I backed this game on kickstarter when it initially launched. I'm happy we're also getting a remake of the original game from Nintendo but I'm upset at the timing as I worry it will affect sales for this game that's been slowly developing over the last couple years after the kickstarter ended. I really want to see this succeed.
dude I saw this randomly farted out on the xbox store today. I went ahead and got it because it looked kinda cute and wasn't too expensive. It does have a bit of a janky feel to it still, but it was somewhat fun what I played of it(like 30 minutes)i feel bad for these guys because this wouldve filled some Mario RPG nostalgia if the actual Mario RPG wasn't get a full upgraded rerelease. Oh well, bad timing :/
I think timed attacks are at their best when they spice up the game, or serve as way for some (with great reflexes) to bypass grinding. But they shouldn’t be an essential mechanic, unless it’s for some optional/postgame stuff.
Vid should have minmaxed defense/item use. But yeah more games nowadays have multiple difficulty levels, especially casual mode for those who have trouble. It's why I like Mario rabbids sparks of hope as kingdom battle could be brutal even with double hp, let alone you had to backtrack with slower loading unlike sparks of hope. There's also that all girl clone touhou shoujo: tale of beautiful memories that the switch version never goes on sale. It rips off a ton for attacks so I'm surprised the nintendo ninjas allowed it. It does have easy and hard modes that mario rpg lacked, and I doubt the remake will bother.
Thanks David, I downloaded the demo after watching. I felt very different about the game. I understand how hard the game would be if you can’t hit any timed attacks or defends, you’d be taking twice the damage and doing half back. but I could hit most of them and felt the game was just right difficulty wise. I didn’t need to grind at all and finished at level 4. I wish people would try the demo before writing the game off.
There is nothing wrong with making timed attacks more important to a game, he even admits he sucks at them in general. It would be like trying to play a Street Fighter game if you had no ability to do combos.
Same here. I am actually glad the game challenged me to do better and felt rewarded when i could time things right. I do agree the game needs a mini map, tho. I kept getting a bit lost on the 3rd level because things look similar, and it's a bigger zone.
I checked out the Kickstarter page after watching your video yesterday mentioning this game and saw something along the lines of "We hear you don't want the game to be easy so we're making it pretty hard." I love the idea of a game having all of these Super Mario RPG inspirations going on but I never played that much of the hack SMRPG: Armageddon for the same kinds of reasons. It felt like it was balanced to require more perfection out of the player than I felt was necessary and it really hurt the fun factor of the game for me since progress was so slow. I hope the full game will end up getting at least some kind of difficulty options because while I don't mind grinding that much I don't want them to have poor sales when a game like this could do really well with a few tweaks and added accessibility.
The only especially Guardian's Crusade vibe I get from it is that the main character looks like a generic knight... and I guess to a lesser extent the visual style.
I used to think the same thing about souls games but once I got used to the difficulty and mechanics of each game, I honestly prefer that difficulty because it makes it sooo much more rewarding when you beat a particular level or boss
@@JasonScalici I agree, there has to be ways you can out skill the boss. Souls game if you are good enough, you can beat the game at level 1 with no armor. I have no idea about this game though.
I don't mind bigger grinds in JRPG's, so I don't think this will be a problem for me personally. I still wish the devs would put a easy mode or at the very least a 2X or 4X battle speed mode so that people don't waste too much time grinding.
In the recent Mario & Luigi RPGS, there is the 'emergency guard" where both bros defend. Take less damage but cannot dodge. However, a perfect dodge nulls damage and even counter. Something similar can be done here where high risk-high reward. *Do you defend with the hold of a button or do you risk it for a parry instead?*
Hopefully the developers take the feedback and at least add an easier difficulty. Maybe its my masochistic tendencies, but there is a part of me thats still interested in this game, so I'm curious to see how things develop
Heyo David! I was hoping you'd cover this one. Downloading the demo. Thanks for all your hard work bringing us the rpg news and reviews, David. Have a blessed day everyone!
Hey David, love the content, I'm surprised to hear that you found the combat so hard, I didn't have to grind once and completed the entire demo without dying. No clue what I did differently than you did, but I wasn't even getting perfect blocks that often and I had plenty of money to get more potions than I needed/all the upgrades on the shop 🤔
You know we live in a time where everyone has a different concept of what's difficult and some ppl just don't connect to some game's difficulties. Its a shame because I do think it gets some game's unfairly maligned but as long as the reviewer is clear and honest about their issues then everyone can judge if the complaints would personally affect their experience.
Same here. I kind of breezed through it with maybe 60% timed hit rate. I almost lost to that church boss due to running out of potions and mana but had enough to eek out a win. I was only level 4.
Thanks for the review. I'm still excited to try out the demo. I'm hoping the balance issues you were seeing are fixed for the full game because it does like it could be really good. Update: I just played through the demo. It was enjoyable, but timing on some of the attacks is much tighter than others. The mage's basic attack I feel like I'd hit the exact same time and sometimes get "too fast" while other times I was "too slow". I did die once on the 2nd boss, but I learned if you don't load you lose the items you used but the wizard is still in your party. I grinded one level and was able to beat the boss the second time. The meta humor was hit or miss for me. Hopefully the story is good. The game definitely has potential, but I'm not 100% sold yet.
Ordered it on PS5 from limited run. Even if it’s bad I can’t resist the Mario RPG influence. It’s honestly crazy we getting a remake of that and Thousand Year Door within months from each other.
