Balmung Cycle Part I: The Messenger and the Heretic

An awesome epic, and a genuine labor of love from Magi. Great care was taken for this game's presentation and playability.

Story-

With inspiration taken from Norse mythos, Magi has done a wonderful job with crafting Norse legends into the game's original world. The characters have their own distinctive personalities and great chemistry. However, at times it seems like the current goal is disconnected from the main overarching plotline. The story can sometimes fail to 'grab' and keep me motivated. Also, the characters themselves (so far) don't seem to be really 'established', they have solid personalities, but what about them as people, pasts, and development?

GOOD

Graphics-

Excellent, and beautifully consistent. Magi has taken Treasure of the Rudra graphics and successfully utilized them to near perfection, in some cases even better than the original game! The environments in all areas are nothing short of gorgeous, and special mention goes to the battle animations, which especially stuck out in my eyes as being top notch. Excellent, although one criticism; sometimes I feel that the Rudra is TOO well adapted, it would have been great to see some edited or recolored sprites.

GREAT

Gameplay-

This is one of the game's strongest assets. The game has been very tightly coded, and there are very few slips or bugs encountered while playing, which is a feat because there is a TON of stuff to do, in battle and out. There are always side quests, secondary objectives, and collectibles in every corner of the game, and the battle system has countless tweaks to make it unique and very tightly coded and maintained. One of the only gripes is that I wish the battles were less 'standard'. Sometimes the only options I have is a spell or a passive ability; and to that end I wish there was more character individuality and options in battle.