I've never, ever in 40+ years of gaming come across a game that hates the player more than this game. - Re-loading is a core mechanic. You get very little information that you are about to step into a "trap" and get steamrolled, and it happens again and again and again (oh, and you cannot flee). - The real-time combat is confusing and chaotic, not helped by the rather poor pathfinding abilities of your party members, who don't mind walking right by enemies and getting hit in the back. - Not only is the balancing off in this game, but YOU ARE ON A TIMER! Then, at one point, the game ASKS YOU TO WAIT, but if you to, it's GAME OVER! What you actually needed to do was complete a bunch of very specific quests, but the game didn't tell you that. I don't think I've ever been this frustrated since... I don't know, Phantasie III?
I know there are several remakes and spiritual sequels to Wonder Boy in Monster World, but so far, I haven't seen any for Wonder Boy in Monster Land, the game that came before World. This seems closest yet, and I'm having a great time with it so far! Super tight retro graphics, super tight controls, quite nice music. I'm just worried that the difficulty will ramp up to... well, 80s levels and perhaps more hardcore than that. I'm old these days, I want my nostalgia but also a bit casual experience! :D
I'm 20 hours in and three times the game has explicitly told me to go places, and there has always been overpowered enemies there. Two times the game locked me in and AMBUSHED me, with no chance of escape or alternative solutions other than re-loading. Combat is also real-time, but it's impossible to see what is going on, so you need to constantly pause and read the log. If you don't, all time is spent looking at some very tiny symbols in the bottom left corner on the player portraits, instead of the actual game. I'll slog on, but I'm not having a particularly good time. Mechanically, the Divinity games are much better, and their quests have many alternative solutions, so I'd recommend those instead.
I loved the early Anno games, but this seems terribly basic in comparison, and also really lacking in good information through the user interface. It's a new game, but already showing its age. However, it's a game previously crippled by horrible DRM so it's worth a buy just to show Ubisoft that they should do this with more games!
