Status Chovus Apr 7, 2021
Beat. I used a walkthrough a little bit for directions due to the lack of any kind of map or fast travel between towns. I cheaped out on equipment and missed the ninja sword in the mid game. I generally found swords better to use in combat, though sometimes the fist weapon was stronger until the next sword. I used …
Beat. I used a walkthrough a little bit for directions due to the lack of any kind of map or fast travel between towns. I cheaped out on equipment and missed the ninja sword in the mid game. I generally found swords better to use in combat, though sometimes the fist weapon was stronger until the next sword. I used the somersault jump followed by pressing the special attack button to get some free hits in while dodging. The special button by itself does a somersault jump that does damage the entire time but costs mana; I found it useful for some of the most obnoxious enemies. The spin kick was decent but difficult to reliably press the 2 buttons needed for it. While the side view beat em up combat was novel for a Jrpg, I did not enjoy it much. The controls were clunky, I disliked how there were more enemies beyond the required kill count, and I absolutely hated how easy it was to get stun locked. Does not make the protagonist seem like a badass when takes several seconds to stand his ass back up. I pretty quickly realized that most enemies were not worth fighting, and thus to make liberal use of running away and escape magic. Pretty much the only enemies worth fighting were the melee infantry types. Everything else took too long or had too much chance of hurting you. The mirror image enemies were bad because of all the time wasted while they were invulnerable, and the very small time frame to hit them before they attack. The minotaur type that shoots and flies around were not worth fighting because they are invulnerable while flying around. Huge waste of time, especially when combined with their high hp and very high chance of being stun locked if there was more than 1. Mount riding enemies were not too bad but it was extra work to somersault their mounts. The worst were the flying enemies; combining platforming, waiting around for them to get close enough, and very high odds of taking damage. I ran from most fights, only fighting enemies that did not take too long, or when run failed. Except for flyers; escape magic that shit. I also hated the conveyor effect in the desert and was glad that was not reused anywhere else except for 1 mini boss.
I missed the healing magic, which would have come in very handy for boss fights. By the end I was level 38 with the full end game aura gear. I thought the thunder sword was better than the aura sword in the few random battles I had between it and the final boss. It seemed to do less damage and lacked the stun effect. I never bought the thunder punch and was only half way towards affording the ultimate weapon.
This was not a good game. Felt more like a NES game with the painfully simple story and dialogue, and clunky controls. The combat was fun at times when it was intense without anything cheap happening to you. The best part was the traditional turn based boss battles, and I would have more enjoyed a full on turn based Jrpg instead.
6.2/10