What’s bullshit is when you grind up money to buy potions and you wipe on a boss fight using all your potions. You don’t get them back and are expected to RE-grind so you can RE-stock
4:08, you aint wrong. Irony is, I'm playing a game called Tunic. In it you play as a cute fox, but the game has difficulty kinda like soulsborne games with the death mechanic and re-obtaining your essence. With that said, I do enjoy the game.
Huh never heard of this one. I understand your frustration, tho I think I could actually appreciate a higher difficulty. Often times thats my biggest gripes with turn based RPGs is that they tend to be on the easier side. I guess I'd like to see how the rest of the game plays out, I don't mind grinding to an extent as I'm sure most people don't either, but if the WHOLE game is super grindy then yeah...perhaps it needs more fine tuning.
Saw this and thought "It can't be that bad, can it?" So downloaded it. While balancing could be adjusted a bit, most notably on the 2nd zone boss, most of it didn't feel too off to me. Even without perfects the zone was doable and I had money left over, even buying the new armor and accessory. What I will say is telegraphing on moves could use a bit more work. While text does appear to show too late/too early, a lot of mario rpgs timing issues were mitigated with good audio effects and very clear animations that made sense with the timing the majority of the time. In this, sound didn't really aid time attacks much and reading the animations for timings isn't the best. That said, I would personally not put this anywhere near "dark souls" difficulty or say someone needs lightning reflexes. Enemy attack timings don't change/vary. So you don't need lightning fast as much as just to recognize the point you did it previous and repeat it, though that would fulfill the robotic comment made. On the stat points upon leveling, the game doesn't tell you with a pop up tutorial, but the menu button on the hud does pulse as soon as you level, directing the player to press it, followed by the points section pulsing once you open the menu. While not 100% in your face clear and I agree it should be addressed, the game does at least do something to show it. I would say the game has potential, and while a lot looks nice visually, it could use some polish under the hood.
Thanks for the review! This looks interesting! There are a lot of Earthbound-inspired RPGs, but not very many Super Mario RPG-inspired games. However, I'm always wary of independent developers deriving too much from their sources of inspiration.
i played this right after i saw you mention this in a previous video, and I have come to the same conclusion. Loved the first 10 mintutes of it, and then the balancing issue killed the last 20 minutes until eventually i just stopped the pain
I remember being terrible at buttom prompts... then i decided to 112% hollow knight 140 hours later, i learned and it was hell! But damn those creepy bugs are cute tho
So, I've stared this now that it's officially out. Just finished the second boss fight, and I will say, I did find myself rather frustrated at first. I'm usually good at timed combat, but some of these action commands were kinda hard to figure out, especially the timing of the sword as the game gives you very little time to pull it off. That said, once I got into the hang of it, I started to enjoy it more, yet I still wound up using up all my potions when fighting the second boss. That said, something I do really appreciate is that, much like Earthbound, when you get to a certain level, you can avoid combat by hitting weaker enemies outside of battle and gain EXP and gold from it.
I loved the original Mario RPG as my favorite of the genre and one of my top 5 favorite games of all time. I like the idea of an indie game inspired by it when most seem to favor Chrono Trigger, Earthbound, or more traditional RPGs. However I'm not really gripped by the generic setting, the only thing letting it stand out is puppet designs (which don't impress me because I'm not a massive Geno fan) and the demon boss changing between forms. I'll try the demo but I'm not having high hopes for it, especially after the review has me thinking it's more for challenge seekers than just being fun. Though I generally enjoy timed attacks so it might turn out better for me, unless they aren't very rewarding.
As another time attacked challenged person I appreciate knowing this about the game. Ill have to check out the demo and see for myself though. Game looks interesting still
That second boss 🤣. Does anyone know if the full game has toned it down or has an easier mode? It was that boss that I realised I was struggling bad and wasn’t prepared
Playing through this game now. You feel the same way about it that I do. All the issues you have are the same as mine. Once you get past the part of the game in the demo, it's not long before the unbalanced and unfair difficulty gets even worse. Specifically, I'm talking about the swamp location. Even if you do some grinding, there are a few enemies there that are way too damn strong for you to beat. Definitely not the amazing spiritual successor it could have been. They took almost every aspect of SMRPG and made it significantly worse. I will say that one thing I do like about it is that they actually tell you if you get perfect timing when attacking and defending. It's the one thing that's actually improved over how it was in SMRPG.
I don’t know man. I bought the game because I’ve been following it for years, and was curious what others thought. I like the challenge. I’ve died a LOT. But level ups raise your stats enough that after a few levels enemies that were crushing me become fodder. Also there doesn’t seem to be a real penalty for dying so it’s really only knocking me back to grind some more without losing any progress. It’s pretty satisfying. I also had to let go of my item hoarding nature for the bosses I’ve fought (3 so far) and go ham on using items. The battles give you plenty of funds for this so it’s not that bad. I don’t think this’ll be my favorite game ever or anything, but so far it’s a blast! Oh and the full game DOES explain the level up mechanics in an unskippable but short tutorial. So maybe they did listen to that feedback! 😊
Maybe I'm foolish, maybe I'm blind. 🎶 Thinking I can see through this and see what's behind.🎶 Got no way to prove it so maybe I'm lying.🎶 But I'm only human after all, I'm only human after all.🎶
Back in the day we had beta tester as a job. Now people just release demos and Early Access games and people pay to be beta testers. I'll wait until they release the game and then I'll wait for your review of that. Then I will decide if I want to put it on my list of games to buy.
Hopefully they take it as constructive criticism since presumably the game is still in development and theyre still making adjustments. It looks great.
It's hard to be a spiritual successor. I loved Actraiser back in the day and was so excited when SolSeraph was 1st announced. We all know how that went. You don't want to get your hopes up because it's hard to live up those old expectations.
