On a positive note: the combat is pretty good. Fluid, fast-paced (especially if you're playing one of the faster classes or "vocations"), with the ability to climb big enemies to strike at their weak spots. The climbing itself is somewhat clunky but leads to some truly epic moments. The graphics are pretty good too, with very nice rendering of distant landmarks. The character creation tool is great. Unfortunately, the rest of the game is an ugly, boring slog through a world made out of parts which have been done to death by countless others. Before getting to the main event of actually slaying the dragon (which, to be fair, only opens more high level locations and isn't the end of the game) you will spend hours on your inventory screen, agonizing over which vital items to unload to your party members; tens of hours screaming at your party some variation of "why are you not doing the thing, you've done it before" or "why aren't you picking this item, it's literally right next to you"; countless hours backtracking through places you've been to a hundred and one times. Granted, smart placement of Ferrystones (teleport markers) can save you some of that, but not all. The game world is unoriginal. Pretty much everything you'll see is straight out of western fantasy and while this game is Japanese in origin it doesn't really show the creativity Japanese media are known for. Most of the quests are simple mmo-style "kill x of monster y" affairs, while more developed side quests are predictable, boring and sometimes annoying, forcing you to go on long treks through the world, killing the same bandits and harpies you've killed a hundred times already. They were challenging maybe the first 3 times. If you want a western style RPG made in Japan, play Dark Souls. If you want a big, detailed open world - the Elder Scrolls series. Maybe give this a try if it's on sale, maybe you'll be one of the people who love it! Or maybe you'll join me in the "disappointed" camp.
The first city builder that I've ever played. I remember spending hours as a child just watching the sun rise above my city. I was quite worried that in the present day it might not quite live up to my memories, but so far I'm pleasantly surprised. This game is quite unique in that it gets rid of a lot of more 'gamey' mechanics of older city builder, making the player focus on logical placement of infrastructure (so that various crafters are close to the resource they need, people have places to shop nearby and so on) instead of abstract numbers. Every city dweller can be followed back to their home, and if at the moment you aren't busy laying out a new army camp or calculating if your great pyramid will get finished before the pharaoh dies, you can just follow them around as they go about their day. The graphics are quite dated from modern perspective, but acceptable if you squint. I'm a big fan of the soundtrack - it's calming, climatic and doesn't distract you from playing. The interface is... functional? It's sometimes a bit hard to tell what's the exact cause of trouble in your city, but you get used to it. The game runs well on my system in 1080p, all the text boxes have scaled well and aren't too big or too tiny on a bigger screen, as is often the case with older games. Overall I'd definitely recommend it for people who want a calm, unhurried and less abstract city builder.
