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[Complistic]

I only run with unique characters. No recruiting.

Same here

 

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

Yeah, same here, I'm 12h in and almost finished with the intermission part; only have 2 archers, and they were unique characters that I've recruited.

So far I did fine in the side-missions with lots of enemy archer encampments as I'm using the valor ability to take them out from distance.

 

[Dibbs]

Man, to hell with the

Spoiler

Fruth harbor fight (side quest). Geysers and traps, and those mf evading wyverns. Really good and fun fight in the end tho. Need to learn how to counter wyverns tho.

 

[Hudo]

I only run with unique characters. No recruiting.

Same but only females.

 

[kingpotato]

It's anyone not playing on the hardest difficulty? I feel like they should have added a harder mode.

 

[Complistic]

It's anyone not playing on the hardest difficulty? I feel like they should have added a harder mode.

Playing on normal but I'll play on a harder difficulty after.

 

[killatopak]

It's anyone not playing on the hardest difficulty? I feel like they should have added a harder mode.

Makes me actually want to restart my playthrough. The reason I was in normal was because I went with normal on the demo. I steamrolled most the overworld units with on the demo map after the archer recruitment quest.

Speaking of difficulty, are there difficulty requirements for trophies?

 

[CrustyBritches]

It's anyone not playing on the hardest difficulty? I feel like they should have added a harder mode.

I'm 4hrs in and I've been playing on Normal. Gonna move up to Tactical now. Probably won't play on the hardest difficulty.
---
P.S.- Difficulty can be changed anytime from the menu.

 

[Chuck Berry]

I feel like if any dev is going to get me into a SRPG it's going to be Vanillaware

My plate is just so full right now. I probably wont get to this until the Summer

 

[jshackles]

Caved and bought a copy for the Switch. I'm almost done with Rebirth, and about halfway through Infinite Wealth - but didn't have anything lined up for my handheld gaming time away from home (about 2 hours a day), so figured I might as well dive headfirst into yet another 50 hour game lol

 

[Raven117]

Caved and bought a copy for the Switch. I'm almost done with Rebirth, and about halfway through Infinite Wealth - but didn't have anything lined up for my handheld gaming time away from home (about 2 hours a day), so figured I might as well dive headfirst into yet another 50 hour game lol

I feel your pain.

 

[CrustyBritches]

So stoked I just got the Monarch Editions in the mail 1 day after they shipped. They both seem to be in really good condition. I'll open one and enjoy it, then keep the other sealed for a collector's item. I had barely played the demo and really liked it, but after I saw the Monarch unboxing I really wanted it. Now that I've played about 5hrs I'm super glad I bought these. This game is really special. It's like an alternate timeline where 2D games kept evolving and we got beautiful games like this instead of Assassin's Creed variant x26.

Unboxing pics:

 

[TheDarkPhantom]

Something tells me they are going to take Josef from me, he's literally a one-man army lol. Still early on but loving every second of it, intrigued by how much more complex things are going to get once 6 man units become a reality with multiple units spread out on the battlefield focused on different objectives, good stuff.

Right now thief seems kind of OP, literally evading every attack thrown at him, just use a different unit when going up against archers. Speaking of archers I appreciate the back-up attack you can call in when going into battle but it's balanced by the fact that it costs a stamina point each time. I wonder if DMG increases based on how many archers are in the unit

Music is so good, art is glorious, sweet tactical combat is something I live for. Lore entries are kind of bananas with how much they throw at you, there is a lot of character/world exposition for those that want to dive in. I also appreciate the various gameplay quirks like stationing a guard (who you can then gift a present) and building rapport with fighters in the same unit, it all adds a bit of extra flavour to the world.

 

[Celcius]

Just finished the game and Muramasa was previously my favorite Vanillaware game but I feel this is their best game by a mile.
So many characters and they're all excellent from a design perspective, a story perspective, and being unique gameplay-wise. Even the ending and how they wrap up everything for each character is fantastic.

Spoiler

I ended up deciding to marry Railanor and I was really impressed at how they update the late-game cutscenes and ending based on who you marry.

