All right, after a long hiatus from the game, I returned to it this week to finish Part One before Part Two releases tomorrow (Fri., Aug. 13, 2021). Overall, Part One was quite a nice full RPG adventure. It's ending lingers on a bit, serving as a prologue-like vehicle for Part Two as opposed to a meaningful epilogue for Part One.
As stated before, I thoroughly enjoyed the battle mechanics. The use of trajectories and the Dimengeon helped with pacing. I enjoyed making good progress through a map before battling a larger horde of monsters as opposed to the more traditional randomized battle style. Still, this game is the ultimate love letter to story-driven JRPGs from the past with its own unique art style. So there's a lot of familiar territory in gameplay and story.
In Part One, the side quests helped break up some of the gameplay in a fun way without ever feeling like too much. We'll see how side quests affect Part Two.
For users playing the game with a controller, they never updated the movement. This meant that after the screen would shift perspective, I would have to let go of the analog stick and then return to use it. Otherwise, it would be completely out of sync and take the main character in the wrong direction. Hopefully the update fixes this. Overall, this is not the worst error I've experienced with a "mobile" game and I was able to instinctively adjust how I played on my controller without getting frustrated. I am also just grateful to be able to play a really good JRPG that runs smoothly on MacBook with a controller!
My last thought is that I am somewhat not excited about the length of gameplay in Part Two. It took me just over 25 hours to complete Part One, maxing out my main character and completing all possible side quests and opening all possible treasures chests (I think). I did have a little hiatus since its release (okay, it was a pretty major hiatus), but overall the game is pretty engaging, contains good story and characters, and has a fun gameplay loop. There are some slower moments or sections, but it can be muscled through. Knowing that, supposedly, Part Two can take anywhere between 40 - 60 hours is a HUGE time commitment. Normally, I would be seeing that in terms of investment of money per hour of gameplay, but this is subscription-based. It feels like a "good value" for what you're paying, but games with such a huge time sink are becoming more difficult to consume, at least for me, as an adult who wants to play a large variety of games.
I still want to experience this adventure to the end, so I may try to play on my phone more often for quick little bite-sized progression in order to get some gameplay in every day.
I'd love to hear others' perspective on the game! Let me know your own thoughts and experience!
