Buy Agarest Zero

As with the Origional, Zero is a true work of art. The Generation system is vastly improved from the original, and the affection system adds its own level of stratagy. The gameplay, while at first glance appears simple, is, in a word, "Multi-Layered". Mastering Esoterica and Combination arts is key to not only surviving some of the most difficult battles, but also recieving some of the best items in the game. With that in mind, I would be remiss if I didn't mention the Agarest Wiki that contains truely invaluable information on the game itself.
While i love the game, I have to mention two dissapointments I have in concern to the actual game itself. First, the monster capture and combination system can be a boon to any player. If only for the Title System and the High End items you can get by using it. However, capturing monsters can be a chore sometimes, and often feels like a waste of time due to the grind required to max it out.
Second, the blacksmithing system has one infuriating element that i wish they had eliminated from the origional. That is the Random Item system that occures while smithing. On occasion, while crafting items, instead of the desired item you recieve a random craftable item instead. This still uses the materials, and after 3000 craft attempts, I only recived one item I cared about, or was useful. Instead you generally recive items that are either utterly useless, or are low level and already abundant.
As to the Steam download, it has one major glitch i was unable to remedy. Unfortunatly, there is a glich where on many characters in both conversation scenes and in the gallery, the characters images are obsucered by all the other alternate appearances being layered over eachother at the same time. This takes away from the character and story driven expreance that is essential to any JRPG.
On a possitive note, the Steam DLC is absolutly fantastic. Without it, many cassual gamers may find the baseline grind to level up and aquire both Gold and EP to be a daunting task. After purchasing the DLC it was almost like starting a new game + without ever having to have played the game.
I would recomend this series to anyone who enjoys JRPG's or RPG's in general. For a more epic experience I suggest playing the original and then loading over the completed game data to Zero.
All in all, I'd give this game a solid 9 out of 10.
As a simple footnote I would suggest that due to suggestive sexual content in this game, parental supervison is advised.

Short summary: This is an amazing turn based strategy game with unique weapons, and a huge variety of characters and unlockable skills. This game is similair to fire emblem combat system, and has a cliche but an entertaining story. There are several events, and incorporates the oh so common dating sims the japanese love as well. One of the best part of the game is without a doubt, the creation of your character, where it is a tarot card system, which randomizes your character in the vague direction you build him to be.

Synopsis: Record of Agarest War Zero is the prequel to Record of Agarest War. The tale follows Sieghart, an army commander who gains magical powers from a strange woman named Mimel. Blossoming from this setup, Record of Agarest War Zero is a slow-paced tale treading on familiar territory: the world is in danger and it's up to a small band of warriors to set things right.

Combat: Record of Agarest War Zero's shining light is combat. Moving characters into position like a chess board is a challenging undertaking, but a rewarding one. Depending on which square characters occupy, they can link to other characters to unleash joint attacks with powerful results. But it's the calculated movement of sprites into position that makes exciting battles. While the terrain is flat and backgrounds repetitive, the environment is still a non-factor like the original Agarest War. The strategic requirements of success are fulfilling for all strategy fans. (Battles dish out experience like candy, yet money feels constantly tight.)

Gameplay: The Agarest War series is different from other strategy games is that the story is split over multiple generations. When the curtain finally closes on Sieghart's side of the story, it's his offspring with the maiden-of-highest-regard that carries on the tale into future years. You are also forced to progress along a fixed path, forced to stop at each dot along the way for a battle. These often have no bearing on the plot and are simply there to make the journey from one chapter to the next take as long as possible.(although if the battle does indeed get too tedious, pressing q will turn on auto battle. A word of advice is use it on enemies you will dominate, due to the fact that the auto A.I is not the best.)

Overall, i love this game, while it may say i only have 10 hours or so, i have the rest of the series on my ps3, with a total over 200 hours, a great game focusing on turn based strategy, and dating sim like playthrough.

Its my first game from Agarest series, a bit confused following the combat instruction but once i figured how to play it, its really fun fun *oops i say it twice :p*

Absolutely worth played.

Nuff said, Kawaiifu hwaiting!

The Agarest Senki/Agarest War series was always a little out of my comfort zone when it came to RPGs, mostly due to the strategy involved in the fights. Thankfully, they made it easy to figure who to place where to maximize your combo efficiency in battle, plus learning new Secret Arts through trial and error has been a blast!

This is technically the first game in the series, chronologically, but the second game to have been made. This one is a lot more forgiving than the first by means of getting the True Ending, as there are only two generations, so a lot of the original content from the first game that you had to be forced to do to get the True Ending has been streamlined for the second; giving you a lot more time to enjoy the story at a more natural pace.

