By-the-numbers classic JRPG. Absolutely herculean, monumental effort for a mostly solo-dev project! 2022 has been a big year for the indie JRPG between this and Crystal Project.
Rich soundtrack and gorgeous art, but I didn't find anything to love in the characters. The combat has a few slight twists to enjoy, but the skills are painfully boring while encounters and enemy design are dead simple. The UI has a lot of friction in its map, inventory, and character management. Still had a nice time exploring the world, finding treasure, and loved its area-based quest board for leveling up.
Worth mentioning that I had to slog through serious bugs. I experienced softlocks or crashes about once per hour, seemingly at random. The autosave wasn't always recent, so I found myself habitually saving every minute to avoid losing progress. My 100% playthrough was about 50 hours, so this was a real tax on my patience.
Rich soundtrack and gorgeous art, but I didn't find anything to love in the characters. The combat has a few slight twists to enjoy, but the skills are painfully boring while encounters and enemy design are dead simple. The UI has a lot of friction in its map, inventory, and character management. Still had a nice time exploring the world, finding treasure, and loved its area-based quest board for leveling up.
Worth mentioning that I had to slog through serious bugs. I experienced softlocks or crashes about once per hour, seemingly at random. The autosave wasn't always recent, so I found myself habitually saving every minute to avoid losing progress. My 100% playthrough was about 50 hours, so this was a real tax on my patience.