powerburial
2017
Could have been a good game, held back by trying to be a soulslike. It's a good combat system but doesn't gain much by being difficult. Bosses aren't fun to fight. If this was just an action-adventure game, it'd be a lot more fun.
It feels strange for me to not give this 5 stars because there's definitely some exceptional aspects. The movement, to me, might be the best movement I've played in a video game. More easily overlooked, its impressive how effortlessly it lets you move and orient yourself in 3D space, quickly, on an xyz plane. Being able to move that way in a game is relatively rare [I understand basically standard for mech games but I'm an outsider and am thinking of this more in the context of action games and 3D real-time combat games as a whole], and when it is present it's usually difficult to understand or somewhat clunky. If everything about this game totally sucked but it retained that movement, it would still be extremely notable and, imo, influential. In the same way as Sekiro mechanics have started to, and will continue to, influence action games- not just soulslike but video game combat in general- I believe (and really hope) the strides Fromsoft have made in creating fast, satisfying movement will inform movement in their games going forward, as well as inspire other developers.
The gameplay is extremely good overall, and despite it's old school mission-based format, stays fresh; arguably, it gets better the more you play it. It's easy to have a blast and let it wash over you, mashing buttons and smiling at the screen. On the other end of the spectrum, there's an almost bottomless amount of depth when it comes to customizing your mech, and your own control of it. There are so many interesting little techniques veteran players can master regarding movement and aiming that new players will never even know exist. It's a huge success for a game to have that wide of a spectrum of playability: that low of a skill floor and that high of a skill ceiling. PVP freaks will be discovering new techniques and builds for years to come.
While the story and characters are not the best Fromsoft have done, I think it's all a lot better than most people give it credit for. Characters like Walter, Rusty, and Carla- while not very complex or unique- are really likeable and memorable. These are more like archetypes than deep characters, and I think that's fine. Michigan's boisterous but charming affable drill sergeant routine, Snail's almost lovable uptight snootiness, Iguazu as a relatable figure the player can feel both a kinship and rivalry with. These were all great to me. Again, not super in-depth, but its not a game you're playing for character development. They have their roles in the story and in their relation to the player and it's executed well.
The visuals and sound design of the game are also extremely impressive. I've since gotten almost numb to it, but the first few times playing this game, it immediately stood out. Just flying up to a building in the war-torn city and rotating my camera to look at all the floating industrial megafactories in the sky. It's a really great science fiction aesthetic- the kind of thing I want to see a lot more in games.
Having said all that, I can't even really give you a good reason why this is a 4 instead of a 5. For comparison, I gave Resident Evil 4 Remake a 5. Why? Because I felt it perfectly executed everything it set out to do. For what the game is, and the players' relation to it, there are in my estimation no major mistakes on the developers part. It's extremely engaging from start to finish. As I said in my succinct review, it feels like "the perfect action game."
So what's my issue with AC6? It just feels, to me, like it could've been more. I can't quite put my finger on it, but so many aspects feel like it ALMOST got there. Like it could've been my favorite Fromsoft entry ever. The story could have just had a little bit more to it to make it more meaningful. Or the characters could have been a bit more engaging. Or the ending boss battles could have been just a little more interesting. And so on. I genuinely am too unfamiliar with the AC series and the mech genre in general, so that might just be an error in my perception. Maybe for what they set out to to do, this is about the limit of it. Maybe it is a perfectly executed mech game, and my vision is clouded by being a Fromsoft groupie. Like I'm holding them to a standard that's not reachable RE: mech games. I really don't know. I just know it does feel like there's something missing that would've taken it over the edge from "really, really good" to "one of the best of all time."
The gameplay is extremely good overall, and despite it's old school mission-based format, stays fresh; arguably, it gets better the more you play it. It's easy to have a blast and let it wash over you, mashing buttons and smiling at the screen. On the other end of the spectrum, there's an almost bottomless amount of depth when it comes to customizing your mech, and your own control of it. There are so many interesting little techniques veteran players can master regarding movement and aiming that new players will never even know exist. It's a huge success for a game to have that wide of a spectrum of playability: that low of a skill floor and that high of a skill ceiling. PVP freaks will be discovering new techniques and builds for years to come.
