An RPG with only one character, four stats (HP, MP, Strength, Dexterity), no special attacks, and a very basic array of spells. There is an initial appeal, but battles are all one-on-one, and the overall design limits action economy too much for combat to remain interesting. Status effect spells feel unpredictable and are too strong; be prepared to be deleted because an enemy hits you with a sleep spell and it happens to last four turns. There are various ways to use gear to bolster your stats and insulate your HP - regeneration, dodge chance, and so on - but the one-on-one battles are just too limited, and there is always an imminent sense that battles are just 'damage races'. Your chances of victory are decided by your grinding and gear level, with tactical insight having a very weak role. Chapter 1 is apparently the first of a planned five, but the system feels it has been explored and cracked after only a few hours. I will never see Chapter 5, or probably even 3.

In order to be engaging, battle situations and enemies should affect the decision making process, but there is so little room for decision that it hardly matters. After all, roleplaying is about choice. There is no 'poison' effect. There are no elements, but only a physical/magical resistance divide; though it lacks that particular difference, Pokemon Yellow seems space-age by comparison. The spell list is a one-for-one copy of the first Dragon Quest, complete with the torch mechanic. One suddenly realises how much more advanced Phantasy Star was compared to Dragon Quest, with only about a year and a half's difference between them (~40 years ago at time of writing); then again, Dragon Quest II returned with a party(!) before 3D-dungeoner Phantasy Star, and Dragon Quest III arrived less than two months after it, complete with job system, custom party, and barrier and haste spells. This rapid process of evolution and natural selection was already won 40 years ago, in time to make Dragon Quest III the ultimate jRPG prototype and not its competitors (one day Phantasy Star 2 will be recognised as a moody, ambitious spiritual forebear of Final Fantasy VII, but let's leave narrative aside for today).

Dragon Quest was not held back by the lack of passive abilities, but by the decision limitations inherent in too-simple spells and no party, which those developers quickly realised and remedied in the sequels. There remain reasons to play the first Dragon Quest even today, but they are the art and music, and one wonders what Square Enix will do to make the remake of that game interesting (no wonder III was remastered first). Only Toriyama and Sugiyama together could bring me to play the first Dragon Quest nowadays.

In Splintered, you can mix equipment from what seem to be three streams - 'paladin', 'rogue' and 'mage' archetypes - but gear effects are passive, meaning variety within any playstyle never emerges. Once your gear is chosen, you simply "do your thing" with little variation. Unlockable gear passives often just strengthen what you would absolutely do anyway: one dagger increases dodge chance upon hitting the enemy; one item carried a 'smite' effect that empowered the next attack after healing. This is choice without depth; the choice is at the item shop, not in combat. I bought clothing that increased critical chance when striking sleeping enemies, and built a strategy around spamming the sleep spell and then attacking once it connected, healing when necessary. This was somewhat more interesting because some enemies were so strong that there was an incentive to repeatedly gamble on the oft-resisted sleep spell, not only to reduce damage and buy time to heal, but to turn the tables with critical attacks. The gear still just strengthened strategies that would have been sensible anyway, but it affected my thinking a little. I think this embellishment on Dragon Quest is an interesting experiment, but that doesn't bring it up to the level of any good RPG from the 90s, or even 1987's Dragon Quest II.

This game is really nice.
If you loved Dragon Warrior I, this will make you happy.
A little bit on the "simple" side, but very enjoyable experience.
Cool the idea of procedural content.
Well done.