Что будет если смешать пошаговую фэнтези-рпг и визуальную новеллу? Loren The Amazon Princess

• Боевая система. Неплоха, но немного несбалансирована. И у нас и у врага на поле максимум по 6 персонажей в 2 ряда по три человека - как всегда впереди танчат воины, а второй ряд составляют стрелки и маги. У каждого героя две ветки разватия, одна всегда стандартна (воин-маг-вор), а вот вторая присуща только определенному герою и уникальна. Ясное дело что качать вторую ветку почти всегда выгоднее и интереснее.
  В игре нельзя прочитать что делают статусные эффекты пока их не наложат. Вот и гадай что выгоднее качать: школу Огня, которая поджигает, или школу Земли, которая раскалывает. Лишь гораздо позже, когда мы уже получили 4-5 уровней и раскидали очки умений, встречаем врагов, которые тоже могут накладывать на нас такие эффекты. И тут узнаем, что огонь понижает атаку, земля защиту, а лёд оказывается в фаворе - так как снижает скорость (что позволяет нашим бойцам ходить чаще врага и безнаказанно карать его) и крайне немного врагов имеет к нему резист. Жаль, но перераспределить очки нельзя и мои огненный и темный маги были почти бесполезны против демонов, у которых резист к огню и иммунитет к тьме (а во второй половине игры чаще всего наши противники именно демоны).
  Довольно скудный выбор оружия. Найдя отличный топор, ты с удивлением узнаешь что у него урон тьмой (вспоминаем про демонов) - придется нашей героине лечить, а не калечить. Проблема что альтернативу найти просто негде, в магазинах продается лишь простое оружие, которое серьезно уступает по урону. Вот и мой главный снайпер за всю игру сменил арбалет с родного лишь единожды почти в самом начале, а лучше оружия просто не было.
  
• Графическое исполнение и саундтрек - красивый арт и музыкальное сопровождение, в моем вкусе
  
• Сюжет и персонажи. Главный квест стандартен для героического фэнтези - как всегда спасаем мир. А вот персонажи живые и разные, с ними реально интересно разговаривать, следить как развивается роман у гномов, как королева переживает смерть своей любви, как принцесса впервые выбирается из Цитадели. Ну и мой персональный фаворит - Чамбара, та еще няшка, хоть и ведьма.

7/10 - Вполне годная игра если вы любите героическое фэнтези и визуальные новеллы. Хотя тех, кто не играл раньше в новеллы, надо предупредить: вам понадобится толика фантазии чтобы оживить почти статичные картинки. И тогда вы узнаете историю Лорен, принцессы Амазонок.

Начиная рассказ о Loren The Amazon Princess, трудно удержаться от сравнения c творчеством известного канадского разработчика ролевых игр, поскольку именно в нём черпали своё вдохновение Winter Wolves. Судите сами: сюжет о древнем зле есть, путешествия между областями на карте мира тоже в наличии, компаньоны, готовые практически бесконечно изливать душу, а также влюбляться в вас и давать личные задания в лагере тоже никуда не делись — и это лишь несколько примеров, положенных в основу игры. Творческие «заимствования» настолько велики, что подчас серьёзно относиться к происходящему на экране становится довольно трудно. Так почему же последние игры BioWare мы, пусть и не без оговорок, относим к ролевым, а Loren The Amazon Princess, несмотря на заявления разработчика, чаще упоминается в рамках жанра визуальной новеллы? Дьявол, как водится, кроется в мелочах.

Этой самой «мелочью» в данном случае становятся личности персонажей. Плюньте в лицо тому, кто говорит, что как не отыгрывай Геральта и Шепарда, на выходе всё равно получится Геральт или Шепард — он не понимает, о чём говорит. Да, эти персонажи во многом прописаны разработчиком, но это всего лишь заготовка, из которой игрок посредством принимаемых решений может слепить личность, отличную от полученных миллионами других игроков. Детище Winter Wolves вам таких вольностей не позволит: выбрав рабыню-эльфийку, вы вплоть до финальных титров окажетесь намертво связаны с ролью боящейся каждой тени девушки, ведь кроме редкой возможности повлиять на дальнейшее развитие разговора, персонаж будет произносить прописанные сценаристом в единственном варианте слова.

