Posted: Sat Feb 13, 2016 12:40 am
The review and its title is based on the Japanese version of the game. It might be that it will be renamed when translated to English (seeing how the link to it is named a "history", I suspect the English title more or less will be like "The History of Istria").
Some of the images can be found in this topic.
Be prepared that this review might contain some spoilers. However, considering that it will be released in English probably next year or at the end of this year.... I bet everybody will already forget what they read here
.
Characters:
MC - Vine
Cat - Jade
Breast slime - Safira
Slime that doesn't level up - Lunaria
Trap - Alma
Boss - Orio
The game is really beautiful. The artwork, characters and battle fields are really nice. However, this is as much as I can tell what is good in this game. It feels like it rather was a test game, EXE-CREATE wanted to test some new fields of expertise, and released this.
Let us start with the weapons. The game was advertised that we will be able to use some odd weapons, like hand grenades, guns, hammers, cat or candle canes or an umbrella. However... these weapons (and gems that change our appearance) are only available in the premium shop! And I would not complain much about that.... if only the normal freemium game had enough variety of weapons. But nope, the free game has 5 different weapons at max. It is really disappointing that since the half of the game to its end enemies drop always the same weapon... because other different weapons were moved to premium shop. And what's more the % chance of getting them is so small that to get them all we will have to pay millions of dollars for the premium points (diamonds in this game).
The odd stuff is marked with a star next to its icon. The only free star weapons we get are the Maid weapons. However, even with them there are certain issues. First, their base attack is just 400 (compared to the 250 of the second strongest weapons in the game). But it's no wonder considering the amount of different weapons in the game.... Second bad thing about them is that they all come with 4 effects attached to them. Very bad effects. Pretty much be prepared that You will have to use 16 deletion fossils to make them usable. And the final thing... they're a reward after beating the bonus dungeon... which means that if You already can beat it, You don't really need that Maid weapons...
Overall I like the idea itself. It is always nice to have something that change our appearance. However, they should not be limited only to a premium shop (but be more present in the game itself), and they should be much cheaper. Seriously, the 2% chance of getting them is REALLY small.....
===
Skills and Magic! Azyleo probably will be happy knowing that I used magic for two characters!
. But only because their physical skills were kind of bad, and that magic (actually a water one) was a multi-hit one. We all know that multi-hit attacks are the best in these games, and it is no magic that we're trying to use them as much often as we can. The MC has only one reliable attack, but it based on the HP 10th digit, so at times it can be pretty bad... The cat also pretty early gets an awesome attack, and only girls need to use magic.
I have some mixed feelings about this stuff. Since now on all skills (magic, physical or multi-element ones) get level ups... but I didn't really notice extra effects added to them. It is possible that they do not get extra effects at all. It is good that now we know at which level we get a skill. It is a small thing, but pretty amazing.
All skills use SP now. It is a good thing and a bad thing. At the beginning we won't really use skills, because of the lack of SP. One of the characters, Safira, has a skill that restores SP, so at the beginning it might be useful. Later, with multi-hit skills we won't have to worry about it much. Except for Lunaria that doesn't level up, and often ends up without having any SP... but about her later. The good thing is that SP doesn't go to 0 when we're killed. Essentially this mean that we can be killed for free without any repercussions! And this is very true for Lunaria that doesn't level up.....
Multi-element skills! These skills aren't acquired when leveling up, but are found as consumable objects within the game. The general idea is really great, and I love it much! However, I hate how it was incorporated. Generally, there are so many multi-element skills in the game. Like 6 pages or more! They're either "Mina..." skills that affect all enemies or allies, or some powerful attacks. And of course some of them are premium shop exclusive . They also level up, but the good thing is that if we already have a given skill and will it its consumable counterpart, we for free will get extra 10 levels up.
The problem with them is... that they're not seen in the game. Well... yeah, I have 3 pages of consumable skills... but most of times they're single units, so it is impossible to give all of them to all of the characters. So, in a normal gameplay we might end up not having them at all. Which also is bad, they should be more frequent. The guild shop has really a lot of them... (like 4 pages) but the prices....... No, You probably will end up buying NOTHING from the guild shop (for various reasons). Ok, I am lying - You probably will buy trust gauge stuff.
