This game has had some very bad reviews, and rightfully so. Something about this game has had me become interested in it ever since it was released. Terms such as Eurojunk were thrown around when people were discussing this game on various forum boards. Two days ago, I decided to play this game after finishing Tokyo Mirage Sessions (Great game btw) because I just wanted to see what was so bad about it, and unexpectedly, I ended up finishing the entire game.

I started the game up, and went into the options. There were plenty of them, and it was easy to max them because the game has been out for a few years now. The game began with some really bad animations, and pretty awful dialogue. The world is dying, and immortal necromancers are too hard to defeat. Deadwalkers are among us, and we are in a lot of trouble. You know, the world ending scenario.

I ran up to the Captain, and we had a little chat. He added quite a bit of swears into his dialogue to which I did not mind. I had to go inside the temple, and talk to a couple of people about stuff, and then I was lost. I did not know what to do, or where to go. I ran around for at least twenty minutes trying different methods in an attempt to figure out what exactly they wanted me to do in there. I had made a mistake, and I had to go outside, and place some traps (Traps are very game breaking). And then the combat tutorial began.

The combat tutorial was pretty basic. You dodge, you attack, you lay traps, or shoot with your crossbow. You can also switch stances. From Ranger to Warrior. Ranger stance allows you to dual wield two daggers, and Warrior stance allows you to two-hand a giant sword. I played as the Ranger for most of the game because of the stylish combat. Even though the Ranger stance has stylish combat. It does not matter much in the end of the game. You simply attack once, or twice depending on what type of enemy you are fighting (More on enemy variety later). Or you can use traps to make the combat trivial. You can deploy a trap, and have the enemy (Or enemies) run towards you to have it ignite. It will always do a knock back to your opponent, and you can run up to them before they get up to do it all over again. I took of more than fifty percent of the final bosses hp before I ran out of them. To sum it up, the combat in this game is not good. You must exploit some of its mechanics to make it interesting. Thus far, I have written many cons about the game. But you already know it was a bad game. And I assume you're wondering why did I continue playing the game if it was that bad.

The story of the game is what kept me going. No, not even the main story of the game. Just the interactions with the side characters. There were dialogues that were far more mature than what you get in other games. There were references to drugs, sex, rape, and the good old vulgar language. I have not played many games that have references to some grim, and mature topics. And this was the game that scratched that itch. Sadly, they did not continue that trend, and the game was focused almost entirely on the main story of the game. That is when they started to lose me again. Many of the options presented either did not make sense, or they were ignored (One of the characters was dead no matter what option I chose). At this point, I was considering stopping the game, but I kept on going since I was so close to finishing it.

The final fight was surprising, and disappointing. Spoilers ahead for those that intend to play this game. Do not read further if you do not wish to be spoiled. The final boss summoned a dragon! I was shocked, and in awe that they had a dragon in the game. But the way they made the encounter. It quickly became a chore to fight. It became a loop. You fight the main boss. Dragon comes back, you kill the dragons head by slashing it while you're on the ground. You hit the main boss a couple of times, and then you fight the dragon again. And the process keeps on going until the boss is dead. You reach the end, and you're given a choice to either rule the world, or save it. The choice changes depending on whether you chose to become a bad demon guy, or a good guy. But only one of the choices changes. The other stays the same regardless of whether you chose the demon path, or the human one. I do not think that this is worth the time to finish. But I do think that if you're interested in this game. I highly recommend checking out the first section of the area. Once you reach the frozen palace. The game loses what made it interesting (For me at least). With that said, I recommend this game if you intend to play the first section, but stop when you reach the frozen palace. Thanks for reading, and have a wonderful day!

I recently played this as well and had actually the opposite reaction to you. I found the combat to be the only interesting part and the story to be pretty bland both in regards to the actual plot and the character interactions. I did like the immortal dude as he made for some interesting dialogue in certain situations, but he was pretty much the only character I found even remotely interesting. I made the choice to not just spam traps and found the combat loop without them pretty fun. I did use a handful of them on each boss but not enough to make the entire fight meaningless. I always enjoy games where player skill can get you past situations even if you aren't at the right level to beat them. The counter/dodge system in place here allowed for that and you can even counter most boss attacks.

Worth mentioning that I played the game on the easiest difficulty due to numerous reviews that recommended doing that and on easy I found the combat to be balanced nicely. Fights against low level minions were always beatable on the first try with a bit of patience, while boss fights and other climactic battles took a bit more effort but not an infuriating amount. Also worth noting that I completely ignored the rogue/assassin/knife/stealth route, whatever they called it. I put a grand total of 0 points into that skill tree. That let me focus on the warrior class until I unlocked pyromancy and then I focused on that. Since you cannot max out even two of the three skill trees in this game, a really big key to keeping the game balanced is to make a choice right after the tutorial about which of the two combat styles you want to play with and then never invest a point into the other one. Add some points into pyromancy as well and the combat is both fun and relatively balanced on the easiest difficulty.

I have played all of Spider's titles outside of the recently released Technomancer and I actually enjoyed this one the most from a gameplay standpoint. It did have the least interesting premise of the bunch. Just the basic end of the world story you described. But the combat was vastly improved over their previous game Of Orcs and Men. It actually in a sense combined that system with the one from Mars: War Logs. And the less said about Faery the better.

@raven10: That's very interesting. Perhaps the combat was more fleshed out for the Warrior stance than the Ranger stance. I don't think that I had a counter for the Ranger stance. The way I dispatched almost all of my enemies was by attacking a couple of times, and then dodging their attacks. Thanks for your input. I don't think I will ever play the game again, but if I know someone that intends on playing it. I will recommend them to go your route instead (Warrior stance). And like you, I plan on checking out Technomancer at some point in the future as well. Thanks for responding!

@atsou: You are correct. The ranger stance has the dodge and the warrior stance has the counter. With the dodge it is easier to avoid damage, but the counter obviously damages the enemy back if you nail it. It's one of those block at the exact right time systems so if you block too late you'll get hit. Some people like the Ranger as it is less risky but it also takes a really long time to take out enemies.