To jump ahead, I’m not sure what to fully make of my feelings for this game and write this with some lack of confidence admittedly. On one hand, I feel that Relink’s incorporation of multiple genres crafts its own identity maximized by a consistently fun feedback loop with a variety of characters to make your own engagements out of. On the other hand, I do not necessarily think this game even comes close to capitalizing upon all of its promises - that a series of imbalances in particular lower the game’s ceiling on the quality scale. A video I saw recently called this title more “interesting” than the sum of its parts. I feel that’s an incredibly fair descriptor of the experience given that the actual sum of the parts are not really achieved, though this title’s core combat’s focus manages to succeed in spite of there being much better.
With over a dozen characters with differentiating styles, players have a number of options, from from ranged characters who can chain AOE explosions behind sniper attacks, to characters’ whose successful offenses buffs and enhances their attack options and qualities, to those who can create jump-canceling or parries to stay close. The choice is ultimately yours, though between dodge offsets, skill cancels, and so on - there’s a lot to enjoy here. The premise of the combat is built around dealing as much damage as possible, encouraging proactivity to learn your character's tools for the best, most efficient styles. Building gauges for being able to lock enemies down with effective crowd control until you can beat them down by recognizing the synergy between link time and skybound artes. The addition of party mechanics adds depth to how you want to achieve the aforementioned efficiency like any team-based game (this becomes especially significant in multiplayer). Do you have adequate support members who are not liabilities to keep that crowd control going?
Speaking of enemies, I would say it’s functional. Whilst main enemies have gimmicks, there isn’t too much to them - the real meat is the boss fights, which combine elements of action RPGs and MMO raids. There’s spectacle, mostly in narrative, though the fights prove to be dynamic and at least ask for attention to how their moves work. Whilst the bosses utilize superarmor, bodily parts are affected by a stagger meter and vulnerability to status effects don’t leave these fights as unflinching walls. Every fight has a gimmick too, ranging from weak points to how the arena can change. The bosses’ “mode” meter adds some demand for the player to consider how the fights can dynamically change when the boss enters its overdrive mode and becomes significantly more dangerous. Granted, the game doesn’t compromise its premise: that depleting the overdrive meter staggers the boss completely for the party to unleash on them - again, proactivity matters. If anything else, the bosses are where the game shines and is likely the key focus.
Unfortunately, they are easily complicit in the game’s underlying problem for me. Said problem stems from the fact that this game’s emphasis on DPS for both the player and the boss creates an imbalance problem. Simply put, the player has almost too funny ways to be safe. Between perfect dodges creating invincibility, upgraded guards being incredibly difficult to break, an assortment of healing items, skills to buff or grant invincibility, and being able to revive constantly (albeit with some limit), there’s too much given for margin of error to matter. While button mashing will not get you far, the fact that it’s genuinely hard to be punished or even getting a game over is a definite issue. To rephrase, you are given too many safe options that, even when you aren’t playing safe, it isn’t a big deal. This excessiveness compounds to mean that threats are only a problem if the damage dealt is significant or the DPS checks the bosses throw at you. And only the latter is capable of causing instant game overs without the revival crutch. I don’t personally have an issue with DPS checks but when it becomes the main threat by an enormous margin, I would assert that there’s a lack of balance here.
This becomes even more problematic with the infamous postgame grind, by far the worst part of the game for its tedium. The issue isn’t that the player needs to get stronger to take on the hardest challenges the title can throw at you, it’s that it actively has RNG-based ways to achieve the items and stats you need. The simple rule with grinding in RPGs is that, if forced to grind when the player’s skills cannot make up for the difference, it needs to be practical. Yet, there’s little enjoyment in needing to spend a disproportionate amount of hours looking for items that have some percentage chance of dropping instead of getting to lab the characters. To be completely transparent, after 40 hours of total play time, I realized that it would take double that to get what I needed and it just simply wasn’t worth it. Only a friend’s copy allowed me to experience the ultimate challenges - and he had to dedicate an absurd amount of time to even unlock or be able to tackle them - which likely explains why many are playing these challenges on solo or multiplayer. When you also consider the different categories of weapons, accessories and characters themselves - and how everything requires manually working to get them to the right levels. I’m not saying that it’s unacceptable that a game has to make me work to achieve my goals, but, at some point, the priorities and time given has to be given some consideration.
