A grim, dark fantasy SRPG, Fire Emblem's edgier cousin. I went in not expecting a whole lot, but was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked the game. It eschews the over-saturated anime vibe that is so typical of the genre, favoring a harsh, grounded world of greys, browns, and reds. Some may find it visually boring, but I thought the bleakness suited the world and appreciated its understated approach.

The game is heavily based on a follow-up attack mechanic, which makes your party of just 5 characters viable against the much larger enemy armies. I found this gameplay to be satisfying and crunchy (in a good way), like the hits had impact and the team was earning their victories. There are multiple weapons (that differ in stats & appearance, but not basic function), both passive & active unlockable skills, and equippable accessories that provide various benefits. This gives you some small freedom in your build, but each character is pretty specialized and fits a set role in battle. Difficulty is moderate. Early game your characters are very fragile, but once you get a knack for positioning, you'll get through the game without major issues. There's ~2 difficulty spikes but I wouldn't consider them major. Hard mode is unlocked after finishing Normal.

Weapon degradation is a thing, but is very manageable with the amount of money the game throws at you (sort of, more on that later). This combined with the number of alternate weapons means you are never really at risk of hitting zero durability. That said, if a weapon DOES hit zero durability, it doesn't break and can still be repaired, however it will suffer a significant stat penalty until you do so. Weapon upgrades are straightforward stat increases in exchange for found materials & money. If you have a favored weapon this can keep it viable the whole game. My party was still regularly using their starter weapons up to the finale.

I said you "sort of" had enough money to manage repairs. That depends on how many chests & relics you pick up throughout the game's 30ish chapters. The layout of stages & placement of these pickups was my biggest complaint about the game. Many stages are quite large, and gathering resources requires you to work your way all around the map. It makes stages drag out and I felt slightly punished for collecting. But collect you shall, else you miss out on lore snippets and start falling behind the power curve (weapon repairs & upgrades). Should you miss pickups or breeze through stages, fret not, as there are repeatable skirmish missions throughout most of the game that let you grind exp & money, if necessary. But stages should've been streamlined to make this more fun during primary gameplay.

Other reviews discuss severe performance problems, particularly with cutscenes. I did not have these problems and assume they were patched post-release. For me the game ran just fine on both Windows and Linux (via Proton). I encountered zero gameplay bugs and no crashes in 30 hours runtime. However, cutscenes just don't look very good for the most part. The animation and lip-syncing is really stilted, which is odd considering the battle animations are all really good. It's like two different teams worked on each piece.

The story is a strange beast. Usually in games like this the story starts off OK but by the end I get tired of it and slog my way through to the end. In Redemption Reapers, rather the opposite was true. The story really holds back, with little dialogue, exposition, or world-building. This meant the beginning, when you don't know the characters or the setting, feels bland and uninteresting. While the story is indeed a little thin, it is by no means bad, just more "vibes based". By the end I was really attached to my motley band of misfits. And the ending absolutely ****ing slaps.

Still, some things could've been more fleshed out. The origin and goal of the Mort are never explained. They are just a seemingly unstoppable horde of human-killing monsters who kill humans just because. The "Troden incident", despite being CRITICAL to the cast's backstory, is only generally described and feels underwhelming for how much it was built up. Again, I liked the ending and don't feel we need definite closure on the Mort threat, but we see so little of the world that the stakes are unclear.

In summary, Redemption Reapers has fun, gritty SRPG combat in a harsh, rundown world with visuals to match. The story may leave something to be desired, but provides sufficient excuse to complete the battles, and you may find it sneakily grabbed you by the end. The game left me hoping for a sequel or spiritual successor, but I'm not optimistic. Still, as a standalone title RR is an underrated gem well worth a go.

Absolutely incredible game. I LOVE how dark the setting and plot are. Very much enjoyed the entire playthrough, here's hoping for a sequel!