My one little problem lies in the fact that they seem to reuse character designs and even come close to reusing names as well; namely, the character "Alice" is extremely close if not identical to "Ellis" in name and design both, right down to having a larva as a bodyguard. Sieghart also appears to be in close relation to the main characters of the first game, not to mention a few of the female leads seem to be borrowed concepts, as well. All that aside, however, I greatly recommend this game to everyone, especially if you want to enjoy something a little different in your RPG library!

So... I actually buy this just to support Idea Factory xD It is one of the few companies who make my kind of simulation games after all xD I have only played this for a while and I have never played the first game either... so this is just a quick note for everyone!

Pros:
- Japanese voice acting (I'm a sucker for it xD)
- Cool tactical combo chaining. If you'd like to chain a lot, you'll need to learn how to use this properly! I find it interesting because of the different layout of Extended Areas for each player and that where they are facing affects it. For those who love to challenge themselves and see how far they can go... this is for you!
- Different areas that you can choose where to fight? Not bad!
- The animated sprite (Motion Portrait) makes it a tad bit life-like as they talk.
- Anime-style handsome guys and pretty girls =P
- Free DLCs! Yay!

Cons:
- The tutorial is soooo long TT Well it is good for those who are not used to tactical games... but for me who have played quite a few (e.g. FFTactics, Tactic Ogres, FE), it is one chunk of boring part right at the start. Be patient!
- DLCs right from the start! You become too OPed right from battle number 1 that the last thing to do is saying good-bye to that fun ~ So I would suggest turning off the DLCs or just don't use it!

Who is this game for?
- Those who love Love SImulation games, Tactic battles, Combo chainers, Anime-lovers, or those who, like me, loves Idea Factory!

This is more of a soft no than a hard one (wish there was a rating system honestly.) The games okay, I rather like the graphics for the most part, and the plot and characters make me want to keep playing. That said the combat is what is making me uninstall it. Just not my thing, and I love these type games.

I'll be honest and say that some of this is probably due to my only 4 hours of play time. But for starters, ingame it is rather poorly explained what the differences between the skills are (why use blast instead of rush, what are my miss chances, is regular damage the same as break damage or is that only for filling the break meter, that sort of thing). The details screen you can pull up really explains very little. I could live with this really. What lost me though the linking system. I just really don't like this mechanic, makes fights feel far longer and less tactical than they should. Felt like I spent all my time looking for glowing squares for linking people and trying to maximize the number of combos in the action screen I could pull off than trying to outsmart/outposition the enemy and make use of terrain. Doesn't help that the view needs tilted up a few more degrees, it's rather hard to make stuff out sometimes even with changing the direction.

I really want to like this game, but it's just not happening.

5/10

Agarest Zero is the prequel to Agarest: Generations of War. People who played the old Agarest will find that a few things have changed.

Starting with the good improvements. A fast-forward option during dialogue, fully turn-based dungeons with no more analog crawling or suprise encounters, and a slightly more informative esoteric book. A simplified version of the original Agarest is build into the game, and can be unlocked if you play NG+ on hard. As long as you get True End in the Zero universe, you will unlock True End in the Agarest vanilla universe automatically. You can unlock various vanilla characters and combine them into your zero party for maximum choice.

There are bad points too. For one, there are only two generations instead of five, although unlike Leonheardt who was stuck with a sword, you will have some control over Sieghart's weapon. The True End mechanic is also different, it being dependent on relationship scores and less than a handful of crucial storyline choices. You will not unlock the true ending unless you are familiar with dating sims; it is possible to get all nine women in the group to love you maximally, but unless you get somewhere close to that you won't get the true ending. The game is faster-paced due to less generations, but not fast-paced enough to warrent repeated crapshoots on the dating sim mechanic only to find out that you fail true end again and again. If you follow the True End guide for Zero on Agarest Wiki to a tee, it is a linear process and you can unlock it. But then Sieghart/Leonis will not feel like they have any consistent preference or personality. It will just be hardcore pragmatic metagaming.

On an important tangent, this game may be a little bit less friendly to female gamers than the vanilla game, because of the much more increased emphasis on the dating sim aspect. Women-to-women conversations in this game are also more superficial than vanillla. Female gamers can consider themselves warned.

It is a game with pros and cons, but if you liked the original Agarest then you might as well get Zero because it comes with a simplified version of the original game plus the interface improvements.

I love RPG games and it's hard to find a good RPG game. This game has all aspects of a good and maybe even great RPG in my opinion. The graphics are great even from the screenshots. Storyline is very well made. I love the creative idea of chain attacks. Reminds me so much of a lot of good turn based with movement in them. If you people out there love Fire Emblem, I really do suggest you try this game out. Affections and custom character creation was a neat idea and this whole game just has so much to explore.