While the story and characters are not the best Fromsoft have done, I think it's all a lot better than most people give it credit for. Characters like Walter, Rusty, and Carla- while not very complex or unique- are really likeable and memorable. These are more like archetypes than deep characters, and I think that's fine. Michigan's boisterous but charming affable drill sergeant routine, Snail's almost lovable uptight snootiness, Iguazu as a relatable figure the player can feel both a kinship and rivalry with. These were all great to me. Again, not super in-depth, but its not a game you're playing for character development. They have their roles in the story and in their relation to the player and it's executed well.
The visuals and sound design of the game are also extremely impressive. I've since gotten almost numb to it, but the first few times playing this game, it immediately stood out. Just flying up to a building in the war-torn city and rotating my camera to look at all the floating industrial megafactories in the sky. It's a really great science fiction aesthetic- the kind of thing I want to see a lot more in games.
Having said all that, I can't even really give you a good reason why this is a 4 instead of a 5. For comparison, I gave Resident Evil 4 Remake a 5. Why? Because I felt it perfectly executed everything it set out to do. For what the game is, and the players' relation to it, there are in my estimation no major mistakes on the developers part. It's extremely engaging from start to finish. As I said in my succinct review, it feels like "the perfect action game."
So what's my issue with AC6? It just feels, to me, like it could've been more. I can't quite put my finger on it, but so many aspects feel like it ALMOST got there. Like it could've been my favorite Fromsoft entry ever. The story could have just had a little bit more to it to make it more meaningful. Or the characters could have been a bit more engaging. Or the ending boss battles could have been just a little more interesting. And so on. I genuinely am too unfamiliar with the AC series and the mech genre in general, so that might just be an error in my perception. Maybe for what they set out to to do, this is about the limit of it. Maybe it is a perfectly executed mech game, and my vision is clouded by being a Fromsoft groupie. Like I'm holding them to a standard that's not reachable RE: mech games. I really don't know. I just know it does feel like there's something missing that would've taken it over the edge from "really, really good" to "one of the best of all time."
It's good tetris but I don't buy that its much more than that
2023
The perfect action game
I'm actually so disappointed in this game. Part of it might've been my expectations. Ishin was like this legendary spinoff I was waiting to play since I first heard about it after finishing 0. Still, RGG definitely made a lot of weird decisions that inarguably hamstring the game.
When I first saw it was carrying over a lot of the RPG-ized mechanics from Y7, I was pretty excited. I thought things like gear and crafting worked way better in those systems compared to the traditional Yakuza games. There's a weapon crafting system that basically looks like Monster Hunter's. Unfortunately, you will hardly get to use it. Money is so scarce outside of chicken race exploits and save-scumming gambling that you'd have to dedicate an actual dozen of hours to doing tedious crafting tasks to get it to the level to craft the high-grade weapons. You are so aggressively incentivized to ignore it. XP has a similar issue. It's fine for a while, then you hit about the halfway point of the game and it slows to a crawl. You basically stop unlocking new skills. Again, you can remedy this by dumping more hours into the game to make money to buy XP orbs (or spend real money on them; can't help but wonder if this is an Assassin's Creed Odyssey situation), but really it just doesn't feel worth it. Why bother? Just finish the game and save yourself 20 hours on tedious crafting and money-making schemes.
The combat and enemy design also have pretty significant issues. I found the boss fights pretty great in the first half of the game, but later they fall off sharply, becoming damage sponges (its BAD) and having very few interesting mechanics. In general, you'll be spending most of combat wailing on or shooting at a downed enemy. In sword fights, you will likely find yourself just repeating the 4 light 2 heavy combo. Sure there's other things you can do, but outside of most situations, this is just the best thing you can do. It's a shame because a lot of the aspects of the real-time combat are good. It has great hit collision as in Y0/K1, instead of Y6/K2's weird bumbling Death-Stranding-tripping-over-a-rock movement and collision. The gameplay could be better, it's just held back by baffling combat and enemy design choices. I found few fights to be memorable, except the Sauna fight and the three-way buddy brawl, which I admit almost makes the game worth playing in itself.
