aluinie: I played it and really enjoyed the game. Thought graphics where excellent and very well done. Sound and music where also top notch and the English voice acting was pretty good although did no sync right with characters (a small niggle)

I like the fact you have to control your party and that you cant just let the npc in your group do their own thing especially in large fights you need to micro manage attacks spells etc.

I feel the game is not as long as the first one but there still a lot more in it than a lot of new rpg's.

reaver894: wheres cheapest for the sequel???

Coelocanth: I haven't seen it for less than $20 anywhere (Gamersgate is selling it for that price), which is a good price from what I understand of the game. I'm planning on grabbing it, but if possible I want to get it retail if I can ever manage to find it.

reaver894: I just looked there, they seem to only have the dark eye.

Porkdish: As much as I liked its looks and world design and even the characters, I hated the battle system.

Its very dice heavy and the magic system is absolute crap. It particularly grates in later battles where you're thrown up against hordes of heavily armoured enemies and you have 0 area effect spells, and there's absolutely no collision detection.

Enemies are ai scripted to tank mages and then your lowest armoured on up. Until they are themselves attacked. Which can be hard to do given the single action/single target per turn limitation on fighters no matter how high a level they are.

Add to this no collision detection and you cannot use the environment to your advantage, enemies just push right through your front line and gank your weak back line.

For the most part you'll never even notice it though. Most battles tend to be simple affairs you can walk through. But now and then, in optional areas in particular, the game will exploit its own weaknesses for the sake of 'difficulty' and it becomes obvious how basic and frustrating the mechanics are.

I rage quit against the giant prawn at the bottom of the river king's temple. After suffering through gank fights against wounding giant crab swarms just to reach him, his actual battle consists of him summoning overwhelming numbers of still more wounding giant crabs, then overpowered versions of poison spitting slugs... and if you hold him off and kill them all... just as your party is heavily wounded and low on stamina, and the giant prawn is on a sliver of health... he summons them all over again, at once.

What a fucking joy...

Porkdish: I rage quit against the giant prawn at the bottom of the river king's temple. After suffering through gank fights against wounding giant crab swarms just to reach him, his actual battle consists of him summoning overwhelming numbers of still more wounding giant crabs, then overpowered versions of poison spitting slugs... and if you hold him off and kill them all... just as your party is heavily wounded and low on stamina, and the giant prawn is on a sliver of health... he summons them all over again, at once.