Recent reviews by Scarpa

There are places where it could be more polished, but overall, especially if you like Zelda Minish Cap, this is a fun game clearly made with passion.

I have been withholding a review until finishing both this game and the first one, and I've got to say: if the first one was a phenomenal game, this one is on another level. Let me get this disclaimer out of the way first: if you loved axiom verge 1 and come to this game with the expectation of more of the same, you will be sorely disappointed. These two are very different games, which to me helps both establish their own identity and find their own strengths.

I loved the exploration focus. Almost everything in the game is geared towards encouraging and helping exploration, and while it's easy to get lost when you're not paying attention, it is hard to stay lost once you start thinking about where you are and where you're going. I can only think of two occasions on which I was stumped during regular play, and I eventually figured them out on my own. The only occasion I needed guides was after finishing the game, for some of the more obscure collectibles (some of which are admittedly ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥).

I especially appreciate the save point teleportation; after 100%ing this game I went back to axiom verge to try and do the same, and it's not happening. The only complaint I have is how long it takes for your character to spawn when you teleport. I started playing mostly as the drone because it doesn't have a getting off the ground animation after the already pretty lengthy particle tornado spawn animation. An option to skip the animation and get right back into playing would not be amiss.

I did encounter some minor bugs, but they're all menu stuff so it doesn't really affect the gameplay, which is quite polished. The enemy AI is quite smart and the flying ones can be particularly annoying due to the limited range of your attacks, and the limited angles of your only ranged attack, but the combat isn't really the focus of this game so I am more than happy to give it a pass, especially considering there are no mandatory fights in this game. The two boss fights I can think of that you can't just go around or escape literally have respawn stations inside the room you are doing the fighting in.

The game is committed to not let anything get in the way of the story and the exploration. If you're here for combat action, it probably won't be for you, but if you're here for exploratory platforming in a gorgeously presented world, I can't recommend this game enough!

Play this game, it's a good one. Don't go for completion unless you really care about Yoko Taro's body of work, though.

A very charming game, very tightly put together story with fun characters and twists. Map is a little twisty but you learn most of it in chunks as you reveal more of it, I recommend getting it on sale. Why not full price? because of my one big complaint: the story is incomplete. The main story arc builds up to a certain outcome, and then the story is cut short when you are embarking on a journey to reach that outcome. I cannot in good conscience recommend this game for full price because of this sequel baiting. Whenever the continuation is released, I will surely wait to know if it's an actual complete experience this time around before I buy it.

Overall I recommend this game. It is one of the better hobbyist indie rpgs out here on steam that I have played, and the developer's passion and care for it shines through. That being said, it does have its flaws. I'll go into more detail below, where there will be spoilers, so be warned.

--- SPOILERS BELOW HERE ---

This game improves significantly upon the original version (which I've also played a couple years ago). The combat is somewhat more balanced and more content has been added, in terms of story, exploration and gameplay. However if you have played the original, do be advised: some previously optional areas seem to have been made mandatory, and the game does not necessarily hint at that very well, like the fire cavern.

There are a couple of new additions that will impede progression if you miss the one vague hint the game throws at you from random NPCs, such as the necessity to upgrade the pickaxe you eventually get. For the longest time, the story does not require an upgraded pickaxe to progress, as most of the obstacles hide treasures and extra abilities, so by the time it's required to actually complete the game, you forget how and what you're supposed to do to upgrade it in the first place, if you even had a hint of that to begin with. I myself needed a guide to figure this out (Janice smith -> ship haven smith, incidentally)

Speaking of things that show up too late to be relevant: the two side characters who join the party. They appear far too late in the game to have time for their stories to develop organically. You get a plot dump backstory cutscene for each of them as soon as they join, which would have worked much better if it was revealed over the course of the game, had they joined earlier. There is also the issue of the frankly silly and hilarious love subplot between the main character and one of the characters that joins. Again, this character shows up and joins so late into the plot, the game can do nothing but shove saccharine love at first sight cliches down your throat to maintain even an ounce of credibility.

The writing itself is not the best, and makes me think the writer either doesn't practice creative writing often or english isn't their first language. The plot beats are easily understandable and there are no confusions, thankfully, it's just the dialogue and narration quality that leaves to be desired.

There are also the two open areas, the desert and the snowfields. The desert gets a map, thankfully, though you cannot carry it with you so better screenshot it when you do get to view it, however the snowfields offer no such luxury. These two areas are confusing to navigate unless you go to great lengths to memorize where all the landmarks are in relation to each other. Add this to the fact that they both have their own time limits, one a literal countdown, the other ticking down your health every couple steps. This added grievance turns the wandery mess these areas are into a frustrating experience.

My final issue is with the exploration aiding accessories. They take up the character's accessory slot, so you can only use one at a time, as only the main character can even equip them. This wouldn't be too much of an issue if there weren't the occasional places that require the use of at least two of them, which ends up in a lot of menu hopping. If it was up to me, I would have made these accessories key items instead and have the obstacles automatically passable once they are in your inventory.

The combat is significantly improved in this version of the game. When I played the first one, it was an unbalanced mess of creatures that could oneshot you early on to zero threat after a certain level. While the latter is still somewhat a concern after a certain level in this version of the game, it is now much better balanced. My only gripe would be the endgame bosses in relation to the creatures that populate their dungeons. The random encounters are incredibly weak by the time you're prepared to face the disproportionately deadly bosses. And then there are bosses that aren't a threat, but just take forever to kill due to their massive health pool.

