Very early game minor spoilers ahead!

Full gameplay experience can be found on Twitch & YouTube.

| Playtime as of completion (Playthru#1: 36 Hours [Expert/Hard Mode]

| Platform: PS5

As of the time of this playthrough, I'm still ongoing - but I'm very confident in how I feel about this title as of now, and will absolutely be finishing/completing and possibly even NG+ -ing in the very short future. I've played a fair amount of the gameplay/combat dynamics, and have seen quite a few characters and enough of the writing.

Anyway, that aside - Wow. Omega Force and Koei really nailed it with this one. It's like every warriors-esque game has been building up to something like this, but it's at the point now where even though Musou is at the core, I feel more ARPG / Nioh elements to Fate, and I really look forward to seeing more of this style of progression in the future.

On to the game itself!

The game opens up beautifully with a fantastic description of the details and lore that accompany the Waxing Moon ritual. While clearly a reference or a prequel to the Holy Grail Wars' that  most of us will know from Fate lore, the Waxing Moon Ritual method paves a way for a great entry point into the series, while also keeping a lot of the familiar rulesets and scenarios we've come to love in the Fate universe. I believe this all makes it a fantastic spot to start for both a new fan, or an OG Fate fan - you're sure to find all kinds of fun references as an OG fan as well, so both sides get some great takeaways from the story thus far.

The world map/overworld appears to have a fairly significant amount of locations and places to discover, and most of them have multiple battlefields associated with them as well. It brings me back to what I'd imagine it was like roaming the streets back in these days, and felt pretty immersive - but they were also all fairly different and open with different hidden areas and pathways all relevant to the time era too; hidden cubbies through alleyways, off the street shrines, and more await you to discover in the cities. The zones themselves were all fairly decent-sized in my opinion as well.

There is a fairly decent looking amount of progression - At the base camp, you are able to upgrade your workshop with materials that are procured from bosses or enemies, on the ground, or even purchased from merchants, with a level associated with it to also allow more and further upgrades. At this time, I'm level 2, but it looks like it may go up to 4 or 5...I'm guessing!

The characters have been a joy as well - Saber is extremely interesting, and very excited to find out more, while Iori is a very amusingly stoic character adding to an interesting dynamic. There's many other lovable characters to encounter in this title, and I can't wait to see who else shows up :)

As far as gameplay goes, characters have a pretty solid amount of actions. As Iori, you'll have access to four spells/gems, as well as four stances to change between for varied effects on your normal attack combos. Pair this with being able to swap out to your servant once the affinity gauge raises high enough (Keep hitting and comboing!) and being able to manually trigger servant skills, and you've got a pretty solid amount of skills to use, on top of the great Musou-esque combo attacks. There's plenty of ways to take down your foes, and it seems there may be other servants that all have their own styles as well.

I won't spoil the encounter, but there is an interesting fight early on thatis definitely a pretty hardcore fight right out the gate; there's a boss you can opt to fight fairly early that's clearly supposed to be very difficult. It gave me some Souls or Nioh vibes trying to push this boss, but I'm sure if you're really good you can riposte and perfect dodge all his moves and take him down! But it's clear they added some harder bosses in Digressions for some of that element of combat. I'm all for it, and hope to see more as well!

On top of the things to do above, as well as the story, and farming etc; there are also Town Trials in some major cities which are pretty much miniquests that you can do to clear out for the area in order to acquire more materials or acquire more skill gems for upgrading. On top of these trials, there are also large-scale quests from some NPCs that may require you to kill 500+ enemies for greater reward. It appears that there are lots of tasks to accomplish to progress with!

There are even some fun little minigames tucked away that may require precise control of the buttons. These can be fun to give a little extra change of pace!

By the way - * YOU CAN PET THE CATS AND DOGGOS!!!!! * This is tremendously important. Petting cats will always be 100 times better then doing cat sidequests.

Overall, I think this Fate title is very interesting and engaging. With all the content to do, the trials, the weapons and gear to farm, the animals to pet, and all the characters to master and max out.. there's so much good stuff here! The story is told in a good way thus far, and the combat hasn't gotten old or stale - I've only wanted to fight more and acquire more stuff. Even just grinding for materials can be fun and still useful as well. I think this Fate is worth a shot, new or old, I and hope others can enjoy this title as well! See ya folks in the Waxing Moon Ritual!

Full gameplay experience can be found on Twitch & Youtube.

Playtime: 53 Hours [Hard Mode]

Platform: PS5

What an adventure. Atelier Ryza 3 ends the summer adventures of Ryza & Co - with some new character additions, lots of new areas to explore & journeys to be had, as well as lots of quality of life changes - at least, from what I remember that seem to be upgrades from the previous Ryza games. As of the time of this writing, we have completed the core main story, and a decent chunk of sidequests as well as synthesized some mid-level equipment.

First-up: The QoL improvements that I immediately noticed

You can pick up items while you're still running. There's still an animation for picking items up (without using tools), and if this was previously in Sophie 2 or other Ryza games, I really didn't remember it. Being able to just press X and keep on running through the massive world was really nice. It kept me moving and in the action and immersion more, and the animations were there if you wanted to stop and breathe in the fresh air too.

