My thoughts after Platinum

[Star Sage]

Played on PS5, so some of what I do see in this game is different than PC, but it's the same basic game, so figured I'd record some thoughts here. First off, this thing should have been 30 dollars. At that price, I think it would have sold much better than it did, which, while we aren't being given much data, I can't see it having sold even 100k copies across all platforms.

That's a shame, as it's not a bad game at all. Systems it uses are good, the story is uplifting, without talking down to its audience, you can't save EVERYONE, and there are EVIL people in this world, but everyone does have their own reasons for doing stuff, even if the reason sometimes boils down to crazy.

It plays out like an early arc of Fairy Tail, which was on my mind as I played it since the character designer is the same. I wasn't sure they wrote it, but it feels like one of their early works, before they tried to be 'serious', and thus the characters are allowed to win, even if they don't get everything they want, they're satisfied with their victory.

Beyond that, the gameplay is two sections, the farm, and the dungeons. The connective tissue between these are the menus, but there's no other places to 'move' as a character. And sadly, the dungeons are all the same shape and design. Square forested areas, with only a few boss fights, not even the lead in just the fights, in rooms.

There are several continents to play through, but it's ALWAYS a forest you're in, even during the assaults on the enemy's castles and such, you are in a forest, only transported to their buildings for a boss fight at the end, which even then, is simply a large square room, and this time completely flat, to prevent the boss from being blocked by terrain.

This sadly gives every dungeon a very 'been there, done that' feel. Honestly, if they didn't have so many variations on enemies, I'd say it was actually bad, and even say the game was terrible. Luckily, they DO have a wide variety of enemies, which does allow them to keep things, if not visually interestingly, at least on a gameplay level.

Now, you do start with mobs, just small monsters, that, while coming in a variety, are really just cannon fodder. That's okay, due to the next level up monsters, medium ones, tending to have not only a variety of attacks, but also several ways to move around them, with small challenges for each to beat them in specific ways to gain a 100% drop rate from them.

That alone does elevate the gameplay a bit, as you're always questioning what to use against enemies, if you should save an attack or use it now, especially since the 'Fusion' attack is very powerful, and hits everything in the room you're in, meaning it will clear the mobs, and almost all medium monsters, in a single blast.

Even better, the 'Large' type monsters, which are typically bosses, can be encountered 'in the wild' as it were, meaning sometimes RNG will throw one of these at you, and even though they have less health than they would as an area boss, they still have a good pallet of attacks to use against you, forcing you to adapt to them on the fly.

Sadly, your attacks ARE a bit limited. Assaults are just sending your monsters against the enemy. This does minimal damage, and is mostly useful because some of your monsters have status effects. Some enemies ARE vulnerable to specific kinds of monsters, but you'll do less damage than you'd think without having a high level or stats.

That said, you CAN customize your monsters stats. Instead of leveling up from EXP(which you DO do, but as a character, not the monsters), you take them to 'the ranch' and feed them power up items. You can put the points from this in one of five stats, with each monster having a primary 3 denoted by a musical note. It rewards planning, and investigation, and doesn't punish you permanently for screwing up early on.

Beyond assaults you also have Unite Blitz. This is interesting. Basically your monsters have a default form for this that's okay, but you can also 'research' enemies by growing seeds they drop, which allows you to then use their forms for your Unite attacks. This not only gives them more power, but some can hit in various ways, large blasts, or even several times in one attack

Unite Blitz is also the best way to stun an enemy by taking down their KO HP, a second healthbar of sorts that regenerates if you don't attack for a time, but once depleted, leaves the enemy in a stunned state, and also allows you to use another attack type against them.

The attack against a stunned enemy is called a Legion attack, and it's your best way of dealing damage, as a single Legion attack against a foe will typically kill it. Good, and takes some planning to pull off. It also is useful against bosses as, while they can take several of these, they will drop health orbs on being hit by one, giving you a way to heal mid fight.

Even better hitting with a Unite or Legion attack, or blocking enemy attacks, charges your Fusion Summon. This attack is the room clearer, as I said above, and while it takes a bit to charge, you can hit EVERYTHING in the area with it, allowing you to wipe out small and medium monsters almost without fail, and severely damage large ones, or even bosses.

On top of that, you have counter attacks using Unite Blitzes against enemies when they're using red power attacks, while being able to guard against yellow ones with a guard move, with guard even having a 'perfect guard' which charges fusion even more than a normal, and can add other effects.

Said other effects come from either your party, a group of up to four chosen by the story at any given point, though you pick the 'leader' which determines a major boost, with minor boosts coming from everyone else, or from Fairy Skills, which are something you find randomly in the dungeon.

Those skills can really power you up too, as while some are flat bonuses to damage and charge speeds of Unite or Legion attacks, others can do things like giving special effects to some attacks, or even other things like increasing drops from enemies, allowing you to heal or move faster, or even restocking monsters in your party.

That last is a weird one, as if you play well enough/on easier modes, you won't ever realize this, but your monsters can DIE in this game. Monsters have 2 HPs, for KO HP, similar to the enemy, they fall into a stunned state, and you have to run over them to wake them up. However, if they're hit enough while in this state, they can also be killed, and you will have to grow a new one of that type.

