Scarmonde

Great game. The dungeon design is extremely messed up, in a good way. Random battle frequency isn't too bad and battles are fun enough that I didn't mind much, anyway. Also, this game does what most RPG's do not, which is fair MP management. MP restorative items are readily available and don't cost a limb or limit you to an arbitrarily low number. Additionally, the Bard class has a spell for passive MP restoration during battle. A lot of these games pad runtime by making MP scarce, so you can only explore for so long before you have to port back to town and then retrace steps. Scarmonde does NOT do that, which is noteworthy. The job system is fairly well done. You're not free to switch at will so you really do need to think about team composition, but I think it's balanced well enough that just about anything can work. The item and passive system also helps out quite a bit. In fact, your equipment is probably just as, if not more important than your job. It's crazy the depth you have to build your team. The story I didn't think was anything special when I started out, but as the game went on, it actually got incredibly interesting. And by the end, I was fully invested and even had that "stare at the screen" feeling after I got the true ending. Incredible game, especially for the price

Excelent game for fans of NES era Final Fantasy. The game has a lot of focus on party composition and character build, with almost to none direct story (but with some lore alas soulslikes).

Enjoying this so far, having just reached what looks to be the second main stage of the game. It's been nicely balanced so far - fun options for party selection, meaningful decision-making in terms of character growth and equipment selection to generate interesting approaches, and relatively little need to grind for levels.

godazo

Enjoyed Highly customizable party

great game

Scarmonde is what happens with you take Final Fantasy 1 and integrate the game design decisions and lessons learned over almost 30 years of RPG design. Party Composition is important to consider, but allows for excellent min/maxing as well as just throwing a team together and seeing what happens. The jobs all feel unique in either their roles or passive boons. Gear and trinkets always have a use case. Status effect magic is useful - nigh critical - for many standard enemy fights and boss battles. If a fight is ending poorly, consider your options. Itemize for elemental or physical defense. Silence enemy mages, blind enemy physical combatants - figure out ways to neuter your enemy's strengths. Transit options open up reliably after major boss battles, serving as solid shortcuts through already-trodden roads. Additionally, very early on, you are granted an item that allows you to return to the surface at-will, and greatly reduces frustrating backtracking. Combined with the ability to save anywhere, and you have a game that can simultaneously support picking up and putting down as well as punching your way through 45-minute boss fight because you're just too stubborn to restart and that boss HAS to be getting low on HP sometime. I strongly recommend it - and this is after I was initially skeptical of its appearance and description. I originally considered writing it off as a retro-inspired cash-in or knockoff, and have been exceedingly pleased to have my expectations be proven wrong.