Seldom does a game so perfectly blend gameplay, story, characters, visuals and audio/music as this.
Completed it the first week, played it through multiple times since, and still can't stop thinking about it.
Just. Play. It.
So many people wrote, talked and reviewed this game that I finally had to try it. And you know what?
They were right, it's a great game. Beautiful graphics, music and story. An interesting combat system. There are moments that are repetitive or even slightly boring at times, but the story is engaging, and that's what matters most.
As a 50-year-old gamer, I haven't played anything interesting in a long time, and games don't appeal to me as much anymore. However, this title broke that rule, and I play it whenever I have a free moment at my old PC. I recommend it.
I'll start with what is already known, the music is amazing and the design/art direction plays beautifully with the music to create an amazing experience, it could have been a point and click adventure game and with those perfectly executed two elements it would have been a good game, the gameplay is solid(even if a little frustrating if you're a casual but I managed to finish the game and I'm certainly not good at parrying which I abandoned completly for dodging :)) ) being a turn based RPG with real time attack parrying and dodging mechanics, the story is also good, all of the above being enough to warrant a buy.
Regarding downsides the UI could use a little work, had no idea how to use pictos/what they specifically do until act 2 and it felt a little clunky until I caught on on what was equipped or not and the cost, the outside of combat platforming isn't that good either but isn't the focus of the game, apart from that I saw complaints about the map, for me the map was fine but a journal would help as I did slightly forget some quests/things seen so don't forget to have notepad open/pen&paper to write things in to not forget.
I also heard about crashes/optimizations issues, I played&finished this game on a potato laptop with a 4GB RTX 3050 and I didn't have any crashes(the performance wasn't the greatest but the game worked and even in the lowest of settings the game looked amazing due to the world design).
So definitelly worth a buy if you like turn based combat with a twist, pretty tough difficulty(I couldn't parry to save my life but thankfully I had dodging which was slightly more successfull) made for people who enjoyed the old rpgs like Chrono Trigger, amazing soundtrack&world art&design, story that will keep you hooked until at least near the end when it might be a hit or a miss depending on what you're looking for, for me I'm an older feller that got a glimpse in this game of the good old days when RPGs didn't bombard you with a milion "quality of life" "enhancements" that just require you to open the game and it plays itself and you actually need to learn and to do stuff(even if I know I complained above I still liked what they were going for) so I really liked the game, if you're unsure give it at least a shot when it gets a bigger discount as even if you won't like the gameplay/game there are still some absolute music bangers.
PS: I liked the game and for me it was a 5 star game, might not be for everyone's tastes and it isn't perfect but for me overall it was a great buy and I enjoyed it, wishing only that they'd release the digital OST for the soundtrack and I would be a happy man.
PPS: This is a turn based game so if you don't like turn based games you might not like it, just like I wouldn't like playing a game like Elden Ring as I wouldn't have the patience and skill so don't expect if you don't like a specific type of gameplay for miracles to happen, go first have a look on Youtube and see if it fits you.
Music 10/10
Story 10/10
Combat 9/10
The addition of real time parry mechanics into the menu based combat has really reviatalized a genre that has always been great at telling stories but not always been great at keeping me engaged in the gameplay loop.
If you are on the fence, get off an play this true gem of an rpg!
I have never played a JRPG or Souls like game, so this is not my genre. However the trailer and especially its music really got me on the hook, then read the great reviews, okok I'll give it a try. I do not regret it.
I haven’t felt this emotionally affected by a game in two decades.
Pros:
- Beautiful.
- Mind blowing Story with many twists.
- Real 3d characters
- Amazing voice acting
- Interesting fight and level up system.
- Challenging fights
Cons:
Well, I cant really put here much.
- If I had to add something I would say, that the fights sometimes are very difficult. You need to learn the fighting mechanics of certain enemies so you could dodge or parry their attacks. I like such challenges, but I could imagine that for some people it could be frustrating. However you can change the difficulty to story mode any time during the game.
I am going to buy it on steam too, to support the developers. We would need more games like this.