Выбор в диалогах и в самом деле не прост: пошутить, проявить дипломатию или настойчивость. Иногда, преимущественно во время разговоров у лагерного костра, появляется четвёртый вариант — развивать отношения, выбор которого неизбежно сделает вас на один шаг ближе к сердцу выбранного компаньона. Весьма интересными могли бы оказаться моменты, когда на перепутье сюжета необходимо выбрать в какую сторону пойти, но, во-первых, оба варианта в конечном итоге приведут в одну точку, а во-вторых, и это самое главное, сохраниться в игре можно в любое время (то есть вообще в любое, даже на экране принятия решения), а последствия наступают сразу же, что поощряет безответственность и злоупотребления системой сохранений со стороны сидящего перед монитором. Таким образом убит потенциально великолепный момент с непреднамеренным путешествием группы в подземный мир, где в зависимости от ваших решений персонажи, с которыми вы провели немало времени, начинают гибнуть один за другим.

Обзор полностью: http://core-rpg.ru/publ/loren_the_amazon_princess_recenzija_c_o_r_e/2-1-0-117

Вам нужно знать об этой игре следующее:
Это прежде всего interactive fiction, т.е. текстовый квест. Это означает, что придется очень много читать и... почти все. Бои крайне простые в освоении, ролевая система тоже очень простая. Но определенное разнообразие в геймплей они вносят. Хотя играя на самом высоком уровне сложности я сталкивался с настоящими трудностями только раз или два. Но давайте вернемся к сути игры. Это текст. И почти все. Графика за исключением изображения персонажей (которое довольно неплохое) откровенно халтурная, потому что очень мало фонов, очень мало изображений. Игра очень длинная, а собственно визуальный ряд очень короткий и регулярно повторяющийся. С моей точки зрения это большой минус.
Сюжет классический про противоборство Злу. Плюс состоит в том, что сюжет разветвленный, существует несколько концовок, но вы без труда можете посмотреть большинство из них, по крайней мере те, что касаются вашего протагониста (с самого начала вы выбираете одного из двух - человеческого самца или эльфийскую самку).
Далее, для всех кто не может смириться с модой на однополые романы Bioware- эта игра даст фору любым их придумкам, так как здесь почти все персонажи, которых вы можете включить в партию (их больше десятка) могут замутить с любым из ваших протагонистов, то есть и с мужчиной, и с женщиной. Есть, конечно, редкие исключения, но... хорошая новость здесь в том, что вы можете просто не начинать роман (не нужно выбирать соответствующий вариант диалога, который так и называется - ошибиться невозможно), так что заваливать вас приставаниями никто без вашего на то желания не будет. Сами по себе романы кстати довольно невинные, порно не будет, что тоже нужно учесть, дабы потом не разочароваться. Спутники кстати как персонажи очень хорошо проработаны, у каждого есть простенький квест, который, тем не менее, раскрывает их характер. Текст вообще написан достойно, есть моменты, которые очень понравились, но есть и те, которые вызывали только раздражение. Куда же в фентези про битву со Злом без ванильных соплей, правда?
Ну собственно и все. Несмотря на то, что игра отняла кучу времени - я не жалею об этом главном образом потому, что такие игры идеальный способ тренироваться в английском языке. Но, увы, это главный ее плюс. Она не настолько плоха, чтобы играть в нее на английском, но не настолько хороша, чтобы тратить на нее время без какой-либо иной пользы (только если вы не фанат визуальных новелл).

Loren has the distinction of being the first game ever where I picked the male PC to use over a female PC for a first playthrough. As a woman gamer, this is really rare! But Loren presents two interesting backstories to choose from and those backstories really do influence how others treat your character and the dialogue options you have.

