Just finished playing. Honest opinion/review. [Long post]
Hey! I don't usually do this, sharing opinions is something I tend to keep to myself. but after finishing the game, knowing full well it's in early access and this is only 25% of the full experience, I came away with a lot of mixed feelings. I'm going to leave here the review I wrote on Steam, with some things I've been rethinking along the way. I currently have 14+ hours, having completed everything, including the roguelike section.
This is what I wrote around the 6-hour mark, right after finishing the first Hall of Trials:
The movement and map design couldn't be more frustrating. A large part of the exploration and progression in this game depends on poorly placed edges across the map, the assets feel very roughly placed (though I think this is more of a game design issue than an art one). To move from section to section, you have to meticulously scan every corner to figure out where you can and can't go, which to me, gets old fast. I understand that part of the appeal of RPG exploration is the "I can't reach destination A so I have to go through B" loop, but that only works when the maps are well designed. This is, in my opinion, the biggest thing holding the game back: a poorly designed environment that constantly works against the player. Fast travel helps, but only so much.
This also hurts the puzzles badly. They're actually easy/fun, which should be a good thing, but the map constantly gets in the way. I'm not criticizing the puzzle design itself, but the positioning and the maneuvers the player has to pull off to solve them are just obnoxious. Nothing in a puzzle should feel frame-perfect.
The protagonist, trauma and all, feels flat. Why does almost every line of dialogue have to be "I..." "Uh..." "It's just..."? Do we really need that many reminders that she's introverted? The game already tells us. And Cabbage as a sidekick contributes almost nothing beyond saying "The gods are silent..." Okay, we got it. What else? Why are we giving him dialogue if most of the time he's repeating what he's already said?
Enemy variety is also quite limited, though to the game's credit, when new enemies do appear, it genuinely feels rewarding.
Now for the pros, and there are real ones. The combat is great: easy to understand, fluid, and intuitive. The Hall of Trials mini-boss (the empowered turtle) took me three tries, and by the third I had a no-hit run. Weapon variety is solid and feels pretty balanced. The art direction is lovely, and the character design feels original and distinct. The cutscenes are well placed and don't feel out of touch with what's happening context-wise. The pixel art in Alabaster Dawn is INCREDIBLE.
This game has a lot of potential. I was really digging it, but in its current state, I couldn't recommend it. I said I'd update once I fully finished it.
And after finishing the game, here's what I have to add:
Did we really need another Hall of Trials? I get it's technically the same one on a different floor, but... why does the story have to advance through a puzzle section every single time? I get it, the first one served a purpose: it's where we discover the second element. But the second felt entirely gratuitous, like it existed just to teach the player a gimmick with the weapon and the aether orbs before the next boss fight. That fight was a slog, and so were the rest of the encounters in that dungeon. Is it really necessary to have mobs inside a place already packed with puzzles?
Take the Cloister of Trials in FFX: Time-consuming, sure, and not without its moments of frustration, but not a single mob in sight. You don't depend on any mechanic beyond your own wit and the controls. There's also a real sense of satisfaction in completing them: the rewards are meaningful, and you know it'll be a good while before you run into another one. Here it's the complete opposite. Constantly switching between elements and weapons to get anything done isn't fun, it's exhausting. At least for me.
And then, past the second Hall of Trials, it's genuinely annoying and disappointing that reaching Sundalam requires yet another puzzle segment. The Hall of Trials was supposed to be the puzzle place... why else would it be called that? If the player walks out of it only to run into the same challenges all over again, the name loses all meaning. I'm not talking about the lore itself, but about the design decision behind giving that name to that specific section of the game. The player does not want to walk out of a puzzle dungeon, watch the story move forward, and immediately run into more puzzles. The Cloisters in FFX are meticulously placed within the story and earn their context. Here they're not. A puzzle every five minutes doesn't challenge the player, it stalls the game, kills the pacing, and breeds frustration.
Speaking of frustration: did it really not occur to the devs that there might be another way to transition between areas besides "Hmm, looks like we can't get through here. Let's find another way!" followed by skirting the entire map to find a broken bridge, followed by.... you guessed it..... a puzzle segment? One linear section is not going to break your game or undermine the story you're trying to tell. You know what actually does that? Puzzle after puzzle destroying the game's cadence until the player forgets there even is a story and stops caring.
You already have an unconventional RPG on your hands, it's not a sin to go two or three hours without a puzzle. How many puzzles does Chrono Trigger have? The FF saga? In CT, almost none. The game trusts its story and its combat to keep you hooked, and it works. In Final Fantasy, puzzles are the exception, not the rhythm. When they show up, they mark something: an iconic dungeon, a temple, a point of no return. They feel like events. Here they feel like filler, the glue between parts and areas.
The roguelike mode feels completely out of place. I think it's a case of jack of all trades, master of none. Why does the game suddenly shift into roguelike territory for this section? Why not make the whole game like that, then? It breaks the cohesion of the experience for what feels like pure whim. The dream sequence could have kept the same structure and nothing would have been lost.
Honestly, I came away pretty disappointed. Not for me. It's a shame because I was starting to dig the characters, dialogue, environment, etc. But I just didn't get fully hooked.