[h1]Listen Up Orphanians, My Husband Left Me[/h1]
[h2]Story[/h2]
The premise of the game is that there's an organization of magic, or Ley users who fight to keep the peace of the world of Orphania. Unfortunately, the leader's ex-wife, Soraya, succumbed to her lust for power and is now part of an evil cult of Ley sensitives who want to sell out the world to godhood-seeking Ley users from alternate universes. This is an interesting multiverse plot with a lot of potential, but the plot feels like an incomplete outline at times. The developer did add some new cutscenes and changes to existing cutscenes to fill in the gaps and fix inconsistencies, but some noticeable remaining gaps include:
- Hyusai suddenly [spoiler]learning the Symbol of the Order. This would make more sense if there was a cutscene where the party or Kiki informed the Doridenna monks of the Symbol, presumably as a backup plan in case the Leyans kill Devan[/spoiler].
- Vanja's romance with Devan would work better if they had more scenes prior to the Realm at War arc.
- On a similar note, Vanja [spoiler]being elected as queen of Siegburg feels somewhat forced, since she doesn't interact much with Siegburg after pitching the election idea. You could argue that the people would probably respect her for giving them a chance to vote unlike their previous tyrannical leader, but they don't really know her that well either[/spoiler].
- Belion [spoiler]is clearly a grifter who is manipulating Parcus and Soraya with his promise for a better world, but I think he should list more specifics about what problems he wants to fix [strike]like the price of eggs[/strike][/spoiler].
That said, I really like the post-credits scene that is obtained by doing all the sidequests and superbosses, [spoiler]since it implies that the party may have been unwitting pawns of Udur's villainous rival, who seemingly absorbs Udur's lingering power. I have a feeling this guy is going to be a tricky villain to overcome, since he knows how to play every faction to his advantage[/spoiler].
[h2]Gameplay[/h2]
The combat system has you chain basic skills together in a long combo, and certain combinations will result in a powerful finisher, which often come with buffs and debuffs so that your character can multitask. You also have non-combo skills that simply cost ley, with some of them giving you an extra turn after everyone else's (and some enemies can use those too). However, you also have to be mindful of resources and plan around that. The list of finisher combinations can be rather long, so I wrote them down in a Google Doc for myself in case my characters are inflicted with berserk. For the most part, the game is balanced as long as you take advantage of the crafting system and update your gear as new recipes appear, which is also the primary way to learn new skills. The commercial version of the skill system makes it so that you don't learn all your skills at once and you must instead spend SP to learn them, which you only get upon leveling up. To compensate, the EXP rate in this version is higher, and you should be able to reach the level cap and learn every skill through normal leveling.
As for character meta, Devan and Gado are my favorites. Devan has good healing abilities and a powerful stat debuff finisher. Plus, you are kind of required to use him [spoiler]due to the Symbol of the Order[/spoiler]. Gado has decent attack options, lots of HP, and has chain finishers that apply group buffs, causing him to powercreep Leon. It's definitely a good thing [spoiler]Gado didn't follow his former friends in becoming a Leyan, or Orphania would be screwed[/spoiler].
The game has some block/ball pushing puzzles, and they can get pretty complicated towards the end of the game, to the point where they rival the Mystic Cave puzzles from Shadows of Adam. It got to the point where I found the superboss of the game to be a victory lap after beating the puzzle that guarded him. However, the commercial version of the game removed that puzzle, so that should make it easier to reach the superboss.
There is a collectible card game that I never completed due to the sheer difficulty of the tournament. Fortunately, it doesn't affect the story or combat, so if you're not into card games, you aren't required to play it.
[h2]Verdict[/h2]
7.7/10
The combo system is very satisfying and engaging, since you have to consider the secondary effects of basic skills in addition to the chain finisher. However, some parts of the story, even with the improvements, fall into "outline syndrome" where some plot developments feel like they need more prior cutscenes to justify the outcome.
