 |
||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
| Ok, so it's Dark Souls as a JRPG by Rafiki 05/21/2025, 9:59pm PDT | ||||
 |
 |
|||
| It's so much like Dark Souls beyond combat that I'm not even going to list the similarities because it'd just be a complete list of almost everything.
Anything that makes standard JRPG combat more engaging than selecting menu items and watching an animation is automatically better than every JRPG, so good on that. Successfully parrying every attack and being rewarded with a fucking brutal counterattack is fun. Every skill being a QTE (the game's own description) isn't exactly innovative, but it's better than nothing. Being able to set up a character and / or other party members for a combo is also more fun, but I'm falling into a standard routine of the one most damaging combo instead of there being any incentive to mix it up. Generally, though, I like the combat. I also like the stripped-down inventory and equipment management. Weapons only, no dicking around with armor and resistances and other crap. Virtually no inventory, beyond limited-use healing, "mana," and revive potions that can only be refilled by resting. No buying 99 potions, hi-potions, elixirs, mega-elixirs, phoenix downs, etc., etc. and just chugging those to live forever. That being said, I've completed 4 areas and I feel overpowered. I've been exploring and making sure I find all of the treasure and fighting all enemies and optional bosses, and I'm starting to feel like I'm steamrolling everything already at level 15. I'm playing on normal. I don't know why people are praising the story because the writing is terrible. I like the core premise, the opening seemed to set up a tragic drama, but so far everything after that is just so fucking stupid. Characters' personalities and emotions are all over the place, and tonally the game can't decide if it wants to be taken seriously or if it's a wacky weekday afternoon cartoon. Your main characters repeatedly talk and act like morons instead of grown-ass adults in their 30s. Literally the dumbest thoughts ever. The game tells you that Gustave is supposed to be some brilliant engineer and tactician, and he's the adult in the room who has raised and mentored orphaned children. Glad they illustrated that so masterfully. Then there's the gestrals who are the JRPG comic relief with child-like stupidity. So ewoks, basically. Still not as bad as Tatsu at least. And now that I went back and watched that clip, I realize that Xenoblade is probably the template for this game and now I hate the writing even more. And someone thought it was a good idea to include audio logs. Everyone loves those. One of the central premises is that past expeditions charted a path through the island as they tried and failed to kill the end boss. Do they leave logs behind with vitally important information about the dangers and secrets of the island? No, of course not. They record a personal diary and talk about their feelings. There's a scene where Maelle has a waking nightmare where she encounters a Big Bad who talks to her and makes some really specific, ominous threats. I was bracing myself for the other characters to ask her what happened and for her to hastily brush it off instead of sharing important information relevant to the plot (because that had already happened), but to my surprise she started explaining everything. Until one of the characters abruptly cut her off and said they could talk about it "tomorrow" because she was getting emotional. Everyone in this reality deserves to die. |
||||
 |
 |
|||
|
