It is an interesting piece with curious stories and good writing, but also with game breaking bugs. I am sad about it, this game could be a great experience, but in this state (which probably remains forever) I cannot recommend, doesn't worth the time investment.
Interesting idea, controlling every unit in over the shoulder camera mode (just like a TPS), while being turn based. And they tried to give lots of options to customize each character in your warband. But the gameplay is just bad: For a start it is difficult to oversee characters in the battlefield, because you only see one of your character at a time, so if you don't know the map, you don't know where others might be, and where should you go. There are "ambush stances" in the middle of nothing, so when you approach an enemy in plain sight, you might be "ambushed" by that enemy. The actions are clumsy and slow. The enemy actions are also slow, you have to sit and wait for long times. The GUI is a mess, more confusing than helpful. It looked interesting, the presentation of the game is good, but the gameplay itself made me uninstall fairly quickly. Luckily I had this one for free, because for me it wouldn't even worth the 2 euro at 90% discount price, and I regret even that little time that I spent on it to try out.
A was playing it together with my 4 years old, it was a pleasant experience finding the collections to get to the next place and next puzzle. This was a good buy.
This is a fun little game, the best kind of "relaxing stuff after a long day". Collect fishes, upgrade your ship, explore islands, reveal the story - not very challenging, not cutting edge, not an epic history, but very solid in every department from the graphic design to the simple, but enjoyable gameplay. To me it delivered more than many overpadded AAA titles.
Great game, I try to break it down why. The world is unique and intriguing, even while it is only pseudo-open. But this freedom is rarely missing, because the journey is great, and the whole setting has a charm that guides you till the end. NPCs are actually interesting and fun, sidequests and companions too, bringing their own drama and comedy. It is actually visible that the creators cared for them. (Hint: check the objectives in certain parts of chapter 6.) The story starts slow, the first chapter is rather about familiarizing with the controls and the setting. But then starts picking up and opens to show that it has actual depth. There are things that look like plotholes, but are actually explained coherently. Besides being an amusing adventure, it can give some thoughts if you have open ears to metaphors. The skill system is solid, character development is enjoyable, added with some collectibles as well. Combat is the weakest point, even while it is not actually bad, it is not very well balanced. The martial styles are a bit too weak, which makes fights against ghosts/spirits more difficult than it should. Transformation styles are a bit too strong, but eat Chi super fast, so they are rather novelty. Support styles are rarely useful, because the change between styles is not very comfortable. However it is still fun, there is just enough variety of the enemies and the comat styles to enjoy it. The minigame is not for everyone, but it can be entirely skipped, or the difficulty separately adjusted, so not a big deal. Graphics are dated, but did not age so badly, due to the high quality of the design. Voice acting is varying between solid, very good and great, while music gives a non-annoying background. I had two bugs (a camera tilt and a denied sidequest), both could be resolved by loading the latest saves (which are plenty, because there is a good autosave system). I was thinking if I should give 4 or 5, but I enjoyed it so much, I couldn't give less.
Real time with pause system in worse form than ever. The marketing text says "A unique combination of real-time and turn-based combat", which is true, as long as unique also means terrible. This game keeps the worst aspects from both TBS and RTS: slow, and tedious (more so than many turn based games), but doesn't give that many tactical options or superb control. The badly aged graphics doesn't help either, but I could overlook that, if there was any enjoyable element of the gameplay. Or at least a comfortable interface. Really, I couldn't find anything positive.
The art is really captivating, but the jump is lagging, and I cannot tolerate that, I am not a hardcore platformer. Maybe I revisit later, the graphic design and the music are so nice. But not soon, unfortunately.
