Epic Wings I **Pre-Remaster Review**
Story Rating - ★★★★☆
The story is well crafted, although the dialogue can be rather hard to read considering the main characters way of speaking. Side characters have bits of lore to them, but it's hidden behind obscure powered up modes that are hidden throughout the world. It made me frustrated that I had to hunt down the "powered up" forms of characters to enjoy their rich story.
Menu/Items Rating - ★★★☆☆
There are plenty of items to equip and use within Epic Wings. I enjoyed the names of quite a few of them. The shop menus can be a bit of a hassle to see which weapons upgrade who, but once I figured it out, it became easier to choose what weapons I gave party members.
Combat Rating - ★★☆☆☆
The combat can be repetitive and sometimes outright boring at some parts of the game. The insanely high encounter rate mixed with certain skills being broken, made abusing them to wipe the floor with enemies the clear path. In late game, the combat is almost unfair unless you hunt down the parties ultimate forms and at which point brings the game back to the standard combat found prior.
Gameplay Rating - ★★★★★
The maps are filled with things to see and stuff to do. Once you unlock your helicopter mount the world opens up and the pacing increases dramatically. I was unfortunate and landed the helicopter on a tile that locked it away from use, but the dev had put in a failsafe in the means of an NPC that can teleport you around the map.
Nordscore- ★★★★☆
Epic Wings gives breath to JRPGs in the way that it's world building and character building are done. However, this series stands on it's own using it's own concepts by keeping things fresh and interesting. It's a shame that this story doesn't continue in Epic Wings II, but I hope to see Snock and his pals again in future installments. I recommend Epic Wings to anyone that enjoys classic JRPGs.