I noticed that when I was playing the game, i was having more fun without the MTX to break the game. However, I cannot overlook the fact that Jobs are tacked on badly. There is no incentive to mix and match jobs and you can win the game by sticking to what jobs you had at the start of the game. For example, I made Raphel a mage, Henry a priest, Alexia a soldier, and Amelia, a Hunter. Raphel, Henry, and Amelia never changed jobs. I had Alexia try the swordsman job but she did better as a soldier. Your previous job skills don't carry over to other jobs and with everyobne else doing good as they were, I had no reason to switch jobs.
It was fun I admit but hugely mediocre. Locking 2 of your jobs behind a lootbox/Slot machine in a paid game is shitty as hell Kemco.
Ambition Record Game Length
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LemmyTheLenny
- Member
- Posts: 151
- Joined: Wed Apr 13, 2016 5:36 am
- 9
This is the Switch version. There is only one difficulty setting. The game style is "Sephirothic Stories, but with a better story". This is a low bar for the story to clear; while there are a few interesting moments, don't expect too much beyond a standard save-the-kingdom plot.
Unlike Sephirothic Stories, there are no run-and-dodge puzzles (thank goodness) and no real-time garden for stat boosters. No garden means that the player can't easily get enough stat boosters to supercharge a single character and completely break the game. The whole party is useful throughout the entire adventure.
It took about 18 hours to reach the Normal End with available sidequests complete. It took 23 hours to reach the Happy End plus all sidequests, all optional areas/bosses in dungeons, and the optional dungeon superboss complete at level 65. It took 26 1/2 hours to reach level 95 with four jobs mastered on each character, defeat the Arena optional superboss, and finish as many Awards and as much of the bestiary as I could.
Some bestiary entries (and two trophies/achievements on Playstation/Xbox/Steam versions!) are locked behind Shop gacha-exclusive jobs, and the Awards for 10 or 15 overkills are locked behind gacha-exclusive items. I never got any Eightfold Crests (it seems that two are required for the 15 overkill award), although I did get a Meteor Dragon Stone that let me earn the 10 overkill Award. I only got one of the two gacha-exclusive jobs (Bard), and never used it out of spite. I spent almost all of my Shop currency on gacha.
Console versions of Ambition Record let the player grind Shop currency from random encounters, BUT the ability to force encounters with every step is locked behind $2 paid DLC to control the encounter rate. The Shop only has an item to turn off random encounters, not to force them.
Running around to trigger encounters gets very tedious. I refused to buy any paid DLC, but console gamers focused on 100% completion are better off either paying up (so that they can quickly grind encounters for Shop currency) or not playing Ambition Record at all.
I didn't need to do any grinding to finish Ambition Record or earn the second ending. The optional dungeon superboss didn't require grinding, but only because I had somehow picked up three Indomitable Crests (if the wearer's HP is above 1, they cannot die from damage and will have their HP reduced to 1 instead).
The optional Arena superboss (available in the postgame next to the "special job" fights in the job training grounds) was what motivated me to grind to level 95 and four jobs mastered per character.
That turned out to be way more grinding than needed. The ultimate Arena fights were extraordinarily tough at level 65+, and the enemies were so tanky that I didn't want to retry at that level, but the fights were a pushover at level 95+ with high-end equipment.
Unlike Sephirothic Stories, there are no run-and-dodge puzzles (thank goodness) and no real-time garden for stat boosters. No garden means that the player can't easily get enough stat boosters to supercharge a single character and completely break the game. The whole party is useful throughout the entire adventure.
It took about 18 hours to reach the Normal End with available sidequests complete. It took 23 hours to reach the Happy End plus all sidequests, all optional areas/bosses in dungeons, and the optional dungeon superboss complete at level 65. It took 26 1/2 hours to reach level 95 with four jobs mastered on each character, defeat the Arena optional superboss, and finish as many Awards and as much of the bestiary as I could.
Some bestiary entries (and two trophies/achievements on Playstation/Xbox/Steam versions!) are locked behind Shop gacha-exclusive jobs, and the Awards for 10 or 15 overkills are locked behind gacha-exclusive items. I never got any Eightfold Crests (it seems that two are required for the 15 overkill award), although I did get a Meteor Dragon Stone that let me earn the 10 overkill Award. I only got one of the two gacha-exclusive jobs (Bard), and never used it out of spite. I spent almost all of my Shop currency on gacha.
Console versions of Ambition Record let the player grind Shop currency from random encounters, BUT the ability to force encounters with every step is locked behind $2 paid DLC to control the encounter rate. The Shop only has an item to turn off random encounters, not to force them.
Running around to trigger encounters gets very tedious. I refused to buy any paid DLC, but console gamers focused on 100% completion are better off either paying up (so that they can quickly grind encounters for Shop currency) or not playing Ambition Record at all.
I didn't need to do any grinding to finish Ambition Record or earn the second ending. The optional dungeon superboss didn't require grinding, but only because I had somehow picked up three Indomitable Crests (if the wearer's HP is above 1, they cannot die from damage and will have their HP reduced to 1 instead).
The optional Arena superboss (available in the postgame next to the "special job" fights in the job training grounds) was what motivated me to grind to level 95 and four jobs mastered per character.
That turned out to be way more grinding than needed. The ultimate Arena fights were extraordinarily tough at level 65+, and the enemies were so tanky that I didn't want to retry at that level, but the fights were a pushover at level 95+ with high-end equipment.
Victar’s Fanfiction Archive: https://www.vicfanfic.com
Featuring “Memories of an Overlord”, a Journey to Kreisia fanfiction novel
Featuring “Memories of an Overlord”, a Journey to Kreisia fanfiction novel
As always, thanks for sharing your thoughts. I wasted even more time than you while - in the end successfully - trying to gun for a perfect playthrough. The end-game achievement grind is really unsatisfying. It takes too long to farm Premium Tickets in the arena, and even though the in-game shop's gacha is contingent-based (which means the player can eventually obtain everything by investing a certain amount), the contingent is way too large. And even though I'm complaining, I got really lucky when I pulled a second Eightfold Crest (after the emptied contingent had been reset once) very soon. So yeah, this game is really a slightly superior version of "Sephirothic Stories", which is without a doubt Exe Create's worst game - which makes "Ambition Record" the runner-up in this regard.