Agarest: Generations of War Zero

I like this game. The combat system is really interesting and cool. the character designs are great. The characters themselves are pretty cool. The storyline and setting are great. It's really repetitive. It's really repetitive. I'ts reeeeaaaallllyyyy repetitive. Every battle is basically the same throughout the whole game, just with different monsters. I know, a lot of games are like that. But you really start to feel it with this game. It's really repetitive. After a certain point in the second generation, the game has a huge upspike in difficulty, meaning each battle takes longer to do. I hate how it can take some of the greatest warriors in the continent, working together, a 20+ hit combo to kill a single slime. I'm 50 hours in, and I haven't even been grinding or anything and I've become bored. Maybe I'll finish it, maybe I won't. It's really repetitive. If you want to play this game to experience the story and stuff, I actually REALLY suggest playing it on easy. Maybe the battles will go quicker and it won't feel really repetitive and you won't become as disheartened as I have. It's really repetitive - 6.5/10

As with the Origional, Zero is a true work of art. The Generation system is vastly improved from the original, and the affection system adds its own level of stratagy. The gameplay, while at first glance appears simple, is, in a word, "Multi-Layered". Mastering Esoterica and Combination arts is key to not only surviving some of the most difficult battles, but also recieving some of the best items in the game. With that in mind, I would be remiss if I didn't mention the Agarest Wiki that contains truely invaluable information on the game itself. While i love the game, I have to mention two dissapointments I have in concern to the actual game itself. First, the monster capture and combination system can be a boon to any player. If only for the Title System and the High End items you can get by using it. However, capturing monsters can be a chore sometimes, and often feels like a waste of time due to the grind required to max it out. Second, the blacksmithing system has one infuriating element that i wish they had eliminated from the origional. That is the Random Item system that occures while smithing. On occasion, while crafting items, instead of the desired item you recieve a random craftable item instead. This still uses the materials, and after 3000 craft attempts, I only recived one item I cared about, or was useful. Instead you generally recive items that are either utterly useless, or are low level and already abundant. As to the Steam download, it has one major glitch i was unable to remedy. Unfortunatly, there is a glich where on many characters in both conversation scenes and in the gallery, the characters images are obsucered by all the other alternate appearances being layered over eachother at the same time. This takes away from the character and story driven expreance that is essential to any JRPG. On a possitive note, the Steam DLC is absolutly fantastic. Without it, many cassual gamers may find the baseline grind to level up and aquire both Gold and EP to be a daunting task. After purchasing the DLC it was almost like starting a new game + without ever having to have played the game. I would recomend this series to anyone who enjoys JRPG's or RPG's in general. For a more epic experience I suggest playing the original and then loading over the completed game data to Zero. All in all, I'd give this game a solid 9 out of 10. As a simple footnote I would suggest that due to suggestive sexual content in this game, parental supervison is advised.

This is more of a soft no than a hard one (wish there was a rating system honestly.) The games okay, I rather like the graphics for the most part, and the plot and characters make me want to keep playing. That said the combat is what is making me uninstall it. Just not my thing, and I love these type games. I'll be honest and say that some of this is probably due to my only 4 hours of play time. But for starters, ingame it is rather poorly explained what the differences between the skills are (why use blast instead of rush, what are my miss chances, is regular damage the same as break damage or is that only for filling the break meter, that sort of thing). The details screen you can pull up really explains very little. I could live with this really. What lost me though the linking system. I just really don't like this mechanic, makes fights feel far longer and less tactical than they should. Felt like I spent all my time looking for glowing squares for linking people and trying to maximize the number of combos in the action screen I could pull off than trying to outsmart/outposition the enemy and make use of terrain. Doesn't help that the view needs tilted up a few more degrees, it's rather hard to make stuff out sometimes even with changing the direction. I really want to like this game, but it's just not happening.

