my review of this "almost GEM"

[JthePK]

There are many things about this release that both bother me and disappoint me as a veteran tactical RPG (FFT is the best, but I started with vandal hearts decades ago), and since I won't be playing this game I will just spell out a handful of my most obvious grievances here. Some of them are easy fix if you chose, some not.

1: When in the town, during missions, the bottom right button that tells you there is an activity available is horrible. It goes in its own order, and you cant delay the option to the end of the list, you can only ignore. What you should have done, is make a left and right arrow box, and allow players to view ALL of the available activities by clicking the arrows left and right. theres no reason to make us ignore it, there are so many litte things to do that one will just click end week out of habbit and miss out that week on different activities that were ready.

2: NOBODY likes a lengthy forced tutorial. There is literally nothing new you are introducing. theres no need.

*3*: How are you going to have directional DMG bonus but you will not allow players to choose their direction? since you automatically decide the path a character walks, there are times when the character will be facing a stupid direction even when he SHOULD have been able to face a proper direction if the player could pick his own movement path. theres no excuses for not being able to pick a direction. this dumbing down doesnt make the game more tactical and doesnt require additional strategy. it makes me want to pull my hair out because your AI chose to make my character navigate from the left instead of the right and now hes facing the stupidest direction possible.

4: while skills are on cooldown, the player is unable to click on them to read the info for the skill. makes no sense. let people read the tooltip for skills that are on cooldown.

5: while in a combat menu, right clicking should go back to the previous menu. EXample: if i click move unit, and decide i want to attack instead before i have moved my unit, i should be able to right click and it should cancel the movement selection and go back to that units main turn options. hope that one made sense i didnt know how to word it. right click should take you to the previous menu during combat.

6: there MUST be a wait command, that pushes a units turn further back in the turn order.
7: movement feels slow and clunky. some units can only move 2 spaces? all units should probably get +1 to their movement speed across the board.

8: if a player isnt pressing any buttons, dialog should not auto-scroll by itself.

9: the delay before the main character joystick pops up for moving around town is too long

10:if there are any facilities that are not being used, a warning box should pop up before a player is allowed to end the week.

11: since the player isnt allowed to chose his own movement path, the AI will walk your unit into fire or other hazards even if there are alternative paths to the same place. makes no sense.

***12***: you cannot call this a strategy or tactical game when the number one most effective strategy will be to make in game purchases. period. this game could have taken over EVERYTHING in ways you wouldnt have predicted. but instead you went the greedy route and put micro transactions in it. hope it was worth it, you will end up with more money but your brand name is gonna be forgotten and this game wont be remembered as a legend at all.

+13+: round based strategy games are bad and lazy. FFT has systems in place that completely embarrass this game. and FFT is decades old. its almost like you guys didnt do ANY studying before making this game,

cant stress this enough, you cannot claim your game is a strategy or tactical game when its p2w with a 2% legendary rate. theres nothing tactical about it. its TIERed, not TACTical. huge difference. any kind of ranking system you impliment for pvp will actually be ranking their irl wealth a VAST MAJORITY of the cases.

the most die hard tactical strategy fans are skipping on this game because we know better. i really hoped since you picked up legendary audio ppl from past franchises that you were getting coached to make a good game by veterans but this game is a giant blunder. and honestly, its too late to fix it. microtransactions have been integrated into the game to a degree that you will never be able to get rid of them even if you werent greedy and wanted to get rid of them.


im MAJORLY dissapointed in developers greed. FFT would have flopped if it had microtransctions. this game is ruined. as is, will not be playing. wasted too much time in other microtransactions just to see that theres is NO HOPE for the average person to compete with the richest people. its a scam. you are a scam. this game is a scam.

you dressed it up as a tactical strategy game because you knew there was a market for it. but if you knew ANYTHING at all about tactical strategy games, youd know these game types are incompatible.

the ONLY way that I would consider this game playable is if:

1: legend rates were DRASTICALLY increased. (dont go 2% -> 3% and call it done lol.....)
2: directional waiting is a MUST. pvp will be a gimmick without this.
3: turn passing. units NEED to be able to wait for a later chance in the turn. the fact that this game is round based is


gameplay: 6/10 no waiting your turn, no directional waiting, cant choose your own movement path.
graphics: 10/10 simply amazing, this should be the new standard for which future strategy rpg games try to mimicry.
audio/ost : 9/10 a lot of songs are generic and boring, but the style and theme fit the game still to a great degree
unit management, town management: 5/10 needs to be heavily optimized.
are microtransactions fun?: 0/100000
frustration with developers choices: 10/10

you guys could have been the kings of strategy games. this game is going to net you a lot of money, but you will be the kings of nothing and you will not be remembered.

