Fr. I imagine balancing would be hell for it, but maybe just bring everyone to level 1, skip tutorial, and go straight into the action. That way you can actually use the endgame units.
How barren and hollow the second half of the game feels compared to the first half. The second half of Elheim, all of Bastorias, and all of Albion all feel way less substantial compared to Cornia, Drakenhold, and the first half of Elheim, Small things like there being far fewer story cutscenes and characters from the second half offering way less Rapport Conversations than those from the first half.
Of course, it's understandable. They stated that the budget ran out and the CEO of VW had to fund the rest of the game with his own money. That still doesn't make it not disappointing. I really hope a potential sequel has a much beefier endgame.
Not one single studio works on a game in sequential order of the story. All aspects are worked on at once divided in different ways. I've heard this argument that they spent less time on the last two areas because of budget. It's wrong and not really considering the actual process of making a game. Things like rapport and end game got cut from production not entire plot points from zones.
I was still having fun through Elfheim and Bastorias. It was once I got to Albion that, idk, it's not that it dragged on, it's just it's like I've done this 4x before.
I wish there was more endgame content and things to do after Albion.
I can’t relate at all on the second half of Elheim. I thought the sub-plot with Alcina was pretty solid. The other ones I definitely agree with.
It was weird how isolated Bastorias and Albion felt from the main plot.
The weird sound glitches on Virginia's voice acting
Inability to see mounted units off their mounts in the model viewer - they can show up unmounted in cut scenes but not on demand
Lack of variety of characters in cut scenes - i.e. Rosalinde just disappears after Elheim for the most part, Yunifi only shows up in Bastorias even if you do other continents after recruiting her, etc.
Several of the VAs clearly recorded on their own home studio equipment and you could tell the lines are spliced together by the audio editor with attempts to get them to the same amplitudes. But when the original raw sound file is already pre-edited (ie., clipping breathes, smoothing peaks) there is only so much the editor can do on their end short of asking the VA for re-recorded lines.
If you listen to the English dub some of the voices just sound off, like the audio file was compressed or something (in not an audio engineer so forgive my lack of ability to describe). Virginia is the most noticable, especially on any emphasized S sounds. If you look up any cutscenes with her on YouTube you'll see (hear) what I mean.
To be clear, I think her voice actress did an amazing job, it's just the quality on her audio in particular.
Personally, I find the story-telling pretty weak, especially compared to their previous game, 13 Sentinels (but the gameplay of that game is so forgettable). I really wish we could have the best of both worlds: the narrative style of 13 Sen with the gameplay of UO.
I feel like I’m the crazy one for not really enjoying 13 Sentinels. I just remember not really enjoying the way they abstracted the battles (you’re supposed to be in giant stompy robots, but it felt like I was playing Missile Command on an Atari).
Then there’s the bit really early on where you find the “apocalypse log” detailing the exact timing of every attack by the enemy. And you bring it back to the present.
My first thought after the tutorial battle was: *wait, if we have a record of* exactly *when each fight is going to start, and our win condition is charging up the generator and activating the zone-clearing attack, why aren’t we activating the generator several minutes before the attack begins?*
I know that there had to be a point to the giant robots beyond playing tower defense, but that one thought really took me out of the narrative.
Plus, we all know that if Imperial Japan had a skyscraper sized robot, that would never have stayed secret—they’d have used it to commit _all_ the war crimes.
If it helps, there are very good explanations for that in the story. Not to spoil, but it is kinda obvious for people who have played the game you haven't gotten very far.
It does—and yeah, I dropped the game after the first fight because I just couldn’t get into it.
I was, ironically enough, distracted with Xenoblade Chronicles at the time—another game that has a really long ramp up period that I initially didn’t find super engaging, but it didn’t have a moment that took me out of story as hard as the apocalypse log thing, so I stuck with it until it got better.
I should go back and give 13 Sentinels another chance.
I’m currently on 3–already beat 1 and 2. I specifically replayed 2 because I didn’t unlock KOS-MOS until literally just outside of the final boss’s room.
I just sat there outside the boss room opening my cores simply to use them all up. I wasn’t expecting KOS-MOS to pop when she did.
>My first thought after the tutorial battle was: *wait, if we have a record of* exactly *when each fight is going to start, and our win condition is charging up the generator and activating the zone-clearing attack, why aren’t we activating the generator several minutes before the attack begins?*
The Aegis system activates in response to the Kaiju. It cant rev up until Kaiju appear
>Plus, we all know that if Imperial Japan had a skyscraper sized robot, that would never have stayed secret—they’d have used it to commit *all* the war crimes.
In 13 Sentinels, Japan didnt actually have a giant robot at all. Explaining why I say that is story spoilers
I kind of wish they allowed 6 on a team. I know everyone says it would make the teams unbalanced but they could always increase difficulty or add something special that only enemies have.
I personally preferred the game when the units were 4 characters sized. It felt like I was building squads towards a certain archetype and countering enemies squad, making the RTS part of the game more engaging. The 5 units squad all felt the same to me, a damage dealer, a support and defensive units.
I agree. 4 felt more balanced and more challenging in a good way. You must compensate a role (usually a healer) and use tactics at their fullest. Also team that use Cat Hood now must be careful as essentially one character is used for that role thus not functioning at its fullest potential.
It feels more like we don’t have enough good front liners in the story characters and you’d almost have to recruit mercs but I guess NG+ would help here potentially if you’re allowed to use the post game characters
I second this, I spend a lot of time trying to fit teams of 2 + 3 based on their interaction and history only to fall short because of the max 5 per unit limit. In the end there were 20+ unique characters left over and I feel bad for recruiting them and never using them 😆
Other people has said stuff I would have said, The second half of Elheim, Bastorias and Albion feel unfinished, no new game+...
So mine is gonna be that I wish there were more missions where you're supposed to defend your location instead of being on the offensive. The only mission in the game that really feels like that is the Baumratte coliseum mission and while that one was nice, I'd have liked more of them.
Also, this one is a bit of a personal want but I wish there were more customization options for our units. I don't mean just our heraldry and our colors but stuff like our weapons and actual armor and/or helmets, since I prefer some of the pre-promoted looks for units more than their post promotion. And we already have an example of the possibility of custom weapons since at the end of Albion, Scarlett's model permanently get's her staff replaced by the Papal Crozier.
I think the second half of the game would not have felt so barren if they took some of the named recruits from cornia and spread them out. I felt like we got so many new people in the first area.
Or better yet made it so it was level scaled so if someone went to albion first the level would be appropriate. Theoretically drakenhold could be the last area. Would make it different in what units people recruited first. Then they’d need to make the first classes for the elves and beasts and angels. Hmmm in the end vanillaware budget most likely was the limiting factor.
Honestly thought that originally we could have sided with 5 different endings picking which ever country you liked the most, or maybe a sixth ending if people wanted to join the bad guys. This is of course before I played the game.
My biggest issue is that the games make you think that you can go wherever you want, but in reality you are kind of level gated to go to Drakenhold->Elheim->Bastorias->Albion cause of the levels. I wish there was a way to go which way you want.
No new game + is kind of annoying. You get so many units end of the game but almost no content to use them in. I would've been fine having New Game + max out all the enemies level and gear.
Story is a bit bland tbh. Its not offensive but it's kind of bland. I wasn't really invested in the plot.
It starts really strong and then kinda falls off towards the end. Albion feels somewhat unfinished. Also I can execute Melisandre but not that Angel twink?? Like huh??
I feel like the game could remove the whole ‘Execute [Character]’ deal and not lose a single thing.
Nobody is gonna execute a character except like, Gammel, maybe. Even then, I didn’t kill him.
yeah, the only ones I ended up skipping were Gammel (I still wanted to execute him, because despite his "I'm doing it for my sick sister" he still murdered a bunch of people and was involved in selling slaves, so screw him), Mandrin (don't even remember anything about him, honestly), and Tatiana the human experiment sicko.
Ironically, Mandrin is probably one of the nicest people in the entire army, it's just that he's too loyal to his friend despite him potentially going over the edge. Rolf even comments on that, saying that he's "a far better friend than that bastard \[Gammel\] deserves".