I found the plot to be pretty forgettable. It's not terrible like 3, just kind of standard for the series. The opening premise is interesting, and with all these great actors that have worked on the newer games I was hoping it'd be elevated to the levels of 0 and 7. Some of the acting / characterization was good. This is maybe the most interesting incarnation of Kiryu. You see sides of him that are rare to see in the mainline series. I thought Mine's actor did a really great job. Saejima and Majima stayed interesting throughout the whole game. Awano did good reprising his role. Most other characters, I was unimpressed or let down by. Kuze was a huge disappointment. Now, I don't know if this is the writer's fault or the actor's fault, but Kuze played such a bland character that didn't seem to incorporate the original characters personality and quirks the way nearly every other character did. Maybe his performance felt dry because they gave the character nothing to work with. For whatever reason, it was a bummer.
In conclusion, I would only recommend this game to diehard fans of the entire series. A lot of the series' charm is present here, but the gameplay and systems are very poor. I'd seen people online recommending new players to start the series with this and after finishing I have to strongly argue against this. It will definitely turn some people off on the series. So much of this game is a wink at other characters and plot points in older games that a new player will just not appreciate or even notice. I also have a sneaking suspicion that the characters don't work well enough on their own and need the implied backdrop of which Yakuza character is "playing" them to fill in gaps. This game is for fans of the series, who know and accept its tropes and repetition, and love it in the way people love a bad season of their favorite TV show.
When I first saw it was carrying over a lot of the RPG-ized mechanics from Y7, I was pretty excited. I thought things like gear and crafting worked way better in those systems compared to the traditional Yakuza games. There's a weapon crafting system that basically looks like Monster Hunter's. Unfortunately, you will hardly get to use it. Money is so scarce outside of chicken race exploits and save-scumming gambling that you'd have to dedicate an actual dozen of hours to doing tedious crafting tasks to get it to the level to craft the high-grade weapons. You are so aggressively incentivized to ignore it. XP has a similar issue. It's fine for a while, then you hit about the halfway point of the game and it slows to a crawl. You basically stop unlocking new skills. Again, you can remedy this by dumping more hours into the game to make money to buy XP orbs (or spend real money on them; can't help but wonder if this is an Assassin's Creed Odyssey situation), but really it just doesn't feel worth it. Why bother? Just finish the game and save yourself 20 hours on tedious crafting and money-making schemes.
The combat and enemy design also have pretty significant issues. I found the boss fights pretty great in the first half of the game, but later they fall off sharply, becoming damage sponges (its BAD) and having very few interesting mechanics. In general, you'll be spending most of combat wailing on or shooting at a downed enemy. In sword fights, you will likely find yourself just repeating the 4 light 2 heavy combo. Sure there's other things you can do, but outside of most situations, this is just the best thing you can do. It's a shame because a lot of the aspects of the real-time combat are good. It has great hit collision as in Y0/K1, instead of Y6/K2's weird bumbling Death-Stranding-tripping-over-a-rock movement and collision. The gameplay could be better, it's just held back by baffling combat and enemy design choices. I found few fights to be memorable, except the Sauna fight and the three-way buddy brawl, which I admit almost makes the game worth playing in itself.
I found the plot to be pretty forgettable. It's not terrible like 3, just kind of standard for the series. The opening premise is interesting, and with all these great actors that have worked on the newer games I was hoping it'd be elevated to the levels of 0 and 7. Some of the acting / characterization was good. This is maybe the most interesting incarnation of Kiryu. You see sides of him that are rare to see in the mainline series. I thought Mine's actor did a really great job. Saejima and Majima stayed interesting throughout the whole game. Awano did good reprising his role. Most other characters, I was unimpressed or let down by. Kuze was a huge disappointment. Now, I don't know if this is the writer's fault or the actor's fault, but Kuze played such a bland character that didn't seem to incorporate the original characters personality and quirks the way nearly every other character did. Maybe his performance felt dry because they gave the character nothing to work with. For whatever reason, it was a bummer.
