|
Plus if you chain attacks you only need to bring up the grid once for each enemy, although it wouldn't be a good idea to use this method when fighting bosses on your first play through.
Additionaly the chain attacks have a lot of useful status changes to inflict on enemies.
Next, you can't buy anythnig in the game, there are no shops or money, you only get new weapons & armour by finding them or making them. There are three blade types (plus 6 material types) that are strong or weak against different classes or alignments of enemies (there are 8 classes, and six elemental alignments), plus the more you use a particular weapon against whatever class or alignment the more effective it becomes, and in turn less effective against opposing classes. Also there are loads of buff spells and gems to equip to weapons & armour to make them more effective.
Weapons can't break, after a certain amount of use they do need to be repaired but a weapon that needs reparing is only marginally worse than one in good condition.
Admittedly some of the early boss fights can be a slog where you will only do a few HP of damage with each blow, but you can also reflect damage back when they hit you if you use defence properly. However as you get stronger and power up your weapons boss fights become a lot more manageable, especially on 2nd or 3rd play throughs.
The game can only be completed in 2 hours if you on probably a third or 4th play through when you've got a lot stronger and very good equipment.
Also you can save whenever you like if you go to a save point, but that's common to a lot of games. If you played through only the first few hours then there's a save point in the first room, and 2 before the first boss, one straight after, and plenty more after that. There are only 2 areas of the game that you can't save in, one is a maze you have to get through within a certain time limit, and the other is a an area that is unlocked after your first play through.
Anyway, aside from that it's got one of the best and most cliche free stories of any rpg, the sound is great & is closer to a film score than regular game music, plus not all areas of the game have music, when you are in the town for example you just get the sound of birds singing, the river etc, which I think works great.
The weapon forging system is really engrossing and addictive. The titles that the game awards you for achieving certain things also kept me hooked for a long time. The titles you get for time trials of previously completed puzzles are funny. 15% of the game area and the best weapons, armour and spells are only obtainable on the second play through, plus you get to keep all your old stuff when you restart from the begining so you don't have to start forging stuff all over again. God knows how much time I've spent playing that game and there's still a load of stuff I haven't done yet.
Another great thing about this game is that there is no level gaining so no grinding, your stats are only increased by defeating bosses or finding the occasional potion.
|