This game had potential to be "the best" M&M in series. There are some really good reworks. Now there are no "Must have" class like priest or knight always were just because they were way too powerfull, mage and druid can cover for a priest for support and add more firepower, priest itself will provide alot, both heavy fighter kinda equal with gladiator being just more tanky but assassin is capable to do more damage etc. Yes the ranger is questionable character but still ok i guess. Combat is really cool, if we "remove" AI bugs it is doing pretty good job to provide challenge almost at all stages of game. Economy was better balanced and spells were balanced aswell, now you cant faceroll bless+heroism for 5 hours after completing harmondale, you need to be really skillfull in magic to do good blesses and local heroism aka "faith" is single target, spell and buff management was done REALLY good for M&M. But it seems that is all that devs were able to kinda do before release, their core with classes and combat/magic going with almost empty shell of not completed cities, underworked promotion system, quests, ALOT of bugs, both gameplay and visual aswell as crashes. Even things that alot of people liked like gearing your character maneken in inventory now gone, more than that the pictures of characters dont match race and portrait look, which is huge shame for this series. Consider getting this game if you are looking for M&M gameplay with interesting magic and combat, but if you are looking for well crafted world with stories and dialogues your best shot will be to miss this game. I have rated this game 4/5 since i knew what game im gona play, if it were my first hand expirience it would be 2, maybe 3/5.
Hinestly i really dont like JRPG's, it was pure luck that i stumble upon this game before i tried most of other games in that genre, inspired by this game i was really dissapointed. This game is quite unique. First of all it is incredibly good designed as for JRPG in terms of character development and grind, unlike 99% of asian games there is almost no point in grind, simply following the story ( and the story is kinda LONG, but there will be almost no idle action beetwen which is great ) you will level appropriatly and have decent gear. That is a huge + in my book of asian games, it has more to that system but you will see for yourself, the game is really focusing on plot and not on clown side quests like in FF series which are boring and extra grindy and you still have plenty to fight, discover and enjoy the game. Second is: the plot/story in this game actually one of the best i've ever seen, on the first glance it might look "childish" but after 1-2 hours you will get the whole picture. The leads on story, the flashback when you play second chapter and the joy when you start to get whole picture, unbeilivebly good writting, very deep developed characters even secondary, you might find yourself simply talking to every NPC you meet just because they always react to current events, give you hints or simply extending plot events. Every main character is enjoyable, i always found it hard to put together party because i liked most of them, they all have personal stories that develops during both games. If you want to expirience interactive and really good written story based JRPG dont hesitate and try it out. Full exploration and not hasty reading and watching cutscenes will provide you hundreds hours of pure enjoyment.
