Quartet

Feel pretty good about recommending this game if you like classic turn-based jrpgs like Lufia, FF6, and so on. The music is awesome, the gameplay loop is focused, and the characters are all unique enough in their backstories to keep it interesting. Game good, you try

FF6 set in WW2 with some dimension hopping. I really enjoyed my time with it, though the story was lacking a bit and didn't really pay off for me. The characters have a ton of personality and were the best part of the journey. The foundation of Quartet is very strong and I hope the devs build upon this for a sequel / new game.

This is a mostly enthusiastic "yes," with some qualifications. Best things about Quartet: + UI, controls, flow of play, general QoL. At-will fast forward from the game start is amazing. + Vibe, both visual + audio: classic but refined + Combat is solid; Normal is very easy to approach, and Difficult makes you think without being overly punishing. More types of strategies open up as the game goes on + Characters are likeable and feel real; they aren't cliches + Main story: interesting concept, and better than average writing I enjoyed Quartet more and more as it went on -- which is unusual. Combat got better, storytelling got better, everything got more interesting. The last 1/4 has been terrific. Flip side of this is that it starts out weaker in several ways. Qualifications: - Very slow start. The first 4 chapters are REALLY heavy on cutscenes and dialogue... and most of the cutscenes just establish daily life, culture, and initial circumstances. It seriously felt like 10 cutscenes for every 1 battle for a while, and also 10 cutscenes for every 1 scene that actually related to the main storyline. - Exploration. This is a major part of most of Quartet's inspirations, and for the first 3/4 of the game it largely doesn't exist. Pathways (in dungeons, when traveling, even in towns) are as linear as I've ever seen, complete with enemy fights at predictably spaced choke points; it often feels like an "RPG on rails." There's rarely anything you can poke around "on the side" beyond finding bags that always contain consumable items, and no open-ended traveling at all until the last game segment. This DOES get better: the last 1/4 of the game opens up much like the final segments of FF6 and CT. - In combat, your AP regenerates freely. Out of combat, it doesn't, which sometimes results in doing the pass-pass-pass dance when you're down to one enemy. This is just silly. Finally, neither a pro nor a con, but you should be aware that an extremely literal World War II allegory is VERY prominent in the game, especially the midgame... complete with Fantasy Germany occupying Fantasy Poland and bombing Fantasy England; Fantasy Russia, Fantasy Celts, Fantasy Greece, Fantasy Switzerland, and Fantasy Jews are all there, too. This material is mostly handled thoughtfully; you get to see a lot of different reactions that different people have, a lot of seeing from different people's shoes, and it doesn't ever feel like the game is trying to force you to feel a certain way; at the same time, it doesn't try to sanitize anything.

Excellent game, gives 90s jrpg vibes, definitely a recommend for true jrpg lovers who heavily gamed in the 90s!

Heavily inspired by Octopath Traveler and Chrono Trigger, and makes both of them very proud! If you have a love for JRPGs, Quartet is among the best I've played. It even has a "post" game!!!

i do think quartet is a good game but i do have a few bones to pick and so i'll write about the game or something i mean i'm writing a review about the game what else would i talk about, my local weather? anyway, while as a whole quartet is a decent game, it bills itself as a game with classic turn-based combat. relatively light on the word salad and i thought i knew what i was getting into but also kind of not really? when i pick up a "modern" turn-based game i expect either random encounters (or the much less desireable moving enemy spawns you can interact with). for the vast majority of its run time, quartet opts for... something worse? fights are interactable monsters at fixed points. it's not particularly exciting! i would be more lenient if it was just for a fraction of the game, but it's the case for a significant part of the run time. another bit that takes a significant part of the run time is the "set pieces". much like how the encounters are pre-defined, for a large chunk of the game you are on rails seeing cutscene after cutscene spaced out by short segments of almost non existent exploration and short combat. the game feels like it's in "prologue" mode for the vast majority of its run time. fortunately, this is somewhat salvaged by the fact that i do think the cast is fun and interesting to keep up with, and because the pace is brisk. you're not exactly being sent for milk in the middle of a war zone, which is appreciated. there's probably something to be said about character sidequests being dumped on you before the end of the game but at least they're optional? i realize this is a lot of complaining but as i said, what keeps the package together is that it's brisk. you aren't hitting your head against a wall for 30 hours, despite feeling like the prologue runs way too long. the cast is pretty solid (shoutout to Ben in particular) and you are given enough tools to not really feel like you're choked by the game pissing off and asking you to figure out some herculean task around every corner. if the game was 100 hours then i wold probably complain much more but ultimately you're set out on a path, it's very clear what the story is about and who's involved, the game gives you the appropriate tools to get through it and even if i am annoyed by some aspects it's good. this is decent. it's worth picking up if you want to experience a character drama but final fantasy 1 dungeon crawling through caves for 50 hours this is not! and so if that's what you want, look elsewhere!

Great, tight rpg. 20hrs without the side content, ~25-30hrs to all the side content. Worked great w/ Gamehub Light as well.

Quartet is a sterling example of what modern JRPGs can be and I would recommend it to anyone who is a fan of the genre. While the combat was never exceptionally challenging, it is the writing, sound, and art design that really shine throughout and make this one of my new favorite JRPGs. The game is beautiful to play from start to finish. The environments and levels are all clearly designed with care and the accompanying soundtrack is quite moving. The characters all feel unique and each have their own emotional arcs which are well thought out and developed, some of which are really funny subversions of common JRPG tropes (looking at you Ben!). I can definitely tell that the world setting was very thoroughly conceptualized as there were times when I would wonder something only to have the game explain it in a satisfying manner. The plot was also coherent and well written overall; there were never instances of characters acting against their interests and even NPCs seemed to actually grapple with the situations the story put them in. There were interesting twists in the plot and it had a satisfying level of complexity while exploring political themes that resonate with the real world. This game truly encapsulates the best parts of the JRPG experience without bogging the player down with incredibly tedious grinding or poor pacing. You can grind at certain points in the game, but it really isn't necessary. I played on hard difficulty throughout and could only find a handful of challenging combats. I will note that each character has their own strengths in combat and I frequently found myself utilizing the whole team; there were only a couple who I thought were relatively weak, but even so they had some abilities which proved useful in the right moments. If you're looking for challenging combat, you won't find it here, but also there are no random encounters. If you fight the enemies you come across as you meet them, you'll generally be strong enough to move through the story unimpeded. In some areas you have to fight to progress, but there are other later points where combat can be avoided. Overall, if you're looking for an excellent JRPG narrative supported by beautiful art and meticulous writing you will find it here. If you're more engaged by combat, character building and in-depth systems you might want to look elsewhere.

It may get much better, but I had to make a decision before the refund window and the first two hours weren't doing it for me. I started with Cordelia's route, which is *very* heavy on "tell, don't show" writing that's tedious to read. Gameplay in her intro is basically just repeatedly walking down narrow hallways and being forced to fight enemies who are conveniently standing in the 1x1 gap to the next hallway. Combat is, as every other negative review mentions, pointlessly easy, so all those fights don't do anything to relieve the boredom. Everyone said Ben's route is better, and I did get to see about 30 minutes of it at the end of my time with Quartet, but it wasn't better enough to make me stick with the game. It does at least have a lead with more personality. That said, you're still dealing with very linear maps and easy battles that all feel the same. If you're going to play it, I'd suggest following the dev's advice and starting with the demo, which contains one of the character intros. If you do that, you can probably squeeze 2.5 of the intros into the refund window instead of 1.5 like me. I don't think my opinion would have changed by seeing more of Quartet, but it's an option if you want to be more sure.

Great game!!