(Written at 13h mark)
For now I just don't understand the game. I have played it for 13 hours, but couldn't see why people call it a hidden gem. The pawn AI is terrible, the enemy scaling is awful. The world feels bland, quests are mediocre and story nonexistent. Where is the "hidden gem" that people talk about? I will try again later to understand it.
Edit: The game is just not for me. I gave it a second chance, but the negatives just overweigh the positives too much, so I will not torture myself any further than 20 hours. After reaching the capital, I have started clearing the surrounding areas, but the game just didn't manage to make me want to play it anymore.
The good (kind of):
+ The battle system. It is a definitely unique approach to how combat goes, with how you can experiment with various attacks and attack allignments, and how you use your pawns to try to find your enemies' weaknesses, but I would not really say that I liked it that much, but it's more because of other aspects of the game rather than the combat itself. It certainly had potential to be better, but as it is, it just feels unpolished, slow and unresponsive.
+ Pawn system. Again, it is a unique and interesting approach to transform typical JRPG style parties into real-time ARPG format. Ideally, it would work well, and the ideas are there, but in my opinion the execution is lacking.
The bad:
- NPC AI and Pawn AI in particular. It's just awful. Pawns LOVE to suicide themselves by standing around doing nothing while the enemies are running and attacking close by. Often times I found myself getting annoyed by how they cast powerful spells that take a long time to cast on singular goblins, and then strike giant bosses with weak attacks and spells. The Pawns also love to stand and walk in your way when you cast your spells, blocking them with their bodies. And the comments that Pawns leave are just annoying, they say the same thing over and over again, making me wish they didn't talk at all. The enemy AI is not that much better. Enemies also into you and behind you doing nothing, bosses sometimes also are just standing if you strike them from afar.
- Story. Just nothing interesting going on, the story is vague and almost non-existent.
- Enemies. Same types of enemies everywhere, nothing interesting about them.
- Enemy scaling. That is one of the bigger issues that I have with this game. You are never on par with the enemy - it's either you one-shot them, or they one-shot you. There is almost nothing in between. Perhaps some people love grinding a boss for 10-20 minutes, but I just don't see the point. Even the enemies from the same group could differ significantly, with one shotting you, or you one-shotting others.
- Lack of clear progression. There are only two weapons in the shop in the region - a bit more expensive stronger one and a cheaper weaker one. You can upgrade them 3 times for a tiny boost in damage, and that's it. Apparently, some of your stats grow depending on your alignment as you level up, but it is very implicit and you don't know about it. I've seen how people call it a "great RPG", but the stats and skills system clearly shows that this in fact is not an RPG.
- Performance issues. The game stutters and runs poorly overall on a modern (5800x, 6600XT) system. Even though it is a game from 2013, that doesn't have anything impressive in terms of graphics.
Overall, this is a unpolished game with some interesting ideas that aren't implemented properly. It is not an RPG, but more of a Monster Hunter styled action-JRPG with a pseudo-fantasy-European style in it. And I can't say I am a big fan of it.
For now I just don't understand the game. I have played it for 13 hours, but couldn't see why people call it a hidden gem. The pawn AI is terrible, the enemy scaling is awful. The world feels bland, quests are mediocre and story nonexistent. Where is the "hidden gem" that people talk about? I will try again later to understand it.
Edit: The game is just not for me. I gave it a second chance, but the negatives just overweigh the positives too much, so I will not torture myself any further than 20 hours. After reaching the capital, I have started clearing the surrounding areas, but the game just didn't manage to make me want to play it anymore.
The good (kind of):
+ The battle system. It is a definitely unique approach to how combat goes, with how you can experiment with various attacks and attack allignments, and how you use your pawns to try to find your enemies' weaknesses, but I would not really say that I liked it that much, but it's more because of other aspects of the game rather than the combat itself. It certainly had potential to be better, but as it is, it just feels unpolished, slow and unresponsive.
+ Pawn system. Again, it is a unique and interesting approach to transform typical JRPG style parties into real-time ARPG format. Ideally, it would work well, and the ideas are there, but in my opinion the execution is lacking.
The bad:
- NPC AI and Pawn AI in particular. It's just awful. Pawns LOVE to suicide themselves by standing around doing nothing while the enemies are running and attacking close by. Often times I found myself getting annoyed by how they cast powerful spells that take a long time to cast on singular goblins, and then strike giant bosses with weak attacks and spells. The Pawns also love to stand and walk in your way when you cast your spells, blocking them with their bodies. And the comments that Pawns leave are just annoying, they say the same thing over and over again, making me wish they didn't talk at all. The enemy AI is not that much better. Enemies also into you and behind you doing nothing, bosses sometimes also are just standing if you strike them from afar.
- Story. Just nothing interesting going on, the story is vague and almost non-existent.
- Enemies. Same types of enemies everywhere, nothing interesting about them.
- Enemy scaling. That is one of the bigger issues that I have with this game. You are never on par with the enemy - it's either you one-shot them, or they one-shot you. There is almost nothing in between. Perhaps some people love grinding a boss for 10-20 minutes, but I just don't see the point. Even the enemies from the same group could differ significantly, with one shotting you, or you one-shotting others.
- Lack of clear progression. There are only two weapons in the shop in the region - a bit more expensive stronger one and a cheaper weaker one. You can upgrade them 3 times for a tiny boost in damage, and that's it. Apparently, some of your stats grow depending on your alignment as you level up, but it is very implicit and you don't know about it. I've seen how people call it a "great RPG", but the stats and skills system clearly shows that this in fact is not an RPG.
- Performance issues. The game stutters and runs poorly overall on a modern (5800x, 6600XT) system. Even though it is a game from 2013, that doesn't have anything impressive in terms of graphics.
Overall, this is a unpolished game with some interesting ideas that aren't implemented properly. It is not an RPG, but more of a Monster Hunter styled action-JRPG with a pseudo-fantasy-European style in it. And I can't say I am a big fan of it.