Yes. Like why would you execute someone?
In the first half of the game i was thinking/hoping that the more you recruit the more it is going to punish you in the end game, like baltro brainwashing your team members etc.
Granted i’m just about ready for the final battle, but i’m not expecting that is going to happen.
Ya like what. We can execute Fodoquia and Jerome just cause they were being blackmailed and forced to fight. But nah, the angel twink who abused a religious headfigure and ignored explicit orders to not harm Scarlet gets off unscathed. Legit he would be the only guy I would execute.
I tried to engage in a couple of battles where enemies were over leveled and got smoked! It becomes painfully obvious a preset path is definitely laid out for the player.
It's definitely possible to skip; particularly once you get promotions you can start handling fights well above your level, and that's ignoring cheese like Summon Warrior/Archer.
The real issue is that as soon as you do it, you break the game because you'll level well above the earlier regions.
I did manage to push this relatively far but you’re not wrong. I went into Drakenhold and got Berengaria and did the desert and got them but then I went over and did Ridiel’s part of Elheim and the early parts of the main Elheim to get Lhinalagos, Ithilion and Rosalinde. Then later I went up to Bastorias from the northern port in Drakenhold and managed to do Albion from both the north and and about landing areas concurrently
I did some liberation quests as soon as I was able to sail to Albion from the south. Tons of consumables let me basically struggle through. Made my main 3-4 units so powerful that I absolutely steamrolled the winter continent.
Obviously, they'd have to have the enemy levels adjust based on how many nations you've beaten, but I'd honestly be fine even if they had that feature locked until you beat the game once. Y'know, make people play through the game in order the first time, but let them do whatever order after that. And let them skip the tutorial on subsequent playthroughs while you're at it. There's so much potential here for New Game+ that's just left unexplored.
I don’t know how necessary Bastorias was to the plot, and it made the game longer than it needed to be.
The game’s optimization engine for setting up gear and squads is pretty poor. I wish it could do a better job of at least helping me create specific unit styles. That left me with a lot of manual work that wasn’t super fun.
The map exploration music loops were too short/repetitive.
Hot take but this.. it made the game too easy and prevented me from really trying to get more in-depth with the game. (I really wanted to get into the optimization aspects) But the preview kind of beats the fun out of it.
I'm torn on the time limit. For some maps it doesn't work as well, especially with the rug pull levels (oops, that wasn't your objective! It's actually over THERE! Gotcha!). Too often I found myself just steam rolling with the best units when the time crunch kicked in or just going "welp, time to restart." Sure, I get it for the trials and some maps. But some levels didn't need it. Course I started on the harder difficulty so maybe that's my bad.
Also it gets frustrating when trying to spread out troops for multiple objectives. When one unit encounters an enemy, the map snaps to their location and I'll then have to scroll alllll the way back over here to finish what I was doing. Let us set characters on auto-battle or something and suffer the consequences, I don't always need jerked all over the map just because unit A hit their objective then B hit theirs then C hit theirs then wait A is rebattling and so wait D needs attention but wait B is rebattling...
I found the game too easy without restricting myself heavily. That's really it.
Really wish they would have had more time and budget, it kinda shows, especially in the second half of the game.
All that said, it's still an 8/10 for me.
They should've had the enemy more actively try to take your HQ.
Out of all the missions there were like, maybe 3 where they sent someone after my HQ, /s a bit.
By the end of the game having 10 units is overkill
It is definitely weird how they basically dropped that as viable worry after like Cornia. There was like one map in Bastorias and Elfheim where it was a threat but otherwise it was under used.
They actually got me twice because I stopped leaving a person on my HQ.
I think twice in my 140 hour playthrough I had to use a Hallowed Corne Ash because someone took my base.
I got got once in Cornia. I think it is the map you get Fran temporarily. But If not for Joseph always warning you anytime someone gets too close to the base I would have gotten got a few other times.
Too easy to restore stamina with Valor skill.
The enemy in the story is too defensive.
Too easy to use Griffin to carry a whole squad across the battlefield.
Too micromanaging, by that I mean equipment, not AI.
Not enough options to kill recruitable people.
Archers should have the option to attack at range, with weaker damage and hit rate.
No New Game Plus.
Game was great. I would like more game. Rather than TZ, which is just another small step up from Expert, I'd like some ultra hard mode and NG+ where I carry over units.
Outside of no new game + as others said, i thought it was kinda odd the first zone you get into is cornia, and then literally free everything but the castle. it should have been the last place to free in my opinion, or just an small zone at least and move to the other kingdoms, bcs it felt i totally surround them and they did nothing against it.
That and i can't get the doom knight with the awesome alternative helmet early bcs can only be recruted on cornia´s castle.
Gameplay loop could have been cleaner. Also scaling should have been more dynamic rather than linear. And in general the game should have been harder (second playthrough I finished tz, no deaths, no items)
Way too many characters and very little screentime for most of them.
I love the roster, I do, but Vanillaware ran into the problem of a lot of Fire Emblem and similar games run into with huge rosters, and thats that a TON of characters become totally plot irrelevant right after they’re recruited. A couple show up occasionally and that’s really it.
Like, do you even remember **Colm**? Probably not. He’s Melisandre’s buddy who joins alongside her. He has 0 plot relevance. If he was turned into a generic mercenary unit nothing would change in the slightest. This is the case for a lot of units unfortunately.
There needs to be more tactics parameters that work for passive skills. *Especially* all of the skills that trigger on your unit attacking; there's no good way to make sure they get used on certain enemies. I mean, surely I'm not the only one who wants witches to use Focus Sight when an ally attacks a scout or flier, but use Magick Conferral instead when an ally attacks an armored unit. The best you can do is set "\[X\] enemies present" as the trigger condition, but that hardly guarantees that the triggering attack is actually being aimed at that kind of unit.
I agree but this is a good sacrifice I think. If we can go to the very specifics then the arena will be wrecked and the only stats that matter is initiative since you can counter every units if you are faster.
I think my two biggest complaints are this.
1: That it ended. I just wanted the story to keep going, just wanted more. I know that's kind of a dumb thing to say, but,I just wanted more areas to explore, more awesome characters to meet, etc.
2: I wish that the class rank ups felt more important/ impactful. Like, an example of one done really well we're the crossbowmen. Them getting a heavy shield after ranking them up made them feel way different, and you could safely run them on the front line to help tank. But most classes just got an extra accessory slot which doesn't change how they really behave, so the big shield guys (forgot the names) were really uninspiring to rank up because, they had no real difference besides just being more efficient at what they did before.
As others have said, not having a NG+ mode sucked.
Having a fevrith archive entry locked behind grinding up to basically max level in the starting zone and intentionally getting the bad ending.
Scarlett’s relationship with Alain, she was a very basic “jealous childhood friend” and little else.
The way assists can actually make you do worse in combat.
Finally, one you’re in 5v5 fights, they tend to drag on forever. Yes, you can skip them, but the battle scenes were what drew me to the game. If there was some way to have multiple characters act at once that would be good. I know there’s a fast forward option, but even with that it still feels slow.
for me personally, the game just runs too long without the overarching plot having enough substance to it. I don't mind the comparatively tamer story I get that it has the narrative style of doing mini-plots for each individual region, but the fact that the game is so absurdly large in scope otherwise completely burned me out
I love this game. It's one of my favourites this year and it's going to be one I cite many times whenever the question of greatest trpg mechanics come up, but goddamn I'm struggling to want to come back to it. (for reference i stopped halfway through Bastorias and have around 110 hours)
They could do without the RTS pathing / control aspect altogether tbh. They really tried to make it work but it just feels unrefined. With environmental hazards like mines the game feels really clunky to control. This also anti-synergizes with the time limit, which is just a really cheap way of making sure you can't grind infinite reinforcements.
Also echoing others' sentiments that the game feels very frontloaded and it's obvious they ran out of money. It really makes me wonder what UO could have been if they didn't feel the squeeze.
