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What are the best stylized games on Xbox One?

9

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Considered

5

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Recs.

Aug 9, 2018

Last
Updated

9 Games Considered

Best stylized games on Xbox One	Price	Genre	Platforms
-- Dead Cells	$24.99	Roguelike, Metroidvania, Action, Platformer	PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Mac, Windows, Linux
-- Õkami HD	$19.99	Action-Adventure	-
-- Bayonetta	$19.99	Action	PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Wii U, Windows, Nintendo Switch
-- Catherine	$19.99	Puzzle, Platformer, Horror	PlayStation 3, Xbox 360,Playstation 4,Playstation Vita, Nintendo Switch
-- Jotun: Valhalla Edition	14.99	Action, Adventure	PC, Mac, Xbox One, Playstation 4, Nintendo Switch

Dead Cells

Top Pro

Beautiful pixel art graphics

The pixel models for your character and the enemies manage to feel modern in the way the animations flow swiftly from movement to movement. The colorful art design is a nice throwback to the retro games that inspired Dead Cells. It goes hand-in-hand with the side-scrolling gameplay, with a cool look to the monster and gadget designs. The reds, blues, and greens especially pop a lot to give the game a distinct look to help it stand apart from others in the same genre. See More

Top Con

Shallow story

The story feels totally inconsequential. There isn't much going on with the plot, and what little is there is pretty forgettable. You feel motivated by the progression of the game rather than any emotional connection to the story. If you're looking for something with a stronger narrative to go with the good gameplay, this isn't it. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Overwhelmingly Positive

Genre:Roguelike, Metroidvania, Action, Platformer

Top Pro

Satisfying combat with a good amount of depth to it

Dead Cells encourages fast-paced gameplay and requires quick reactions. The hits are impactful, the controls are super-responsive, and it's overall very fluid. The game has a good variety of weapons, skills and enemies that all change how the game plays out. Some weapons work best if the enemy is bleeding, some skills hurl enemies at you, some enemies are immune to attacks from the front. Which items you find and decide to keep will change what approach to combat you need to take. See More

Top Con

Frustrating for players new to roguelikes

If you're new to the genre, this may not be the best place to start. The game gives you one life (except with a certain perk), so if you die, then your whole run is over. This would be fine if it wasn't so easy to lose all your health in an instant and fall back to level one. This makes it frustrating if you spend a lot of time on a run only for it to all go down the drain from a small mistake. The punishing difficulty can be pretty overwhelming for newcomers unless you're really looking to push yourself. See More

Top Pro

Brilliant game design that presents a good challenge

All the little details come together to make Dead Cells incredibly rewarding to play. Making one mistake can mean death, which makes the game challenging but also fun as you learn how to take on certain enemies with different sets of weapons and skills. Also, every level is procedurally-generated, so even when you die and have to restart it feels unique and different every time. This keeps the game from ever getting old, even after you finish the game on the highest difficulty level. See More

Top Pro

The developers put a lot of love and care into the game

Throughout its time in Early Access, the creators of Dead Cells consistently updated the game with new features, adding entirely new areas and weapons each time. The game could have honestly been released a while ago and fared decently, but they kept making it better. Even more importantly though, the developers took player feedback into account many times. The devs love the game and the community and it shows through their work. See More

Õkami HD

Top Pro

A lot of different activities

Apart from the main storyline (curing the Demon-cursed areas by looking for guardian sprouts and letting them bloom), there are ample employment opportunities – characters in this mythological Japan need all kinds of help, so you'll get a lot of missions and sidequests. The paintbrush techniques get a lot of use in these missions as well, for solving riddles and puzzles. You might need to win a race to get a guard's mask back to him, look for a lost bunny, or defeat a bunch of demons so that a drunk guy could keep his name as the best warrior in the land. Or you can just fish or feed cute animals. Some sidequests need to be at least partly done to move the story along, some of them are totally optional. However, every good deed restores your status as a God: if you do good in the game, you get points, which can then be used to increase your health or the amount of ink you can carry, and that keeps the player motivated. See More

Top Con

Long unskippable cutscene at the start

Right at the start, there is a ~18-minute long, slow cutscene that you can't skip. Later there are some more cutscenes, but these can be fast-forwarded through. See More

Specs

Genre:Action-Adventure

Controller Support:Full

Top Pro

Unique and breathtakingly beautiful art style

The unusual art style takes inspiration from traditional Japanese woodblock paintings, called Ukiyo-e. Crisp black contour lines and explosions of color after successfully bringing back life into the world give a constant impression of being inside a work of art: every tree, every building, and every figure looks like it was painted with ink. See More

Top Con

Indiscernible dialogue voice-over can be grating

The voice-over was done by actors actually saying the text that's shown in the dialogue box, but then the recording was speeded up and resulted in a cartoon-like gibberish. These high-pitched voices can become quite annoying over the 40-60 hours of gameplay, luckily, the voice-over can be turned off in the settings. See More