The coliseum and battle system are tons of fun as well. Lots of tweaking that you can do with gear, party members, gambits, etc... It feels like they took the battle system from 13 Sentinels and then evolved it to be even better. All of the different classes are fun to play and figuring out different ways to combine them is tons of fun.
The art is fantastic as you would expect from Vanillaware but the sheer amount of amazing art in this game is an accomplishment in itself. It feels like any screenshot from the game could be a painting hung on a wall. The story is really interesting as well.
The voice acting and music are great here too. To me this feels like a mix between Final Fantasy Tactics and Valkyria Chronicles and is an instant classic. Between this, Persona 3 Reload, and FF7 Rebirth, there's no way I can choose a GOTY this year.

Also, this is a public service announcement that Railanor is the main character of the game:

 

[CrustyBritches]

I'm still pretty early(I have 3 squads of 3), and Josef really is a one-man wrecking crew. Right now my main squad is Alain, Josef(Poison Dagger), and Rolf(Flaming Bow). My 2nd and 3rd squads vary a lot, but recently I've been liking Hodrick, Chloe, and Yahna. If you get enemy columns you can line Chloe up in formation and Yahna opens with Magick Conferral which massively boost atk for Chloe so she just punches right through 2 enemies followed up by a magic attack from Yahna and Hodrick is a good tank. Moved up to Tactical difficulty. Will feel it out if I should go up to Expert.

 

[Celcius]

I'm still pretty early(I have 3 squads of 3), and Josef really is a one-man wrecking crew. Right now my main squad is Alain, Josef(Poison Dagger), and Rolf(Flaming Bow). My 2nd and 3rd squads vary a lot, but recently I've been liking Hodrick, Chloe, and Yahna. If you get enemy columns you can line Chloe up in formation and Yahna opens with Magick Conferral which massively boost atk for Chloe so she just punches right through 2 enemies followed up by a magic attack from Yahna and Hodrick is a good tank. Moved up to Tactical difficulty. Will feel it out if I should go up to Expert.

Joseph early on reminded me of Cid from FF Tactics - an old man carrying my team on his back for part of the game lol.

 

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

Happy that everyone has been having tons of fun with the game (I see that some of us even finished it ).

I put another 5h yesterday and I'm currently at the start of the Drankengard campaign (did the first 2 main quests there and called it a night). Can't wait to dive back in later today after work!

Oh, and it looks like Atlus JP are continuing to post new character intros so here are the ones they've uploaded today.

 

[cireza]

Josef really is a one-man wrecking crew.

I decided to not use him at all. No recruits either.

 

[Hudo]

Here's my review:

Pros:

• Vanillaware art style is awesome
• Soundtrack has some bangers but less memorable than 13 Sentinels
• Remember Ogre Battle? It takes inspiration from that and makes it more awesome
• It has a Gambit system! (If you don't know what that is, don't talk to me)
• You can have waifus

Cons:

• No PC version
• Story is not the main focus of this game. If you're coming from 13 Sentinels, don't expect a story as intricate. It's more boilerplate and more cliché. But servicable.
• I would've liked some sort of Skirmish mode with its own maps
• No harem ending possible

Final Score: Melisandre (best girl) / 10

 

[Perfo]

Here's my review:

Pros:

• Vanillaware art style is awesome
• Soundtrack has some bangers but less memorable than 13 Sentinels
• Remember Ogre Battle? It takes inspiration from that and makes it more awesome
• It has a Gambit system! (If you don't know what that is, don't talk to me)
• You can have waifus

Cons:

• No PC version
• Story is not the main focus of this game. If you're coming from 13 Sentinels, don't expect a story as intricate. It's more boilerplate and more cliché. But servicable.
• I would've liked some sort of Skirmish mode with its own maps
• No harem ending possible

Final Score: Melisandre (best girl) / 10

How long did it took you to finish it? When I’m done 3 years from now with Rebirth I would like the next game to be a bit shorter

 

[Hudo]

How long did it took you to finish it? When I’m done 3 years from now with Rebirth I would like the next game to be a bit shorter

Maybe around 45 hours or so? It is quite meaty and you can go for a lot of side content, which I have not done all that much. But my real play through begins now: All female army (at least as much as the game allows), lead by Alain. That's my harem ending.