The game ran smooth too. Like butter. Load times were pretty rare, but when they did happen it was no longer then 5-10 seconds, and the camera moved nice and smooth. I don't think we had any frame drops the whole playthrough. When I peeked at Sophie 2 (the previous Atelier entry), it had a bit of FPS lag in some zones, so Ryza 3 running this smooth surprised me a lot.

On environments, exploration and general adventuring:

The world is extremely large, with all kinds of secrets to find. At times, birds may guide you to hidden treasure or hidden uncovered miniboss fights, and you may even want to follow the off-beaten trail to see what lies ahead. Environments were all very varied from small oceans, to forests, to desert biomes each with their own monster characteristics & gatherable materials - as expected from Atelier.

What did feel new, however, was the way that the zones were laid out. Ryza 3 felt like it took a new approach to the world-size and pushed the envelope of open world fields lush with all kinds of materials and enemies to encounter and fight. The world never felt empty, and there was always something new to pick up or find, or to even fight.

Ryza 3 also incorporated "random quests" which can be alikened to Fates from FFXIV or world quests from Guild Wars 2, though on a smaller single player scale of course. Some random NPCs that you pass by may want a synthesis complete, or to send you to fight a monster with a time limit for skill points (these skill points are utilized in a skill tree to unlock more recipes). They were nice little sidequests that you had the option to go off and fulfill if you felt the need or desired the reward - with no real pressure outside of the generous in game time limit to complete them.

Characters:

The cast of Ryza 3 was very fleshed out. The cast size is rather large - omitting actual size for no spoilers, but there are many returning characters from previous entries, as well as new characters. Some of these characters were previously already established as fantastic characters with fun friends which had lovable dialogue and great endearing moments.

Over all the cast of Ryza 3 meshed so well with eachother - a real group of adventuring friends that all had a stake in the journey as well as a stake in the friendship of the group itself. I absolutely adored this team, and it was a very healthy balance of content that each member was able to deliver. Nothing felt forced, and all of the lines characters had felt very implicit and important to the core message of what was currently happening in-game.

On Synthesis:

Synthesizing in Atelier Ryza has been far streamlined from the previous non-Ryza entries. This is mostly unchanged from previous Ryza titles - there are a few methods to synthesizing with in game mechanics for each one, but the approach is extremely simple on the surface. Place ingredient gathered on the field or crafted into loop that matches the element (this is all on the tooltip of the item), and get bonus. Rinse and repeat until all slots are filled and item is complete.

Further synthesizing includes methods to 'item rebuild'; a way to continue crafting from where you may have left off, if you didn't quite finish everything you wanted with the limited quantity of ingredients, as well as reinforcing equipment which allows you to put special effects on weapons as well as instant stat-sticks. These systems are mostly the same as previous entries, with the exception of the new Super Trait slots. These are new slots placed on all crafts specific to a higher-tier effect or trait for the crafted item for very powerful effects.

Secret Keys:

Secret keys are an interesting new game mechanic and central to the plot. These items replace some field items, and are able to give bonuses in various different ways. For example, you can equip keys on characters to provide stat bonuses or extra classes, or you can utilize keys in your synthesis recipes to provide further bonuses such as higher quality, or more ingredient slots. Furthermore, you can utilize keys to dispel barriers in the field, to unlock chests, and even to give yourself buffs in combat to varying degrees.

These keys were very integral to enjoying some of the new functions that they allow - at first, the key system was a bit confusing and daunting. It felt kind of added on late - but by mid to endgame, the keys were really pulling their weight and allowed all kinds of crafting to be completed that would have otherwise been much harder without these keys. They also largely contributed to difficult fights - they can really turn the tide on a large scale enemy fight due to the powerful nature of the buffs they provide, such as invincibility for 30-40 seconds, or faster action time in combat for quicker ability use.

All-in-all, these keys were a bit confusing to start with, but by the end of the adventure, they had grown on me a lot. It's a feature I hope to see return in some facet in future titles due to versatility of the keys.

On Combat:

Personally, the combat in Ryza 3 blew me away. I was very impressed at the surface-level but depth-reaching tactics that this combat incorporated. On the top level, you'll have normal attacks, skills, defending and items as well as an AI swap to be more 'aggressive' or to be more 'supportive', as well as real-time character swapping (to change the played character).

As you attack more, you gain AP as well as CC - AP can be used for skills, and CC can be used for utilizing items. You gain tactics points for fulfilling orders requested by the team, which raise your T-LV and allow for further skills to be used based on the T-LV set. It may sound a little confusing, but it's pretty simple still in practice.

As you get further into the combat though, it gets far deeper. You are able to string skill combos together to activate stronger skills, assist your allies in completing orders that they request to raise the tactics level, swap party members out with switch skills for extra damage from the backline, utilize the mentioned keys to provide buffs to yourself or the entire team, and even 'flash guard' (Guarding at the precise moment an enemy attacks you, to minimize the damage even further). The ceiling of potential for combat in this title is vast, and has many ways of approaching it.

