This review contains spoilers
This was a fun surprise! For the most part, this matches the quality of the base game but presents it in a much tighter package. There are a few points I want to touch on.
The combat here is refreshed by removing all the extraneous blades and giving you a much cleaner roster of two blades per character. It makes the individual character bonds feel stronger as everyone you are building is tied to the main narrative. I love the addition of the swap-out system too, it makes an already great combat system feel so much more kinetic, especially in how you can regain health.
Moving onto the story and characters. Even as someone who was an apologist for the cast of the base game, the personalities, and relationships in Torna are much more genuine and believable. Lora is a much more compelling protagonist than Rex (sorry Rex stans, it's just true) and her journey from humble beginnings to knighthood feels more believable. Her relationship with Jin is great too and fleshes his own character out so much more than the base game did. Addam and Hugo are both delightful additions to the roster, though Hugo feels a little on the periphery compared to the rest of the cast. Perhaps my main gripe is that Malos feels like a more hollow character in this expansion. I understand why, and it makes sense for where his arc has to end by the end of the base game. Nonetheless, he comes off as a bit of a second-rate chaos demon/Joker-style character here.
Overall, if you've played the base game, you owe it to yourself to give this a shot. It only enhances the way I view the story of the base game and adds a fantastic amount of context to the story, whilst being a bang-up RPG in its own right.
The combat here is refreshed by removing all the extraneous blades and giving you a much cleaner roster of two blades per character. It makes the individual character bonds feel stronger as everyone you are building is tied to the main narrative. I love the addition of the swap-out system too, it makes an already great combat system feel so much more kinetic, especially in how you can regain health.
Moving onto the story and characters. Even as someone who was an apologist for the cast of the base game, the personalities, and relationships in Torna are much more genuine and believable. Lora is a much more compelling protagonist than Rex (sorry Rex stans, it's just true) and her journey from humble beginnings to knighthood feels more believable. Her relationship with Jin is great too and fleshes his own character out so much more than the base game did. Addam and Hugo are both delightful additions to the roster, though Hugo feels a little on the periphery compared to the rest of the cast. Perhaps my main gripe is that Malos feels like a more hollow character in this expansion. I understand why, and it makes sense for where his arc has to end by the end of the base game. Nonetheless, he comes off as a bit of a second-rate chaos demon/Joker-style character here.
Overall, if you've played the base game, you owe it to yourself to give this a shot. It only enhances the way I view the story of the base game and adds a fantastic amount of context to the story, whilst being a bang-up RPG in its own right.