Comparisons to Xenogears and Chrono Trigger?

[nephalim]

I am really enjoying the game and very glad I picked it up. The combat and character systems are good, and the world is fun to explore. Now I a not very far in, but I am not sure why it is compared to games like Xenogears or Chrono Trigger. Visually it looks more like a Stawdew Valley. The character portraits give me a Final Fantasy Tactics vibe. The large maps to explore are unlike either of those games. And the story thus far is a somewhat bland political thing and bears little resemblence to the epic tales of either game and gives me more of a Trails vibe with lots of NPCs and world building. Does the story get more epic as it goes on? (No major spoilers please.) Also the music, while totally servicable, can't compare to the absolutely epic soundtracks of CT and Xenogears.

Overall thus far I would give the gameplay a 9/10, the graphics and music an 8/10, and the story and characters a 7/10, overall an 8/10. Impressive work for one person (or two? Who composed the music?)

[ninakoru]

The game takes many inspirations in many of the JRPG classics, even there are a few sort of cameos. Yes, the story gets more epic, but knoing that is a bit of spoiler in itself :)

Graphics like Stardew Valley? lol, well yes, but is more inspired on the 16-bit era JRPGs.

[nephalim]

Playing it further, the story has gotten less dry but the game overall is less fun. Still see virtually zero comparisons to Xenogears of Chrono Trigger at about 1/3 of the way through. I guess that's both good and bad. The writing itself is not as good as the overall story, with lots of out of place swearing that feels like it is thrown in for the sake of it.

Graphically it still looks like Stardew Valley, very rough around the edges, doesn't really have the pop that the classics did. The character portraits are not great and the worsts aspect of the visuals, and lack any emotional variations as well. The music is serviceable but completely unmemorable and music is very important to me in a JRPG.

As for the gameplay, there are too many systems that seem like they are thrown in just because and aren't really fleshed out well for good gameplay, including the overdrive bar, the weapon crafting, and especially the crystal systems. Even the skill system feels a little tedious at times and like this game would be better with just a straightforward classic system. To make things more fun with the current system, crystals should be hot swappable with zero negative repercussions. Weapons should be able to be broken down into materials. Stop with the negative consequences of building your characters. I'm not sure if there is a respec eventually but free respec of your skills would be great too. Less stress over making choices. Also there are all the time parts of the map that look like you should be able to go there but can't and it makes exploration a weird boundary pushing thing. But the exploration remains one of the best parts of the game and is well done overall.

I would give it a 7.5/10 so far. I don't mean to knock the author's hard work, it is extremely impressive for the work of a single person, but I hope that he continues to work on and improve the game. There is a solid foundation here that could be built on a lot. Given the low cost of the game I would be happy to pay for a worthwhile DLC upgrade in the future.

I fleshed out these thoughts a little better in my review.