Okay, after *checks notes* two years in which this game got tons of patches and more or less a complete rewrite, I decided to come back to this game because, well, why not. It's pretty similar overall to my memories and review here, but the game balance is wildly better until the last third of the game, where it becomes a slugfest of using your few incredibly overpowered things to take out their incredibly overpowered units that get you killed instantly, or you using the Omnistaffs from the bonus shop to make your characters into invincible gods with 99 in all stats, a thing I avoided since it seemed like it'd make the game too easy. This was much less frustrating than the previous version, but it was still similar, with magic being the only useful thing for much the last third of the game due to its ridiculous ranges, instead of multi-hit swords being the only useful thing. Likewise, thankfully the 90% survival bosses were deleted... but the final stage has you grinding down a 999 HP enemy fifty at a time while outside its range, so it's still kind of dumb at times.
Significantly improved, and about nine hours long now, but I still wouldn't recommend it - not least on account of the dev raised the price by twenty times lately for some reason! (EDIT: Okay the dev lowered it back to $1. Dunno what was going on there.)
Previous review text below:
Legend of Cina is basically Babby's First SRPG Studio Game, somewhat reminiscent of free RPG Maker games from the early 2000s - the plot exists but is mostly nonsensical, the assets used are basically all default, the gameplay balance is extremely wacky, maps have huge stretches of the same terrain, things sometimes just don't work properly for no reason, et cetera.
At the same time, it can be fairly charming, since it definitely leans more towards the "goofy high-powered game" style I like better, rather than the "fan remake of Thracia 776, only more annoying" style. Would I really recommend it?
...nnnnnnno, and for two reasons. For one, towards the end of the game the majority of your characters - basically anyone without the ability to wield swords - stop being able to contribute much, and then you start running into bosses with a 90% chance to survive a fatal blow, such that actually defeating them is pure RNG for when it happens. For two, it's a pay game, and there's likely to be free SRPG Studio games out there already of equal or better quality. Still, if you end up with a copy of this, you should give it a spin. It's six hours that will probably have you laughing at how nonsensical the dialogue is at some point.
