An exaggeratingly dull platformer whose single trick wears thin after a few rooms. The story is pointless and the gameplay, well, if you haven't got teenage reflexes amplified by an overdose of caffine and amphetamines on top a natural ADHD in your genes then politely move on to something else that at times makes Super Meat Boy look like Super Hot on downers.
All the original soul of the triolgy is intact with several nice touches and modern conviences and graphic updates that suit it very well. And The Destiny Knight is still ridiculously hard but least re-loading is a snap.
Unfair and with bloody unlocks. Why can't we have nice things instead of this?
I hated, hated, hated, hated, hated this game. I hated every simpering pixel of lazy shittiness that struggles to distinguish between things. I hated the ugly fonts and piss poor UI that has the charm of shit on my pillow. I hated it's-open-but-not-really world of ant-farm style totalitarian gameplay. I hated that it can't decide if it wants to be sim game, a platformer, a shooter or just sickening cute so as to keep baby occupied because mind-numbingly crafting shit is better than television (allegedly).
It's different but it's rubbish.
Excellent tactical combat in a series of relatively quick battles, with some dialogue and story thrown on. Obviously a mobile port (in-game buttons ARE REALLY HUGE) with annoying social media LIKE ME buttons as well (on the main screen). But otherwise an excellent way to spend a couple of hours blasting ghouls with magic.
The Quest has janky fonts, blocky graphics and grid based movement and yet it is one of the most engaging, charming, affecting, funny, RPGs I've ever played. Sure some of the quests need a quick visit to the wiki to found out what the hell is going on (branching quest choices that aren't that clear from in-game) but otherwise once in the game it's hard to leave it.
I liked this game a lot. It contained some improvements that felt right for it and didn't needlessly shit on it's heritage and copy from just to feel modern for modern's sake. I loved the tactical combat elements, enemy skills and types, as well as the skill trees that helped to shape the party. The story was well enough and once out of the starter town it got a lot better. If I had two complaints about the beginning they would be that there are not enough missions to do early on and there is far too much walking about looking for people/things. Puzzles and quests are what you would expect (I loved the fairy ones) and there is a lot of them. The shopkeepers almost struggled to keep up supplies which can be a pain if you hadn't touched the stones and kept a note of who had money/things. Spoken dialogue throughout - big tick from me. Each new environment had it's lethal threats (if you were dumb and not strong enough) and nothing felt either a cakewalk or a face-pummeling. Final level felt epic and I was gutted that it ended. The only technical issue I had was crashing in the elves forest bit and I could never work out why and just saved often and took it as a hint that I should probably feed the cat.
The two issues I have with this game are firstly that it feels like I'm fighting an interface in order to enjoy the dancing Felix that obscure him when not having to be so zoomed out (to work out the puzzle) that he's barely large enough to convey massive movements (all the subtely of the dancing is franking lost and he looks lumpen). The second issue is the clashing art style that simultanously was much-of-muchness-realness and also made me want to reach for my sunglasses. Colourwise it falls between those too stools and stylistically can't seem to decide if it wants to highlight it's obvious grid-based setting or if it's it's ashamed of it. One star for Patrick Stewart and the other is for the love that went into this game (it's evident from the start). Shame about the rest.
Having played 7th Guest and 11th Hour back in the 1990s (and again in the last couple of years) this is absolutely a love letter to everything good and bad about those games. Cheesy acting is spot on as well as the jarring lighting on the actors and the environments are creepily 3D/not-3D as story and theme demand. Movement is proper point and click and cutscene with the weird rotations and angles exactly as the original games. Puzzles make sense if you disengage some of your higher brain functions although I would have liked a faster hint system. I've missed you Stauf...
