(short version: if you dont like choose your adventure books w/dice rolls, you'll hate this. there's a lot of reading). long version: this is the kind of game where I can tell the devs really had ambition and love for the title and I like the feeling of captaining a big ship the game provides. the cracks show when you have to grind to upgrade your fleet before a tough battle... basically you end up repeating the same half dozen generic mission types, which just involve going somewhere and fighting 2-3 ships. also, a lot of the game systems seem broken or unfinished.. I'm about 20 hrs in and still have no idea what the point of buying blueprints for type 1 ship modules is when you can always salvage higher versions from enemies. or upgrading your crewmembers to buff your systems when each of the crew types basically provide the same bonuses... or having to specify how much of each scrap item you want to recycle- like, just give me a button to upgrade and recycle ALL, lol. despite all this, however I really like the story and the vibe they were going for and it is fun when you're not having to grind.
one of the best casual tactics games I've played in a long time. arena combat system is a really nicely balanced blend of risk and reward. I wish there was more story? but then it would be a different kind of game I guess. anyway love the tactics, lore, art, music and vibes.
picked this up years ago and hated it for some reason. gave it another shot now and fell into a groove with the interrupt mechanics. it IS grindy as hell, but once you beat that 2nd planet boss the difficulty cools off and you can really enjoy playing around with different builds. combat animations and soundtrack are muah, chef's kiss.
enjoyed spending time w/this one, connected w/the moody and tragic vibe. puzzle solving was refreshingly organic and properly deductive. great score and mostly above average voicework (there's always one obligatory goofy character, lol). recommended.
but refunded. this one needs more time in the oven, imo. I love Legend of Keepers and Sandwalkers has all the same bells and whistles. lovely hand drawn art, lush sound design and the eco-lore is interesting... but the gameplay here is much more grindy and kind of unsatisfying. in 4 runs I managed to complete 2 quests and then had my parties immediately wiped out by higher level enemies. maybe I'm just playing it wrong? I dunno. but it's not scratching the casual tactics itch for me, esp. for the asking price.
honestly, probably best suited for children. no disrespect in that, it's a charming little management sim that teaches the basics of stocking and preparing for emergencies, but that's it. anyone looking for deeper challenge or story etc. will probably tire of it quickly.
it's unfinished. fine for a dozen hrs or so but once you level up your ship and crew the real problem is the missions don't change or scale w/your growth. every system outside of the starting one will all have the same 2 dozen or so missions w/the same payouts. and getting the most lucrative shipping payouts will require keeping your own journal of what planets in each system sell what. and being a pirate is suicide w/all the lower end ships and adds considerable stress to your crew as some combats can go on and on... and on. it's just not worth putting the time into unless you're just REALLY into grinding to get the next ship.
gameplay's kind of similar to Home Behind 2; march thru areas from left to right, fight, collect resources, ocassional encounters. you need to do a bunch of incomplete runs into the city to gather enough parts to craft better armor. your vigor is constantly being drained by the cold and so you need to pick the shortest route thru each map and craft enough vigor potions to stay alive. after an hour, you reach the boss and she kills everybody. rinse/repeat. apparently the game gets better after you beat her... but after 6 hrs of the same grind I don't care. it looks nice and the lore's kind of cool, but that's about it. the gameplay's mid and overly difficult. it's just not fun enough to recommend.
