I know it's a not lot of time to have a complete picture, but there are some things that i believe won't change no matter how much you progress, so I'll point those out.
1. Localization
As usual you can expect the worst from the localization, translation is not good at all, there are words put in the mouths of the chars and some (voice) lines aren't even subbed while others (conveniently?) mistranslated.
One of the things i personally dislike and localizers and their fans seem to like is making the chars shallow.
For example: When you meet one the main chars (Careena) for the first time she appears stubborn and hotheaded (certain circumstances amplified that), but once her problem was resolved she is shown to be perfectly capable of speaking politely and even use honorifics (in Japanese), however in English the localizers painted those two traits as her whole personality and she speaks like a thug all the time.
2. Censorship
As you might have guessed since the publisher is Square Enix which is also a lapdog of BlackRock so it's inevitable that there will be some.
All girls including NPCs wear shorts under their skirts. If you try to zoom-in the field the chars dissapear so you can't even see their faces up-close. It's possible to zoom-in somewhat more than the in the field in the equipment menu.
The first girl who becomes playable, Careena (who is some kind of human-dragon race), wears a skirt under her skirt and under her second skirt wears shorts but that wasn't enough so they put a fat dragon tail in there too but instead of positioning it at above her buttcheecks, they positioned it in the middle of her butt so you can only see 1/4 of the perimeter of her ass.
Careena also has a (DLC/Pre-ordeder?) Ries costume, a character from Trials of Mana which was uncensored and to no one surprise it is censored here, again with shorts but for some reason the visisble 1/4 perimeter of her butt becomes completely flat.
Another costume that is unlocked early fom the Dancer Class/Job, is a sexy transparent one, however once again shorts and fat tail are in the way.
Double standards were also applied, as the protagonist has somewhat feminine face, and exposed abdominal area for foids and fags to salivate to.
Now about propaganda and stuff, i may be paranoid on this one but it was hilariously coincidental that the only two brown chars that appeared so far were Scholars/Reseachers/Historians/Engineers.
3. Story
I know it's too early.
You begin the prologue playing as a supposudly Dark Elf who looks more like a gypsy (clothes and all), who is trying to run away from his village with his fair skinned, red haired girlfriend, predictable stuff happen and then you begin to play with the protagonist who is getting ready to embark on his adventure with his childhood friend, Hinna.
The structure is the good old traditional one, move from one place to another, meet other chars and they join you.
As far as i played i spaced out more than a few times during cutscenes which probably contributes slightly to the reason that i didn't find anything interesting about the plot or the chars, i didn't feel the urge to know what happens next.
4. Graphics
They're alright for my standards. Texture resolution is fine, there are some physics pressent such as the grass and tree branches moving, enviroments are vibrant, characters models look fine putting censorship aside and weapons that you buy/find are modeled so you can feast your eyes on them be it on equipment screen or the field/while fighting. Jobs/classes are also modeled.
Now there are some nitpicks that i want to point out:
(1) Aside from the playable characters, no NPC actually blinks, not even Hinna who is the main heroine.
(2) You cannot control any other character beside the protagonist when you are inside towns/villages, thankfully you can on the field, but it's still disappointing not being able to run around exploring towns with a character of your choice.
(3) There are 3 different types of buildings on each town that are copy pasted all over and you cannot enter in any of them.
(4) While for the most part enviroments and towns don't look bad, when i compare them with games from the PS3 era such as Tales of Xillia, Eternal Sonata, even Tales of Graces F, i can't help but feel that it is lacking artistic vision.
My standards are pretty low when it comes to graphics, but if we consider that this game comes from one of the richest gaming companies in Japan and with the technology available today, i would say that the overall quality in unacceptable for its price.
5. Gameplay
Pretty basic action combat, with regural movesets, skills/magic, and a special flashy move. You can change characters on the fly and you also have job/classes that you can choose with each of them featuring their own movesets and skills.
Areas are vast, you can swim, you can double jump (unfortunately not inside towns), you can freely fight monsters that are far stronger than you or throw yourself off cliffs for the feels.
The game feels pretty easy and given the nature of the basic combat system which is, mash buttons -> dodge-> mash buttons-> dodge, you'll most likely breeze through it with your eyes closed, choosing a high difficulty option or fighting optional stong monsters is the only way to feel a challenge.
Almost forgot to mention that you also have Hinna who is not playable but still supports you in battle by using healing and supporting spells.
Recommendation:
I would reccomend playing this, defenately worth a "Piratry", but defnitely not worth buying not only because you would be paying far too much for what is worth but also because the publisher is Square Enix one of the most evil gaming companies in Japan that has supported criminal organizations who have performed atrocities.