Due to the complexity of the system, it may be hard to perfect every approach to combat - but with the customization you are able to set, and characters you are able to use, I believe there is an approach to this combat that everyone can find and enjoy. Whether you want to utilize items in combat effectively, or use flashy combos, or play as the tank flash guarding attacks with high agro - there's a role for everyone to find and enjoy in this combat. The animations are incredibly beautiful as well.

On game balance (Hard Mode) -

While balance is completely and directly tied to how much you synthesize, gather, and/or craft, there were a few points in the game where the difficulty kind of just spiked - this wasn't too much of an issue, as when this happens it's sort of just a sign to go craft better things and it's certainly nothing new - but this does still happen. Unless, of course, you craft 999 quality items as soon as possible with maxed traits with a perfect understanding of synthesizing (I'll admit, not me. I'm not the greatest synthesizer :) )

Other then these very clear difficulty spikes - that, by the way, are probably just there to prepare you for future encounters - the balance felt just right. One boss towards the end was a massive spike as expected, but other then this encounter, the balance felt right - most of the time. Especially as future game mechanics open up and you get more and more used to the combat system.

During the mid-game there were encounters that did seem to take a while due to tanky monsters - punis, even - but looking back now, I believe I wasn't utilizing all of the game's combat mechanics and functions to the fullest, which may have drastically held us back. That said, encounters were still winnable, and the game completable, without having maximum quality ultimate gear. I think that says a lot for the balance. As long as you take decent care of your equipment periodically and take spike encounters (if they happen) as the poke to get your gear up to date - game balance felt just right.

Dialogue to gameplay ratio:

It's a bit of a running joke, as it's no surprise I play some RPGs differently and tend to beeline the story due to my own immersion reasonings, and in some games, we end up in what I tend to call 'cutscene hell'. This is when cutscenes stack up on the same zone entry spot or same character spot, and sometimes even block the main story progress until it's taken care of. With tens of quests stacked up back to back, sometimes this can collectively take hours to sift through before getting to the real core of the story. Due to this, I think I should probably mention the ratio of dialogue to gameplay - and this isn't a negative thing at all. I'm weird.

Anyway, the good news is that this issue has mostly been alleviated. Due to the size of the world, it's a lot less common now to end up in the above scenario as quests and dialogue are a lot more spread out. It -can- still happen, but if you are similar to me, I don't think it will be too much to worry about now. The gameplay of Ryza 3 definitely took the main spotlight, and the dialogue - while present - didn't reach the point of being too overwhelming or having too many sidequests to do. It was a great balance; I'd probably put it to 60:40 dialogue to gameplay - but the dialogue that was important was pretty clear and succinct to the point and didn't overstay the welcome at all. This is also where the character and worldbuilding come into play as well.

Music:

The soundtrack of Ryza 3 was spectacular. The tracks in the game were immersive, and buffed the environmental effect of the zones to a large degree. The sound design was on point, with even gusts of the winds being audible at times. The combat music was in my opinion fantastic, and the event music scenes were always fitting. Music is important to me in all games and I am incredibly glad Gust was able to nail the soundtrack again.

Short list of improvements I hope to see in the future:

• checkbox for supertraits that are usable on current piece of gear being synthed
• select all option for item reduction if filters are set
• further filter improvements in synthesizing
• pristine key item duplication - This is a difficult one to mention, but as the game has a heavy reliance on the key system, you'll likely need to craft 50-100+ keys to fully utilize them which can take an excessive amount of materials.
• more mini-map options for multiple sized minimaps outside of the large overlay, and more settings in game such as larger font size
• a̶l̶l̶o̶w̶ t̶h̶e̶ L̶1̶ b̶u̶t̶t̶o̶n̶ t̶a̶p̶ t̶o̶ q̶u̶i̶c̶k̶-̶c̶y̶c̶l̶e̶ t̶o̶o̶l̶s̶, w̶h̶i̶l̶e̶ a̶l̶s̶o̶ k̶e̶e̶p̶i̶n̶g̶ h̶o̶l̶d̶i̶n̶g̶ L̶1̶ t̶o̶ c̶h̶a̶n̶g̶e̶ t̶h̶e̶m̶ t̶h̶r̶o̶u̶g̶h̶ t̶h̶e̶ r̶i̶n̶g̶  [This exists! I'm silly :)]

All in all, I found Atelier Ryza 3 to be a brilliant experience. I personally enjoyed this adventure more than the past two entries combined. The character buildup that Ryza received greatly played in her favour and the world building that was expanded on made for a fantastic world to continue the summer journeys in. I feel rather bittersweet that this adventure has come to an end, but with it hopefully will pave the way for even further Atelier titles and journeys. I really hope the exploration / adventuring theme continues - it was one of my favorite worlds to explore in an RPG in quite a while, with beautiful characters to tie it all together.

Thank you for all your hard work Koei Tecmo & Gust - and I hope to continue to experience these incredible stories in many further entries. See you in the next Atelier title!

Thanks for taking the time to consume this, and hopefully you enjoyed these impressions of Ryza 3.

Thoughts or comments? Leave a post & let me know below!

