Review scoopings 5/5 · Jul 9, 2026
So Addicting And Robust--What I Love From A JRPG
Preliminary: Eh I have a strong feeling this'll be an RPG Replay tag and move on cuz I'm ready to move on from SNES JRPGs. And that beginning cutscene was slow, teh Look isn't as spectacular as people have said (good for SNES, but that standard had been set for a while with Chrono Trigger etc), and the dialog moves …
Preliminary: Eh I have a strong feeling this'll be an RPG Replay tag and move on cuz I'm ready to move on from SNES JRPGs. And that beginning cutscene was slow, teh Look isn't as spectacular as people have said (good for SNES, but that standard had been set for a while with Chrono Trigger etc), and the dialog moves slowly. But I do really like some of the melodies I'm hearing in this first house lol (others are too circus-y)
I'm liking the combat so far and the menu navigation was nice. But already had an instance of SNES sprite overload slowdown... smh
I wandered all the way to the next town with only Rati lol and later read on a guide terying to figure out what to do that that should've been very difficult :-p Well woops.
Early Game
Yessss to the speeed of this run when Milly (sp?) runs north after the bad news about the town to the north. We are runninggg. I am liking this more than I expected. Something hooking about it. Hopefully it sticks.
I'm glad I found the RPG Shrine cuz uh, I was confused on what to do. And these items are outright hidden, not just hard to find. So, whatevs, time for an oldschool feeling: following a guide to a fun, good-look, good-sounding RPG! And mashing confirm for battles! (so far lol).
Not in love with the dynamic between the girl and the boy, but yeah. I'm still quite RPG gameplay hooked so far. It's been a bit since I had a good hook, probly cuz I'm so antsy for PS1/N64 era RPGs, but also because my husband I have been playing every night the Dragonbane TTRPG I mentioned before. He didnt' want to play it tonight so here I am, finally giving myself some time to get into a videogame :-p Plus it's been nice out... and next week it's supposedly get disgustingly hot, so I've been enjoyingt he weather while I can.
Something about the location of this Necklace item reminded me of I think it's called Moon Stone in FFX where you had to cross the surf a bit over ot the side, exploring the edges of the map like I like to do, in order to find it near Besaid Island 
I've been reading up about late game to decide which characters I want and I am loving reading the strategies that remind me of FFV and FFX and other favorites of mine where you can really get some crazy damage with certain tricks and skills etc.
So thankful for the modern inventory with up to 99 in a slot and tons of slots etc. Glad that's the new norm and I really don't accept RPGs of this era that don't have that at this point :-X
And good thing they have the modern inventory system! There are a lot of items! Which works perfect with all these skills to grind. It almsot feels like d&d/dragonbane (we've been playing the TTRPG dragonbane a lot :-p ). Almost Runescape-y. There was another RPG from this time that did that where you had to cut down bushes for items etc but that just didn't work as well as this did (so far). The complexities seem to be well-balanced with the ability to just move along in the plot/game and/or grind like I like to. Like, I like collecting Sapphire, and Magic Color, and so far unidentified Herb. It really does feel like Runescape/Melvor Idle in that sense :-p To think this is an SNES RPG to boot! I suppose DQ5 and FFVI and others had such expansive gameplay, but I dunno, this is just clicking very well. Which is surprising cuz I thought I am in a kick of passing by SNES JRPGs.
Oooo I usually don't like when games stress me out with so many branching possibilities and especially the mpotential to lock out certain characters and skills, but this does it in such a different way I am excited by it. I guess I am locking in with Fear as one of my main characters! Over Ashlay or Cius. Ah! And not gonna wait to get her, so I can get God of War Skill cuz I read it's meh.
Not a huge fan of accessories having a chance to break. And I do like the tracks but they're already getting repeated quite often, which isn't surprising: it is an SNES game.
Oooo pretty 
Mid Game
I think I might be mid game? This has so many branching possibilities and focuses on replayability it seems, so it's hard for me to really tell. But I am done with Parj Temple. My current team is Iria, Ratix, Fear, and Ioshua. Imma really need Ioshua to stop dying so much but I read he's the only way I can get Marvel since I didn't get Ashlay :-p
There sure are a lot of port towns in these worlds... :-p But where it lacks in creativity and freshness-throughout-the-game, it makes up for in many skills to level, unique ideas with those skills/interactions with the game, and replayability.
