Rave Heart+

I enjoyed basically everything about this game. Combat is fast, and if you decide to do all the side things and become a demi-god... easy. Story is solid, space diplomacy at it's finest. Most side quests are good, though there's a bit of hit and miss there. Characters are fun and well-written for the most part. There's only two minor thing I could complain about: - All the "wasteland" areas feel the same. I wouldn't be able to tell one from the other to be honest. - There's a lot of arrows all over the place that show interactable things, chests and so on. These never go away so some areas are brimming with arrows forever. Even though you've done everything. Would be nice if they went away after you interacted with something. Still, those aren't nearly enough to warrant anything less than an 8/10. So 8/10 it is. Definitely worth a 100% playthrough in my opinion.

The gameplay is much better than I expected, going in. The writing is another story, though, and I can't shake the feeling that the music was picked out of some repository with less care than I'd like. I won't recommend that you don't play the game - there are some very neat ideas that I hope the developer get to play around with in the future - just don't expect a masterpiece.

I completed this game on its private beta phase. Enjoyed every bit of it. A very clean sci-fi RPG that reminds me of classic titles like Final Fantasy but in space. What's a greater deal than playing a classic Final Fantasy game but in space? Tons of side content to enjoy. Highly recommended!

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I played this game on stream. The code was provided to me free of charge by the developer. Overall, the game isn't half bad and I feel like there may be a lot of potential were I someone who were to play deeper into the game. However, as is the format of my stream, the time limit prevented me seeing much deeper into the game. The introduction of the game I think is a great start. Compared to a lot of other games I have played on stream in the past, I really appreciate this game's quick start right into the action. If there is one thing that often bogs down a lot of RPGs is making the player read through a very lengthy intro and back story before they have a chance to even decide if the game itself is something interesting. So I am glad that this game lets you jump right into things. Additionally, the tutorial - an area a lot of small time, hobbyist devs mess up - is pretty well executed, giving you a chance to experiment with the controls/skills and gradually introducing things to the player as to not overwhelm them. So as far as immediate first impressions go, it's an A+ Things begin to fall apart a little bit after the intro tutorial area. The game goes into full-story mode and experiences a pacing problem I am more familiar with in other hobbyist indie games: a lot of talking, with very, very brief moments of walking, before engaging in more talking. The down time between excitement so early into the game is an unfortunate pace-breaker to me. The writing itself seems well enough; characters seem to have characteristics that help separate them and their motives, though it's hard to say how this evolves over the course of the game. I can say, it all seems fairly standard anime space fair, but that's not necessarily a knock against this game. I guess at the end of it all; it's a fine JRPG that I can see many who are looking for a more classically-oriented JRPG experience will enjoy. As for myself, I don't feel invested enough to continue playing this one. If you'd like to watch my experience with your game, I've linked the archive below. You can click the timestamps to jump to when I start playing your game. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OT8grwGU3bs

