I personally think the one thing that will be the undoing of this game is the price. I have not bought it simply due to that and I love my tactical turn based games. But I just cannot look past that hefty price tag.
@@89Games Got it on sale for 50% off. Easily worth the price tag at that point (I'd argue it's fine at ~30% off). I'm a fan of Advance Wars: Days of Ruin's story far more than its predecessors, so the whole grim aesthetic got me in easily. Everything about the gameplay is what I wanted in terms of tactics balancing . I hate speed = 2x attack in fire emblem (because it's clearly unbalanced) and risk of perma death because it just means you will inevitably save scum when the enemy hits the 1% crit rate. And if you don't save scum, you feel absolutely cheated. In redemption reapers, the no-perma death means the game is balanced around that (unlike perma death options that either make the game too easy/annoyingly cheesy). Game felt just right in terms of difficulty normal mode, while most games are too easy even on hard, which weened understanding the action point system + skills well if you wanted to succeed.
I was really hyped for this game, given the people involved in it. When I saw what the reviewers where saying about it felt kinda off to me, so I kept on looking for content about the game. Thanks for putting a different perspective on the eco chamber that was the talk about this title, I really appreciate it and now I'm looking forward to buy the fiscal version of it.
Yes, I totally agree with this judgement.+ I guess most had sthought they get with REDEMPTION REAPERS a second XCOM 2 and were puzzled that the ingame battling system was quite different in fact.
Thanks for this excellent review! This is by far the most in-depth look at the game I've seen. (And as a bonus, it doesn't even have any whining about the game not being grindy enough! Score.)
Your videos about the game and the patches made me jump in. I played 6-7 hours last night. Im just early on but damn I love this game. Got it on a sale and it just been laying there for a while but now I finally tried it.
I like how this game is just one small window into this world infested with Mort. I can't wait to see what the devs do next, maybe a game under a different name, following another group's struggle against them, and their drastically different dynamic (with new Mort monsters to contend with). And maybe the Ashen Hawks' actions would greatly impact the next characters we see,. I wouldn't be surprised if Naki plays a major role next time.
The heat tried to injure all of our key players except for jrue: 1. BAM trucked JB on a break. 2. BAM with a hard illegal screen on d.white. 3. Jovic slapped KPs hand hard on a close out. 4. Caleb air body blocked JT. Agreed with scal. If you play ball, you know thats not a basketball play.
The game looks amazing! I had passed on it due to the low reviews, but am tempted to get it now after watching your very in depth take on it. Thanks for the great work!
I'm just terrified it will be a devastating ending. I'm only on like chapter 7/8. I'm enjoying it but I just don't want to be a sobbing mess at the end. I feel like that will happen though. Great video!
I admire the clear cut concept in which you have brought up your facts to bring over your point. Very impressiv with an accademical touch.t Honnestly I would like many more of your clear cut Critics - think if you could do some to movies would be also worth watching
Nice to hear some good feedback about it. i'll consider getting it once i'm itching for a new game and the price has gone down. so would you say it's the dark souls of TRPGs? some inputs: 1. agreed on not needing zone of control in trpgs. just sad though we dont' get a "caster" in the team. 2. definitely not a fan of resource management. is it possible to just keep 2 weapon sets? like one is the best weapon thats constantly repaired/upgraded for story missions and a weaker/broken weapon for skirmishes? would weaker/broken weapons be enough to complete skirmishes? what happens when weapons get super broken? do they disappear? 3. difficulty wise, should i expect a team member to die in every mission? 4. how's the customization? can each team member be built/customized in different ways or is it a linear skill tree? 5. how's the story? is it engaging enough? will i care about the npcs and the BBEG?
