Many feelings on this game, for it would most likely have been my most favourite, if not for some big caveat. The graphics are gorgeous , especially the character arts. Also the environments are very detailed. The ideas of farming, item shopping, leveling and money farming bring many mechanics to the table that could have been made for a really great mixture. The scope of this game is quite big, but, from what I played of the action portion of the game (first dungeon + boss) it is pretty good in its spacing of content, it never felt like something overstayed it welcome or things like areas were to big or drawn out. The music was great and the sounds good, it even had voiced lines for the welcoming lines of characters.
But now I get to the mayor flaw: The combat. It is a big part of the overall game, so it is quite center staged and it was, sadly , frustrating. The hitbox of the characters sword is quite short and can only hit the front, not a bit diagonal. So parts become a problem were enemies place themself to the side of a bottleneck like a bridge and there is no way to hit them without getting hit by them. Also there is nothing like a stunlock or knockback mechanic to avoid hits by enemies. Many enemies recklessly charge into me and hitting them does nothing to get me out of harms way (Except for the snakes , if i analysed it correctly) . Also their hitboxes linger a bit after beeing defeated.
Those would be the main points that led to a lot of frustration, which is why i only played the first dungeon. I surely was able to port home at every point, but it felt like trial and error and walking back again and again was a bit annyoing.
The theme was not 100% met, but this is a bit subjective. One would say having combat is not "friendly" or romancing is not quite the same, but i don't want to get to hard on this. If those points were fixed, this game would have been stellar and surely placed first or second for the games I reviewed. This is why this is possibly the biggest review text I wrote, because i really saw the potential and talent behind this one. Please don't take it the wrong way. :)
- Vashetrockner from ncon_ev