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Review by "Erato" on Steam

  • Ephiam
  • 09/04/2021 10:50 PM
  • 255 views
"I had a great time with this game! It took me a while to warm up to it, but as I went on and the game showed more of its hand, it started to come into its own, and I became invested in the world, its characters, and its uniquely melancholy atmosphere. As a big fan of turn-based combat, I really enjoyed how fully I was allowed to exploit status effects both in random encounters and in boss battles; even powerful turn-skippers like Stun worked on major bosses. A lot of games avoid this for fear of making bosses too easy, but it's fun to use your knowledge of your party's particular strengths to completely dominate a boss from time to time, and Venaitura is firm about varying enemy resistances so I don't get overreliant on my favorite toys. I liked that my Barbarian could decrease a boss's ATK to the point where its physical attacks were harmless - but I loved that it never trivialized them, because bosses always had more tricks up their sleeve. It's a balance that allowed every member of my party (Barbarian, Druid, Companion, Champion) to shine in different contexts and in ways that other RPGs rarely let me.

My biggest issue with the game was that I found it a bit overinflated with "stuff"; there's a high density of random encounters, a huge number of NPCs with a ton to say, an enormous number of containers in each area to check for treasure, and an endless bounty of new equipment to find. I can appreciate the generosity in this volume of content, but when your plate's too full, eating can become a chore, and so sometimes I would get exhausted with a town or dungeon before I was "done" with it. I often wished for more time within arcs to breathe and digest. Some of my favorite moments were when I was allowed to move through an area without needing to do anything more than take it in - especially since the spritework is so lush and vivid and the maps so gorgeously designed. Similarly, while I loved customizing my party, the complexity of skills and equipment was a bit overwhelming at first before I had any context for evaluating the multiple secondary effects on each spell/weapon/armor. Some people enjoy having tons to see and do and find, but I think I would have had a more even experience if I spent less time processing noise and more focusing on the core of the game.

Fortunately, that core was more than strong enough to keep me invested through any low points. In the end, Venaitura is a gorgeous, playful, and lovingly made adventure full of fantastic ideas, with meaty boss battles and surprisingly robust and moody storytelling. Even though it resembles early Dragon Quest, it brings a ton of its own ideas to the table and feels distinctly modern: it offers a smoother, fairer, and more transparent experience of RPG combat than any NES game I've played, and its commitment to party customization creates just as many interesting opportunities for cleverness and expression as you’d hope. For these reasons I would recommend to anyone like me: if you dig the look, enjoy weighing nuanced strategic options in and out of turn-based combat, and don't mind having a very full plate, there's a lot of fun to be had with Venaitura.

And if it doesn’t click for you right away, stick with it! The game really starts find its voice in the 2nd and 3rd sections."