The game world is interesting, and there is definitely a great amount of effort put into worldbuilding. Exploring it is mostly fun, especially when you're looking for all the optional extra abilities, though the fact that you cannot get them all until you have all the characters in the party is yet another argument against how late they join. some of these extra abilities also prompt some dialog from the party, which makes me think it was a missed opportunity for character building to not include scenes for more, if not all of them.

The simplicity of the story (defeat four elemental monsters, get their crystals, find out the truth about yourself) serves the scope of the game well. It's no grandiose convoluted plot and I can appreciate that. The main character, though bland and without much development, is a good player insert to experience this world for the first time, making this a good introductory title to the Labyronia series. You receive the traditional jRPG airship just in time for the backtracking to start getting old (though i question the necessity of the seaship, as you only need it to get a small number of treasures out of the ocean, equipment that by the time you're getting would realistically already be outdated by your current equipment anyway).

I really appreciate the encounters in the dungeons being physical creatures you can see on the map, rather than invisible random encounters a la final fantasy. Thi does not apply to the more traditional approach on the overworld, but I prefer it this way.

The cue system through which you gain new abilities is a wonderful core mechanic, and is the backbone of this game in its latter half, as some of them will make your life much easier. I only have the two aforementioned issues with it: you can find many of them early but you can only obtain character specific ones once those characters are in your party, which happens very late into the game., and the cues themselves are a wasted opportunity for more character interactions.

If I sound overly critical in tone to the point where my recommendation surprises you, it's because I enjoyed my time with it despite its flaws. All in all, it is a charming indie title. Passion went into this and it shows. It's far from being a polished product, but the developer took the time to create a complete experience. For the price, I'd recommend it, especially since few indie jRPGs here on steam are of this level of quality.

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ my way into my first win scenario on my first try by seducing the guy set up as the antagonist and eloping with him.. Thumbs up from me

First of all, the imagery in the trailer and the logo is very uncharacteristic of the game. If it's what attracted you/turned you away, you might want to look at the gameplay footage instead, just in case.

Now that that's out of the way, I heartily recommend this game. I bought it on a random shopping spree a while ago and only got around to playing it recently, and to be honest, I should have played it sooner. I believe it to be underpriced for the quality, and I could've easily bought it for $5.

If you're a graphics purist, this game may not be for you; the RPG maker style lends it a slightly bland and generic look. The game mechanics are rather basic as well. That being said, these are my only complaints, aside from a thing I'll talk about in a bit.

The writing is great. The story is engaging and the characters are fun, and the "Tales of ..."-like skits are a lot of fun. There are plenty of sidequests comparatively to the game's length, and their time-sensitive nature doesn't get into the way of finding and completing most of them (as far as I'm aware, I only missed one of them).

Though there is no equipment system like most JRPGs, you also have the "tales of ..."-like cooking system, though the number of recipes isn't quite as large. Some of the recipes do grant permanent stat increases though, and other than raising health, you'll rely on cooking more than leveling, especially in the second half of the game.

At about the start of the game's final quarter (the second playable flashback, to spoil as little as possible), comes the weakest part of the game. You gain control of a single lv1 character and and it's a struggle to defeat even a single overworld enemy. Soon enough you gain one more party member, but that doesn't make things much easier. Let's just say, lots of savescumming was involved. Now, in the game's defense, it is not actually required of you to level these characters, except for a fairly hard to avoid fight with a standard mob right at the end of the flashback, which will murder you if you stay at lv1. The writing of this part is some of the weakest of the game too, despite how strong it is in the rest of it. I won't say more about that, though, for spoiler reasons.

All in all, this game feels like a labour of love, and it shows. It's not perfect and has its faults, but it was a lovely experience. I will probably replay it sometime in the future to get all the achievements (that one sidequests that eluded me won't escape forever *shakes fist*). I recommend it to anyone who enjoys a well written story.

I am about to face the final boss so I'm thinking this is a suitable time to write a review, since i've gone through most that the game has to offer.

It's not perfect by my tastes, but it's a damn good game. Controls are simple and mostly responsive (I'm playing on keyboard since the game doesn't want to recognize my 3rd party controller), the combat is quick and decicive with very few boring bullet-sponge moments, the art, both visual and musical, is phenomenal, and the story is immersive.

I only had two bigger issues with the game:
1. The difficulty is higher than your average platformer, and though I was up to the challenge (barely, in some cases), I know quite a few people who would love to play this game for its visuals and story alone but will never get to either because they're not that good at playing this kind of game or they'll just be discouraged when they hit a wall that needs broken through with many attempts and deaths. Again, I'm fine with this kind of game, I play Dark Souls after all, but there's people who are missing out on this gem because of its difficulty.

2. No health meters. This is especially annoying ina boss fight, where not only you don't know how many more hits until you kill the bugger, but you also can't instantly tell if you're done or you just triggered a second phase. I personally like to know if I'm doing good damage, if it's worth fighting this guy now or should I come back later when I'm more upgraded. This was especially apparent with a particular late-game boss I stumbled upon early (because this game is SUPER open), where I only had two weapon upgrades, the dash and the super dash. A health bar telling me how efficient I am would have told me not to bother with this guy until I get beter stuff. Instead I had to die a bunch of times then look it up online and see that no one's attempting this as early as I am.

For the record, I completely wrecked that guy's ass later in the game when I came back.

Those two complaints aside, this is a glowing recommendation. Buy it and play it, devs made a solid 9/10 experience that's better than most things I've seen come out this year, and there's still more coming.