On the contrary if you have to grind that much in the demo whats the full game gonne be like? But this looks really cute I am going to keep an eye on it.
@@davidvinc In SMRPG, you could get star power to kill mobs just by touching them. Thereby removing some of the grinding in certain areas because you get EXP for every mob you kill with the star power.
I like the look of this game. It's like Geno's Super Mario RPG. I don't mind grinding so much, so this could be fun for me, and it could be a nice counterbalance to Mario RPG because that one felt a bit too much on the easy side. I had no idea about this but now I'm curious. Thanks for reviewing this!
My only complaint with the original Mario RPG was that I didn't find it difficult enough. I've never heard of this game until now, and your warnings are actually causing me to keep an eye out for it. 👀
Playing right now, it's absolutely balanced. This game is balanced toward people who enjoy the challenge of precision timing. David just isn't part of the target audience and he took it very personally.
Thanks for saving me some time. I’m not seeing this getting the balancing it obviously needs by release, so I’ll probably wait for some patches and a sale.
I don't think it would. Some timing windows can be affected by FPS and input lag (I suck at rhythm games but still love trying them so I have to pay attention to this). If the timing window is unforgiving, it can get annoying quick. Legend of Dragoon is like that. I can pull off additions most of the time but whenever it doesn't go through, 90% of the time I would get stumped on how to fix the problem. At least there are options in LoD like magic or switching a character whose additions are easier to do. The gameplay shown here doesn't look like you have some form of recourse.
@maryford3676 in LoD there was also the war drum accessory that did the combo for you. There are ways to address David view while maintaining the challenge
This really looks cute and charming, but hoo boy I hope they can take some feedback and balance it before the final release. It makes me wonder if this is a case of the devs also being the play testers and not realizing the average player isn't going to know the game's ins and outs the way they do
Yup. This is why in my hobby RPGs, I balance the game until it feels juuuuust right for me, and then I make *THAT* the Hard Mode. XD It's a principle that's served me well.
I fought so hard the first time thought id be alright used all my resources then died, noticed the mage was still in my party, reloaded my prior save died to the boss on purpose lvled up 1 more time and had a much better time against him, but yah difficulty choose would be nice, i also love mario rpg so im guna give this game a full shot on PS on release.
Dang, you really went OFF there. :o But yeah, if even after a bunch of grinding you didn't have enough money to get a single revive item or MP restore, then there's definitely a problem there.
Hopefully, the devs get more feedback like this cause excessive grinding is a nope from me. The gameplay seems fun, I think I'm pretty good with timed attacks since I play fighting games😅 nowhere near a pro though😅
Hopefully you like final product more if you end playing that. As for me I think I will pass on the demo for now and see what the game will cost when it releases. If it's like $15 bucks I don't mind taking a risk on it. I've had demos turn me off games that I ended up loving before. I did notice one thing I might get from this game regardless. I have Nintendo and PS controls ingrained into my brain and mess up when it comes to the Xbox layout when it comes to QTEs and such. Maybe clearly seeing what button is where most of the time when playing this will help me remember. XD
i mean... a demo also isnt typically more than 1 area. and small indy teams are usually bad at balancing they are always too easy or too hard especially in rpgs where you let players pick their stats
i prefer this kind of demo that lets you taste the real game and not some sweet demos that when you buy the game you encounter a total different game and if they hear the feedback and change a little this could be a good game
If the demo is so unbalanced I do not expect much from the real game. A demo is not only for feedback but also a kind of advertisement for the real deal. If the demo is unbalanced and requires extreme grind then you do expect that the real game is much more or in my words worse. After what I have seen this game may sound interesting on paper but what I have seen has shown that it does not work... at least for me. I will stick with the original which will come this autumn.
David, with all due respect, you're not the only gamer out there. I know you don't like the dark souls thing, and you don't like grinding, but that doesn't mean it's bad or wrong. The dark souls difficulty is still here for once simple reason: there's a market for it. A lot of us would be really upset if it went away. You still want it to go? And about the demo, demos also should not be "easy". They should reflect the full game. If high difficulty is a feature of the game, it shouldn't be hidden from the demo. Imagine playing a demo that was easy, then you find the full game was actually a souls-like. We call that "false advertising" or "misleading", take your pick. Sorry, couple points I gotta strongly disagree with you. Don't take all this the wrong way! I'm really think you need to hear this. Last note: the way you're addressing the developer(s) is honestly very mean and rude. Pounding the desk, leaning into the mic and yelling "balance your game!", I think you're better than that. It's a lot of work and committment to develop a game. Being rude to the developers because they didn't appeal to your personal taste ... people in your audience look up to you. As a fellow early-40s dude, we gotta be better than that. Love your videos and have for years! I just think you're not being your best this time and i gotra call you out on it as a long time follower. Sorry to be blunt, but again I think you need to hear it. EDIT: Sorry for multiple edits. My phone was whacking out big time.
RPGs these recent years have been far too easy compared with the no guidance, grind-like-crazy RPGs of the past; I'm kind of looking forward to the insane difficulty as a nice change of pace... Granted, if this level of difficulty was the norm for all RPGs I would also hate THAT and wish for something easier to, again, act as a "change of pace".
Considering the announcement of the mario RPG remake, this demo has great TIMING (ha). Got through it without too much trouble and no grinding. I have a hard time believing you love Beyond the Beyond (so do I) but this game is too much for you. Maybe the timing will be easier on console. Either way I found the difficulty to my liking.