If you like torturing yourself with bad story, repetitive combat, and rock metal riffs on 20 second loops then Agarest: Zero is the game for you.

Playing this game is nothing less than a face-melting chore. Even the harem of wanton anime chicks you gather on your forgettable escapade do nothing to make the experience less excruciating.

What's even more painful is how obvious it is that the game wants to be some intense strategy RPG. Agarest is a prime example on how flashy combos and special attack portrait cut-ins don't make a game exciting. In fact, the game punishes you for being halfway proficient at it. Keep animations turned on and you have to wait minutes at a time for combos to complete. Turn them off and you're playing Watching Damage Floaters: The Game The RPG.

Don't get this game

a very cool tactical turn based game, has a standar story but very long nice character creation with a waifu game included ( choose your wife, make a kid be happy)

you need to have a cool strategy for most bosses and enemies if you want to get better things in the game, nice crafting system, rewarding and more 8/10

Really enjoyable game, has a decent amount of replayabilty, and is just generally enjoyable because of overdone anime combat! Its wonderful!

Anime-style characters with fully Japanese voice-acting
Great Combat and excellent Story-line

What are u waiting for ? Get all those kawaii waifus !

Having a hankering for a RPG I ended up picking up this title to scratch the urge. Am I disappointed? Yes.

The storyline is bland and generic and offers nothing intriguing or exciting to the player. At this stage I barely know what my goal is (other than looking after Mimel and picking up more (female) characters to add to my party) and I've no desire to find out. The parts that talk about the storyline are tedious and bland at best and ultimately unfulfilling for the player. A solid RPG should have the player wanting to know what the next twist in the game is; Agarest fails to deliver on that aspect. Considering playing on feels like a chore that I want to avoid doing at all costs.

The tutorial barely gives you the bare bones of combat which is simple enough to pick up despite being poorly mapped, and the character creation part is totally left uninformed. The player absolutely doesn't know what to do without the help of a guide and to be honest I have no idea what on earth I picked for the MC, Sieg. Combat gets boring and repetitive quickly. If you're a player who dislikes grinding there's no worry as you're forced to grind and play through fights just to get anywhere on the map.

Speaking of characters, the characters of the game are bland, dull and boring with predictable, mundane personalities. There's a womaniser without a hint of charm, a little mysterious childish girl and then there's the MC who is the equivalent of bread without butter. The voice acting and somewhat pretty character designs aren't enough to carry the personalityless characters through with the bland script. Another part of the game which is a little more fun is the dating aspect where you woo the ladies you pick up for your party. However, Fire Emblem: Awakening offers the same kind of game as Agarest but with a better script, a easier to follow plot and interesting characters.

For the most part, Agarest has a lacklustre script and a poor combat system which ultimately lets the full game down. A much more interesting story with more engaging characters is the minimum this game would need to carry it through with the current combat system. The pixel graphics are somewhat charming, at the very least.

My overall opinion? I wish I could refund this game and would do so in a heart beat if I was able to.

More of a soft no than a hard one (if this was a 1-10 type rating system I would give it around a 6/10).

The combat system seems like it would be interesting, but you start out the game so overpowered it hasn't caught my interest as there is no time to even take damage since you overkill everything accidently. I've been finding it hard to continue to play since the characters and story either so bland or so over the top that it is difficult to care. I find myself dreading any 'events', but then also found myself starting to dread the combat since it was becoming so repetative.

After reading other reviews it seems like at some point this game will take a sharp turn with the difficulty and tactics, but if you are looking for a great story and a great combat system right off the bat, I would maybe look elsewhere, or at least remember to stay away from using the DLC gained items until you need them.

LOVE IT i mean yes it has its problems but so does every game. ive played hours of this game (but steam says other wise so dont look at the hours it says i have played) i would play this game again and again.

i absolutely LOVE this game, mainly the storyline BUT... the battle system gets reeeeaaalllyyy boring doing the same thing over and over constantly getting misses on mobs that are on low health but the storyline pulled me in so much that it made me play through that same battle system for a very long time

Do you like anime? visual novel-like story telling? game difficulty with a curve akin to right angle?

Well do I have a game for you.

Turn-based jrpg focused on creating skill combos with your entire team.
Oh and kawaii desu anime stuff, full on vn story telling even get to pick a girl to marry.

•tactical jrpg
•anime, that is a pro. right?
•the plot and style of the game series has always been very good.
•character variety
•main character creation

•difficulty will give you a right hook out of nowhere
•the right angle difficulty curve also applies to the learning curve. Hope you've been collecting and memorizing combos & skills, while staying above the weapons curve too!
•you may become emotionally attached to characters

I own every Agarest game and the predecessor game/s and while they are all nice games I have yet to beat one, even after 30-40 hours of gameplay put into them. They are not fair, and will spike the difficulty without a second though to how much time you will have to spend grinding out levels, crafting gear, and gathering materials. These games actively hate the player at times. You will use gamefaqs. You will curse at your tv/laptop when you have a boss fight that was three flavors more difficult than anything you just faced. You will love the characters.

