how's the gameplay?

[Dharma]

seens like a pretty weird game,does the combat prioritize more strategy or reaction//timing? is the real time ♥♥♥♥ even good or just some goofy ass paper mario gimics?

[Ratsplat]

I mean, I play on expert, and parrying isn't really strategy, more of a necessity at that level. Bit of strategy in attribute and skill selection though. And learning which enemies to kill first.

Overall, more about avoiding damage and killing enemies quickly than in depth tactics.

[ElChouv]

it's kind of both, dodge/parry is essential, you can't survive without it, but in the same time there's quite some thinking to set up a strategy to make maximum damage. With a good strategy you can make stupidly high damages but you must understand each character's gameplay and it take a bit of larning

[ህዐጎጋ]

Its challenging, you have to plan how you use your skills altleast 2 turns beforehand and QTE are hard on some bosses but its really damn good. Combat is S-Tier.

[Bran]

strategy depends with character you have in team and what enemy you fight, reaction timing hell yes, the core mechanic is QTE to do more dmg or to pary/dodge

[Slayer]

Originally posted by Dharma:

seens like a pretty weird game,does the combat prioritize more strategy or reaction//timing? is the real time ♥♥♥♥ even good or just some goofy ass paper mario gimics?

I am at the final boss. Playing expert level, pretty much everything oneshot you early game. Had to die to boss 5-10 times to get used to with moves.

[MEATSHED]

Ironically I think the game gets less strategic once you bump it up to hard because of how much damage enemies deal meaning that defensive utility outside of shields like shell and healing don't help as much.

[VulpineMachine]

I'm a BIG fan of turn based, especially JRPGs. But this has a nice balance between QTE/reaction/pattern-recognition and turn based. I feel like I get all the time in the world to plan on my turn and think about what's likely to happen and get mentally prepared to "run the gauntlet". This back and forth of really focused reflexes and then taking as much time in between as you want is fantastic imo. You kinda get the best of both worlds and it makes for tense gameplay, but tense at a level you can tolerate since you set the pace of how often you wanna deal with these reaction events.

[Dharma]

Originally posted by VulpineMachine:

I'm a BIG fan of turn based, especially JRPGs. But this has a nice balance between QTE/reaction/pattern-recognition and turn based. I feel like I get all the time in the world to plan on my turn and think about what's likely to happen and get mentally prepared to "run the gauntlet". This back and forth of really focused reflexes and then taking as much time in between as you want is fantastic imo. You kinda get the best of both worlds and it makes for tense gameplay, but tense at a level you can tolerate since you set the pace of how often you wanna deal with these reaction events.

Playing it on gamepass,yeah it's very fun and the story is pretty good,i think it deserves the praise and all.
i just don't like how it's selling itself as an "evolution of jrpgs" where imo all it does is make the QTEs more meaningful then something like paper mario and add just enough depth to the turn base stuff to be fun,it certainly has better combat then something like persona or metaphor but not the whole genre

the real time QTEs are fun but i hope it does't encourage other devs to add it in every other turn base game too

[drg8888]

Originally posted by Dharma:

Originally posted by VulpineMachine:

I'm a BIG fan of turn based, especially JRPGs. But this has a nice balance between QTE/reaction/pattern-recognition and turn based. I feel like I get all the time in the world to plan on my turn and think about what's likely to happen and get mentally prepared to "run the gauntlet". This back and forth of really focused reflexes and then taking as much time in between as you want is fantastic imo. You kinda get the best of both worlds and it makes for tense gameplay, but tense at a level you can tolerate since you set the pace of how often you wanna deal with these reaction events.

Playing it on gamepass,yeah it's very fun and the story is pretty good,i think it deserves the praise and all.
i just don't like how it's selling itself as an "evolution of jrpgs" where imo all it does is make the QTEs more meaningful then something like paper mario and add just enough depth to the turn base stuff to be fun,it certainly has better combat then something like persona or metaphor but not the whole genre

the real time QTEs are fun but i hope it does't encourage other devs to add it in every other turn base game too

Just as an FYI, the dodge/parry mechanic is much more prominent in the early game and very late game (the post-story endgame in this game is like another 20 hours). In the early game, on normal difficulty, when you have only 1 or 2 characters i'd wager you have to dodge/parry maybe 60%-70% of the hits to win encounters. But 10-15 hours in, i'd wager that number is more like 20-30%, because by that point you have a very large toolkit to mitigate hits, heal, or resurrect a dead character. You also can build up your characters to have two turns instead of one. So in the beginning when you have one character, you get a turn, and the enemy gets a turn, and so on. But by end game when you have three characters on the field with two turns each on the board, you may get 6 turns before the enemy even gets one.

[Kangaxx]

QTE are extremely annoying and obligatory.
Huge locations and no map. Also annoying.

So I'd say that gameplay is bad.

[Lambi]

Gameplay is probably some of the most fun I've had in a long time. Both nostalgic and modern. Highly recommend.

[Anon GM.]

If you love dying 10X in a row to the same thing then this is for you. Have fun wasting 2 HOURS over something that would have taken you 10 minutes if coded fairly. But then again that's the norm now. Devs love wasting your time and SWEATSOUL FANS LOVE LOVE Letting them.

[Anon GM.]

Originally posted by Kangaxx:

QTE are extremely annoying and obligatory.
Huge locations and no map. Also annoying.

So I'd say that gameplay is bad.

Someone who is not brainwashed into thinking that HIGH DIFFICULTY = FUN.
If the game is advertised as an RPG then I expect it to have minimal effort in gameplay while I enjoy the music, story and graphics. That is why I paid 10,000 Dollars for my machine after all. But instead what I get is a frustrating and annoying experience that asks me to invest more time into learning something that I do not WISH to. Trust me my time is better spent on other things.

[Lain½]

extremely satisfying combat. QTE are a non issue, it's not hard to achieve, and there are sound cues for parrying/dodging, you quickly get used to it. Can combo with the abilities / characters / powerups (lumina), some fights need you to rethink your moves, it's really great.

[Estellese]

Have not beaten it yet.

But so far the story has been very good, and the gameplay has felt very fun. The best ever? No. Much better than most other recent games? Yes.

The QTEs are meaningful. As much as the some here complain and think they should be meaningless, I don't see that change coming any time soon.

Now, this game is not the typical modern game in terms of difficulty. Hard mode is actually hard and will require you to play well. Expedition mode (the one it says the game is built and balanced for specifically) has a very fair amount of challenge and difficulty. If you use all the mechanics at least halfway decently you'll be fine. But you will need to learn and use all of the mechanics.

And story mode is story mode. The easy option for people who struggle with QTEs or just don't want a challenge.


I do feel what others have said about expert mode reducing the strategy a bit. I tested both expert and expedition modes. In expedition mode I found myself using a wider range of skills and strategies. Expert mode feels a bit like the heals and buffs are less valuable because you die so fast.

But someone better at the game than I am might disagree.

In the experience of someone who is decent but not great at the game. My last boss fight was beaten on second try, expert mode, zero parries. Because I just couldn't get the rhythm of this boss down, so I focused on the safer dodge option instead.

First attempt at that boss ended because I got cocky. A big AOE wiped all but my tank and left my tank low hp. Then the monster did a combo attack I had never seen before, I dodged the first few swings perfectly and then there was a surprise jump evasion QTE I hadn't been ready for. Almost caught me off guard. But I evaded it and got the free shot off. Put my controller down, loudly proclaimed "Ha! Did it first try." And then got bapped by the next swing of the combo.... I had thought that was the last swing, there was just one more.