This game, has no right being this good. I mean, straight out of an ex-Ubisoft employee's dream project with a bunch of novices, over 30 made this game. Despite some rough spots here and there, it's such a stellar game, you could almost tell this was made with love.
The kind of passion that created a game choke full of story moments, immersive world, and engaging gameplay. Kind older Ubisoft games used to give us till the companies started to plateau with bland, copied and pasted games providing little variety or somehow feel disconnected with the players. There's a lot to love, and not hard to grasp why so much success has followed.
If the game's visual feast won't have you intrigued, it's how the world is build with great character writing, narrative twists, high stakes situations, engrossing combat, intense battles, amazing soundtrack I can't list enough of it here. There's a lot I want to talk about.
To preface, this is a dark fantasy. Every single of the character casts are stuck in this Island city called Lumiere that was transported by the paintress 67 years, and ever since, people have either died or disappeared everytime a number is painted.
As the population decreases over the years, they wait till the no changes to 33 now, Gustave shares his last moments with Sophie in the Gommarge. Before all that, I was given the option to talk to the NPCs, they've said a lot, but I wasn't clear about what is going on until the last minute. Leaving for the expedition, I've talked to every one of its crewmembers before departing.
Expedition 33 is a voyage to destroy the paintress once and for all. But soon as they arrive, finding another human, much older, they're somehow ambushed, with so much death having followed. This entire prologue was heavy-handed because of how invested I got with everyone.
Awakening from the shock, Gustave wakes up somewhere before proceeding to move on his own. The game starts here with Gustave, seemingly kind of weak at first, but here's how it works: you use skills using ability points, they regenerate every turn and return every basic attack. You can use free-aim, where you manually aim towards enemies, especially their weakpoints. Each shot costs an AP.
Now, here's where it gets really crazy, each particular character's kite and skillset works very differently. Every attack, his arm charges till 10. Which lets him use the skill, Overcharge, which knocks out the enemy as well as puts high damage. Lune is where things get very interesting. She's the mage class, her skills create stains, these elements will stay for the next turn, and used with the next skill, will add damage and other facts. It's a lot more complex than it seems.
After finding Maelle, her attacks are based on stances. Two of her usual onces are offensive and defensive. Offense is a double-edged one, dishing more damage while taking more hits. Defensive is more protective, but what's neat is how she switches up every turn.
Now, for the real time mechanics, the actual make and break for battles. Mastering this is hard, it's relying on both visual and audio queues to either dodge, parry, or jump. If you've played soulslikes, you know it's all about timing. Every time you cast a skill even, there are timed button prompts. Successfully doing so increases damage. They're not that hard after practice.
None of this sounds easy, it's intense and anxiety inducing already figuring out how to stack up the skills and their stats, effects. Protecting myself is a whole other thing. But now the more important thing, exploration. It's encourage to go around the game, and find every item you can. Some areas actually has you doing platforming, yes, that. Others need you to do some small puzzles.
You know, like God of War remakes did. Now here's the big meat of the game. Weapons level up either on their own or use upgrades. Pictors are like runes, you can equip three, and they provide increased stats and bonus effects. Luminas is something people miss, these provide only bonus effects. But they stack up. You can only pick three Pictos, not with Luminas.
The world-building it brings is so strong, there's more than enough stuff to be curious about, and I've always drift away, gawking at the visuals to see what meaning they'd have. You read some of the journals from prior expeditions, and dear god, it's super grim,
A full fantasy world with a whole French Victorian spin to it with eldritch horror. But not entirely. Not every of the creatures here are out to kill me. A number of them I can talk to, provide side quests, like these little merchant guys. Of course, some are optional, they provide you the choice to deviate like any RPG, but its presentation is unorthodox and pretty unique while interesting.
A few things I've noticed when it came to combat, tougher enemies were super hard to parry and dodge, but soon as I leveled up, and probably increased my defense stat, it got easier somehow. Those tougher enemies hide in certain areas, but man are they scary tough. Once I get the freedom to explore, I tried coming back after getting stronger. Especially this stupid behemoth.
Other thing I've also realized, the skills I unlocked, even if they're old, it's all about how I use them. Pictors and Luminas, selecting these two in their best combination with skills, do a lot. Some will even give free AP. Giving me many reasons to experiment with them.
Words alone cannot grasp just the sheer brilliance of this game. I'm in like 1/6 of the way, and man, it's already too much. But I can tell it's not done, there are so many narrative twists, one I know will destroy me even because I've grown to like the characters here.
The world is astonishing, the production value bar is so high, that on top with an amazing OST for an indie, and I also keep asking myself, is it a JRPG or ARPG? What RPG is it? Whatever it is, even with some derivative aspects, is the best smoothie of a game I've ever had. I'm in for a real hell of a ride, and I'm all in for the rest. Thank god for Game Pass. Hopefully buying it soon.
