One of the first reasons that made me buy this game is that I always search for rare games to begin with, games that unless I buy over the official online shops I would NEVER be able to buy them, games like Ar no Surge of any of the Atelier series. So when I saw this I made a quick search: it’s essentially an tactical rpg that it’s depicted as a board game for the fights, and overall I was curious about it.
For starters, I will say the good things: the game is about ghost hunting and that’s already a good hook for me: I’m a big fan of ghost-related games such as Project Zero and this alone made me curious. And it’s also an RPG, another Genre I love so what could go wrong?!
Well…a lot of things.
Let me explain my reactions to this game: when I started I saw the characters well drawn and well animated ….attached to an obvious photo with some effects to make it look like a drawing that should be somewhat “unique”. Frankly, I don’t like this style: it smells of cheap and without effort and I would’ve preferred something else.
After the intro, I played a little bit more, we find a ghost and our first match begins…AND MY GOD the combat is some of the most convoluted and confusing things I’ve ever seen. As I said the game is a sort of tactical rpg, and I do mean “sort of” because it’s totally different from the usual Disgaea and others. Reason? Whenever you do your movements, the enemies MOVES TOO! You know what that means?
This is a game about prediction.
I failed almost 4 times at the very first battle of this game: not because it was hard, not because I couldn’t figure out where the ghost was, BUT BECAUSE THE MOTHERF—–ER WON’T STAND STILL! I wasted all 15 turns to “predict” his movement but I just kept getting bumped from the ghost and the two characters couldn’t hit him!
I was frustrated: I couldn’t believe this is the combat system they chose for this game, because it’s completely random. Yes the board tells you when a ghost will attack (he will do a “scream”), but he doesn’t tell you WHO and WHERE! So after finishing my first battle I dreaded to do more battles: I was going to die and die and my hopes were becoming grim.
But here I noticed something: when I finally had full control of the game, with 3 characters that had different ranges and my character having a weapon that didn’t suck…I was actually getting good. Not simply good but VERY good: the main character was becoming so strong that he could 1 shot ghosts, my 3 characters were able to cover all of the ghost’s possible pattern so he couldn’t escape, and I was getting double the money rewarded for a quick completion. On top of that the missions give so much exp that I was overlevelled by the end of the first chapter!
I was…actually getting good and from that point on, I basically never lost a fight and even boss fights can end quickly with my character able to do so much damage that would end battles in less than 5 turns.
What’s the deal of this wall of text? That the game is flawed, it’s hard to learn and there’s so much wrong in this game: aside the fights the character you control is essentially non existant, the interaction system is flatout weird and hard to understand, voice acting is so minimum that I felt more voice acting in late PS1 games, the graphics are minimal with only the HQ being drawn instead of a “photo and overall it’s a mediocre game that should be bashed! But I still play it non-stop: I love the style (it reminds me of persona), I love the ghost-related plot, I like the characters enough and I like that the game rewards me so good for beating the ghosts quickly.
This game is flawed and for that reason, I cannot recommend it highly: it’s messy and feels cheap and if you want a true tactical jrpg you should play something else instead. But…if you’re willing to look into it, make sure to have patience and to learn the combat properly, because after you do the game becomes a breeze and it becomes insanely easy to end battles in few turns.
Mediocre, but incredibly satisfying.