Top Pro

Large, enchanting, and atmospheric world

Õkami, though not an open-world game, still has a vast map, consisting of seven regions and numerous subregions. You have an opportunity to explore all of Japan and experience everything the country has to offer, going from tall dense forests, over the picturesque coasts, to frosty mountains. Along the way, you’ll find history, rooted in Japanese mythology, and you'll meet a lot of imaginative characters. Some of them might only keep you company for a few missions, but you still get invested in their stories and development. See More

Top Pro

Unusual and one-of-a-kind combat methods

Throughout the game, you can use three types of melee weapons: mirrors, rosaries, and swords. Each one can be used to weave combos in tandem with your character's acrobatic movements, smashing or slashing the demons you encounter. The real highlight of Õkami, however, are the paintbrush techniques, which can be used for attacking enemies or manipulating the environment. You simply select your paintbrush, which slows the game's speed to a crawl, allowing you to draw anywhere on the screen. For example, drawing a single line over a demon or object will slash it, drawing a circle in the sky will cause the sun to rise, and drawing a path from a body of water will create a waterspout. You don’t need to draw the lines perfectly, it is enough to roughly match the required drawing. It's a really fun and creative way of fighting normally not seen in games. See More

Bayonetta

Top Pro

Unique enemy designs with angels that defy typical conventions

Angels in Bayonetta are far from how they are depicted in pop culture. Despite their bright glow and the religious music that you hear when they're introduced, they're hunched over, lumbering when they walk and fight in battle. They're designed in ways that definitely make them look like Bayonetta's enemies instead of entities that we're supposed to side with. The larger, gargantuan angelic bosses appear otherwordly and incomprehensible like Lovecraftian creatures, They're quite the sight to behold and make for interesting boss fights with cool set pieces, like Bayonetta surfing on a wooden plank as she fights a huge angel in the middle of an ocean. See More

Top Con

On-rails sections can be frustrating

There will be a few times where you'll play through retro-inspired sequences where you race down a highway on a motorcycle, or shoot missiles at enemies from an airship. You have to handle quick time event button presses on the motorcycle and deal with a bunch of enemies firing at you on the ship. These sequences are a huge change from the normal combat, and if you're not good at them, you may find yourself getting frustrated. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Very Positive

Top Pro

Bayonetta herself is unconventional and entertaining

Bayonetta is a character who exudes confidence and charm, and every aspect of the game's mechanics and design fits with her personality. She's over eight feet tall, wears a skin-tight suit that's actually made of her magical hair, and always fights with style and finesse. When you do a double jump, a butterfly's wings appear over her back, and when you use any type of long weapon like a lance, you can have her pole dance and quickly fire her guns in all directions. Since she's a sadistic character, her finisher moves are called Torture Attacks. After accumulating enough magic points through normal attacks, you can make Bayonetta conjure one of many types of medieval torture devices. She'll trap enemies inside and send blood everywhere, or she'll whip their backs with a flourish, doing more damage as you mash the button prompt on the screen. Healing and buff items, instead of the usual potions, are different-flavored lollipops like the one that Bayonetta likes to keep in her mouth during some cutscenes. Upgrades to her jumping ability are also beyond the norm, letting you transform her into a black panther to run faster and jump higher. Overall, Bayonetta is independent and likes to have a good time, never missing an opportunity to strike a pose or dance in between pummeling and whipping her enemies into submission. If you see Bayonetta's sexualized moves and portrayal as the game's way of parodying other media, then you'll probably find her over-the-top presentation more entertaining than offensive. See More

Top Con

The story is nonsensical

While Bayonetta has some intriguing lore involving witches battling against a puritanical religion, you won't get to learn much about it. The storytelling is a mess, with sudden changes that don't make sense, and underdeveloped characters that the game expects you to care about. As long as you go in without taking the story and presentation all that seriously, you'll still be able to have a good time. See More

Top Pro

Fun and complex gameplay

Bayonetta excels in its combat, going above and beyond to entertain the player with the scale of its gigantic, angelic enemies and the depth of its gameplay. The tutorial teaches you the bare basics of punching and kicking, and then it's up to you to experiment with inputs and find the best combos to keep up the pain. Even on normal difficulty, the game can seem punishing for newcomers, but there are lots of skills you can pick up on to make things smoother. There's a ton of depth to the combat, especially in how you have the potential to keep up limitless combos with punches, kicks, and gunfire. When you hold down your buttons, Bayonetta will freeze her punching or kicking pose while firing the guns from her heels or in her hands. In the middle of that pose, you can dodge offset an incoming attack and initiate Witch Time, which rewards you by making enemies move at a snail's pace while you get more hits in than you normally could. In other situations where you're surrounded by enemies and need some crowd control, you can have Bayonetta do some handstands while she fires her guns. Each new weapon you acquire, whether it's a katana or a huge lance you pick up from a downed enemy, gives you a whole new set of combos to master. There's an incredible variety in the gameplay for you to play around with, whether it's with new weapons or Bayonetta's punches, kicks, and guns. You'll constantly find new ways to enjoy the combat as you play through the game, keeping things fresh from start to finish. See More

