I've been wanting to get into this franchise for a while, and due to the autumn Steam sales, I've took my shot! Overall I did enjoy this game. It definitely has it's fault in gameplay, but it's definitely a decent remake of a game of this age.
Visuals - 7/10
This game definitely looks nice. There's quite a few good looking scenery, and it really fits well with the movement of Adol. There's also some pretty cut scenes too. The boss animations are quite commendable. Nothings hard to look at either, which is nice.
I will say though, that I wish that this game had minimaps as areas would be easier to navigate.
Audio - 8/10
Music blows my mind honestly. It's got some great tracks. Very solid. I think that the Complete version of the OST is the best, and I've played mostly using that one. The Chronicles version of the OST is below it's par imo.
Gameplay 6/10
I think the concept is fun. The bump system is pretty simple and straightforward. Fighting normal enemies is always the same pattern. With the cap level being 10, and reaching that early, fighting normal enemies is very much the same through the whole game. There isn't any variety in them other than how fast enemies move. Everything outside of fighting seems to be fine as again it's very simple, because all you do outside of fighting is talk to NPCs. The other main complaint I have is that in certain parts of the game, there can be some backtracking, which can be a pain in the final dungeon. In general there's some pretty mundane things.
Narrative 5/10
It's not a masterpiece in any sense. I'm still not sure why Adol is going through these events in the game other than that he's the chosen one. The story relies pretty heavily on Adol's destiny. A lot of the characters, seem a little more like side-acts. They don't develop much, but this game doesn't seem to focus on them that much. It's Adol that is the main focus, and he's a hero, which I think happens a lot in games like these.
Themes 6/10
I think that the narrative is sacrificed for the focus on themes here. Save the world and discover the truth, and the game definitely is consistent with this concept.
Challenge 4/10
Honestly? This game is too easy. There's been a boss fight where I killed it in like five seconds. There were like two bosses I struggled a little bit with but the rest of them were pretty easy to the point where I was defeating late-game bosses hitless due to being predictable. Of course I could have played on a higher difficulty, but I think that would have made the final boss miserable. The final boss was easily the most difficult but it's made to be crazy. It's a pretty big difficulty slope. There's a few other difficulty spikes that are a little harder to overcome if you don't do quests for exp. Again, the difficulty definitely suffered from simple gameplay and simple common enemy patterns.
Replayability 5/10
Not likely that I will play this again since there aren't bonuses outside of difficulty, or if I just wanted to 100%.
Personal 6/10
I enjoyed this game, but I'm definitely ready to move to the next.
Final Score: 6
Visuals - 7/10
This game definitely looks nice. There's quite a few good looking scenery, and it really fits well with the movement of Adol. There's also some pretty cut scenes too. The boss animations are quite commendable. Nothings hard to look at either, which is nice.
I will say though, that I wish that this game had minimaps as areas would be easier to navigate.
Audio - 8/10
Music blows my mind honestly. It's got some great tracks. Very solid. I think that the Complete version of the OST is the best, and I've played mostly using that one. The Chronicles version of the OST is below it's par imo.
Gameplay 6/10
I think the concept is fun. The bump system is pretty simple and straightforward. Fighting normal enemies is always the same pattern. With the cap level being 10, and reaching that early, fighting normal enemies is very much the same through the whole game. There isn't any variety in them other than how fast enemies move. Everything outside of fighting seems to be fine as again it's very simple, because all you do outside of fighting is talk to NPCs. The other main complaint I have is that in certain parts of the game, there can be some backtracking, which can be a pain in the final dungeon. In general there's some pretty mundane things.
Narrative 5/10
It's not a masterpiece in any sense. I'm still not sure why Adol is going through these events in the game other than that he's the chosen one. The story relies pretty heavily on Adol's destiny. A lot of the characters, seem a little more like side-acts. They don't develop much, but this game doesn't seem to focus on them that much. It's Adol that is the main focus, and he's a hero, which I think happens a lot in games like these.
Themes 6/10
I think that the narrative is sacrificed for the focus on themes here. Save the world and discover the truth, and the game definitely is consistent with this concept.
Challenge 4/10
Honestly? This game is too easy. There's been a boss fight where I killed it in like five seconds. There were like two bosses I struggled a little bit with but the rest of them were pretty easy to the point where I was defeating late-game bosses hitless due to being predictable. Of course I could have played on a higher difficulty, but I think that would have made the final boss miserable. The final boss was easily the most difficult but it's made to be crazy. It's a pretty big difficulty slope. There's a few other difficulty spikes that are a little harder to overcome if you don't do quests for exp. Again, the difficulty definitely suffered from simple gameplay and simple common enemy patterns.
Replayability 5/10
Not likely that I will play this again since there aren't bonuses outside of difficulty, or if I just wanted to 100%.
Personal 6/10
I enjoyed this game, but I'm definitely ready to move to the next.
Final Score: 6