[JthePK]

....

[Carnack Ketral]

While I do agree with some points, this is mostly personal preference and nitpicking, eventually devolving into some sort of anti gacha/monetization rant.

The constant referencing of Final Fantasy Tactics just leads me to believe it is the only turn based strategy game you have played. While I do believe it to be top tier, it is not the only one. There are many other strategy games out there with their own mechanics and systems.

The elitist narcissism does little to bolster any argument either. I know of several "die hard strategy game fans" who are eagerly waiting the full release of this game.

[Doraver]

Most of the things you said are just personal preference and not a negative to everyone.

I can only see a value for such feedback to a game devs who are still in development/early access, but this game was finished more than a year ago.

I'm confused why some people make these lengthy posts expecting something. You are clearly just looking for your "perfect game" that you have in your mind and vent it out on the forums for no reason. Why don't you go with your ideas to something like tactical-rpg fan reddit and post it about how you would like to see your ideal game.

[JthePK]

the entire point of a review is to give your personal experience and preference of the game so people can make their own decision, though. not sure why that warranted a response. actually i do...the real problem you guys had, which prompted you to reply was that i have a problem with the gacha aspect, and the rest was just filled in so you had words to say.

FFt, vandal hearts, brigandine, agarest, fell seal ogre battles, tactics ogre.. i mean i could sit here and list them all night since you NEED to doubt that aspect for the rest of your view of this to be accurate.. the reason FFT gets brought up is because it is and has been the best in class for this genre. nobody has come close.

sorry for triggering you guys by being anti gacha.

never once did i say i EXPECT something, i just plainly said im not gonna play. like i stated earlier.. you were looking for fluff words to suppliment your original thought of being a die hard support for gacha games.

truth is theres basically a strategy civil war over this game, where the line has been drawn at gacha. and you guys are simply from the opposite camp so im not surprised in the least to see you here.


its not "nitpicking" to state things like not being able to choose your own movement path creates a situation where even though you COULD have moved into position to face the right direction, the game simply wont allow you to. this type of ♥♥♥♥ is clearly incorrect. i dont really need your opinions on stuff like this. if you think AI pathing to where you cant alternate paths to avoid fire on the ground, or avoid having your back show, id say you need to play MORE of these types of games instead of getting mad that someone may have more experience with it than you.

and yes, MOST die hard fans ARE indeed passing on this game, so its all yours lol.
ty for the points tho.

[Doraver]

Originally posted by NO MORE FOREIGN WARS:

i just plainly said im not gonna play

Don't you think 3000+ words is a bit too much just to say that you don't like and not gonna play?

Originally posted by NO MORE FOREIGN WARS:

i dont really need your opinions on stuff like this

If you are not here for OUR opinion why are you even here? You said that you already filled beta/demo survey which you wanted to pass to the devs, so you are clearly here only to talk to other players

Originally posted by NO MORE FOREIGN WARS:

and yes, MOST die hard fans ARE indeed passing on this game, so its all yours lol.

Thank you. Everyone else can enjoy gaming a bit more without you "die hard fans" being around

[JthePK]

Originally posted by Doraver:

Originally posted by NO MORE FOREIGN WARS:

i just plainly said im not gonna play

Don't you think 3000+ words is a bit too much just to say that you don't like and not gonna play?

when i said "i just plainly said im not gonna play" it had nothing to do with 3k word review, it was a direct response to you claiming that i was "expecting something". which was basically confirming what i said about you fluffing out your opinion about gacha with random stuff that i didnt say. hence the "plainly said" part. had literally nothing to do with 3k words if you had some comprehension. you purposely misinterpreted what i said to have something to say here. kinda sad really, that even with the text in front of your face you still cant form an honest statement. its a morality thing, and lying while looking at the sourcetext is a degen thing , but moving on....

