This is a review for v21.06.27, however I've played previous versions since I discovered in early 2020. I've played the for about 16 hours total.
I want to like this game and I personally find it charming and filled with signs of the dev putting genuine effort into it. The interiors of most buildings look to be constructed by the dev himself, each and every one has some intriguing thing to do inside. Characters you wouldn't expect have some dialogue or interaction.
The management portion of the game is enjoyable, albeit very linear. There is a clear route that must be taken to advance the progress of the kingdom but that isn't inherently bad.
The large party that can be swapped out easily is great. Having an entourage that reacts to events helps create a nice atmosphere. My only gripe is that the characters themselves aren't very interesting. They're fine party members but not well fleshed out characters.
Scenes are nice! There's a lot and some are easy to get and repeat while others you have to work towards meaning you get both instantaneous and delayed gratification. Even the old CGs look fine, personally I'm not a fan of the art but it'd be nonsense to claim they are bad.
The main issue which makes this game frustrating and finally caused me to delete it was combat. Almost all depth in combat is ruined by the fact that there are no indicators for what level you should be, when to expect combat, and that the best team lineup I've found is just an entire support team for the MC.
I consistently attempted to make interesting combinations such as hyperbuff'd Tsubaki, one-punch Brad, Chiro the Grey, and ADHD Sandra. All of them are shit compared to making MC chug every stat boost, pouring all the skill points into team-wide stat increases and spamming regular attack. The only 2 helpful combat companions I found were Trey (the only man able to tank anything good lord everyone is so squishy), and MC the only guy other than Sandra who can do any damage consistently. Mira and Sandra have uses outside combat like heals and lockpicking, but other than that you can just put whoever you want since they won't do anything.
This entire problem could be circumvented with the introduction of actual passive abilities. Why do you have to activate Trey's blessing as a paladin he barely gets 2 rounds per battle before either the rest of the team is dead or the enemy is dead. Or corrupted body, its damage buff is literally not worth wasting an attack. Sandra should enter combat in vanish, and AOE spell should not be doing more damage per character than single target spells.
Vampire was consistently one of my highest level characters and could not, for the life of her, do anything. Some characters like Vampire or Tsubaki simply do not do anything. Either no enemies are ever vulnerable to their elements, or the amount of skillpoints needed to even make them relevant is incredibly wasteful.
Combat can seemingly arise from nothing, finding Chiyo early and immediately suffering 3 AOE rock shatters that can kill a level 25 team with Trey having high M.Def gear, is neither predictable nor engaging. No one expects to be ambushed on the 2nd story of a barracks in your own base right after starting the game. Fortunately the Auto-Save is good and has saved me more times than I'd like to admit.
Thanks for listening to my Ted-Talk, I hope the dev makes the main cast more interesting and completely overhauls combat.
Otherwise this game is fun and reflects the effort and diligence of the dev.
4/5 Worldbuilding
3/5 Characters
4/5 Management
Shaq-Fu/5 Combat
Emphasis on Combat means Overall 2~3/5
I want to like this game and I personally find it charming and filled with signs of the dev putting genuine effort into it. The interiors of most buildings look to be constructed by the dev himself, each and every one has some intriguing thing to do inside. Characters you wouldn't expect have some dialogue or interaction.
The management portion of the game is enjoyable, albeit very linear. There is a clear route that must be taken to advance the progress of the kingdom but that isn't inherently bad.
The large party that can be swapped out easily is great. Having an entourage that reacts to events helps create a nice atmosphere. My only gripe is that the characters themselves aren't very interesting. They're fine party members but not well fleshed out characters.
Scenes are nice! There's a lot and some are easy to get and repeat while others you have to work towards meaning you get both instantaneous and delayed gratification. Even the old CGs look fine, personally I'm not a fan of the art but it'd be nonsense to claim they are bad.
The main issue which makes this game frustrating and finally caused me to delete it was combat. Almost all depth in combat is ruined by the fact that there are no indicators for what level you should be, when to expect combat, and that the best team lineup I've found is just an entire support team for the MC.
I consistently attempted to make interesting combinations such as hyperbuff'd Tsubaki, one-punch Brad, Chiro the Grey, and ADHD Sandra. All of them are shit compared to making MC chug every stat boost, pouring all the skill points into team-wide stat increases and spamming regular attack. The only 2 helpful combat companions I found were Trey (the only man able to tank anything good lord everyone is so squishy), and MC the only guy other than Sandra who can do any damage consistently. Mira and Sandra have uses outside combat like heals and lockpicking, but other than that you can just put whoever you want since they won't do anything.
This entire problem could be circumvented with the introduction of actual passive abilities. Why do you have to activate Trey's blessing as a paladin he barely gets 2 rounds per battle before either the rest of the team is dead or the enemy is dead. Or corrupted body, its damage buff is literally not worth wasting an attack. Sandra should enter combat in vanish, and AOE spell should not be doing more damage per character than single target spells.
Vampire was consistently one of my highest level characters and could not, for the life of her, do anything. Some characters like Vampire or Tsubaki simply do not do anything. Either no enemies are ever vulnerable to their elements, or the amount of skillpoints needed to even make them relevant is incredibly wasteful.
Combat can seemingly arise from nothing, finding Chiyo early and immediately suffering 3 AOE rock shatters that can kill a level 25 team with Trey having high M.Def gear, is neither predictable nor engaging. No one expects to be ambushed on the 2nd story of a barracks in your own base right after starting the game. Fortunately the Auto-Save is good and has saved me more times than I'd like to admit.
Thanks for listening to my Ted-Talk, I hope the dev makes the main cast more interesting and completely overhauls combat.
Otherwise this game is fun and reflects the effort and diligence of the dev.
4/5 Worldbuilding
3/5 Characters
4/5 Management
Shaq-Fu/5 Combat
Emphasis on Combat means Overall 2~3/5