Recent reviews by - Arby - Hikari no seishi -

TLDR: Solid rpg with retro mechanics mixed with a fantastic open world combat add on. A suprising, entertaining, and engaging story paired with like-able and believeable characters. An antagonist that keeps you on your toes, and drives the story well. Solid 8 out of 10.

Combat: Great
Visuals: Gorgeous
Audio design: Better than average
Music: Audiogasmic
Open world content: A little repetitive, but certainly not worth doing and exploring
World design: Better than expected
Story:


Now heres where detail is needed. FF7s story is amazing, and this lives up to that. That said, FF7 can be completed in 30ish hours... and the story is the focus. With all the side content the story gets diluted, granted there is additional world building and character interactions, 3x 80ish hour games is a tough pill to swallow when you are an adult.

Do I recommend this? Yes to anyone who has played FF7 its a nostalgia trip you want to experience, and to those who enjoy a solid action combat system, as well as those who just want a good cinematic game.

I do NOT recommend it for keyboard and mouse though, the Piano minigame is basically impossible

Disclaimer: Unpopular opinion.

I just passed the 120 hour mark, and need to do my part to sell this game.

Personal thoughts:
Admittedly, I was excited for this before the launch, visually if nothing else. (Love big mech stuff)
So I was on board with the idea of a sci-fi tower defense game after enjoying but not falling in love with the Sanctum games. Once I finally started the game up, over 6 months after launch (yay steam backlog) I was genuinely impressed by both how well it runs, and its impressive visual style. That said the story is lacking, voice acting is at best passable, and the translation has some hysterical oversights. But. And this is a big one. Those things are not why the game is unique. I played this game to build a military structure and defend against hoards of enemies. Not much story needed there.

That leads me to the core loop. Loot stuff, extract, build or rebuild your base, to loot more stuff. Engaging to some, less so to others, fair. Playing the looting missions definitely gets repetitive... but there's a fast loot, shooting endless hoards of robots could get repetitive, but there's a million different ways to do it with varying Xens. Or just build a monster fortress and watch the bullets fly.... the entertainment is here. Is it AAA? Fk no. But thats not why I'm here. All i wanted was a good time, and ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ did I get it here.

I could go into a long rant about how much I love the building in this game, but I wont. Instead Ill close with this. I have 120 hours in it. I expect to have over 300 pretty easily. And for 20 usd, I call that a win several magnitudes in depth.

Its EDF!

Always a good time with friends and the issue with Epic is easily ignored.

if you like EDF games, just get it.

I will preface this by saying I love all things Gundam, and to that end there IS good here in this game, collecting and customizing mobile suits.

...however...

and this is a big BIG however.
I cannot recommend this game for several glaring reasons which I will provide detail for:
-the rock, paper, scissors nature of game play is completely unnecessary, and frankly bad game design. There would have been a huge improvement if this was simply not in the game.
-in games, there are several suits with extreme balance issues that are heads and tails better than others, and because its a gatcha game, you could be simply screwed by circumstances.
-while the above two reasons are bad, even getting into a match in the first place is an exercise in frustration with the frequency of disconnects, failed matchmaking, and just randomly getting a terrible host.
-because its free to play I can understand their need to make money, its important for the game to continue, but, $30 USD to make a 10 pull from a gatcha randomizer is hilariously overpriced, if it was 7, or maybe even 10 usd I could be convinced, but seeing the 30 price tag immediately sealed the NOPE in my mind.
-I personally have had a miserable experience in ranked play, which by the way is required to progress in the game and unlock purchases including weapons which would make things better. There were multiple occurences where I was below 1475 rating, and before you say "get good" one person does make a difference, but not enough to overcome 5 enemies. when you go into a "power play" waiting for a teamate to respawn, you will repeatedly get gangbanged, and there is nothing you can do about it. Getting spawn camped was a regular occurance.

I love Gundam, and the models and customization are above and beyond what Id expected, but the game is broken fundamentally, and financially. Do not buy into this, play it if you will, but dont buy in.

I wanted to get fully through this game before finally writing my review... but Im going to separate this into 3 parts:

1) A TLDR
2) Initial impressions
3) Final impressions

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TLDR
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If you're a fan of classical style RPGs - play it.
Story is a solid 9 out of 10, pushing 9.5.
Visuals are a sexy mix of pixel art and animations, which I can safely say I love the pixel art but MOST animations are only ok. Some are fantastic, but the ones you see all the time are meh.
Music is top tier for an indie title, the song Hurry! specifically has been added to my normal music playlist along with a few notable others.

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Initial impressions
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I had read some poor reviews regarding the combat, so I had mixed feelings going in. Upon discovery the level system reminded me of Chrono Cross in that it would always be a challenge, I loved the art, but had no idea what was going on nor what to expect. I'd say for the first 5-7 hours I explored, and re-explored the 1st region trying to get all the stuffs, and was worried most of the time commitment would be grinding things, as the story by that point hadnt hooked me. The music however just burrowed into my head, so I couldnt well put it down. Rolling back abit, the very beginning has a nice set of scenes introducing the main characters, and we go from one to the next seeing what their lives are about before the action starts... I immediately fell in love with Sienna. Shes amazing even now after completion, she has a few scenes where you can stealth...or not... your choice. It wasn't until a specific event that I was fully engaged, but I still stuck with it.

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Final Impressions
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The part that I cant get over is how well the story is fleshed out. The world building, setup, and trickling of details was just fantastic. The writers here not only wrote a good story, but they wrote it in a format that kept the player engaged, and let them figure out details on their own which pay off later, I cant stress enough how happy I am with it.

Characters are interesting, integral to the plot, and all unique, and having 8 of them in a party means customization! Some characters I think you get to late for them to matter or have big parts, but all have their niche. Several of the personalities Ill never forget, Im lookin at you Magnolia.

Combat is both complicated and straightforward, easy to do, hard to master. Fights in the endgame are just as challenging as they are in the beginning but for different reasons, and some of the bosses will throw wrenches into your nicely laid plans. Sky Armor fights are neat and very reminiscent of Xenogears, but I always felt they were missing... something? IDK what, but it feels incomplete.

There is probably more to be said here, but I think Ill come back to this with more formulated thoughts....



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Play it, it is truly a testament to the good games that have come out of the crowdfunding era.

2 thumbs up.

Zelda / Souls game with an attention to detail and intrigue Ive not seen in years. A very quality experience.

Just try it. Free trial contains 1000 hours of content easily by itself, along with one of the best stories ever written, if that's not enough to get, and keep you hooked, then this isn't for you.

Its a solid Stardew-Crossing-Portia-Moon... With its own unique twists...
I wont spoil anything, but just know that I dont regret my purchase (which is a rare thing to be said in this time of ♥♥♥♥♥♥ developers making ♥♥♥♥♥♥ games and charging an arm, a leg, and both kidneys for)