Had a blast playing it.
And by playing I mean min maxing the shit out of it.
The Squad system is very well built.
Units could be more unique, but they have random traits, different stats and a cool affinity/element system.
Leadership growth was the main point of fun for me, as any Unit could become a Squad Leader and be about as relevant as story characters gameplay-wise.
Mixing those systems, along with permadeath, made it a really cool and personal experience.
The story is okay, although somewhat cliched.
It really is nothing very special, but it has some nice characters and actually pretty decent writing.
The character Bonds were shallow, but I liked how they affected the epilogue.
I played on hard mode, with permadeath.
It was honestly quite difficult at the start, as there are lots of features and techs missing.
But as the game progressed, it got gradually easier and easier, and the last boss was a walk in the park.
However, if I had lost some more troops early on, it might have been way harder.
This is a design flaw of permadeath games, where the game is too easy if you do well most of the time, and impossible if you make too many blunders.
I also abused the Force Surrender mechanic as soon as I could, so I maxed out the Tech Tree at 2/3 of the game, way earlier than intended.
So yeah, it's a very hard game, but you can snowball.
I wish it had a larger name pool, and of course the planned rename.
But at least I had fun making a Squad out of Magdalens.
...and the elephant in the room.
There are 4 distinct art styles in the game:
1. Cutscene world graphics
They're RPG Maker sprites, extremely overused everywhere, but in this game they were decent quality, especially due to being background-ish.
2. Cutscene portrait art
Honestly quite bad for me, it's a style I dislike, and the quality isn't the best.
Took me quite a while to get used to it, and it's the weakest point of the game for me.
3. Overworld pixel art
Really good, although simple, but it's distinct enough and portrays everything in an easy to identify way.
Except for Raskuja, his color scheme always made me forget he hadn't acted yet.
4. Battle pixel art
ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT.
If not for how this looked, I wouldn't have given it a chance, being sincere.
All in all, I quite enjoyed the game.
My favorite in the genre of SRPG due to its progression and customization.
Would spend 30 hours on the Squad Management again.
AH!
The key under ESC speeds up the game by a ton.
I only discovered it at the last chapters, don't make the same mistake.
And by playing I mean min maxing the shit out of it.
The Squad system is very well built.
Units could be more unique, but they have random traits, different stats and a cool affinity/element system.
Leadership growth was the main point of fun for me, as any Unit could become a Squad Leader and be about as relevant as story characters gameplay-wise.
Mixing those systems, along with permadeath, made it a really cool and personal experience.
The story is okay, although somewhat cliched.
It really is nothing very special, but it has some nice characters and actually pretty decent writing.
The character Bonds were shallow, but I liked how they affected the epilogue.
I played on hard mode, with permadeath.
It was honestly quite difficult at the start, as there are lots of features and techs missing.
But as the game progressed, it got gradually easier and easier, and the last boss was a walk in the park.
However, if I had lost some more troops early on, it might have been way harder.
This is a design flaw of permadeath games, where the game is too easy if you do well most of the time, and impossible if you make too many blunders.
I also abused the Force Surrender mechanic as soon as I could, so I maxed out the Tech Tree at 2/3 of the game, way earlier than intended.
So yeah, it's a very hard game, but you can snowball.
I wish it had a larger name pool, and of course the planned rename.
But at least I had fun making a Squad out of Magdalens.
...and the elephant in the room.
There are 4 distinct art styles in the game:
1. Cutscene world graphics
They're RPG Maker sprites, extremely overused everywhere, but in this game they were decent quality, especially due to being background-ish.
2. Cutscene portrait art
Honestly quite bad for me, it's a style I dislike, and the quality isn't the best.
Took me quite a while to get used to it, and it's the weakest point of the game for me.
3. Overworld pixel art
Really good, although simple, but it's distinct enough and portrays everything in an easy to identify way.
Except for Raskuja, his color scheme always made me forget he hadn't acted yet.
4. Battle pixel art
ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT.
If not for how this looked, I wouldn't have given it a chance, being sincere.
All in all, I quite enjoyed the game.
My favorite in the genre of SRPG due to its progression and customization.
Would spend 30 hours on the Squad Management again.
AH!
The key under ESC speeds up the game by a ton.
I only discovered it at the last chapters, don't make the same mistake.