Playtime: 8 Hours
Score: 8/10
A perfect little game for me to play just before Persona 3 Reload comes out! I had heard this game was a sleeper hit and after playing it, I can see why. But what is this game about?
It combines so many genres into one compact little game. Its part story driven game, part cooking sim, part skateboarding game and part JRPG. You think some of those wouldn't go together, but it suprisingly worked very well! I loved every aspect of this game except for the skateboard sections which were not for me really, but hey its there for anyone who grew up playing Tony Hawk or Skate! I was more interested in the story and RPG mechanics personally, which are pretty sound.
The game starts you with three attributes, with one main one based on a questionaire you do at the beginning. As you level up you can put points into them and they also increase as you pick dialogue options in conversations. You also have the basic stats that go up the more you use them like attack and defense. I thought these were some decent RPG mechanics overall and I liked engaging with them.
The combat is very much like Persona where you have to target enemies weaknesses by taunting them like making them angry as an example, and then using abillties that target that weakness type for maximum damage. Also as you defeat the exes, you can do side missions for them afterwards and unlock them as summons in battle which I thought was cool. I also liked how you couldn't use certain summons in certain fights based on that exes story ties to the enemy you were fighting. Just small attention to detail that I liked.
The story was easily the best part though! What I like is that they don't present Jala as some kind of Mary Sue with no flaws, as they make it clear to you from the beginning that she has made a lot of mistakes in the past, and your choices will effect her path to redemption. I thought all of the dialogue was great and its all voiced which was surprise for a smaller game like this, but very appreciated as it makes the game easier to get invested in. The characters are all just teeming with great energy and it was blast to interact with all of them. They also do a great job of repersenting gay characters which is always nice to see in a video game in my book! The ending I also thought was very good and fitting for everything that the story was building up to.
The only part of the story I found a little disappointing was the side plot involving the towns teenagers being groomed by a cult leader. The game builds it up like your going to take this guy down, and I always love me some cult take downs in video games, but the ending to it was VERY anti-climatic. I don't know if this was based on choices I made in dialogue that lead to the ending I got, or if there even is another ending get. I couldn't really check as of the writing of this review, I couldn't find any real guides or walkthroughs to check if I did something wrong. They do bring it up again at the end of the game, so I don't know if thats sequel bait or something. I will be disappionted if it is, not that I wouldn't want another game from this team, but that I would have to play a second game to get a proper resolution.
Overall though, this a solid little indie RPG and I can recommend it to anyone who likes RPGs, story driven games or skateboarding as thats a whole aspect to this game I didn't really touch much of.
All Games I have Played and Reviewed Ranked - https://www.backloggd.com/u/JudgeDredd35/list/all-games-i-have-played-and-reviewed-ranked/
Score: 8/10
A perfect little game for me to play just before Persona 3 Reload comes out! I had heard this game was a sleeper hit and after playing it, I can see why. But what is this game about?
It combines so many genres into one compact little game. Its part story driven game, part cooking sim, part skateboarding game and part JRPG. You think some of those wouldn't go together, but it suprisingly worked very well! I loved every aspect of this game except for the skateboard sections which were not for me really, but hey its there for anyone who grew up playing Tony Hawk or Skate! I was more interested in the story and RPG mechanics personally, which are pretty sound.
The game starts you with three attributes, with one main one based on a questionaire you do at the beginning. As you level up you can put points into them and they also increase as you pick dialogue options in conversations. You also have the basic stats that go up the more you use them like attack and defense. I thought these were some decent RPG mechanics overall and I liked engaging with them.
The combat is very much like Persona where you have to target enemies weaknesses by taunting them like making them angry as an example, and then using abillties that target that weakness type for maximum damage. Also as you defeat the exes, you can do side missions for them afterwards and unlock them as summons in battle which I thought was cool. I also liked how you couldn't use certain summons in certain fights based on that exes story ties to the enemy you were fighting. Just small attention to detail that I liked.
The story was easily the best part though! What I like is that they don't present Jala as some kind of Mary Sue with no flaws, as they make it clear to you from the beginning that she has made a lot of mistakes in the past, and your choices will effect her path to redemption. I thought all of the dialogue was great and its all voiced which was surprise for a smaller game like this, but very appreciated as it makes the game easier to get invested in. The characters are all just teeming with great energy and it was blast to interact with all of them. They also do a great job of repersenting gay characters which is always nice to see in a video game in my book! The ending I also thought was very good and fitting for everything that the story was building up to.
The only part of the story I found a little disappointing was the side plot involving the towns teenagers being groomed by a cult leader. The game builds it up like your going to take this guy down, and I always love me some cult take downs in video games, but the ending to it was VERY anti-climatic. I don't know if this was based on choices I made in dialogue that lead to the ending I got, or if there even is another ending get. I couldn't really check as of the writing of this review, I couldn't find any real guides or walkthroughs to check if I did something wrong. They do bring it up again at the end of the game, so I don't know if thats sequel bait or something. I will be disappionted if it is, not that I wouldn't want another game from this team, but that I would have to play a second game to get a proper resolution.
Overall though, this a solid little indie RPG and I can recommend it to anyone who likes RPGs, story driven games or skateboarding as thats a whole aspect to this game I didn't really touch much of.
All Games I have Played and Reviewed Ranked - https://www.backloggd.com/u/JudgeDredd35/list/all-games-i-have-played-and-reviewed-ranked/