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MSG Commander
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Post by MSG Commander »

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Post by Azyleo »

Looks like my review is really going to disappoint people.

Excluding the storyline ( which remotely didn't come to my expectations......or maybe I kept very high expectations of the game ) , I tend to overall agree with your review.
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Post by Azyleo »

My Review....... posted in the review section aswell.

Overview:

Glorious Savior was released in 2015 in Japan and on March 3, 2016 globally by Kemco/Exe-Create. The game is very similiar to Revenant Dogma in regards to gameplay, or maybe its safe to say that it is based on the engine on which Revenant Dogma was made ( Revenant Dogma itself used Alphadia Genesis 2 engine ) albeit with a few tweaks here an there to accomodate the new 4 Weapon feature. The story is by far in the realm of cliches you could imagine, any cliche you can imagine is in the story of the game. The characters are by far the most amusing characters yet by Kemco standards; they are really well made and each and every character, i.e Rain, Viola, Soliel and April are very, very well made.

The game has a Mature +17 rating, and it is certainly not because of the #$%@ ( censored ). The theme of every dialogue is rather suggestive as well, even without the ( censored ) the dialogues are filled with innuendos ( so much that Fleon from Dogma looks like a kid compared to these guys ), and the theme of the story does lean on it, but it rather goes towards your everyday Kemco story, just when you expected that something more Dark or Eerie can be shown, but believe me if you go in the game by seeing the Mature rating and Expecting a very Dark, Gruesome and Eerie atmosphere and a very strong, non-cliched , innovative story line, than you are in a world of disappointment ( for which I am in .)

Thats basically the gist of the review above, however if you want to read more, please go on ahead by all means.



Story:

The story is line, is your usual fantasy type gimmick ( which by the way contrasted with the characters .) If I want to sum it up, the basic concept is really the same of that of Journey to Kreisia, i.e, the Hero Sword, the Overlord and your usual very pure ( by actions I mean, by thoughts, this guy is one heck of a playboy ) protagonist, and his group of friends. Though its much more than that....

The story starts of with a young nobleman Rain, who is summoned to the castle to go look for the missing Hero's Sword, though the Hierarchy of the nobles, do not like him one bit and thus find it deprecating to send him of to a noble quest of finding the Heroes Sword, which Julius ( A high ranking Knight ) can easily do, but Rain takes on the quest and goes on the journey with his attendent, Viola, to find the Heroes Sword. During all this a number of complications come in and the protagonist makes some lady friends ( Did I mention he is a play boy?), the complications being the rise of the Overlord, who caused massive calamity 300 years prior to the story now, and has thus awaken to take revenge on the ones who defiled and ruined him ( which pretty much happened 300 years ago as well, but he was defeated miserably and you can only find this pitiful guy laughable .) 

In the above the events I have told you by summing up the story, there are other few events, which are that they are thrown back in time 300 years ago ( wow, thats not a coincendence at all ) and many things happen like meeting the Hero and his Fiance and other relevant things, which you might not be paying attention to half of the time.

There are no plot twists in the story except one, which I will go into detail further, and you can easily know what will happen next, and I was rarely on the edge of the seat ( correction, I was not at all at the edge of my seat ). If a Kemco game that did a plot twist good was Justice Chronicles. If an Exe-Create game did a plot twist, that was Journey to Kreisia ( the same game ). This game has a very bad plot twist, on top of the non compelling story, that certain plot twist made me want to smash my phone on the nearest wall ( to my disarray, I really cant, since I am low on cash right now ). A good plot twist , is something that is built up on the sidelines and is shown in a few hints rather very subtely and through some dialogues as well. A bad plot twist is something that does not follow the said rules, and is thrown at you with a speed of sound. My gripe is not only the bad plot twist, but the content which the plot twist gave was the mother of Cliches, which I will certainly not mention here. Even though Journey to Kreisia had the same basic plot, the Plot twists were really entertaining, and you were expecting something everythime and the game delivered.

The concepts of the story are rather, very bland, and your typical cliches. It was Lack Luster in every sense of the word for me. Revenant Dogma had very cool concepts, but it failed to deliver. Glorious Savior had your typical concepts and even though it did deliver, I simply dont want a fantasy romance ( Which like Alphadia Genesis is quite centered around it, but from the other characters, rather than the protagonist themselves .) The romance is something which is kept on the side line, and not used as a plot device ( Poor Overlord ).

I know, there are somethings that others might like and I dont like, but that was my humble view, even though I can write on and on and it might feel redundant, so I will stop here....