In conclusion, I would only recommend this game to diehard fans of the entire series. A lot of the series' charm is present here, but the gameplay and systems are very poor. I'd seen people online recommending new players to start the series with this and after finishing I have to strongly argue against this. It will definitely turn some people off on the series. So much of this game is a wink at other characters and plot points in older games that a new player will just not appreciate or even notice. I also have a sneaking suspicion that the characters don't work well enough on their own and need the implied backdrop of which Yakuza character is "playing" them to fill in gaps. This game is for fans of the series, who know and accept its tropes and repetition, and love it in the way people love a bad season of their favorite TV show.
The fact that so much of the dialogue was Like That and I still came away caring about the plot and the characters is a triumph in video game writing. Still, every instance of the word 'Flark' should have been cut from the game- maybe a few instances. I'm sure its like some classic thing from the comics people love, but even they'd have to admit it was overdone. Or at least I'd hope they would, for their sake.
Still, the characters were really likable, and there's a lot of laugh-out-loud funny moments. Combat isn't special but it's not too painful and by the end has some satisfying moments when you're chaining companion skills together and spending less time holding down right trigger. Second to last fight is one of the most tedious I've done in recent games, though.
Levels are mostly linear, which is fine for a game like this, with a few collectibles hidden off to the side that scratched the treasure hunter itch. There are a few glaring moments- probably 4 or 5- where the game does a really bad job making it visually apparent which direction you're supposed to go. Usually the culprit would be a crack in the wall you're supposed to slide through, except the problem is they don't really stick out compared to purely visual uninteractable gaps that are all over the place. Not a major issue but frustrating.
Still, overall, I liked this more than I was expecting to, given I'm not really a big fan of Marvel movies (and the humors like nails on a chalkboard at this point but they manage to keep it charming mostly). Was expecting Uncharted and got something a little closer to God Of War Ragnarok which was a nice surprise. Would highly recommend to anyone interested in cinematic games. If you're mostly into gameplay and not interested in hearing dialogue, skip this one. It's all talking. They literally don't shut up.
Still, the characters were really likable, and there's a lot of laugh-out-loud funny moments. Combat isn't special but it's not too painful and by the end has some satisfying moments when you're chaining companion skills together and spending less time holding down right trigger. Second to last fight is one of the most tedious I've done in recent games, though.
Levels are mostly linear, which is fine for a game like this, with a few collectibles hidden off to the side that scratched the treasure hunter itch. There are a few glaring moments- probably 4 or 5- where the game does a really bad job making it visually apparent which direction you're supposed to go. Usually the culprit would be a crack in the wall you're supposed to slide through, except the problem is they don't really stick out compared to purely visual uninteractable gaps that are all over the place. Not a major issue but frustrating.
Still, overall, I liked this more than I was expecting to, given I'm not really a big fan of Marvel movies (and the humors like nails on a chalkboard at this point but they manage to keep it charming mostly). Was expecting Uncharted and got something a little closer to God Of War Ragnarok which was a nice surprise. Would highly recommend to anyone interested in cinematic games. If you're mostly into gameplay and not interested in hearing dialogue, skip this one. It's all talking. They literally don't shut up.
I'm already not a fan of the Nioh series and Team Ninja's take on Souls games, so this review is biased. If you're into Nioh 2, you'll probably be into this.
Right off the bat, my first and maybe biggest complaint is the parry timing is counter-intuitive. It has a long windup compared to Sekiro's which is effectively instant and can be cancelled into from most attacks and movements. The timing between a standard neutral parry and a directional parry is also different, and depending on if you move forward or away from the attack can vary the time of when you need to parry. I can see for some this might add an extra layer of depth to the difficulty, but to me it just felt inconsistent and frustrating. When you combine that with the PC version's many performance issues, namely stutters and frame drops, it makes the game feel actively bad to play at times.
I don't know if Nioh fans like the aggressive overstuffed inventory loot/armor/weapon system, but this game cemented that I despise it. What a fucking drag combing through 90% useless bullshit to try to look for a weapon or armor you like. I'm sure some people like this, but its just not for me. Team Ninja can definitely make some great gameplay, but their attempts at Souls games just have this lack of refinement that I don't have the patience to tolerate.
I guess who this review is for, the people I would advise to pass this game over, are fans of Fromsoft Games who couldn't get into the Nioh games but think this might be the one to grab them: it won't. All the shit you hate about Nioh is here, just as bad or worse.
