Unchained Blades [3DS] review

[briareos_kerensky]

B confirms and A cancels.

Sorry to open up like this, but this game is backward. A confirms and B cancels, and this is how it should be. It's like forcing people to press start on an intro screen instead of being able to press start or A.

Anyway, Unchained Blades has finally reached the 3DS and my dungeon crawling needs will probably be satiated until Etrian Odyseey 4 pops up.

The structure of the game is nothing out of the ordinary: go to town, rest, gear yourself up, go to dungeon. Movement is tile-based and the map is automatically drawn as you progress through the current labyrinth.
The party is composed by up to four elements, but this is where Unchained Blades twist things a little: any party member under the player's control can have up to four followers, servants of sorts that can follow up their master's attacks, link to skills and even take damage in his/her place. Extra followers can be gained in the dungeons by reducing an enemy's HP below half and wait for a random counter to come up; when the counter comes up, succeding a QTE will make the enemy join the party as a follower.
A master can "equip" up to four followers and up to his/her charisma points, which are gained by performing well in battle. After a battle, followers can ask their master something and depending on the answer their mood can go up or down, affecting the chances of extra actions.

Skills are by unlocking them by spending the SPs gained when levelling up, and so far each character's skill tree seems self-centered, no merging and intertwining of skills like in Etrian Odyssey (and one of the factors that made me particularly appreciate the series).

Certain events are called Judgment Battles: essentially one active party member will lead all followers against someone's else followers and the battle is controlled by pressing buttons at the right moment...a bit too many QTEs for my liking but at least battles are still fought with turns against enemy groups...that can take up more than one screen.
Oh yes, in certain battles the party will face more than a single screen worth of enemies, and there are skill that actually affect all battlegrounds instead of attacking enemies one by one.

In the few hours I've spent with the game, everything felt in place for a good dungeon crawler. Except the A-B thing.

[SCCAAMMM]

That's the Japanese way of doing button configuration.

Which is why Nintendo pads are layed out the way they are.

[briareos_kerensky]

In NSMB2 on a Japanese 3DS A confirms and B cancels, and I'm pretty sure all games follow this. I think Sony is the only one going to a switcheroo over X and circle.

[MisterBubbles]

Japanese version or US, or is it coming out in the EU?

[briareos_kerensky]

US version and I don't know.

[briareos_kerensky]

Dungeoneering continues and...well, I'm not really drawn into the game. I think one huge thing is that there is no sense of dread as saving is free even during dungeons, plus some battles seem very unfair: at low levels dealing with multiple screens of enemies is not exactly easy.
Each character here has a name and he/she is part of the story, and at least in the beginning you are restricted to four characters with pretty defined jobs (fighter, tank, mage and...a tiny little girl able to do more damage than the fighter and the mage in their respective fields?), so battle tactics aren't varied at all. I know there will be more members, but level progression so far has been centered on each character's strong points rather than having them work as a party, and I think it really brings down the game.
The game also suffers from being a multi-platform title, it doesn't really make good use of the 3DS' two screens and the interface is clearly thought for the PSP, with the touch screen only being used for map (but no chance of noting down things) and shops.
I don't know, maybe Etrian Odyssey set the bar too high (or maybe I like their structure a bit too much), but Unchained Blades so far has failed to really interest me.
It is by no mean a dungeon crawler (I'd say Wizardry VIII and Class of Heroes I are), it's just average, despite its interesting Follower mechanics. And again, the biggest thing is that you can save at each step, which removes a lot of tension that all dungeon crawlers should have.

[briareos_kerensky]

I've hit something I don't like: compulsory grinding.

At around half of the second dungeon (or the first Titan, a Shadow of the Colossus-like thing with a labyrinth inside) I have to perform a Judgment battle, Followers versus Followers with little to no help from the party members. I have a relatively easy time with most encounters in the dungeon and on the first two floors, enemies are only able to do 1-point attacks against the whole party.
Unfortunately most of my Followers are critters found in the first dungeon and they go down pretty easily against the last enemies in the Judgement battle: the only way to counter this is to get more Followers and/or level every Follower; both are done by roaming the dungeon and battling enemies. As the Judgment battle is the only way to go forward in the dungeon, I have to grind my party.
I've bought the most powerful armours, the most powerful weapons, I can one-shot most enemies with magic but I can't get past a battle because my Followers are not levelled enough.
And it's not that I have to perform the Judgement battle in a better way: that is controlled by pressing the right button at the right time, and I'm not missing any hit...even by using boosting items, I can't get past this Judgement battle...and just like with multi-screen battles, you are kinda left on your own, with no real chances to pull it off if not without grinding or having a Burst attack ready. Etrian Odyssey II is usually regarded as the most brutal in the series for low-level parties, and in one of the first floors it even places a FOE what you will only able to deal with 10 to 15 party levels after: however there are multiple ways to get past it, and only one involves grinding, but only up to the point where a class is able to pull off an on-map skill to block FOE movements, which, IIRC, is within the first five levels.

But Unchained Blades does have good points: harvesting spots, for example, are not simply limited to fixed tiles, but there are random spots that need to be tracked down; the Follower system is nice and effectively expands the skills tree; characters are well done and there are a lot of side activities involivng them and the Followers; the game does not limit itself to simple dungeoneering with Judgment battles, though it lacks an EO3-like overworld map.

I'll continue to play Unchained Blades until EO4 demo or Fire Emblem hit my 3DS.

[briareos_kerensky]

I'm an idiot, you don't need to pass that Judgement battle to proceed with the dungeon. I don't know why but I wa always skipping a set of stairs that led to an other floor. I'm an idiot.