Interesting Game and Battle System, Poor Execution
posted by cubsgirl (EMERYVILLE, CA) Jun 13, 2010
Member since Nov 2006
The first thing that strikes you about this game is, unfortunately, the ugly graphics. Subpar character models and ugly to look at, overly sharp textures in the city.
The game has some interesting concepts, and I tried it out for the mission system alone. The game's chapters center around a job assigned to you by a client, but throughout the game, you can head to the guild's job board and take on any number of side quests for money, items, etc.
The hex system of the world map is interesting as well. You gain Energy Hexes in battle and use them to unlock bits of the world map. Some places are locked, and you have to get a hex of the corresponding color to unlock them. I was a huge fan of this feature.
The battle system is complex and the game doesn't try very hard to describe it to you. You have to ask a specific character a specific question in order to find out the location you can go to to find the battle tutorial. This is good for people doing a second playthrough who don't want to have to go through the tutorial again, but leaves much to be desired for first-timers. Some of the battle systems, such as Tri-Attack, are explained VERY poorly in the menu, to the point where I almost couldn't figure out how to execute it.
Overall, the makers of this game had some fantastic ideas and really tried to bring some new elements to a genre that likes to stick to its cliches. The battle system was incredibly frustrating, especially how often your attacks can be interrupted. The targeting system is a mess as well, which can lead to frequent lost turns as the time runs out. I would love to see a sequel that's more polished overall because these concepts could go a long way because the game as-is is new and interesting, but incredibly frustrating.
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