To Arms!

I'm reviewing this for a number of reasons. Not the least being: I think this game has not received the attention it deserves; it's a great game and I think it deserves a bit more viewing. I also think the existing reviews have been a bit unfair in certain aspects and I want to assuage that issue. So, moving in:

Graphics/Aesthetics: I'm combining these 2 because I've never cared much for either. I'm a person (and I know this is a narrow minded view and am willing to accept the importance of this aspect of a game. It just does not apply to me) who thinks that a game is a game and ergo the GAMEplay is the important aspect. So I won't go deep into it especially because I have a poor sense of aesthetics anyway. The graphics were fitting, there was nothing really out of place, the tints and maps hit the target as far as mood, etc. The music fit the situation, yeah. So... It's good enough for me.

Storyline: I know some people like to break down this part into "Story" and "Dialogue" and "Characters" but I'll hit this all at once; I stand by my statement in terms of GAMEplay but I do think a good story is better than good graphics. Anyways, the story is a basic political conflict, not going too deep into it. The characters fit into certain basic archetypes (noble, reserved, obnoxious...) but none of them were really irritating to the player. A definite plus eh? However, the dialogue was... It wasn't bad mostly; the characters did and acted as they should considering the roles they played but the excessive language and um... Imagery? There's a difference between cursing as suited and excessive cursing. Cursing can add emphasis and emotion and realism when done right. When done wrong, like it is here in my opinion, it can simply detract from the story and the characters and just make a player cringe. It's not that I have a softspot against cussing, it's just that it wasn't... Suitable in anyway. I'd say that was my major qualm and nothing else especially stuck out to me. Neither good nor bad IMO.


Gameplay: Here we go, something I can appreciate.

The Difficulty: There have been mixed reviews regarding the difficulty of the game. Now, before I start, I guess you can make an argument that this is a skewed view. I've been playing Turned Based RPG's since like age 3 1/2. No kidding. And I'd say I'm pretty veteran when it comes to combat in these games.

Nonetheless, I had no issues with the difficulty. Max goes out and makes direct statements regarding this: First off, that this is a punishingly difficult game. And no lies, it is. But first off, why is that a bad thing? This simply appeals to a group of players who like to have it rough and who like to work for his/her bread, so to speak. It fits its niche (being my second point). And third off, it was far from impossible. Sometimes, I had to change my strategy. Sometimes, I had to change my equipment (maybe my mage needs to hold a bow; he runs out of MP quick anyway...) But it was never impossible.

I played through this game twice (admittedly it's been a while...) And each time, I played with different characters. One time, it was archer, barbarian, war priest, arcanon. Very easy combination to pass through, probably my easiest time. Then it was the Alchemist, Engineer, Knight, and something else I can't remember. I can't remember my third party but I went in pretty deep before I lost interest (I've always been a fan of magical type characters so a playthrough without 'em wasn't as fun for me). Evidently, while your party combo may be a matter of "life and death," it definitely didn't cripple me in anyway from succeeding as long as I covered a broad range of choices. Also, as long as I leveled right (which seemed to be mostly a matter of common sense), I could succeed.

So, yes, it was fairly difficult. But no, it was not in a bad way. It caters to the niche of the player looking for a difficult strategic game. I'm in that niche; it catered to me. It fulfilled its purpose.

The Classes: Now I love a good class system so I hate to say that this was somewhat disappointing. The classes were broad and they covered a broad range of roles and concepts. I like it, that wasn't the problem.

Now, there was definitely strategy, don't get me wrong. Healing was never just healing. Spells had stipulations. Buffs had drawbacks. Everything cost something and not just energy (which was in short supply as it was). But it was underexplored. The first episode, in my opinion, felt like an experimental demo. The short playtime and the somewhat underdeveloped classes whisper to "there will be more." And I sure as hell hope there will be.

The third major qualm with this was the slow growth rate. JP doesn't come in copious amounts, which of course makes sense, but it means that your skill choices are limited. Especially if you chose a passive (which often makes sense since Energy is very limited) you didn't have many options in battle. This meant that your slower JP growth made the game, not only more difficult, but also more repetitive towards the end.

For the skills that were there, like I said, they all had costs and it was appreciable. Your heroes come with some extra unique skills and the overall class system was pretty good, just could have been expanded more. More skills with more ideas, maybe for a longer game. But overall, it was good.

The Battles: For the most part, these were good and enjoyable. I have little commentary here. There was strategy, it was difficult, but it was an overall pleasing experience.

However towards the end, there's a battle where you merely need to survive for a certain period of time. There was no indication of this (bad game design in my opinion) and then text comes up suddenly like "hey, gimme a while, and I can win this!"

Also, sometimes, the duration felt a little too long. I understand brief strategic battles don't exist so I can't complain too much but I felt this could have gone a little faster.

However, this game did for the most part what it advertised. It had a difficult, challenging, fun battle experience and that was what I was looking into.



Overall:
I'll be the first to admit that this game will not appeal to everyone. It fills in a niche but it does it well. I'd say that this is a pretty good game and other than a bit of expansion, the only thing it's missing is a sequel.