So, to back up: this is basically a low-fi version of Dragon Age. It's heavily story driven, with several interesting characters, tons of dialogue and interaction, huge amounts of world-building, lots of really cool and diverse types of female characters, realistic conflict between characters, and Loren manages to do it all without BioWare's budget or AAA status. The character designs are really cool (Dora and Chambara are probably my favorites) and once I realized (about 5 hours into the game, whoops!) there was a "fast combat" option in the menu to speed things up, the classic turn-based combat made me fairly nostalic. My big complaint with the game would probably be the skill trees, partially because for strength-based (warriors) characters most of the skills were useless and for will (mages) and skill-based (thieves) the skills were often unbalanced and there's never a marker to tell you when/how you can gain certain skills (is it progression? A certain level of will? What? Why can I NEVER pick that skill?). It gets frustrating, particularly at higher levels, as the skill points you receive are minimal throughout the game.

Regardless of my frustration with the skill trees (and by about hour 7 I just gave up and started auto-assigning), Loren's definitely one of the better RPGs I've played recently. I'm looking forward to the other playthroughs I intend to do to see alternate paths, romances, and endings.

The game is highly story-driven and relies on character interaction as a main motivation to finish it. It reminded me very strongly of Dragon Age. The main plot is a typical "save the world from evil"-story, but you experience it all as the servant of the heroine. The combat system is similar to classic JRPGs, but a bit flawed and easy to exploit (speed). The art style is anime/manga-inspired and the characters are somehow stereotypical. Nonetheless, I can full-heartedly recommend this great little indie gem.

If you like giggly romance, simple dialogues and a regular fantasy setting with a few rpg elements thrown in, then this might be for you.

I did like it, but it's still hard to recommend from a neutral perspective. If you look at the game mechanics, writing, character depth, story etc then this is all quite average or below.
However, for a Ren'Py game (the engine) it's way above average! And if you know Ren'Py games/visual novels in general, then you already know what to expect: a bit of silliness, lots of romance and recurring pictures. Don't get me wrong... that's part of the charm and quite on purpose!

The only thing that disappointed me a bit is the climax of the romance. It could have been a bit stronger, more dramatic or so, honestly.

Although I'm not entirely sure, I'm giving this a thumbs down because I think the price is too high. Maybe get it when it's on sale again and if you liked the demo (available on winterwolves homepage).

Let me just say that Winter Wolves is a company who ought to get much more in the way of support- because this game is essentially one of the greatest visual novel games I've ever been able to play.

Loren the Amazon Princess is a game that is actually worth the full price- a rarity in these times, but if you like fantasy or adventure games, you'll want to grab this. For once, you don't even play as the title character- instead, you play the second banana- either a human male slave, or an elven female. The character you choose may have different observations about certain scenarios, and they may have a different set of people they might start a relationship with, but to be quite obvious, that's all the difference between them. Both the male or female characters can get the same moves and the same classes, so really the only thing you're getting is a different view of the world.

Combat is actually very well-handled- you just place your characters, and go. Their turn comes up, you pick a skill or an item to use, and then you repeat until the combat is done. You'll always have a healer on hand, because whatever you pick for your character- gender or class- you get a class of Healer right off the bat.

As far as the story, it's actually well-written, and the characters have their own personalities. You can talk to them in camp, you can flirt with a certain few of them, and if your scores are high enough, you'll even end up having to make a choice in a lovers' triangle between two party members- or maybe even more. There are both gay and straight options for both male and female characters- even more than Dragon Age, for crying out loud, and that's saying something.

There's even a bit of DLC, which unlocks four more party members and expands the third chapter with an entire new area. It is completely worth it, no matter what.

Finally, a bit of warning: Yes, the Steam version is the toned-down version. There's a wokaround that you can use, but fair warning- this does create some NSFW scenes in the story, and changes some of the outfits on characters. Take it as you will.

All in all, I would play this again and again and again, unlike some full-price console games and the like. Go buy this game!

This game quickly became one of my Top 5 Favorite Games on Steam. It's a JRPG-style game from an non-Japanese indie game company named Winter Wolves. This company is mostly known for dating sims and visual novels, but honestly, I think this game is their best yet. (Although, to be fair, I haven't played all their games yet.)

