Preliminary: Great music, interesting look, and cute touches like being able to "Watch TV" or "Sleep" at your house (not sure why you didn't start there tho?)... I have been getting more into my JRPG kick, but we will see if this one keeps me. Seems a bit of an outlier for good reason. Only 10 levels? and such small exp from enemies but I guess there aren't many levels to get? I dunno lol. And the combat was slow tho interesting they had full animation for both you and the enemy (and I thought FF1 was advanced for simply having your different weapons apparent when attacking ha). Oh wow also interesting it's a full recreation of the map of Japan... Welp, time for the first grind and hopefullllly shutting up so I don't have such a long review like usual <.< Oh wow that first level up made a huge difference in my stats! And I already know a spell. I'm definitely sticking close to home though cuz I died by the shore.

Play: 7/10 The simplicity of the inventory made inventory management much more tolerable than in FF1 and Phantasy Star 1, I didn't have to make room for items after filling up, instead it seemed to just cap out at 9 per item. The screen flashing feature before killing the Yoki Stone was very annoying, can't believe that was intentional heh. (Separately, there are also some bugs that I read about, luckily I didn't run into any and the Gamefaqs guide helped steer me away from them... Crazy how many games are released with blatant bugs tho...) If I'm understanding it correctly, there's basically no cost to dying? Except starting back at your house? That can be a plus, in fact. I finally caved and took advantage of that fact, hoping I wasn't wrong and hoping they don't display your number of deaths or something at the end for me to regret it ha.

Pro-tip: To restock on Gecko Food and other necessary items, it's easier to just die and fight easy enemies by your home, where you can rest. (Unless it's wayyy out of the way, and even then might as well do it and use a Crow Bait). Because there are (apparently) only 10 levels in total, it's hard to be OP/overleveled, and the long journeys will definitely drain your stock of Gecko Food.

Nice, got my first additional character (oh wait, but they don't join for the battles?) and their house became a place to rest to heal for free too! And the fetch quests were nice and of course, reminded me of Zelda like here:

At first I was irritated you can't use Gecko Foods/items during battle, but then I learned the Cure spell at last. Well, it was translated as Magic Convert ha, I think referring to converting my SP to HP.

Edit: the more I think about it, the better then combat system seems. Quite varied for its time with pseudo summons and weapons and spells. A bit oddly set up tho. Like a lot with this game: good ideas not executed very well. Still staying a 7 tho cuz way too buggy and the item searching is so annoying.

Feel: 7/10 Lots of reasons to drop this game. Odd Look that pales to its contemporary Phantasy Star, weird world map textures that make it hard to know where a ramp is, what's walkable etc. But I'm beginning to get to the era where I get hooked to RPGs like I do for action-adventures and platformers! I've been waiting for this! I was worried I might've lost RPGs as a favorite genre o.O

Lol cute, I got Catnip for beating my first boss? Or something? That "castle" was incredibly fast/simple and easy... Oooo I like the Crowbait feature, basically a consumable item that acts as a temporary airship like in FF1. Kinda like a Teleport spell I suppose? Cool touch.

Nurikabe was a cute enemy who ends up joining the party, but tbh, I haven't noticed what the party members even do? Lol. I definitely understand the more powerful magic with level-ups tho! And at last! Right after that -- my final Yoki Stone! That who flashing/blocking areas was so poorly done, thank goodness it's done now, I can go anywhere in Japan now! Lol these bugs, I accidentally got the White Sphere before killing the Tenko. (Omg, I finally figured out how to use the party members after killing Tenko lol, press down in battle >.<)

Sound: 7/10 Not the greatest, but not bad either. Some catchy tunes, particularly the world map and inventory screen, but nothing strikingly good.

Look: 7/10 Mostly just odd and clunky, but I like the recreation of Japan, the fight animations, and some of the bosses have a neat Look like this one:

Attachment: 7.1/10 Technically not a great game--clunky, illogical, the flashing screen/blocking of areas is very poorly done, not very well-balanced, felt rushed with the dungeon designs and level-up system, but RPGs are becoming a genre I almost always finish or almost finish the game so here I was. Pushing through anyway heh.

More and more the game was dragging and getting tedious tho. Supposedly the Raincoat is supposed to allow me into areas I can't yet access but it's not working for me. (Ope, welp, I reloaded the game and it worked right lol this buggy goofy game, why do I keep playing it...)

Welp, after 6 hours, the glitchiness and clunkiness and bugginess etc finally got to me. I skipped the Treasure Chest because no matter how many tiles I checked by the Wizard's Grave, I did not get the Treasure Chest/character. I looked and looked and looked, but figured it was bugged. I didn't realize I was about to need it >.< Tho I was so close to the end of the game, I'm trying to learn to drop games even if they're a type I get hooked to (like this). There are so many great games out there, why push through mediocre or poorly made ones? This is an addictive RPG, early for its kind, but full of poorly designed dungeons, mess-ups, and a terrible blinking animation. Edit: bumped to a 7.5 because I'm struggling to resist going back to it since I know where the Treasure Chest is now.

Overall: 7/10 Completion: Two more spheres to go to access Korea/end of game Playtime: ~6 hours