I sat down to write this review so many times, and every time I got started I thought to myself “I really should play it some more before I can review it accurately”. Honestly though, that was just an excuse I was making to be able to return to the game guilt free justifying that it was for work. But I finally admitted to myself that I have enough to write a review and was playing out of sheer enjoyment so it is now time to write a review.

Ever play D&D or anything similar? Then you have a good idea of what is going on here. Starting out you make a character choosing the sex, race, class, and background. You have the option of being a human, an elf, or a dwarf & then if you want to be a warrior, mage, or rogue. Each race is given two different background options. You can also alter your appearance choosing hairstyles, skin tones, noses, tattoos, eye color, etc. Then it is time to assign points to your attributes & skills. As you play you will earn experience that will give you more points to assign. And along the way you can learn specializations that can greatly help out.

Once you are satisfied with your character you begin game-play. Depending on the race & background you choose is what beginning story you start with; but after working through this first stage it will meet up to the same bigger storyline. You have several different difficulty options to choose from, which can help you out greatly by having items available to collect glowing or create a harder scenario leaving you open to friendly fire.

Throughout your journey you will have the option of gaining multiple members based off of choices you make. Each will bring their own skills to your party and give you more variety so you can accomplish numerous missions easier. However as you make different choices or actions party members may approve or disapprove of them. The lower the approval rating from a member the higher the chance of them flaking on you. However the higher the approval rating and they can earn bonuses to attributes or fall in love with you. To further help out with approval you can find or buy gifts to give them. Find the right gift and it can greatly boost their approval.

You are focused on one main quest and that is killing the Arch Demon to stop the Blight. But in order to accomplish this there are multiple smaller steps you have to take. Some of these mini-quests are required to further the storyline, others you have the option of just ignoring and moving on if you are in a rush to finish. The more you play though the higher experience you learn.

As you battle each character does their own thing. You can switch back and forth between them and/or you can assign their action via tactic slots they earn. If any characters die during battle they will be brought back to life as long as one party member survives. If the character you are controlling dies then you will immediately jump to the next character in line to control.

The graphics while decent are nothing to really brag about. The game-play looks like many games of this nature. The story segments though are barely a step up from game-play giving you slightly boxy characters without much variety in facial expressions or movements. This is somewhat disappointing for a game that put so much thought into giving you a variety of character options. The world is quite large; but if you are not careful and take too long you may lose the option of going back to a city or visiting a battle.

As far as fighting goes in the early phases it can be a little too simple if you let it be. Choosing to just hit X and whack on the person with your sword or hit them with some magic will eventually kill just about anything with very little damage being taken by you. As you journey further you can start to mix in alternate actions and special skills to fight with; but still if you choose you can get out of a lot of battles by playing it simple & downing potions. The higher the difficultly you choose the more strategy you will need to put into it. One issue I did have with the fighting is that while controlling my rogue I would move towards an enemy to attack and then when I would hit X  but instead of cutting them down with my sword my character would try to slowly move herself around to get behind the enemy in order to backstab gaining the most damage. While I do want to inflict the most damage possible I do not want the game pushing her around and often there was either little to no room behind the enemy or sometimes it would make me trigger a trap. Team that with some shitty camera angles that you have to readjust and there were a few times that my secondary characters would deliver the final blow before I even got in one decent hit. It is something that I got use to quickly though and was able to compensate for.

Here is one thing that I really wish they didn’t do. At the beginning you are able to choose one of a few different voices for your character. When you actually have conversations with characters you choose your answer from a menu and never actually vocalize anything. The only time you really “talk” is during fights. Since you only have maybe around 5 different phrases if it is a long battle you get to hear those repeated hundreds & hundreds of times. I would rather just not have a voice. It is a small thing though and one that may not bother others.

Truth is I really love this game despite the few flaws it has. I have been taking my time, leveling my characters up, tackling every side mission, buying up armor & gifts, talking to every character I could. I just don’t want to bring it to an end. But luckily the replay value is high. Right now I am in the middle of the final battle. But I am already looking forward to starting over, creating a new character of a different race, class, or sex and see how the story changes. I can pick different replies and handle a variety of situations differently in order to see where it takes me. I’m not expecting a huge difference; but I think that there will be enough to make the game feel new again. I am glad that this one came my way because it is a nice distraction and helping time pass by faster for me as I await the release of “Final Fantasy”.