Board 8 > Chained Echoes

(+) Yeah! (+)

The only slot I really have down is my tomke/Victor slot

Their buff combinations are insane, but I really dont want either of them all of the time so mirroring each other is great

Everyone else is kind of on the table but my sienna now has a 75% crit chance so thats kind of funny

Finished part 3 oh shiiiiiiiiii

i can't believe there's no reward for finishing the reward board

0/10 game

Huh, got to see what this new kraken spot is OH GEEZE OH NO

the ending to this game is truly good

overall this is the best example of how a game can be inspired by classic games and yet ultimately do its own special and unique thing as well. I hope he gets rich off this and makes more.

Man, the more I think about the ending the more I dislike it.

Assassin girl down

By far the hardest boss so far

NBIceman posted...

Man, the more I think about the ending the more I dislike it.

Wait, what's wrong with the ending? I thought it was great.

I can definitely see why people do not like it but I think it really works.

for real don't read these unless you've finished the game

Kylian seems to get rewarded for being a "traitor" to the team and for generally being selfish the entire game, but he was really more of a victim than anyone else. It would be easy to say he gets "redeemed through death" but one of the game's themes is that you can't obtain redemption through dying/sacrifice - it has to be given by the people you've wronged. Glenn learning this lesson and paying it forward to Kylian is an extremely balls-y narrative choice that delivers on the development of Glenn's character. But also I guess endings where the MC dies at the end are by nature pretty divisive. The game also leaves several loose ends untied (the Harbinger and the Curse) which I hope is just sequel teasing.

Hmm, I guess I can see that. For the loose ends, I'm fine with them not being tied up, but I'd be excited to play a sequel. I didn't really think of it as Kylian getting redeemed, since been forced to spend centuries on that task is made to feel more like a punishment than a reward, heh.

Picked this up. Terrible timing since it's 100% going on hiatus tomorrow night.

Played through the prologue, and I'm honestly super impressed so far. There's a cheapness to 90% of retro pixel RPGs, even ones trying to be more "prestige", that just isn't here at all. Game looks great, music is great, design appears to be real solid, mechanics seem interesting up front, definitely glad I decided to give it a shot after not liking the trailer. Seeing a bunch of scenes rapid fire for 2 seconds at a time is a completely different experience to experiencing it properly

Of course, that was just the prologue, so I'll see if it continues to impress...in a few weeks or so!

Something weird is going on. I upgraded all the weapons and there is still a soul of faranese I didnt get..

Strange

MacArrowny posted...

Wait, what's wrong with the ending? I thought it was great.

I don't want to get too deep into it because I don't want the topic to turn into a redacted document with everyone discussing through spoiler tags, but the main thing is that it just felt very rushed to me. Everything that happens with Glenn's development after the reveal that he's not Timothy is sort of hurried through, and when the ending involves some pretty complex character motivations I think that's kind of a problem.

The story is quite good overall, but I think it has a major problem with pacing that all comes to a head with the ending just not feeling like it was built up properly. It could've very much used a few more hours to just slow things down and examine the effects some of the bigger plot points were having on the party.

I have one or two thematic nitpicks as well but overall I think it's a fine ending in theory. I just don't feel that it was executed well.

masterplum posted...

Something weird is going on. I upgraded all the weapons and there is still a soul of faranese I didnt get..

Strange

IIRC there's an extra one.

Weird ending, but sure

Fits most of the game with it not being very traditional

MacArrowny posted...

Hmm, I guess I can see that. For the loose ends, I'm fine with them not being tied up, but I'd be excited to play a sequel. I didn't really think of it as Kylian getting redeemed, since been forced to spend centuries on that task is made to feel more like a punishment than a reward, heh.

I think Glen got what he wanted and then it didnt end up how he expected. I think the ending works but it did feel a little rushed.

I think my biggest issue with the game is it didnt really come to a satisfying power peak.

Once I got my skills up all the battles kind of felt samey and tedious. I really wanted to use card girl because her skill set was sweet but by the time she showed up her skills were maxed so I didnt really get a chance to get the exciting feeling of trying new combinations as I learned more skills. The few times she did get in were awesome, but I never used two thirds of her skills. Thats still better than the inquisitor guy who literally never made it into the party.

I almost wish we got to use her starting from a lower level on an extended period like earlier on when the party split

Felt like the game should have either been 15 hours longer or 10 hours shorter. The first half of the game had really interesting ideas and then it kind of grinded into traditional JRPGs land

Still a solid 9/10 game but the first 25 hours were 10/10 and the last 10 were 7.5/10 or so

I do think having at least 2 less characters would've been a good idea. Or maybe just have those characters as guests or something with fixed skills. Going in and learning all the skills for the last two mostly just felt like a pain to me.

The thing I'd most like to see from a sequel gameplay-wise is a reworked Sky Armor battle system, or something new to replace it. I dunno what other gameplay aspects could be improved.

I initially hated sky armor but it grew on me. I liked the mix and match of trying to fit the three interchangeable parts together.

I think the sky armor enemies were in general a tad too bulky but that isnt the sky armors problem.

Oh, and crystals were pretty bleh. Barely touched them all game but whatever. That isnt that big of a deal because I never cared unlike the party members I wanted to have a chance to play with but simply didnt fit

yeah, crystals definitely could be improved next game.

I'm fine with all the characters, but there's too many skills (both action and passive). most of them were "pointless." I know that variety is good and this allows players to create different builds, but yeah there wasn't enough game to keep up with the need for all of that.

