I Have Low Stats But My Class Is "Leader", So I Recruited Everyone I Know To Fight The Dark Lord

I wanted to like this game. I thought the concept was pretty funny, but it's just flawed. There are really 100 characters, but the game expects you to fight like a regular party. Remembering the 4-5 skills of each of those characters, what types they are, what their stats are, and how they synergize with all the other 100 characters. Okay that might be doable, but I didn't really want to make a spreadsheet for a little comedy game. And the game doesn't help with this. Each character has a random fantasy name. So you have to scroll through four characters at a time trying to remember what they did or else check each and every one of their skill screens. To give an example the first fight is against a dark enemy so I figured light damage would be best. Fortunately the second character in the list had a heavy light attack, and that worked well. But then they ran out of MP, so I had to go look for another character with light damage. After checking a lot of them I just gave up. I don't even know how close I was to the end because again they have random names and no numbering. So I just spammed regular attacks from the random character I landed on and won. It was boring, tedious, and honestly didn't do that much less damage than the previous light attack I used. And then I realized that according to the description there's 99 more levels like this. And that's all there is apparently as the only part you explore is the first town. I tried another test battle in the Dev area and the same spam of regular attacks was most effective. So yeah I saved and quit. Maybe I'll come back later to see if it gets better, but not for a while. The dialogue is actually decent, but it's pretty short. And it doesn't make up for the tedious fighting system. Also the color contrast is pretty clashing and everything is low resolution. I can get past that, but it just makes it even harder to use the already cumbersome UI.

This is another in the weird and insane lineup of games that Cannibal Interactive have put out. The gameplay is intentionally overly complicated and intended to be an experience rather then fun, and in that it certainly succeeds. With no grinding, no leveling, a SMB3 map system, and no real major item management you are left with two things: story and combat. The story and writing in the game is a real strong suit. With fully fleshed out characters that if you can remember and tell apart, have actual meaningful relationships with one another. The game introduces all the characters right from the start so trying to juggle 99+ characters is a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, but worth it if you put the effort in. The combat that can range from normal fights to, a Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street barber off, is infuriating, messy, complex, and requires straight rote memorization of who deals what type of damage, and who works best with whom. So, just like any other JRPG, but with 99 people, at once. Though I personally found it very rewarding when I finally remembered who the damn healers were. Another note is that the lag in combat, as this games engine was obviously very heavily modified to make it work. I see this turning away many a player, though the game certainly comes across like it WANTS you to hate it. The weakest part of the game though is that it is has some very bland maps and a minimalist style that screams 'I can't afford to hire an art team' Not that I think this is enough to stop JRPG masochists from enjoying the game. TLDR: Pros -- Great Writing -- Great Characters -- Nice Story -- Combat can be rewarding with lots -- LOTS of effort Cons: -- So many characters right from the start -- Combat takes real effort and may be too much for some -- Limited and very basic art with lots of empty rooms -- Combat lags as the engine wasn't meant for this hell Bottom Line: If you like the challenge of the battle system being described, don't mind overlooking the bland art direction this game is very much worth it's asking price point.

Everything else about I Have Low Stats But My Class Is “Leader”, So I Recruited Everyone I Know To Fight The Dark Lord is honestly delightful — the music is superb and really fitting of the title, there’s a massive amount of sprite diversity, and the fighting strategy is easy to learn but hard to master. But where this game absolutely shines is how it’s removed two really tired mechanics — grinding and random encounters — and found really creative ways to compensate for their obvious lack. Instead of several characters progressively getting stronger, it’s the entire town just doing their best and finding even better ways to work with each other; random encounters fed into that grinding nonsense, so the developer had the keen insight to drop them entirely, and instead used planned battles to show party dynamics and personality. It’s really something special.

Buy it, just trust me. It's funny and you can recruit the cat.

It's a simple game, and it does what it says on the tin. You get a massive party of characters to fight in RPG battles. "Oh ha ha," you say, "like that mobile Final Fantasy game where you just tap to attack right?" NO. Each of the characters has stats and unique moves, and combo moves, and an HP and MP pool of their own. They're like characters from any other oldschool RPG, except you get 100 of them at once. It's cool for a while, give it a spin.

The bit is NOT worth it.

A simple, lighthearted tongue-in-cheek adventure that, though repetitive in terms of gameplay, was a generally fun experience for me. I don't regret helping to fund this game on Kickstarter.

"My class may be 'Leader,' yes, but surely I don't actually recruit EVERYONE I know to fight the dark lord, right?" 26 minutes later and suddenly the entire town save for one grandfather and a busy man decided I can't be trusted on my own. Commits to the bit 10/10

I tried this ridiculous Super RPG for the vibes, and I had a lot of fun with it! There is also an accessibility mode that makes it a fun VN if combat is not your thing!! Simply put- It is JUST as hard to manage as you think it is, but it's shockingly fair. Most battles thankfully don't force you to use you entire 100 person (well... 99 mostly people + 1 cat) party. The majority of the time it's more of a complex puzzle- there are a ridiculous variety of damage types and most opponents you can only realistically damage with a handful, so you have to maximize support to the units that can effectively do damage, keep track of an ever growing list of items, and the ever growing list of skills and combo skills characters get as they bond and grow. It can be overwhelming, but it's a lot of fun! The writing- it's also shockingly fun and consistent! There are hundreds of characters in this game, but a shocking number feel fleshed out for a cast this absurdly large. The fact we get to know everyone over the course of the journey? The fact that the lore and connections between characters makes sense even when it's absurd for absurdity's sake? Phenomenal! Truly a feat of writing! I played a decent number of battles, but I did eventually use the accessibility system to skip several to just see more scenes or read more lore! The accessibility system is good. Being able to skip battles you are struggling with when battles take as long as they do and consume as much focus as they do is VERY welcomed. No notes- just something more games need! Finally, the bad. The game is niche and long, so sometimes it can be hard to progress. You can't typically skip story chapters either. There is one section where you essentially need to find a needle in a haystack (that haystack being a full farm feild) and I simply could NOT find the needle even after several sweeps, reboots, and attempting several methods of button mashing. This lead me to put down the game for awhile, since it was the third or so puzzle that felt like it took days. But, if you are willing to power through, this is a game with dozens of hours of content- even if you treat it like a VN! Highly reccomend.

The game has a funny conceit and it sticks to it absolutely. I always enjoyed recruiting as many people as I could in RPGs and finally a game has taken it to its logical extreme. JRPG menu combat, at its best, is a dynamic puzzle with multiple solutions, and this game has it in spades.