This looks fun. I'd try it out for sure. I can't frickin wait for the Mario RPG remake too. That actually made me tear up for the reveal. Speaking of tearing up and this is a bit off topic, but I just finally beat FFXVI last night and that ending wrecked me. I hard cried for the first time at the ending of a video game since FFX. lol No spoilers here, but also the Torgal side quest had me quite emotional as well. What a good boy and probably my favorite video game pet companion of all time now.
I mean, you said the same things about Sea of Stars, and I thought that demo was absolutely briliant. Not sure if I can take a rant like this in good faith.
Yeah I just beat the demo first try, no grinding required. I don't know what happened to David, but I think he might have been drunk while playing or something. If you've been engaging the game's mechanics, you'll get through the final boss with no problem. The balance is actually pretty good. It keeps you right on the edge, which is something a lot of people enjoy, clearly. This review is just completely off. I'd encourage anyone to actually give it a go. Developers, don't listen to this reviewer. He's not your target audience. Great guy, but this review is trash. (I'm sorry David! It is!)
This game looks like so much fun, but hearing about the difficulty has me worried. Look I accept some grinding, and I don’t mind difficulty, but there is a balance that is needed in games. I hope the developers look at the feedback from this demo and make appropriate changes. Still, I’ll play the holy heavens out of this demo.
i can never understand how some games will just straight up not mention things or explain things that are very important. games don't come with manuals so how are we supposed to figure things out? very frustrating game design
This game look promising, maybe I would give it a shot. The only reason you have a hard times because you not good at strategy turn based combat yet; once you play a little longer, it will grow on you 😏❤️✨💋🌹
That's what put me off from the Dragon Quest series; all the constant grinding you have to do just to survive even regular fights. When a game becomes like a second job; like you're working while playing it and not actually having fun; then what's the point in playing it? That's how I feel.
Played the PC demo for about 5 seconds. Controller support for your standard XBOX/XInput controllers for this demo is wayyyyy off. It gives PlayStation prompts only, which on its own wouldn't be a problem, but the buttons are not mapped correctly with no option to remap anything. this demo was a damn rush job. Sorry guys. This is gonna be a no from me until they fix their shit and from what you've been saying, David, this perfectly lines up with the amount of polish that they tried to put forth. it's so unfortunate because surface level it looks really charming. Oh well. I hope they take peoples' feedback into consideration. This type of game coupld be very solid if done right
This is a disappointment. Was looking forward to this but if it's a "git gud or die grinding" vibe, not so sure anymore. Will likely try the demo for myself and see what I think. Also, it seems weird that there really haven't been a lot of Mario RPG inspired indie games considering the original's popularity.
It's not unbalanced at all. Ignore this review. I beat it blind without grinding and downed the final boss the first time, and I'm just some idiot 40 year old.
Having an option to automatically guard (even if it just gave you the good guards instead of perfect) would be a huge accessibility boon for sure. Regardless, it's got some yucky pacing issues even if *all* the stuff was automated. That grinding, whew.
I love the look of the game, I’m always a fan of stylized graphics over realism, and this looks like a world I’d love to wander around in. I like the look of everything except for the menus - yuck!
Hahaha I love the way you give the devs a good telling off HAHAHA 🤣 You are right though, demos aren't for grinding, and nothing to mention stat distribution? Yikes.
So, I've finally gotten the chance to test out the demo, and it's DEFINITELY not you; there is something really... off about the timing of attacks and defense, and the animations are WAY too fast. Even the movement around the environments is really clunky and weird, and that demon boss in the church is really badly unbalanced. Normally, I'd think that my reflexes might be a little rusty, but I just played through 3 of the Shovel Knight main storylines, so it isn't that.
Follow me on Twitter! - twitter.com/TheDavidVinc
I'm also on Threads! - @thedavidvinc
Man the visuals in this game are gorgeous! Love that style.
I'm downloading the demo right now, thanks God I brought my Steam Deck with me at work. I will play the demo immediately after I am done with my job.
I backed this game on kickstarter when it initially launched. I'm happy we're also getting a remake of the original game from Nintendo but I'm upset at the timing as I worry it will affect sales for this game that's been slowly developing over the last couple years after the kickstarter ended.
I really want to see this succeed.
Am still going to grab this too 😄
dude I saw this randomly farted out on the xbox store today. I went ahead and got it because it looked kinda cute and wasn't too expensive. It does have a bit of a janky feel to it still, but it was somewhat fun what I played of it(like 30 minutes)i feel bad for these guys because this wouldve filled some Mario RPG nostalgia if the actual Mario RPG wasn't get a full upgraded rerelease. Oh well, bad timing :/
I think timed attacks are at their best when they spice up the game, or serve as way for some (with great reflexes) to bypass grinding. But they shouldn’t be an essential mechanic, unless it’s for some optional/postgame stuff.
Vid should have minmaxed defense/item use. But yeah more games nowadays have multiple difficulty levels, especially casual mode for those who have trouble. It's why I like Mario rabbids sparks of hope as kingdom battle could be brutal even with double hp, let alone you had to backtrack with slower loading unlike sparks of hope.
There's also that all girl clone touhou shoujo: tale of beautiful memories that the switch version never goes on sale. It rips off a ton for attacks so I'm surprised the nintendo ninjas allowed it. It does have easy and hard modes that mario rpg lacked, and I doubt the remake will bother.
Thanks David, I downloaded the demo after watching.
I felt very different about the game. I understand how hard the game would be if you can’t hit any timed attacks or defends, you’d be taking twice the damage and doing half back. but I could hit most of them and felt the game was just right difficulty wise. I didn’t need to grind at all and finished at level 4.