Finally, I just want to clarify to fans of this game: I don't think its bad. There are a lot of design choices I don't gel with, and I don't like the timing/feel on parries, which is at the core of the gameplay. I just feel all the parts are here to make a much better game, and it's bogged down by a lot of (imo) bad design choices.
Right off the bat, my first and maybe biggest complaint is the parry timing is counter-intuitive. It has a long windup compared to Sekiro's which is effectively instant and can be cancelled into from most attacks and movements. The timing between a standard neutral parry and a directional parry is also different, and depending on if you move forward or away from the attack can vary the time of when you need to parry. I can see for some this might add an extra layer of depth to the difficulty, but to me it just felt inconsistent and frustrating. When you combine that with the PC version's many performance issues, namely stutters and frame drops, it makes the game feel actively bad to play at times.
I don't know if Nioh fans like the aggressive overstuffed inventory loot/armor/weapon system, but this game cemented that I despise it. What a fucking drag combing through 90% useless bullshit to try to look for a weapon or armor you like. I'm sure some people like this, but its just not for me. Team Ninja can definitely make some great gameplay, but their attempts at Souls games just have this lack of refinement that I don't have the patience to tolerate.
I guess who this review is for, the people I would advise to pass this game over, are fans of Fromsoft Games who couldn't get into the Nioh games but think this might be the one to grab them: it won't. All the shit you hate about Nioh is here, just as bad or worse.
Finally, I just want to clarify to fans of this game: I don't think its bad. There are a lot of design choices I don't gel with, and I don't like the timing/feel on parries, which is at the core of the gameplay. I just feel all the parts are here to make a much better game, and it's bogged down by a lot of (imo) bad design choices.
2021
Deducted half a point because it probably does permanent damage to your brain
2019
Will update with a more detailed review when the game launches for real later this year but this is the most fun I've had playing an ARPG. I prefer it over Diablo 2 and PoE (not to say that it's necessarily BETTER). Needs a few QoL changes (the passive respec system makes me want to pull my hair out), but building and leveling a character, then optimizing it in endgame is extremely satisfying. It has a great crafting system as well. It feels like what CoD4 did for the FPS genre and what Vampire Survivors did for...roguelikes? It just tweaks everything to give maximum dopamine output. The game is totally addictive.
2023
This game completely nails everything it sets out to do. I can't think of a single significant mistake or bad design choice. The combat is fun even at it's simplest (mashing 4/4 light attacks), but has a ton of depth to explore. It doesn't reach the levels of DMC5 or Bayonetta 1 but it doesn't need to, it carves its own niche.
It has a really distinct style that's extremely well-animated, matching with the great voice-acting, tone, and humor to give it a fun saturday morning cartoon vibe. It brings me back to my first time playing DMC3, laughing out loud at the cool but over-the-top cutscenes. At first, I was scared the tone and attempts at humor would be a turn-off I'd just have to tolerate, but it quickly proved itself. The Korsica door cutscene will be seared into my memory forever as a classic hilarious bit. The characters are so much better than you'd expect, and the story hits every beat perfectly and ends in an extremely satisfying way.
This is the game I've been waiting a decade for Platinum to make, it feels like them at their prime. If you're a fan of games like Devil May Cry and Bayonetta, you absolutely have to try this.
It has a really distinct style that's extremely well-animated, matching with the great voice-acting, tone, and humor to give it a fun saturday morning cartoon vibe. It brings me back to my first time playing DMC3, laughing out loud at the cool but over-the-top cutscenes. At first, I was scared the tone and attempts at humor would be a turn-off I'd just have to tolerate, but it quickly proved itself. The Korsica door cutscene will be seared into my memory forever as a classic hilarious bit. The characters are so much better than you'd expect, and the story hits every beat perfectly and ends in an extremely satisfying way.
This is the game I've been waiting a decade for Platinum to make, it feels like them at their prime. If you're a fan of games like Devil May Cry and Bayonetta, you absolutely have to try this.
