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#333
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Another Japanese story-rich, turn-based tactical game about a war between kingdoms, with some intrigue reminiscent of "Throne".
Overall, the story is good, well-presented, and the characters are well-developed, although it's not without some flaws. It even offers a degree of non-linearity in terms of plot branches, which is important in terms of recruitable heroes, playable missions, and certain moments in dialogues. However, ultimately, everything boils down to a few available endings, which are quite well-executed (or to a "true" ending, but you need to put in the effort and make the right choices). These endings may also be partially locked if you don't meet certain hidden and unpredictable parameters. However, the exposition is very long and tedious - in the first few hours, you get a couple of tutorial battles, and the rest of the time is filled with tedious cutscenes, introducing one unremarkable character after another, and this is perhaps the weakest point, but then it settles into a normal rhythm.

The music is mediocre in places, but good in others; overall, it's acceptable.
The graphics are over-pixelated, like in Octopath Traveler, and the maps are deliberately cubic and rough, like in Minecraft. At first, your eyes might strain, but you quickly get used to it.
The quality of the port, however, is disappointing. But it's not about bugs or unplayable moments; it's simply about the console developers and their PC porting team having a very poor understanding of convenience and ergonomics. There is nominally mouse support, but it is implemented very strangely - Brigantina sends its regards. As a result, I recommend playing either strictly with the keyboard or with a gamepad.
The design and functionality of the menus are also frustrating - to check some important screens that you frequently need to access, you often have to click a completely tedious and ill-conceived combination of keys. To load a game from the main menu, you need to press "yes" twice; the same goes for exiting to the main menu, and the same for certain moments in the game, and the same when moving from the world map to a battle and back, and so on. I don't know why it was designed this way, nor do I know whether to blame the native console with its "cultural peculiarities" or the port itself.

As for the gameplay, it's a tactical game. Not a dream come true, but in some ways more interesting than other recent games. The hero customization, however, could be better - you can give them an accessory, or simply slightly improve their stats or basic ability by spending crafting resources, which are very limited, and that's it. No subclasses, no special variety.
Overall, the combat is not very interesting - all abilities are combinations of attacks/movement from a certain range or in an area, plus buffs/debuffs, with rare exceptions. There is also a "elements" system, where, for example, an electric spell will spread through water, or you can set a puddle of oil on fire, but it is done very clumsily, inconveniently, and, most importantly, ineffectively, and overall it looks either like something added at the last minute for the sake of it, or like a heavily cut-down version of the original idea, and ultimately has no impact on the game.

If you like the genre and don't mind following the story - which is the strongest part of the game - then it's probably worth an 8 out of 10.

I'll also briefly mention the translation - I've long been used to the terrible localizations from the Anglo-Saxons, but here they have reached a new (actually, not new) level - in some places they have started to replace proper names, but strangely, not Japanese names with something drastically different, but quite European names with something slightly different.
For example, Greenburg became Glenbrook, Aurora and Taras became Avlora and Talas, etc. The comedic effect remains a mystery.



An open-sea fishing simulator with a Lovecraftian twist.
To be honest, the "horror" element of tension quickly fades away - when you realize the intricacies of the mechanics of moving at night and understand that, in essence, there are no restrictions on you, but at least there remains an interesting story in this style.
Otherwise, there is not much to say - you sail on a boat through several biomes, catch fish, upgrade the ship, do quests for NPCs to catch something special, and they treat you with eldritch stories about the archipelago.
Casual, but I enjoyed it - we old-timers don't need much.
My sword, my trusted ally, unphased by my aspect.