This is undoubtedly Tri-Ace's ultimate game. Spanning several generations of the studio's dreams and ambitions, it combines all the kurosawa cinematography, indirect storytelling and light-hearted doomsday tone that the studio loves so much.
This is undoubtedly, the most a game could ever score for me from non-gameplay aspects. If I was to rate the game off of that it'd be 11/10. But as a game?
It's good... when it works. Target switching is an exercise in pain, and the game slowly chokes out the player's freedom in how to approach battles the further it goes. Past a certain point, every fight starts to feel scripted and you get severely punished for trying to improvise. If I were to give tri-ace too much credit, I'd say that's some kind of gameplay allegory on the "oppressive nature of destiny" theme of the game. However, it's more likely that being extremely strict is just their idea of how a game is made challenging.
This is undoubtedly, the most a game could ever score for me from non-gameplay aspects. If I was to rate the game off of that it'd be 11/10. But as a game?
It's good... when it works. Target switching is an exercise in pain, and the game slowly chokes out the player's freedom in how to approach battles the further it goes. Past a certain point, every fight starts to feel scripted and you get severely punished for trying to improvise. If I were to give tri-ace too much credit, I'd say that's some kind of gameplay allegory on the "oppressive nature of destiny" theme of the game. However, it's more likely that being extremely strict is just their idea of how a game is made challenging.