Atelier Ryza 3 | Review and Impressions

Posted in r/fayttt by u/Fayzuru • 1 point and 0 comments

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First play-through time: ~43 hours | Thoughts come from the PS5 Platform | Gameplay experience can be found on Twitch

Preface:
I'm definitely no pro at Nioh or 'Soulslikes' in general – Wo Long as well as Nioh, I hesitate to refer as a soulslike - they are both highly different experiences, but they certainly do have some base similarities at a core design level. What I speak on, I speak on as a mid-level player of Nioh(s), and souls. My experience very obviously may differ from other viewpoints! Now, with that out of the way – these are my thoughts after playing Wo Long to completion!

Character Creation -

The character creation in Wo Long is quite in depth. If you are familiar with Nioh's character creation system, you'll be happy to know (I think?) that Wo Long's is pretty similar and just as detailed. You can create a large variety of characters, and truly customize your character to your own. Functions have been added to truly make the character in your own, in multiple ways, while still maintaining the high degree of customization Team Ninja & Koei have put out in the past.

Characters - (I'd put an image here - but it might give away too much knowing a character's involvement story-wise!)

As a Dynasty Warriors player, I was pleasantly surprised with the characters in the story that matched the era. There was a wide breadth of characters from the Three Kingdoms era present, and I was both surprised and excited to see many characters that showed up over the course of the game. There are some twists as well - not everything is as it seems!

One thing that I wasn't a huge fan of, was the lack of female main character roles in this title, though - While I understand the lore implications of the warriors franchise, I think there could have stood to be far more powerful female figures prevalent in this saga, especially considering the era, and how many are present in the Dynasty Warriors franchise. Though, that is just a personal preference.

Gameplay / Combat -

The closest that I can compare Wo Long's combat to, is of course Nioh with a slice of Sekiro - but to say they are the same is a disservice I won't do. The combat in Wo Long has been a bit more simplified - there are no longer stances to pick from, but instead many different types of Martial Arts skills that weapons have a chance of dropping with. This means that you could have two weapons that are the same - but the abilities on them would be highly different. This has many pros and cons, but due to the strength of some of these abilities, it ends up working out. You can have up to two different skills for each weapon - for a total of four skills, and there are ways to quickly swap your weapons mid-deflection to unleash devastating combos. Incorporated with the weapon swapping, you also have access to a decent-size selection of elemental-influenced 'magic' - Earth, Fire, Water, Wood, Metal.

Along with the skills, there is a Stagger/Spirit bar much alike the one from Sekiro - As you attack the enemy, the gauge decreases up until the point you can do a Finishing Strike for a massive amount of damage. If you run out of stamina/spirit, you will be left wide open and stunned for a couple seconds. This leads to enemies being able to unleash powerful attacks on you while you are wide open. If you deflect (or flash-guard) the enemy's attack, you can reduce this gauge, and if you land a Martial Art skill, the gauge will increase as these use stamina, but at times are great lead-ins to continue the assault with normal attacks and lower the gauge. However - as the enemy hits you, the gauge increases, and goes into the 'Blue' right-side; this is basically an inversion of the above, allowing enemies to unleash powerful attacks on you instead and increase the difficulty to reduce the gauge as well.

Morale -

As you defeat enemies throughought the stages, you will gain Morale levels and points, and as you are attacked by enemy Martial Arts skills (Critical blows), you lose Morale. Morale serves as a sub-level separate from the player level. As you progress through stages, you are able to increase the minimum Morale that you are able to hit by discovering flags. These protect you from falling below a certain level. The difference of the morale level between you and the enemy, the more damage you will deal or take. If you take 'critical blows' from the enemy, this gauge goes down, encouraging you to deflect them more and more.

Morale adds an interesting element to stages, and highly encourages exploration and perfect deflections in order to keep the level high enough to surpass the enemy; unless, you prefer the added challenge and enjoy tacking enemies at an extreme disadvantage - in which case, you wouldn't want to defeat any enemies that are too low level. It's a nifty new feature that certainly has pros and cons depending on the playstyle.

There are a variety of spells to choose from - some buffs, some debuffs, and even some offensive magic as well. Health absorbing buffs, offensive reducing status effect debuffs, and offensive magic with a variety of effects based on elemental proficiencies - These came in handy for some of the harder bosses, and adds an extra way to help you with taking out those harder mobs - and they worked on bosses, usually too. Nioh players may be familiar with these type of spells - but they return in Wo Long as well.

Divine Beasts return as well - and they are integrated just as you would expect from Nioh. These provide many more ways to enhance and customize your character as needed, and even provide passive stat sticks.

Death and Levels -

Death is interesting in Wo Long. You will not lose all of your Qi - but usually just half. The Morale will go back to a morale level according the amount of flags gathered throughout the mission. If you re-enter the boss room, the Morale will come back on its own without recollection - but you'll be down some from being hit by Critical Blows as well, so at times you may want to re-farm the gauge back up. If you collect all the flags in the stage, you'll generally match the level of the boss and be able to keep an even playing field.

If you die outside of a boss room, you can go mete vengeance on the enemy that slayed you - and win back the morale as well; but only if you win. Leveling is standard in that you gather EXP in the form of Qi, and spend it on base flags discovered through the mission. You can choose to put these into any of the aforementioned elements, and each element influences different status effects described right along with the element.

