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Sacred Reviews: Nociel (After Story)




Introduction

Nociel (After Story) is one of those few games where the sequel is a major step up in terms of difficulty. And while I understand this jump was the result of feedback about the last game being too easy. This game manages to weigh in on the completely opposite side of the scale and does so in a way that makes the game feel like its difficult for the wrong reasons. Though, I'll get to why it feels unfairly difficult in a little bit. First, I'd like to discuss the narrative.

Story

To cut to the chase this game is about tracking down and destroying a great evil. Of course, this great evil has connections to the villain from the last game, but the playable cast is comprised of entirely new characters which makes the connection between the two games feels a bit tenuous and unnecessary. There is little reason to connect these two titles if none of the old cast is even granted a cameo appearance in this title. So, I'm not sure why the developer felt the need to label this game as a sequel.

Gameplay

Though where this game really begins to falter is in terms of gameplay. While the balance of the regular enemies has been improved. The balance in terms of boss battles is completely skewed in the opposite direction. While in the previous game the final boss could barely put up a fight. In this game every boss can drop one of your party members with two hits. And since almost all of the bosses launch multiple attacks on their turns they are highly likely to take out at least one of your characters every time they attack. The only way to avoid this is to rely on blinding them and then trying to keep them stunned in order to attack them freely. While this definitely means boss battles aren't impossible to win; it also means that boss battles will play out the same way every time since you have to rely on blinding them and stunning them to emerge victorious.

Another issue I have with the game is that all of the weapons and armors are so overpriced that they are impossible to purchase without spending dozens of hours on grinding. And while grinding can be fun up to a point. It should never be required to this extent.

Another issue with the game is that the various healing items aren't labeled properly. While you can purchase the various healing items for a reasonable price at the snack bar. Unless you read the summary section for this game you probably wouldn't be aware of the fact that you can purchase healing items at this location. And even though healing items are available none of them act as a revive item which is a problem considering how hard all of the bosses in this game can hit.

Graphics

On the graphical side of things the mapping has improved a bit, but I'm still scratching my head at the fact that the party stumbles across a corpse and has nothing to say about it. The enemies, tile sets, and face sets all appear to be material found in the RTP, but that isn't really an issue for me.

Sound

I'll be honest in admitting that I don't remember what this game sounds like at the time of writing this review. So, I'm going to simple assume that it was passable and move on with my day.

Conclusion

Nociel (After Story) is an odd game in that it was built around feedback given about the first entry in the series, but manages to be worse in my opinion. While the first game suffered from numerous flaws those flaws were just less annoying in my opinion. The flaws in the sequel however are far more likely to make the player want to slam a fist or two on their desk in frustration.

Posts

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Honestly, I don't really understand the point of playing and reviewing a short, obviously uninspired game that already received a 2 star review a month or so ago comprehensively explaining its crappiness. It's like kicking something that's already down: not in that I feel any sympathy for game, but that there are just what, 932 unreviewed games on here that would be more deserving of review, and I'm not sure this one review adds any more insight.

All my opinion, of course.
I had actually intended to review this game shortly after I completed my Let's Play of the game, but I kept putting it off in order to deal with other projects.
Ah... Guess it figures. Same thing happened to me too on a couple of occasions.
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