After playing through more of the game…I have to revise my impressions of the game I wrote above. Apparently much of the beginning of the game was a sort of spoof, kind of like how anime series often start with comedy elements and become more serious as the series progresses. It still rather seems like the main character leads an “army” of around five soldiers, but the military setting has become much less ridiculous, and the battle plans actually sound plausible now. It’s a good game. There’s a good balance of story and battle, and the tactical battles are engaging and challenging. The story isn’t bad either. There’s a lot of interesting political intrigue going on. My main gripes are the persisting empty-headedness of half the girls, and of course the constant crashing (though turning off the sound at certain points has helped my progress immeasurably). It is SO irritating when the ougis crash a battle I’ve almost won. Disabling sound-effects/voices doesn’t stop the crashing here–I just have to avoid using them (which sucks). I also have another gripe, but this is something that pops up in many RPG’s.
minor spoiler
When someone attacks you…they’re trying to kill you. There’s a certain character that tries to kill the entire party, not once, but several times. She’s not just an enemy doing her job…she actually attacks you out of little more than bloodlust. Despite this, everyone in the party seems to feel that killing her or capturing her for execution would be the most terrible thing ever. I don’t buy this. If someone tries to kill me multiple times for nothing more than sport, I’m not going to balk when I’m ordered to take her head. I might feel pity for her, but that’s it.
[/spoiler]
Edit: Disabling 3D effects seems to avoid the ougi-related crashing, but also makes the battle effects in general animate rather poorly.
[This message has been edited by Dark_Shiki (edited 03-12-2005).]