Important note: The DLC is a MUST HAVE. Honestly, the story would seem very incomplete without it, so if you get this game, get the DLC. This review is also based on having it.

While this is definitely a RPG, the fact that a lot of their games are visual novels definitely shows in the design. There is zero action in the turn-based battles. In fact, they rely solely on pictures to represent what takes place in the battle. For a lot of people, this is a flaw, but for me, I was indifferent to this type of gameplay. What was important was that the game was fun to play.

It took me roughly 20 or so hours to get through the game the first time. This is considered short for a RPG, but it has potential for several playthroughs. Personally, I went through 13 playthroughs, going for all the achievements. It can get a bit repetitive going through the game that many times, but thankfully, the creators realized this; there is a cheat mode that enables "story mode" in which the player automatically wins every battle, which can get you through the game much quicker. Obviously, the game is story-driven, which is a big highlight to me. The story is definitely influenced by Lord of the Rings. I can't blame for that, LotR is awesome. However, there are a couple of races that do not exist in the LotR world that exist in this game. Another 1-up this game has is that there's an even distribution of gender between the characters, unlike the sausagefest that is LotR.

There is a bit of a dating sim element to this game, but you can actually get through the game without romancing anyone (in fact, there's an achievement for that). There are several people the main character can romance, which is what gives the game the potential for several playthroughs. Each one has its own unique effect on the story.
Kudos to the creators for allowing same-sex coupling, which is a reoccurring thing in the Winter Wolves games.

Sort of spoiler-ish, but not really:
There are also a few different ways to end the game. Ultimately, the Death Knight (main villain) is defeated in each ending, but how you defeat him depends on things you do in the game. I looked up which way is canon out of curiosity, but ultimately, it's up to the player to decide how the Death Knight should meet his "fate." There's also a pretty heavy hint at the end of the game that there will be a sequel.

Flaws:
- There are absolutely no people of color in this game. White people EVERYWHERE; there isn't even a NPC that has a shade or two. And no, blue-skinned dark elves do not count. I mean realistic people of color.
- The game could do without so much sexualization of the characters, particularly the women. It isn't really necessary that they be half-naked, especially when they're supposed to be fighting in a war.
- I found one technical error in the game. In each town/village, there's a shop and a fame score. The player can earn fame by doing tasks for that particular town/village. Well, sometimes, if you go to a shop in a town/village that has no fame score yet, it'll re-direct to a previous shop. For example, while I was playing, I went to the elves' village's shop and it was linking me to the Citadel's shop. However, once I earned some fame in the elves' village, it correctly went to their shop. This error can actually benefit the player, so it isn't a huge deal.

Despite its flaws, I definitely recommend this game to anyone who likes RPGs, especially if they enjoy story-driven games and visual novels / dating sims.

I loved the game !
It is quite short, I presonnaly like that : you can finish a game while still in the mood and don't have to reload your save month latter. You have some time to develop your characters but you see the finality of your choice since the beginning. The strategy is nice.
I found it rather easy but you have to think during battles. The story is nice but the text sometimes uselessly long. Having romance options is nice but doesn't bring so much to the game, as the different story choice that we can make.
I really loved the visual novel way to tell a story for a RPG game : it is really working for me (I don't like to have to spend my time moving my character and looking for people to seep and explore, and when I have the opportunity to do it I do it thouroughly, so... - yes, it's completly stupid, I know.).
The strategical choice (in and outside batlle) are nice. I like the fact that the story give you plenty of XP, so your different character don't have major differences in level (and so you can switch the ones you use if you want).
Numerous optionnal battle and other ways to win XP or money are available. If you like challenge, don't do it.

More of an interactive story than a game in my opinion - still enjoyable though. Lots of reading. A good entry level game for someone who may not enjoy the complex RPGs that are out there.