1. Localization
As usual you can expect the worst from the localization, translation is not good at all, there are words put in the mouths of the chars and some (voice) lines aren't even subbed while others (conveniently?) mistranslated.
One of the things i personally dislike and localizers and their fans seem to like is making the chars shallow.
For example: When you meet one the main chars (Careena) for the first time she appears stubborn and hotheaded (certain circumstances amplified that), but once her problem was resolved she is shown to be perfectly capable of speaking politely and even use honorifics (in Japanese), however in English the localizers painted those two traits as her whole personality and she speaks like a thug all the time.
2. Censorship
As you might have guessed since the publisher is Square Enix which is also a lapdog of BlackRock so it's inevitable that there will be some.
All girls including NPCs wear shorts under their skirts. If you try to zoom-in the field the chars dissapear so you can't even see their faces up-close. It's possible to zoom-in somewhat more than the in the field in the equipment menu.
The first girl who becomes playable, Careena (who is some kind of human-dragon race), wears a skirt under her skirt and under her second skirt wears shorts but that wasn't enough so they put a fat dragon tail in there too but instead of positioning it at above her buttcheecks, they positioned it in the middle of her butt so you can only see 1/4 of the perimeter of her ass.
Careena also has a (DLC/Pre-ordeder?) Ries costume, a character from Trials of Mana which was uncensored and to no one surprise it is censored here, again with shorts but for some reason the visisble 1/4 perimeter of her butt becomes completely flat.
Another costume that is unlocked early fom the Dancer Class/Job, is a sexy transparent one, however once again shorts and fat tail are in the way.
Double standards were also applied, as the protagonist has somewhat feminine face, and exposed abdominal area for foids and fags to salivate to.
Now about propaganda and stuff, i may be paranoid on this one but it was hilariously coincidental that the only two brown chars that appeared so far were Scholars/Reseachers/Historians/Engineers.
3. Story
I know it's too early.
You begin the prologue playing as a supposudly Dark Elf who looks more like a gypsy (clothes and all), who is trying to run away from his village with his fair skinned, red haired girlfriend, predictable stuff happen and then you begin to play with the protagonist who is getting ready to embark on his adventure with his childhood friend, Hinna.
The structure is the good old traditional one, move from one place to another, meet other chars and they join you.
As far as i played i spaced out more than a few times during cutscenes which probably contributes slightly to the reason that i didn't find anything interesting about the plot or the chars, i didn't feel the urge to know what happens next.
4. Graphics
They're alright for my standards. Texture resolution is fine, there are some physics pressent such as the grass and tree branches moving, enviroments are vibrant, characters models look fine putting censorship aside and weapons that you buy/find are modeled so you can feast your eyes on them be it on equipment screen or the field/while fighting. Jobs/classes are also modeled.
Now there are some nitpicks that i want to point out:
(1) Aside from the playable characters, no NPC actually blinks, not even Hinna who is the main heroine.
(2) You cannot control any other character beside the protagonist when you are inside towns/villages, thankfully you can on the field, but it's still disappointing not being able to run around exploring towns with a character of your choice.
(3) There are 3 different types of buildings on each town that are copy pasted all over and you cannot enter in any of them.
(4) While for the most part enviroments and towns don't look bad, when i compare them with games from the PS3 era such as Tales of Xillia, Eternal Sonata, even Tales of Graces F, i can't help but feel that it is lacking artistic vision.
My standards are pretty low when it comes to graphics, but if we consider that this game comes from one of the richest gaming companies in Japan and with the technology available today, i would say that the overall quality in unacceptable for its price.
5. Gameplay
Pretty basic action combat, with regural movesets, skills/magic, and a special flashy move. You can change characters on the fly and you also have job/classes that you can choose with each of them featuring their own movesets and skills.
Areas are vast, you can swim, you can double jump (unfortunately not inside towns), you can freely fight monsters that are far stronger than you or throw yourself off cliffs for the feels.
The game feels pretty easy and given the nature of the basic combat system which is, mash buttons -> dodge-> mash buttons-> dodge, you'll most likely breeze through it with your eyes closed, choosing a high difficulty option or fighting optional stong monsters is the only way to feel a challenge.
Almost forgot to mention that you also have Hinna who is not playable but still supports you in battle by using healing and supporting spells.
Recommendation:
I would reccomend playing this, defenately worth a "Piratry", but defnitely not worth buying not only because you would be paying far too much for what is worth but also because the publisher is Square Enix one of the most evil gaming companies in Japan that has supported criminal organizations who have performed atrocities.