Yes, I think it takes a lot of inspiration from the souls series and in gameplay it is like dark souls in this way: Dark souls rewards you for being cautious, studying the enemy, and learning the best way to defeat them, but punishes you greatly for running in unprepared. Redemption Reapers works very similar in that way. If you rush in with little or know thought, someone is going down. For #2 -so yes, you could probably do okay with just 2 sets, as I mostly used by best weapons all the time since I didn't realize i could switch them in combat until i was half way through the game lol. Though it doesn't hurt anything to have all 5 slots equipped, unless your looking to sell everything but 2 sets. -Skirmishes can definitely be done with broken weapons, though you'll find skirmishes closer to your level pretty difficult this way. I'd still recommend using weaker weapons you haven't been using in this case. -When weapons lose all durability they don't go away, you won't lose them. A weapon with 0 durability doesn't provide any bonuses to attack, so only the characters attack stat will be involved in damage calculations. For #3 No, you should be able to complete every mission with all characters alive. That said though, this has more to do with your own skill level. The game is balanced in such a way that you CAN get through with everyone, but it will punish you for sticking someone's neck out too far. I lost characters on about 4 or 5 missions, I think, but was still able to complete the missions. Oh! and the difficulty is a little front heavy, meaning once you get 4 or 5 missions in and start unlocking new abilities and get the whole team together, the game gets more manageable. You gotta get past the asylum demon to get to the real game if you know what I mean ;) For #4 So, its pretty much a linear tree, but you won't be able to max everything on the tree out. So you have to choose between giving each character more damage, more support, more defense, or a mix of these. You also need to consider how some of these skills affect other units as well, as some require you to be adjacent to take effect. The ability trees start off pretty small, but you'll get more abilities as you reach certain levels. You won't be building out super unique builds, but there is enough to keep things interesting, at least there was for me anyway. For#5 So, the story starts out pretty slow, not really giving much background other than vague references to "the incident". This did enough for me though to want to know what "the incident" was. Around mid game, the story starts to reveal some background and give you reasons to care about the characters involved. By the end, I was satisfied, but everyone's criteria for good stories is different. This is an indie title so don't expect a Final Fantasy level story, but I think they did a good job. Phew, I hope all that helps. Thanks for the questions and for watching!
@@89Games appreciate the detailed response. would you say there's a need for heavy grinding in this game (not a fan of grinding for levels and i liked TOR's approach of having a level cap for each segment of the story and it was easy to hit the level cap in a couple of trainings).
I bought the game on sale for about £20 on PS4, with my birthday money. And having finished it on normal, I'd say it's a solid game overall, especially at that price. I'm glad the game leans more into the "Strategy" of turn-based strategy than the "RPG", because this has been the undoing of many Fire Emblem games after Blazing Sword (Tellius and Three Houses being the exception). Despite only having 5 units, the game's balanced around them surprisingly well, and they're very distinct from one another, with lots of unique skills to give them individual purpose on the battlefield. The only real issues I had with the game were its cutscenes and how expressionless characters were, and how the game constantly tells us about incidents rather than showing them (or better yet, letting us participate in them ourselves). This is prime material for DLC, but at this point, I'm not expecting that to happen. I think the realistic art direction is a double-edged sword, because while it looks fine during gameplay and the still portraits, there clearly weren't enough concessions being made to accomidate it during cutscenes. I think the devs should've worked within their means, in this regard. I would've been fine with a more anime-esque style and cel-shading, because that's not to say it can't still be a dark fantasy. If people look outside their shounen anime bubble, they'll find plenty of seinen anime telling similar stories in equally-bleak worlds, and they still made excellent use of their anime aesthetic (which itself is already a broad term). These character designs are great, especially Lugh and Urs, so I think it could still work. I wouldn't recommend the game at full price, since there are long stretches of content where barely anything happens in the story, but at around £20 or its equivalents, it's a solid buy. I still think it's worth people's attention, because the pros outweigh the cons at the end of the day, and it seems to be a building block for something greater in future. I almost forgot to mention, the music kicks arse. Some of these tracks remind me of Hiroyuki Sawano's compositions, because they're just that grandiose, emotional and intense. It does a lot to elevate the game and its atmosphere, and really sets the stage for the uphill struggle against the Mort.
