I finished the game yesterday with Alicia.
Well, technically today (it was 2 AM, and yes I’m crazy).
I originally intended to do my mini-review after becoming a Hunter, but I wasn’t a member yet…
Story
You all know the basic story for the game.
Now about the story that unfolds while playing, there’s not much of it, since the game is mostly about doing quests. But what little story there is is pretty good. The last boss isn’t your typical evil monster wanting to destroy the world. No, this time there’s a nice motive and explanation that’s not too far-fetched.
Dialogue & characters
The dialogue is pretty well done. Each girl has a distinct personality, some of the less important characters too, hell even the main character has a good personality! That’s right, the main character isn’t your typical sex-hungry dumb macho.
He’s actually intelligent and has a developed personality. It’s easy to relate to him.
Now as for how the dialogue is presented… that’s where it gets a bit ugly. You will regularly see typos, phrases were a word is missing or too much, or gramatically incorrect phrases. It already begins when you start the game.
"Now loding."
This game gives the impression that the translators haven’t bothered to play the game after the translation. It feels rushed at times. It makes me think about the Game Boy Color game Lufia: The Legend Returns. That game had between 10-20 typos. Where do you think the famous Lufia phrase “This is what I call FRUE destruction!” comes from?
Thankfully you can still make out what the phrase was supposed to be, and these errors aren’t littered all over the game.
Gameplay
Well, since it’s all point-and-click, the gameplay is pretty flawless. However, being a console gamer, I would have preferred to use a gamepad to move around instead of clicking endlessly just to get somewhere. Sometimes it also feels like you’re unnecessary since all you are doing is clicking on monsters and watching your character slashing it to pieces by itself.
At least that would have been the case if there weren’t skills.
Graphics
Pretty well done. The sprites are detailed and look good. The CG is beautiful. Great art.
Sound
There are not that many tracks, but I guess it’s sufficient. Even then, you’re going to hear a lot of the same few tracks most of the game. The town music will annoy you after a certain time of hearing it when staying long in town. The rest of the music is pretty good.
The sound effects are varied enough and they go well with what they represent.
Game length and mini-review
It took me an odd 40 hours to finish this game, in the span of two weeks of playing. Well, actually three weeks, but there are some days and a part of a week I didn’t play. So you’ll be busy for some time.
The replay value seems quite high. I hear there are extras when you finish the game, and two hidden girls apart from the four already available. You can only get 1 girl each time you play.
Some other points
-So far, I’ve noticed that sometimes after an event with a girl, the music hangs a bit and becomes loud. This also always happens after a sex scene. Sometimes it even stays after quitting the game, and can only be solved by rebooting your PC. It’s annoying. I’m glad that it only happened after an event when I was going to quit anyway.
-The opening movie rocks!!!
How did I play the game?
Just something I wanted to share.
I was being myself when doing decisions. Obviously I’m a bit Alicia-compatible. It may take you a bit less to finish the game, as I always explored every corner of the dungeons, except in the last dungeon of the game and the last floors of the Ancient Capital. Else I would have become nuts.
Seems like this isn’t really a mini-review anymore, even though it didn’t cover everything a normal review would. Anyway, that’s my opinion on the game I wanted to share.