Really expected to drop this and was basically trying it out of a sense of obligation. It's got some annoying QoL issues (the pathing drove me crazy, party members bumping into each other) but I found even the combat engaging by the end. The dynamic interactions between the party members was really cool, and there's some great areas to explore. Also I find the late 90s gen x dnd nerd humor the game is full of pretty endearing at this point. If I'd played it like 5 years ago, I think it would've just annoyed me.
Good game trapped in a mid game. Basically every attempt to copy Souls design was poor gameplay/combat design. It would've been a much better game with a standard action autosave system. Without the ability to travel between bonfires, backtracking through levels is a slog. The combat is worse Sekiro, which is still REALLY good, but there's a lot of things they don't understand that makes a lot of fighting against certain enemies really frustrating and tedious. For example, in Sekiro, you can always cancel a light attack into a dodge or parry, and in general your animations are faster. If you try to play this game quickly on a harder difficulty, you're constantly getting interrupted and hit out of your attacks. You instead have to play patiently and slowly, which is honestly just a lot less fun and interesting than setting it to easy and going wild with longer combos more often.
The characters are better than I was expecting, but not amazing. Plot is serviceable, has some cool moments. The exploration is at times pretty satisfying, but hampered by the Souls checkpoint system and the inability to fast travel. By the end of the game if there was a collectible I could now access from a new ability, if it was out of the way I just wouldn't bother. Who cares? I'm not spending 20 minutes trekking through this winding level to get a force echo or whatever.
If they can clean up the sluggishness of the combat, fix the level design / checkpoint contradiction, and kick up the plot and characters a bit in the sequel, we could be looking at a genuinely good game. As it stands, Fallen Order is a mid game, but it's one of the better mid games I've played.
The characters are better than I was expecting, but not amazing. Plot is serviceable, has some cool moments. The exploration is at times pretty satisfying, but hampered by the Souls checkpoint system and the inability to fast travel. By the end of the game if there was a collectible I could now access from a new ability, if it was out of the way I just wouldn't bother. Who cares? I'm not spending 20 minutes trekking through this winding level to get a force echo or whatever.
If they can clean up the sluggishness of the combat, fix the level design / checkpoint contradiction, and kick up the plot and characters a bit in the sequel, we could be looking at a genuinely good game. As it stands, Fallen Order is a mid game, but it's one of the better mid games I've played.
2018
Sweet game, fun little twist on katamari with nice music, cute tone. It being about 2 hours is a positive. Surprisingly soothing.
Always cool when devs make a good game and put it in a bad game. Basically every design choice and system mechanic outside of the missions feel like they were made to aggressively hamper your enjoyment of the game. Can probably be modded into a 5/5 game.
2022
Chained Echoes is a game of contrasts....
Really, this game is so polished and well-designed for being an amateur, almost sub-indie game. It does a lot of things better than not only competing indie JRPGs, but actual mainstream JRPGs. It has some of the best map design and exploration in a 2d 16bit JRPG, at times feeling like a 3d zone from Xenoblade Chronicles or Final Fantasy 12. Once you unlock your mechs, it recontexualizes many zones by basically adding a Z-plane. It shouldn't work but it does. It's like if 2.5D actually meant something.
This game really shines in the mechanical, gameplay aspects. An interesting battle system (that does get stale unfortunately but less so than the vast majority of JRPGs), the map exploration, the feeling of constantly unlocking new systems to toy with. I didn't think I enjoyed any traditional JRPG gameplay but this game reminded me devs are just not doing a great job making it engaging these last decades.
It initially opens with a very interesting premise and an engaging cast of characters. The first act I would recommend to basically any old school fan, especially fans of Suikoden and Xenogears. However, this is where we get to my opening line about the contrasts here. This game in some ways is so impressive and polished and well-designed that- when its at its best- competes with massive developers like Monolith Soft and Square Enix. However, as you get further into the game, it stops sucking its gut in. Cracks begin to show. It's hard to pinpoint, but there's a lack of focus and coherence that was making me start to lose interest in not just the story and character arcs but the game itself. Features and system mechanics pile up going from generous to aimless. There's a distinct amateurish vibe, like the writing of a flash game. One prominent example is the wild variance in tone and quality of writing, most times being a standard JRPG a child could play then at other times veering of course with overt sexual themes, swearing, hanging corpses in town, or a party member ruefully retelling a memory of a gang rape. It's not that I'm particularly sensitive to this, but you need to pick one or the other. This is not a mature JRPG for adults, and it's also at times not appropriate for pre-adolescents whatsoever.
