I'm starting to have reservations about this game. It's nothing fatal to my enjoyment of the game, but it is a minor concern that has the potential to grow into a major complaint. It all started around hour four, when I faced off against a major boss. It had an extremely dangerous attack, called Inferno Insignia that could almost completely defeat me in a single hit. I had to fight it about five times, and I got the feeling that my final victory was mostly due to a favorable turn of the random number generator.
The problem I foresee is that I don't really understand the game's advancement. Did I whiff against that boss because I was underleveled, or is it just that the game is kind of tough? It's hard to say, because sometimes one of my characters will gain more hit points or intelligence, and that makes sense, but is it enough? Other times I'll gain a stat like "bravery" or "love," and I can't help wondering what these will do for me. And then "gluttony" levels up, and I'm sure the game is fucking with me.
This is compounded by the fact that the equipment system is incredibly baroque. Each of the game's weapons has its own upgrade chain, which requires a number of different resources of one of dozens of different types. How fast am I supposed to gather these resources? Plus, my biggest source of gold is captured monsters, but ripping apart captured monsters (and this is a choice that makes me uncomfortable, because it sounds kind of cruel) gets you extra resources, so what is the proper balance between collection and butchery? Making sure I advance at the correct rate could prove to me a major chore.
As far as the plot goes, I don't know, stuff is happening. Rush found his sister being held by a guy named Wagrum, who is some kind of super-powerful mage that can summon black holes capable of incapacitating my entire party, and is responsible for activating the aforementioned boss. Then suddenly a bunch of complicated political stuff starts happening. Wagrum claims to work for the same Academy as Rush's parents, which is apparently some sort of powerful extra-national organization that doesn't answer to any government and occasionally does some unethical experiments with Remnants.
So Althum, the city-state that has so far befriended Rush, is made very nervous by this situation, and they have to tread carefully around the larger city state, Celapaleis, to which they swear fealty (but have an antagonistic relationship). And Wagrum serves some other, as yet unnamed, master, who may or may not be part of the Academy.
Honestly, it's kind of a drag. Rush is a little more tolerable, but every time he calls David "Dave" it makes me want to slap him. He got a new outfit, which is hopefully a metaphor for his character growth, and maybe in time he'll be less annoying. Assuming I survive that long.
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