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chuckroWhile the KEMCO games tend to be middling shovelware jrpgs, I had a hard time resisting 7 of them for $6, which means I’ll never want for jrpgs on my tablet again. This was the first one I played, chosen mostly at random.
This is shockingly well-designed, actually. Smooth action with decent controls; a class system that apes FF5 and FFT but works just fine and includes such niceties as a “best equipment” button; multiple difficulty modes; a turn-order bar in battles and a useful auto-battle button; and a really good automap.
The big gimmick is that your characters get “summoned armor” which they can activate in combat, similar to the gears in the first Xenosaga game—it doesn’t change the scale of the battle or any of the mechanics, but it means that instead of your sword or bow, you can pepper the zombie bears with missiles instead. And while I used the armor mostly to toast bosses, the difficulty curve is such that you can use your armor for random battles and/or fight bosses on foot, if you’d like.
The Humble Bundle version of this got rid of the paid-unlockables; instead you get the points for unlockables by completing achievements and as random drops in battle. These allow you to get two bonus dungeons (that scale to whatever level you do them at) and a bonus character; or access to endgame accessories early on.
The game takes about 10 hours to do everything, which feels pretty much right for what it is. (Honestly, I don’t think most games, but particularly portable rpgs, need to fill the amount of time they do.) Levels and new powers come fast and easily, and the game never stops you and forces you to grind or find a particular class setup to get through an area. (One bit of advice: Get the druid’s “Observe” skill on someone as soon as you get it; it’s how you learn this game’s enemy skills, which include several nice buffs and most of the status ailment spells.)
The systems for the powers and for upgrading your summoned armors are a bit shallow and simple, but given the scope of the game, this is just fine. Making them more complex just invites the Sword of Mana problem, where the game is nowhere near long or complex enough to justify all of its systems.
And the story? Eh, it’s okay. It’s forgettable, with the usual bits of question of identity and power of friendship. And a bit with a town that was destroyed when someone in summoned armor went out of control, which was totally cribbed from Xenogears, but lacks any of the gravitas or emotional impact of that game.
Overall: It’s a pleasant but forgettable little portable jrpg experience. The jrpg equivalent of a trashy paperback romance novel, if you will.
This is shockingly well-designed, actually. Smooth action with decent controls; a class system that apes FF5 and FFT but works just fine and includes such niceties as a “best equipment” button; multiple difficulty modes; a turn-order bar in battles and a useful auto-battle button; and a really good automap.
The big gimmick is that your characters get “summoned armor” which they can activate in combat, similar to the gears in the first Xenosaga game—it doesn’t change the scale of the battle or any of the mechanics, but it means that instead of your sword or bow, you can pepper the zombie bears with missiles instead. And while I used the armor mostly to toast bosses, the difficulty curve is such that you can use your armor for random battles and/or fight bosses on foot, if you’d like.
The Humble Bundle version of this got rid of the paid-unlockables; instead you get the points for unlockables by completing achievements and as random drops in battle. These allow you to get two bonus dungeons (that scale to whatever level you do them at) and a bonus character; or access to endgame accessories early on.
The game takes about 10 hours to do everything, which feels pretty much right for what it is. (Honestly, I don’t think most games, but particularly portable rpgs, need to fill the amount of time they do.) Levels and new powers come fast and easily, and the game never stops you and forces you to grind or find a particular class setup to get through an area. (One bit of advice: Get the druid’s “Observe” skill on someone as soon as you get it; it’s how you learn this game’s enemy skills, which include several nice buffs and most of the status ailment spells.)
The systems for the powers and for upgrading your summoned armors are a bit shallow and simple, but given the scope of the game, this is just fine. Making them more complex just invites the Sword of Mana problem, where the game is nowhere near long or complex enough to justify all of its systems.
And the story? Eh, it’s okay. It’s forgettable, with the usual bits of question of identity and power of friendship. And a bit with a town that was destroyed when someone in summoned armor went out of control, which was totally cribbed from Xenogears, but lacks any of the gravitas or emotional impact of that game.
Overall: It’s a pleasant but forgettable little portable jrpg experience. The jrpg equivalent of a trashy paperback romance novel, if you will.
