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chuckroA boy with a mysterious power meets a shapeshifting girl just as the royal families of the three major nations start vanishing. Representatives of the three nations will all need to come together to find out what truth of the past was lost, and how it’s returned to haunt them.
Mechanically, this is a culmination of a lot of things the earlier KEMCO games had introduced: Each character has elemental magic they learn and you can sacrifice accessory slots to give them access to other elements. There’s a limit break bar that fills during battle and can be spent for super-powerful effects. You can merge and upgrade your weapons, which have various special abilities and you find in abundance. There are randomly large, mini and metal versions of standard enemies. The mini-map is useful, the dungeons have some interesting map designs, there are reminders on the menu screen of where to go next, and there are two dozen sidequests that are neatly organized.
New stuff: There’s an Earthbound-style feature that you can enable which lets you instant-win battles that are well below your level. This is excellent. This game adds a “farm” feature where you can plant the stat-raising seeds you find, and after a set period of real time they’ll grow into much more effective stat-raising fruits. Buying “Warehouse keys” from the in-app store gives you access to several treasure rooms and a multi-part bonus dungeon.
Speaking of that: After about two hours, the ads go from “barely noticeable” to “totally insane”, which is actually pretty clever. It gives you a “try before you buy” experience of the game, and then remains “playable” for the remainder, but unpleasant. Because their goal is clearly less to show you the ads (that’s obviously not the profit center here) but to convince you to pay the $5 for the full ad-free version of the game. Also, you get 800 free in-app currency crystals with the ad-free game, enough to unlock the two extra farm pots, all four characters’ third accessory slots, and the seven Warehouse doors. I was impressed enough to actually fork over the five bucks.
The game is astoundingly breakable, even without using the IAP store. When you get the ship, there are unmarked, empty islands that feature either metal enemies (give massive XP drops but can only be killed by critical hits) or gold enemies (very strong but given massive gold drops). The metal enemies, if you’re careful and a little patient, can level your characters dozens of levels in only a few battles. Because of Lunaria’s special leveling method—she has to eat accessory gems to get stat boosts, rather than earning XP—she’ll fall well behind the rest of the party. But then you’re strong enough to fight gold enemies for cash, and you can buy the alpha elemental gems from Port Topaz and feed them to her by the dozen. Her stats max at 9999, not that you need to be anywhere near that to beat the game or even the bonus bosses. At level 100+, you can instant-win fights in the postgame final dungeon. (Though the bonus dungeon’s higher floors will still kick your ass.)
Plot-wise, there’s nothing particularly new here. Four unlikely heroes from different nations reveal their secrets and learn the power of friendship. Along the way, they rescue people and defeat demons and collect random drops and visit every location on the map. The villains end up unusually sympathetic and the true ending is shockingly positive and non-violent.
The character design reads like a laundry list of otaku fetishes (though, admittedly, I probably wouldn’t realize this if I saw them in a vacuum): One of the nations is all shape-shifting slime girls; and there are two in your party, one of whom likes to glom onto the main character and the other who likes to squeeze into small spaces. Another nation is all anthropomorphic animal people. The shipping trade is run by an entire association of combat maids in frilly dresses; their leader is prone to punishing people with comedic violence. It’s…a little weird.
Overall: While it’s still a standard jrpg, the folks at KEMCO have clearly been learning and improving their games. The plot is fine, respectable; the systems are very nice and it’s fun to play. Recommended among this style of game.
Mechanically, this is a culmination of a lot of things the earlier KEMCO games had introduced: Each character has elemental magic they learn and you can sacrifice accessory slots to give them access to other elements. There’s a limit break bar that fills during battle and can be spent for super-powerful effects. You can merge and upgrade your weapons, which have various special abilities and you find in abundance. There are randomly large, mini and metal versions of standard enemies. The mini-map is useful, the dungeons have some interesting map designs, there are reminders on the menu screen of where to go next, and there are two dozen sidequests that are neatly organized.
New stuff: There’s an Earthbound-style feature that you can enable which lets you instant-win battles that are well below your level. This is excellent. This game adds a “farm” feature where you can plant the stat-raising seeds you find, and after a set period of real time they’ll grow into much more effective stat-raising fruits. Buying “Warehouse keys” from the in-app store gives you access to several treasure rooms and a multi-part bonus dungeon.
Speaking of that: After about two hours, the ads go from “barely noticeable” to “totally insane”, which is actually pretty clever. It gives you a “try before you buy” experience of the game, and then remains “playable” for the remainder, but unpleasant. Because their goal is clearly less to show you the ads (that’s obviously not the profit center here) but to convince you to pay the $5 for the full ad-free version of the game. Also, you get 800 free in-app currency crystals with the ad-free game, enough to unlock the two extra farm pots, all four characters’ third accessory slots, and the seven Warehouse doors. I was impressed enough to actually fork over the five bucks.
The game is astoundingly breakable, even without using the IAP store. When you get the ship, there are unmarked, empty islands that feature either metal enemies (give massive XP drops but can only be killed by critical hits) or gold enemies (very strong but given massive gold drops). The metal enemies, if you’re careful and a little patient, can level your characters dozens of levels in only a few battles. Because of Lunaria’s special leveling method—she has to eat accessory gems to get stat boosts, rather than earning XP—she’ll fall well behind the rest of the party. But then you’re strong enough to fight gold enemies for cash, and you can buy the alpha elemental gems from Port Topaz and feed them to her by the dozen. Her stats max at 9999, not that you need to be anywhere near that to beat the game or even the bonus bosses. At level 100+, you can instant-win fights in the postgame final dungeon. (Though the bonus dungeon’s higher floors will still kick your ass.)
Plot-wise, there’s nothing particularly new here. Four unlikely heroes from different nations reveal their secrets and learn the power of friendship. Along the way, they rescue people and defeat demons and collect random drops and visit every location on the map. The villains end up unusually sympathetic and the true ending is shockingly positive and non-violent.
The character design reads like a laundry list of otaku fetishes (though, admittedly, I probably wouldn’t realize this if I saw them in a vacuum): One of the nations is all shape-shifting slime girls; and there are two in your party, one of whom likes to glom onto the main character and the other who likes to squeeze into small spaces. Another nation is all anthropomorphic animal people. The shipping trade is run by an entire association of combat maids in frilly dresses; their leader is prone to punishing people with comedic violence. It’s…a little weird.
Overall: While it’s still a standard jrpg, the folks at KEMCO have clearly been learning and improving their games. The plot is fine, respectable; the systems are very nice and it’s fun to play. Recommended among this style of game.