Well said. I think what you said about the cutscenes and over storytelling is spot on. Definitely the weakest part of the game, but I still enjoyed the story once it was fully told.
First off great review. This is probably one of my favourite type of games. Still play shining force and vandal hearts when I get the chance. Been looking for a srpg to play. If you have played it, which would you prefer this or cross tails. Thanks.
I'm actually playing through cross tails right now, but I haven't gotten too far yet. That said, I think I prefer the style and atmosphere of redemption reapers better.
i tell u a secret how to be OP in this game. U guys make sure u don't get level up when you are on stage. so when u are at the game menu after winning the stage, choose level up. make sure when you want level up hero, the hero experience must almost towards level up example 90/100 experience. means u only use 10 experience to level up.. So when you level up make sure the points aim at HP, ATK, SPD/ENDURANCE. if it did not happen, u load the game and try again repeatly. me level 30 got 30 attk so no need to upgrade or lvl up weapon.. so easy
This game was awesome. The controls, style, everything. Up until the escort mission where the AI player you can't control runs directly towards monsters and if he dies it's game over and he can only take a couple of hits. Forget difficulty, no one in real life would do that in that situation. They even say stay close in the voiceover in which they do everything they can to not stay close. It's lazy and dumb and a way to say oh i meant to do that to make it hard....artificial. I loved working simple martial art weapons when i was a kid to learn complex moves. When it was simple you had full control of it. If you can't control it...that's not for me and a lot of other people. But sure, if you're thing is taking a shortcoming of something and using your smarts to "overcome" a shortcoming that you can't directly control, this is definitely your game.
This game looks good doh am not a SRPG player as I enjoyed Diofield... I could check this out though Gold is limited is kind of annoyed like why do game developers keep making games like old days, especially Indie ones. Why give us weapons and magic etc but limit how we use them or have us wondering should I buy this or get that smh. Make the enemies challenging not the game gosh.
Very true, but Redemption Reapers has received some significant updates since this video that alleviate the gold issue and make the game more enjoyable
Its a decent game for an indie title, but I think they shot themselves in the foot with the price tag. I don't blame people for expecting more considering $50 is a little too reflective of big budget industry titles (even if a premium of $70 is slowly becoming the new standard). A lower price of $40-30 and people would have tempered there expectations and forgiven Redemption Reapers rough edges and eccentricities. Similar to Lost Eidolons which fared a lot better even though I think Redemption Reaper is the superior game.
Even negative reviews have their value. Because checking around I have founf no Haters among them. The folks were just confused about the game mechanics. Here it is the own fault of the companies not to include anymore good manuals to their products. The In-Game-Training missions at the beginning of many titles are ofthe simply not enough. At least this is my personal experience I made over the years since the late Nineties.
@@rogerlynch5279 one complaint that i have on the game is that i can not change graphics settings or is just me lol other than that is amazing im playing it now
I love this so much, having bought it digitally I’m going to double dip and get the Switch physical from playasia (Japanese version has English) Also Karren and Serah are also badass waifus to be fair 🫶
I personally think the one thing that will be the undoing of this game is the price. I have not bought it simply due to that and I love my tactical turn based games. But I just cannot look past that hefty price tag.
It is a shame though. I'm hoping we get a sale on it soon so more people can give it a try.
Way too many proven indy titles at half the price of this one so it's a pass for me at the near AAA price tag.
It’s on sale for $29.99, I pulled the trigger and absolutely LOVE the game! Wish I had it earlier, it was even worth the $40 tag.
pirate it then buy it when it goes on sale.
@@89Games Got it on sale for 50% off. Easily worth the price tag at that point (I'd argue it's fine at ~30% off). I'm a fan of Advance Wars: Days of Ruin's story far more than its predecessors, so the whole grim aesthetic got me in easily.
Everything about the gameplay is what I wanted in terms of tactics balancing . I hate speed = 2x attack in fire emblem (because it's clearly unbalanced) and risk of perma death because it just means you will inevitably save scum when the enemy hits the 1% crit rate. And if you don't save scum, you feel absolutely cheated.
