Note: mild spoilers in the penultimate paragraph, though the game's story is light enough that I think I stepped around the finer details just fine. I don't think it's enough to warrant a spoiler-tagged review, but continue at your discretion.
This game is very much a sidegrade compared to the original. It looks pretty bad, but it sounds great. It has a much more accessible menu system, but its movement controls are subpar because of its platform. Its translation is better, but the general look and feel of the world is far more bland. Some old design flaws (such as hardlocks in the final dungeon) are fixed, yet enemies are much harder to respawn to actually make the fixes work totally as intended. For each thing it does right, this remake does one thing wrong. I adored the original in part because of its impressive nature, and unfortunately this 2016 remake does not carry that same status. It doesn't even look particularly good even for a mobile title.
Still, it's a remake of a quality game! If you played the original and loved it like I did, this is worth playing just for the sake of it. I had a good time with it, and its quality of life improvements help make the whole experience feel a lot more polished and smooth. It's got some fun little extra features like a secret paladin costume and the ability to play the original game's soundtrack, and it's plenty accessible because of its platform.
As for the game's actual content, I found the dungeons and combat pretty enjoyable. I do still think the keyring as an item really shouldn't be in the game at all, but that's a pretty minor issue in the grand scheme of things. I enjoy the game's use of destructible walls and the way its traveling mechanics progress, and the many weapon types differ enough that I find I use more or less every type throughout the game. Things do eventually become optimization-heavy, but that is literally in the final few screens up until the final boss and is relevant for story reasons, so I'd hardly call it an issue.
This game's got a fairly simple story, although I personally enjoy its not-overly-depressing-or-dark take on the idea of the end of an era or kalpa. It's got a decently subtle theme of learning from the mistakes of the past, and it handles its subject matter in a way that's bittersweet yet still optimistic... mature in its own soft way. One thing that I think is important for a player to take note of is that this game's characters are not really meant to be fleshed out on their own, nor is the story meant to be particularly grand and epic. It's the ensemble and arguably the entire world that carry the story and theming into one big package. The narrative scale is large when viewed on a map but truly very intimate, and I believe the player is meant to develop a sense of hope for the world they're in rather than just save it. The many failures the hero faces illustrate that point: the hero (and player by extension) aren't a power-trip perfect savior, and they're not even an ideal Gemma Knight. Even so, they press on and do what they can to allow the world to effectively be reborn with its scars of the past having finally healed.
Do note that I feel this score is generous. The game is more realistically a 2.5/5 or 3/5; the original, which I rated a 4.5/5 here, is (relative to its context) truly closer to a 4/5. I simply vibe with the original a whole lot, and this remake doesn't dampen it enough for me to dislike it. If you can play the original with a guide or maps on the side in case you get stuck, just do that. If you're wanting to play a more modernized and accessible experience, try this instead. If you just want to relive the original game for fun or while on bathroom breaks at work, consider giving this one a shot.
This game is very much a sidegrade compared to the original. It looks pretty bad, but it sounds great. It has a much more accessible menu system, but its movement controls are subpar because of its platform. Its translation is better, but the general look and feel of the world is far more bland. Some old design flaws (such as hardlocks in the final dungeon) are fixed, yet enemies are much harder to respawn to actually make the fixes work totally as intended. For each thing it does right, this remake does one thing wrong. I adored the original in part because of its impressive nature, and unfortunately this 2016 remake does not carry that same status. It doesn't even look particularly good even for a mobile title.
Still, it's a remake of a quality game! If you played the original and loved it like I did, this is worth playing just for the sake of it. I had a good time with it, and its quality of life improvements help make the whole experience feel a lot more polished and smooth. It's got some fun little extra features like a secret paladin costume and the ability to play the original game's soundtrack, and it's plenty accessible because of its platform.
As for the game's actual content, I found the dungeons and combat pretty enjoyable. I do still think the keyring as an item really shouldn't be in the game at all, but that's a pretty minor issue in the grand scheme of things. I enjoy the game's use of destructible walls and the way its traveling mechanics progress, and the many weapon types differ enough that I find I use more or less every type throughout the game. Things do eventually become optimization-heavy, but that is literally in the final few screens up until the final boss and is relevant for story reasons, so I'd hardly call it an issue.
This game's got a fairly simple story, although I personally enjoy its not-overly-depressing-or-dark take on the idea of the end of an era or kalpa. It's got a decently subtle theme of learning from the mistakes of the past, and it handles its subject matter in a way that's bittersweet yet still optimistic... mature in its own soft way. One thing that I think is important for a player to take note of is that this game's characters are not really meant to be fleshed out on their own, nor is the story meant to be particularly grand and epic. It's the ensemble and arguably the entire world that carry the story and theming into one big package. The narrative scale is large when viewed on a map but truly very intimate, and I believe the player is meant to develop a sense of hope for the world they're in rather than just save it. The many failures the hero faces illustrate that point: the hero (and player by extension) aren't a power-trip perfect savior, and they're not even an ideal Gemma Knight. Even so, they press on and do what they can to allow the world to effectively be reborn with its scars of the past having finally healed.
Do note that I feel this score is generous. The game is more realistically a 2.5/5 or 3/5; the original, which I rated a 4.5/5 here, is (relative to its context) truly closer to a 4/5. I simply vibe with the original a whole lot, and this remake doesn't dampen it enough for me to dislike it. If you can play the original with a guide or maps on the side in case you get stuck, just do that. If you're wanting to play a more modernized and accessible experience, try this instead. If you just want to relive the original game for fun or while on bathroom breaks at work, consider giving this one a shot.