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chuckroA thousand years ago, two dragons rampaged across the world and devastated everything in sight, until a hero came and sealed them both away. Now, they’ve both returned, intent on retrieving the powers the hero sealed in the Dragon Lapis scattered across the world. As the descendent of the hero, you side with the gold dragon. Is that a mistake? (Probably not.)
The ads are generally unobtrusive—there’s a small banner at the bottom, they sometimes play a 5-second ad when you save, and you can opt to watch a 30-second ad to get free LPP. About six hours in, you get alerted that the number of ads is going to go up, and it does—to one after every few battles. At that point, I was fairly certain I wanted to play the entire game, so I paid the $5 to remove the ads and get some free LPP. (You get LPP and lottery tickets for free every few battles, though it takes a long time to save up for anything particularly good. I blew all of mine on the XP tripler accessory.)
Oddly, they have standard gold and then multiple non-standard currencies, the odd one out being “Coins”, which you trade Magus Stones for and can use in special shops to buy better weapons and special accessories. The 200-coin weapons seem to be the very best the game offers—and that’s saying something—but saving up for those takes forever. I blew my coins on the accessory that recovers everyone’s MP in battle.
XP, as it happens, is only of middling importance: The only important thing you get from going up a level is EP to distribute onto a class plate (and there are other sources of EP, like from rare items or by completing randomly-assigned “missions” in battle, which I actually thought were a good idea that broke up the monotony of random battles). Like the Sphere Grid in FFX, each node on a class plate gives you a small stat boost or a new ability. Unlike it, the plates are small and each character can use almost all of them, and you get bonuses for completing them. The setup for the higher-level classes (you need to “level up” a lower class to reach high classes and use those skills, but can use the plates to learn the skills at any time—it's a weird double-unlock) is a little obtuse, but not so critical that you need to worry about screwing it up.
Graphics are very deliberately “retro” pixelated, but not bad by any means. The game unquestionably feels like an Exe-Create game, with a number of different things to upgrade, but the system is actually fairly straightforward. (Especially since all of the magic is lumped into Light and Shadow and just unlocked in clusters from the Priest and Mage classes.)
I love the minimap system, actually—each area has a gray outline of the corridors which turns into a proper, detailed map as you explore it. It makes it really easy to tell where you haven’t been yet, and also means you can guess what will be a dead end and what will be the way through.
While the characters are still clearly anime-trope inspired, the party isn’t “the hero and his harem,” nor are there any random maids. The characters banter and bicker, but the writing is much more tolerable than, say, the Asdivine games.
And there’s plenty to do: I spent about 20 hours on the game, but a lot of that was optional content—there are three optional dungeons that are there to make grinding more pleasant, there are 15 sidequests (most of which are short revisits of the previous dungeon), there is a post-game/”good ending” dungeon, and a 30-floor bonus dungeon that can be accessed before the final dungeon. Oh, and bonus bosses both scattered around the world (who give lousy rewards) and clustered in the “heroes grave” (who give some of the best weapons). I made it halfway up the Goddess Tower and my characters were in the high 80s when I got bored, so I beat the bonus bosses and steamrollered the final and post-final dungeons. (I actually beat both forms of both final bosses in a single hit each—my Iria was an utter beast in her Neo-Dragonite class.)
Overall: I’d put this in the top quartile of KEMCO games, as it manages the good game experience of most EXE-Create games without the wince-worthy plot elements. I definitely got my $5 worth.
The ads are generally unobtrusive—there’s a small banner at the bottom, they sometimes play a 5-second ad when you save, and you can opt to watch a 30-second ad to get free LPP. About six hours in, you get alerted that the number of ads is going to go up, and it does—to one after every few battles. At that point, I was fairly certain I wanted to play the entire game, so I paid the $5 to remove the ads and get some free LPP. (You get LPP and lottery tickets for free every few battles, though it takes a long time to save up for anything particularly good. I blew all of mine on the XP tripler accessory.)
Oddly, they have standard gold and then multiple non-standard currencies, the odd one out being “Coins”, which you trade Magus Stones for and can use in special shops to buy better weapons and special accessories. The 200-coin weapons seem to be the very best the game offers—and that’s saying something—but saving up for those takes forever. I blew my coins on the accessory that recovers everyone’s MP in battle.
XP, as it happens, is only of middling importance: The only important thing you get from going up a level is EP to distribute onto a class plate (and there are other sources of EP, like from rare items or by completing randomly-assigned “missions” in battle, which I actually thought were a good idea that broke up the monotony of random battles). Like the Sphere Grid in FFX, each node on a class plate gives you a small stat boost or a new ability. Unlike it, the plates are small and each character can use almost all of them, and you get bonuses for completing them. The setup for the higher-level classes (you need to “level up” a lower class to reach high classes and use those skills, but can use the plates to learn the skills at any time—it's a weird double-unlock) is a little obtuse, but not so critical that you need to worry about screwing it up.
Graphics are very deliberately “retro” pixelated, but not bad by any means. The game unquestionably feels like an Exe-Create game, with a number of different things to upgrade, but the system is actually fairly straightforward. (Especially since all of the magic is lumped into Light and Shadow and just unlocked in clusters from the Priest and Mage classes.)
I love the minimap system, actually—each area has a gray outline of the corridors which turns into a proper, detailed map as you explore it. It makes it really easy to tell where you haven’t been yet, and also means you can guess what will be a dead end and what will be the way through.
While the characters are still clearly anime-trope inspired, the party isn’t “the hero and his harem,” nor are there any random maids. The characters banter and bicker, but the writing is much more tolerable than, say, the Asdivine games.
And there’s plenty to do: I spent about 20 hours on the game, but a lot of that was optional content—there are three optional dungeons that are there to make grinding more pleasant, there are 15 sidequests (most of which are short revisits of the previous dungeon), there is a post-game/”good ending” dungeon, and a 30-floor bonus dungeon that can be accessed before the final dungeon. Oh, and bonus bosses both scattered around the world (who give lousy rewards) and clustered in the “heroes grave” (who give some of the best weapons). I made it halfway up the Goddess Tower and my characters were in the high 80s when I got bored, so I beat the bonus bosses and steamrollered the final and post-final dungeons. (I actually beat both forms of both final bosses in a single hit each—my Iria was an utter beast in her Neo-Dragonite class.)
Overall: I’d put this in the top quartile of KEMCO games, as it manages the good game experience of most EXE-Create games without the wince-worthy plot elements. I definitely got my $5 worth.