 

[Shake Your Rump]

only have 2 archers

The first sidequest in the game has a lot of thieves which dodge, so the game recommends archers against them. It even explicitly tells you to recruit archers. I’ve done everything else available and only have one archer. Did you do this quest?

 

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

The first sidequest in the game has a lot of thieves which dodge, so the game recommends archers against them. It even explicitly tells you to recruit archers. I’ve done everything else available and only have one archer. Did you do this quest?

Yeah, I did every side-quest from the first zone. Don't remember exactly from where I recruited the second archer character though.

 

[Shake Your Rump]

Joseph early on reminded me of Cid from FF Tactics - an old man carrying my team on his back for part of the game lol.

You folks actually use Josef? No wonder people claim the game is too easy. I have benched him from the start.

Difficulty has seemed spot on for me. I feel like I need to make the correct choices to win battles.

I wonder what the differences even are between the difficulty levels. It it’s just more HP than it can fuck off. I’ve learned my lesson against playing “hard” difficulties in JRPGs since they always just mean “grind more newb”.

Edit: yep. Higher difficulty is just deal less damage to enemies and gain less valor. That’s it. No thanks.

 

[Miyazaki’s Slave]

For everyone who says "vote with your wallet" yeah...you should do that. This game is gorgeous on EVERY platform available, has great battle systems, the music is great, and you don't need to spend 8 hours on individual strategic battles.

Buy it ffs.

 

[Renoir]

Same here

I was doing the same until I had the epiphany...
Aren't the recruited unit potentially stronger than uniques? Especially since you can pick their growth.

 

[Filben]

Played the demo on the Switch and it's the first J/SRPG ever that I enjoyed. Really thinking of getting the full version (though not sure if for PS5 or Switch).

 

[Hudo]

Played the demo on the Switch and it's the first J/SRPG ever that I enjoyed. Really thinking of getting the full version (though not sure if for PS5 or Switch).

Do it man. Vanillaware are worth supporting, imho.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

Just finished the game and Muramasa was previously my favorite Vanillaware game but I feel this is their best game by a mile.
So many characters and they're all excellent from a design perspective, a story perspective, and being unique gameplay-wise. Even the ending and how they wrap up everything for each character is fantastic.

Spoiler

I ended up deciding to marry Railanor and I was really impressed at how they update the late-game cutscenes and ending based on who you marry.

The coliseum and battle system are tons of fun as well. Lots of tweaking that you can do with gear, party members, gambits, etc... It feels like they took the battle system from 13 Sentinels and then evolved it to be even better. All of the different classes are fun to play and figuring out different ways to combine them is tons of fun.
The art is fantastic as you would expect from Vanillaware but the sheer amount of amazing art in this game is an accomplishment in itself. It feels like any screenshot from the game could be a painting hung on a wall. The story is really interesting as well.
The voice acting and music are great here too. To me this feels like a mix between Final Fantasy Tactics and Valkyria Chronicles and is an instant classic. Between this, Persona 3 Reload, and FF7 Rebirth, there's no way I can choose a GOTY this year.

Also, this is a public service announcement that Railanor is the main character of the game:

JFC how did you clear it already, did you just skip every cutscene?

How many hours was your clear time?

 

[Celcius]

JFC how did you clear it already, did you just skip every cutscene?

How many hours was your clear time?

55 hours
I’m on a 3 week vacation so I’ve been binge playing it lol
Today I’m going to do some post-game stuff

 

[Roman Empire]

You gotta love how blatantly horny these games are.

What is good was meant to be shown as they say.

 

[poppabk]

For everyone who says "vote with your wallet" yeah...you should do that. This game is gorgeous on EVERY platform available, has great battle systems, the music is great, and you don't need to spend 8 hours on individual strategic battles.

Buy it ffs.

