[h1]Finally a great modern JRPG for a sophisticated target group[/h1]
Just to make that cIear:
I've played the Demo of "Deep 8" previously and all my impressions are based on it, so you don't need to wonder about my miniscule playtime for the full game right now. The actual demo I played for about 8 to 9 hours.
Up to this date, this is probably one of the most technically impressive games that were ever created with one of the legacy RPG-Makers.
A lot of effort was put on graphical fidelity like particle effects, several backgrounds of parallax scrolling, 3D-modeled ingame "cutscenes".
Tons of animations, everything was made from scratch as it seems. Asides from a few sound effects perhaps, everything is completely original and independed from the core-assets of the RPG-Maker.
Combined with it's Sci-Fi Setting, which isn't seen that much for turn based JRPG-styled games, the game shines bright with unique identity. Either you're fond of it or not, but this is clearly a labour of love and detail.
The same can be said about it's combat design, which features an ATB-styled battle system you might be familiar from the SNES Final Fantasy games, so i'm not going into detail here.
Just to make clear where I come from, at my age and experience, i'm usually not so easy to impress anymore, most JRPG's just follow a standard formula of attacking and healing and if it doesn't suffice, you just grind enough to attack and heal even more.
Deep 8 circumvents this tedious spiral with focussing on tight mechanics, where every action can make a difference.
Most important is the feature called "potion tolerance" whenever you use a potion, an invisible counter goes down (you can make it visible for x turns in the option menue if you want) if the counter reaches zero, you only heal half HP, if it goes below you don't heal at all and even can harm yourself. The enemies are also affected by that feature and you can for example throw potions at them, to lower their potion tolerance.
This small simple quirk, prevents that you can stall battles for an eternity, MP management is tight and the game really stresses your critical thinking in battle, you should use EVERY ressource and ability at your dispoal and while i'm not far enough to comment about the encounter variety, what I experienced so far leaves a lot of great potental open.
That alone wouldn't ensure a fun combat system, there is also an interactive component, whenever you try to hit the enemy with normal attacks. It's quite engaging because instead of having random factors if you hit or miss or inflict crits, it's up to yourself hitting a specific spot on a bar with the right timing.
But sure, even this doesn't surprise me that much without something truly unique and this is where the "mod system" comes into play.
In Deep 8 you don't have any equipment, everything is handled through these mentioned "mods". For every character are expansive Skilltrees available where you spend "AP" for learning new mods, perks and spells.
AP and EXP are both gained by defeating enemies but you can decide for yourself how to weight their distribution. So you can increase your AP input to 150% by decreasing your EXP input to 50% for example.
Mods are special "settings" that decide how your character behaves in combat. There are 3 kinds of it:
- Frist ones regulates how you behave when attacking the enemy
- Second ones decides how you behave when you become attacked or generally how enemies react to the character with the mod
- Third ones generally change the behaviour how your character interacts with the rest of the party, as far as I understand.
You can always equip one mod of every kind, but you're able to change them any turn, without wasting the turn of the character. You can kinda compare it with "paradigm shift" of Final Fantasy 13, but it's more complex because later in the game you have an ehaustive list of mods, where you can choose and combine 3 sorts in every possible constellation and already early on, the game stresses you to do that. If you don't spend your AP in the right mods, you'll be at a large disadvantage so careful observation what you actually need is important.
So for example, one mod allows your character to fill up your "limit" bar for special attacks faster, but also makes them more vulnerable. While for the shy character there is a mod, that increases their evasion and makes them become hit less often.
As you can see, using both of these mods for the correspondent character would be unwise, because then the one who attains more damage becomes hit more often. So you can use them to your advantage or you can screw yourself over if you don't think about your actions.
Still it isn't too complex at the beginning, because you unlock more mods over course of the game, so you never become overwhelmed by too much choice.
[h1]Characters are a "slow-burner"[/h1]
The combat mechanics were probably the main reason why I bought this game in the end after playing the demo, but it doesn't mean the narrative can be seen as secondary.
As far as I can see the the Sci-Fi Setting itself is an "excuse" to implement some very heavy emotional- even sexual themes, at least that's what I predict.
The game starts with you playing the "bad guy" killing countless of innocent civilians, this quicky establishes the "enemy" you fight onward. The actual perspecitve is told through the lenses of... well everyone to be honest cause you can read everyones mind. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Main character is Ramirez, a shy, even socialphobic boy that struggles hard to surpress his perverted fantasies when interacting with females, not the kind of way how you would expect it from an "clichee" anime protagonist, it's really something he suffers from and why he always ends up becoming pushed around, not be seen as an respectful individual. But it's not others who are to blame for his inner struggles, he gets himself in the way, there is no "cool emo edgy anime protagonist background" behind it, Ramirez is just... awkward and that makes him an relatable protagonist for many, perhaps too relatable, because he represents sides on us we want to overcome, not embrace
The perfect counterpart is his coworker "Melin" an rude, unsentimetal woman that rather acts rashly but if calm still possesses more common sense in human interactions than Ramirez
Seeing the dynamic between both turn out makes up for an exciting and enjoyable narrative.
Way too late into the demo (so I can't say too much about it) comes "Chloe" into play, a winged humanoid who can control all kinds of "magical beasts" (sloppy explanation I know)
But this one seems to treat Ramirez much nicer than Melin, almost intentionally to provoke her. At the end of the demo I was very eager too see where the journey is going and how the following party members will enrich the dynamic between Ramirez and the other characters.
As for the overall story, there is definitely something dooming in the background and the game doesn't get tired in showing you how brutal and ruthless the enemy is.
Later on you can visit different planets but up so far I can't tell too much about it.
What I could explore on the first planet already was very special, maybe too special for some delicate people. There is an SM-Village where women become worshipped as goddesses and so they live an extremely sadistic lifestyle.
What really impressed me was the flying city of the winged humanoids, the amount of detail is impressive. It's a dark cloudy place, where the resident can manifest spirits/magical beasts that surpress their self-harming desires.
All I can is say that after a while I got the feeling to surmise in which direction the story might be going and that's where it catched me, especially the last enemy encounter in the demo is a splendid blend between gameplay and story.
Give the demo a shot, if you are bored of formulaic JRPG's that play by itself, you will love this (I reached the char limit D:)