I wish people would try the demo before writing the game off.
There is nothing wrong with making timed attacks more important to a game, he even admits he sucks at them in general. It would be like trying to play a Street Fighter game if you had no ability to do combos.
Same here. I am actually glad the game challenged me to do better and felt rewarded when i could time things right. I do agree the game needs a mini map, tho. I kept getting a bit lost on the 3rd level because things look similar, and it's a bigger zone.
Well funny thing us old school Street Fighter players couldn't do combos 🤣🤣🤣🤣 but we played the crap out of the older games. @@monopoman
I checked out the Kickstarter page after watching your video yesterday mentioning this game and saw something along the lines of "We hear you don't want the game to be easy so we're making it pretty hard." I love the idea of a game having all of these Super Mario RPG inspirations going on but I never played that much of the hack SMRPG: Armageddon for the same kinds of reasons. It felt like it was balanced to require more perfection out of the player than I felt was necessary and it really hurt the fun factor of the game for me since progress was so slow.
I hope the full game will end up getting at least some kind of difficulty options because while I don't mind grinding that much I don't want them to have poor sales when a game like this could do really well with a few tweaks and added accessibility.
Ugh, so they knew exactly what they were doing. That makes it so much worse
it reminded me of Guardian Crusade (PS 1) game, Its like a mix of Guardian Crusade + Super Mario RPG
The only especially Guardian's Crusade vibe I get from it is that the main character looks like a generic knight... and I guess to a lesser extent the visual style.
I used to think the same thing about souls games but once I got used to the difficulty and mechanics of each game, I honestly prefer that difficulty because it makes it sooo much more rewarding when you beat a particular level or boss
@@JasonScalici I agree, there has to be ways you can out skill the boss. Souls game if you are good enough, you can beat the game at level 1 with no armor. I have no idea about this game though.
I don't mind bigger grinds in JRPG's, so I don't think this will be a problem for me personally. I still wish the devs would put a easy mode or at the very least a 2X or 4X battle speed mode so that people don't waste too much time grinding.
In the recent Mario & Luigi RPGS, there is the 'emergency guard" where both bros defend. Take less damage but cannot dodge. However, a perfect dodge nulls damage and even counter.
Something similar can be done here where high risk-high reward. *Do you defend with the hold of a button or do you risk it for a parry instead?*
Another incentive is if the hero does a perfect block, either they counter OR refills SP
Hopefully the developers take the feedback and at least add an easier difficulty. Maybe its my masochistic tendencies, but there is a part of me thats still interested in this game, so I'm curious to see how things develop
Heyo David! I was hoping you'd cover this one. Downloading the demo. Thanks for all your hard work bringing us the rpg news and reviews, David. Have a blessed day everyone!
Difficulty is good David, it makes you savor a win a lot more.
Hey David, love the content, I'm surprised to hear that you found the combat so hard, I didn't have to grind once and completed the entire demo without dying.
No clue what I did differently than you did, but I wasn't even getting perfect blocks that often and I had plenty of money to get more potions than I needed/all the upgrades on the shop 🤔
You know we live in a time where everyone has a different concept of what's difficult and some ppl just don't connect to some game's difficulties. Its a shame because I do think it gets some game's unfairly maligned but as long as the reviewer is clear and honest about their issues then everyone can judge if the complaints would personally affect their experience.
Same here. I kind of breezed through it with maybe 60% timed hit rate. I almost lost to that church boss due to running out of potions and mana but had enough to eek out a win. I was only level 4.
Thanks for the review. I'm still excited to try out the demo. I'm hoping the balance issues you were seeing are fixed for the full game because it does like it could be really good.
Update: I just played through the demo. It was enjoyable, but timing on some of the attacks is much tighter than others. The mage's basic attack I feel like I'd hit the exact same time and sometimes get "too fast" while other times I was "too slow". I did die once on the 2nd boss, but I learned if you don't load you lose the items you used but the wizard is still in your party. I grinded one level and was able to beat the boss the second time.
The meta humor was hit or miss for me. Hopefully the story is good. The game definitely has potential, but I'm not 100% sold yet.
Ordered it on PS5 from limited run. Even if it’s bad I can’t resist the Mario RPG influence. It’s honestly crazy we getting a remake of that and Thousand Year Door within months from each other.
This looks so charming and so cozy! I will absolutely get this one, thanks for the recommendation! ❤️
I get the feeling you didn't watch the vid lol
What’s bullshit is when you grind up money to buy potions and you wipe on a boss fight using all your potions. You don’t get them back and are expected to RE-grind so you can RE-stock
4:08, you aint wrong. Irony is, I'm playing a game called Tunic. In it you play as a cute fox, but the game has difficulty kinda like soulsborne games with the death mechanic and re-obtaining your essence. With that said, I do enjoy the game.
Huh never heard of this one. I understand your frustration, tho I think I could actually appreciate a higher difficulty. Often times thats my biggest gripes with turn based RPGs is that they tend to be on the easier side. I guess I'd like to see how the rest of the game plays out, I don't mind grinding to an extent as I'm sure most people don't either, but if the WHOLE game is super grindy then yeah...perhaps it needs more fine tuning.
I donated a copy for the Kickstarter almost 3 years ago forgot about it. I was really impressed with the Mario rpg inspiration
Saw this and thought "It can't be that bad, can it?" So downloaded it. While balancing could be adjusted a bit, most notably on the 2nd zone boss, most of it didn't feel too off to me. Even without perfects the zone was doable and I had money left over, even buying the new armor and accessory.