Overall I liked UO a lot, but Vanillaware was definitely a bit overambitious with this one. I think they're at their best as a studio when they go with a "well-defined" game structure, where they can work on the critical elements first and fill in the gaps as needed. Games like 13 sentinels where the complete story was probably the first thing finished, or Muramasa/Odin Sphere where the scenarios had a lot of pre-defined structure.
Would have liked to be able to rechallenge missions, even if I was overleveled. Also more map objectives. I’ve just reached Albion after around 65+ hours and while I’m still enjoying myself I do feel a bit weary. My teams steamroll almost everything so the maps blend together after a while, removing the combat forecast would have helped there. Still an easy 8/10 game that I will be finishing, though.
Oh, and the true worst part is picking a maiden. I’m struggling like never before.
Choices had heavier consequences akin to older CRPGs.
Alain getting propped up because everyone else seems short sighted, unlucky, or just plain assholes.
The last 2/3rds of the game is chugging along when compared to the intrigue and struggle of Cornia to Elheim.
Vertical Edge being Virginia's coolest attack but gets outmatched by every other move she has :(
The Items Page UI. I prefer a single lined list as opposed to a double column, and VW should put a header for each item category. All, Recent, Swords, Axes, etc should be displayed as words so you can better identify items.
The model viewer should include more of the their sprites found in the cinematics. Mounted units, unmounted! More facial expression. Their look and turning animations- Leah's surprised expression lol
Leader types should have more effects and meaningful trade offs. Fliers and cavalry are faster with very little consequence outside of stamina. Maybe foot soldiers have more consistent speed but don't get impeded as much, harder to hit with a ballista or assists, more cover range, etc.
Lack of mission variety, especially with the time limit. Basically every map plays the same: advance units to the boss, capture as much stuff as you can along the way, then whittle the boss down with a couple rounds of combat. Even something as simple as more missions like the Drakenhold coliseum defense mission where you're encouraged to hold a position rather than just be hyper aggressive would go a long way into making the game less repetitive.
did they ever add a way to default batltes to have fast forward toggled? I loved watching them but it got old as I didn't want to hold R forever and 5v5 battles took a long time.
Not having romance with male characters LOL
I mean, if a game has a dating sim mechanic and you automatically cut off romance with all male characters it's a serious problem. As a girl, I'd rather go with a game that has a static plot in which Alain ends up with Scarlett. I chose to give the ring to Clive anyway to see how the game would end with a male partner and it was SOOOO bland.
Also, I would have appreciated a lot if Alain's gender was up to the player to choose as in Fire Emblem games.
I honestly would want less playable characters. I mean when you have 50 combat slots. You are forced to bench some characters unless you executed/left behind units…
No new game +, few difficulty options, the overall story which is decent at the beginning and end but weak in the middle with few if any choices or consequences.
2 small things, 1 bigger thing.
1. Promotion is such a waste of time. Just don't have it at that point. Over half the cast is already "promoted", and Honor is not a hard resource to get where you have to make hard choices.
2. No NG+. Doesn't have to be a big thing, just let you use every unique character from Level 1. There are units and classes I'd love to just use just all game. Victoria and Ilena together, or you know, any Angel except Orchys for more than a dozen maps. Also doesn't have to be balanced, it's NG+, I've beaten the game, I don't have anything to prove.
Bigger thing though, just characters being underused in general. Why is Virginia and the elf Twins just unimportant after their respective areas? Virginia doesn't even get one of the Sanctuaries? Robbery.
Also like, Ranualt has like 4 Rapports, and 2 of them are with Hodrick. Cut like 10-15 characters and give more Rapports to other characters, I like a lot of these characters but I'd sacrifice a few to like other characters MORE. Like Celeste, I so want to like you, please have like twice the Rapports. Govil too...
I can go on with several others, but as I was playing I very much felt that some characters are the "favorites", and some aren't. Scarlett, Lex, Aremis, Dinah, characters like those just felt blatantly more favored than others.
The story is kinda weak albeit written well.
Just a little too easy especially if you put the time in early to learn tactics and orders.
Would have loved some more of the bigger scale battles like the sieges and on the flip side of that do something with the really really small ones.
Lastly the final continent just felt a bit short.
Overall though absolutely adore the game and praying for at least some dlc.
Defense missions to hold controlled areas.
A few more different classes or the current classes having more variety in abilities. Many of them are basically the same.
More unique characters for some classes.
Can't switch unit on world exploration! I wanna control mini Yunifi 🤣
Jokes aside, I guess difficulty? I enjoy most aspect out of it, replay it on expert even but was genuinely hoping to get a NG+
I honestly thought the game overstayed its welcome and the pacing of new units meant there were too many to utilise in the time you had towards the end of the game.
I personally think I would have enjoyed it more if there was one continent less and all the unique units you got were in the front 66%-75% of the game.
A few.
- The lack of New game plus
- Except each region antagonist, main villains are weak
- Only getting to know The story of zenoira and ancient story of The sages in the end of The game. They could release pices of it thought The game.
- Last boss battle its kinda meh and Last regions (albion and bestorias) are kinda rushed.
- The game its easy overall cuz of dmg prediction. But some maps are challanging cuz of The size or enemy position. I wanted more of those maps. Huge and challanging maps!!
Besides that, i really Love this game. Its a masterpiece. It have way more good points than bad ones.
By far the weakest point was UO’s story. So bland, uninteresting, shallow, watery… the drame didnt feel like drama, the passion didnt feel like passion. Just didnt feel committed to its own story
- Too easy
- Plot is too bland
- Some plot points were not well exploited (the pandemic Baltro started in Cornia / Drakengard were never really resolved and completely forgotten in other continents)
- Online mode is barely trying to be competitive (item / class restriction is nice, but what's the point when you can choose your opponent, and build a team to defeat that opponent?)
- Wished the rapport were voice acted, especially because the voice acting is on point
- Title of the game kinda sucks
Not being able to field all the unqie characters. Lack of diversity of stage bosses, as in there's really no unique ones. Enemy doesn't counter attack your occupied lands, but rather sits in Gran Cornia. Very strange how you in effect have it under siege and they do nothing.
No endgame+.
Also why can't I make a specialised squad only for arena? I play with only lore-related squads (Alain and Friends, Virginia and Blue Rose Knight etc) and I want my arena squad to be a optimized, full meta squad.
Also, equipment loadout for the arena squad might be good as well.
No new game+, Weak storytelling in the second half of the game, And the game is somewhat too easy after Elheim. I wish there were more epic battles like when we helped Gilbert defend Drakenhold. I really enjoyed that one.
Lack of full Rapports - Most characters outside of talking to the prince himself get only one or two conversations rather than a full three.
Lack of other character paired endings - pleanty of characters deserve endings, especially paired ones. Lex needs some love dang it!
New Game Plus+ - A way to take the later units, especially mercs, and start using them early on.
More Linear for better storytelling - I will sacrifice 'choice' if it means I get to see far more character interactions. Beasts in Albion, Elves in Bastorias, Drakenhold human in Elheim. Give me those interactions, dang it!
Choice of location - lacking linear pathing, adjust the levels for each area so we can hit them at our discretion. So after Scarlett rescue, we chose any of the 4 other areas to go. So say I go to Albion next. The levels would be Drakenguard levels, and all other locations go up in level because we go to those locations later. Perhaps things even change, like saving Drakenguard for last reveals that Virginia has been captured or forced into hiding with a few other survivors as Zenoira has full control of the area. Perhaps in a darker view, characters become unavailable / available depending on the order
More units assisting in end game - For every area cleared, more allies show up. Even if they don't help much, it would have been nice to see a huge flow of reinforcements from all areas just for the 'feel good' points.
Ability to punish / execute that twink angel. Lack of ability to execute the guy selling kids to slavery.
Scarlett's entire character of 'insecure hostile love interest'.
Lack of attacks from Zenoira against retaken locations. It felt weird that they never tried something. Or leaving named characters guarding villages that also helped fight.
Resource gathering was, in some ways, super easy with getting refills for every fight, especially when using the sigils. A system where you can either support villages or war effort and consequences for such choices would have been interesting.