PvP -

The last point I'll mention on the gameplay side - and it is kind of big - There are INVASIONS. You can invade into any online player's world and get some juicy PvP action. If, and I stress IF, the enemy is not playing from Pluto. Latency and perfectly-timed deflections is ... a very unfortunate combination. It's a fantastic implementation and I'm glad to see this return from Nioh 1, but connectivity issues were too 'invasive' (heh). When the PvP works, it's very fun though. I hope to see Arenas for more consensual PvP encounters added in the future. You get some exchangeable tokens and potentially some loot from the opponent, as well.

Story [No spoilers] -

The story of Wo Long was both familiar, and different from what I expected. It felt like other games of this era, but with a bit of its own flavor and ways to re-tell the story. There were tense moments, as well as very exciting moments. Honestly, the suspense for some of the scenes surprised me. Overall, it was reminiscent of an older movie from this era - but, it wasn't the absolute best since it did feel a bit tied down to its historical roots which limited it a bit. Regardless, this is a series about action combat. The story served its purpose - and I'm still excited to see what else is coming. I expect some crazy twists.

If you are familiar with the era, you will notice a large historical influence of the story's passing, but things tend to unfold differently then anticipated, which gives way to a refreshing new experience of historical events. I enjoyed the twists that Wo Long had, and for some reason even felt nostalgic seeing some familiar areas with a completely different way of handling these ideas and areas in mind.

Environments -

Yeah. I'll save the really cool ones for you to experience yourself. The views can be breathtaking.

Improvements I'd like to see -

This is probably a hot take, but... seriously - I would have liked to see more powerful females in this story. There felt like a lot of opportunities for it, but the patriarchal domination of powerful warriors beat it out. I truly hope this is re-visited in the future, and it may be due to the timeline of events historically that may have inhibited this. It was great to play as a female warrior, but there could have been more women.

The gear system felt watered down compared to Nioh - and perhaps this was an intentional design choice, as a lot of Nioh felt highly influenced by gear. Wo Long certainly felt like it had more skill-checks to get past hurdles of bosses, but a large portion of it was effectively just learning to deflect. If you can deflect a spear, you can deflect a fireball. If you can deflect a fireball, you can deflect a... well, I won't say that. Might be too close to the spoiler line. You'll see for yourself.

There are a couple quality of life features that I expected, but assume they would be added in the future. There is no gear comparison window that I was able to find in the menu (Am I blind?) on equipping gear; this means, that when you're equipping gear, you don't really know what abilities you are swapping things out for without going up and down through the menu comparing them manually. That seemed like a massive lost opportunity that shouldn't be too bad to add.

Another quality of life feature I would hope to see in the future is the ability to change out the skills available on the weapon. Perhaps this defeats the opportunity to farm weapons for skills, but at least by NG+, I'd like to see this being possible - albeit, with some sacrifices, and not super readily accessible, because otherwise, it would defeat the point of farming gear at all. Due to the way the system is, I ended up using gear from very early on in the game - for basically the entire game. Not once on my first playthrough did I find another Bo-Staff with good enough skills to suit my playstyle.

The Morale system is an interesting choice that I am not entirely sold on yet. From my playthrough, it seems that the purpose is to allow players that may not be professional level souls players to still be able to complete bosses and the game in general. You can level past the Morale level of most bosses on a first playthrough, and you'll take far less stamina and damage, while subsequently dealing more damage. On the flip-side of this though, sometimes I felt rather forced to go grind monsters just to raise the morale level to be able to face a boss on more fair levels. If you are dramatically under-morale leveled for some encounters, you will generally get oneshot. Overall, and especially towards the middle half of the game, this wasn't a huge deal - but early on, it certainly was a bit annoying. Sometimes, you just want to keep progressing on the boss without having to break to farm for Morale. It's situational.

What I hope for in the DLCs -

Truthfully, I expect a lot of what we got in the core game - I wasn't left unsatisfied. I hope for some quality of life improvements, maybe some UI adjustments, and some really awesome fights. Maybe some more cuties? I look forward to the new environments and potential for even more difficult fights. I want more!

Final Thoughts

If you are on the fence for Wo Long, there is a demo still available for a couple more weeks of this posting.

Wo Long was a fun new experience to enjoy. It is refreshing and fulfilling, and had plenty of skill-checks that felt well-placed. Deflecting is your best friend in this game - and oh my, it felt incredible. The dopamine rush from deflecting enemy attacks in this game was so addicting, I'm tempted to replay it again just to get the feeling again.

There are ways to make encounters easier if they are too difficult without it feeling bad, many weapons to use, and many different playstyles to utilize. Wo Long is a great entry point for Soulslikes overall, and is a fun new way to get back into this type of adventure. Perhaps I'll see you on the front lines!

Thanks for taking the time to read this, and I hope you enjoyed these impressions of Wo Long.

Thoughts or comments? Leave a post & let me know below!

Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty | Thoughts & comments

Posted in r/fayttt by u/Fayzuru • 1 point and 0 comments

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The following review contains no spoilers.

