Quick shoutout about this game

Don't wanna start fires but I've always been confused about the vitriolic backlash on this thing. Plays like tactical Vagrant Story/Parasite Eve with a ton of meta strategy. You will be dying, resetting, restarting, abusing soft saves, hoarding items and rising from the fire like a pheonix until you see the light of day. Just about every single critique of this game needles incessantly at it when every supposed issue is actually a well-thought out design decision. I'm not joking. This is an incredibly interesting strategy game that asks you to accept it's systems and take advantage of them as best you can-- You can't just run through it willy-nilly, you have to think about where your going and why. You have the tools to succeed. It will just take several timelines.

The struggle is that this game has such a particular mode of operation, such a focus on it's strategy that it ends up being highly inaccessible to most players. The meta gameplay adds layers to the story-- A low-class, worthless band of doomed people in a rigid caste-driven society fighting against the odds to find a future that was never meant for them-- but at the cost of most of it's audience. Without the dreaded S.O.L system everything would be simpler, but I solidly believe there would be less of a punch.

In the end, you really need to research this game before you pick it up. Traditional RPG it is not. I also maintain that while it has some daunting systems in place, Dragon's Quarter is not the hardest game in the world. Very difficult and grueling at times, yes, but when you understand the maps and S.O.L system, you will feel everything lock into place.