[h1]Summary[/h1]
[b]Game Length:[/b] I beat the game and completed all side quests in 28 hours.
[b]Overall:[/b] 7/10
[b]Graphics:[/b] 7/10
[b]Exploration:[/b] 7/10
[b]Combat:[/b] 7/10
[b]Difficulty:[/b] 6/10
[b]Progression / Customization:[/b] 7/10
[b]Story:[/b] 6/10
[b]Music:[/b] 8/10
[b]Bugs and technical issues:[/b] 10/10
[h1]Overall: 7/10[/h1]
Solid game, better than most rpgmaker games I have played. I don't complete games I don't really enjoy so the fact that I completed it should say something.
[h1]Graphics: 7/10[/h1]
[b]Custom character graphics[/b]
Custom character portraits during dialog are nice, there are a few hand drawn cutscenes as well.
[b]Nice and detailed Mapping[/b]
There are some very immersive and beautiful maps in the game. Some of the inns and other areas feel very homey and add a good atmosphere to the game. Sadly some of the map's beauty is hidden a bit by darkness.
[b]Sprites[/b]
Most sprites are pretty standard rpgmaker sprites. However, there is a good variety of monster battles sprites though so you can tell a number of monster packs were purchased.
[b]Day / night[/b]
The game has a day / night cycle. I didn't really care for this and just ended up sleeping at an inn so that I was always playing during the day time so that it was easy to see the maps.
[h1]Exploration: 7/10[/h1]
[b]Semi open world[/b]
The game transitions from continent to continent as you progress through the main story. You have the opportunity to explore each continent which is filled with a bunch of optional dungeons with bosses and treasure. After you get the airship the whole world opens up and there are a lot of side quests and side areas to complete.
[b]Immersiveness[/b]
The optional dungeons and chests on the overworld aren't tied into the story or side stories so they kind of take away from some of the immersion of the world for me. I think adding a bit more story for each of them would be good for the world, make it feel larger, more cohesive, and less game-like.
[b]Encounter rate[/b]
Monsters are visible on both the open world and dungeon maps so you can explore without having to fight monsters constantly which is nice.
[h1]Combat: 7/10[/h1]
[b]Standard, but fun[/b]
Although the combat is pretty standard rpgmaker combat it is better than many rpgmaker games. You have some pretty nice abilities that feel good to use which I feel is really important. You mostly use MP based abilities, although there are SP (gained over time in combat) abilities as well usually the fights don't last long enough to use high cost SP abilities. You have multiple rows which affect some stats and the front row can block melee attacks from hitting the back row so tanks matter.
[h1]Difficulty: 6/10[/h1]
[b]Early game difficulty[/b]
The difficulty feels very good at the start, tough, but not impossible
[b]Mid game difficulty[/b]
The game gets a bit easier mid game, but still fairly difficult.
[b]Late game difficulty[/b]
Late game was a bit too easy for me. I did a ton of optimization and found some very effective combos so your mileage may vary.
[h1]Progression / Customization: 7/10[/h1]
[b]12 Party members[/b]
You have 12 party members to create a team of 6 out of. They each specialize in different areas from dmg absorb / reflect tank, dodge tank, ranged dps, magic dps, gun dps, party buffers, etc.
[b]Gear variety[/b]
The best part of progression is the gear variety. You constantly receive interesting gear with different effects throughout the game even early on in the game. This is nice because often games have boring gear until the late game. Here you actually have to make decisions based on what types of stats and effects you want on each character.
[b]Skills[/b]
You acquire and upgrade skills via ability points. While this is nice, it isn't too interesting since you get a large amount of points and skills have level requirements so I felt there wasn't a lot of choice here. I just unlocked skills as I got points. I would like to see more meaningful choices given to the player here.
[h1]Story: 6/10[/h1]
[b]Good quality story scenes[/b]
The story scenes are well animated using the sprites and you can tell some work was put into them.
[b]Character dialog[/b]
THe character dialog is fun and interesting. You get a decent feel for the large cast of characters and their different personalities can be pretty fun.
[b]Standard good vs evil[/b]
The story is a bit too standard good vs evil for me. I like more complex stories which don't start out with a big good vs evil dynamic right when you start the game.
[h1]Music: 8/10[/h1]
[b]Beautiful soundtracks[/b]
Some of the best soundtracks I have heard in an rpgmaker game. Lots of different music and the tracks fit the areas well. The music really helps create some immersion in the areas as you explore them.
[h1]Bugs and technical issues: 10/10[/h1]
[b]Bugs are rare[/b]
I rarely encountered any bugs. I think I found one missing collision on a wall and that was about it.