Concerns seem to be abound after the previous entry - but, I aim to focus on the present and now - and Star Ocean 6 does not disappoint. In fact, this newly numbered title was surprise after surprise. Tri-Ace has not lost their touch - it's only gotten better. They have written fans a love letter of a game chock-full of references to earlier entries - it feels like a true swan song of a title that had a bit of the best of the entire series. It did not disappoint. To be perfectly clear - I have played every Star Ocean title - including 5 - and I have enjoyed nearly all of them for various reasons. To be completely fair - there may be a slight bias as I enjoy sci-fi stories above all else, but I hope to present the facts of Star Ocean 6 in a way that does not allow that bias to shine through.

First up - the big question on everyone's minds. How does it hold up as a title? Well, in my opinion, it surpassed all my expectations of a Star Ocean title. This is not to say I didn't have hope or expectations for the game - I had tempered them. Star Ocean 6 went on to surpass that feeling by a huge margin. My views below are based off of the Universe difficulty - the highest difficulty available at the start of the game.

General exploration & gameplay -

The gameplay incorporates new innovative combat techniques in the form of flying and gliding, leading the player to create new strategies for each decisive foe they run into, as well as exploring new ways to traverse the field and dungeons. It didn't feel like a gimmick - it felt well thought out, and utilized in many different ways. This was brilliant to see something new to not only Star Ocean, but JRPGs in general, in my opinion.

Combat & customization -

The combat was able to utilize new elements in a way to allow you to 'blindside' enemies, and perform staggering combos on them, based on the field of vision (if they have a field of vision at all.) This made for encountering enemies on the field different, and allows you to approach combat in the same fight in many different ways, as well as changing the battlefield for bosses and has the player incorporate different ways of using the mechanics presented. By the way, the boss encounters all felt very unique and varied. From twin-headed double elemental dragons, to hybrid missile flailing turbocharged mechs, down to simple worms. Each fight felt different, and required strategical thinking in different ways in the form of the flying utilization, or playing a different character to your own style, in order to defeat the boss.

The customization aspects of the game are back and with a blindsiding vengeance - original crafting is back in the game to a staggering degree, passive skill customizations, massive skill trees, and even customizable skill combo palettes - a far cry from the few buttons of the older games. Star Ocean 6 truly delivered a next generation experience of Star Ocean, and did the name justice. The new Variable Action system based on the flying mechanisms - but not only limited to flying - allowed each character to have their own pros and cons to their fighting style and lets you truly bring out the best of each character available. From melee great sword wielders, to ranged damage dealers, all the way to hybrid fast melee-attackers with spells - this entry has some incredibly well-done character depth from a combat perspective.

Field exploration was expansive, and each new zone felt enormous upon first entry. The variety of monsters generally adjusted to the area, and some zones even had hidden encounters for those that dare to explore the entirety of the map. The flying elements also come into play here in a great way, which allows the player to expansively explore the world on a Z-axis level, creating a new dynamic for both fields and dungeons alike, hiding treasure in harder to locate areas rewarding those with the appetite for exploration.

Caveats & QoL to be desired -

My experience on a PS4 Pro (prioritized image quality over framerate) wasn't perfect - nothing truly can be, of course. The majority of zones were fine with little to no lag, but there were certainly quite a few zones towards the late-game that lagged the console a decent amount. There were two zones that almost lagged for the whole zone, too and weren't simple spikes. There are quite a few instances as well where you can fly into little pockets in some zones that are immensely hard - but not impossible - to get out of, almost making you stuck. (By the way, if this happens to you, hold the R1 button to keep flying, while spamming L1 to dodge and X to jump, never letting go of R1. You'll eventually get a chance to fly out.)

Of course, there were some quality of life issues that could have been addressed as well such as item purchasing not allowing you to buy the maximum at once, and while the sorting system for accessories was incredibly useful - it could have been a bit more detailed and allowed for more factor(crafting effects) filtering, but there were likely far too many to consider. During our playthrough, there were a couple game freezes during mid-load - specifically twice, out of the game's duration, before the auto-save triggered. Nothing can be flawless. However, none of these detracted from my experience with the game, or left me with any lasting negative sense at all. In fact, most of these were laughed off and were not really a big deal - though, I may have gotten lucky.

As I was on a PS4, it's hard to completely fairly mention this next point, but graphically -some- characters faces did feel a bit jarring at times. It seemed as if the anime and real life blend didn't always work in their best favor, and some characters felt a bit off. Personally, the vast majority felt fine to me, but there were certainly some side characters that you can see facial features and textures were not fully fleshed out or completed. Some appeared 'doll-like', but it was not all characters, and the ones that did, kind of grew on me by the end of the game as the animations helped them, and personally, I think some players will grow attached to the characters regardless of how this blend worked out, but it may be jarring for some. Overall, it didn't retract from the game experience.

Characters & Relationships -

The characters in this title were stellar, unique, interestingly and fantastically intertwined. Each character felt as if they had their own motives as well as their own story behind them - some even appeared to have linked pasts, or hinted at relationships previously. Coming down to the planet in the middle of these stories, disrupting some of the cast's daily lives, while not always intruding and hearing their perspective and motives for continuing the journey with the character was a joy to see. There was clear character progression, warming-up-to, and in some cases, relationships made more apparent. These were accompanied by the return of the P.A. or private actions Star Ocean has had; a way for the character to roam solo through the town and interact with their fellow comrades on mostly one on one conversations in order for both sides to learn about each other more.