Keep in mind this is a quick review to help people decide if the game is worth a look at this price. I've played about thirty minutes or so thus far, but I will keep updating this review as I come across more parts of the game. Agarest is a fantasy tactical role playing game, much like Final Fantasy Tactics or Fire Emblem. Straight out of the heart of Japan with its flashy style and exaggerated character designs, this game drew me in right away with its setting and characters. It leads to a slow start; the game making sure that it introduces the characters and teaches you about the combat for thirty minutes minutes before FINALLY getting into the good stuff in regards to the story and character creation wasn't a good call, but it lays the groundwork for the story ahead. The real problem isn't the length of the opening in and of itself, though. It's the tutorial segments. The tutorial is drawn out and doesn't teach you anything you wouldn't know from playing any tactical role playing game. The characters and writing are on full display as you're taught the mechanics, making sure that you're at least slightly entertained, and they give you what you should well expect: flashy and fun attacks with all of the functionality you should expect from a game like this. But it's only exactly what you'd expect, and if you're going to demand total attention from the player like this, you need to be introducing things that players wouldn't know off the bat, and it just doesn't have any features like that in that first segment. Eventually, it does get into some new features, but at the time of writing, after going at this game for nearly an hour, I'd only just finished the tutorial and I'd only learned two things from the game that I wouldn't have known otherwise from playing other ones. Just two. When this game says 60-80 hours, it means it, but if this is the way that they're going to stretch out the playtime, I'm a bit wary. Still, they were able to cram a good bit of story in that time, too, and I actually rather enjoy it so far! This is a story-driven game, and make no mistake, it shows clear signs of the style it was drawn in. From only being voice acted in Japanese, to the tropes that are made evident from the first moments of the game, it is made clear from the get go that this is a game that's going to follow the trends of anime in regards to its story and characters. If you aren't fond of that, you may be better off looking elsewhere for your fantasy tactical role-playing game fix. But I am, and trust me, you have never seen a game that makes you think that you're watching an episode of anime more when you get past that tutorial and start the first boss fight. It's surreal to watch. From what I can tell, you're going to be in for an anime style game with stylish combat and a kickass story. If the story doesn't grab you, you're going to be waiting a long time for gameplay to kick in, because you have to go through a LOT of dialogue, but the gameplay itself is solid , and I can already tell the combo system is going to lead to plenty of fun down the road. First impressions? Grab it.

5/10 Agarest Zero is the prequel to Agarest: Generations of War. People who played the old Agarest will find that a few things have changed. Starting with the good improvements. A fast-forward option during dialogue, fully turn-based dungeons with no more analog crawling or suprise encounters, and a slightly more informative esoteric book. A simplified version of the original Agarest is build into the game, and can be unlocked if you play NG+ on hard. As long as you get True End in the Zero universe, you will unlock True End in the Agarest vanilla universe automatically. You can unlock various vanilla characters and combine them into your zero party for maximum choice. There are bad points too. For one, there are only two generations instead of five, although unlike Leonheardt who was stuck with a sword, you will have some control over Sieghart's weapon. The True End mechanic is also different, it being dependent on relationship scores and less than a handful of crucial storyline choices. You will not unlock the true ending unless you are familiar with dating sims; it is possible to get all nine women in the group to love you maximally, but unless you get somewhere close to that you won't get the true ending. The game is faster-paced due to less generations, but not fast-paced enough to warrent repeated crapshoots on the dating sim mechanic only to find out that you fail true end again and again. If you follow the True End guide for Zero on Agarest Wiki to a tee, it is a linear process and you can unlock it. But then Sieghart/Leonis will not feel like they have any consistent preference or personality. It will just be hardcore pragmatic metagaming. On an important tangent, this game may be a little bit less friendly to female gamers than the vanilla game, because of the much more increased emphasis on the dating sim aspect. Women-to-women conversations in this game are also more superficial than vanillla. Female gamers can consider themselves warned. It is a game with pros and cons, but if you liked the original Agarest then you might as well get Zero because it comes with a simplified version of the original game plus the interface improvements.

Pro - Good Storyline. - Nice Japanese Characters' Sound. - Great Skill Animations and Many Combination Attacks. Well done ! - Character Creation. (This feature is not in the first game of this series.) - Good Artworks. - Game Systems is not too hard to Understand. - Cursor offsets (Left and Right). Well this is good option. (Should be on the first game too) - New Affection Icon. (Easier to understand but less feeling) - New Dungeon System (Easier to explore) - Two ways ending - Secret Achievements !! (I realized that some achievement are not in the list) - Maybe More Later Con - Annoyed Tutorial. (On 1st run you should let player decide just like the first game) (-1) - Character Creation. (Lack of information) (-.5) - A little bug. (*Game freeze in some cases but its okay) (-.25) - Costume DLC unavailable for PC yet (-1) - A little low FPS. (Fixed by editing .ini file) (-0) - Tracking system needed (Battle information eg. monster killed, battles, etc) (-.25) - Maybe More Later 7/10 * Game freeze / When the blacksmith guy did something wrong in smithing. I opened steam overlay right after the item name is up and disappeared. And then the game got freeze ! I have no idea what heppened.

