Nice read, good job Corwin (and txa and dhruin). I have to disagree in some areas. Combat was just far too easy to bother with puppet mode, and far to excessive. Party members doing something stupid or not equaled faster win on AI. And, party members are invincible, and resting very quick and simple, so all you needed was one person to survive.
I can honestly say I’ve never played a game with worse combat, and basic combat mechanics. The best interface in the world, and the best AI in the world, can’t make up for combat so easy I could let my three year old daughter take over for me while I went to have a cigarette and piss.
I played on the highest difficulty, and if I remember right, aoe spells hurt party members, so the poor AI compounded the issue, but not micromanaging still was faster and easier (including resting at the end) then actually getting involved, myself, in the combat decision making.
The piss poor, ridiculously easy, overabundant combat also had a residual detrimental effect on every other aspect of the game, such as loot. There was far too much loot, and after about 15 hours of playing I basically stopped wasting my time upgrading, or switching loot between members when forced to take someone else.
And, of course, combat being as hands-off, easy, un-interactive, un-involving, and un-rewarding as it is, it kind of takes the fun out of character building. And of course, party synergy is just wasted, so why even have a party? For talking of course.
If they removed all but the key battles, and had the key battles play out in cut-scenes that you watch, and got rid of everything related to combat, such as character building and loot, it would be a very entertaining choose your own adventure animated graphic novel that I might possibly be interested in seeing how the story unfolds. But, if combat is going to be a huge focus of the game, and the only interesting part of the game is story and party interaction, why would I want to be tortured with the worst combat in an rpg the world has ever seen for most of the game.
I could be wrong and just have missed something that everyone else gets, and to disprove myself I point to this review, every other review, and the lack of people talking about this I general. If combat (combat alone, despite interface and AI problems) was not that bad what was good about it? What got you through the endless, neverending, retarded battles? I have a theory: crpg players are so used to craptastic combat they are actually immune to it. They want it to be as fast as possible so they can just get to the content they like. If it’s good or bad doesn’t even enter the mind.
Well, that’s my take. Very interesting review. Well written and good points. I like the thoughts from other staff to get the broader opinion, and it also will show that staff members like different things and that one staff’s review doesn’t encompass the thoughts of the whole site.
