I want to love this game. I clearly have a soft spot for it, between the time I invested in its completion and the overall positive review. But I'd be lying if I said that this is a perfect game. But let's go in order.

---{ Graphics }---
☑ Good

Honestly, I settled on this rating considering the game in its entirety. Dialogue in this game is text-based - which is good in my book, for this kind of rpg at least -, and the portraits do most of the work when it comes to convey the characters emotions. Which would be all fine and dandy, if the portaits selection wasn't so limited. Some of them are good, some not really. The neutral face is especially aggravating for me, I remember multiple times when I thought "Is Valere disassociating or she's just bored?" when that portait came up during some dialogue. There are also a few animated cutscenes, mostly of good quality, lots of love clearly went into those. But where this game graphics really shine is in the pixel art. The characters sprites are good, the locations are really good, but the backgrounds are just gorgeous. I won't spoil anything here, but some of the best moments for me were when the game hit me with a great background at just the right time, like when getting up a long ladder with an incredible shot of a certain place, basked in the red of dawn. So yeah, mixed art quality, but overall good.

---{ Gameplay }---
☑ It's just gameplay

This is one of the aspects that disappointed me. Some ideas are good, like getting an advantage by using certain items on the enemies before the encounter starts, but the battle mechanics are, in the long run, a little tedious. Every character gets three skills and an ultimate; that's it. There's very little variety, and what you have you need to use to break enemy "locks", a number of squares that float over the enemy, with a counter leading to a special attack. Each character can only deal some types of damage, so you need to mix and match the party members (you can switch them in battle without losing turns, fortunately) to stop the attacks, resulting in very little freedom of choice. There are also combo moves, but you need to build up combo points - that reset at the end of each encounter, same with the global ultimate gauge - to use them, usually with a longer lock sequence that you can break in time only in this way. You can power up most moves by pressing the attack button at the right time, but the game doesn't really tell you WHEN you need to do it. There is an item that tells you more clearly when you do it at the right time, but it really doesn't help when you don't know when to press. There are a few minigames, notably fishing - fairly standard, but feels good - and the game within a game, Wheels, which is honestly very fun. There is a lot of exploration, and while the art really carries it, it can become a little tedious going up another ladder or climbable wall, or balacing on a rope to get to the other side. It's really a mixed bag, I certainly would have loved more freedom in the encounters, but as it stands, it's... just ok, I guess.

---{ Audio }---
☑ Very good

Another very solid point in favor of this game. The music is really, really good. Props to the game composer, Eric W. Brown, I still listen to some of these tracks when I can. Some of the boss themes are especially good, but there are also more subdued themes, cheerful music, and a variety of good sound effects. There is nothing bad to say here, your ears will love this game.

---{ Audience }---
☑ Teens
☑ Adults


There is not much to say here. It's a fairly simple story, certainly more teen than adult oriented, but I'll talk about it more below.

---{ PC Requirements }---
☑ Potato

Same here, is't not a demanding game.

---{ Game Size }---
☑ Old Fashioned

Less then 4GB of space on my SSD. Moving on.

---{ Difficulty }---
☑ Easy

This is not a difficult game by any means. That said, you can make it as easy or as difficult as you want. There are a few items that significantly affect the difficulty of the game: one that restores the party's HP at the end of every encounter; one that drastically reduces your HP and makes the enemy invulnerable as long as there are locks to break over their heads; an equippable item that grants you the use of a healing item once per turn without losing an attack... it's really up to you. Sadly, you unclok most of these only during the fairly long story, so you can't play at your preferred difficulty from the getgo, but you can start a NG+ if you so desire. If you get to it, that is.

---{ Grind }---
☑ Isn't necessary to progress

Nothing to add. The game felt fairly balanced without the need for grinding, and you can - potentially - avoid some of the encounters, all visible on screen. No surprise jump scares and fading screens here!

---{ Story }---
☑ Average

Oh boy. This is where, unfortunately, the game really struggles. First of all, the two main characters are not that interesting. Most of the time, they just react instead of acting; they get told what to do by everything and everyone, and beyond a vague sense of "I want to save the world and my friends!" you don't really get much personality from them, which is a shame. The other characters are a little more interesting; as I said, I'm avoiding spoilers here, so I won't go into detail. To put it bluntly, the game appears to end abruptly. Be it the "true" ending or not, I was really disappointed with the story. My reaction was a frustrated "That's it?!", and a search on the internet told me the fate of a few characters... you just have to play a previously developed game to find out! It's also a fairly bland and predictable story, but really, the lack of explanation leaves you wanting more. And you're not getting it.

---{ Game Time }---
☑ Long

I took my sweet time, mainly exploring when I still didn't have all the necessary tools to do so, but this is a long game regardless, which is par for the course in an RPG. It may take you around 30 or 40 hours, or even more if you aim to complete it and get every achievement. There are no missable items, aside from one that gives you some information, and if you get there with knowledge you shouldn't have (like with a walkthrough, or with sheer luck), you lose it. So either be careful or... just talk with your companions at the bonfire, every once in a while.

---{ Price }---
☑ If it's on sale

I can't really recommend this game at its full price, after what I said above. But on sale? I'd say give it a try, being aware of the game's flaws.

---{ Bugs }---
☑ Minor bugs

It only happened once, but I did get stuck. Nothing much, I just had to restart from the last save, but... yeah, save every once in a while.

---{ ? / 10 }---
☑ 7


Overall, this is a good game. But man, the flaws really drag it down. The art can be beautiful, and the music is great. The story's fairly simple and mostly predictable, there are some good moments, but not all of them feel earned, sadly. The combat can be repetitive, but it can be avoided at times. The mini games are fun, and there is quite a bit of end-game content of mixed quality... Again, I want to love this game, and I do like it, but it's far from perfect. That said, I did complete it, so who am I to talk? Give it a try if you like RPGs, but if this is not your genre... yeah, I'd skip it.