Indivisible

I was well surprised. It runs like a charm on my 11th gen i5 notebook without extra graphics hardware and on Garuda Linux! Least but not last, the storyboard, the dialogues and the lack of battle explanation are the weak points. The intro battle is very weird and barely explained. The fantasy fiction is too much JRPG for my taste, but it provides some new ideas. It really doesn't hurt the overall experience, due to design. IMO, most important is gameplay which is tight, the controls work very well, they are well-introduced, progressively. It provides a refreshing but focused mix of simple side scrolling platformer and fighting mixing real-time and rounds which I have rarely seen but waited for. While it still has leveling and plenty of mostly casual dialogue, it's not important and kids certainly wouldn't mind it. Not too much metroidvania either. I rather find it engaging how the controls slowly grow more complex over the first hours. Strategy exists in choosing attacks and combos but it also requires reacting to the attacks of enemies otherwise your party members are dying too fast. The difficulty is leveled by powerful special actions like reviving all of your party. Later, battles even switch between side-scrolling and action parts. Not late in the game, I suddenly ran into a stronger enemy. Even before the 3rd party member joined. The enemies get stronger. There aren't many weak enemies in between. But losing fights was not a frustrating experience for me because I could learn to dodge the attacks. I got better by myself, not because of grinding. The player still needs to manage savepoints in the traditional way but there is no stressful life system. Many means contribute to balance the difficulty. The artwork is very lit and beautiful to look at. But it also looks like hard work. The animation is literally handdrawn. I am very happy about the discount, otherwise I would have missed this game. As a console gamer, it reminds me of Nintendo console games.

the games combat system is unique and catchy, not hard to pick up but with enough depth that try hards might find satisfaction in timing attacks perfectly and making good team synergies. the one big catch with this game is that its a hybrid platfomer and JRPG. that can be a challenge for some people. its not overly hard but i know some RPG fans like myself are not good at platforming. if you want to see how a platformer and a JRPG can mix, and enjoy vibrant fun characters and beautiful settings, get this game.

Combat is god awful, pretty game but too bad game mechanics let it down.

So this sat in my backlog, and I decided to play it this year. It is frustrating as all hell. A JRPG battler, but you also have Castlevania exploration** and lots of character But it is the Jack-of-all-trades, except not very good at the other trades besides art. Castlevania exploration? Ye, you'll see the breakable floor or double jump spot in the map, but the maps are painfully linear. The only reason to ever backtrack, seems to be because you can collect the power up gems...which you can use to either purchase an additional attack turn with your party members, or boost your defences. The combat mechanic is really nifty, if not a bit cluttered, but i love how you can start comboing things, not that it'll matter, because you'll quickly find that each character has the most "optimal" pattern. The defence upgrade barely matters, because in the 2nd act, when you need to activate 3 ancient layline sigils, you'll run into a bowl of noodle that WILL oneshot you, unless you perfectly time the block. The movement and animation...it demands Hollow knight level handling for some obsticles, shame that the animation for those things are completly wonky AND CLUTTERED. Want to down attack for a pogostick? NOPE, you'll spear forward. Want to wallboost with your axe? NOPE you'll spear forward. They knew it was bad, because the consequence for failiure is that you lose a bit of you healthbar. What happens when you run out? You'll reappear at the last local"area checkpoint",not savepoint, and have to redo any nearby gems that you collected along the way. Characters. Yes, this was made by a really good art team. They really should have started cutting characters after 5, because you'll get "hidden" ones that have NO dialog in the story or even cutscenes. HECK, they might not even appear when you're supposed to "all be outside the mental world". So 2/5 or 4.5 to 10. Not bad, but very sloppy. Should have either kept more to the RPG aspect like FF or made it fully Castlevania

This game was absolutely fantastic. From the art style, to the voice acting, to the music, everything just gelled really well together. I've never seen a game splice together action platforming and turned based RPG so well (if ever). You would think the two styles of game play would be at odds with each other, but it fits so well here. It also touches on many themes from Hindu religion/mythology which you rarely see in games. The only reason I'm giving it a four instead of a five is because there was a bit too much back tracking in the second half of the game. It wasn't a huge detraction for the game, but it did feel like it slowed down the pace a little bit. Overall though, it was a fantastic game with a wonderful story acted out by an amazing cast.