Tales of Grimace

The game looks beautiful, and the party member Hera is cute, but these are already all the positive factors that come to mind. I've only played a few hours so far, yet it's apparent that this game is a complete disappointment as a JRPG. To mention a few complaints: - My party members still don't have a weapon, shield or headpiece. Shops that sell equipment or items simply don't exist (maybe that's the reason why many treasure chests contain 3 Gold Pieces?), and monsters only drop health potions. - Everything seems to be permanently missable, since the game is composed of an array of one-time-only areas (instead of an interconnected world or a world map). There's never any freedom to explore anything. Most buildings are locked, map transitions are confusing, the areas are rather small and/or empty, and you can never know when you will trigger the next long, boring, cringeworthy cutscene. Speaking of cutscenes: Prepare for a lot of grammar and spelling mistakes. I'm not a native English speaker, but I'm also not trying to sell you this review. Standards for commercial products are simply a bit higher. - The story is nothing to write home about. Something about an evil cult that slaughters all people that don't want to join them, apparently for no other reason than being evil. Some of the backstory is vaguely explained through log entries, which just happen to lie around throughout the whole world. Since they're vague, incomplete and don't appear in chronological order, I stopped caring about them sooner that I would like to admit. - I hate immersion-breaking stuff, like the fourth party member Ronan who mentions TV personalities and other real-life crap, or the stupid rapper in the desert village. And Yi Ping's (the protagonist's) anxiety ("Oh no, people might think I look stupid while practicing Martial Arts.") is completely incomprehensible and unrelatable (in the game's setting). - The (turn-based) battles are tedious, mostly because of the party members' limited skill pools, and they can easily turn into deadly traps or wars of attrition due to the horrible game design. Monster areas and (free) sources of healing (inns or healing circles) are rarely available at the same time. Without item shops, players can only rely on monster drops (only health potions) and the free healing granted via level-ups, so it's obvious why it's easy to (potentially) reach a no-win scenario. One of the beginning areas is the worst offender in this regard, since Scorpions can poison your party members, while Poison isn't healed automatically after battles and items to heal Poison simply don't exist (incidentally, most screens and the battle UI don't even show your party members' buffs or status conditions, but that doesn't mean that they aren't applied). Even though the game sometimes heals the party completely at certain points, sometimes it doesn't, even though it should, which adds to the constant fear of unpredictable and artificial danger. Well, you will spend most of your time clicking through cutscenes, anyway, so maybe I'm just overreacting... - There could be more side quests, generally more of anything that makes a JRPG fun. While there was a side quest in the very first village, it could be completely missed even before leaving the village... - Very rarely, doing something in the field (e.g. when approaching guards from behind) triggers quick-time events, which add nothing of value and instead feel like an afterthought. - The settings are a bit lacking. While it's great that the staple "always run" choice is available, it's a mystery why the game doesn't let you turn the shaky battle camera off. - A lot of bugs (even game-breaking ones) await those who dare to venture off the predetermined path. Simply trying to go back the same way you just came is sometimes enough to break the game. At least the game lets you save anywhere - make use of it. In conclusion, it probably would have been better to design the game as a visual novel. If I continue or finish my playthrough, this review might change (though it's both unlikely to happen). Maybe, just maybe, I will spend a few more hours with Hera - before finally telling the Tales of Ragequitting.

It's objectively a great game, with a well-crafted plot and some extraordinary details. Anyone who enjoys graphic novels will enjoy this game; the dialogue is key. It's an explorable world, and the atmosphere is very enjoyable, despite a few small bugs that will surely be fixed soon. Nothing that makes it unplayable, mind you, just a few volume issues and other minor issues. I really enjoyed the combat style, simple and functional 'couse it's not one of those games that makes it incredibly easy or terribly difficult, you have to carefully calibrate your moves. It's clear that it's been crafted with passion and dedication and I think that it's definitely worth the money.

real mfs been here since day 1 10/10

I love Yi Ping!

Overall, a fairly decent game made by a highschooler :) I unfortunately encountered quite a lot of minor issues but I still wanted to play it and see through it to the end and blimey, that last act was probably the BEST part of the game. Some really cool animation with the fire. Here are the positives: In my opinion, the voice acting is well done and sounds professional and definitely adds a lot more impact to the story especially for those tragic or emotional scenes. The battle system was one of the highlights too as battle voices were also added in to make it more dynamic. The map designs were also done well with added lighting effects which made it look even better. I really liked Hera as a character and overall, the whole party was likeable....even Zinon to some extent. It was a compelling story overall. Now, here are the negatives: Not sure if things have been updated now but when I was playing it a few months ago, the voice acting was sometimes quite low compared to how loud the music was so I think just go through your settings to tweak it so it's more balanced. While it was a compelling story, I honestly felt like this game should have been longer as I felt the ending was rushed and didn't completely resolve everything. To end it with Cassandra as the final boss was really unexpected as Yi Ping's mother got ____ so I was expecting Yi Ping to find the person who did this and I was also expecting the final boss to be the lead commander of the Maluum. It just didn't really make total sense to me to end the game straight after defeating Cassandra who was only a pawn to the Maluum. I also got frustrated when I couldn't even properly explore the towns/villages as most of them were locked or the people wouldn't let us in. This is a JRPG style game! We should be allowed to EXPLORE at least most areas and FIND treasures. There were no weapons and armor to get and no treasure to get so this honestly was probably the worst part about the game. However, I would still recommend playing this game as it was still a lot of fun as long as you can overlook the issue about restricted areas :D

This tale truly made me grimace. I'm upset that we never found out the fate of the child the protagonists kidnapped. The really loud chest opening sound made me giggle every time. too short to be called tales of grimace though. this is like half a tale of Grimace at best 10/10 rest in piece Yi Ping's Mums, no notes.

GAME OF THE YEAR

This is grimace