I would have given this game 5 stars easily, if I didn't feel the urge to actually clear the final dungeon. While never really easy, you can grind away until you max out your party without feeling stuck and bored, there is always something to do. Once you decide to try out the final dungeon you start feeling annoyed. I don't mind the pounding, getting 3 out of 4 maxed party members killed reminds you what you're up against, if it would feel like you were up against a fair challenge. But you're not - you miss a whole lot more, while enemies miss a whole lot less, and hit multiple targets, and give bleed/blight and stress, and with your limited provisions you'll eventually end up getting bleed/blight damage, and then, if you manage, you still have the boss to fight.
Pros:
- fitting atmosphere
- beautiful art
- great narrator voice
- fun gameplay, gives you that one more expedition (turn/round) craving
Cons (listed from bad to worst):
- slow progress - it takes a lot of resources to get buildings upgraded, the grind isn't a chore, but it's there
- inventory space - it's annoying when you have to leave treasures behind because you don't have enough room; it's even more annoying when you don't have enough room because you have to carry "quest" items that can't be stacked
- good vs bad trinket system - most of the trinkets, even the rarest, have you trading one stat for another
- provisions - you can only use them on the active character, meaning you have to sit and watch how your other characters bleed/blight away, which makes little sense seeing what they are and considering the inventory is shared; also you can't buy as many as you want and on higher dungeon levels you run out of them
- the RNG - the higher the dungeon level, the more you feel the stats are just for show
All in all, this is a good game and you can have fun with it, but you have to accept that just as you might have to quit a dungeon before completing it, you might quit the game before completing it.
