Any1 interested in playing an excellent strategy rpg, please read MY review and ignore anything negative you might hear
A few words about Idea Factory before the review. :)
Almost all of their games are poorly reviewed by critics, but highly praised by the gaming public, or atleast the one's that actually understand what the games they make are trying to accomplish. They make very old-school style games, and aren't hesitant or ashamed to do so. In fact, many of their games look like they were made on the Nintendo DS, and ported up to other systems. Many of their games are poorly reviewed, because the reviewers critique them for "not getting up to date with modern videogames." I've also read many reviews that say that their games are, "way too hard, and have poor tutorials and manuals to help get you into the game." This is so not true! These reviewers, or even other gamers, are just poor at these types of games or something! I do believe Idea Factory makes very, very deep and complex systems to contend with, but they are by no means over-the-top hard. They just reward gamers for trying harder, rather than just give you a piggy-back-ride from start to finish. They offer plenty of in-game and manual instruction, they just leave something for you, the gamer, to figure out...you're playing a game, not doing laundry! If you don't actually want to think when playing a "STRATEGY RPG", then why the heck are you even playing one?!?! Just a little more about Idea Factory, then on to the review of the game itself :)
Idea Factory is not trying to win gaming awards for visual effects or fancy flare that does nothing to enhance the gameplay. They are just making games that on the surface, look simple and old-school.....this though, is precisely why most so-called "hard-core" gamers have no interest in this, or their other games. They all want their games to look like Final Fantasy XIII. These games however, visually look like Final Fantasy III, and could appear on the SNES or PSX! But they are next generation all the way, when it comes to clever thinking on the developers part, and in length! The above mentioned difficulty is done for a challenge, and to make you feel like you earned the level-up and new skills that follow. This can be said for the games I've played that Idea Factory developed. TO THE REVIEW!!! ------------------>>>>>
Don't be fooled! The sexual appeal and in your face collector's edition are merely marketing tools for simple-minded Americans, such as myself lol. The game actually has very little to do with sex, dating, vulgarity, nudity, etc.....the only reason there is even a male, female relationship talked about in the "hype" and reviews (which I've now read, after purchasing and playing the game) is simply to establish a gameplay technique, that's employed to allow the story and characters to live for FIVE generations in the game. So you are basically forming friendships, not dates, with the female characters you have access to, in order to "mate" and give birth to the next generation hero, which you then take control of and play! You and your partner determine the qualities of your child, based on your alignment and stats!
The story is standard by the nature of being an old-school rpg, that's to say, by now, almost every game feels like someone had the idea already, at least when it comes to JRPG stories. This story however, sets itself apart, by spanning the five generations, so no one character gets boring or stale. In fact, there is a feature to resurrect fallen ancestors from generations past through the help of an alchemy merchant later into the game. If you've played other SRPG's, then there should really be nothing new to you here, in terms of traversing the world map, "menu-based" towns ( no walking around, just menus of the shops to visit), and doing the pre-fight party prepping.
When battles do occur, the first thing "over-critical" people will think, is how the battlefields are small, have zero terrain elements or obstructions, and have zero elevation changes! This can be an instant turn-off for many gamers used to fields like in Final Fantasy Tactics or others like it (Wild Arms XF for psp, another game, don't believe the negative reviews, it's amazing, very, very hard if you don't think before you move, but worth every minute if you like to play games and THINK while doing so!) The fileds are flat and barren for a reason, the battles are designed around teamwork, combos, strategic use of action points. The action points (AP) each character starts the fight with varies depending on stats and or gear, but each skill a character performs has an AP cost, there is no simple "attack" command. Everything you do, besides move, is an action requiring points to use it, even using an item in battle. This means you can't use all your best skills right away, and have no ability points left to do even a simple move with! The best part is how the AP that isn't used, is not lost, and is added to the AP they get at the start of the next turn. Remember, there is no sharing AP, eventhough characters can chain, so saving AP, rather than using a pointless weak attack that won't kill the target, save it for a big chain or skill the next turn of the fight. Some skills can be linked with others that you or a teammate have, but one character can't use the same skill more than once in one combo, even if you have the AP to do so. But, you can keep using other skills all in one turn until your AP is depleted. (usually not recommended depending on situation lol).
Combos and teamwork! Movement in done in waves. At the movement phase, all characters move singularly, but all in the same "turn". After you decide where you want them (there is a range to consider of course) and which direction to face, you and the enemy units all move together to their new spaces. It's like giving orders to any army, then on your command, they go. Fighting is done on a turn by turn basis though, with an on-screen display of the attack order, enemies included. Here's the fun part! All the characters have different points on the grid around them, that if a teammate is standing on one of those spaces (which are highlighted and color coordinated) they can perform skills chains or combos, granted they both or all have enough AP to do something. Most grid spaces for a teammate to stand for a front-line fighter, have their "team spaces" behind or next to them. Where the support players in back usually have their "team spaces" infront or next to them...makes sense :) If you don't want to use a character in your current combo, eventhough they are in the combo chain list, and waste the AP they might need to attack or heal a different target, you can skip them and move on to the next character. These combos can only be performed on a single target at a time, unless some of the skills have an area-of-effect radius. Don't be afraid to stack the skills, unless you know you need them later, because if you do double the targets original starting hit-points, then you can "overkill" them and earn extra loot drops, many of which will be needed for alchemy crafting of weapon, armor, accessories, and even SKILLS.
