It's an okay game. The combat is as great as ever from previous entries, but I don't really enjoy the town building aspect, it feels tacked on and feels like a remnant that it's a mobile game because the game will go tell you to collect materials. I am not into that, i enjoyed the previous octopath games for their straightforward no frills approach, you always just moving forward in a new dungeon and not worrying about these Sim-like aspects which I do not really enjoy.
I am one of the backers of this game so perhaps I'm a bit biased, but I expected much more. The graphics and music are great and live up to all expectations. Never seen a game have so many great sprite animations! The level design and exploration is well done too. But, that's it for the positives.
However, the characters are not exciting nor do they get you attached. There is one characters that almos feels forced - like they tried too hard to get you to like him and it gets in the way of any meaningful development or focus on anyone else. The end of the game requires you to do a collect-a-thon for 60 special treasures to unlock the true ending. Also, the RPG elements are soooo limited - characters barely progress and learn few new abilities. Double/triple team attacks are underused in regular battles because the battles are over before you can build them up. Overall just not that fun to play battles and story/characters are well below average.
The game is below average. There are a lot of framerate issues that dropped by score by 2 points. Further, the story gets worse as you move on. Game of thrones vibe goes away in the 2nd half of the game. Depending on your taste maybe that's a good thing , it wasn't for me. RPG mechanics are dull and shallow and have no reason for existing. Epic fights are neat and the music is cool, great graphics too. Story is above average. Overall a below average game. I'm very dissapointed after the demo made it seem really good.
This game is even better than the first! Improved on everything. I can't believe how many towns there are and how unique and large each of them are; the world really feels alive and engrossing. Character stories are charming and very engrossing! Battle system is as fun as ever and very similar to the first game with a few tweaks like Latent Powers (limit breaks).
I absolutely adore the combat in this game. It's strategy rpg with realtime with pause. There's always so much to do and consider, and even though the game is easy you can't just turn your brain off and do things haphazardly - all moves have to be planned. It's quite a thrill.
I actually enjoy the story quite a lot too - there's a lot of political intrigue and moral dilemnas between the cast - it makes it riveting and makes me want to continually know what will happen next. If you like FF12, Vagrant Story - Matsuno style characterization, I feel this will be up your alley like it was mine.
I enjoyed this game at first, but the combat gets dull really quick. This is mostly because that's all there is to do in the game. No real exploration, not much dialogue, no towns to explore, and, more importantly, not much time spent on character progression.
Choices to progress your character is linear and not really choices, more like "Well I gotta get all these skills anyway, do I want this one 20 minutes earlier than the other one?" Probably 95% of my time was spent on combat. If you like that you might like the game. But I didn't. It made the combat get old and repetitive real fast, and it didn't have the depth to carry it - mostly because there's only one playstyle. Even on hard, I find myself just mashing air combos, and soul chain, not much to it.
Side quest system is horrible- you can't do side quests on your way of finishing the main missions, you have to "exit out" and "Accept" the sidequest while you enter the stage - worst QoL I've seen in a game in 20 years.
Not really a good game. I wouldn't recommend it until it's $15 on sale, which it will be within 4 months. I gave it 3 points for good graphics, nice atmosphere, and good music.
I didn't really like this game. The story had no real hook in the first 3 hours, felt confusing just for the sake of being confusing (like a soap opera style of storytelling) and the gameplay style of RTS/Tower Defense wasn't my thing. It'a a shame because I love Vanillaware art, and I tried to give this game a chance, but it just doesn't suit my style, and probably won't suit a lot of people that don't fit the niche.
There were good parts to this game, and there were bad parts. I'll start with the good because it's shorter.
The controls are really well done here. Adaptive, intuitive, and responsive. I like it all - except the lack of ability to use the dpad. And remapping controls via Switch isn't a solution; you cant remap the dpad to the analog.
The story is super well done. I really like the premise and everything that happens. Cutscenes are snappy, the villian is interesting, and the ending is satisfying and meaningful. Samus characterization is well done,
Now for the bad - the exploration aspects to this game. This game, as a good Metroidvania should do, does NOT INCENTIVIZE EXPLORATION. There is extremely minimal gameplay reward for exploration. Even when you get all energy tanks and missiles, you barely are stronger or more capable then before. It's essentially a waste of time to explore the map. The only reason you'd enjoy exploration is for the exploration itself. But the game doesnt actually reward you or make you feel good about finding secrets and new paths to areas because it's pointless and doesn't improve character progression. This is the backbone of the Metroidvania genre and it fails here.
The game instead, chooses to focus on action and boss fights. They damage the exploration and Metrdoivania aspects in order to serve to make it a better action game. It succeeds in this, but I just don't like action games. That's why I play Metroid. Rayman and Cuphead are much better and well made action games, that get right to the point. This game is more Rayman and Cuphead than it is Hollow Knight, a game that massively rewards exploration.
Last big negative, the areas all look and feel the same. There a dark, black filled corridoors inside a mechanical environment. It just felt stale to me. This was made even worse by the lack of melodic music. They attempted to make the music more "atmospheric" in style, which is acceptable in theory, but they did a very poor job of it. The best tracks in the game are just remixes of older themes. So, without cool music, there's even less reward for exploration and wandering **** EMMI fights also serve to degrade the exploration experience; the game becomes a run-stealth type of game, focusing on adrenaline and repetition. It takes away from the somber, lonely feel I enjoy playing Metroid games. Instead of getting lost in the world, I have a constant reminder i am playing a video game and need to replay the level 20 times to beat it, like I did with a game like Ninja Gaiden or TMNT back on NES. Just retry the level over and over again. The world design is very gameified in this way, instead of feeling like a natural, breathing world like most Metroid games.
Anyway, basically the game is bad at atmosphere, exploration, music, and good in gameplay and being an action game. I rated it 4 because because a good action game is not what Metroid should be about.
This game was just awful. I beat every other Mario & Luigi game and this one I just couldn't stomach through after awhile. The papercraft battles are REALLY boring and the camera and controls are awful. There isn't much humor in the games as I've grown accustomed to, and the dodge mechanics timings are poorly mis represented on a lot of attacks. I like the cool new abilities and the soundtrack, but that's pretty much it. I got to Bowser's castle papercraft battle and decided that was enough.