Karryn's Prison is complicated? How so? I've been meaning to play that game for a while.
- A lot of mechanics that are not clear in combat. There are the guard rooms where these are "explained" in very rough terms, but at no point do I feel like I have a good understanding of the nuances.
- Lots of RNG when it comes to standard enemies. Some are complete trash, others can 2-shot the MC, or they might just pull at her dress instead, whatever they feel like doing that turn.
- Horrendous spam when it comes to "Passives" that MC accumulates from just about everything that she or enemies do in combat. Effectively, dozens upon dozens of status effects that change up the gameplay in sometimes drastic ways. It was fine in the early versions when there were only a few, but then they kept adding more and more, beyond the point where you can keep track of them all mentally during combat.
- Weird and cryptic leveling system where MC can get 12 levels per floor, and each stat increase makes progress towards the next level. Basically you specialize yourself with each action in combat and jobs, and once you reach that floor's maximum level you can't level up your stats anymore. That kind of leveling should have died with Final Fantasy 2. At least in that game I think you could undo an undesired build by grinding.
I could go on, but the gist of it is, the gameplay mechanics feel very fuzzy and ill-advised, with RNG and lack of detailed feedback that make it even harder to understand how it all functions under the hood. Just thinking about it makes me want to play Lost Chapter again as a palate-cleanser.