Originally posted by Doraver:

Originally posted by NO MORE FOREIGN WARS:

i dont really need your opinions on stuff like this

If you are not here for OUR opinion why are you even here? You said that you already filled beta/demo survey which you wanted to pass to the devs, so you are clearly here only to talk to other players

im here to GIVE my opinion... if that wasnt obvious enough with this being MY review.. lol. when i said i dont need YOUR opinion, i wasnt talking about the community... im sure there are some people with actual straategy experience that might have an actual counter argument or alternative idea.. but i was literally talking about just YOU. you didnt provide any counter points to show WHY my ideas were bad, you just said they were bad. and since the only issue you really brought up at all was GACHA, i know that youre just a gacha fanatic thats pissed at anyone by default that doesnt support the gacha system. hope that made sense to you (you). BTW, another degen fake statement, i never claimed that i submitted the survey... i said that the survey wouldnt accept my review because of a 3k word limit. which is why i posted it here instead.

Originally posted by Doraver:

Originally posted by NO MORE FOREIGN WARS:

and yes, MOST die hard fans ARE indeed passing on this game, so its all yours lol.

Thank you. Everyone else can enjoy gaming a bit more without you "die hard fans" being around

yes, because most players emjoyment of a game is based on the other players around them, as opposed to the actual mechanics of the game making sense.

noticed you chose to attack a bunch of points from my post that DIDNT have to do with the actual gameplay. this would be because youre actually triggered about the gacha aspect lol and youre not even trying to be constructive at this point so im gonna just stop replying now. hope you eventually see that picking your own direction and being able to choose your own movement path within the moverange are KEY aspects to a game with directional dmg and environmental hazards.. its not that hard of a concept to understand which, to me, makes it seem like you are a complete beginniner to the genre and dont actually have the experience to be arguing the actual gameplay points. you just want to attack people that dont like the gacha system. which would be another supporting fact as to why you lash out at people with experience in the genre. because you dont have any.

i really cant waste any more time breaking down obvious improvements to someone that doesnt even play strategy rpg games. i couldnt imagine fighting for a gacha system JUST because im someone that has come to depend on an unfair monetary advantage over other people in a game that is trying to be somewhat comeptitive in pvp.

[Plantszaza]

Originally posted by NO MORE FOREIGN WARS:

2: NOBODY likes a lengthy forced tutorial. There is literally nothing new you are introducing. theres no need.

I can't entirely agree. We're past the time when games teach you nothing and throw you right into the pit. Just because you know all these basics doesn't mean everyone out there does.

The rest of the points aren't worth talking about because it's 35% "Would be a nice change." and 20% "Why can't this game be like FFT? SMH."

So I'm giving my opinion about the part you ranted about for half of your post: The Gacha.

Contrary to what you believe; you do not need to spend to win.
You can only bring 3 units you got from gacha into the Singleplayer campaign anyway. Lower rarities can also do their path well enough. There isn't the need to get 1 Legend every 10 summons. Unless you care about PvP, which I don't think you do.

[JthePK]

i only had a small section about gacha originally, and my replies were just noticing that nobody ahd anything to say really about the points in the post except the gacha.
35% nice change? not being able to choose a path to avoid fire on the ground isnt a "nice change", neither is picking a direction to wait in when there is directional damage. not being able to chose your path around hazards is just plain incorrect. these are common sense, and the fact you call them a "nice change" is weird to me. have you played the demo yet?
its ok that you dont entirely agree, but not much of your post was really that useful or analytical. you, like the others, literally skipped over the entire post to get to gacha. i dont really see a difference between you and the others lol. just people coming from the gacha camp.

literally NOBODY is complaining about gacha use in single player. sooo, idek lol

[Plantszaza]

You sure fixated on those points out of several points you made.
Not being able to face whichever direction you want sucks, sure. But you're always facing the direction you're attacking anyway. I agree going around the fire hazard is also a pain. I work around it by waiting for enemies to walk into fire themselves.
You can CHOOSE to wait. If your character acts early this turn, they will act early in the next turn too. I don't see how different your "wait" system is from the game.

You didn't complain directly about gacha to Singleplayer. But you complain as if the mere existence of the Gacha will ruin the experience of the mode you were hoping to play: The Singleplayer.