That's a neat mechanic, but one that feels like they chickened out on if you're not playing poorly/on harder difficulties, you'll never see it happen(I lost one monster, and it took me a bit to realize it happened). Worse, you can't see the HP or KO HP of your monsters, a given as there's up to 60 units, in up to 4 types, in your little army, but still, it makes getting them back up a priority, as I don't think they can be killed just by being hit, it has to be while they're stunned.

And of course YOU can die. Your character takes damage any time your monsters do, likely to prevent you from being able to hang back safely and observe things. No, it wants you to be up there with your monsters, a fact proven by most Unite Blitzes being shorter ranged, and happening in front of your character, meaning if you use them while not standing near the enemy, they whiff.

Still, without a certain Fairy skill that prevents it, this can lead to you being stunned, unable to command your monsters until you get up, creating this risk/reward, as if you're not close, you'll do less damage, but you'll have more control of the battle, which really does push you a bit in many directions.

As you can see, this system is good. The dungeons are bad in and of themselves, but the gameplay in them makes up for a lot of that. The story, starting out very simple, and then growing a bit by the end, never being deep exactly, but at least not chickening out of its conclusions, is interesting too.

Of course, then you have farming. As I said, you can get seeds on your adventures of all the monsters. You also raise your monsters here, increasing the number(and again, replacing losses if they happen), with four basic commands of tilling, weeding, watering, and destroying obseticales. That last is a VERY context sensitive command you will use 8 times in the whole game.

Beyond that, you raise things by watering them every day until they bloom, passing a day in the dungeons, or just doing so via the town screen. However, each of your four commands takes up Farm Points,(FP), which only regenerates by doing a dungeon dive, so it encourages you to maximize your gains, without being punishing.

Better, the enemy monsters you raise, as I said, can be unlocked as Unite forms for your monsters. You have to raise 3 of the same type to do this, encouraging dungeon runs in the same one to get them, and getting you to use the various status effects and attack types to get them every time.

You can also eventually unlock 'agri-buddies' which will take up slots in the farm, but also take care of your basic functions like watering, weeding, and even doing things like increasing crop yield, increasing the 'species' of your battle monsters automatically, or even just spreading battle monster seeds around, meaning you don't have to gather them yourself.

This can, eventually, give you a farm that runs itself, as you use a 'research board' to unlock things via Research Points(gained up to 3 times for each of the enemies you raise, until you unlock their Unite form), as well as each enemy having an 'item' that they will either drop, or can be gained by growing them on your farm.

Better, each one your grow, other any battle monsters raised over your limit, will be automatically sold for money, meaning you will always be gaining money from your farm, giving you a reason to go back to it every day, and try to get it running as well as you can.

And I think that's about it from me. Gods I talked a lot. This game is flawed, a lot flawed at times as it feels like some systems aren't working at full speed as they should, like Battle Buddies being able to die, and the agri-buddies taking up spots IN the farm, which means getting them working together can be harder than it should.

But once it IS firing on all cylinders, it's a fine example of its craft, and I enjoyed it myself. I know it's not for everyone, but hey, not everything needs to be.

[Drag0nSm3113r]

Great review, there's one thing I'd like to ask though. How did you unlock the research panels on the left for the level up mixtures? It says that research is required but I have everything else unlocked, completed the story and even did all the Elemental Spirit chapters. The only achievement I have left is the 100 treats one and the unlock all research panels one. Any help would be appreciated.

[VertVentus]

Load up your clear save and enter Avrion castle to unlock 9 quests, then clearing those unlocks 12 more. Just go from bottom to top since it's a natural level curve, and occasionally you'll unlock a new level up food. You need to do everything for the platinum.
I think you should only make the Formation and Support Type with Cooldown: Fast for Unite Counters (Cool/Clown Afanc). The final ones for Close/Long-Range Attackers can deal just as much damage as a Legion (boosted by Afanac/Cuckoo-Doodle Fairy Skills) or Fusion (Sylphie's for the heal & temporary invincibility) if you stack Blitz damage and exploit the weakness, while refilling their Cooldown: Slow is no trouble at all if you get +20 buddy slots for a 30 stack.

[Drag0nSm3113r]

Publicado originalmente por VertVentus:

Load up your clear save and enter Avrion castle to unlock 9 quests, then clearing those unlocks 12 more. Just go from bottom to top since it's a natural level curve, and occasionally you'll unlock a new level up food. You need to do everything for the platinum.
I think you should only make the Formation and Support Type with Cooldown: Fast for Unite Counters (Cool/Clown Afanc). The final ones for Close/Long-Range Attackers can deal just as much damage as a Legion (boosted by Afanac/Cuckoo-Doodle Fairy Skills) or Fusion (Sylphie's for the heal & temporary invincibility) if you stack Blitz damage and exploit the weakness, while refilling their Cooldown: Slow is no trouble at all if you get +20 buddy slots for a 30 stack.

Yup, saw the little story icon over the castle when I loaded up my save, lol. Don't know how I missed that. Thanks!