Solenars Edge II: Champions

[h1]Intro[/h1] Welcome to the resort! In [b]Solenars Edge II: Champions[/b], you'll be able to customize your character and explore a resort full of minigames. Looking for fights? We got you covered. A lot of characters with different classes are available to recruit for VR battles. Be warned though, as losing will also mean death. The game seems to have co-op support from a different build branch, but since I didn't try it, this review will be based on that. [b]Pros:[/b] - Freedom to build your party from many characters in the game - Character customization [b]Cons:[/b] - There is almost nothing to do aside from fighting in the arena - The discrepancy of stats between some weapons turn some characters to be overpowered - Most minigames are not rewarding [B]Specs[/b] Intel Core i5-9300H 2.40GHz, 8GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 [h1]Should you buy this game?[/h1] [b]No.[/b] [i]Unless if you like to grind and play a "fighting simulator" game, you shouldn't bother with it. Some of the music is good though, so feel free to check it out if you are into it.[/i] [hr][/hr] [h1]In-Depth Review[/h1] [h3]Visuals[/h3] The game takes place in a resort with a casino and shops as its main attraction. All areas look decent with their object placements despite the large area, except for the kitchen which is too large and empty. However, it can be overwhelming to explore everything at the start, especially since most shops look similar to each other. A lot of shops also don't make sense in the beginning with some terms that you won't understand. [h3]The Game[/h3] [b]Gameplay[/b] The game is focused on fighting in the VR arena. Battles are divided into several tiers and clearing them will reward money and EXP which you can use to gear up or recruit more characters. Several characters are available to recruit, each with different classes and special skills. However, the only information that you can see before recruiting them is their class, forcing you to reload your save several times to find the good ones if you are short on cash. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2464730130 The best weapons that are sold in the shop are unbalanced. Most of them give around 100 ATK or MATK, while there is one weapon that gives a whooping 300 ATK. You can't use this weapon to all characters, including the main character, so characters that can use this weapon type will be way too strong compared to others. To make it worse, one class can equip two of these weapons, increasing their attack by 600 points with no effort. The rest of the classes that couldn't wield two weapons also not able to wield anything on their other hand, rendering it to be useless. [b]Minigames[/b] The casino part of the resort houses a lot of minigames, although most of them are useless. They tend to give no reward to help you with battles, and the ones that do tend to be impossible to win. One minigame will require you to pick three cards with the same symbols from the many cards that are randomly generated, while another will have you to play a slot machine and hit the jackpot a lot of times. The worst part? You need to collect enough of their casino currency to buy some of the best weapons in the game. Although I'm not against playing minigames to buy gears, this game just makes it a grindy mess. First of all, the only minigame that will net you these casino coins is the slot machine. Winning the slot machine, which relies on RNG, will reward you with 10k coins although you need over 100k coins to purchase a weapon with the overpowered stat. An alternative way would be to buy them with gold. You can get around 80k gold in the later arena stages, and 100 bags of casino coins can be purchased for 10k gold. This means that you need to win the arena stages 100+ times to afford one although you can finish the game without it. Is it worth it? I guess not. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2464730279 [b]Combat[/b] Since you have limited money at the beginning, most of the early game relies on grinding. You'll have to finish an arena stage several times to earn money to either upgrade your gear or recruit more characters. All arena stages feel similar, with you having to defeat waves of enemies with a boss at the end of the wave. This makes the game feels repetitive, especially since you have to do it a lot of times. Not only that bosses take a long time to beat, but they also give no threat apart from their bulky HP. Sure, some of your party members might die, but you can always spend your unused money to buy items that can revive or support them in battle. The only boss that gave me trouble is one secret boss, which also becomes easy once I leveled up my characters and figured out what to do. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2464730393 [b]Length and Difficulty[/b] The in-game clock states that I finished the game in ~20h, although Steam said that it's ~16h. I'm not sure which one is the correct one, but since I was also experiencing a similar issue on other RPG Maker MV games, the Steam playtime might be the correct one. The game might be difficult and overwhelming to take in at first, especially since it introduces a lot of NPCs and information at once, although it will be easier once you know what to do. You also can grind for levels if you have trouble defeating a boss or arena stage. [b]Problems[/b] There is no way to reset the main character's level. Your main character can switch between several classes and each class will allow you to learn different skills upon leveling up. I messed up my character build by choosing the wrong class, and changing my main character's class won't change their learnable skills. The game also gives little information about the starting companion that you can choose, making it hard to make the right decision. [h1]Conclusion[/h1] To be honest, I didn't expect that the game will be this boring. Everything feels the same - you just have to plow your way through the arena stages and do some grinding in between. I was happy when I found an optional dungeon to explore, but it soon died out because that's the only dungeon that the game has to offer. On the good side, I enjoyed some of the music - I was even singing along with them as I played the game. However, the repetitiveness and the lack of guidance at the beginning can turn some people off from enjoying the game. I could understand if people get bored quickly because of it. [quote]Visit SaveOrQuit.com for detailed game reviews, posted daily![/quote]