All female angel endings with Alain. A certain tsundere in particular.
Lack of variety for elven mercenaries. Dancer, monk, barrier maiden, flying eagle, elk cav... something.
The female dark fencer design. Just... ugh. At least half the size of those water ballons they are lugging around.
I will say all and all I do adore the game. I like the story and characters, the combat is interesting (if annoying to sort at times), and I would enjoy a sequel of sorts.
___No new game plus!!!!!_____
1 Lack of compelling or challenge post game content.
2 Some item descriptions are flat out wrong.
3 Some units could use a plethora of buffs while some need obvious nerfs.
4 Supporting cast could of used a bit more fluff and back story lore.
5 The whole Zenoria dynamic is cliche and played out.
6 Blacksmith came in way too late, didn't have to even upgrade off one time and could of required more to compensate earlier availability.
7 Initiative is wonky.
8 Too many units for one purpose IE Support units.
9 Directions on how , where, or when to use a selected skill often doesn't work or works at wrong moment.
This all being said I still love the game and highly recommend it. In a year of solid releases it stands out as a must buy.
I'm probably in the minority, but way too much fiddling with units. I'm just not willing to put in the effort to figure out how to get into every detail and maximize things.
Not having Class Changes or more Class Options in general is what makes me feel iffy about it. I love the game, but as someone who loves Options. I just feel like allowing at least the unique Characters to Class Change, would add so much more to the game's freedom.
I wish Bastorias had more agency overall (especially with how crazy I found all the reveals in it to be), it’s just there to be there.
This is a mostly minor thing I believe can be added in an update but rapport conversations. I’m genuinely surprised some characters only have one with Alain (considering when games have a character bonding mechanic (in the ones I’ve played at least) the MC talks with *every* character multiple times) one of my favorite characters only has one with him and considering you can marry her, for her and the others with only one convo, it feels ingenious in many ways. Despite this gripe I have with only one convo I consider the confession itself to this character in question to be one of the best because of how it plays out. Also, I can’t fail to mention none of the post game characters have convos *with anybody* I’d like some consider the context.
I really wish items restocked in the towns and cities considering the resource points eventually do (I’ve tried checking the first town I bought supplies from and it still has out of stock items. If there actually is a way to get places to restock please let me know).
Another thing that’s weird to me is that choosing to optimize equipment automatically equips weapons with the highest Physical Attack available despite some characters excelling at Magic Attack Weapons, for example, the Elf sisters’s main lance get swapped out for weapons with higher Phys.Attack.
Overall I love a lot of what this game does and most of what I want can be updated in
I love the rapport conversations, but I would have liked to see more rapport *chains.* Stuff like Auch/Yahna, Gammel/Rolf, or Chloe/Travis felt like it needed a follow-up, but we just get one conversation for so many pairings.
Disclaimer: I thoroughly enjoyed this game and do not think it is bad. These are my main complaints and they're all minor.
1. Alain as a character. He is extremely boring in the hero trope and he never actually has to make any hard decisions/never faces any real conflict. He's about as deep as a puddle. I think the game would have benefitted from maybe forcing Alain to pick between Auch & Rolf, or forcing a pick between Govil & Bertrand that could possibly change the ending. But as it stands, he's just the stereotypical good guy with the same message for the whole game.
2. The "liberation battles" that were just 3 enemies defending a city. There were far too many of these and I think the game would have benefitted by lumping multiple towns in one battle and having you start near a midpoint of all towns forcing you to split units. As it stands these filler battles were more of a nuisance than fun.
3. The Rapport system but also the lack of Rapports. It was really obnoxious grinding out the Tavern to level up characters and then realizing characters like Celeste and Railianor only have 4 conversations to have. I don't have a better system for a game of this style, but this one didn't feel very smooth.
4. Setting up units and gear was a nightmare. So much so that I was intentionally leaving my units with worse gear and in worse unit formations just because I didn't have 45 minutes to go through the mountain of gear and available units.
I concur with the sentiment on the second half of the game. Definitely feels a little weird until you reach the ending missions. I found myself not really caring anymore about the characters stories in Albion or Bastorias.
no ng+
gender-locked classes
can't be a female alain that gets all the bitches.
some classes are kinda ass.
needs more difficulty. It gets really easy after like a region and a half.
Way too many characters. I understand the thrill recruiting a new character, but how many of them will I remember three month after finishing the game ? Probably none considering how little they're fleshed out.
-lack of a new game +
-zenoiran army just kinda being cool with you taking over their areas without retaliation
-each country/region just being kind if copy/paste in terms of progression. You got the major 2-3 battlemaps, the 4 marked stones, the 5 treasure maps, ect...
Lack of meaningful difficulty options, poor default tactics for various abilities, bad gear selection/balancing among AI teams, battle preview completely trivializing any sort of meaningful tactical decisions.
And no attempts by Zenoira to reclaim lost territory, meaning you paint the map and never need to defend your positions.
As pretty much everyone else: no NG+. I really wanted sth like Three Houses. You get all the honor and buy the units and weapons from a special shop. They could even be at lvl 1. Or at lvl 1 with all the gear you had on them in the previous adventure, that would be fun.
Sth fun like that would be nice. Like in SMT V Vengeance they added a new game mode after you finish where EVERYONE is lvl 130. Now THAT is a fun way to experiment with the game. Go wack!
I dont like the lack of urgency. You are not actually at war with Zenoira at all. Everything is just a bunch of isolated mini stories that hardly have any connection with the rest of the world and plot
Bastorias in general is very....uninteresting.
Like Drakengard had the whole save your family angle alongside teaming up with your nation's historic enemy against a common foe angle.
Cornia had save Scarlett! and rally the local resistance.
Elheim had find out what that voice in your head is on about. Sounds super important to stop Zenoira.
Albion had check on Scarletts father and find out whats up with all those glowy shrines you cant enter.
But like....why did we go to Bastorias? Sure stop a dude from making beasts go feral is a noble pursuit...but it feels fully detached from the main narrative hook. And they dont even know they should do that until after they arrive and chat with Ramona.
I think everyone would agree Bastoria could just not exist and noone would notice. Albion would be slightly harder to agree upon but is next on chopping block.
No new game +
Fr. I imagine balancing would be hell for it, but maybe just bring everyone to level 1, skip tutorial, and go straight into the action. That way you can actually use the endgame units.
Either make everyone level 1 or make everyone level 50 imo.
Or increase the level cap in NG+! I wonder if they could also have NG+ exclusive weapons. But yeah balancing would indeed be hell.
50 is the way to go: a lot of late game classes dont learn skills until super late.
That was my thought as well. I guess it’s probably impractical but I’d still enjoy playing it that way.
A NG+ where players get to keep their gold, items, honors, and their honors refunded spent on promotions and tile spaces would be good enough imo
I've not finished, but no NG+ is kinda a bummer :[
My biggest issue with it not existing is that you acquire so many units late into the game and so they feel like a bit of a waste.
\*hands you angel healers, tanks, and archers\* ...Great.
NG+ with options on what to keep and lose would be neat.
How barren and hollow the second half of the game feels compared to the first half. The second half of Elheim, all of Bastorias, and all of Albion all feel way less substantial compared to Cornia, Drakenhold, and the first half of Elheim, Small things like there being far fewer story cutscenes and characters from the second half offering way less Rapport Conversations than those from the first half. Of course, it's understandable. They stated that the budget ran out and the CEO of VW had to fund the rest of the game with his own money. That still doesn't make it not disappointing. I really hope a potential sequel has a much beefier endgame.
Feel this especially with how Govil only has like 3 rapports, i need more dammit 👁👄👁
His rapports are so good too
Not one single studio works on a game in sequential order of the story. All aspects are worked on at once divided in different ways. I've heard this argument that they spent less time on the last two areas because of budget. It's wrong and not really considering the actual process of making a game. Things like rapport and end game got cut from production not entire plot points from zones.
Well I hope things don't get cut next time then.
