Recent reviews by Tesrad

They seem to have fixed most of the problems upon initial release. I still am loving the game and enjoy playing it. They update frequently to keep the game fresh. A great pick up for people who want to get into the monster hunter series but don't have a portable game system.

buy this game to support the sequels being brought to steam. Amazing story, lovable characters that engage you in the story and make you care about them as they grow with eachother. Fun combat with many different skills and combos to try.

I do have to say that this game definetly suprised me with the amount of detail put into each corner of the game, story and town. It is always nice to have a developer who interacts with the community and is dedicated to improving his work. I really like this game and it is worth your time and money.

I recently bought the game a few days ago at 25% off for the christmas sale and i have to say it has been my best buy all year. Already i have logged a great amount of hours playing.

First I want to mention that this is a console port so if you are like me playing on a laptop and you get slowdowns just change the resolution down a bit, for me 1280x720 fixed it. Others say that changing the fps limit to 30 will fix it aswell.

Yes it's a long review i really like this game and wanted to give out my opinion on alot of the topics.

Story:
[+] I am 3/4's way through the game and i have to say the story has been fantastic there has been a great deal of character development from both the main protagonist and the antagonist. It is your classic world war plot with a sub-romance but it pulls it off in a very unique way and every chapter introduces a great deal of information about everything mentioned in the game. For those of you like me that don't mind looking in the glossary or info tabs for more information about all the events, characters, places, and weapons. It does a great job of adding plenty of backstory.
*This version of the game includes all the DLC bounus missions and content.
*playing battles with extra characters unlocks backstory about them - giving you information on why they have the traits they do.
*Story answers questions after it presents them or soon after

[-]
*It is a bit unfortunate that it seems a bit rushed at times (there are a few moments where something happened and some of the characters just gloss over it very fast.),
*the chapters can be extremely short especially with most of the beginning chapters just including 1 battle with a few short cutscenes.
*You may not get some references the characters make in the dialouge if you do not check the glossary on the events that happened in the past.
*Some of the characters can be forgettable

Gameplay:
The gameplay is a very unique style which i have to say i love. If you have played X-Com you will notice some similarities. It is a turn-based top down 3rd person tactical shooter "whew". You start off in the top down command screen where you use your "CP" given to you each turn to move your units on the battle field. Once you select a unit you go into third person where you are able to move around as much as their stamina bar will let you then you can do an action ie: shoot, heal ect... The game also allows you to choose what upgrades you want for your tank/weapons If you want a accurate sniper you can make it, then you can make a more powerful one and then equip them to different people in your squad for certain fights.

[+]
*The game is very challenging. There is no difficulty setting for the story missions (atleast for the first playthrough it does not seem to give you a choice.)
*the skirmish battles allow for multiple difficulty choices.
*Every mission will be throwing you into a different scenario forcing you to adjust your strategies on the fly and make quick decisions to complete the given objective.
*some maps may seem small but the use of cover and some nicely placed invisible walls make the maps seem 10X bigger than they actually are.
*The game allows you to have 20 uniquely voice acted characters in your squad. at anytime you can swap them out for different characters who become unlocked as the game progresses. In the battles that i am at i have only been allowed a max of 10 soldiers on the field at a time.
*Unique playable characters, with their own personalities and voice acting.
*The ability to lose characters forever. (yes your characters can die in battle leaving you to actually care more for the extra guys and gals than you normally would)
*ability to save in battles (thank you! lol)
*give squad members different weapons so they all don't just have the best accuracy gun should you choose to upgrade it.
*Class leveling system - You level by classes not by individual so you don't have to worry about not taking alicia in every battle and think she will fall behind.

[-]
*Some of the gunfights can come down to luck or the old RNG, you can be right behind someone and aim for his head but miss Completely only to leave you facepalming and your character getting downed the next turn lol.
*No present diffculty option for the story missions.
*some smaller map design limits the posibilities of how to tackle a certain situation.
*Tank's seem to dominate really easily so they overload the enemy with tank busters

Graphics/bugs:
As it is a Ps3 port i was expecting it to not be in a high quality but i was pleasantly suprised. they have updated the PC version to allow support for beyond 1080p but for me and some others higher resolutions seem to cause problems without limited the frames to 60.

[+]
*I love the art style in the game, it is very vibrant and colorful
*Runs great with no performance issues whatsoever
*All enviroments are very detailed and definetly give off the worn battlefield feel
*Characters are visually detailed and animated facial expressions and unqiue movements and animations on the field.

[-]
*a strange border style to give it more of a picturesque feel.
*30 fps on certain resolutions may be noticable to some.
*game will crash often if you alt tab during a skirmish


Language?/Voice: This release is in english but it also comes with a japanese voice option. Unfortunatly it seems that the subtitles in the japanese version use the same ones as if you left subtitles on in the English dub. Now for us who can understand a bit of the Japanese language it seems that what they are saying and what the words at the bottom display do not always match. So if you are an wanting to hear the original script or a direct translation you may be better off finding a fan made translation/patch. I am playing the game with the english voices and i have to point out that they did a fantastic job setting the tone for each character. I even enjoy the lines given to the characters you can recruit into your squad, you can tell what kind of person they are just by how they sound.

Sound/OST: From what i have heard in the game the music is great! the compostition Hitoshi Sakimoto put together fits the mood for almost every scene. he said that it took him a total of eight months to complete it and what time well spent. i can only say that the ost is definitely one i will be looking to pick up in the future. Now for the sounds.

[+]
*The game adds visuals to sounds... what i mean is that if you see a tank moving the game will add a "Vvrrrmm" or "rumble rumble" next to it in a anime'ish style which adds alot to the art style. the same can be said for any other sounds like an explosion might have a big "BLAM!" come out of the ground which is nothing less than satisfying.
*I'm not a gun expert in anyway but they sound good enough to me im not going to complain if they sound fake or hold it against them the sounds they use fit the art style and serious tone, it adds a certain charm to the game.

[-]
*Some of the voice acting for the English dub is out of synch with the characters facial animations. This can be normal with translated game but in this one it can be very noticable.

Replayability: As this is a linear game i am a bit worried about how i would enjoy this game on the second time around so far the majority of the "side quest if you can call it that" is just a skirmish battles, it is very "this is what you have to do now do it".
The extra characters that you choose for your squad at start are random. my friend had bought the game and i told him he should get a person named Lynn but he did not have her or many of the ones i started with. he had some characters that i had just unlocked in recent missions.

I may update with more once i start my second playthrough or complete the game.

Overall rating: 9/10

Get this game now! Amazing teamwork by the community, great gameplay and a good RTS and FPS combination.

Great game, fun to play with your friends!