Like I said, I like the idea behind them. But they're barely seen in the game (and there is really a lot of them).
===
Trust! Finally, the trust gauge does something in the game! The bigger trust our comrades have in the MC, the better ultimate skills are. Unfortunately, only the MC can trigger them. They're:
Cat - Our attributes get some ranks up. Later on a MUST-USE skill.
Slime that doesn't level up - some attack. Early on it heavily damages the boss, but pretty quickly it becomes useless and the damage dealt is almost imperceptible.
Breast slime - something xD. I think it reflects magic for some turns, but I almost never used it, and that two times I used it I didn't notice any difference...
Please, be aware that I fought the first boss on Normal difficulty, and then until the end of the game I switched it to Hell. It might be that the damaging skill will be still good when playing the game on Normal or even Hard.
Of course, the trust level also affects the ending. Obviously, I maxed up only the cat's trust level, and the true ending was that MC was blushing while talking with the cat. But that's no surprise, if my companions were two slimes and a talking animal I probably would turn gay too....
The funny thing is that after beating the game we can also increase the trust level of Alma too. However, since he doesn't join our party, we can't use his skill. I think increasing his trust level to 100% will change the true ending.
Characters extra effects. Surprisingly, the characters have special effects. It looks like that during battles it is no difference of who is in the first slot - the party doesn't get extra effects. However, we can switch places between characters, and some of them can do extra things on the field. The cat can destroy rocks (they contain some Gems), the slime that has a huge breast can turn into something and enter small holes where she can find extra treasure chests, and the slime that doesn't level up can open some gates. Seems like the MC doesn't have any special skills.
Again, the general idea is pretty great, however........ there aren't many places where we can use them. At all. Just a few times, or better would be saying that just a couple of times.... And also... there are many hidden parts we can't enter at all. Even in the post game. I have like 10 holes and/or gates I can't open or enter. Hmm.....
A slime that doesn't level up. She is a pain in the arse. And I think You can guess why. She eats gems to grow up. So we need TONS of gems to make her any giid. Unfortunately, in the game we aren't getting that many gems, so most of times she is the weakest party member... But, during normal game one thing is much more frustrating than her small stats. The inability to restore MP. Most of times she cannot use any of her skills... until You will find a weapon with MP restoring effect. So, most of times she is a useless member that can only use a normal attack.... The only good thing about her is that she can freely die (she doesn't need any XP anyway), and that she can use all elements at once without equipping anything. Honestly saying, she would be a pretty decent character if she would be able to level up. Her stats would not be that much lower than the rest of the party, and she could deal some serious damage...
Other awesome & stupid stuff. I'm only complaining (the biggest issue I will save for later), but this game has also some great things. For example extra slot for equipped objects. Most of times we don't need it anyway, but it is a nice addition. Farming seeds is also a nice thing. We can use them without farming (then they have weaker effect) or spend some hours farming them and get much more of them (usually 3 normal seeds from one farmed, though sometimes we can get even much more) with better effects. And there are two need seeds - Excellent Seed (that either increases our HP by 2000 or MP by 400) or Ultimate Seed (that increases two of our attributes at random by 100 points). However (with a small exception) they're available only from the Maid course (Easy and Normal) of the Battle Arena.
Speaking of the battle arena... You gonna hate it. Some of the courses are pretty difficult... for example one where we have to use only normal attacks... xD. They're pretty hard at times, and feature some familiar enemies. For example a Welcome enemy, a rock Mk. IV enemy, or four bunny crates. If players played previous Asdivine games (including Cross), I'm pretty sure they will recognize some of them.
I mentioned a rock Mk. IV enemy.... normally it would be a random encounter at the Boulder Area, wouldn't it? Like the rock, rock Mk. II and rock Mk. III.... so why is it on the battle arena? I think the answer is pretty obvious.... But to answer this hard question let us say that here we have at least 4, four, yes FOUR, islands where we can encounter golden enemies... no, not just single or just two where one is easier, and the other is harder..... we have four exactly the same golden areas. This game is lacking dedicated to stronger enemies areas. And unfortunately the glden area is not a single example, there are more repeated areas.... that - BUT OF COURSE - drop nothing interesting. With dropping stuff... since the half o the game they not only drop exactly the same weapons... but also consumable objects. But so far You shouldn't be surprised.