I made it to the beginning of Act 3, and it was really just starting to feel like there wasn't a vision here for what this story is trying to tell. It was just piling on new things. This happened, then this happened, oh I just made up a cool backstory for this character, let me add that in now. As I haven't seen the end, maybe I'm mistaken and everything comes together and wraps up really nicely, but that's not the impression I've gotten at all with my experience.
Still, I'm probably much more critical on this than other people would be. MOST JRPGs have a pretty dogshit story or dull characters. People just accept it as part of the genre. If you think, say, the Tales Of games or Trails games have good characters and plots, what this game offers will likely be sufficient (yes, that is a dig at you but it's ok).
So, why am I eviscerating this game and giving it 4 stars? The first act is THAT good. This games high points in design philosophy and mechanics are so well-done that any fan of the genre should play it to the end of Act 1. If you're compelled to finish it, great; if you start to slowly lose interest as I did, big deal, you still had a great time with Act 1. I'm bitter that it didn't follow through, but I'll be interested to see what this developer does next. There is a lot of potential here.
Really, this game is so polished and well-designed for being an amateur, almost sub-indie game. It does a lot of things better than not only competing indie JRPGs, but actual mainstream JRPGs. It has some of the best map design and exploration in a 2d 16bit JRPG, at times feeling like a 3d zone from Xenoblade Chronicles or Final Fantasy 12. Once you unlock your mechs, it recontexualizes many zones by basically adding a Z-plane. It shouldn't work but it does. It's like if 2.5D actually meant something.
This game really shines in the mechanical, gameplay aspects. An interesting battle system (that does get stale unfortunately but less so than the vast majority of JRPGs), the map exploration, the feeling of constantly unlocking new systems to toy with. I didn't think I enjoyed any traditional JRPG gameplay but this game reminded me devs are just not doing a great job making it engaging these last decades.
It initially opens with a very interesting premise and an engaging cast of characters. The first act I would recommend to basically any old school fan, especially fans of Suikoden and Xenogears. However, this is where we get to my opening line about the contrasts here. This game in some ways is so impressive and polished and well-designed that- when its at its best- competes with massive developers like Monolith Soft and Square Enix. However, as you get further into the game, it stops sucking its gut in. Cracks begin to show. It's hard to pinpoint, but there's a lack of focus and coherence that was making me start to lose interest in not just the story and character arcs but the game itself. Features and system mechanics pile up going from generous to aimless. There's a distinct amateurish vibe, like the writing of a flash game. One prominent example is the wild variance in tone and quality of writing, most times being a standard JRPG a child could play then at other times veering of course with overt sexual themes, swearing, hanging corpses in town, or a party member ruefully retelling a memory of a gang rape. It's not that I'm particularly sensitive to this, but you need to pick one or the other. This is not a mature JRPG for adults, and it's also at times not appropriate for pre-adolescents whatsoever.
I made it to the beginning of Act 3, and it was really just starting to feel like there wasn't a vision here for what this story is trying to tell. It was just piling on new things. This happened, then this happened, oh I just made up a cool backstory for this character, let me add that in now. As I haven't seen the end, maybe I'm mistaken and everything comes together and wraps up really nicely, but that's not the impression I've gotten at all with my experience.
Still, I'm probably much more critical on this than other people would be. MOST JRPGs have a pretty dogshit story or dull characters. People just accept it as part of the genre. If you think, say, the Tales Of games or Trails games have good characters and plots, what this game offers will likely be sufficient (yes, that is a dig at you but it's ok).
So, why am I eviscerating this game and giving it 4 stars? The first act is THAT good. This games high points in design philosophy and mechanics are so well-done that any fan of the genre should play it to the end of Act 1. If you're compelled to finish it, great; if you start to slowly lose interest as I did, big deal, you still had a great time with Act 1. I'm bitter that it didn't follow through, but I'll be interested to see what this developer does next. There is a lot of potential here.