I understand the aerly game backtracking without teleports but by this point in the game, I really should have a teleport ability. At least for towns I've been to. So we went all the way out of the way to see the
This autumnal island with Ecdart or w/e is simultaneously beautiful cuz of the autumn colors and kinda hard on the eyes lol Look at me doing Ioshua's side quest tho even tho I don't really like him as a playable character :-X
It's interesting just how much there is to this game, especially for post-game/optional-game like with these higher levels of Tataroy Arena and the post-game dungeon. Gives me the vibe I got from FF10 as a kid.
Well this is an annoying SNES/NES era quirk... Fear left my party because I am haeding to Astral Castle for the Astral Emblem, but didn't say where she would be waiting... and now I can't leave Tataroy/the area because they say I forgot Fear. Yes, I realized I did... but I can't find her lol. Bahaha nevermind, she was standing right by the boat smh.
Wait what the heck you send me down to your Treasury to clear out the monsters but then take all the equipment I foudn down there. Sad. That stuff was good lol.
I might really be in late game based on these optional dungeons I'm doing (the ruins and the cave) but I love mining for Crafting materials, I love all these Secret Skills and special abilities I keep unlocking and reseraching how to develop them, etc. This is the RPG grinder's dream, even if I've lost track of the plotline and I don't love the music (tho I haven't muted it yet hours and hours into the game).
Late Game
Ok I have to go back to Parj Temple, but I have both Emblems so I'm calling it Late Game. I simultaneously like and dislike the Crafting system's mechanic of RNG/randomness and the item being deleted. I like knowing what I will get, but it was also a nice surprise to get a Magical Drop from the Rainbow Diamond (tho I was hoping for a Charm :-p ). So much nuance too sicne different characters have different potential items and so on. Quite overwhelming but also fun, and feels like it was made for the old BradyGames type walkthroughs with fold out charts :-p
As always gameplay is what decides my final rating the most and I love the mindset of RPG hooking. It seems that as long as I'm hooked to a game it almost always reached 4 or 5 star. (which, of course, makes sense, since well these are games lol).
This has been so addicting but I haven't had much time to play and we have been playing the TTRPG Dragonbane taking up a lot of my free time. But it's nice that I don't mind spending weekes on this game, unlike many RPGs or action-adventures that feel like they are dragging. This is borderline giving the FFV type addiction, which also had the skill-grinding/class-grinding heavy concept. That must be my weakness :-p This sure does have a lot of backtracking tho and I know I read about the teleport-ish type ability, but yeah, it could have benefited from a true teleport spell or item. (I don't ahve the bunny character so I can't use the Bunny Whistle thing anyway)
Pretty false ending :-p 
I love when late game dungeons and areas have new tunes in early RPGs taht could only fit so many tunes.
Beautiful and emotional ending sequence, nice to see the "just another victim" perspective (plus now that Helmut song is stuck in my head lol). Well-done, quick and not-over-done recap of where each of the characters I chose in my final team end up.
Now, this is rare, but Imma play the optional dungeon. I didn't love that the credits music was an epic type tune, I prefer sentimental for the ending but the rest of the ending was sentimental music and now there's the post-credit sequence mwahaha.
Also kinda neat you can go back to the final boss area and explore it, tho I didn't :-p
Oh wow turns out Music is super useful, I didn't get its purpose till I read a guide on this optional, super-difficult dungeon. Some of the puzzleds in this dungeon are just silly but I suppose it was meant to be a post-game, developer-goofy place. I'm disappointed so far but whatevs
Well I guess this is the true and finalest of final endings lol, the treasure behind the optional dungeon's final boss. Absolutely wild and I had to use some exploits to Craft the best weapons and just outright abused fast forward to get to an adequate level after reading about him, he wound up being a cakewalk thanks to all that. But without that, uff. It says sometihng that I did the entire optional dungeon, but also says something that I didn't love it heh and the reward was treasure... but there's nothing stronger to fight with this treasure! Should've been an infinite supply of rare item creation items :-p
Look: 8.5/10 Classic and the penultimate of the SNES era Look, but at this point in 96, it's time for something new
Sound: 8.5/10 Some really great tunes, and changed at the right times, and extremely impressive array of tunes for an SNES game, but still the negative of SNES only being able to hold so many songs for a game
Play: 9.5/10 If it weren't for the heavy reliance on backtracking, this would easily be a 10. Addicting, lots of skills to grind, super fast Dash right from the start. Great stuff
Feel: 9.5/10 I played this for so many weeks and didn't once question that I was spending so long on a single game
Attachment: 9/10 Can't wait to see what I think of the bunny character and the various plotlines/characters I didn't pursue.
Overall: 9/10
My Party: Milly, Iria, Ratix, Marvel (and Ioshua, Fear, Tinek, and Ronixis)