Story Score: 6/10 ( this rating is still to much for me to give )

Characters:

Okay, this game has by far the most awesome and the most intriguing characters of all Kemco games. Each character does not overpower and overshadow the other even in the slightest way, and each character has there own worth in the game. The Female Heroins are , you can say, not your very typical *Seeking for attention from an absurdly dumb protagonist* type, and each one of them, though show subtle affection ( Later on, it becomes prominent ) to the protagonist and hide it very well, so you can't really say that Rain is a dumb protagonist. The characters dialogue are so good that you will be literally be laughing. Even though most of the things are censored (Some arent )  you can pretty much know what they are saying ( I dont know whether the Japanese version had these dialogues or not, but the translator really out done him/herself and a big round of applause for him/her .)

The characters have very unique personalities ( Not counting Princess Bianca ) and each of them fitted very well with each other. I literally cant say anything anymore. If you want to play the game, play it for the characters, seriously, they are that good.

Character Score: 9.7/10


Gameplay:

Hmm the gamplay is a carbon copy of Revenant Dogma..... the only thing different was the Weapon and Skills mechanic ( this is something extracted from Kreisia, but Kreisia did this better ) which could have been or would have been very good, if the developers themselves played it. The amount of Skills you get with a Weapon is 1, and you can only equip 2 weapons ( 4 Later, 2 are unlocked while playing the story ) , which means a total of skills ( or 4 ) each character has. I am not saying, that the mechanic is bad, it is really good and this really satisfies hard core players ( like me ) , who like to put in strategies and put large amount of there times on upgrading weapons. 

Anyway saying this from a normal players perspective, could make this game a nightmare to play. The game is not hard, it can become hard, due to the fact that normal players dont strategise and the game is very, very strict on this aspect. So the gameplay is actually catered towards, strong strategers, and those who play for gameplay ( they know what they are doing ) more than the story. I am the latter, since I like strategizing in every battle, and this game, will literally tickle your fancy if you like strategic RPG battles. From a normal persons stand point, this Mechanic is a total Flop, but in regards to hard core players, it delivers

Other than that, is the Fever( Aka Burst in other Kemco games)  when triggered gives you a set amount of turns to damage the enemies, using every weapon you have, The attacks in Fever are Powered up Normal attacks ( No Skills ) with special effects, like EXP up, Gold UP, Drop Rate increase, Status Parameter Decrease, Self Parameters increase and etc etc which are given to you choose from, which actually increase the gameplay much more.

The Upgrading weapons and how the battle plays out is exactly the same as Dogma, and is equally as broken in this game, or probably even more broken. One thing to note is that, this game is cel-shaded more than Dogma, which I liked.

Gameplay Score: 6.9/10

Music:

The Music is not on par with Dogma, but its still your average RPG music ( with some notes of Rock fitted in ), its neither to good nor to bad.

Music Score: 5/10 *Not added to overall score


Bonus Content:

The Bonus content is exactly the same, but a tad bit more though. The Fairy Land is Exactly the Ethereal Est Base but with a few improvements like the dungeon scenaries change time to time, even though the random changing dungeon is predetermined like in Dogma, the Portals are not, so memorising the dungeons will do you no good. The enemies are also varied and not the same in each dungeon and differ from one dungeon from another.

There are actually more Extra Bosses in this game ( in contrast to only guild hero in Dogma ) which are Fleon from Dogma, An Emperor from a game unknown to me and Enah(Enna in game ) from Alphadia series, and all of these bosses are cheap to the core.

Bonus Content Score: 7/10

Overall:


The game had potential. but it was wasted. The story was not fitting to characters and did not do them justice, however the characters really save the rating of the game here.

Overall Score: 7.2/10 
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Post by 1oldtymer »

I appreciate the depth and thought of both the above reviews (Commander and Azyleo). The reviews give the prospective player an idea of what the game provides so that he can make an informed choice about investing the time to play the game to conclusion. The writers have my thanks for taking the time to carefully articulate their experience of the game so that all of us can have a good idea of what to expect.
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Post by Azyleo »

Thanks oldtymer. You should really write one too, that way the others will have more variety of reviews to evaluate the game and decide whether they should really invest in it or not.
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Post by 1oldtymer »

This is my review of what we generally call "playability" (which excludes story, character, music, dialog, graphics, etc.) of Kemco's "Glorious Savior." I've played to completion almost every Kemco android rpg released in the United States, so I will try to place my comments in the context of these other games.

I'll begin with a list of the pros and cons of the play elements in the game. If the game element is the same as that in almost every Kemco game, I will use the word "most." If there are a few games where the element is different, I will use the word "common." As far as I can remember, there is only one play element that is unique to "Glorious Savior." You should know that the game engine is almost identical to that of "Revenant Dogma." I think total time to complete the basic (non-bonus) game is around 12-19 hours, and maybe 9-14 hours if you get some of the in app purchases (I'm guessing about that, because I didn't get any).