For the purposes of this review, I will start with this: As an occasional but relatively infrequent insomniac, I played this game from start to finish over the course of the night and through the morning not because I had nothing better to do but because I had to know how things would end. There is no higher honor for written fiction than that feeling of "just one more page", much like the videogame equivalent "just one more level". I say written fiction because while you can argue back and forth about whether visual novels are games (in my view they are), the highlight of Loren The Amazon Princess is still narrative over gameplay.

But unlike many if not most visual novels, there is an actual game here in a game mechanics sense. Fittingly for such a high-fantasy oriented story, it plays as a hybrid between entirely literary visual novels and an RPG. Do not expect the depth of a dedicated RPG. That is not to be found here.

Despite that there is still a commendable level of depth considering it's status as a hybrid. Equipment, level ups, stat points, skill trees and varied character classes are accounted for. Technically the only class choice you have the power to alter is the chosen player surrogate (there are two available) at the very start of the game, but the various party members have distinct roles and flexibility within those roles even if say, the dwarf chick will always be a bow-oriented type. Character forcing does occur at times for narrative reasons, but the game ensures that even characters you don't use often will be of relatively close level to your mainstays. The player surrogate and the titular Loren are often but not exclusively required members, but that's not a huge deal out of a party of six at a time when the roster fills out.


On the narrative front, people often compare this to Dragon Age Origins. That isn't entirely accurate. The theme of uniting different peoples to face an overarching threat is present in both games, and there is a character much like Morrigan. Other than that, it's mostly that both are archetypal fantasy stories.


Make no mistake, Loren is not a narrative you seek out for surprises. Anyone with decent familarity with fantasy novels will find little to shock them. A poor writer would let that result in a boring story, but thankfully the developers are not poor writers. What the writing lacks in surprises it more than makes up for in quality. A well rounded cast with believable motivations, genuine character development, and some damn quotable lines make this a visual novel you don't want to miss.


Also: if any of that RPG side of things doesn't sound like your deal, don't worry about it. The difficulty options and competent automated options for distributing stats and skill points means you will have to micromanage only exactly as much as you want to and not a bit more. Equipment lacks that, of course, but that's straight forward anyway.


TL:DR; BUY IT ALREADY.

Very nice fantasy game with easy plot and interesting stuff to do. Many options to shape your own character from personality to back story and skills. There was many romance options too so that was interesting. Game may be little too long for how many romance options there is because from what I see romancing characters does not change the many events or ending that much that it would be worh to try all out. Epilogue was weak to me and not enough but good game.

I bought this game and its expansion on the recent sale, and for the price I paid I feel like I got great value for money.

Once I started, the stories and characters were so immersive that I found it very difficult to stop playing. I finished it with the same feeling I get after reading a great book; sadness, that it was over. I very much look forward to more from Winter Wolves in this vein.

The story is a little cliched, and seemed to be a Lord of the Rings parody of sorts. You have an aged wizard guiding everyone to resist against the upcoming of a dark lord, a deathknight of animated armor that happened to have more than a passing resemblence to the ringwraiths. The hero had to unite many broken kingdoms that needed to come together to defeat said knight (although that's a common trope to this fantasy setting anyway). There are the amazons, though, with a few undead here and there, so it's not all bad. The bright part of the story is that the protanist was not in a special position before the story began, and was instead a slave.

Any unoriginality in the story, however, is completely forgivable considering the dialogue. For a text-heavy game (the sound effects were just there to replace silence), the text was easy to read, and the game does it brilliantly; I was captivated from the start, and every character had a distinct personality that remained consistent throughout the entire game. Through their personal stories, you can come to relate to every one of your party members, and most of them are done well.

The romances were well done, with each of the two selectable protagonists (male human or female elf slaves/servants) having a variety of suiters to pursue. The romances only lightly effected the plot, however, and the effects of these personal relationships were only felt during minor plot points. The game could be played without romances at all, which may be odd considering it markets itself as a romantic novel.

Loren The Amazon Princess shines in its dialogue and characters, but is not without its flaws. The typical "Joke, Friendly, Forceful" dialogue options were a jarring experience. They didn't give you any indication at all as to what you'd actually say, which introduced something completely unpredicatable in a genre where the one thing that should be relatively predictable is the progranonist. It was easy to work around (scroll up to go back, or save/reload), but doing it this way was a strange decision from the designers.

