The Use of Life

This was a wonderful experience. Normally I'm not a fan of multi-ending games, but I was able to get through all the endings here. The combat is very enjoyable, and the classes all feel different, which was what kept my excitement between runs. I played on Normal which felt perfect; it challenges you here and there, never getting too easy (save for some classes once maxed feeling very strong). I did try a run on Hard, but found it to be too difficult in an unfair way. Never seemed to be able to get my Tec high enough to see what attacks were coming, and speed couldn't get high enough to reasonably dodge attacks consistently. My one regret is getting the Bad End (personal opinion, there is no official True or Bad Ending) as my final ending. The other 3 endings left me feeling very happy, or crying. The last one made me feel like a terrible person and I hate Goshe now! (Which I'm sure is how the dev wants you to feel!)

[h2]我的仇敌啊...感受我的愤怒,和痛楚![/h2] 本作为废都物语类,地图逐点探索,多职业混合,多剧情分支的JPRG,剧情还算不错,但最大的问题是,独特的战斗机制会给手残/老登一棒子 剧情上你是村长之子,在继任的那天村子被强大的存在袭击覆灭,他嘲笑般留下了你这一个活口,随后你又被路过的盗贼发现而被俘虏,心怀不甘的你是要为了复仇而寻求力量,还是要防止悲剧再次发生而四处辗转,这些选择都会转化成你的执念,直到旅途的最后,你的执念将不可避免的帮你决定你最终的命途 关于战斗,本作战斗机制简单的说就是33远征队,敌人的一切攻击行动都会给你一个进度条让你QTE,反应的过来在特定时机按对的话就是无伤,按错了就是暴击,在多段判定技能里一个失误连锁后续反应失误而一回合暴毙也不是什么少见的事,另外敌人会根据自身承受伤害叠加愤怒,满怒持续数个回合,期间更加凶恶并有特别技能,所以要么堆敏捷增加反应时间,要么上DEBUFF减慢读条时间,或者叠护盾提高容错,所幸死亡后可以进行整备,随意洗点和调整装备,说不定这次就过了 个人视角来说,本作算是中上品的游戏(7/10),整个故事讲的不错,多结局增加了多周目的欲望,但决定剧情走向的方式又多少影响到了多周目的积极性,QTE战斗也是比较麻烦的点,12H的游戏时长仅是过了一周目的长度,(20H为简单二周目)实在卡关的时候建议不要和自己过不去,老老实实妥协吧

最近やったゲームの中で間違いなくトップの面白さに入り込んでくる作品 ・ゲームシステム 　戦闘の中にQTEが入ってくる（〇〇〇RPGや最近GOTYを取ったゲームに近しい感じ）なので人によってはノーマルモードでもかなり難しく感じると思う。自分は様々なゲームをやっており、行けるかと思ったがラスボスで完全に詰まったのでイージーに難易度変更してクリアしました。様々な職業ありますが、イージーであればなんの職業でもあまり苦戦することなく駆け抜けられる難易度だと思います（ジャスト回避すればの話）。 ・ストーリー 　流石にべた褒めです。今作は４種類のマルチエンディング方式を採用しており、様々な人のタイプに合わせたエンディングがあるかと思います。限りある選択肢の中で、「このキャラを悲しませたくない！」逆に「こいつは許さねえ」といったプレイヤーの選択肢によって主人公のとる行動・言動が変わります。ある選択肢を選んだ後に、逆の選択肢を選んだら。。。と気になっても、オートセーブなので振り返れないことがあります。でもそこがいい、そうすることで主人公の１度きりの兎生を歩んでいる感じがして大変好きです。 ・BGM 　場面場面に合ったBGMが流れるので、大変感情移入しやすい。特に、涙を誘うようなBGMを聞きながら自分が選んだ選択肢、他キャラクターとの絡みを思い出すと、自分が次に選ぶ選択肢にさらなる重みが乗っかるため、凄い良かったです。 ・その他 　ゲームクリア後にその後のキャラについて語ってくれることや１枚絵を振り返れることで自身の選んだ選択肢がいい未来につながったのか、悪い未来につながったのか知ることが出来ますし、その説明を読むことでもしみじみ感じてしまいます。また、様々なルートをクリアしていく毎にホーム画面で薪を囲んでいくキャラが増えていくのも作りこみがあって好き。自分的には作者さんのコメントがゲーム内で語られているのも、ゲーム作成における苦悩や辛さ・楽しさが垣間見えるのですごい好きでした。

Overall good but the map itself was a letdown because it's made using Inkarnate. Would have been nice to see it get properly drawn out instead of using default assets from the map maker. Other than that, the story and how everything else was great. Breezed through the all power route quite fast.