Story thoughts -

As for the story (no spoilers are present) - while it certainly did leave a little to be desired by the end, it by no means was poor. I was enthralled with the characters present, and felt very attached to the story. There were twists and turns, and almost none of my predictions that I had initially thought would happen came true, with the exception of things heavily hinted at in trailers. This led to some pretty interesting discoveries throughout the game's plot, and at no point did I feel fatigued from going through the story. I enjoyed everything I witnessed and the pacing felt incredibly spot on. There were no areas that overstayed their welcome, and no plotlines that dragged on.

While the overall story was not revolutionary, it was incredibly well paced and carried itself as a great story on its own. Prior to postgame, the story clocked in at a reasonable 38 hours, before spending time on bonding events and crafting, which feels like a respectable time-frame, especially given the alternate story which will presumably have more character development, depth, and possibly other dungeons and characters in general. I look forward to continuing this adventure on the other side.

The power of song -

The soundtrack - Motoi Sakuraba nailed it out of the park again with songs full of nostalgia as well as very new tracks that made me feel right at home with a Star Ocean title. They fit the scenes and the scenarios perfectly, while being reminiscent of older games and being their own songs, at the same time. I am not sure what to say other then the soundtrack felt like comfort food - I enjoyed every single song, and felt the soul and spirit of Star Ocean in every song as well. To me, music is important in the game, because it is one of the empowering energizing things to pump you up for scenes. Motoi absolutely nailed it in this title, and every song was completely fitting, and also evoked some nostalgic feelings as some songs such as the one a certain village reminded me of a song from previous games.

Initial postgame thoughts - an addendum will be required -

Lastly, the postgame - as of this time of writing, I have just finished the first playthrough of the two characters in the game - the Raymond route. This means that there is still at least an entire postgame dungeon to tackle, as well as the other story route - which may uncover more things left unanswered in the one side of the story that was completed. However, I can say, without a doubt that this postgame within minutes harkened back to the older titles, and felt like true postgame. There were at a minimum 4 initial doors to proceed through, with at least two entire zones to explore on both sides, with a familiar tune to grind out to in the new endgame dungeon.

Final thoughts -

I would recommend Star Ocean 6 to any old fan of the series, looking to test the waters again, or to any action RPG fan looking to get the sci-fi kick that Star Ocean offers. New fans as well as old should be able to join in and unite together in this brilliant sci-fi adventure that truly lives up to its name - it's a divine force in an ocean of stars. I am incredibly thankful to Tri-Ace for giving this title another game, and I truly hope we are able to see more Star Ocean in it's true caliber in the future, and I look forward to the next entry, or wherever we end up going, after this game. Thank you Tri-Ace. Your passion shown with this entry is truly inspiring, and I pray we are able to see more in the future. Thank you for continuing to explore this expansive universe.

Thoughts or comments? Leave a post! - https://reddit.com/r/fayttt/comments/yh4aze/star_ocean_6_review_comments_thoughts_etc/

Hello! Starting with Kuro no Kiseki II; Due to the nature of this game  being a direct sequel, spoilers will be trimmed as much as possible – but there may be a few, as this game to no surprise, heavily relies on the completion of the previous game(s). By the way, this is probably biased. Kiseki holds a special place in my heart - This will not be a recurring theme for all reviews, especially for Kiseki, as we reach entirely new arcs with the Kiseki series.

I will be attempting to start text-based reviews with future games after completion. As of this time of writing, we are currently waiting for the update for Kuro no Kiseki II that will introduce extra story, as well as other characters, and even introduce further gameplay elements for continuing the gameplay through postgame. Note: temporary screenshots

First off - The cast!

The characters in Kuro no Kiseki II are full of the friends and allies that we met alongside Kuro no Kiseki I, with some of the enemies or gray-zone characters being those we are familiar with by the end of Kuro no Kiseki I. While there may not be many new characters introduced, the characters present have had their own developmental arc, sometimes alongside another character, and were able to grow further with this new entry into the Kiseki series. Some characters even saw long-time arc conclusions and wrap-ups to their story or through new methods that incredibly surprised me - which may pave the way for future characters that had their arcs concluded to show up in a new entry reinvigorated and more ready than ever before.

Next up - The soundtrack!

The soundtrack of Kuro no Kiseki II was breathtaking. With many new tracks, and some nostalgic tracks returning to the series, the incredible variety and new flavor of some of the tracks that played was phenomenal. I felt the true genius of Falcom JDK’s talent through the goosebumps I personally got with the timing of some of the new tracks.

I won’t lie - some scenes made me incredibly emotional. New boss themes that played were perfect for the theme that they portrayed, and some of the new ‘immersive’ tracks such as the field ones were incredibly empowering and invigorating. While not as ‘rocking’ as some of the songs in previous games, the music in Kuro no Kiseki II was awe inspiring, unique, and immersive - and at no point during the playthroughs did I feel the need to turn on my own music; something that does tend to happen when grinding elements are incorporated into a game, especially with heavy gameplay.