I'm trying to vote with my wallet and not buy it, seeing as there isn't a version on my platform of choice and the reasoning for why seems to be out of spite. But my time with the switch demo is almost over and I don't want to stop playing.

 

[Orbital2060]

Time flies in this game. I put it on, and start following breadcrumbs and reading stuff in the menus, and whoosh three hours passed.

It has worked perfectly with quick resume so Ive been using that.

 

[Shake Your Rump]

I'm trying to vote with my wallet and not buy it, seeing as there isn't a version on my platform of choice and the reasoning for why seems to be out of spite. But my time with the switch demo is almost over and I don't want to stop playing.

You seriously won't accept a PS5/PS4/Switch/Xbox version over PC despite the games being virtually indentical in all aspects across platforms. Hell, non-PC platforms are even superior due to physical copies.

 

[Shadowstar39]

Only early on, maybe 5 or 6 towns and one walled town done but man this game is great!!!
I was initially turned off from the autobattle thing, especially in the prologue with the queen and crew where you basically wiped the floor with everyone. It wasn't until I actually got to play the demo as a low level that it showed it different.
Then it started opening up more and more and moving units on the map became a thing. I was then hooked. Instantly bought the game.

They must of not made many physical as it was sold out online everywhere ( well there was a best buy out in the sticks 2 hours away, but damn I wasn't driving to that, as they didn't have delivery for some reason, that store is ridiculous sometimes.
So just got it digital on the switch. Been shifting between this, Shiren 6, Pentiment, Blatro, Tomb Raider tri, and Stalker xbx, but mainly UO, it gets most of my time.

I just hope that Vanillaware ports Muramasa, Dragons Crown and Odin sphere to switch. (i own muramasa on Wii and vita, as well as Dragons Crown and OS on vita and ps4, but I would buy all 3 again on the switch).
This studio needs all the support it can get for making some of the greatest games!

 

[poppabk]

You seriously won't accept a PS5/PS4/Switch/Xbox version over PC despite the games being virtually indentical in all aspects across platforms. Hell, non-PC platforms are even superior due to physical copies.

Check my tag, physical is not that important to me. I only have a PC, my kids have a switch, which technically makes it mine - but 'vote with your wallet' generally refers to purchasing or not purchasing something on principal. And not releasing a PC version because you seemingly don't like PC gamers is something maybe worth taking a stand against.
Even if I buy it on Switch I will still be playing it on PC.

 

[Celcius]

62 hours in now. Completed the post-game battle which is huge and the characters it gives you is really cool. It was also an easy way to level most of my characters to level 50 (max).
Then spent some time using the blacksmith to upgrade the magical weapons for all my elves and spent some more time in the coliseum as well.
Next I just need to go back and finish up the coliseum, find more divine shards so that I can get that ultimate triple spell, finish exploring the rest of the map (less than 10% to go), and then look at what trophies I'm missing.

If you want to play around with maxing all the gear for ALL of your characters then it feels like you can put as many hours into the game as you want.

Oh yeah, and I also need to go back and try some of those online coliseum battles...

 

[Dibbs]

Is there a penalty exp-wise or moneywise for choosing Skip Battle? Im doing it now and then in low lvl battles.

 

[Labadal]

Is there a penalty exp-wise or moneywise for choosing Skip Battle? Im doing it now and then in low lvl battles.

Not that I know of. I skip 60% of battles.

 

[Complistic]

Is there a penalty exp-wise or moneywise for choosing Skip Battle? Im doing it now and then in low lvl battles.

No, you will get reduced XP if you are over leveled though. A good excuse to deploy your less often used units.

 

[Shake Your Rump]

Check my tag, physical is not that important to me. I only have a PC, my kids have a switch, which technically makes it mine - but 'vote with your wallet' generally refers to purchasing or not purchasing something on principal. And not releasing a PC version because you seemingly don't like PC gamers is something maybe worth taking a stand against.
Even if I buy it on Switch I will still be playing it on PC.

Consider my mind completely boggled. You are principled against a company not wanting to devote the development and support resources to a fragmented hardware based plagued with piracy and cheaters, but you have no stance again corporations exercising unilateral control over access to our games?