[h1]Raving and Ranting[/h1] The game got a "Plus" re-release, so I had to update the review. [h2]Story[/h2] The premise is that the protagonists must fight back against the political conspiracy of Count Vorakia Estuuban, and the leader of the party, Ellemine, must develop into a proper leader rather than remain an innocent princess forever. I really liked her growth throughout the game, since she becomes more confident and ruthless while also still retaining her sense of empathy. The game does bring up some interesting thought experiments, such as the Erran ability to read minds and sense emotions. There's technology to defend one's mind against being read, but as Eryn points out, [spoiler]it can be scary that someone can figure out your insecurities and give you unwanted pity[/spoiler]. It's also subtly implied that depending too much on mind-reading means one will be much worse at reading people without it, since Arcturo misread his "friend" Vorakia until it was too late. That said, there is a pretty blatant use of writer's convenience at the start of the story. [spoiler]Eryn made the foolhardy decision to have Chad arrested simply for speaking out against Arcturo's charges. This seems like a risk not worth taking, since Chad had no evidence and is unlikely to significantly sway public opinion, plus Lady Marselva correctly points out that doing so will just make the other councilmembers suspicious. As a result, Vorakia is forced to accelerate his plans and lose the advantage of good publicity that would have otherwise made Ellemine's alliances impossible to form. While it's implied that Eryn's real reason for doing this is to gain hostages to use against Marselva, it still comes off as a blatant freebie for the good guys in the long run and it also seems like an overly convenient way for Chad to get involved in the plot. Additionally, it seems strange Vorakia and the rest of the conspiracy were surprisingly lenient about Eryn's mistake, and even stranger that Ellemine and Arcturo seem to hype Eryn's political wisdom so much. Personally, I would have preferred that Chad actually do something to warrant getting captured, since doing so would make him look more like a chad for taking initiative and make the enemies seem more competent.[/spoiler] On the other hand, if there's going to be a major screwup in the story, I definitely prefer it be on the antagonist side than the protagonist side. That way I can take some pride in playing as comparatively competent people. As for the use of races in the game, there's a subtle aesop that one's environment contributes more to how one turns out than racial stereotypes. For example, the Farians on Kardel are known for using their hexes for crimes or at best, resorting to extreme measures to defend themselves against criminals in a dog-eat-dog planet that was ravaged by volcanic activity. In contrast, the Farians on Yurielle live peacefully due to being on a stable and pristine planet. Unfortunately, the Draconians and Gulanians/Granians get no individuality or nuance, since they're just generic conquerors and scientists respectively. While Zazir is a Draconian/Granian hybrid, he's a lab creation and is essentially an outsider to both races' societies, which to me comes off as a lazy way to technically have one of each race in the party without having to actually flesh out Draconian and Gulanian/Granian society. We really need to be able to visit their civilian zones somehow. Finally, the script needs some proofreading. It's better than a machine translated game, but there are still some awkward word choices and grammar errors. [h2]Story (Updated)[/h2] Edit: The story was changed to make [spoiler]Chad's arrest more believable, since he actually comes very close to exposing Vorakia at the start of the game. This also served as a way to highlight Nocturna's competence as Vorakia's personal assassin. Though it does make Vorakia look slightly dumber for leaving the incriminating evidence on his desk in the first place.[/spoiler]. As for Nocturna's role in the story, I was hoping her character arc would shed more light on Niredian culture. [spoiler]She's supposed to be a hybrid Erran-Draconian and it's implied the Draconians do not consider her a true member of her race, even if they gave her Vorakia's family name. But her past in Niredia isn't really brought up beyond her trying to help her sister.[/spoiler] Finally, I really like the CGs for conveying the moods of some situations, since static face portraits often don't. [h2]Gameplay[/h2] The game uses a RPS damage type system where physical attacks are advantageous against tech, tech is advantageous against ether, and ether is advantageous against physical, ensuring that AOEs won't be enough to wipe out sufficiently balanced enemy parties. Interestingly, most tech and ether skills function as "magic" under the hood and therefore can be reflected, but physical attacks buffed to deal ether or tech damage do not count as "magic" and therefore can ignore reflection. I don't know if this is actually mentioned anywhere in the game's dialogue though. The game starts out fairly balanced, but the endgame starts getting weird. Since the characters have buffs and synergies that would be considered too OP in most games, the late game bosses start cheating the turn system like crazy. They tend to do things like AOE dispel, buff, and AOE debuff as sequential actions, and these can be triggered as HP threshold events or even at the start of rounds. As a result, combat gets really messy when you have use several turns to remove enemy buffs and set up your own, only for the bosses to reverse all that with what I refer to as their "boss combo." Astral Mode is a really sloppy attempt at a survival horror minigame IMO. The idea is that Ellemine has to dodge Astral beasts while collecting powerups, but this isn't implemented well. For one thing, the powerups show up as glowing balls, which are easy to mistake for various lighting effects. Additionally, there's no indicator showing how many items are in each area, making it hard to tell if an area is fully looted. As for the Astral Beasts, damage from them persists into the next time you Astral dive and their positions don't seem to reset, so if you exited an Astral zone with several near the activation point, going back in will immediately result in damage. [h2]Gameplay (updated)[/h2] The game no longer has the boss HP threshold spam, making the battles more manageable. The characters are also given an extra accessory slot and there is now a 7th party member with a powerful skillset to help deal with the armies of boss minions. At the same time, cheese tactics like Blackhall Glass are nerfed and states now follow RPG Maker 2003 rules for expiring, making it disadvantageous if you spam too many instant skills. This makes the game more fair for both sides of the field. Astral Mode is updated so that collecting balls gives you a count of how many are left and Astral Beasts pause for a few moments after damaging you. This makes the astral segments more tolerable, though I think there should be a health indicator to let the player know how close they are to being defeated. [h2]Verdict[/h2] 7.5/10 The story and world building are ambitious, but some parts definitely needed a sanity check. The bosses do start to feel samey at the end, since they're all just spamming slightly different variations of the deadly "boss combo" just to keep up with the player's powerful skills. [h2]Verdict (updated)[/h2] 7.9/10 The plus update is a good improvement in story and gameplay, though I wish Nocturna was used to better explore Niredian culture. Maybe Niredia need a spinoff game.