In redemption reapers, the no-perma death means the game is balanced around that (unlike perma death options that either make the game too easy/annoyingly cheesy). Game felt just right in terms of difficulty normal mode, while most games are too easy even on hard, which weened understanding the action point system + skills well if you wanted to succeed.
I was really hyped for this game, given the people involved in it. When I saw what the reviewers where saying about it felt kinda off to me, so I kept on looking for content about the game.
Thanks for putting a different perspective on the eco chamber that was the talk about this title, I really appreciate it and now I'm looking forward to buy the fiscal version of it.
Yes, I totally agree with this judgement.+
I guess most had sthought they get with REDEMPTION REAPERS a second XCOM 2 and were puzzled that the ingame battling system was quite different in fact.
You did not mention the soundtrack. It is epic!
I did very briefly, but I didn't go into detail. But you're absolutely right! This has some pretty epic music for sure.
Thanks for this excellent review! This is by far the most in-depth look at the game I've seen. (And as a bonus, it doesn't even have any whining about the game not being grindy enough! Score.)
Glad you enjoyed it!
Your videos about the game and the patches made me jump in. I played 6-7 hours last night. Im just early on but damn I love this game. Got it on a sale and it just been laying there for a while but now I finally tried it.
After the ending all I can say is I need another game set on this world 😊
Absolutely! Me too!
I like how this game is just one small window into this world infested with Mort. I can't wait to see what the devs do next, maybe a game under a different name, following another group's struggle against them, and their drastically different dynamic (with new Mort monsters to contend with). And maybe the Ashen Hawks' actions would greatly impact the next characters we see,. I wouldn't be surprised if Naki plays a major role next time.
THANK YOU FOR THIS REVIEW GOOD LORD
I'm loving the game to bits and playing slowly to enjoy the most of it. Truly a hidden gem
No problem!
The heat tried to injure all of our key players except for jrue:
1. BAM trucked JB on a break.
2. BAM with a hard illegal screen on d.white.
3. Jovic slapped KPs hand hard on a close out.
4. Caleb air body blocked JT.
Agreed with scal. If you play ball, you know thats not a basketball play.
Wrong video I think? Lol
@@89Games yeah wrong video. Boston celtic fan here. Lol. But i did mean to talk to you about RR. posted it on another vid. Hahaha.
The game looks amazing! I had passed on it due to the low reviews, but am tempted to get it now after watching your very in depth take on it. Thanks for the great work!
No problem!
I'm just terrified it will be a devastating ending. I'm only on like chapter 7/8. I'm enjoying it but I just don't want to be a sobbing mess at the end. I feel like that will happen though. Great video!
I admire the clear cut concept in which you have brought up your facts to bring over your point. Very impressiv with an accademical touch.t
Honnestly I would like many more of your clear cut Critics - think if you could do some to movies would be also worth watching
Thank you!
also I’d love a prequel telling the story of the Ashen Wolves (that reveals itself through the narrative of the first game.)
Nice to hear some good feedback about it. i'll consider getting it once i'm itching for a new game and the price has gone down. so would you say it's the dark souls of TRPGs?
some inputs:
1. agreed on not needing zone of control in trpgs. just sad though we dont' get a "caster" in the team.
2. definitely not a fan of resource management. is it possible to just keep 2 weapon sets? like one is the best weapon thats constantly repaired/upgraded for story missions and a weaker/broken weapon for skirmishes? would weaker/broken weapons be enough to complete skirmishes? what happens when weapons get super broken? do they disappear?
3. difficulty wise, should i expect a team member to die in every mission?
4. how's the customization? can each team member be built/customized in different ways or is it a linear skill tree?
5. how's the story? is it engaging enough? will i care about the npcs and the BBEG?
Yes, I think it takes a lot of inspiration from the souls series and in gameplay it is like dark souls in this way: Dark souls rewards you for being cautious, studying the enemy, and learning the best way to defeat them, but punishes you greatly for running in unprepared. Redemption Reapers works very similar in that way. If you rush in with little or know thought, someone is going down.