The combat was extremely easy on normal, but that may have been because the focus was on the story. The turn based system with combos was interesting enough to survive the whole game without getting too boring.

The graphics were well framed with the plot, but the backgrounds were heavily reused, and the game could definately have benefited from having more of them. It was easy to forget where we were based on any particular background image.

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed and recommend this game to lovers of visual novels. There are plenty of 'they lived happily ever after' endings, as well as one or two not so happy, and if you allow yourself to fall into the characters, a definite sadness when the tale ends and there's nothing more to read.

Even if i don't like to read tons of texts, i enjoy this game greatly. Never thinked good rpg can be without 2D or 3D.

+ Nice graphics with touch of sexy
+ Nice Musics
+ Nice battle system
+ Easy to use UI
+ Random item from shops but without random attributes.
+ Caps 30 levels, infinite level up with "Tasks"
+ Many locations to explore
+ Long story text to read
+ Nice NPC & characters
+ Many classes to play, skills/spells with combo, free points allocation
+ Romance system


- (personnal opinion) : too many texts (i prefer rpg with shorter story)
- Steam version censored (you have to find tips to unlock, see *** )

You can buy this game safely. I recommend it.

I'll update my evaluation later when i'll end game and all difficulties level.


*** To play uncensored version you have to download demo on official website. Install it outside your Steam directory. Demo will recognize you bought Steam version and will transform itself to full version. Launch "Demo" to play uncensored version outside from Steam. Not sure you'll be able to unlock all achievements.

"Loren The Amazon Princess"'s game mechanics reminded me of the very simple games I played as a kid, such as the original (think 1980s) Bard's Tale or Wasteland that you could play on the old Apple II. I liked it. Not every gamer is a twitch player, so this was a non-frustrating game to play.

I liked that the player had a ton of different romanceable companions, and endings, depending on the pc's gender and personality style. (Hence the many play throughs to see all the different endings.) Some of the relationships, however, felt creepy/abusive - the kind where you'd tell a girlfriend to WALK AWAY THIS GUY IS BAD NEWS sort of thing.

About a quarter of the writing fell into the "purple prose" category. I could have done without all the internal musings by my character; it felt that the amazing dialogue between certain characters and reparte was written by one author and the internal musings was written by the author's angsty emo younger sibling.

That being said, I really enjoyed the game and the dlcs. Played "Loren" for at least 39 hours, so I got my money's worth. Hoping the developer's next game - Season of the Wolf (?) when it comes out is equally good. And now that I've written a review of the game, I'll probably poke my nose into it some more.

While I’ll admit I was initially a bit bristled at the fan-service in Loren the Amazon Princess, (even with the censor option turned on) it’s worth overlooking as the battle system is well arranged and challenging and the overall story of a young man or woman rising from slavery to become second in command of an army that will save the world is very well done, as is the secondary elements of the story.
I especially liked how each party member character has a lot of character development that can be encouraged by the player, through talking to them and completing optional quests. The most obvious example is the well done way Loren herself can gradually becomes less sexist and conservative, eventually becoming a truly enlightened Queen upon the end of the game IF the player argued with and challenged her preconceptions, presented evidence of the flaws in the Amazon system, proved the worth of men, made her realize the cruelty of slavery ect ect.

While it may be a bit expensive and is definitely only for mature audiences, it’s well made, tells an interesting tale about interesting people and I could honestly see playing through it a second time to see what effect different choices would have on the story.

I would definitely recomend buying this game during a Sale, or full price if you are a fan of the Visual Novel/Party Tactics RPG genre.

Not a bad game. I originally bought because it was on sale, and I felt like supporting some indie developers. One play through on normal difficulty should take you about 10-15 hours depending on how fast you read through the text because there's a lot of it. I thought the combat was pretty satisfying, you can have up to 6 members on your side fighting 1-6 enemies and each of you take turns with options of attacking, using skills, items, or magic.
There are several endings to the game, and I felt sentimental reading through the last scene knowing the final fate of my character (there might be different endings to that too). But the last boss battle was rather anticlimatic. There's a cheat option availible if you finish your first playthrough and you can skip all the dialogue really quickly with the tab key to get to alternate endings. Try the demo out at the official site of the game to see if you like it.

