I didn't really expect that much from this game beyond a simple action rpg,
and really, that's what this game is. But I was sucked in by this
game's music, it's attention to detail in the visual aspects, and most
importantly, the story.
The story surprised me in being much more deep and mature than I expected.
There were a couple of themes carried through that I found interesting and
somewhat insightful, and the game does not shy away from death and grief. The
ending of this game is one of the most poignant and beautiful I have ever
experienced. In short, it was not the kiddy story I expected.
However I wouldn't exactly call it epic. There are definitely cliches and a
number of cheesy moments. There were also a number of lines which I couldn't
understand at all, which I put down to lost-in-translation cultural gaps, but
are possibly just bad writing.
The voice acting I felt added overall to the experience, and there is a lot
of it. Most of the acting is pretty good, some of it great, and some of it
really quite bad, but never unbearable.
Those parts not voice-acted are given emotion by the little face
illustrations of the character beside their written dialogue. This works well
for the most part, though since there is no facial animation, it is strange to
see a close up of a character yelling something angry with a placid smile on
their face during the cutscenes.
All the characters are interesting and loveable (excepting the villains,
obviously), and even the most minor of npcs are given interesting little
mini-stories that you can follow throughout the game. It makes the world (or at
least the little of it that you can explore, because this is not a game where
you travel very far) feel alive, and you care about the inhabitants of the city
you set out to save.
All this and I haven't even mentioned the core gameplay yet.
This is really because the gameplay is fun enough, but the story is what kept
me coming back to play this game. I really enjoyed it, and if a good, simple
story is all you need to enjoy a game, you can stop reading here and go
buy it.
For everyone else:
The battles are somewhat interesting, but frustrating in that they were
clearly designed with co-op play in mind. Your companion's AI is fairly
terrible, with people constantly falling off of cliffs, hitting the enemy about
twice a minute, and never using magic. And as the enemies get harder, you have
to kill them quick because your allies refuse to move out of the way of enemy
attacks.
Still, this is not a hard game, and I had fun chopping up enemies with the
different attacks of the four characters (you can swap between them easily at
any time). It helps that just about every enemy drops loot, and the loot system
is kind of cool in this game. I'll go into that later.
The level design is overall pretty good, although it's pretty easy to get
stuck and not know where to go next in the bigger dungeons, as the map is less
than helpful. There are plenty of simple puzzles that are usually pretty easy to
figure out, and keep the game going at a good pace.
The music is great, catchy and pleasant, and always matches the
mood well.
The graphics are good, the game is pretty and the environments are detailed
and fun to explore. I especially like that each new outfit you equip on your
characters changes the character sprite, and there's even a little pedestal
next to the armoury where you can get a close up 360 degree view of the
new gear.
The best way to get new armour and weapons is to get them made at the
armoury, which uses scrolls and materials, both of which drop as loot from
enemies. It's a fun way to get cool gear, and the game provides a ton of
different gear for which to collect the necessary materials and then make. It is
a bit annoying that you cannot tell the stats of gear before you pay to get it
made, but you can pretty much tell the quality from the cost of making it
anyway.
Like I said at the beginning, this game is really, at it's core, a simple
action rpg. However despite it's gameplay flaws, this is an original, beautiful
game with a compelling story, and I can recommend it to anyone with an interest
in the genre and 10–20 hours to spare.