What I will say is telegraphing on moves could use a bit more work. While text does appear to show too late/too early, a lot of mario rpgs timing issues were mitigated with good audio effects and very clear animations that made sense with the timing the majority of the time. In this, sound didn't really aid time attacks much and reading the animations for timings isn't the best.
That said, I would personally not put this anywhere near "dark souls" difficulty or say someone needs lightning reflexes. Enemy attack timings don't change/vary. So you don't need lightning fast as much as just to recognize the point you did it previous and repeat it, though that would fulfill the robotic comment made.
On the stat points upon leveling, the game doesn't tell you with a pop up tutorial, but the menu button on the hud does pulse as soon as you level, directing the player to press it, followed by the points section pulsing once you open the menu. While not 100% in your face clear and I agree it should be addressed, the game does at least do something to show it.
I would say the game has potential, and while a lot looks nice visually, it could use some polish under the hood.
Looks really great. Thanks for the review. Love from Belgium 🇧🇪 ❤
You alright David? Your blood pressure meter ticked up there at the 2nd half when you mentioned you were off the soap box 😂
I'll wait for the official release and see if the difficulty is re-balanced. Though tbh, this game still looks pretty solid.
Your issues were selling points for me. Thanks for the review!
Glad I could help!
Thanks for the review! This looks interesting! There are a lot of Earthbound-inspired RPGs, but not very many Super Mario RPG-inspired games. However, I'm always wary of independent developers deriving too much from their sources of inspiration.
i played this right after i saw you mention this in a previous video, and I have come to the same conclusion. Loved the first 10 mintutes of it, and then the balancing issue killed the last 20 minutes until eventually i just stopped the pain
I remember being terrible at buttom prompts... then i decided to 112% hollow knight
140 hours later, i learned and it was hell! But damn those creepy bugs are cute tho
Smrpg you have impeccable taste, good sir
So, I've stared this now that it's officially out. Just finished the second boss fight, and I will say, I did find myself rather frustrated at first. I'm usually good at timed combat, but some of these action commands were kinda hard to figure out, especially the timing of the sword as the game gives you very little time to pull it off. That said, once I got into the hang of it, I started to enjoy it more, yet I still wound up using up all my potions when fighting the second boss. That said, something I do really appreciate is that, much like Earthbound, when you get to a certain level, you can avoid combat by hitting weaker enemies outside of battle and gain EXP and gold from it.
I loved the original Mario RPG as my favorite of the genre and one of my top 5 favorite games of all time. I like the idea of an indie game inspired by it when most seem to favor Chrono Trigger, Earthbound, or more traditional RPGs. However I'm not really gripped by the generic setting, the only thing letting it stand out is puppet designs (which don't impress me because I'm not a massive Geno fan) and the demon boss changing between forms. I'll try the demo but I'm not having high hopes for it, especially after the review has me thinking it's more for challenge seekers than just being fun. Though I generally enjoy timed attacks so it might turn out better for me, unless they aren't very rewarding.
As another time attacked challenged person I appreciate knowing this about the game. Ill have to check out the demo and see for myself though. Game looks interesting still
So is the demo only on steam? Cause I don't mess with steam lol
That second boss 🤣. Does anyone know if the full game has toned it down or has an easier mode? It was that boss that I realised I was struggling bad and wasn’t prepared
Playing through this game now. You feel the same way about it that I do. All the issues you have are the same as mine. Once you get past the part of the game in the demo, it's not long before the unbalanced and unfair difficulty gets even worse. Specifically, I'm talking about the swamp location. Even if you do some grinding, there are a few enemies there that are way too damn strong for you to beat. Definitely not the amazing spiritual successor it could have been. They took almost every aspect of SMRPG and made it significantly worse. I will say that one thing I do like about it is that they actually tell you if you get perfect timing when attacking and defending. It's the one thing that's actually improved over how it was in SMRPG.
I don’t know man. I bought the game because I’ve been following it for years, and was curious what others thought. I like the challenge. I’ve died a LOT. But level ups raise your stats enough that after a few levels enemies that were crushing me become fodder. Also there doesn’t seem to be a real penalty for dying so it’s really only knocking me back to grind some more without losing any progress. It’s pretty satisfying. I also had to let go of my item hoarding nature for the bosses I’ve fought (3 so far) and go ham on using items. The battles give you plenty of funds for this so it’s not that bad.
I don’t think this’ll be my favorite game ever or anything, but so far it’s a blast!
Oh and the full game DOES explain the level up mechanics in an unskippable but short tutorial. So maybe they did listen to that feedback! 😊
The level up was explained in the demo. I think he must have skimmed past it and blamed the devs.
Maybe I'm foolish, maybe I'm blind. 🎶
Thinking I can see through this and see what's behind.🎶
Got no way to prove it so maybe I'm lying.🎶
But I'm only human after all, I'm only human after all.🎶
Back in the day we had beta tester as a job. Now people just release demos and Early Access games and people pay to be beta testers. I'll wait until they release the game and then I'll wait for your review of that. Then I will decide if I want to put it on my list of games to buy.
Hopefully they take it as constructive criticism since presumably the game is still in development and theyre still making adjustments. It looks great.
It's hard to be a spiritual successor. I loved Actraiser back in the day and was so excited when SolSeraph was 1st announced. We all know how that went. You don't want to get your hopes up because it's hard to live up those old expectations.
On the contrary if you have to grind that much in the demo whats the full game gonne be like? But this looks really cute I am going to keep an eye on it.
Yeah that’s what I was thinking too, you didn’t have to grind at all really in SMRPG, I can’t believe it’s so mandatory here
@@davidvinc In SMRPG, you could get star power to kill mobs just by touching them. Thereby removing some of the grinding in certain areas because you get EXP for every mob you kill with the star power.
