Please note that I did not finish the game. .
I'm not sure how much I had left, but I was stuck and I just wanted to finish the review.
-Story-
While I wasn't particularly invested in the story or characters, I do have to say that is was unique. RPG Maker games tend to stick to that classic "defeat the demon king and save your girl" idea. I don't think I've ever seen a game where you play as a goblin mechanic trying to escape to the surface. So yeah, points for that. Other than it being unique, as mentioned, I didn't really care for the main character. Besides a two shopkeeping goblins and a random girl in a bunny suit, I didn't encounter any other characters after I left the starting area.
-Graphics-
Wow, I can finally talk about something, even though it does use some RTP. First off, the mapping was really good. Looked good, played well, and generally was above average. My only complaint would be that there isn't a ton of variation between areas.
While the custom art was very nice, there is a bit of inconsistency. Most of the enemies are in a different artstyle from the player and their robots. Then, I fought a typical JRPG party as a boss (this is where I got stuck), who used the RTP battlers. It's not horrible, it's just frustrating.
-Gameplay-
The TL;DR is that I hated the combat and liked everything else.
Exploration was the highlight, for me. It's just really fun to run around and pick up stuff. It's quick, snappy, and satisfying. The currency/economy is really well balanced, which is something that I think people undervalue.
Now, the combat.
I didn't really mind most enemy encounters. I liked that you could run away from them in the overworld. However, they got a bit old after a while, and I started skipping most of them.
There were some minor nitpicks, such as some skills just feeling really useless, such as the one that slows the enemy down. Agility/Speed is such a hard stat to really use well, so I get it, but there's no real reason to use it.
The bosses are what really drove me up the wall.
Two examples that stuck out to me were:
1: The spider boss summoned smaller enemies and gave a state that reduces your hit rate.
My main issue with this is that lowering the hit rate leaves too much up to chance. It feels like your just wasting time and resources as you wait for the state to be removed. Or, you can continue to play aggressively and sometimes get lucky.
Summoning the spiders is just annoying. It's just adding more healthbars and splitting your damage. I wouldn't mind it as much if the boss didn't use it multiple times.
2: The JRPG Party Quad-battle with the healer and the rage state
This is where I got stuck and lost it.
4 enemies with large HP bars, a healer character that can not only heal anyone in the party, but also cast a group heal skill. I tried focusing exclusively on the healer, since she seemed to have the lowest Hp, and that's my usual start. Unfortunately, it doesn't really work, because 1: Your bots will attack whoever they feel like 2: One of the enemies gives a "rage" state that makes you attack at random. I was only able to get the healer down to about 1/5 of their HP before I died. I tried the boss a few more times, but with no luck.
It's possible I needed to be a higher level, but I don't know. It felt very out of my control.
-Music and Sound-
The music was fine. To be honest, after a while, I just muted the BGM and put on my own playlist. I do do this for a lot of games, if I don't feel the music adds much, so this isn't some weird insult, I promise.
The sound design was actually really good. UI sounds and the little noises it makes when you pick up material are snappy and pleasant. I really appreciate this.
-Polish, Performance, and Nitpicks-
Not much to say here, besides the game ran fine and there was only really one polish issue.
The game over screen is the default one stretched out. I don't know if this is intentional or not, but it was kind of like a jumpscare, lol.
