Jeremy Dudley

I completed the game in about 36 hours which is about a dollar an hour for your money, which is always good. PROs: Story was fun with some neat twists that'll bring a smile or a frown. I was enthralled with the story, wanting to find out history in-game and I didn't feel like I had to push my way through the story. I was always interested in what happens next. Good bit of humor for all generations of RPG fans. Side quests included were fun and brought much needed depth to the story. Combat was simple and enjoyable. Don't try and reinvent the wheel was the standard for combat IMO. Always a good mechanic to allow you to switch characters on the fly mid combat. The lock system was fun to try and match, tho once you start abusing it, the enemies start pulling super moves in one turn which is good as to not let you stun lock the enemies. CHARACTERS are all cool and have their own personalities. Nothing absolutley wild in terms of variation, but at the end of the day JRPGs are about good guys winning and bad guys losing. Design of the characters were really fun to look at and watch their little animations. ENVIRONMENTS! The whole game is crafted beautifully. I love Mesa Island the best, it just looks so pretty. CONs: Exploration was pretty dry, pretty self evident where the goodies are with some minor and some frustrating exceptions. Only one that I HAD to look up was the very last secret, but it really isn't all that relevant. Combat is both PRO and CON, hopefully a sequel will add more depth, but I'm used to Breath of FIre style turn based, so the simplicity is something I'm into. I do agree with some that is can get a little dull, but I never felt robbed by the experience. The last couple of bosses in the game I feel like could've used some more diverse moves or a little bit of stat boost since I was DECKED out in equipment. Then there is the stat progression, I really wanted to customize my characters more. It didn't feel like characters had weaknesses or strengths, they all seemed the same-ish in that aspect. I played on the switch and twice I had an "Unexpected Error" that closed my game at awful times. CONCLUSION: I would give it a 3.75 cause of the errors but it rounds to a 4. Not perfect, but worth 35 dollars. Glad they didn't charge 60 bucks. I felt a little Golden Sun, little ChronoTrigger, a little Breath of Fire, a little Super Mario RPG, and just a tad of Final Fantasy sprinkled in there. If you're looking to scratch an itch with an original game then this is it. I look forward to a sequel.