For #2
-so yes, you could probably do okay with just 2 sets, as I mostly used by best weapons all the time since I didn't realize i could switch them in combat until i was half way through the game lol. Though it doesn't hurt anything to have all 5 slots equipped, unless your looking to sell everything but 2 sets.
-Skirmishes can definitely be done with broken weapons, though you'll find skirmishes closer to your level pretty difficult this way. I'd still recommend using weaker weapons you haven't been using in this case.
-When weapons lose all durability they don't go away, you won't lose them. A weapon with 0 durability doesn't provide any bonuses to attack, so only the characters attack stat will be involved in damage calculations.
For #3
No, you should be able to complete every mission with all characters alive. That said though, this has more to do with your own skill level. The game is balanced in such a way that you CAN get through with everyone, but it will punish you for sticking someone's neck out too far. I lost characters on about 4 or 5 missions, I think, but was still able to complete the missions. Oh! and the difficulty is a little front heavy, meaning once you get 4 or 5 missions in and start unlocking new abilities and get the whole team together, the game gets more manageable. You gotta get past the asylum demon to get to the real game if you know what I mean ;)
For #4
So, its pretty much a linear tree, but you won't be able to max everything on the tree out. So you have to choose between giving each character more damage, more support, more defense, or a mix of these. You also need to consider how some of these skills affect other units as well, as some require you to be adjacent to take effect. The ability trees start off pretty small, but you'll get more abilities as you reach certain levels. You won't be building out super unique builds, but there is enough to keep things interesting, at least there was for me anyway.
For#5
So, the story starts out pretty slow, not really giving much background other than vague references to "the incident". This did enough for me though to want to know what "the incident" was. Around mid game, the story starts to reveal some background and give you reasons to care about the characters involved. By the end, I was satisfied, but everyone's criteria for good stories is different. This is an indie title so don't expect a Final Fantasy level story, but I think they did a good job.
Phew, I hope all that helps. Thanks for the questions and for watching!
@@89Games appreciate the detailed response. would you say there's a need for heavy grinding in this game (not a fan of grinding for levels and i liked TOR's approach of having a level cap for each segment of the story and it was easy to hit the level cap in a couple of trainings).
@@TheRobversion1 no, heavy grinding isn't necessary.
I bought the game on sale for about £20 on PS4, with my birthday money. And having finished it on normal, I'd say it's a solid game overall, especially at that price. I'm glad the game leans more into the "Strategy" of turn-based strategy than the "RPG", because this has been the undoing of many Fire Emblem games after Blazing Sword (Tellius and Three Houses being the exception). Despite only having 5 units, the game's balanced around them surprisingly well, and they're very distinct from one another, with lots of unique skills to give them individual purpose on the battlefield.
The only real issues I had with the game were its cutscenes and how expressionless characters were, and how the game constantly tells us about incidents rather than showing them (or better yet, letting us participate in them ourselves). This is prime material for DLC, but at this point, I'm not expecting that to happen. I think the realistic art direction is a double-edged sword, because while it looks fine during gameplay and the still portraits, there clearly weren't enough concessions being made to accomidate it during cutscenes. I think the devs should've worked within their means, in this regard. I would've been fine with a more anime-esque style and cel-shading, because that's not to say it can't still be a dark fantasy. If people look outside their shounen anime bubble, they'll find plenty of seinen anime telling similar stories in equally-bleak worlds, and they still made excellent use of their anime aesthetic (which itself is already a broad term). These character designs are great, especially Lugh and Urs, so I think it could still work.
I wouldn't recommend the game at full price, since there are long stretches of content where barely anything happens in the story, but at around £20 or its equivalents, it's a solid buy. I still think it's worth people's attention, because the pros outweigh the cons at the end of the day, and it seems to be a building block for something greater in future.
I almost forgot to mention, the music kicks arse. Some of these tracks remind me of Hiroyuki Sawano's compositions, because they're just that grandiose, emotional and intense. It does a lot to elevate the game and its atmosphere, and really sets the stage for the uphill struggle against the Mort.