@@AM-uk7jv man, a star power here would help so much!
I like the look of this game. It's like Geno's Super Mario RPG. I don't mind grinding so much, so this could be fun for me, and it could be a nice counterbalance to Mario RPG because that one felt a bit too much on the easy side. I had no idea about this but now I'm curious. Thanks for reviewing this!
My only complaint with the original Mario RPG was that I didn't find it difficult enough. I've never heard of this game until now, and your warnings are actually causing me to keep an eye out for it. 👀
anyone know when this will come to Switch??
from what you said it does seem to have some balancing issues but i probably have to try out the demo for myself to get a feel for the difficulty.
Playing right now, it's absolutely balanced. This game is balanced toward people who enjoy the challenge of precision timing. David just isn't part of the target audience and he took it very personally.
Thanks for saving me some time. I’m not seeing this getting the balancing it obviously needs by release, so I’ll probably wait for some patches and a sale.
If they had a accessory like ff16 to help with the timing would that help the balance?
No, we need challenge
@@kinh0tYou can have challenge without requiring perfect timing.
I don't think it would.
Some timing windows can be affected by FPS and input lag (I suck at rhythm games but still love trying them so I have to pay attention to this). If the timing window is unforgiving, it can get annoying quick. Legend of Dragoon is like that. I can pull off additions most of the time but whenever it doesn't go through, 90% of the time I would get stumped on how to fix the problem.
At least there are options in LoD like magic or switching a character whose additions are easier to do. The gameplay shown here doesn't look like you have some form of recourse.
@maryford3676 in LoD there was also the war drum accessory that did the combo for you. There are ways to address David view while maintaining the challenge
@@kinh0t some dont
This was an awesome video, David. Unless they balance the game, I likely will not be playing this.
David, did you ever play Guardians Crusade on PS1? That's a game I'd love to see remastered.
I did!! :)
This really looks cute and charming, but hoo boy I hope they can take some feedback and balance it before the final release. It makes me wonder if this is a case of the devs also being the play testers and not realizing the average player isn't going to know the game's ins and outs the way they do
Yup.
This is why in my hobby RPGs, I balance the game until it feels juuuuust right for me, and then I make *THAT* the Hard Mode. XD It's a principle that's served me well.
I fought so hard the first time thought id be alright used all my resources then died, noticed the mage was still in my party, reloaded my prior save died to the boss on purpose lvled up 1 more time and had a much better time against him, but yah difficulty choose would be nice, i also love mario rpg so im guna give this game a full shot on PS on release.
Dang, you really went OFF there. :o
But yeah, if even after a bunch of grinding you didn't have enough money to get a single revive item or MP restore, then there's definitely a problem there.
Do we know what this company has done in the past and compare their work
David100K!
Rant and soap box any time David, I'll watch |-)
Hopefully, the devs get more feedback like this cause excessive grinding is a nope from me. The gameplay seems fun, I think I'm pretty good with timed attacks since I play fighting games😅 nowhere near a pro though😅
Well, here’s hoping the publisher is listening and willing to make changes.
Hopefully you like final product more if you end playing that.
As for me I think I will pass on the demo for now and see what the game will cost when it releases. If it's like $15 bucks I don't mind taking a risk on it. I've had demos turn me off games that I ended up loving before.
I did notice one thing I might get from this game regardless. I have Nintendo and PS controls ingrained into my brain and mess up when it comes to the Xbox layout when it comes to QTEs and such. Maybe clearly seeing what button is where most of the time when playing this will help me remember. XD
i mean... a demo also isnt typically more than 1 area. and small indy teams are usually bad at balancing they are always too easy or too hard especially in rpgs where you let players pick their stats
i prefer this kind of demo that lets you taste the real game and not some sweet demos that when you buy the game you encounter a total different game and if they hear the feedback and change a little this could be a good game
I LOVE THIS!
If the demo is so unbalanced I do not expect much from the real game. A demo is not only for feedback but also a kind of advertisement for the real deal. If the demo is unbalanced and requires extreme grind then you do expect that the real game is much more or in my words worse.
After what I have seen this game may sound interesting on paper but what I have seen has shown that it does not work... at least for me. I will stick with the original which will come this autumn.
Hey you can grind with the mage u just have to fail the boss it will bring you back to the rest point with the mage in your party.
Oh good to know!
David, with all due respect, you're not the only gamer out there. I know you don't like the dark souls thing, and you don't like grinding, but that doesn't mean it's bad or wrong.
The dark souls difficulty is still here for once simple reason: there's a market for it. A lot of us would be really upset if it went away. You still want it to go?
And about the demo, demos also should not be "easy". They should reflect the full game. If high difficulty is a feature of the game, it shouldn't be hidden from the demo. Imagine playing a demo that was easy, then you find the full game was actually a souls-like. We call that "false advertising" or "misleading", take your pick.
Sorry, couple points I gotta strongly disagree with you. Don't take all this the wrong way! I'm really think you need to hear this.
Last note: the way you're addressing the developer(s) is honestly very mean and rude. Pounding the desk, leaning into the mic and yelling "balance your game!", I think you're better than that. It's a lot of work and committment to develop a game. Being rude to the developers because they didn't appeal to your personal taste ... people in your audience look up to you. As a fellow early-40s dude, we gotta be better than that.
Love your videos and have for years! I just think you're not being your best this time and i gotra call you out on it as a long time follower. Sorry to be blunt, but again I think you need to hear it.
EDIT: Sorry for multiple edits. My phone was whacking out big time.