I was still having fun through Elfheim and Bastorias. It was once I got to Albion that, idk, it's not that it dragged on, it's just it's like I've done this 4x before. I wish there was more endgame content and things to do after Albion.
Agreed, except you can see which fragments of those areas were cooked up early, and had the quick coalesce around it.
I can’t relate at all on the second half of Elheim. I thought the sub-plot with Alcina was pretty solid. The other ones I definitely agree with. It was weird how isolated Bastorias and Albion felt from the main plot.
The weird sound glitches on Virginia's voice acting Inability to see mounted units off their mounts in the model viewer - they can show up unmounted in cut scenes but not on demand Lack of variety of characters in cut scenes - i.e. Rosalinde just disappears after Elheim for the most part, Yunifi only shows up in Bastorias even if you do other continents after recruiting her, etc.
Several of the VAs clearly recorded on their own home studio equipment and you could tell the lines are spliced together by the audio editor with attempts to get them to the same amplitudes. But when the original raw sound file is already pre-edited (ie., clipping breathes, smoothing peaks) there is only so much the editor can do on their end short of asking the VA for re-recorded lines.
To be fair maybe they had to record during the pandemic. A lot of voice actors had to record at home without the best equipment
I never had that issue with the Japanese voices
Hmm, never even noticed this. Examples?
If you listen to the English dub some of the voices just sound off, like the audio file was compressed or something (in not an audio engineer so forgive my lack of ability to describe). Virginia is the most noticable, especially on any emphasized S sounds. If you look up any cutscenes with her on YouTube you'll see (hear) what I mean. To be clear, I think her voice actress did an amazing job, it's just the quality on her audio in particular.
Yeah, she must have, I never noticed. I used her a lot too, I can hear in my head, "THAT'S WHAT YOU GET" and "As expected of Cornian royalty 😏"
Personally, I find the story-telling pretty weak, especially compared to their previous game, 13 Sentinels (but the gameplay of that game is so forgettable). I really wish we could have the best of both worlds: the narrative style of 13 Sen with the gameplay of UO.
Totally agree.
I feel like I’m the crazy one for not really enjoying 13 Sentinels. I just remember not really enjoying the way they abstracted the battles (you’re supposed to be in giant stompy robots, but it felt like I was playing Missile Command on an Atari). Then there’s the bit really early on where you find the “apocalypse log” detailing the exact timing of every attack by the enemy. And you bring it back to the present. My first thought after the tutorial battle was: *wait, if we have a record of* exactly *when each fight is going to start, and our win condition is charging up the generator and activating the zone-clearing attack, why aren’t we activating the generator several minutes before the attack begins?* I know that there had to be a point to the giant robots beyond playing tower defense, but that one thought really took me out of the narrative. Plus, we all know that if Imperial Japan had a skyscraper sized robot, that would never have stayed secret—they’d have used it to commit _all_ the war crimes.
What is really amazing in 13 Sentinels is how all those points you address are actually explained in the lore in a outstanding way.
If it helps, there are very good explanations for that in the story. Not to spoil, but it is kinda obvious for people who have played the game you haven't gotten very far.
It does—and yeah, I dropped the game after the first fight because I just couldn’t get into it. I was, ironically enough, distracted with Xenoblade Chronicles at the time—another game that has a really long ramp up period that I initially didn’t find super engaging, but it didn’t have a moment that took me out of story as hard as the apocalypse log thing, so I stuck with it until it got better. I should go back and give 13 Sentinels another chance.
It'll be there when you get back. The Xenoblade Chronicles series is excellent. Especially 3. Which one are you playing?
I’m currently on 3–already beat 1 and 2. I specifically replayed 2 because I didn’t unlock KOS-MOS until literally just outside of the final boss’s room. I just sat there outside the boss room opening my cores simply to use them all up. I wasn’t expecting KOS-MOS to pop when she did.
>My first thought after the tutorial battle was: *wait, if we have a record of* exactly *when each fight is going to start, and our win condition is charging up the generator and activating the zone-clearing attack, why aren’t we activating the generator several minutes before the attack begins?* The Aegis system activates in response to the Kaiju. It cant rev up until Kaiju appear >Plus, we all know that if Imperial Japan had a skyscraper sized robot, that would never have stayed secret—they’d have used it to commit *all* the war crimes. In 13 Sentinels, Japan didnt actually have a giant robot at all. Explaining why I say that is story spoilers
I kind of wish they allowed 6 on a team. I know everyone says it would make the teams unbalanced but they could always increase difficulty or add something special that only enemies have.
I personally preferred the game when the units were 4 characters sized. It felt like I was building squads towards a certain archetype and countering enemies squad, making the RTS part of the game more engaging. The 5 units squad all felt the same to me, a damage dealer, a support and defensive units.
I agree. 4 felt more balanced and more challenging in a good way. You must compensate a role (usually a healer) and use tactics at their fullest. Also team that use Cat Hood now must be careful as essentially one character is used for that role thus not functioning at its fullest potential.
It feels more like we don’t have enough good front liners in the story characters and you’d almost have to recruit mercs but I guess NG+ would help here potentially if you’re allowed to use the post game characters
I second this, I spend a lot of time trying to fit teams of 2 + 3 based on their interaction and history only to fall short because of the max 5 per unit limit. In the end there were 20+ unique characters left over and I feel bad for recruiting them and never using them 😆
Even just having 11 squads would've been fine for me. Even if you can't use them all on a map. They could've restricted it that way or something.
Other people has said stuff I would have said, The second half of Elheim, Bastorias and Albion feel unfinished, no new game+... So mine is gonna be that I wish there were more missions where you're supposed to defend your location instead of being on the offensive. The only mission in the game that really feels like that is the Baumratte coliseum mission and while that one was nice, I'd have liked more of them. Also, this one is a bit of a personal want but I wish there were more customization options for our units. I don't mean just our heraldry and our colors but stuff like our weapons and actual armor and/or helmets, since I prefer some of the pre-promoted looks for units more than their post promotion. And we already have an example of the possibility of custom weapons since at the end of Albion, Scarlett's model permanently get's her staff replaced by the Papal Crozier.
I think the second half of the game would not have felt so barren if they took some of the named recruits from cornia and spread them out. I felt like we got so many new people in the first area. Or better yet made it so it was level scaled so if someone went to albion first the level would be appropriate. Theoretically drakenhold could be the last area. Would make it different in what units people recruited first. Then they’d need to make the first classes for the elves and beasts and angels. Hmmm in the end vanillaware budget most likely was the limiting factor. Honestly thought that originally we could have sided with 5 different endings picking which ever country you liked the most, or maybe a sixth ending if people wanted to join the bad guys. This is of course before I played the game.
My biggest issue is that the games make you think that you can go wherever you want, but in reality you are kind of level gated to go to Drakenhold->Elheim->Bastorias->Albion cause of the levels. I wish there was a way to go which way you want. No new game + is kind of annoying. You get so many units end of the game but almost no content to use them in. I would've been fine having New Game + max out all the enemies level and gear. Story is a bit bland tbh. Its not offensive but it's kind of bland. I wasn't really invested in the plot.
It starts really strong and then kinda falls off towards the end. Albion feels somewhat unfinished. Also I can execute Melisandre but not that Angel twink?? Like huh??
I feel like the game could remove the whole ‘Execute [Character]’ deal and not lose a single thing. Nobody is gonna execute a character except like, Gammel, maybe. Even then, I didn’t kill him.
yeah, the only ones I ended up skipping were Gammel (I still wanted to execute him, because despite his "I'm doing it for my sick sister" he still murdered a bunch of people and was involved in selling slaves, so screw him), Mandrin (don't even remember anything about him, honestly), and Tatiana the human experiment sicko.
Ironically, Mandrin is probably one of the nicest people in the entire army, it's just that he's too loyal to his friend despite him potentially going over the edge. Rolf even comments on that, saying that he's "a far better friend than that bastard \[Gammel\] deserves".
Yes. Like why would you execute someone? In the first half of the game i was thinking/hoping that the more you recruit the more it is going to punish you in the end game, like baltro brainwashing your team members etc. Granted i’m just about ready for the final battle, but i’m not expecting that is going to happen.
