This game is great and deserves a look by old school fans of RPGs from way back when. The only drawback to this game is the lack of attention it's gotten over the past 6 years despite being fun and having lots to discover.
[h3]STORYLINE:[/h3] The dev has been continuously working on expanding it over the past many years. What begins as total confusion becomes clearer as players progress into the game. What originally was a game whose storyline could be run through within 8 - 10 hours has become something far more time intensive, but not because of grind, but because of the many things to do within the game.
[h3]CHARACTER CAST & SKILLS / MAGIC:[/h3] Each of the characters have a simple, but interesting background plus their own individual look that stays with them even if changing class. Adding onto this is that character stats are affected by their default class as well as their allowed equipment - shields, weapons, and other equips not just affect attack and def, but have also affect HP and MP as well as sometime provide bonuses like a special elemental attack or increasing regenerative abilities for HP, MP, TP or any combo of the three. When their default class is selected, each has a special set of abilities only they possess. While Ruby may have element-specific attacks provided by her default class, Miles has a set of abilities that provide different elemental attacks with their associated status effects. Though your party starts out with only 2 characters, there are more to be discovered as 3 will join due to storyline and another 2 can be found. Each character's magic spells and/or skill abilities have interesting concepts to reward for frequent usage of them.
[h3]GRAPHICS:[/h3] The graphics are very smooth and colorful. Character movements are seamless. Doesn't matter at what what size window this game is played in, the graphics stay smooth. From the character faces appearing in the dialog boxes to the profile picture in the menus to the sprites that move around to the battlefield, all the graphics are nicely done. Something else worth noting is the graphics during battle. A throwback to the old school RPGs, characters will step forward and attack with their weapon, but the graphics will differ depending on the weapon and what bonuses it has attached to it. The Nexus Wand, when used for a physical attack, has a water spell attached to it as well as a water-based status effect. Fire, ice, lightning, etc ... all have special graphics attached when attacking. Spells have interesting graphics depending on which is used. Arcane Ray fires a purple ray from above after the screen pans around like the spell is acquiring a target. Movement hasn't been a problem as the screen has never frozen, lagged or distorted regardless of window size and whether the characters are walking or sprinting.
[h3]BATTLE:[/h3] It takes some getting used to as there no tutorial is given for battles or much of the game. Well, at least not yet. Much of this game's intrigue is learning how things operate. Trial and error in battle is the recommended strategy. Occasionally, characters will encounter some crazy strong monsters where progress has to be made incrementally. While a hack-and-slash strategy works for most monsters, planning for a long battle works better with such preparations made with electing to equip some armor that provides a usable boon like tactical / HP / MP regeneration or a weapon that has lower attack, but inflicts a negative status effect or gives an elemental property to attacks. So far, I am unsure about how to boost resistance to status effects. While there is little worry about being afflicted with a negative effect, the game begins utilizing it the further in players get.
[h3]WEAPONS & ARMOR:[/h3] I've seen quite an array of equipment though there is more than enough throughout the game. Players are provided the ability to craft their own armor and weapons as well as other items such as skill books or specialty armor ... depending on if the proper materials are possessed. Some equips have nothing special to them other than they are provided by default while others give a nice boost to one or more character stat and/or have a special property attached to them. Specialty equips have their own special look to them.
[h3]ADDITIONAL CONTENT:[/h3] Besides the storyline, there is much to do ranging from hunting down unlucky monsters to whacking them in the colosseum. There are numerous events characters can play in which provides varying degrees of challenge such as the Halloween event which is pretty involved. Other events exist such as Zodiac Overwatch and Hall of Challengers, among others.
[h3]GAME SUPPORT AND DEV INTERACTION:[/h3] Hardytier is very responsive to reports of problems with the game and puts great effort into providing timely fixes for what gets reported. Around the 24th of November, an issue was reported with a character going missing from Ruby's party. Today, the 6th of December, not only has he rolled out a fix for it, but added additional features such as CANDY BAG for farming the Spooky Event, a revamp on character talisman, adding additional advanced monsters to battle and scaling monsters in other areas of the game to provide more balanced gameplay for players. While the fixes and add-ons are constantly being worked on and applied, the best part about this game is that the dev gets involved with the players and works with them on not just the game, but also is nice to chat with.
There are more items to cover here, but I think I've covered the basics.