Pros
1. You can quickly save anywhere except in battles. MOST
2. You can always retreat from random battles without penalty. This is
unusual.
3. There are no "missable" treasures, etc. That is, there isn't an important item, etc. that must be gotten at a specific point in the game or it is lost forever. MOST
4. All treasures are visible, and all significant NPC interactions are made visible. So you do NOT need to go around clicking on everything or waste time talking to all the NPC. COMMON
5. There is a mini-map for each dungeon. MOST
6. The story hints and world map always tell you the next step. MOST
7. Subquests are not critical. COMMON
8. Dungeons are easy to navigate, and you do not need to retrace all you steps to back out. COMMON (I dislike weird, difficult to find your way, no quick exit dungeons.)
9. Automatic restoration of parameters when leveling up. COMMON
10. Difficulty settings MOST (But beware, the settings above "Easy" are fairly tough and require considerably more grinding time.)
11. In app purchases are not necessary at all (almost everything is also available within the game), but they can knock off a few hours from the time required to complete the game.
12. The unique weapon system tends to prevent you making a bad choice that cannot be easily undone. Examples from other games may make this clearer. In many games you earn points which can be assigned to different character attributes (strength, wisdom, etc.). Sometimes this assignment cannot be reversed. Sometimes you have to choose whether to build up magic or physical power only to discover in the final major battles that, "oops, this boss blocks magic." There is one significant bad choice that you may make (if you don't read this, or are unfamiliar with other Kemco games): don't waste scarce money on buying weapons! Weapons are plentiful drops in battles and dungeons.
13. There are very tough bosses in the bonus game. MOST Why is this a "pro" and not a "con?" I'll use the boss "Guild Hero" in "Revenant Dogma" as an example. I like winnable battles that are touch and go where the outcome is uncertain, and a strategy that requires more than sheer leveling up to be successful. Players had to do some thinking and experimenting to discover ways (and there was more than one path) to defeat this boss.

CONS
1. Weak ending (both plot and easier final battles than some that came earlier)
2. Minimal strategy (see exception in the discussion of weapon enhancement below). In the basic game, almost all difficulties can be solved by grinding to level up. In most battles your characters usually just smash away. This is typical of most of the Kemco games. The silver lining of this feature is that it is hard to make a wrong choice.
3. Some of the rewards for battles and subquests come so late in the game they are not useful.
4. Although you can retreat without penalty from random encounters, you cannot get the items that allow you to avoid them until late in the game (and you will not want to use them then).

The Unique Weapon System

Skills are attributes of weapons, not characters. If you change weapons, which of course you do as the game progresses, you "lose" the skills of the weapon unless it is still equipped. Every character can use every weapon, so you are unlikely to be faced with a choice that might come back to haunt you. Weapons can be both "enhanced" (which means adding skills to it) and "upgraded" (which means its raw attack power gets increased). Upgrading is expensive and for all practical purposes cannot be reversed, so you don't want to upgrade any weapon until you think you have one of the strongest weapons in the game. Enhancements can usually be reversed, but that can be very expensive. In addition, the enhancing and reversal process is somewhat random, so the try/reload/try again loop can be quite time consuming (like grinding). The only real strategy in the game is making choices about what enhancements to use. You don't need to do ANY in the basic game if you just level up enough. The enhancement process is so expensive you will have to do some leveling in order to obtain the necessary funds. Also, some of the enhancements/skills have a very low probability of being successful so that you might just give up on them. However, I believe the most important enhancements do not suffer this way and are not too time consuming. This process creates a significant difference in strategy from other Kemco games. In games where characters have skills, the skills will be activated. For example, if you cast "sleep" on an enemy, the only uncertainty is lodged in the defenses of the opponent, but in "Glorious Savior" there is the additional unknown probability of the skill even being activated. This does not apply to all enhancements (skills), but it does to many.

The Most Important Information

This website! The reviews are helpful, and if you scroll through the forum topics, you can get a lot of tips that will enhance your enjoyment of the game (unless you prefer to discover everything on your own). Most of the forum postings occur in "real time" as the player is progressing through the game, so can get a good read on what the player is thinking (and any points of frustration) as he plays.
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Post by MSG Commander »

I love it! :lol: :silly: :woohoo: :cheer: :silly: :lol:

I especially like how you lay out the pro's and con's, and give people an idea of what parts of the game are similar to other Kemco games (useful information, because anyone who's played a lot of their games will have a better idea what to expect.)

If it's not too much to ask, would you also consider posting your review in the Reviews section for the game?

https://rpginsanity.com/reviews/glorious-savior

You don't have to do, but it shouldn't be any harder than writing a Title, and then just copy and paste what you've got here.

(One thing to note, if you do: when posting on the "website" side of things, any page you create will show as "Written by (Name)" - where Name is the name you registered with. On the forum everything shows your Username. So if you do submit your review, and want it to be "Written by (Username)", you'll need to edit your Profile in the forum, and change your Name to match your Username. It's a small hassle, but it's the only way I know to have your "name" be the same, across the site.)
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Post by Azyleo »

Yeah, I dig the review style. It is certainly much more varied than MSG and mines.
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