 

[Celcius]

After 65 hours I think I'm finally ready to give it a rest.
Today after finishing up all of the coliseum battles then I went back exploring the world and came across an entire area and like 4 or 5 playable characters that I had missed out on, so I'm glad I went back.
I've got 99.4% of the map explored and I don't see anything obvious while looking at the world map but I can't be bothered to go check every single nook and cranny to find the last 0.6% that I'm missing.

I'm looking forward to seeing where Vanillaware goes from here!

 

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

I gotta admit, I didn't expect big mommy

 

[poppabk]

Consider my mind completely boggled. You are principled against a company not wanting to devote the development and support resources to a fragmented hardware based plagued with piracy and cheaters, but you have no stance again corporations exercising unilateral control over access to our games?

Why dont you tell us how you really think?
Maybe you could also explain how an almost completely single player game that can be emulated on PC is impacted by any of this?

 

[Deerock71]

Mad props to the gorgeous OT! @_@

 

[Labadal]

Some of these battlefields are really large, now.

In some battles, I end up fielding all ten units.

I have 38 characters recruited. I will be feeling bad for whoever I leave out in the future.

 

[CrustyBritches]

About 9hrs in. Just reached Renown Level C and unlocked the 4th character slot for 2 squads while hanging on to some expand points in case I decide to expand another unit or unlock a few additional squads. I've mostly been using the 2nd and 3rd tier squads without Josef to make it more challenging and fun. I end up having to be more tactical and burn through some items and with a little luck they get the victory. Not ready to move up to Expert yet, but if I was prioritizing my main squad I probably would. I would recommend playing on Tactical or Expert after the first hour or 2.

Aside from that I've just been bringing supply deliveries and stationing guards. Doing the mining game and throwing feasts. Just about to start the next step in the main quest, 'Talk to Miriam'. Loving the game it's so awesome!

P.S.-This game has some beautiful backgrounds and visuals. From Steam Deck:

 

[Danjin44]

About 9hrs in. Just reached Renown Level C and unlocked the 4th character slot for 2 squads while hanging on to some expand points in case I decide to expand another unit or unlock a few additional squads. I've mostly been using the 2nd and 3rd tier squads without Josef to make it more challenging and fun. I end up having to be more tactical and burn through some items and with a little luck they get the victory. Not ready to move up to Expert yet, but if I was prioritizing my main squad I probably would. I would recommend playing on Tactical or Expert after the first hour or 2.

Aside from that I've just been bringing supply deliveries and stationing guards. Doing the mining game and throwing feasts. Just about to start the next step in the main quest, 'Talk to Miriam'. Loving the game it's so awesome!

P.S.-This game has some beautiful backgrounds and visuals. From Steam Deck:

Yeah the background art is gorgeous and so detailed and I was surprised this game night and day cycle.

 

[TheDarkPhantom]

Can we all just take a moment to thank our lucky stars this game even exists? It's the definition of niche but it's so brilliantly realized and there isn't any compromise in the production value. All praise due to Vanillaware for releasing it amidst the current gaming landscape.

Reached C rank and had my first huge battle rescuing Scarlett last night. Was thrown for a loop at the end of that mission when it turned out I had still had a big fight ahead of me, boss wiped out multiple squads down to 1HP, time limit was down to the wire, I got the victory in the end though, good stuff.

Usually I ignore 99% of the usable items you pick up in RPG'S but here I frequently find myself employing them to gain an advantage whether it's increasing the unit's ATK/DEF, healing, renewing stamina etc. Was surprised to get items that can physically be deployed on the battlefield like barricades, adds yet even more layers of strategy to something that is already super deep.

Loving everything about it, making slow progress because I'm balancing this with Rebirth but the two games contrast and compliment each other quite well, I'm enjoying bouncing between the two. What an incredible year it's been for RPG lovers, I need to go back to Yakuza 8 (about 60% done) once I've completed these two .

 

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

Thanks Vanillaware for making these amazing characters!

Can't wait for the weekend to start and put another 20h into the game! ;o