Hmm, I'd agree with the excess of skills being pointless, but I don't think that really took away from the game.

MacArrowny posted...

Hmm, I'd agree with the excess of skills being pointless, but I don't think that really took away from the game.

I agree with this. I think there were some issues that were mostly whatever and some that actually detracted. The skills and crystals were ignorable. The party members issue did take away though. I was kind of annoyed Robb of all people was the only non main character to have a full on side quest. The characters weee absolutely fantastic so it kind of bothered me how uneven the content felt. I really would have liked to have seen more Amalia and Sienna content. Their character arcs were really abrupt

masterplum posted...

Still a solid 9/10 game but the first 25 hours were 10/10 and the last 10 were 7.5/10 or so

I there any RPG that avoids this?

foolm0r0n posted...

I there any RPG that avoids this?

I thought Persona 5 (Not Royal) was solid the entire way through.

I'm only about 10 hours in the game and the battles already feel very samey. Especially because going into overheat is basically an instant death sentence, so you need every character to have one of each skill type so you often have no choice but to choose the required skill type over and over. I just found a shop with all the different types of heat items though so maybe that becomes easier.

masterplum posted...

I thought Persona 5 (Not Royal) was solid the entire way through.

True, I was really impressed by how the later dungeons held up. But it was still slog-ish in the last 10 hours. That's only a small portion of a 100+ hour game so it feels relatively small I guess.

foolm0r0n posted...

True, I was really impressed by how the later dungeons held up. But it was still slog-ish in the last 10 hours. That's only a small portion of a 100+ hour game so it feels relatively small I guess.

Yeah, and I think it was exciting hitting new persona all the way up to the very end

Which honestly is my biggest issue with Royal. I never even finished it because it was boring just using Satan throughout the entire new dungeon.

I had time to play this for exactly half an hour.

I feel like that's not get a full enough experience to develop an opinion.

foolm0r0n posted...

I there any RPG that avoids this?

FFX

MZero posted...

FFX

Inside Sin is bad and arguably everything after Yunalesca is kinda meh. But the very end is damn good.

Trails in the Sky specifically and Trails more generally are good answers for the "avoids endgame dropoffs" question

so is Chrono Trigger, but it's so short it shouldn't count

Just got to act 2, damn the writing is hitting. Also wow it is straight up suikoden. How did this game even get made.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/4/1/1/AAblU3AAEIv7.png

Game beated. Not quite 100% but did all of the secret bosses, etc etc.

My team was OP OP. Just set up like 10 buffs the first two turns and win game. I had Cres poison/toxic/paralyzing things which was fun and Tomke was my Sienna lite because I like goats :x

I finally cracked and made the purchase

Act 2 finished with another banger

I love black hair Lenne

shambala sux

Finished it

Excellent ending! I do think the last area was stretched a bit long, but the game kept its momentum pretty well through the end. You could definitely feel some corners being cut, but it stayed good overall. I think the biggest weakness was way too much suicide, and death in general made the plot ironically way simpler towards the end than the middle. But I guess that's the point of a game of thrones esque story.

Some of the final combats were really good too. The valkyrie fight especially had mind blowing design.

It's cool they left it open for a sequel. Could be similar to a certain mecha anime's 2nd half.

Alright, after finally getting myself to stop replaying Engage until the expansion, time to finally play this!

Have finished up the big map area after the full party area. Really loving almost everything so far. Only issue is that there seems to be....a lot of systems, but I'm sure I'll get used to it. I also hope there's not...too many big open areas like this, but I wouldn't be surprised. I know it's what the people want.

foolm0r0n posted...

I think the biggest weakness was way too much suicide, and death in general

I agree with this completely. Every time I met new characters I was like... welp, I wonder how THEY are gonna die or kill themselves and 9 times out of 10, it came to pass.

Beat the big creepy ghost boss, then went back and did everything I think I could have done in the first zone. Yakity? Yakked. Shish? Kabobed.

Pretty sure the onky think I haven't been able to get my hands on that I should have access to are Ancient Coins? Not sure where I picked one of those up to sell before.

"What do you think of this expression: You are a big pile of shit."

Man when lines like this hit it really takes me out of it.

I feel like having 3 or 4 Deals based off of this Stolen Diamond material that it doesn't look like I can get anymore may have been an oversight.

You can get everything permanently I think. Deals stop being particularly great after a while though. Not really worth it to buy the old ones.

I just entered the tomb, how much time is there about? I heard the game was around 30 hours but I'm approaching 40. Not complaining, just curious.

If you're at the part I'm thinking maybe 10ish hours not counting post game stuff?

Wow, really?

To be clear, I'm talking Reina's Tomb. It's right after you cook with Amalia.

Yeah maybe 5 to 10 hours I'd say but it's been a few months since I played. I looked through a walk-through to remember how much is left.

Hopefully I'm not spoiling anything but I don't even think you have all of the characters yet lol. I could be wrong though

Mine was 46h with all side quests and a good amount of extra stuff but not nearly 100%

I feel like the narrative is really falling apart at the seams here after reaching the Tower and has been for the last few hours, but it's enjoyable enough in its mile a minute casual critical plot events and random twists that I frankly just don't care. It's an absolute junk food RPG but I like junk good, this is like a Bacon King of RPGs.

I think honestly my only complaint with the game so far that actually bothers me is that the dialogue is kind of lame all around, but I think I heard it was written and translated by a non-native English speaker, and if so it's totally understandable.

Oh and the gem slot stuff is absolute trash but it hasn't mattered at all so whatever.