I think after 68 hours of playing it I can finally give a good review of the state of things.
This review doesn't mean I'll uninstall the game and stop playing it. I'm actually interested in how it ends.
Gameplay
As expected from something that wants to be an old-school RPG, the game isn't easy. It doesn't hold your hand at all, nor does it give you a comprehensive tutorial on how things work.
You get a few slaps of text which you can easily find on the main page of the game and off you go.
Sadly in today's world, that's a terrible practice, even if this is supposed to be an oldschool RPG.
There's no place to find the information either (even old school rpgs, had a manual that you could look into for explanation on certain mechanics and whatnot)
Yes, there is crafting in this game, but you can't make your own weapons/armor or I have not seen an option like that.
You can waste time and create weird-ass junk contraptions that you can then sell or alchemy potions, which can be fairly useful if you go and pick up alchemy.
Your friends can't contribute to sideline skills, and you're down to waste your exp to lvl them if you ever want to craft anything. (They could have at least be less expensive than other skills then).
Btw, stealing in this game is a must. It's not a skill you can walk by willy-nilly (gives you lots of cash and special armor and weapons from the npcs :I). Crime does pay kids.
Monsters don't respawn, and I can understand the idea behind that, but to me it makes the world feel empty and barren. (Could have given an option that a player could have chosen at the very start of the game, if they want the enemies to respawn after a time or not.)
Once you clear a "stage", nothing ever pops up there again, and also, you can dig out resources and they're gone forever as well.
Btw, get ready for some random, annoying debuffs popping out of nowhere on your character and ruining your chances of winning a fight.
Some areas have downright devastating downsides (Like the Trash Forest area), but the monsters there don't seem to give a rats butt about that, since they're not affected.
Oh, you can also sell important items for a quest, and then get that quest later, and you will never able to finish it, it's just going to be stuck in your log forever.
Combat
I've played a lot of old ass RPGS (darklands, wizardry, might&magic, betryal at krondor, the old neverwinters, dungeon siege...yada yada) but nothing prepared me for the terrible AI of this game. (maybe it's because in most games i had full control of the actions of my team)
It's not the TACTICAL COMBAT I thought it'll be.
You may try to give them some options to consider from Aggressive/Power/Aid priorities by adding a priority between 1 to 3, but they are still going to do things such as:
1. Your healer running halfway to the monster at the very end of the combat area to slap them with the shield slam for 34, and then running back to try and buff your party.
2. Your characters trying to paralyze an undead five times in a row, even though the message you get each time is that they are immune.
3. Your faithful ember dog (which by the time I'm writing this is next to useless in my team) trying to fear things six times in a row, only to fail at it, or biting into an enemy for 0 dmg only to at the very end, use his special tactical talent, and thus waste a turn. His special talent in general lets him deal more damage to the monsters, and thus it would make sense he'd use it at the start.
4. No explanation on how turn orders work. So large ass trolls are starting their turns before my team, and I just sit there puzzled on "why?"
5. Your characters ending their turn halfway through their Action Points, even though they could still cast spells or attack. (though this doesn't happen often)
6. No way to prioritize enemies that are FAR more dangerous than others.
7. No way to disable skills that you don't want your heroes to use while picking those that you want them to use during the encounter.
8. Monsters having hundreds of HPs while your team keeps somewhere in the range of 2000 or so. I can understand boss monsters having this much HP, but seriously Monstrous Rats are by far the most annoying critters I fought to date. (and superbly quick trolls).
In general, the combat is on the side of boring (and who in their right mind would want to slow it down?)
It would at least be useful to grind some exp points if the monsters respawned, but alas, they don't.
Quests
Now, this is the enjoyable part of the game (if you don't sell the item you need for a quest and thus are never able to complete it).
Most quests in the game have a cool story behind them, a crazy twist, or are just downright absurd.
The absurdity of the world is what makes it so unique and cool :D
Get a job for a goblin king? Checked
Bring a pair of peasants a baby from a massacred town? Checked
Kill rats as an adventurer? Checked
Do low lvl 1 fetch quests? ALSO checked.
There's a lot to uncover in the game and it makes you read every bit of dialogue that there is.
Reading is REQUIRED here. You can't just skim through the text and press random answers, and then expect a good result.
Nobody is going to tell you where to exactly look for stuff, a general direction and you're down on your own, like in the good, ol' rpgs.
Graphics
As this game is done by just one person, it's not fair to judge the graphic performance of UNITY.
Overall
Overall I you want a compelling story with crazy good written characters and quests that will make you chuckle in the good kind of way, then the game is for you, but if you're lookng for some tactical combat, respawning monsters and hand holding, then you should look elsewhere.
I can't recommend this game myself (not at this moment at least).