I wouldn't recommend buying these games simply due to the battle system being a complete kick to the gonads. I will admit I have more money than common sense when dealing with anime jrpg's. Especially ones by Compile Heart, and will purchase them all. I'm such a hypocrite.

It's a pretty good game. I enjoy the aspect of not knowing which actions will earn you favor with which girl. Its always a mystery.

In Agarest Zero, you play as an extremely generic desu hero and try to pick up all those kawaii waifu's so you can have children to fight the evil monsters that are invading the world.

5/5 Sugoi game

But really, it's a pretty solid tactical JRPG/Visual Novel. For the price of 19,99€ i can certainly recommend purchasing it, especially when considering you get a ton of DLC with the purchase that wasn't free when the game was originally released on PS3.

The game is rather long as well, your first playthrough might take about 60-80 hours to finish. You can also port over your character saves from Agarest: Generations of War for some extra stuff.

Agarest: Generations of War Zero is a Tactical Japanese Roleplaying Game a prequel to its predecessor.

The story is set in the world of Agarest literally scarred by a war between the forces of light and darkness.
The game starts with Sieghart a young commander of the Armies of Light and his division assigned to a special mission to collect some kind of trumph card that would win the war. They get attacked by the armies of darkness during this assignment and after repelling the attack Sieghart finds a girl cornered by a sort of lesser god a "Larva" he proceeds to rescue her but gets mortally wounded. In his last moments the girl asks him if he wishes to live and grants him power healing his wounds. This newfound power was more than enough to defeat the weak Larva.

As a prequel the game has lots of references and assumes you know most things about its lore, I would recommend playing Agarest: Generations of War first if you plan to play this one, though not necessary as after ending the game you can make a new game+ in Extra Mode which allows you to play a digest version of the first game and you unlock profiles which enlighten you further.

The game's art style is quite good, though some of the female characters have provocative clothing, it is far from what most people seem to describe. There is some fan service though which is completely secondary to the game, which are the CGs, appart from some that might be a little awkward, they are all very well done and are a nice little bonus.
The voice acting and the translation I am not able to review thoroughly as I don't know Japanese, but since I've watched enough anime (and asked the opinion of a few friends who understand Japanese) I'd say the translation is good apart from maybe a few exceptions. The Japanese voice acting like in most JRPGs is nice because it usually beats any english dub.

The gameplay is the same as the first:
- Turn based combat, in each turn you have a move phase and a action phase.
- The party consists of 1 to 6 members.
- Each turn you gain AP (action points) which allow you to move or attack.
- During the move phase you are allowed to move your characters up to their move stat by spending 1 AP per square.
- During the action phase you are allowed to attack (and be attacked) spending AP or both AP and SP for special attacks (called Ex Skills).
- SP is gained by attacking, getting targeted, slaying an enemy or having a party member slain.
- The order in the action phase is determined by a character's AGI and remaining AP for both party members and enemies.
- There are also Extended Areas, which are different to each character, when you link characters through these you can strategize in various ways as they allow you to make combos with more than one character and attack monsters that would otherwise be out of the range of certain characters/attacks.
- As you progress through the game you unlock fields, different fields have different sizes and different bonuses/penalties.

I recommend watching a few gameplay videos or a video of the tutorial (if existant) as it would be much easier to understand.


When compared to the first game, Agarest: Generations of War Zero has several improvements:
- The game is slightly shorter which made part of the community happy (on the other hand it lost generations (from 5 to 2) and it has less characters, though you can still have Ellis, Dyshana, the protagonists and the heroines of the first game in Extra Mode and the others by DLC).
- Vacation Days which are events where you can interact with your party members in order to raise affection levels or unlock certain bonuses/secrets.
- Costumes which are literally costumes for every female character which change depending on their affection level, these will only appear in Vacation Days unless chosen otherwise in the options menu (I regret to say that after unlocking the costumes it isn't possible to chose which one appears it will always be the one that corresponds to the affection level).
- Card System, now this in my opinion is the best improvement you can costumize the first main character making him much more versatile than the one from the first Agarest.
- The portraits are no longer static and are considerably better.
- Beach scenes!
- Vashtor in white armor, 'nuff said.

Ignoring the last improvement, in all seriousness, the game is enjoyable (In my case I'd say a lot of fun as I've also played it before in PS3 and I'd say the PC version is better as I found it more fluid).
Personally I just thank Ghostlight for porting JRPGs to PC since it has few when compared to consoles.