A Thief's Voyage

Hello
What is "A thief's voyage"? Well it's a (very) classic adventure jrpg about a party of heroes on a quest that concerns some magical crystals... sounds familiar isn't it? This is because this game is a classical fantasy jrpg with many references/homages to the classical games of the genre, even if not really explicit.

So what can you expect from this game? Well the usual dungeon exploration, combat, travelling on the main map on foot or using a ship... and a plot concerning magical crystals, black & white mages and airships (Final Fantasy is strong with this game!).


Guess what? We have a ship now (ok, not an airship, still...) WOOOOHOOOO!

But not everything is like in other games: ok the protagonist Jake is a good guy and an adventurer, but (as the title says!) he's a thief that dual wields daggers, not your typical hero with a huge sword, and he isn't even technically the usual hero protagonist. Also the game hands you a lot of bonus experience points (to the point to be sometimes mildly annoying when it happens to interrupt a concitated moment) as you get some achievements (like a certain number of attacks made or sustained and a certan number of steps made), a novelty for what concerns the genre.

Now, the characters: the protagonist is Jake, that is hired to be a guide for the two sisters Brenda and Natalie, that are on a quest. Yes, as mentioned before the protagonist starts not directly involved in the adventure, but it's more of a hired hand (even if he immediately becomes a friend of the two sisters so he won't behave as a cold mercenary... but hey these girls are young and friendly!). Speaking about the sisters, Natalie is the typical Black and White mage, and this means that she's able to heal and resurrect, cast powerful elemental spells but forget to use her physical attacks because she's really weak. Brenda is an archer that has some area multi attacks, but she never level ups and she is improved using some items that are earned winning combat encounters, so it's not really much different from the other characters, except for the fact that she never learns new skills (that are instead bought at the store) but she just improves them (just remember to access the menu and use them!). Then we have Warren, a samurai, that is like Jake but more focused on damage dealing (Jake has also some useful abilities like Scan enemies to find the weaknesses, even if you probably can guess by yourself that fire elementals are immune to fire damage and weak to water).


For extra loot looks for the bards in the cities and solve their easy quizzes!

Combat is normally triggered colliding with enemies (so yes, no random encounters in dungeons, but they are possible on the world map), but luckily they are often quite easy, things become a little different when the party faces against the powerful bosses, that makes things a little more difficult, but not so much that required me more than a couple of tries. At most.

I mean there is no shortage of loot, but I also saw that there is plenty of mana to unleash powerful spells and heal characters. You can also save anywhere and rest at the inns (if you pay of course) or at the fireplaces (for free) that also act as teleports to the entrance of the dungeons. See? All helps the player to have an easy and good time (especially if he/she is not an expert of the genre! Let's also say that the roaming monsters are not aggressive at all!).

But way this game is not just dialogues, exploring dungeons and combat! Oh no there are some puzzles, most of them are pretty easy even if the one with the exploration part with the mine cart was more complex, but still fun!
You can also find some bards in the cities that will tell you some lyrics of many popular songs, and you just have to say the missing word, in any case do not worry because you can also re-try until you guess the right word. The reward is a chest with some useful items.


The Lava Boss! Guess which element we should use to kill him?

Ok anything bad? Uh I admit I found a couple of bugs: for example in the ice caverns, if you are attacked during the time puzzle the combat encounter will reset when the countdown it terminated! In the part with the cart puzzle the four characters merge into one, but I used an item to level up Jake and later all the four characters were present... this did not break the game at all (even if it was silly seeing three characters following one that was riding a cart) even if sometimes the mine cart was not running on the rails, and in the ending part of that scene there were two Natalie! Uhmmm ok!

But there are also some really interesting parts, for example when you are in a dungeon where you cannot use fire spells or abilities (not even the bonfires to heal or teleport). I also like the one to one duel to unlock new skills for Warren, and the possibility to harvest some useful items in particular (blinking) areas of the dungeons.

What else? Graphically the game is good, maps are well done (even if these do not stand out, still they are adeguate and well proportioned), the music selection is nice. Only problem is that sometimes the writing overlaps the maps and without a solid coloured bacground it's not always easy to read.


Oh noooo... well do not worry, this is not a terribly difficult part, and you can keep these tents!

The Final Verdict
A Thief's Voyage is a somewhat lighthearted adventure, not particularly original but entertaining and rather easy. For this reason I would recommend it especially to those who are new to jrpgs, or maybe to more experienced players that want to play a medium length classic game. Mapping is ok, I like how the dungeons are rather small and won't take a lot of time, the characters are likeable (even there are some odd parts that make little sense but may be overlooked since these are not important parts of the story!) and look really good, the busts are especially nice! I just miss a little something thst would make this game more unique, anyway there is nothing wrong here.

Overall this is a well done classic and simple jrpg eeslite some minor defects. Good! 4/5!