And because of that we also don't have a monster guide..... so we can't see that monsters drop always the same things....
Also, one more thing is bad in this game. That the battlefield is only 2x2. So four enemies at max... If they would move characters to the right, and enemies to the left they would make it 3x2 without any troubles... but now we have only 2x2...
The (lack of) post game content. This is the biggest issue I have. No gazillion challenge (and since it would change us to sheeps, it would need to be a star armour, so something this game cannot give for free....), no acceleration challenge (not enough hard enemies?), no extra battle arena... (so no extra guild points, and this is why You probably will never buy anything from the guild shop...). In short - this game doesn't have anything the Asdivine series had as a standard.
But the biggest disappointment was the "new game+". The normal game ends that we fight Orio, defeat it, and Alma appeares. He is saving us, and dies. When we start the new game+, we can convince him that it is not worth dying.... and then we have to move next to a small village to talk. After that short talking we must move to the place where the final battle was, and Alma opens a gate to a second dungeon. That's all. Yep, the new game+ can be finished within 10 minutes. The final dungeon is also pretty linear and short, without any mid boss battles and without any secrets (like collecting some orbs to open gates..). I hardly can even call it a post game content.....
The bonus dungeon.... Hmm... it is indeed pretty long. It is still not as fun as the one from Hearts, but it is something I actually can't complain about. This is the only place (at the beginning at least until I opened a treasure chest with two metal gems and a big gem) where I played on easy and still had some troubles. The bosses are insane. Pretty much for each of them I had to level up my characters by circa 100 levels, and even then I killed most of them just by a pure luck. For the final battle I leveled up like 150 levels. Also, each couple of floors the random encounter enemies were different and stronger. So, this one thing in this game is pretty solid. If only enemies would drop something different each time....
I'm not giving a note whether this game is good or not, because despite its many flaws it is still pretty playable. But I really would love if EXE-CREATE would just release a second Menace with that extra new stuff from this game....
Some of the images can be found in this topic.
Be prepared that this review might contain some spoilers. However, considering that it will be released in English probably next year or at the end of this year.... I bet everybody will already forget what they read here
.Characters:
MC - Vine
Cat - Jade
Breast slime - Safira
Slime that doesn't level up - Lunaria
Trap - Alma
Boss - Orio
The game is really beautiful. The artwork, characters and battle fields are really nice. However, this is as much as I can tell what is good in this game. It feels like it rather was a test game, EXE-CREATE wanted to test some new fields of expertise, and released this.
Let us start with the weapons. The game was advertised that we will be able to use some odd weapons, like hand grenades, guns, hammers, cat or candle canes or an umbrella. However... these weapons (and gems that change our appearance) are only available in the premium shop! And I would not complain much about that.... if only the normal freemium game had enough variety of weapons. But nope, the free game has 5 different weapons at max. It is really disappointing that since the half of the game to its end enemies drop always the same weapon... because other different weapons were moved to premium shop. And what's more the % chance of getting them is so small that to get them all we will have to pay millions of dollars for the premium points (diamonds in this game).
The odd stuff is marked with a star next to its icon. The only free star weapons we get are the Maid weapons. However, even with them there are certain issues. First, their base attack is just 400 (compared to the 250 of the second strongest weapons in the game). But it's no wonder considering the amount of different weapons in the game.... Second bad thing about them is that they all come with 4 effects attached to them. Very bad effects. Pretty much be prepared that You will have to use 16 deletion fossils to make them usable. And the final thing... they're a reward after beating the bonus dungeon... which means that if You already can beat it, You don't really need that Maid weapons...
Overall I like the idea itself. It is always nice to have something that change our appearance. However, they should not be limited only to a premium shop (but be more present in the game itself), and they should be much cheaper. Seriously, the 2% chance of getting them is REALLY small.....
===
Skills and Magic! Azyleo probably will be happy knowing that I used magic for two characters!
