Just Face It!

Plot

In some fantasy land, a curse has befallen everybody at the village, everyone's faces changed! The story follows Jade, John and Jean as they go on a quest to restore their faces back to normal. On the way they'll make some friends, and some recurring, annoying enemies.

The game is divided in 8 bite-size chapters. When you finish each chapter, there will be a final tally that describes stuff you did the most on the game. This game won't be difficult for seasoned rpg players, but beginners might find some of the later battles challenging enough.

Gameplay

My very first impression: For some reason my gamepad doesn't work for this game. It worked with other VXAce games, so what gives? But i digress.

I really enjoyed that the episodes were small but contributed towards a larger story, it really gave me a chance to take my time enjoying each chapter at my leisure since i don't have that much free time, so if you also take short breaks to play games, this game won't waste what little time you've got.

The humor is very clean, it uses subtle setups and makes the most of every randomized face. Each confrontation has flavor text and dialogue that alleviates the repetition of battle. At first you'd be forgiven for thinking all battles can be won by mashing 'attack', but as you advance in chapters the battles are going to start getting more complicated, requiring you to use your arsenal of skills and adjust your tactics to approach the situation carefully. In other words, the battle system is ok.

It would have been nice if you could use various items without the menu closing after using each. For instance, i was low on health. I needed to use various painkillers so i could get back on my feet, but everytime i used one of them, the menu closed, forcing me to open it again, enter the items menu, selecting consummables, healing once, then repeating the process until my party was healed which took me several minutes. I'm guessing this happens because of how the variable that counts how many times you used items work.

Content

The mapping is perfectly adequate, although it's completely bare in terms of interactable objects, the game is pretty linear and only the items that help you progress the plot are interactable bar a few treasure chests.

The music was chosen carefully for it to set the mood of a game that doesn't take itself too seriously (a special mention goes to the battle music, which i loved), and at the same time it gave atmosphere to every castle and dungeon you visited.

The edits on the enemies that feature the face of the foe you're fighting was a nice touch, it gave a sense of individuality to each enemy. I loved the quirky facial battle animations that, although basic in nature, achieved their purpose.

As advertised, there's lots of useful gag items and interesting optional accesories that offer a change of tactics for when you battle. Considering the first episode featured just a few battles, the implementation and careful balancing of skillsets and accesory effects for such a small project is something worthy of admiration.

All in all, i reccommend this game. It's memorable enough for me to keep as a good experience, and if you give it a chance you'll find it is quite enjoyable as well.

Score: 4.0