Posted: Mon Oct 19, 2020 1:32 am
I forced myself to play to the end of the game (not including the post game) so I thought I would describe some of the primary elements in it. Even though the interface is well done, this game with no story and no characters (just slots with different class party members), is just a long grind with little to recommend it.
Very few taps are needed to navigate the menus, and in most cases there are simple shortcuts to jump from one activity to another. The dungeon mini-maps can be toggled dynamically to show larger areas. Saves are available at almost every point except battles, and there are 10 save slots. Most of the time there are icons indicating if something "new" is happening in the different town venues.
Classes are important with different skills. Although the game is unbalanced, with physical attacks useless by mid-game, you can freely change classes anytime. Even better, each party member can have an active subclass (so almost like have two classes at once), which can also be changed anytime. This configuration means that party members tend to be quite similar in their abilities, and you don't have to worry about making a poor class choice.
You will be short of money until late in the game. You need money to buy recipe books and materials. Some materials can be found in the dungeons and from monster drops. There are no equipment drops.
Some materials are also available as rewards in the arena (the arena yields only materials, no equipment). Many materials, including some which can not be crafted in the workshop, can be purchased in the item shop.
The crafting process is a real pain. The specs for the item to be crafted are not revealed until you create one, so you may waste precious materials for something you will not use. Even worse, some of the "requests" (the equivalent of subquests) require you to craft multiple copies of items just to unlock a veiled crafting item along something like a typical class hierarchy path. Again, you may find yourself creating more than one item only to discover that the entire path leads you to useless items. Not until quite late in the game, and assuming you have sufficient funds, can you afford recipe books that reduce, but not eliminate, the issues caused by the veiled crafting paths.
Equipment have multiple "slots" for enhancement. As part of the ongoing grind, you will find yourself constantly transferring the enhancement orbs from your current equipment to newly crafted equipment. Most battles become easier as you craft improved equipment and acquire more powerful enhancement orbs. Once you have sufficient funds, generated primarily from selling crated items from the store, everything becomes easier, but no less tedious.
Should you persist to the final boss battles, you will be shocked at the enormous jump in difficulty they pose. Be prepared to return to crafting, acquiring more money, and planning new tactics.
There is some kind of post game, which I have not played except just to see what it might contain, with more crafting requests and some new monsters (and perhaps dungeons).
There is an IAP shop, but it appears the most useful item are "coins" that can be converted to substantial amounts of game money. Although you don't need anything from IAP to complete the game, you will require IAP items to make progress in the post game.
[UPDATE] The post game contains very difficult battles, which will require (again) modifying the equipment enhancements and still be nasty. You will also need items from the IAP shop to defeat the post-game monsters.
Very few taps are needed to navigate the menus, and in most cases there are simple shortcuts to jump from one activity to another. The dungeon mini-maps can be toggled dynamically to show larger areas. Saves are available at almost every point except battles, and there are 10 save slots. Most of the time there are icons indicating if something "new" is happening in the different town venues.
Classes are important with different skills. Although the game is unbalanced, with physical attacks useless by mid-game, you can freely change classes anytime. Even better, each party member can have an active subclass (so almost like have two classes at once), which can also be changed anytime. This configuration means that party members tend to be quite similar in their abilities, and you don't have to worry about making a poor class choice.
You will be short of money until late in the game. You need money to buy recipe books and materials. Some materials can be found in the dungeons and from monster drops. There are no equipment drops.
Some materials are also available as rewards in the arena (the arena yields only materials, no equipment). Many materials, including some which can not be crafted in the workshop, can be purchased in the item shop.
The crafting process is a real pain. The specs for the item to be crafted are not revealed until you create one, so you may waste precious materials for something you will not use. Even worse, some of the "requests" (the equivalent of subquests) require you to craft multiple copies of items just to unlock a veiled crafting item along something like a typical class hierarchy path. Again, you may find yourself creating more than one item only to discover that the entire path leads you to useless items. Not until quite late in the game, and assuming you have sufficient funds, can you afford recipe books that reduce, but not eliminate, the issues caused by the veiled crafting paths.
Equipment have multiple "slots" for enhancement. As part of the ongoing grind, you will find yourself constantly transferring the enhancement orbs from your current equipment to newly crafted equipment. Most battles become easier as you craft improved equipment and acquire more powerful enhancement orbs. Once you have sufficient funds, generated primarily from selling crated items from the store, everything becomes easier, but no less tedious.
Should you persist to the final boss battles, you will be shocked at the enormous jump in difficulty they pose. Be prepared to return to crafting, acquiring more money, and planning new tactics.
There is some kind of post game, which I have not played except just to see what it might contain, with more crafting requests and some new monsters (and perhaps dungeons).
There is an IAP shop, but it appears the most useful item are "coins" that can be converted to substantial amounts of game money. Although you don't need anything from IAP to complete the game, you will require IAP items to make progress in the post game.
[UPDATE] The post game contains very difficult battles, which will require (again) modifying the equipment enhancements and still be nasty. You will also need items from the IAP shop to defeat the post-game monsters.