Shiness - Review @ Twinfinite

HiddenX

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Twinfinite has reviewed Shiness: The Lightning Kingdom:

Shiness: The Lightning Kingdom Is a Fresh But Flawed Take on the ARPG

In recent years ,the idea of a traditional RPG has evolved and matured. As the public became more self-aware in what they like and respond well to in games, RPGs began to take on more serious and darker tones with an emphasis on exploration and an open world. But in yearning for a lighter time filled with experimentation and cringe-worthy cheesy dialogue, Shiness: The Lightning Kingdom was born. Shiness takes many of the things people loved about early 2000s RPGs and mixes in some modern twists for a game that can be both intensely fun and furiously aggravating at the same time.

Shiness: The Lightning Kingdom takes place on Mahera, a planet where even tiny, chubby teddy bear engineers know a surprising amount of martial arts. Our main character is Chado, a young martial artist from race of bear-like people known as Waki. Chado and his engineer friend, Poky, crash land on Gendys Island during their search for magical lands that are said to contain the power of life. Through a series of slapstick-style mishaps, Chado and Poky get caught up in the middle of a war where they befriend foes and seek to take down sources of Dark Shi.

[...]

Shiness: The Lightning Kingdom is a rare gem that captures the feeling of early PS2-era RPGs such as Dark Cloud and Grandia II while bringing it’s own brand of modern to the table. The game certainly isn’t perfect and the technical cracks most definitely show, but the things it tries to do well, it succeeds. Shiness’s combat is some of the most fun I’ve had with battle systems in a very long time and the feeling of laughing at poorly delivered jokes is something that will always work for me. Shiness is a game that would have seen big popularity if it had come out on the PS2. It’s for the crowd that desires a return to those old days only if for 40 or so hours and, unfortunately, I don’t see it landing much with anyone else.

Score: 3.5/5
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Not a single word in the review is it's checkpoints because of limited HDD space on targetted hardware (it is!) and do trashmobs respawn endlessly so you grind (they are!).

That equipment screen looks suspicious, does anyone have this game on PC? Are menus clickable by mouse or is like in some ports F keys, 1-3 or something other used to move through that "forest"?

A rare gem? Right.
 
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shiness

The checkpoints are not automatic, you can choose when and where to save your game. Trasmobs do respawn, but mobs are visible on the map and you can skip them, if you want, by circling around , or using stealth mode. Menus are clickable, although i am using a controller for the game because it is more comfortable to play with it. It is indeed rare gem.
 
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The checkpoints are not automatic, you can choose when and where to save your game. Trasmobs do respawn, but mobs are visible on the map and you can skip them, if you want, by circling around , or using stealth mode. Menus are clickable, although i am using a controller for the game because it is more comfortable to play with it. It is indeed rare gem.

So would you recommend this game? I've been thinking about buying it.
 
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FYI, I gave this game a whirl - liked the artwork in the promo.

After about 2 hours I have ended playing: for some reason, I don't like this.
The art is inconsistent: sometimes beautiful (characters), sometimes bland (environments). The actual game is very by-the-books to my liking.

My advice is this: go play Tales of Berseria instead - a very similar game, but much better experience IMHO.
 
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The checkpoints are not automatic, you can choose when and where to save your game. Trasmobs do respawn, but mobs are visible on the map and you can skip them, if you want, by circling around , or using stealth mode. Menus are clickable, although i am using a controller for the game because it is more comfortable to play with it. It is indeed rare gem.

A rare gem (or rare something) would mean different from others. I saw nothing rare not just in that review.

I don't choose where and when I save my game - for all I know a player cannot press ESC then choose SAVE GAME menu option. F5 from what I've read on steam also doesn't exist. It's checkpoints system where game can be saved only on certain spots on the map. Why? Because saving anywhere would make savefiles too big on phones. And we'll be playing it on phones, right? Note that I wasn't talking about automatic saves anywhere.
Also I wasn't talking about avoiding filler trashmobs that just cannot die by circling around and wasting time one way or another.

If menus are clickable well at least something positive. I might still buy the game on some heavy discount - if norespawn mod ever appears. Otherwise, I'll just listen to this suggestion:
My advice is this: go play Tales of Berseria instead - a very similar game, but much better experience IMHO.

EDIT:
No. Not a chance I'll ever buy that Dragon Age Bears 2, even if norespawn mod happens.
http://steamcommunity.com/app/366640/discussions/0/1318835718938573700/
 
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