マップイベントはゲームブック系で戦闘はRPG 序盤は戦闘システムが理解できず戸惑ったが慣れると面白い バトルの魔術の詠唱がテンポ悪いのが気になるところ（かっこいい詠唱は好きだが 不満点は少なく非常に満足のいく作品だった

A fantastic little hidden gem. From the moment I launched it and started playing, I could not put it down until I'd gotten every ending in the game. The Use of Life is an RPG with a combat system designed around dodging and guarding via quick-time events, while you use up to 3 actions on your turn to build up a combo for big damage, or to prepare to use that same QTE to parry and counter the enemy attacks. The game gradually gets you used to the combat system and ramps up the difficulty until you become stunned by how quickly you're managing to parry and dodge attacks, all while doing satisfyingly big numbers back. Its a rather hard game, especially on its actual hard mode which increases enemy speed and the time it takes to kill them. Normal will still give you plenty of challenge if hard's too hard for you, as even on normal it took me 20 to 30 tries to kill the hardest bosses in the game. But if all you care about is the story, you can customize and tweak the game's difficulty in any way you like. You can make it trivially easy if you want, and I still think you'd have a good time with it! The Use of Life is a very story-driven game. Its doesn't have a lot of characters, but the few it has are utilized extremely well and are fleshed out over the course of the narrative to have some really satisfying arcs. The main character, Goshe, is also very interesting; he has some recurring traits in every route, but the choices you make with him will really shape his personality as the game progresses. And I don't mean that as in he has no personality, rather, his personality very clearly reflects the choices you make throughout the game. If you prioritise power, Goshe *will* become more callous, revenge-fueled and cold-hearted, forsaking everything for his quest. If you play him as a kind hearted individual, he'll feel that way too. No matter what choices you make, Goshe is an extremely compelling and nuanced character and a great protagonist for a game like this. To go into detail on any specific aspect would be spoiling the experience, so I'll leave it there for now. But like plenty of other reviews say, the choices you make through the narrative really feel like they mattered by the end, as they play a big influence in the endings you can get. If there's one complaint I would have with this game, its that I wish it had even more to explore- I wanted to stay in this world longer and see other directions Goshe's life could have taken. I wanted more insanely fun boss fights. I wanted to see if the game could spin its themes into even more narratives. But what is here is excellent, and an absolute steal for its asking price. I highly reccommend it.

Such a great hidden gem. Play it if you like Expedition 33 or Paper Mario. Kinda hard though.

Great game overall. Decent story, can get invested decently. No bugs noticed. Input Timing for defense. Stacking of Points for various attacks. Branching Story. Skill list via classes, which can be respeced in play. Combines two classes for a more powerful one, keeping all moves regardless of classes chosen.

An interesting game. It has a very good story and unique mechanics, but also has rather severe flaw of being massively dependent on quick-time events. You need to complete one EVERY TIME an enemy attacks you, with many enemies requiring multiple quick-time events per action. They're frequent and all-consuming, so the interesting combat mechanics come with this one massive drawback. So, the final battles will have kind of ridiculous stuff like you needing to successfully complete 150+ QTEs without missing two or you die and have to start over. The difficulty is also pretty jacked up, with you needing basically superhuman reflexes and good RNG to not get constantly wasted by even random mooks. I wouldn't be suprised if literally less than ten people on the planet have beaten a particular final boss on hard mode. The difficulty is just plain unfair at times - enemies get ~+150% to all stats, which adds up to them killing you in one or two hits and you needing to chip away at their health very slowly, plus attacks being extremely hard to dodge reliably. But there really is a lot to like. The characters are very memorable, the music is surprisingly good, and there is some real build variety possible. Just know that this game isn't for everyone because of the all-consuming QTEs and ridiculous difficulty.

★★★★ 22年买的，直到现在才想起来玩。带有QTE元素的RPG，我喜欢QTE，但战斗密度有点过高了。剧情有四个，打通了结局三，还不错，但感觉四个结局没有能完全让我满意的，有点遗憾，游戏还是推荐的，会让人有些感慨。有个不好的地方，通关一个结局后居然不能直接二周目，继承下属性装备啥的，只为了看结局全重打四遍要人命啊......