. But only because their physical skills were kind of bad, and that magic (actually a water one) was a multi-hit one. We all know that multi-hit attacks are the best in these games, and it is no magic that we're trying to use them as much often as we can. The MC has only one reliable attack, but it based on the HP 10th digit, so at times it can be pretty bad... The cat also pretty early gets an awesome attack, and only girls need to use magic.I have some mixed feelings about this stuff. Since now on all skills (magic, physical or multi-element ones) get level ups... but I didn't really notice extra effects added to them. It is possible that they do not get extra effects at all. It is good that now we know at which level we get a skill. It is a small thing, but pretty amazing.
All skills use SP now. It is a good thing and a bad thing. At the beginning we won't really use skills, because of the lack of SP. One of the characters, Safira, has a skill that restores SP, so at the beginning it might be useful. Later, with multi-hit skills we won't have to worry about it much. Except for Lunaria that doesn't level up, and often ends up without having any SP... but about her later. The good thing is that SP doesn't go to 0 when we're killed. Essentially this mean that we can be killed for free without any repercussions! And this is very true for Lunaria that doesn't level up.....
Multi-element skills! These skills aren't acquired when leveling up, but are found as consumable objects within the game. The general idea is really great, and I love it much! However, I hate how it was incorporated
. Generally, there are so many multi-element skills in the game. Like 6 pages or more! They're either "Mina..." skills that affect all enemies or allies, or some powerful attacks. And of course some of them are premium shop exclusive . They also level up, but the good thing is that if we already have a given skill and will it its consumable counterpart, we for free will get extra 10 levels up.The problem with them is... that they're not seen in the game
. Well... yeah, I have 3 pages of consumable skills... but most of times they're single units, so it is impossible to give all of them to all of the characters. So, in a normal gameplay we might end up not having them at all. Which also is bad, they should be more frequent. The guild shop has really a lot of them... (like 4 pages) but the prices....... No, You probably will end up buying NOTHING from the guild shop (for various reasons). Ok, I am lying - You probably will buy trust gauge stuff.Like I said, I like the idea behind them. But they're barely seen in the game (and there is really a lot of them).
===
Trust! Finally, the trust gauge does something in the game! The bigger trust our comrades have in the MC, the better ultimate skills are. Unfortunately, only the MC can trigger them. They're:
Cat - Our attributes get some ranks up. Later on a MUST-USE skill.
Slime that doesn't level up - some attack. Early on it heavily damages the boss, but pretty quickly it becomes useless and the damage dealt is almost imperceptible.
Breast slime - something xD. I think it reflects magic for some turns, but I almost never used it, and that two times I used it I didn't notice any difference...
Please, be aware that I fought the first boss on Normal difficulty, and then until the end of the game I switched it to Hell. It might be that the damaging skill will be still good when playing the game on Normal or even Hard.
Of course, the trust level also affects the ending. Obviously, I maxed up only the cat's trust level, and the true ending was that MC was blushing while talking with the cat. But that's no surprise, if my companions were two slimes and a talking animal I probably would turn gay too...
.The funny thing is that after beating the game we can also increase the trust level of Alma too. However, since he doesn't join our party, we can't use his skill. I think increasing his trust level to 100% will change the true ending.
Characters extra effects. Surprisingly, the characters have special effects. It looks like that during battles it is no difference of who is in the first slot - the party doesn't get extra effects. However, we can switch places between characters, and some of them can do extra things on the field. The cat can destroy rocks (they contain some Gems), the slime that has a huge breast can turn into something and enter small holes where she can find extra treasure chests, and the slime that doesn't level up can open some gates. Seems like the MC doesn't have any special skills.
Again, the general idea is pretty great, however........ there aren't many places where we can use them. At all. Just a few times, or better would be saying that just a couple of times.... And also... there are many hidden parts we can't enter at all. Even in the post game. I have like 10 holes and/or gates I can't open or enter. Hmm.....
