Okay. Let's do this.
The Amber Throne is gorgeous. You definitely acknowledged that by now, but since it's the most important and successful part of the game I can't really write a review without mentioning it. The story is good, and even if I personally didn't find the soundtrack to be as remarkable as some reviews said it would be, It's still satisfying.
The issue I have about The Amber Throne is that it's not that good at being a game.
That's not going to be one of those review that says "Not worth your time - don't buy". Like I said, there ARE some good things about this game, but I also have a lot of complaints, and the Negative Reviews section is the place to talk about those.
Let's start with the main issue, wich is also the reason why I can't play the game anymore : because I'm fed up with it. The skill system was so much fun to tinker with when I started playing. Like with any RPG, the first thing I did was to open the menu and check the evolution system. I was pleased to see that as soon as a character joins the party, all their locked skills are already visible, wich means you can immediately have a look at what kind of roles each character might be good at. That way you can plan your progression in advance even if you don't have the levels to buy the skills. So, kudos to that. But.
Like I said, I ended up being fed up with, it mainly for a reason : there simply isn't enough skills.
It's actually a problem I encountered quite often with games made with RPG Maker (the reason behind the obsolete resolution, btw), as well as RPGs in general. If the battles become a chore, if each of the four characters end up using the same three skills 90% of the time, then the player might not want to finish the story at all. Add to this the fact that you can end up wandering through the map with no idea where to go, or that the battle sound effects come from RPG Maker's sound bank and WILL get to your nerves if you've already heard them in several other games.
The last problem I have with the skill system is that the last character (Sirra, unless there's another one) joins the party way too late, and with only one skill, when Arra and Popette each have a good ten or even more. It wouldn't be a problem if you could level him up to catch up with the girls, but at this point the leveling had already become much slower, making it difficult to unlock new skills. And that's a shame since Sirra is so cool, on top of having a name that reminds me of my favorite character from Bluebyte's Albion. (But that might not be the point)
Speaking of characters, I also find it extremely stupid that even with only four playable characters, you can only fight with three at a time. I know I'm a fan of FFVI, and some people prefer to have three characters in combat, but in this case it's literally "the three fighters and that guy you only remember in the cutscenes". (Sorry, Nuo)
I know the point of such system is to make the player switch between characters to adapt their strategy to the current enemy, but you need way more playable characters to be able to do that ! You can't expect someone to make a three-cards deck from a selection of four cards, especially if those cards need to be leveled up before their gameplay gets interesting.
The last thing I have to say is about the design of those characters. Graphically, they're great (but everything is graphically great in this game). However I completely failed to grow attached to them, and that's probably because of a lack of character development. Retroactively, that's probably a huge part of the reason why the story wasn't enough to make me keep playing after I started to get bored. The plot is heavily world-driven, and the characters barely interact with each other. Heck, the main protagonist is actually mute. Sure, the story supports it, but it's really hard to get emotionally attached to a character that doesn't say a word outside of dreams and journal entries.
And that's all I have to say. At least for now. I might add something if I end up finishing the game (and I probably will, but right now I don't feel like it). As for what I meant by "The Amber Throne is not that good at being a game", it's simply that, at the end of the day, I might have suceeded to really like it if it had been a novel. Or one of those japanese Light Novels. You can't simply give up on drawings like these.
Now don't get me wrong, like I said earlier I don't think the game is unplayable because of this. Even if I ended up disappointed, I still had fun playing it. There are some really good ideas, varied enemies, a beautiful story, and I found the gameplay very entertaining in the beginning and middle of the game. Also, did you know that the graphics were gorgeous ?