Unfortunately, we both know this game's developer chose gacha as their main money-making method.
You are likely to see this game become an FFT clone with gacha than they willingly remove the system.

[JthePK]

thank you for your contribution. im glad you came and gave it. btw, the multiplayer is actually going to be what keeps this game going, if it stays alive anyways. how did you reach the conclusion that single player was the mode i wanted to play? i even stated inside the original post that gacha turns a strategy game leaderboard into a "who wants to invest" leaderboard as it does in every single non-cosmetic gacha game that has ever existed

fixated? i wouldnt really say thats true, i just had to note 3 different times for 3 different people that they ignored 90% of the post to focus on defending gacha.

those workarounds you mentioned sure do exist, but they are not ideal.. they arent even passable as close to ideal. they are broken systems that have forced you to consolidate your potential strategies into basically one viable choice for each of them. i dont think youre trying to attack my review like the others, but i dont really feel like you made any strong points that negate what ive already said.

[Plantszaza]

Originally posted by NO MORE FOREIGN WARS:

how did you reach the conclusion that single player was the mode i wanted to play? i even stated inside the original post that gacha turns a strategy game leaderboard into a "who wants to invest" leaderboard as it does in every single non-cosmetic gacha game that has ever existed

Every other few threads in this discussion board give the same impression. "Wow, this game looks fire. Wait what? It's a gacha game. HELL NAH I'M OUT."
I'm going to play this game for its single-player mode and made the assumption you were the same. Sorry about that.

I can't say for sure how this game's PvP will go. It could be Leviathans dominating the rank and obliterating everyone else, or people could beat them with sufficient time invested in the grinding.
If the game manages to create different attractions then most people will not care that they aren't at the top of the leaderboard all the time.
I'm saying this as someone who played a gacha game that keeps releasing characters who power-creep one after another. PVP in that game is a Chernobyl wasteland.

And that's concluded my discussion. Will the dev look at your suggestion and improve the game? Maybe, maybe not.

P.S. Gacha games without PvP do exist. Are there people flexing? Yes, but it isn't quite as bad though.

[JthePK]

you will never beat whales with "time invested" because they are also investing as much if not more time.. and probably a LOT more. so while you may not be able to say, i certainly can. this game, like 100% of gacha games selling more than just cosmetics, will be dominated at the top by people that paid to be there. and the entire way down will be heavily concetrated with people who attempted to whale but couldnt keep up with the truewhales. nobody cares if you flex what youve achieved. people care that they will have no chance to be at the top through gamesense and talent, unless they whale out hard. and even then, you will probably still end up in the mids with all the other half-whales.

this game adopted all the heavy whale attributes, knowing that people are going to make massive purchases. it is a greedy choice from developers as stated in the OP, and even though the white-knighting is REAL as seen above, theres still only one way to defeat gacha games and that is through resistance, no matter how outmatched and outnumbered by zombies you happen to be.

anyone that is "ok" with gacha games because they have no hopes at being in the top are actually actively destroying the game scene as a whole because they are incapable of acting on principle and game companies are fully aware of that. theres nothing that we can do by ourselves except to stand where our principles are. if everyone did, gacha games wouldnt be marketable and we could return to games that are actually competitive and fun.

games are slowly getting grindier and more tedious with a lower fun factor and the reason is because there IS NO COUNTER VOICE that is loud enough to contest stupid gamebreaking changes devs implement for the cash/time invested aspect. and honestly,i place full responsibility for the decline in games on the gamers that always white knight and never have anything negative to review about game developers. you would be hard pressed to prove me wrong in that respect, in my opinion.

[Plantszaza]

I would love to see the future where gacha becomes irrelevant.
...Because the game companies found a new exploit that drains customers' wallets faster than gacha ever could.

[JthePK]

the consumer has the last say, if they could only work together to protest horrible systems by withholding funds. it will never happen because of people like the 3 tht replied earlier. in theory it would be so easy. in reality its impossible because of the amount of ppl who just have no discipline and will support whatever they want to stuff their face with in that moment.. and then attack anyone they perceive as a threat to that face stuffing.

if the very first few gacha games had nobody play them, gacha would never have made it. but there is no unity amongst gamers.

[mycale]

It just sucks that free to play games have limited lifespans. Either in a year or maybe a few the servers go down and it'll be lost.