Celestian Tales: Old North

Finally getting around to completing this one, and we clocked in at 7 hours total - for that length, I'm willing to overlook a lot of minor grammatical issues and story pacing. Here's what worked: -The story feels like Suikoden-lite: there is a larger conflict (I'd say more like an invasion) and your little band of plucky young upstarts is woven into the intrigue and fighting over time. -You don't recruit, build bases, or have the large siege battles, hence the "lite" element. And due to the runtime, stories are wrapped up quickly and no idea overstays its welcome. -The writing is decent, even if a few notes fall flat. Characters do reveal a lot in their arguments with each other, takes on specific happenings, and their relationships with other story characters do have some resonance. For a shorter game, this is pretty well done. Again, barring some minor grammatical/thematic missteps. -There are no side quests, but you can get collectibles in the form of hidden secret items, and weapons/armor types. -Enemies don't drop gold. Instead they drop loot you can sell for profit. This is apparently the first in a trilogy, the second is already out and takes place 10 years after this one. There is also a DLC Howl of the Ravager which tells the backstory of a major NPC (I need to get around to it myself). What didn't work (other than some writing) is the last boss. This fool is TOUGH and the game doesn't prepare you well for it. Try to be close to level 30 and pay attention to abilities that allow you to control the entire battlefield and you'll be fine. If not, there's always YouTube. So enjoyable, short, minor issues, usually on sale. I can recommend this as long as folks aren't expecting AAA quality. Nice way to spend my weekend.

Great classic JRPG! Buy it if you're in love with games like Breath of Fire II, Suikoden, Radiant Historia or Trails in the Sky. It has a lot in common with those great games of the past!

I've only played this game for a few hours but here are my first impressions: Pros: Great Artstyle Great Music Minimal Battle System (for me, it's a plus, as it's relaxing not to have too many options to consider) Interesting variety of characters Cons: Numerous spelling and grammatical errors Few idle animations, could help make the world seem more alive if there were more It's a bit unclear at times on where to go (There is lore book that helps, but it's still not straightforward). Shadowing is a bit weird Ways to Improve: Add more idle animations, I thought the water animations looked really nice & fluid, so I think more of those kinds of animations in the world can make it seem more real and vibrant Some sort of minimap, this might get unlocked later, but I get a bit lost sometimes and a minimap could help circumvent that (have a minimise option so it doesn't clutter up a screen or have it as a separate screen). Double check your text, I know that there is probably a lot to write, but it's worth doing a second/third draft for writing even if it is time consuming. I like to think the developers for this game will learn new techniques for the second installment, because I can see that a lot of love & passion went into this game. I feel like it just needs a little more work to make this decent game into a great game, I'm looking forward to seeing any improvements you make for the second game.

This is probably the best JRPG I played so far (though, admittedly, I didn't play a large number of them): a decent story and characters, not too many maps resembling a maze, very good music, good character progression and a bit of battle strategy. Almost all battles are quite easy if you put a bit of effort in leveling up, distributing items and assigning capabilities. It is a bit short. Not enough to regret the purchase, but enough to give the impression of beng the first half of a larger game: it ends at the point where you expect it to develop into a larger story. It is a sort of very good prequel. It has two drawbacks common to many JRPGs: the lack of a map while exploring and a savepoint system that prevented me to play for a few minutes at a time, before leaving home and turning off the PC. Also, my characters reached maximum level a bit too early in the game. But, on the whole, it left a good impression.

Could have been a decent RPG but the writing is janky at times and has a rather dull story and the turn based combat gets quite tedious quickly as there is little depth to it, and to make things worse the ending just goes completely left field out of no where. I would not spend your money on this.