RPGs these recent years have been far too easy compared with the no guidance, grind-like-crazy RPGs of the past; I'm kind of looking forward to the insane difficulty as a nice change of pace... Granted, if this level of difficulty was the norm for all RPGs I would also hate THAT and wish for something easier to, again, act as a "change of pace".
I've only seen pics of this game and i had my doubts. This video confirms that, luckily there bringing super mario rpg to the switch
Considering the announcement of the mario RPG remake, this demo has great TIMING (ha). Got through it without too much trouble and no grinding. I have a hard time believing you love Beyond the Beyond (so do I) but this game is too much for you. Maybe the timing will be easier on console. Either way I found the difficulty to my liking.
David changing the thumbnail. S A V A G E
The world needs to know!! Lol
This looks fun. I'd try it out for sure. I can't frickin wait for the Mario RPG remake too. That actually made me tear up for the reveal. Speaking of tearing up and this is a bit off topic, but I just finally beat FFXVI last night and that ending wrecked me. I hard cried for the first time at the ending of a video game since FFX. lol No spoilers here, but also the Torgal side quest had me quite emotional as well. What a good boy and probably my favorite video game pet companion of all time now.
I mean, you said the same things about Sea of Stars, and I thought that demo was absolutely briliant. Not sure if I can take a rant like this in good faith.
3 6:34. Eggplant jbVeloop n😮
Yeah I just beat the demo first try, no grinding required. I don't know what happened to David, but I think he might have been drunk while playing or something. If you've been engaging the game's mechanics, you'll get through the final boss with no problem. The balance is actually pretty good. It keeps you right on the edge, which is something a lot of people enjoy, clearly.
This review is just completely off. I'd encourage anyone to actually give it a go.
Developers, don't listen to this reviewer. He's not your target audience. Great guy, but this review is trash. (I'm sorry David! It is!)
This game looks like so much fun, but hearing about the difficulty has me worried. Look I accept some grinding, and I don’t mind difficulty, but there is a balance that is needed in games.
I hope the developers look at the feedback from this demo and make appropriate changes.
Still, I’ll play the holy heavens out of this demo.
i can never understand how some games will just straight up not mention things or explain things that are very important. games don't come with manuals so how are we supposed to figure things out? very frustrating game design
This game look promising, maybe I would give it a shot. The only reason you have a hard times because you not good at strategy turn based combat yet; once you play a little longer, it will grow on you 😏❤️✨💋🌹
I like a good initial challenge in an RPG since you can grind and level up. This sounds pretty unbalanced though.
That's what put me off from the Dragon Quest series; all the constant grinding you have to do just to survive even regular fights. When a game becomes like a second job; like you're working while playing it and not actually having fun; then what's the point in playing it? That's how I feel.
Played the PC demo for about 5 seconds. Controller support for your standard XBOX/XInput controllers for this demo is wayyyyy off. It gives PlayStation prompts only, which on its own wouldn't be a problem, but the buttons are not mapped correctly with no option to remap anything. this demo was a damn rush job. Sorry guys. This is gonna be a no from me until they fix their shit and from what you've been saying, David, this perfectly lines up with the amount of polish that they tried to put forth. it's so unfortunate because surface level it looks really charming. Oh well. I hope they take peoples' feedback into consideration. This type of game coupld be very solid if done right
I like grinding xD
This is a disappointment. Was looking forward to this but if it's a "git gud or die grinding" vibe, not so sure anymore. Will likely try the demo for myself and see what I think. Also, it seems weird that there really haven't been a lot of Mario RPG inspired indie games considering the original's popularity.
❤❤❤❤
Ouch! Demos are meant to show off the wonderful things about a game. The things people will love when they play. No one loves grinding THAT much.
But it looks so cute…
Shredded DOWN.
Oooh I’ve been waiting to hear more about this! Too bad the game is so unbalanced :(
Well hopefully the devs watch this video!
It's not unbalanced at all. Ignore this review. I beat it blind without grinding and downed the final boss the first time, and I'm just some idiot 40 year old.
@@MinecraftMartin Hmm I'm an idiot 28 year old, so maybe I could also beat this game! Thanks for the input
Interesting 🧐
Having an option to automatically guard (even if it just gave you the good guards instead of perfect) would be a huge accessibility boon for sure. Regardless, it's got some yucky pacing issues even if *all* the stuff was automated. That grinding, whew.
I love the look of the game, I’m always a fan of stylized graphics over realism, and this looks like a world I’d love to wander around in. I like the look of everything except for the menus - yuck!
Maybe get better lol
Let's hope it gets an easy mode, because it does look lovely and oozes charm.
I love every video
Mario rpg is literally a baby game tho
Facts way too easy
little boys and their little toys
well, I didn't listen to you about front mission, so I guess I should take your word on this one and keep away 😁
What were they thinking? Buffalo diarrhea fun farts
I want to like it, but I just don’t like the esthetic at all
Super Mario RPG Remake will bury this game existence
Hahaha I love the way you give the devs a good telling off HAHAHA 🤣
You are right though, demos aren't for grinding, and nothing to mention stat distribution? Yikes.
U🥵
So, I've finally gotten the chance to test out the demo, and it's DEFINITELY not you; there is something really... off about the timing of attacks and defense, and the animations are WAY too fast. Even the movement around the environments is really clunky and weird, and that demon boss in the church is really badly unbalanced. Normally, I'd think that my reflexes might be a little rusty, but I just played through 3 of the Shovel Knight main storylines, so it isn't that.
Glad to hear that it wasn’t just me!
No balance and no mini-map? Its gonna be a pass from me