I don’t want those criticisms to hide the fact that I genuinely had a blast playing this game however - and still do. I think, whether it’s due to a mishmash of genre or the compound of imbalanced ideas, that this game just doesn’t reach the heights that it could. For that reason, many things about it just aren’t my thing as a player - and it probably won’t be for everyone either.
Whether or not I’ve said anything disagreeable here or not though, I will say the one thing we can all agree upon is that the composers were on crack for this soundtrack.
With over a dozen characters with differentiating styles, players have a number of options, from from ranged characters who can chain AOE explosions behind sniper attacks, to characters’ whose successful offenses buffs and enhances their attack options and qualities, to those who can create jump-canceling or parries to stay close. The choice is ultimately yours, though between dodge offsets, skill cancels, and so on - there’s a lot to enjoy here. The premise of the combat is built around dealing as much damage as possible, encouraging proactivity to learn your character's tools for the best, most efficient styles. Building gauges for being able to lock enemies down with effective crowd control until you can beat them down by recognizing the synergy between link time and skybound artes. The addition of party mechanics adds depth to how you want to achieve the aforementioned efficiency like any team-based game (this becomes especially significant in multiplayer). Do you have adequate support members who are not liabilities to keep that crowd control going?
Speaking of enemies, I would say it’s functional. Whilst main enemies have gimmicks, there isn’t too much to them - the real meat is the boss fights, which combine elements of action RPGs and MMO raids. There’s spectacle, mostly in narrative, though the fights prove to be dynamic and at least ask for attention to how their moves work. Whilst the bosses utilize superarmor, bodily parts are affected by a stagger meter and vulnerability to status effects don’t leave these fights as unflinching walls. Every fight has a gimmick too, ranging from weak points to how the arena can change. The bosses’ “mode” meter adds some demand for the player to consider how the fights can dynamically change when the boss enters its overdrive mode and becomes significantly more dangerous. Granted, the game doesn’t compromise its premise: that depleting the overdrive meter staggers the boss completely for the party to unleash on them - again, proactivity matters. If anything else, the bosses are where the game shines and is likely the key focus.
Unfortunately, they are easily complicit in the game’s underlying problem for me. Said problem stems from the fact that this game’s emphasis on DPS for both the player and the boss creates an imbalance problem. Simply put, the player has almost too funny ways to be safe. Between perfect dodges creating invincibility, upgraded guards being incredibly difficult to break, an assortment of healing items, skills to buff or grant invincibility, and being able to revive constantly (albeit with some limit), there’s too much given for margin of error to matter. While button mashing will not get you far, the fact that it’s genuinely hard to be punished or even getting a game over is a definite issue. To rephrase, you are given too many safe options that, even when you aren’t playing safe, it isn’t a big deal. This excessiveness compounds to mean that threats are only a problem if the damage dealt is significant or the DPS checks the bosses throw at you. And only the latter is capable of causing instant game overs without the revival crutch. I don’t personally have an issue with DPS checks but when it becomes the main threat by an enormous margin, I would assert that there’s a lack of balance here.
This becomes even more problematic with the infamous postgame grind, by far the worst part of the game for its tedium. The issue isn’t that the player needs to get stronger to take on the hardest challenges the title can throw at you, it’s that it actively has RNG-based ways to achieve the items and stats you need. The simple rule with grinding in RPGs is that, if forced to grind when the player’s skills cannot make up for the difference, it needs to be practical. Yet, there’s little enjoyment in needing to spend a disproportionate amount of hours looking for items that have some percentage chance of dropping instead of getting to lab the characters. To be completely transparent, after 40 hours of total play time, I realized that it would take double that to get what I needed and it just simply wasn’t worth it. Only a friend’s copy allowed me to experience the ultimate challenges - and he had to dedicate an absurd amount of time to even unlock or be able to tackle them - which likely explains why many are playing these challenges on solo or multiplayer. When you also consider the different categories of weapons, accessories and characters themselves - and how everything requires manually working to get them to the right levels. I’m not saying that it’s unacceptable that a game has to make me work to achieve my goals, but, at some point, the priorities and time given has to be given some consideration.
I don’t want those criticisms to hide the fact that I genuinely had a blast playing this game however - and still do. I think, whether it’s due to a mishmash of genre or the compound of imbalanced ideas, that this game just doesn’t reach the heights that it could. For that reason, many things about it just aren’t my thing as a player - and it probably won’t be for everyone either.
Whether or not I’ve said anything disagreeable here or not though, I will say the one thing we can all agree upon is that the composers were on crack for this soundtrack.