An ARPG that is unfortunately bogged down by odd menu design and repetitive filler side quests (which have to be done to grind your levels up). However, despite all of this, I found myself really getting into the gameplay loop and wanted to see the story to the end, even if it was a bit disappointing.
The core gameplay in this one is a lot of fun. A 2d platformer mixed with an ARPG, how can you go wrong? Well, I'll tell you.
Despite the fact that there are aspects of this game that are addictive and very enjoyable, the menu, map and quest system are very clunky and don't work well together. Like the maps only show marks for the main quest and only one selected side quest at a time. Once you finish that selected side quest, you have to then select another in the quest menu, then back out to the main game and then to map again to see where it is. and back and forth, back and forth and it sucks.
This also applies to the fast traveling. You use sign posts in the dungeons to fast travel around however, there is a map screen and the location selection screen. However the map doesn't list the names of the locations, so you're taking a guess as to which sign post location will take you where. Why didn't they put it all on the map just to make it easier!? It makes no sense at all and it becomes a nightmare in a couple areas because there are entrances and exits all over the place on the map!
There are also a million shops to upgrade your characters at (okay, it's more like 20, but it's still a lot!). One person does armor, one person does blades, one person upgrades your armor and blades, one person upgrades your runes, one person upgrades your tools, one person upgrades your bags... was it really necessary to have so many different vendors for upgrades!? It's really overkill...
This could've earned a much higher rating if they would've fixed some of these quality of life issues, but here we are.
Oh and the side quests. Good god the side quests. There has to be over a hundred side quests and while there are a few inventive and/or adventurous ones, a lot are repeat quests and others are literally filler.
Some quests will have you fetch a material only later to have you get the exact same quest again from the same or another person and you're collecting the exact same material! Then there are the filler quests which are like, go talk to this person who is a screen over. DONE. Turn In. Why bother with this!?
On another note, the visual design is also strange where the environments are 3d and gorgeously done but the characters are in 2d and have this very jaunty animation to them. It doesn't meld for me as the characters don't feel like they're in the same world.
And I have to also mention that I did have it happen about 3 times where I went to save and the game just hung. I had to restart the game each of those times and lost a bit of progress each time. VERY annoying.
Not a terrible game in the slightest but there are just too many bad design decisions that it's really hard to ignore them here.
The core gameplay in this one is a lot of fun. A 2d platformer mixed with an ARPG, how can you go wrong? Well, I'll tell you.
Despite the fact that there are aspects of this game that are addictive and very enjoyable, the menu, map and quest system are very clunky and don't work well together. Like the maps only show marks for the main quest and only one selected side quest at a time. Once you finish that selected side quest, you have to then select another in the quest menu, then back out to the main game and then to map again to see where it is. and back and forth, back and forth and it sucks.
This also applies to the fast traveling. You use sign posts in the dungeons to fast travel around however, there is a map screen and the location selection screen. However the map doesn't list the names of the locations, so you're taking a guess as to which sign post location will take you where. Why didn't they put it all on the map just to make it easier!? It makes no sense at all and it becomes a nightmare in a couple areas because there are entrances and exits all over the place on the map!
There are also a million shops to upgrade your characters at (okay, it's more like 20, but it's still a lot!). One person does armor, one person does blades, one person upgrades your armor and blades, one person upgrades your runes, one person upgrades your tools, one person upgrades your bags... was it really necessary to have so many different vendors for upgrades!? It's really overkill...
This could've earned a much higher rating if they would've fixed some of these quality of life issues, but here we are.
Oh and the side quests. Good god the side quests. There has to be over a hundred side quests and while there are a few inventive and/or adventurous ones, a lot are repeat quests and others are literally filler.
Some quests will have you fetch a material only later to have you get the exact same quest again from the same or another person and you're collecting the exact same material! Then there are the filler quests which are like, go talk to this person who is a screen over. DONE. Turn In. Why bother with this!?
On another note, the visual design is also strange where the environments are 3d and gorgeously done but the characters are in 2d and have this very jaunty animation to them. It doesn't meld for me as the characters don't feel like they're in the same world.
And I have to also mention that I did have it happen about 3 times where I went to save and the game just hung. I had to restart the game each of those times and lost a bit of progress each time. VERY annoying.
Not a terrible game in the slightest but there are just too many bad design decisions that it's really hard to ignore them here.