Gameplay -

Which brings us into the next part - The gameplay elements of Kuro no Kiseki II. These elements were vastly improved on the first game, and far more engaging and interactive than ever before. There are stealth segments, there are car-riding minigames, and even an entire extra dungeon to explore through and grind, or acquire materials to further enhance your characters’ prowess for the upcoming battles - The best part of the extra dungeons - they are always accessible.

The extra dungeon 'floors' are a set of nine floors of relatively-random dungeons that provide specialized rewards based on what you choose. Some provide armor, and some provide orbments. Others provide... well, nothing. Monster materials, and cooking ingredients that you will probably get from farming mobs. But hey, the combat is fun!

At no point during the game - save for more than 5-10 minutes - are you restricted from  jumping into some quick monster slaying or (mostly randomized) dungeon exploring - if you so choose. Accessed via the laptops around the world in Inns, but also accessible through virtual ‘routers’ as - believe it or not - it is an Augmented / Virtual reality interface that you can dive into.

Each town, each region in each town, and almost every single area you go to has either a router or an Inn with a laptop accessible so that you are always able to hop into gameplay if you need a break from the story. Boy oh boy, was it convenient to be able to stop doing some cutscenes after some long scenes and hop into some gameplay - if you are a gameplay player of Kiseki, or were in need of some extra mira, sephith or even some randomized level-associated gear. If not, no worries, because, buckle up, the story was something else!

Story -

I won’t mince words. There are parts in the game where the scenes do go on for quite a while. Though, this is something I think most story-players of Kiseki are used to. There were certainly parts that I felt that did go on for quite a while with dialogue, but with the beautiful music accompanying them and intense story moments that happened made it not feel too long to go through.

There is a specific point in the game, that I believe was disliked by a lot of vocal players in the communities that I had seen - but even this long (it is LONG) chapter, served a pinnacle purpose - at least, in my opinion, it was present to hammer a point into the player’s head, and to show the true potential of a certain element of the gameplay mechanisms, and its correlation into the story, as well as to show the depth of the power shown by the wielder of this power.

Overall though, the story was full of growth, and question-answering, with further background for most characters being introduced. Note though, most, not all! There is still plenty of room for growth and further things to be answered in future entries. We can’t solve everything in a couple games, after all.

Combat -

Lastly, the combat experience was a vastly improved version of the combat elements present in Kuro no Kiseki I. We had field combat, as well as turn-based combat, and had a much more legible screen for the orbment or shard skill interface to assist with the combat. With one button, you are now able to pop open a menu that shows all possible skills for each type of orbment, confirming the elements required for each skill.

The combat has added functionality so you are now able to use predetermined ‘quick’ arts on the field based on your master quartz, tied with the normal attack combos as well as canceling and preemptive shard attacks (allowing you to force preemptive attacks on monsters that are hit long or hard enough) -  which adds a bit more variety to the field combat as well.

There are other surprises and improvements that Falcom has made in the field combat that would be slightly spoiler to mention - but I can simply say that there is a certain situation where you may be surprised by the field battle - a huge hint at what is to come in Kuro no Kiseki III, or the new name that it goes with if a new arc does continue instead of following Van’s office.

The only caveat I would note with the combat - it was, as always, incredibly easy to 'break' the game with builds. Even on Nightmare, there were only a couple difficult fights, and they were only difficult due to the SP restrictions - a lot of story battles had conditions to not let anyone die at all, or you lose the SP. SP collected raises your ranks in each portion of the game, allowing you to gain rarer or more powerful gear or orbments. You certainly don't need to 'perfect' all the battles to achieve a max rank, and there is quite a lot of leeway this time around. I would like to see some very difficult battles return, perhaps even a return of the Abyss difficulty from a previous game.

Finishing thoughts -

Kuro no Kiseki II was an incredibly powerful and telling addition to the Kiseki series. Almost all of the elements of the previous game in the series were retained, while adding functionality and features. I did not mention previously - the new CGI and engine used in this game was incredibly surreal. The animations in the CGI scenes were among some of the most fluid scenes I have seen in a JRPG, and left me incredibly excited with the future of the important story scenes. Some of these elements can even be seen in the opening of the game.

I was left satiated with nearly all elements of the game, and for the first time in a long time, I didn’t even get the ‘empty’ feeling after completing a game. I was fulfilled, satisfied, and ready to take on the next adventure. Everything felt like it served a purpose, there were improvements to the systems that have been  retained from the first game in the series, and overall the story and music worked hand in hand to deliver a compelling game.

I do wish we had some more questions answered, and there are definitely parts of the story and arcs that could have been improved, done better, or actually gave a few more breadcrumbs to the overall story - but I believe that this is something that always happens with each game in this series, as there must always be something that we need to acquire from the next game.

Perhaps the update will help alleviate some of these, and add a few breadcrumbs to look forward to; we will need to wait just a couple days to see! I look forward to seeing what improvements Falcom is able to continue to provide with future entries into the series, and I can say I am thoroughly impressed with Kuro no Kiseki II.

Fayttt made a promise during one of his livestreams.

He told everyone that he would dress up as a loli girl for next year (2020) halloween.  Here is a countdown to that stream, and his legally binding statement.

faytttKek