Recent reviews by Helzehen

An already fantastic retro-inspired JRPG developed by a small and dedicated team of two developers that are very active in their own discord. The game takes us on a thrilling cross-dimensional adventure through the vibrant world of Alteria. With its impressive vision and fresh design ideas this Early Access gem definitely stands out as something to keep on your radar as it evolves. While still in development, the game already offers a compelling experience filled with dynamic quests, turn-based combat, and choice-driven storylines. These dynamic storylines, for me, set it apart from other recent indie JRPGs. The developers' ingenious approach ensures that each playthrough (and you will want to play through multiple times) offers a unique journey, heavily influenced by the choices you make. This level of replayability is rare, making Alterium Shift a standout title in the genre.
As the description says, there are three branching narratives - each centered around one of the three main characters, the game offers a wealth of content and storylines to explore. In a way that makes exploring the map thoroughly an enjoyable experience, the world features all of the Dad jokes you could want and nods to some of the developers favorite pop culture references.
As development continues, Alterium Shift is poised to become a must-play game for both fans of retro-inspired JRPGs and those seeking a fresh and immersive gaming experience. Keep in mind, it's still early in development and if you're not being thorough or looking for hidden secrets that no one else has discovered yet, you've got a good 8-12 hours of gameplay currently (one good run on each character and then a bunch of cross-save persistent world discovery fun).

So let's rank the important bits:
Character art: 5/5 - beautiful style that's very playful.
World design/art: 3.5/5 - great detail and beautifully creative.
Dialog: 3.5/5 - Enjoyable dialog that doesn't feel overly stiff, and will be changed/upgraded as development goes on.
Combat: 4/5 - Turn-based with beautiful animations. Some fun mechanics added.
Story: 4.5/5 (currently) - there's not a ton of story exposed yet but what is there is very intriguing and creative.
Mini-games: 2.5/5 - Fishing is in the game but fairly basic as of right now. There are hints of more to come here!
Creativity and Humor: 6/5 - objects make fun of you when you search them too many times + dad jokes, cmon!
Dev attitude and community interaction: 5/5 - Mottzy and DrassRay are very active in the discord and on twitch streams. They discuss plans, they don't seem to feel they are above helpful ideas, and they are very, very appreciative of players pointing out bugs and making suggestions.

This game looked like it would be a lot of fun. It is not. It's clearly made by someone that doesn't understand what RNG means so they made EVERYTHING based on RNG. There are times when you get poisoned, for instance, and you can do NOTHING about and it ravages your party. They don't give you opportunities to buy/stock healing potions or anything else outside of a single shop early on before you know they're about to starve you for any kind of resources. I'm 8 or 9 fight in and I've only found exactly 2 other healing potions the entire time and you have to fight through a bunch of extra mobs to get them. The game devs appear to think "Oh, RNG ravaged your party? Just keep replaying this single fight, without enough resources, over and over until you get better RNG." Zero control of movement through the story. Zero ability to shop or upgrade. All you do is RNG through a fight or lose. If Steam will refund me, I'm taking it. Atrocious game.

Almost certainly, at 2.7 hours played to figure out the above, Steam won't refund this waste of money. Avoid.

When I say that this game is a "diamond in the rough" the phrase hardly does justice to just how amazing this series is and how completely unassuming it is, as well.

If you're a JRPG fan -- look no further. Welcome to the Legend of Heroes.

This is the one you've been looking for day after day, wading through garbage and games focused purely on graphics. Good work, Gamer -- you've made it here, now enjoy your Legend. The first trilogy (the best one, imo) is worth every single penny and more.

This game has a lot of potential to be a great game. There are just too many bugs and a lack of continuity in the current game to give it anything but a mediocre/poor rating for now though.

Your question is really, "Is it worth $20?" -- the answer right now is "No, not at all."
When it goes on sale, like it did recently, and it's $2 -- Yeah, totally.
They really need to work some things out and fix age old bugs before I'll be able to recommend this to anyone.

Again, there are a lot of great things about this and I would love to play the completed game.
I've given it 34 hours to come to that conclusion - through lots of crashes, being stuck at map screens, my magnus being frozen, crafting items being corrupted, etc.

Keep up the work, devs -- it'll be something to play, for sure, when it's complete.

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Update: With the game about to release, I will be playing it fully again and will update this review with my updated feelings on it. Thanks for the all the hard work, Devs! Looking forward to playing through your story.

Initially DD2 was a bit of a let down, I was a huge fan of DD1 and I was so excited for this to release - I took some time away from it before Wipe-ageddon and have recently returned to check it out in it's new form. So far, I can say that it's definitely not bad! I'm enjoying myself again and that's a plus. I can't wait to see what they come up with next.

I wasn't sure about this game at first, but it's honestly been a lot of fun to play.
The skill leveling system reminds me a lot of games of old and that's a big reason I enjoy it as much as I do.

There are some bugs, but OddOneGames has been working hard to fix them. It's got a long way to go, but it's got great potential!