A slime that doesn't level up. She is a pain in the arse. And I think You can guess why
. She eats gems to grow up. So we need TONS of gems to make her any giid. Unfortunately, in the game we aren't getting that many gems, so most of times she is the weakest party member... But, during normal game one thing is much more frustrating than her small stats. The inability to restore MP. Most of times she cannot use any of her skills... until You will find a weapon with MP restoring effect. So, most of times she is a useless member that can only use a normal attack.... The only good thing about her is that she can freely die (she doesn't need any XP anyway), and that she can use all elements at once without equipping anything. Honestly saying, she would be a pretty decent character if she would be able to level up. Her stats would not be that much lower than the rest of the party, and she could deal some serious damage...Other awesome & stupid stuff. I'm only complaining (the biggest issue I will save for later), but this game has also some great things. For example extra slot for equipped objects. Most of times we don't need it anyway, but it is a nice addition. Farming seeds is also a nice thing. We can use them without farming (then they have weaker effect) or spend some hours farming them and get much more of them (usually 3 normal seeds from one farmed, though sometimes we can get even much more) with better effects. And there are two need seeds - Excellent Seed (that either increases our HP by 2000 or MP by 400) or Ultimate Seed (that increases two of our attributes at random by 100 points). However (with a small exception) they're available only from the Maid course (Easy and Normal) of the Battle Arena.
Speaking of the battle arena... You gonna hate it
. Some of the courses are pretty difficult... for example one where we have to use only normal attacks... xD. They're pretty hard at times, and feature some familiar enemies. For example a Welcome enemy, a rock Mk. IV enemy, or four bunny crates. If players played previous Asdivine games (including Cross), I'm pretty sure they will recognize some of them.I mentioned a rock Mk. IV enemy.... normally it would be a random encounter at the Boulder Area, wouldn't it? Like the rock, rock Mk. II and rock Mk. III.... so why is it on the battle arena? I think the answer is pretty obvious.... But to answer this hard question let us say that here we have at least 4, four, yes FOUR, islands where we can encounter golden enemies... no, not just single or just two where one is easier, and the other is harder..... we have four exactly the same golden areas. This game is lacking dedicated to stronger enemies areas. And unfortunately the glden area is not a single example, there are more repeated areas.... that - BUT OF COURSE - drop nothing interesting. With dropping stuff... since the half o the game they not only drop exactly the same weapons... but also consumable objects. But so far You shouldn't be surprised
.And because of that we also don't have a monster guide..... so we can't see that monsters drop always the same things....
Also, one more thing is bad in this game. That the battlefield is only 2x2. So four enemies at max... If they would move characters to the right, and enemies to the left they would make it 3x2 without any troubles... but now we have only 2x2...
The (lack of) post game content. This is the biggest issue I have. No gazillion challenge (and since it would change us to sheeps, it would need to be a star armour, so something this game cannot give for free....), no acceleration challenge (not enough hard enemies?), no extra battle arena... (so no extra guild points, and this is why You probably will never buy anything from the guild shop...). In short - this game doesn't have anything the Asdivine series had as a standard.
But the biggest disappointment was the "new game+". The normal game ends that we fight Orio, defeat it, and Alma appeares. He is saving us, and dies. When we start the new game+, we can convince him that it is not worth dying.... and then we have to move next to a small village to talk. After that short talking we must move to the place where the final battle was, and Alma opens a gate to a second dungeon. That's all. Yep, the new game+ can be finished within 10 minutes. The final dungeon is also pretty linear and short, without any mid boss battles and without any secrets (like collecting some orbs to open gates..). I hardly can even call it a post game content.....
The bonus dungeon.... Hmm... it is indeed pretty long. It is still not as fun as the one from Hearts, but it is something I actually can't complain about. This is the only place (at the beginning at least until I opened a treasure chest with two metal gems and a big gem) where I played on easy and still had some troubles. The bosses are insane. Pretty much for each of them I had to level up my characters by circa 100 levels, and even then I killed most of them just by a pure luck. For the final battle I leveled up like 150 levels. Also, each couple of floors the random encounter enemies were different and stronger. So, this one thing in this game is pretty solid. If only enemies would drop something different each time....
I'm not giving a note whether this game is good or not, because despite its many flaws it is still pretty playable. But I really would love if EXE-CREATE would just release a second Menace with that extra new stuff from this game....