This was a test to see how much bullshit players are willing to put up with for a admittedly pretty lovely 10 hour story. Ending up spending 15-20 hours on the same exact story I just finished to unlock two 1 minute cutscenes and 1 hour long finale.
Anyways, I failed the test. Should have just watched the endings on youtube. I would imagine the busy work was an intentional aspect of the game, trying to deliver some level of exhaustion or frustration to the player in order to elevate the emotional moments with your friends, but jesus christ it was too much.
The main cast (Kaine, Weiss, and Emil, also the king) were all absolutely lovely. Great costume design, incredible voice acting, great dialogue. Combat was fine, but I definitely wouldn't call it enjoyable. Boss fights were all incredibly bland mechanically, didn't enjoy a single one until the new ending added in Replicant. Music was lovely, but I can tell only a couple of the tracks will stick with me like Automata did. The main village theme was incredibly beautiful.
If it wasn't for the absolutely brutal busy work, this would be a 4-4.5 in my head. This is the seed that would grow into one of my favorite games of all time (Automata), but by itself pales in comparison. I often found myself wondering what other video game auteur I would be willing to slog through this for, and I don't even have an answer for that. Probably nobody.
Anyways, I failed the test. Should have just watched the endings on youtube. I would imagine the busy work was an intentional aspect of the game, trying to deliver some level of exhaustion or frustration to the player in order to elevate the emotional moments with your friends, but jesus christ it was too much.
The main cast (Kaine, Weiss, and Emil, also the king) were all absolutely lovely. Great costume design, incredible voice acting, great dialogue. Combat was fine, but I definitely wouldn't call it enjoyable. Boss fights were all incredibly bland mechanically, didn't enjoy a single one until the new ending added in Replicant. Music was lovely, but I can tell only a couple of the tracks will stick with me like Automata did. The main village theme was incredibly beautiful.
If it wasn't for the absolutely brutal busy work, this would be a 4-4.5 in my head. This is the seed that would grow into one of my favorite games of all time (Automata), but by itself pales in comparison. I often found myself wondering what other video game auteur I would be willing to slog through this for, and I don't even have an answer for that. Probably nobody.