Recent reviews by Goughy

Installing the patches takes about 5x as long as downloading and installing the game...

So, this game is an extremely slow burn, you're heavily limited by stamina and levelling up your skills and eating certain food increases your stamina. If you're out of stamina you might pass out, but generally just can't do anything.

Regardless of this, I was enjoying the game, exploring pretty far in a couple areas. Unfortunately I've hit a game breaking bug. I got stuck in my farm between planted trees. I used the "I'm stuck" button in the menu, which depletes your stamina and makes you pass out, awakening in the doctors, then at home with a stamina penalty for a day.

The bug i'm facing is that regardless of what I do, I can't recover stamina, it's permanently stuck at -15. I've slept multiple days in a row with no recovery, and tried eating food with no luck. So now my save is just kinda done unless I go back to an old auto save, which is a pain.

While I'm giving this a positive review, this game does not deserve the hype it's receiving.
It doesn't break the mould, doesn't introduce anything new, and the cut-scenes are full of clipping and are similar to any Chinese game you might have played, not to mention the English voice acting sounds cringey as anything and doesn't seem to fit the characters.

This game is a souls-like, no matter what anyone says about it not fitting that description, that's what it is. The combat is less refined and feels a little clunky at times since attacks 3+ on the light attack chain are all multihits, and it's more forgiving, but it's a souls game. I was hoping for a true action RPG similar to GOW, but i've been heavily disappointed. So if you're thinking of buying it with that mindset, don't.

The exploration so far is limited, with a bunch of mobs that feel pointless to fight other than for exp, and ive yet to move on from the jungle biome, which i'm not sure if that changes or not considering i'm around 5 bosses down and this hasn't changed.

What does save this game in my opinion is the character / boss design, the ease of access for new souls-like players, and the constant progression that hits that dopamine every few minutes, even writing this review however i'm on the fence as to whether this game even deserves a positive review, and i'm confused why this games rating isn't closer to 70%...

How to downgrade your game if you mods stopped working as of 25/04/24

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDH0iLo6NyE

The main issues i've seen people post about this game and why they seem negligible.
1 - localisation. This seems fine for anyone that hasn't gone out of their way to realise some lines are changed compared to their Japanese counterparts. Yes some are a bit cringey, but hell, it's a suikoden spiritual successor and a cheese fest jrpg, it's to be expected.
2. A lack of encounters. This can be modified with accessories, I feel if it were higher it would become aggravating for people exploring the world, also you can build a dungeon underneath your castle that provides battles with high exp and gold.
3. A lack of fast travel. This is redundant as after about 10 hours of in game time you unlock a character that provides fast travel, save a majority of exploration until you've recruited them.
4. Objective markers. So, if you're actually reading the text, the only times there isn't a marker the next goal is explained to you, or visible on your map. One complaint details one of the first quests "It says to recruit heroes but not how many", which is potentially the dumbest complaint as you only have 5 areas unlocked at this point, go through them, recruit everyone, and come back to check progress, the complaint just seems a bit brain-dead and wanting hand holding.

The only real issue I have with this game is the army battles, they feel underdeveloped as they don't even show the characters you're using, just generic sprites. I feel a fire emblem inspired system would have been amazing here.
Other than that i'm enjoying the time i'm sinking into this game, the heroes all feel unique to some degree, they all have different points they excel at, and the amounts of anime and other game references always makes me smile. Also if you ever get overwhelmed by the text heavy story, just take a break with one of the numerous side activities that seamlessly fit into the game and allow you to recruit more characters. There's racing / breeding, cooking, fishing, Beyblades and card games.

On sale for £2.99 is a steal, while the live service model didn't work the story and fighting feels pretty decent, especially with all the DLC, grab it while you can.

So after the newest update it now says "File broken: Try to re-install" anytime I launch the game. So now I have to re-install a 120gb game with no guarantee that'll fix it, also I ignored it for a while, at which point during the next cut scene it wouldn't take an image off my screen, yet I could hear my character still moving. SO the update properly broke the game.

Although i'd recommend this game, it has it's fair share of negatives.
Before I get into them if you decide to play this game i'd recommend running a cheat engine and enabling 2X running speed, for some reason you run at a snails pace (genuinely annoying to explore) and can't escape any enemies as they're faster than you which i've not seen in a jrpg before. Not sure why the developers decided this as it feels awful.

Firstly, it is very similar to the eastern only release of one piece romance dawn for psp, same basic gameplay loop, similar gear system, less grinding (which does make it better)

Secondly, it reminds me of the fairy tail game released within the last couple years, great for fans of the series, however very clearly a cash grab that's slightly lazy. A limited skill-set, a limited num,ber of characters appearing, and a limited amount of content spread over wider areas and side quests which extends the playtime of the game.

Lastly, a lack of a story, it neither goes fully into the one piece history, only using Alabasta, Water 7, A small chunk of Marineford, and Dressrossa. Yet only uses a pretty small area to explore for the new memoria story, with very basic jrpg inspired dungeons. It relies on the fandoms nostalgia without ever giving us what we want, and omitting Whole cake and Wano, which for fans had the coolest power ups and enemies.

Please give us a game or series of games that goes through the entire one piece story, it would allow a consistant upgrade system as your crew gets better and recruits more people as they go through the world of one piece. Plus there's enough content to not have to throw a bunch of nameless enemies at you constantly and fill it with sooo many repetitive side quests that you cba to play through them anymore. (The bounties in this game are pitiful, random no name enemies they've powered up slightly and given a bounty (which you get between 1% & 10% of), and endgame you get new high level enemies in the form of yellow memoria cubes. I hoped for new enemies not used within the games story, but nope, just the same boss enemies from across the game powered up again. Which if you have decently levelled and upgraded your gear, were still no problem.

Overall I've enjoyed the game for what it is, a nostalgia trip embracing some pretty slim JRPG mechanics, but it just needed more. Graphically it looks good, and suits the one piece world, the sound design fits as well, and i've not ran into any bugs so can't complain there.

Unfortunately as a Digimon fan this game just doesn't quite scratch that itch.
It's a slow paced visual novel with a Digimon skin and I can't really see any positives.

Turn of sticky key pop up:

1. Control panel
2. Ease of access
3. Change how your keyboard works
4. Set up sticky keys
5. Un-Check "Turn on sticky keys when shift is pressed five times"
6. Have fun rolling around.