
What players like:
Common complaints:
Gameplay feedback:
Performance notes:
Recommendations:
Other player notes:
Review evidence
Engaging Tactical RPG Combat: Players consistently praise the game's core tactical RPG combat, highlighting its depth, strategic team-attack system, and rewarding positioning. The ability to manage large enemy groups with a small squad and the fluid movement mechanics are frequently cited as enjoyable aspects, making it a standout in the genre.
High Production Value: Many players commend the game's overall production quality, including its magnificent gameplay, excellent music, and impressive visuals. The game is often described as a 'gem' that offers a compelling and richly textured experience, with developers showing significant effort and continuous updates.
Strong Story and Characters: Despite a slow start, the story becomes engaging, with many players finding the ending impactful and well-concluded. The characters are well-written, likeable, and distinct, fostering player attachment and adding emotional depth to the narrative.
Immersive Dark Fantasy World: The game's dark, gritty, and gothic atmosphere, visuals, and story are highly appreciated. Players find the world-building and setting to be immersive, with the melancholic soundtrack and dreary visuals effectively conveying a sense of despair and a compelling dark fantasy narrative.
Poor Story, Cutscenes, and World-building: The narrative is widely criticized for being slow, generic, cliché, and often unsatisfying, with a lack of clear goals and character development. Cutscenes are frequently described as laggy, stilted, and visually outdated, further detracting from the story and immersion.
Slow, Repetitive, and Unfinished Gameplay: Players frequently describe the game as slow, monotonous, and repetitive, citing large maps, slow enemy turns without skip options, and a lack of gameplay variety. Many feel the game is unfinished or a 'test-the-waters' product, lacking the polish and depth expected for its price point.
Problematic Weapon & Repair System: The weapon durability and repair system is a major point of frustration. Players find repair costs exorbitant, weapons break too quickly, and the system forces them to use weaker weapons, undermining character progression and combat strategy.
Random & Unbalanced Character Growth: The random allocation of stats upon level-up is a significant source of frustration. Players feel this system is poorly implemented, leading to unpredictable character strength, artificial difficulty, and often forcing restarts or 'save scumming' to achieve viable builds.
Overpriced for Content & Quality: A recurring complaint is that the game's price is too high given its perceived lack of content, polish, and overall quality. Many reviewers feel the game does not justify its full retail price.
Tactical RPG Core Gameplay: The game is a turn-based tactical RPG, frequently compared to Fire Emblem and XCOM, emphasizing strategic positioning, chain attacks, and character abilities. It requires careful planning and thought for each move, distinguishing it from 'musou' style games.
Varied Difficulty Settings: The game offers multiple difficulty settings, with Normal and Easy available initially, and Hard mode unlocking after completing the game. Player experiences vary, with some finding Normal challenging and others finding it too easy, indicating a need for players to find their preferred difficulty.
Diverse Character Combat Styles: The game features five unique playable characters, each with distinct weapon types, abilities, and combat styles. Players can switch between multiple weapons during battle, requiring an understanding of each character's role and strengths.
Weapon Durability System: Weapons have a durability system, degrading with use and requiring repair. Depleted weapons suffer significant stat penalties. This system encourages resource management and strategic use of higher-damage, more fragile weapons.
Skirmish Missions for Grinding: Repeatable skirmish missions are available on cleared maps, allowing players to grind for experience, money, and crafting materials. While some players found them optional, others felt they were necessary for progression or to max out stats.
Frequent game crashes: Multiple players reported experiencing game freezes, crashes, and black screens, particularly during combat and when leveling up skills. This indicates significant stability issues that disrupt gameplay.
Cutscene performance issues: Players noted stuttering during the game's intro and performance hiccups during other sequences. On the Steam Deck, cutscenes caused the fan to run excessively, suggesting optimization problems for these segments.
Generally good performance on high-end PCs: Players with powerful systems (e.g., 10700k, 32GB RAM, RTX 3080) reported that the game runs smoothly at 60fps. This indicates that performance is acceptable on robust hardware, despite other reported issues.
Launch issues reported: One player mentioned trying various methods to fix a launch issue, indicating that some users are struggling to even start the game. This is based on limited feedback.
Third-party scaling used: One player used a third-party program to force higher resolutions, though this did not apply to videos. This suggests a desire for better resolution options or upscaling, but it's an isolated report.
Good game, better on sale: Many players recommend the game, often rating it around 7/10, especially for fans of tactical RPGs. However, a significant number feel the original price was too high and strongly advise purchasing it on sale or at a reduced price point.
Niche appeal for SRPG fans: The game is highly recommended for enthusiasts of turn-based strategy RPGs, particularly those who enjoy challenging gameplay and a dark fantasy setting. It may not appeal to players unfamiliar with the genre or those seeking open-world experiences or easy wins.
Desire for a sequel: A notable portion of players expressed strong interest in a sequel or spiritual successor, indicating satisfaction with the core gameplay and a desire for more content from the developers.
Needs more polish: Some feedback suggests the game could benefit from additional polish to improve the overall experience, hinting at minor presentation or user experience issues.
Not comparable to Fire Emblem: A few players explicitly stated that the game is not recommended for those expecting a similar experience to the Fire Emblem series, suggesting it lacks the polish or content found in those titles.
Gameplay and Design Influences: The game draws clear inspiration from the Fire Emblem series and XCOM, with a designer from Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance and Shadow Dragon involved. This suggests a tactical RPG experience familiar to fans of those franchises.
Not Groundbreaking but Good: While not considered the best in its genre or groundbreaking, the game is still viewed as good. This suggests a solid, if not exceptional, experience.
Pricing and Accessibility: The game's price has been permanently reduced by 50%, and a demo is suggested as a way to attract more players. This indicates a potential barrier to entry or a strategy to boost player acquisition.
Desire for Character Customization: Players expressed a desire for more character variety, specifically magic-using characters, and improved character graphics. This suggests an appetite for more diverse gameplay options and visual polish.
Game Balance Concerns: One player noted that the story could be completed even with a weak character under a no-leveling restriction, which might indicate a lack of challenge or balance issues. Another suggested using a cheat engine to manage resources, pointing to potential frustration with the game's economy or repair mechanics.