and there's a lot to work with so it can feel pretty good to come out with something cool. That being said, the game expects you to build around countering specific units, but with a good team and maybe some overleveling, the counter system doesn't really matter. It doesn't feel good to have a few units who just decimate everything and have some units who might be good against a specific type of enemy. Cavalries are stupid broken.
Eventually, your army will grow very large, and it can be extremely cumbersome to have to manage 40-50 people at once. This could also be a part of the appeal, as the tactics system is pretty neat and it is fun to work with usually.
The animations are really good but at some point just feel time consuming and I ended up skipping all of them which is a bummer. The art style in this game is top tier, thank you Vanillaware. That being said though, a HUGE amount of character designs feel undermined by the fact that they look largely the same as mercenaries/common hired units. I was so disappointed when I learned one of the characters I started this game for, Yahna, was basically a carbon copy of the witch mercenary. I think if you someone to care about a character, having them be visually indistinguishable from NPCs is not a good idea.
I think the story ends up being pretty barebones, which is a shame because the rapports/supports and small character moments were all pretty great. The music was nothing to write home about imo but it wasn't bad either.
Overall, I think it's a decent game that I think falls short in aspects that I crave in a tactical RPG, being challenge, story, and music. I could see someone loving this, but for me its a bit too slow and long, with mostly good aspects but nothing great. I feel like I dogged on the game a lot in this review but it does genuinely have good things going for it and I would play it again. This is still the dumbest name I have seen for a serious game. At least you can marry your cousin.