Short summary: This is an amazing turn based strategy game with unique weapons, and a huge variety of characters and unlockable skills. This game is similair to fire emblem combat system, and has a cliche but an entertaining story. There are several events, and incorporates the oh so common dating sims the japanese love as well. One of the best part of the game is without a doubt, the creation of your character, where it is a tarot card system, which randomizes your character in the vague direction you build him to be. Synopsis: Record of Agarest War Zero is the prequel to Record of Agarest War. The tale follows Sieghart, an army commander who gains magical powers from a strange woman named Mimel. Blossoming from this setup, Record of Agarest War Zero is a slow-paced tale treading on familiar territory: the world is in danger and it's up to a small band of warriors to set things right. Combat: Record of Agarest War Zero's shining light is combat. Moving characters into position like a chess board is a challenging undertaking, but a rewarding one. Depending on which square characters occupy, they can link to other characters to unleash joint attacks with powerful results. But it's the calculated movement of sprites into position that makes exciting battles. While the terrain is flat and backgrounds repetitive, the environment is still a non-factor like the original Agarest War. The strategic requirements of success are fulfilling for all strategy fans. (Battles dish out experience like candy, yet money feels constantly tight.) Gameplay: The Agarest War series is different from other strategy games is that the story is split over multiple generations. When the curtain finally closes on Sieghart's side of the story, it's his offspring with the maiden-of-highest-regard that carries on the tale into future years. You are also forced to progress along a fixed path, forced to stop at each dot along the way for a battle. These often have no bearing on the plot and are simply there to make the journey from one chapter to the next take as long as possible.(although if the battle does indeed get too tedious, pressing q will turn on auto battle. A word of advice is use it on enemies you will dominate, due to the fact that the auto A.I is not the best.) Overall, i love this game, while it may say i only have 10 hours or so, i have the rest of the series on my ps3, with a total over 200 hours, a great game focusing on turn based strategy, and dating sim like playthrough.

I will leave the cat here, so that everybody who passes by can pet it and give it a thumbs up and awards 　　　 　　／＞　　フ 　　　 　　| 　_　 _ l 　 　　 　／` ミ＿xノ 　　 　 /　　　 　 | 　　　 /　 ヽ　　 ﾉ 　 　 │　　|　|　| 　／￣|　　 |　|　| 　| (￣ヽ＿_ヽ_)__) 　＼二つ

Agarest: Generation of War Zero is a prequel the Agarest: Generation of war game that came out back in the 2007. If you played the other agarest series you know what you’re going into but if you haven’t well lets just say it’s gonna be pretty interesting. Now onto the breakdows: [h1] The Pros [/h1] (+) [b] Tons of skills combination to choose from [/b] This is self-explanatory I think. As you progress the story and complete side quest you will unlock more skills to improve you’re party. Always check the estorica book for combination list. Don’t just throw random skills in each character. If you do that you won’t survive the end game. (+) [b] Character modification [/b] I don’t know a better term for this, but basically as you level up your characters you’ll get extra points for you allocate between stats. With this you would be able to create any kind of character that suits you. And you also get these extra points by winning combats so yeah the possibilities are endless. But ofcourse each character has its own specialization so if you want to change it, its possible but might take a while. (+) [b] Challenging end game dungeon [/b] Just like the other agarest game after you finish the true end, you will have access to an extra dungeon "the boundary plane" in this dungeon the difficulty is cranked up even more, which make the game more challenging but also tedious at the same time. There's also a lil bit of story in there. (+) [b] This is basically 2 game in 1 [/b] Yes i'm being serious, if you port the complete save file from Agarest: Generation of War, you get the "option" to replay the whole Agarest: Generation of War gameplay without the mob fights, and that's a huge plus for me. The other perk is this time you're locked to true end however you won't be able to make a decision for you're spouse as it's also locked for each generation. So even if you haven't play Agarest: Generation of war (like me), do your self a favor and look up for a clear save. [b] trust me....you'll need it. [/b] [h1] The Cons [/h1] The cons for this game is that the combat is really tedious at times and take a long to finish. Oh and I need to mention that if you mess up an event you’re locked out from true end. So yes you need to do it all over again. I mention to get the Agarest: generation fo war clear save file no? do youself a favor and just do it. Unless you want to be locked out the extra story and extra dungeon in the post game….. [h1] Verdict [/h1] To be honest im kinda on the fence whether to give a thumbs up or down. I really enjoy playing the game, the only thing I have problem with is how the game didn’t tell me that the extra content could be access using agarest generation of war clear file…. Other than that particular part I like this game…..so yeah. on a side note if i don't mention a certain aspect of the game it means for me it doesn't really stand out or just fine. Pro tip : 1. Get a clear save file from agarest: generation of war 2. Read the true end guide…..saves you the trouble……

It's a good game with only one problem. The freebie items they include, IF you activate them, will really ruin the game for you, and there's nothing to indicate whether you should activate them. Your first assumption is probably like mine- that the items will be either cosmetic or balanced in nature, and won't ruin the gameplay at all. They are essentially enough to make the entire game VERY easy aside for some of the late game stuff, though, so beware. Buy it. Play it. Don't activate the addons unless you're playing a 2nd time. Enjoy.