Well said. I think what you said about the cutscenes and over storytelling is spot on. Definitely the weakest part of the game, but I still enjoyed the story once it was fully told.
This game does look fun even with its issues, i do like the ideia of having a small party to focus and not having to manage 20 characters at once.
First off great review. This is probably one of my favourite type of games. Still play shining force and vandal hearts when I get the chance. Been looking for a srpg to play. If you have played it, which would you prefer this or cross tails. Thanks.
I'm actually playing through cross tails right now, but I haven't gotten too far yet. That said, I think I prefer the style and atmosphere of redemption reapers better.
Been playing for roughly 10 hours now and am really liking it. Just the RNG while leveling up is annoying!
the stage before the final stage was one of the hardest ive played in my life on all the games ive played ,and that is a lot of to say
agreed, lol
That damn last collectible…
Definitely going to pick up this one❣️ don't care about the bad reviews. I just love the battle gameplay that's enough for me😄
Thanks for introducing me to this game!
No problem! Glad you're enjoying it! It's nice to know when my videos help someone out.
i tell u a secret how to be OP in this game. U guys make sure u don't get level up when you are on stage. so when u are at the game menu after winning the stage, choose level up. make sure when you want level up hero, the hero experience must almost towards level up example 90/100 experience. means u only use 10 experience to level up.. So when you level up make sure the points aim at HP, ATK, SPD/ENDURANCE. if it did not happen, u load the game and try again repeatly. me level 30 got 30 attk so no need to upgrade or lvl up weapon.. so easy
This game was awesome. The controls, style, everything. Up until the escort mission where the AI player you can't control runs directly towards monsters and if he dies it's game over and he can only take a couple of hits. Forget difficulty, no one in real life would do that in that situation. They even say stay close in the voiceover in which they do everything they can to not stay close. It's lazy and dumb and a way to say oh i meant to do that to make it hard....artificial. I loved working simple martial art weapons when i was a kid to learn complex moves. When it was simple you had full control of it. If you can't control it...that's not for me and a lot of other people. But sure, if you're thing is taking a shortcoming of something and using your smarts to "overcome" a shortcoming that you can't directly control, this is definitely your game.
Finally a good review
🙏
This game looks good doh am not a SRPG player as I enjoyed Diofield... I could check this out though Gold is limited is kind of annoyed like why do game developers keep making games like old days, especially Indie ones. Why give us weapons and magic etc but limit how we use them or have us wondering should I buy this or get that smh. Make the enemies challenging not the game gosh.
Very true, but Redemption Reapers has received some significant updates since this video that alleviate the gold issue and make the game more enjoyable
Its a decent game for an indie title, but I think they shot themselves in the foot with the price tag. I don't blame people for expecting more considering $50 is a little too reflective of big budget industry titles (even if a premium of $70 is slowly becoming the new standard). A lower price of $40-30 and people would have tempered there expectations and forgiven Redemption Reapers rough edges and eccentricities. Similar to Lost Eidolons which fared a lot better even though I think Redemption Reaper is the superior game.
Very true
i hate the ending so much
Is this 60fps on ps5?
From what I could find, it doesn't appear so unfortunately.
almost every negative review is too exaggerated at the end of the day is what type of game you like
Very true.
Even negative reviews have their value. Because checking around I have founf no Haters among them. The folks were just confused about the game mechanics.
Here it is the own fault of the companies not to include anymore good manuals to their products. The In-Game-Training missions at the beginning of many titles are ofthe simply not enough.
At least this is my personal experience I made over the years since the late Nineties.
@@rogerlynch5279 one complaint that i have on the game is that i can not change graphics settings or is just me lol other than that is amazing im playing it now
Dude, I'm digging it! It gets better as u advance through it.
Yep!
I love this so much, having bought it digitally I’m going to double dip and get the Switch physical from playasia (Japanese version has English)
Also Karren and Serah are also badass waifus to be fair 🫶