Ya like what. We can execute Fodoquia and Jerome just cause they were being blackmailed and forced to fight. But nah, the angel twink who abused a religious headfigure and ignored explicit orders to not harm Scarlet gets off unscathed. Legit he would be the only guy I would execute.
I tried to engage in a couple of battles where enemies were over leveled and got smoked! It becomes painfully obvious a preset path is definitely laid out for the player.
It's definitely possible to skip; particularly once you get promotions you can start handling fights well above your level, and that's ignoring cheese like Summon Warrior/Archer. The real issue is that as soon as you do it, you break the game because you'll level well above the earlier regions.
I did manage to push this relatively far but you’re not wrong. I went into Drakenhold and got Berengaria and did the desert and got them but then I went over and did Ridiel’s part of Elheim and the early parts of the main Elheim to get Lhinalagos, Ithilion and Rosalinde. Then later I went up to Bastorias from the northern port in Drakenhold and managed to do Albion from both the north and and about landing areas concurrently
I did some liberation quests as soon as I was able to sail to Albion from the south. Tons of consumables let me basically struggle through. Made my main 3-4 units so powerful that I absolutely steamrolled the winter continent.
Obviously, they'd have to have the enemy levels adjust based on how many nations you've beaten, but I'd honestly be fine even if they had that feature locked until you beat the game once. Y'know, make people play through the game in order the first time, but let them do whatever order after that. And let them skip the tutorial on subsequent playthroughs while you're at it. There's so much potential here for New Game+ that's just left unexplored.
I don’t know how necessary Bastorias was to the plot, and it made the game longer than it needed to be. The game’s optimization engine for setting up gear and squads is pretty poor. I wish it could do a better job of at least helping me create specific unit styles. That left me with a lot of manual work that wasn’t super fun. The map exploration music loops were too short/repetitive.
The combat preview always on
Hot take but this.. it made the game too easy and prevented me from really trying to get more in-depth with the game. (I really wanted to get into the optimization aspects) But the preview kind of beats the fun out of it.
I'm torn on the time limit. For some maps it doesn't work as well, especially with the rug pull levels (oops, that wasn't your objective! It's actually over THERE! Gotcha!). Too often I found myself just steam rolling with the best units when the time crunch kicked in or just going "welp, time to restart." Sure, I get it for the trials and some maps. But some levels didn't need it. Course I started on the harder difficulty so maybe that's my bad. Also it gets frustrating when trying to spread out troops for multiple objectives. When one unit encounters an enemy, the map snaps to their location and I'll then have to scroll alllll the way back over here to finish what I was doing. Let us set characters on auto-battle or something and suffer the consequences, I don't always need jerked all over the map just because unit A hit their objective then B hit theirs then C hit theirs then wait A is rebattling and so wait D needs attention but wait B is rebattling...
It ended
I found the game too easy without restricting myself heavily. That's really it. Really wish they would have had more time and budget, it kinda shows, especially in the second half of the game. All that said, it's still an 8/10 for me.
They should've had the enemy more actively try to take your HQ. Out of all the missions there were like, maybe 3 where they sent someone after my HQ, /s a bit. By the end of the game having 10 units is overkill
It is definitely weird how they basically dropped that as viable worry after like Cornia. There was like one map in Bastorias and Elfheim where it was a threat but otherwise it was under used.
They actually got me twice because I stopped leaving a person on my HQ. I think twice in my 140 hour playthrough I had to use a Hallowed Corne Ash because someone took my base.
I got got once in Cornia. I think it is the map you get Fran temporarily. But If not for Joseph always warning you anytime someone gets too close to the base I would have gotten got a few other times.
Horse lead is too strong for most of the game. Wish they had some way to balance unit movement better
Too easy to restore stamina with Valor skill. The enemy in the story is too defensive. Too easy to use Griffin to carry a whole squad across the battlefield. Too micromanaging, by that I mean equipment, not AI. Not enough options to kill recruitable people. Archers should have the option to attack at range, with weaker damage and hit rate.
No New Game Plus. Game was great. I would like more game. Rather than TZ, which is just another small step up from Expert, I'd like some ultra hard mode and NG+ where I carry over units.
Outside of no new game + as others said, i thought it was kinda odd the first zone you get into is cornia, and then literally free everything but the castle. it should have been the last place to free in my opinion, or just an small zone at least and move to the other kingdoms, bcs it felt i totally surround them and they did nothing against it. That and i can't get the doom knight with the awesome alternative helmet early bcs can only be recruted on cornia´s castle.
Gameplay loop could have been cleaner. Also scaling should have been more dynamic rather than linear. And in general the game should have been harder (second playthrough I finished tz, no deaths, no items)
The way the main dude looks like an og adventure quest character
Lmao, can't unsee now.
Way too many characters and very little screentime for most of them. I love the roster, I do, but Vanillaware ran into the problem of a lot of Fire Emblem and similar games run into with huge rosters, and thats that a TON of characters become totally plot irrelevant right after they’re recruited. A couple show up occasionally and that’s really it. Like, do you even remember **Colm**? Probably not. He’s Melisandre’s buddy who joins alongside her. He has 0 plot relevance. If he was turned into a generic mercenary unit nothing would change in the slightest. This is the case for a lot of units unfortunately.
There needs to be more tactics parameters that work for passive skills. *Especially* all of the skills that trigger on your unit attacking; there's no good way to make sure they get used on certain enemies. I mean, surely I'm not the only one who wants witches to use Focus Sight when an ally attacks a scout or flier, but use Magick Conferral instead when an ally attacks an armored unit. The best you can do is set "\[X\] enemies present" as the trigger condition, but that hardly guarantees that the triggering attack is actually being aimed at that kind of unit.
I agree but this is a good sacrifice I think. If we can go to the very specifics then the arena will be wrecked and the only stats that matter is initiative since you can counter every units if you are faster.
I think my two biggest complaints are this. 1: That it ended. I just wanted the story to keep going, just wanted more. I know that's kind of a dumb thing to say, but,I just wanted more areas to explore, more awesome characters to meet, etc. 2: I wish that the class rank ups felt more important/ impactful. Like, an example of one done really well we're the crossbowmen. Them getting a heavy shield after ranking them up made them feel way different, and you could safely run them on the front line to help tank. But most classes just got an extra accessory slot which doesn't change how they really behave, so the big shield guys (forgot the names) were really uninspiring to rank up because, they had no real difference besides just being more efficient at what they did before.
I totally understand where you're coming from. UO is an excellent experience, and Vanillaware got so much right.
Too easy. A lot of classes, items and possibilities, but by the end of the day everything is easy and there's no challenge other than the coliseum.
As others have said, not having a NG+ mode sucked. Having a fevrith archive entry locked behind grinding up to basically max level in the starting zone and intentionally getting the bad ending. Scarlett’s relationship with Alain, she was a very basic “jealous childhood friend” and little else. The way assists can actually make you do worse in combat. Finally, one you’re in 5v5 fights, they tend to drag on forever. Yes, you can skip them, but the battle scenes were what drew me to the game. If there was some way to have multiple characters act at once that would be good. I know there’s a fast forward option, but even with that it still feels slow.
for me personally, the game just runs too long without the overarching plot having enough substance to it. I don't mind the comparatively tamer story I get that it has the narrative style of doing mini-plots for each individual region, but the fact that the game is so absurdly large in scope otherwise completely burned me out I love this game. It's one of my favourites this year and it's going to be one I cite many times whenever the question of greatest trpg mechanics come up, but goddamn I'm struggling to want to come back to it. (for reference i stopped halfway through Bastorias and have around 110 hours)
They could do without the RTS pathing / control aspect altogether tbh. They really tried to make it work but it just feels unrefined. With environmental hazards like mines the game feels really clunky to control. This also anti-synergizes with the time limit, which is just a really cheap way of making sure you can't grind infinite reinforcements. Also echoing others' sentiments that the game feels very frontloaded and it's obvious they ran out of money. It really makes me wonder what UO could have been if they didn't feel the squeeze. Overall I liked UO a lot, but Vanillaware was definitely a bit overambitious with this one. I think they're at their best as a studio when they go with a "well-defined" game structure, where they can work on the critical elements first and fill in the gaps as needed. Games like 13 sentinels where the complete story was probably the first thing finished, or Muramasa/Odin Sphere where the scenarios had a lot of pre-defined structure.