I have only completed chapter 1, but I really like the game and I know I am gonna like it. The game reminds me " Dragons of the autumn twilight" book. The same atmosphere. Awesome mix between old style rpg and anime. Also soundtrack is among the best ever. And a cast of chars reminds me Baldursgate. Awesome game, RECOMMENDED!

Brilliantly written visual novel with excellent replay value!

Storylines were well thought-out, characters were extremely likeable, battle was fun and challenging yet not tedious. Difficult choices were given to allow some impact (great and small) on the world as the story unfolds. My first playthrough left me looking for guides and scrambling to save and reload after every fight to see every outcome possible.

Thoroughly enjoyable, beautiful hand-drawn graphics. My only gripe is that too many places look the same (i.e. all the crypts and tombs), though understandably it's hard to continuously draw new locations and the different characters that appeared kept the game fresh.

Definitely recommended to buy!

This is a game that suprised and well surpassed my expectations.

I know when I saw the name I was sceptical but it actually unfolds really well. The best thing about it is it has the best parts of an RPG- namely a good story, interesting, well-written characters, and a decent combat mechanic system. What Winterwolves does particularly well is that this style of gaming with the Ren’Py engine does away with the ‘fluff’ or sometimes superfluous content developers put in to artificially extend the playtime. Forget wandering around town talking to every NPC or pixel hunting to find quest items, you can fast travel town to town and quests are plot driven. You can even fast forward bits of story you’ve seen if you don’t want to waste time. Every minute you play you are doing what you want to do rather than what the game forces you to waste time doing. You will end up spending the majority of the time unfolding the story, battling and interacting with your characters.

Dialogue choices are somewhat fixed and not customising in that aspect (think Dragon age 2) but it was a sufficient mechanic to drive the story forward. You will end up making gameplay decisions throughout the game that does impact the world state. The story may share some similarities and tones to Dragon Age: Origins but still a pleasure to watch unfold. Combat is very similar to Monster’s Den flash game series and does have an engaging tactical element. There are 3 main classes (warrior, rogue, mage) with each character having one class skill tree and one unique character skill tree. Light grinding is all you need to get through the story and difficulty options allow you to focus more on story aspects. For those who like to grind and get the best gear the option is there but it’s not necessary. You will end up recruiting and adventuring with a party of 10 characters (DLC introduces 2 more) so there are many combos and customisations you can play with.

The character sprites and visuals are beautiful to look at and despite the simplicity actually works well in creating a convincing setting for the story and there is optional fan service mode. Sure, there can be a few more backgrounds but this game is a great example of creativity when less is more. The romance CGs and interactions are fun and rewarding to unlock. There are multiple racial/gender romance options for each character and I applaud the writer for putting all those in, and for the meaningful character progression gained through these interactions. Each party NPC will also have a rewarding personal quest.

To accompany the visuals I must mention the lush score that accompanies the game. The soundtrack is excellent and I never tire of hearing the themes. The dramatic and emotional moments are particularly heightened with good use of tracks.

My minor critiques are with the player dialogue choices- I’d rather see the 3 options than joking/friendly/optional and they don’t really feel very different. The romances and triangles are handled well but I’d like a tiny bit more climax and epilogue detail. Would have liked to see a few more side quests and story elements from the towns and map locations based on renown. Combat wise it’s a great system but the class skill trees pales in comparison with unique skill trees and perhaps the different weapon types could add different effects (eg difference between single/dual/2H weapon) in terms of range, AoE and damage.

Overall well worth the experience. My first playthrough was a leisurely 15 hours and there’s room for at least another playthrough plus exploring the romances.

Story 4.5/5
Gameplay &combat 4/5
Visuals 4.5/5
Music 5/5

An enjoyable experience.