Crowdfunded spiritual sequel to the Suikoden games. We got a side game in this universe already (EC Rising), which was more of an action platform-y type affair with some RPG elements thrown in, but the full game they wanted to make is here now. I played and enjoyed Rising, however to lay cards fully on the table here, I've never played a Suikoden game before this, though I am already 20 hours deep in this. Roll trailer!
Personally, quite liking the visual style being used here - fairly rudimentary 3D environment + 2D sprite work on top, but it absolutely works and gives plenty of tech headroom to have lots of characters on screen doing things. One less positive thing I am noticing though is that there's a lot of quite major depth of field effects going on. These are used to varying degrees to try and centre the focus around your character, and while I get what they're going for, they aren't always the most helpful. Sometimes the effects have very clear banding which doesn't look great, and often if you're trying to look at a background visual you'll find yourself squinting to make sense of things.
Almost straight away you've got a full party of 6 for your turn-based battles, and new ones are introduced at a pretty steady rate. I remember people making fun of Chrono Cross for the way you'd enter a new town and everyone you spoke to would join your party, but it's a much more applicable jab here. You can usually spot the clearly designed characters a mile off from the more drab, cookie cutter townsfolk NPCs who just bumble about, and while there might be a quest or some other pre-requisite, it's also often only a couple of lines of dialogue before they sign right up for the cause. That's not to say that there aren't plenty with charm, just... you are not going to have deep and meaningful bonds with all 100.
For the purposes of battle, these characters each fall under certain groupings - how far their weapon reaches, what kind of armour they can wear, and so on - which does make it easier to swap out one character for another based on role when you need to for story purposes. That reach attribute is a particularly noteworthy one; not fully grasping this was the reason I was nearly stuck an hour into a dungeon with too many short-range characters stuck on my back row that literally couldn't attack anything. Read your tutorials, folks.
Aside from turn-based battles, there's a few other battle systems in place for specific story beats - there's one-on-one duels, and a larger-scale war mechanic where you're not providing individual battle instructions, instead strategically shunting units about a battlefield and putting them in the way of enemy battalions. Also of course there are mini-games; so far a card-based one, a game where you battle spinning tops, and the practically mandatory "press x to catch" fishing game.
Don't want to say too much about the story, but despite the backdrop of war, things still keep pretty breezy. Events that are played for serious impact are quite often sandwiched between moments of fluff and calm, keeping the tone very breezy.
So far, not setting the world on fire, but quite enjoying it.
Personally, quite liking the visual style being used here - fairly rudimentary 3D environment + 2D sprite work on top, but it absolutely works and gives plenty of tech headroom to have lots of characters on screen doing things. One less positive thing I am noticing though is that there's a lot of quite major depth of field effects going on. These are used to varying degrees to try and centre the focus around your character, and while I get what they're going for, they aren't always the most helpful. Sometimes the effects have very clear banding which doesn't look great, and often if you're trying to look at a background visual you'll find yourself squinting to make sense of things.
Almost straight away you've got a full party of 6 for your turn-based battles, and new ones are introduced at a pretty steady rate. I remember people making fun of Chrono Cross for the way you'd enter a new town and everyone you spoke to would join your party, but it's a much more applicable jab here. You can usually spot the clearly designed characters a mile off from the more drab, cookie cutter townsfolk NPCs who just bumble about, and while there might be a quest or some other pre-requisite, it's also often only a couple of lines of dialogue before they sign right up for the cause. That's not to say that there aren't plenty with charm, just... you are not going to have deep and meaningful bonds with all 100.
For the purposes of battle, these characters each fall under certain groupings - how far their weapon reaches, what kind of armour they can wear, and so on - which does make it easier to swap out one character for another based on role when you need to for story purposes. That reach attribute is a particularly noteworthy one; not fully grasping this was the reason I was nearly stuck an hour into a dungeon with too many short-range characters stuck on my back row that literally couldn't attack anything. Read your tutorials, folks.
Aside from turn-based battles, there's a few other battle systems in place for specific story beats - there's one-on-one duels, and a larger-scale war mechanic where you're not providing individual battle instructions, instead strategically shunting units about a battlefield and putting them in the way of enemy battalions. Also of course there are mini-games; so far a card-based one, a game where you battle spinning tops, and the practically mandatory "press x to catch" fishing game.
Don't want to say too much about the story, but despite the backdrop of war, things still keep pretty breezy. Events that are played for serious impact are quite often sandwiched between moments of fluff and calm, keeping the tone very breezy.
So far, not setting the world on fire, but quite enjoying it.
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