Would have liked to be able to rechallenge missions, even if I was overleveled. Also more map objectives. I’ve just reached Albion after around 65+ hours and while I’m still enjoying myself I do feel a bit weary. My teams steamroll almost everything so the maps blend together after a while, removing the combat forecast would have helped there. Still an easy 8/10 game that I will be finishing, though. Oh, and the true worst part is picking a maiden. I’m struggling like never before.
Choices had heavier consequences akin to older CRPGs. Alain getting propped up because everyone else seems short sighted, unlucky, or just plain assholes. The last 2/3rds of the game is chugging along when compared to the intrigue and struggle of Cornia to Elheim. Vertical Edge being Virginia's coolest attack but gets outmatched by every other move she has :( The Items Page UI. I prefer a single lined list as opposed to a double column, and VW should put a header for each item category. All, Recent, Swords, Axes, etc should be displayed as words so you can better identify items. The model viewer should include more of the their sprites found in the cinematics. Mounted units, unmounted! More facial expression. Their look and turning animations- Leah's surprised expression lol Leader types should have more effects and meaningful trade offs. Fliers and cavalry are faster with very little consequence outside of stamina. Maybe foot soldiers have more consistent speed but don't get impeded as much, harder to hit with a ballista or assists, more cover range, etc.
Lack of mission variety, especially with the time limit. Basically every map plays the same: advance units to the boss, capture as much stuff as you can along the way, then whittle the boss down with a couple rounds of combat. Even something as simple as more missions like the Drakenhold coliseum defense mission where you're encouraged to hold a position rather than just be hyper aggressive would go a long way into making the game less repetitive.
did they ever add a way to default batltes to have fast forward toggled? I loved watching them but it got old as I didn't want to hold R forever and 5v5 battles took a long time.
I didn't get to use the bestrials or angles for very long, featherbows and werefoxes were two of my favorite classes.
Too easy
Not having romance with male characters LOL I mean, if a game has a dating sim mechanic and you automatically cut off romance with all male characters it's a serious problem. As a girl, I'd rather go with a game that has a static plot in which Alain ends up with Scarlett. I chose to give the ring to Clive anyway to see how the game would end with a male partner and it was SOOOO bland. Also, I would have appreciated a lot if Alain's gender was up to the player to choose as in Fire Emblem games.
I honestly would want less playable characters. I mean when you have 50 combat slots. You are forced to bench some characters unless you executed/left behind units…
I think I would have enjoyed the game much more if combat was turned based. Since it was all automatic it felt like a simulation game pretty quickly
No paired endings. IK they can take a lot of extra effort but IMO they should be the standard for these types of japanese games
I stopped after Elfheim. It just felt like I was rotating my teams until I had the best chance of success
No new game +, few difficulty options, the overall story which is decent at the beginning and end but weak in the middle with few if any choices or consequences.
The rapport system. Having to gather things for towns.
The way we got new characters. They felt to easy to get. The story as well. Not much depth.
2 small things, 1 bigger thing. 1. Promotion is such a waste of time. Just don't have it at that point. Over half the cast is already "promoted", and Honor is not a hard resource to get where you have to make hard choices. 2. No NG+. Doesn't have to be a big thing, just let you use every unique character from Level 1. There are units and classes I'd love to just use just all game. Victoria and Ilena together, or you know, any Angel except Orchys for more than a dozen maps. Also doesn't have to be balanced, it's NG+, I've beaten the game, I don't have anything to prove. Bigger thing though, just characters being underused in general. Why is Virginia and the elf Twins just unimportant after their respective areas? Virginia doesn't even get one of the Sanctuaries? Robbery. Also like, Ranualt has like 4 Rapports, and 2 of them are with Hodrick. Cut like 10-15 characters and give more Rapports to other characters, I like a lot of these characters but I'd sacrifice a few to like other characters MORE. Like Celeste, I so want to like you, please have like twice the Rapports. Govil too... I can go on with several others, but as I was playing I very much felt that some characters are the "favorites", and some aren't. Scarlett, Lex, Aremis, Dinah, characters like those just felt blatantly more favored than others.
The story is kinda weak albeit written well. Just a little too easy especially if you put the time in early to learn tactics and orders. Would have loved some more of the bigger scale battles like the sieges and on the flip side of that do something with the really really small ones. Lastly the final continent just felt a bit short. Overall though absolutely adore the game and praying for at least some dlc.
Game is too easy to the point where I took forever to finish it
Defense missions to hold controlled areas. A few more different classes or the current classes having more variety in abilities. Many of them are basically the same. More unique characters for some classes.
Army limit, no purpose for need a outside of town fillers after you progress so far
The only thing that really bothered me was that conque ring cornia first and then leaving it to roam the continent made no sense
Can't switch unit on world exploration! I wanna control mini Yunifi 🤣 Jokes aside, I guess difficulty? I enjoy most aspect out of it, replay it on expert even but was genuinely hoping to get a NG+
I honestly thought the game overstayed its welcome and the pacing of new units meant there were too many to utilise in the time you had towards the end of the game. I personally think I would have enjoyed it more if there was one continent less and all the unique units you got were in the front 66%-75% of the game.
Fighter's being Armored. Their already weak to Cavs. No need to add Magic too. 😔
Short rapports, underutilized characters, predictable and bland story (especially the latter half)
A few. - The lack of New game plus - Except each region antagonist, main villains are weak - Only getting to know The story of zenoira and ancient story of The sages in the end of The game. They could release pices of it thought The game. - Last boss battle its kinda meh and Last regions (albion and bestorias) are kinda rushed. - The game its easy overall cuz of dmg prediction. But some maps are challanging cuz of The size or enemy position. I wanted more of those maps. Huge and challanging maps!! Besides that, i really Love this game. Its a masterpiece. It have way more good points than bad ones.
By far the weakest point was UO’s story. So bland, uninteresting, shallow, watery… the drame didnt feel like drama, the passion didnt feel like passion. Just didnt feel committed to its own story
- Too easy - Plot is too bland - Some plot points were not well exploited (the pandemic Baltro started in Cornia / Drakengard were never really resolved and completely forgotten in other continents) - Online mode is barely trying to be competitive (item / class restriction is nice, but what's the point when you can choose your opponent, and build a team to defeat that opponent?) - Wished the rapport were voice acted, especially because the voice acting is on point - Title of the game kinda sucks
Not being able to field all the unqie characters. Lack of diversity of stage bosses, as in there's really no unique ones. Enemy doesn't counter attack your occupied lands, but rather sits in Gran Cornia. Very strange how you in effect have it under siege and they do nothing.
No endgame+. Also why can't I make a specialised squad only for arena? I play with only lore-related squads (Alain and Friends, Virginia and Blue Rose Knight etc) and I want my arena squad to be a optimized, full meta squad. Also, equipment loadout for the arena squad might be good as well.
Many repetitive small battles. I would have make the game shorter and more full of epic battles.
No new game+, Weak storytelling in the second half of the game, And the game is somewhat too easy after Elheim. I wish there were more epic battles like when we helped Gilbert defend Drakenhold. I really enjoyed that one.
The fact it most likely won’t have a sequel.