As usual, everyone has a range to their skills, but this might be the most interesting part of the combat, and something I don't believe many reviewers grasped (because it's not in the manual or tutorial!), is that if one character can't reach an enemy, and you think that they are a wasted character for that turn because they are too far away from combat....you can "stand-by" on their turn, and use a character who they are "linked" to (by standing on the above mention spaces on the grid), then they can reach the enemy, or even a friendly for healing purposes, and allow the member that is too far away, to jump into the fight, or to heal someone they were originally too far from when it was their turn. Be cautious when jumping all over the battlefield though! This is where Idea Factory shines! The underlying strategy is tremendous! If you jump around to assist a friendly in a tougher fight, but have a combo planned for your next character, jumping to assist a friend might break the "chain" or combo for the next person you were planning ahead with. NOT all members are connected in these chains......I'll explain this way.....you have A, B, C, D, E, F. "A" and "F" are too far away to link together, but if, let's say "D" were next to "F" and on a "team space", they can link. Then lets say, "A" is close to "C", then they can link, and then let's say, "C" is in range of "D", then by chaining, "A" and "F" can be linked through the other members "C" and "D". BUT, enemies can chain too! So for you and them, the goal strategically is to keep your team chained, and to break the chains the enemy is forming to use against you. If "C" were to ge killed, then the chain between "A" and "F" would be broken!
SO WHO NEEDS ELEVATION CHANGES AND ROCKS ON THE BATTLEFIELD? There's enough strategy in just the chain and AP system to not to even care about the other things. There's also depth in elemental strengths and weaknesses, what side you're attacking, or being attacked from as well. Just turning your character to attack during his turn will change the location of his"team spaces" too, which would possible break a planned chain!
Don't be intimidated at all though....they introduce things simply enough, and progress in complexity smootly! I won't even get into the alchemy too much, it's fairly standard, get ingredients and gold you need and the blacksmith will make it for you...he can also upgrade weapons, and when they are maxed out, he can dismantle them for parts for new stuff.
MONSTER CAPTURING! Again, I'll be brief here. At a certain point in the game, you can learn the skill capture. You can then use this skill to capture up to six monsters (I found most humans, or almost humans :) can't be captured) then you can keep the monster for use in you six man team. They can level up, equip items, learn new skills, or be taken to the monsters guild, and traded for varied loot, or you can even COMBINE the monsters, and make new ones. I didn't do a ton of this, because your battle team is a six-man/woman roster, and you will usually have party members you like, or are more powerful, than the creatures you capture or create. Experiment though, maybe you can create an awesome monster that you like better than a member you meet in your travels...to each his own, and who knows, I'm sure there is a monster worth creating, but in the 75+ hours I put into the game, I didn't get into that aspect too heavily. I traded them in for loot alot. Also you can only capture a monster if it's at 5% or lower of it's starting health, and it can be difficult to attack and not kill a monster to that low of a number, especially when you're chaining and trying to get "overkills" for added drops! So it's a choice you have to make, overkill for drops, or barely not kill and capture. There is so much more that i don't want to get into here, like the alchemy, blacksmithing, monster guild, first-aid shop, fortune teller (to get a glimpse of what your child might be like) and so much more involving the weapons, armor, and items! Just too much to get in to! These reasons are why these games or this one sepcifically are "next-gen"...they are so deep and long!
I conclude with this! I love Idea Factory and this game as well! Don't be thrown off by childish appearance, or gimmicky sexuality on the packing or hype. If you like deep strategy rpg's, then this is definitely for you. The story is actual very deep, adult oriented (meaning; it's not power rangers lol) and spans generations. I love knowing the decisions I made affect how the girls I meet look at me, and in the end, one of those girls (chosen by which likes you the most) gives birth to the next hero! Totally awesome!!!
I wrote this because I'm so sick of seeing great games ripped apart in reviews because, either the reviewer is literally not very good at games, and says the game stinks , just because they find them too difficult. Gamers that love to think before they move need to look no further. Sure there are a few points to the game that anyone can see is a tad old-school, or could have used a little more polish, but from start to finish, Idea Factory should be complimented for unapologetically doing what they love and want, and not care what the mainstream critics think. Or you can go play Final Fantasy XIII and basically hit one button for every single fight you get into, or you can play games that you actually have to think before you act!!!
Recommended Idea Factory games:
-Record of Agarest War = 360/PS3
-Generation of Chaos = (PS2 versions 1-4 i think) and PSP
-Aedis Eclipse: Generation of Chaos (basically #2) = PSP
-Spectral Souls = PSP
-Spectral Force (mixed developers based on which number) = several systems
-many, many, more, but Japanese only.......PLEASE RELEASE/PORT to U.S.; APOCALYPSE: DESIRE NEXT!!!! ( for 360) PLEASE IDEA FACTORY!!!