Penny Arcade's On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness 4

The final part of Penny Arcade's Precipice of Darkness continues and concludes its epic tale with everything you would expect: humour, fun gameplay and a worthwhile ending. Definitely worth completing if you have played the previous games and found them enjoyable. This one has a slightly more 'dark' vibe to it but still maintains the previous games charm. Highly recommended, the class system from game 3 however is missed, although replaced by monster combat and training highly comparable to pokemon. Story: 8/10 Soundtrack: 8/10 Gameplay: 8/10 Voice acting: N/A Graphics: 16 bit

So after part 1 and 2 were created by Penny Arcade, parts 3 and 4 were created by Zeboyd games and produced by Penny arcade. This game continues from the third game with the same meaningless and verbose dialogue, and this time around, I'm not even sure what happens to the plot. Things really don't make a whole lot of sense this time around and I'm not sure why “insert spoiler here” does what he does, other than wanting to end the world because “why not?”. I've never really been a big fan of the plot per se in this series. I think I enjoy the comedy more on the Zeboyd games and the plot a little more on the Penny Arcade games, mainly because there aren't big time jumps and a lack of explanation in the first two games. The pixel art received an upgrade here and I like it even more than before. The backgrounds are detailed, the colors are bright and each area looks distinctive, save for the caves, which all kind of look the same. However, those caves are pretty much all side areas, so that's fine with me. The sprites are very much the same (if not exactly the same) as they were in game 3 and they fit in with the rest of the world here too. I like having the world to explore again as the world map is now free roaming and there are a number of side dungeons that pop up and various dead-end paths in each dungeon with secret characters and extra treasure. I really enjoy having the world map back to explore and since there are so many extra characters to find and even an airship to explore areas that you couldn't get to before or revisit areas you missed the first time though. They even through in the first dungeon from Breath of Death VII (visually updated of course) for a gag side dungeon that had me hyped. I think they outdid themselves with the combat once again here as well. The combat has evolved from game 3 where it felt like a mash up of the original Penny Arcade style, with Final Fantasy V, and Cthulhu Saves the World all mixed together. This time, we still get to mix a number of job classes together, but they've added a trainer and monster system, meaning that one job class comes from the trainer and the other one comes from the monster. The game tells you in the first 5 minutes that our characters cannot battle in the new world that game 4 takes place in and so they command monsters to fight in their place. Early on, the difficulty was reasonable, but around the halfway point in the game you start getting really powerful, all-targeting spells that lay waste to most normal enemies in a round or two. I like the creativity involved in having your monsters be either more tank-focused, magic-focused, support-focused, or physical-focused. The amount of characters is kind of overwhelming at times and with a whole string of level ups after some battles with far too many new abilities scrolling by, it sometimes leads to stalling the gameplay to re-check all of my monster's abilities to see if I need to adjust my strategy on account of a new attack. Don''t get me wrong, I like the combat here probably as much if not more than any other battle system in the series. The amount of variety of moves and styles and the ridiculousness of the monster designs kept me intrigued all game long. What other game can you have a vending machine as a party member? The music here is also well done. They seem to have fixed the looping issue from game 3 and what is here isn't anything ground breaking, but it's fun to listen to the dungeon themes and and they seem to fit the theme of the dungeon or the mood of the characters going into a dungeon at least. They even threw in a vocal track for the “Team Rocket” equivalent group and it's funny and stupid as you might expect. Overall, I have enjoyed this series as a whole and I enjoyed this game too. The series improved over time with each new instalment. The plot is nonsense, but the gameplay and the turn based combat in each game is interesting enough on its own to keep a veteran player of the JRPG genre interested.

I played Precipice of Darkness 3 before this game. That game felt like it had potential but never quite got there. Precipice of Darkness 4, however, is better in almost every ways. This game is a direct continuation from Precipice of Darkness 3 which isn't compulsory to play unless you would like to get to know the characters and story a bit better. Precipice of Darkness 4 is a turn-based RPG with humor and absurdity in nature. You spent almost an entire game in a plane of existence called Underhell which is incredibly well designed. The game isn't linear like the previous installation and let you explore the world of Underhell. There are many interesting and locations you get to visit such as crystal caves, a demon train, a zoo, a futuristic tower and many more. I love a lot of these locations since they felt so unique and the soundtracks that play alongside them are spectacular. Speaking of the soundtrack, Precipice of Darkness 4's OSTs and overall sound design are also a significant improvement from the previous title. Many tracks are very memorable and become one of my favorites of all time such as tracks like Jungle, Corrupted Tower and Yggdrasil. As for the combat, your characters don't get to fight the enemies yourselves as you will collect monsters and let them fight for you, up to 4 monsters per battle. The monsters also gain the abilities from the 'trainer' which is one of your character. The combat is 'speed-based' which means the more speed you have, the faster you are able to act. You also have an ability to interrupt enemies so their turn to act gets pushed back further. So far, It is a pretty unique combat system and let you try many abilities and combos. I'm surprised by a huge amount of monster designs this game has. Some looks ridiculous, some looks amazingly creative. The story of the game is quite absurd, a bit too absurd for my taste. The overall tone is meant to be Lovecraftain style but the writing actually doesn't take itself too seriously, you will sometimes see some parodies and 4th wall breaking. Overall, Precipice of Darkness 4 is a JRPG-style hidden gem which is recommended to the genre's lover. It managed to set itself distinct from other JRPGs and be unique and memorable on their own. My score: 8.25/10

We are villains to our very core Heroism is out the door Saving people isn't what we do... We hold our Monstorbs to the sky! mwahahahah When they open, you will cry! 'Cus monsters will pour out! Jump. On. YOU! WE ARE FISH FORCE! Trail Blazers! We Are Fish Force! We beat the odds 'cus we tip the scales!

Just like the third one.. If you liked the first two games, don't play this one. Everything you loved about the two first games.. gone. This title has no humour, the gameplay is just hours of mindless FF style fights, and there are no secrets to discover. Stay clear!

i will never be okay again.