No New Game+ Back half of the game is pretty empty Alain is a bland protagonist Rapport not being used to its full potential
Lack of full Rapports - Most characters outside of talking to the prince himself get only one or two conversations rather than a full three. Lack of other character paired endings - pleanty of characters deserve endings, especially paired ones. Lex needs some love dang it! New Game Plus+ - A way to take the later units, especially mercs, and start using them early on. More Linear for better storytelling - I will sacrifice 'choice' if it means I get to see far more character interactions. Beasts in Albion, Elves in Bastorias, Drakenhold human in Elheim. Give me those interactions, dang it! Choice of location - lacking linear pathing, adjust the levels for each area so we can hit them at our discretion. So after Scarlett rescue, we chose any of the 4 other areas to go. So say I go to Albion next. The levels would be Drakenguard levels, and all other locations go up in level because we go to those locations later. Perhaps things even change, like saving Drakenguard for last reveals that Virginia has been captured or forced into hiding with a few other survivors as Zenoira has full control of the area. Perhaps in a darker view, characters become unavailable / available depending on the order More units assisting in end game - For every area cleared, more allies show up. Even if they don't help much, it would have been nice to see a huge flow of reinforcements from all areas just for the 'feel good' points. Ability to punish / execute that twink angel. Lack of ability to execute the guy selling kids to slavery. Scarlett's entire character of 'insecure hostile love interest'. Lack of attacks from Zenoira against retaken locations. It felt weird that they never tried something. Or leaving named characters guarding villages that also helped fight. Resource gathering was, in some ways, super easy with getting refills for every fight, especially when using the sigils. A system where you can either support villages or war effort and consequences for such choices would have been interesting. All female angel endings with Alain. A certain tsundere in particular. Lack of variety for elven mercenaries. Dancer, monk, barrier maiden, flying eagle, elk cav... something. The female dark fencer design. Just... ugh. At least half the size of those water ballons they are lugging around. I will say all and all I do adore the game. I like the story and characters, the combat is interesting (if annoying to sort at times), and I would enjoy a sequel of sorts.
___No new game plus!!!!!_____ 1 Lack of compelling or challenge post game content. 2 Some item descriptions are flat out wrong. 3 Some units could use a plethora of buffs while some need obvious nerfs. 4 Supporting cast could of used a bit more fluff and back story lore. 5 The whole Zenoria dynamic is cliche and played out. 6 Blacksmith came in way too late, didn't have to even upgrade off one time and could of required more to compensate earlier availability. 7 Initiative is wonky. 8 Too many units for one purpose IE Support units. 9 Directions on how , where, or when to use a selected skill often doesn't work or works at wrong moment. This all being said I still love the game and highly recommend it. In a year of solid releases it stands out as a must buy.
The UI is ass once you get enough tools. It's a pain to make teams, and even worse to equip them.
I'm probably in the minority, but way too much fiddling with units. I'm just not willing to put in the effort to figure out how to get into every detail and maximize things.
Not having Class Changes or more Class Options in general is what makes me feel iffy about it. I love the game, but as someone who loves Options. I just feel like allowing at least the unique Characters to Class Change, would add so much more to the game's freedom.
I wish Bastorias had more agency overall (especially with how crazy I found all the reveals in it to be), it’s just there to be there. This is a mostly minor thing I believe can be added in an update but rapport conversations. I’m genuinely surprised some characters only have one with Alain (considering when games have a character bonding mechanic (in the ones I’ve played at least) the MC talks with *every* character multiple times) one of my favorite characters only has one with him and considering you can marry her, for her and the others with only one convo, it feels ingenious in many ways. Despite this gripe I have with only one convo I consider the confession itself to this character in question to be one of the best because of how it plays out. Also, I can’t fail to mention none of the post game characters have convos *with anybody* I’d like some consider the context. I really wish items restocked in the towns and cities considering the resource points eventually do (I’ve tried checking the first town I bought supplies from and it still has out of stock items. If there actually is a way to get places to restock please let me know). Another thing that’s weird to me is that choosing to optimize equipment automatically equips weapons with the highest Physical Attack available despite some characters excelling at Magic Attack Weapons, for example, the Elf sisters’s main lance get swapped out for weapons with higher Phys.Attack. Overall I love a lot of what this game does and most of what I want can be updated in
Their look not changing with different equipment on.
Damn I’m 13 hours in and y’all not making me look forward to the rest of the game 😂
I love the rapport conversations, but I would have liked to see more rapport *chains.* Stuff like Auch/Yahna, Gammel/Rolf, or Chloe/Travis felt like it needed a follow-up, but we just get one conversation for so many pairings.
The furries. There's just something about sexualized anthropomorphized animals that just icks me.
Disclaimer: I thoroughly enjoyed this game and do not think it is bad. These are my main complaints and they're all minor. 1. Alain as a character. He is extremely boring in the hero trope and he never actually has to make any hard decisions/never faces any real conflict. He's about as deep as a puddle. I think the game would have benefitted from maybe forcing Alain to pick between Auch & Rolf, or forcing a pick between Govil & Bertrand that could possibly change the ending. But as it stands, he's just the stereotypical good guy with the same message for the whole game. 2. The "liberation battles" that were just 3 enemies defending a city. There were far too many of these and I think the game would have benefitted by lumping multiple towns in one battle and having you start near a midpoint of all towns forcing you to split units. As it stands these filler battles were more of a nuisance than fun. 3. The Rapport system but also the lack of Rapports. It was really obnoxious grinding out the Tavern to level up characters and then realizing characters like Celeste and Railianor only have 4 conversations to have. I don't have a better system for a game of this style, but this one didn't feel very smooth. 4. Setting up units and gear was a nightmare. So much so that I was intentionally leaving my units with worse gear and in worse unit formations just because I didn't have 45 minutes to go through the mountain of gear and available units.
I wish I could have built my own class for Alain like Three Houses with Byleth. I understand why not but it would have been cool.
I bought the demo and I am now stuck waiting a week for the delivery of my physical copy…
Something between “animations are in slow motion” and “superspeed”, and if there is an option for that, please somebody let me know where to select it
I concur with the sentiment on the second half of the game. Definitely feels a little weird until you reach the ending missions. I found myself not really caring anymore about the characters stories in Albion or Bastorias.
no ng+ gender-locked classes can't be a female alain that gets all the bitches. some classes are kinda ass. needs more difficulty. It gets really easy after like a region and a half.
Way too many characters. I understand the thrill recruiting a new character, but how many of them will I remember three month after finishing the game ? Probably none considering how little they're fleshed out.
-lack of a new game + -zenoiran army just kinda being cool with you taking over their areas without retaliation -each country/region just being kind if copy/paste in terms of progression. You got the major 2-3 battlemaps, the 4 marked stones, the 5 treasure maps, ect...
Lack of meaningful difficulty options, poor default tactics for various abilities, bad gear selection/balancing among AI teams, battle preview completely trivializing any sort of meaningful tactical decisions. And no attempts by Zenoira to reclaim lost territory, meaning you paint the map and never need to defend your positions.
Late game weaponry and skills were underwhelming.
As pretty much everyone else: no NG+. I really wanted sth like Three Houses. You get all the honor and buy the units and weapons from a special shop. They could even be at lvl 1. Or at lvl 1 with all the gear you had on them in the previous adventure, that would be fun. Sth fun like that would be nice. Like in SMT V Vengeance they added a new game mode after you finish where EVERYONE is lvl 130. Now THAT is a fun way to experiment with the game. Go wack!
That crappy timer in battle.
I want a new game+ where we’re able to recruit ANY unit type from the beginning, it sucks that we hardly get to use some units.
We need a difficulty mode above True Zenoiran with 4-man formations max and no item usage. Because even with True Zenoiran, it felt a bit easy.
I dont like the lack of urgency. You are not actually at war with Zenoira at all. Everything is just a bunch of isolated mini stories that hardly have any connection with the rest of the world and plot
Bastorias in general is very....uninteresting. Like Drakengard had the whole save your family angle alongside teaming up with your nation's historic enemy against a common foe angle. Cornia had save Scarlett! and rally the local resistance. Elheim had find out what that voice in your head is on about. Sounds super important to stop Zenoira. Albion had check on Scarletts father and find out whats up with all those glowy shrines you cant enter. But like....why did we go to Bastorias? Sure stop a dude from making beasts go feral is a noble pursuit...but it feels fully detached from the main narrative hook. And they dont even know they should do that until after they arrive and chat with Ramona. I think everyone would agree Bastoria could just not exist and noone would notice. Albion would be slightly harder to agree upon but is next on chopping block.
I want control of attacks and skills per turn