Catherine

Top Pro

Unique soundtrack with rock songs and remixes of classical music

The game's music is a special blend of sounds that all work well together. Fast-paced, frantic stages have rock music with catchy electronica influences. The more serious stages and story moments have cool modern-day remixes of old classics, like the familiar third movement of "Funeral March", and William Tell's Overtures, "The Storm" and "The Ranz des Vaches". Even if you can't remember the songs by name, hearing their renditions in Catherine will probably jog your memory. These tracks really heighten the energy and the drama as you play. See More

Top Con

Repetitive sound effects can get annoying

There's one small nitpick that can grow to be incredibly irritating as you play. Every time you move a block and connect it to another one by one of its edges, a female announcer says the word "EDGE" in a robotic way. This would be fine every once in a while, except this happens constantly as you situate blocks so that their edges connect for you to climb on top of them. Playing every single stage forces you to hear the same "EDGE" spam from the announcer over and over again. It's prolific enough to have turned into a running joke within the Catherine community online, but it's still really annoying. See More

Specs

Genre:Puzzle, Platformer, Horror

Co-Op:2 Player Local

Top Pro

Stylized, artful cutscenes, menus, and imagery

The art style in Catherine is really cool in all the ways it pops out at you. The black and pink motifs are a clear running theme, showing up everywhere from the game's logo, to the menus, and the UI. Cutscenes have a neat anime aesthetic that help them stand out more. You can also find the game's ample imagery and symbolism everywhere, both obvious and subtle, such as the male and female signs, and the puns on "counting sheep in your sleep" with the characters who become sheep in Vincent's dreams as well as the bar named the Stray Sheep. The visuals are all creative with a lot of love and care that went into them. See More

Top Con

Might be too hard for players who don't normally play puzzle games

If you're thinking of getting Catherine as your first puzzle game, then you may want to reconsider. Even on the easiest difficulty setting, the game is really tough and tricky to figure out. The hardest part is that you don't have the luxury of time to observe things and find a way forward: you have to keep making snap decisions, one after the other, for several minutes at a time, otherwise you'll fall to your death. The most difficult optional content is also pretty grueling even for the most seasoned veterans. This is definitely one of those games that you play when you want to push yourself with new challenges. See More

Top Pro

Your choices lead to multiple different endings

Playing as Vincent Brooks, a hopeless thirty-something man who's unhappy with his life, your decisions throughout the game determine how he turns out in the end. The main drama centers around his indecision to marry his steady, by-the-books girlfriend, Katherine, and his affair with the spontaneous and sexy young woman named Catherine. You can choose if Vincent stays with Katherine or Catherine, or if he goes off on his own way and leaves them both behind. The ways each of these endings play out are all unique and vastly different from each other, so it can be pretty fun to do multiple playthroughs in order to see them all. See More

Top Con

A lot of your choices boil down to binary decisions

In the end, the decisions you make aren't all that robust. Most of the choices you make happen in between stages where a narrator asks you certain questions, like whether you personally think it's okay to cheat in relationships. Your responses are usually just yes or no options, which is pretty black-and-white. These choices affect a morality meter that determines which ending you get, but because of how binary your decisions are, you never really get a sense that the system is accurate or insightful. The meter and the questions themselves are just okay, though your mileage will vary on how you feel about them. See More

Top Pro

Great cast of characters that deal with real-life struggles

You can get to know a colorful cast of characters aside from Katherine and Catherine. Every day, Vincent hangs out at a bar called the Stray Sheep where he and his friends drink together and commiserate about their uneventful lives. He can also go talk to other patrons of the bar who have their own problems, and possibly motivate them to change, like two different womanizers who had abusive pasts, a journalist who helped drive a celebrity to commit suicide, and a rich man whose parents won't let him marry his lower class lover. They all deal with some pretty mature and serious issues, but if you choose to help them out, there's usually a light at the end of the tunnel. See More

Top Pro

Horrifying boss designs with symbolism relevant to the story

The boss designs are clever in how accurate they are. Since they're part of Vincent's nightmares that plague him about his guilt over Katherine and Catherine, the symbolism fits right in with this theme. The boss "fights" themselves involve the boss at the very bottom of the stage chasing you and manipulating certain blocks to slow you down. One of the bosses is a mutated version of Katherine in a wedding dress, another is a disfigured toddler representing Katherine's desire to have kids with Vincent, and others are certain NSFW depictions of body parts. They're over-the-top on purpose, instilling a shocking fear that makes you want to get away from the boss chasing you and reach the end as soon as possible. See More

Top Pro

Challenging puzzles that constantly make you think on the spot

Catherine is uniquely challenging in the way it blends puzzle-platforming with horror elements. Each stage you encounter is a visualization of the main protagonist Vincent's "nightmare": they're a series of connecting blocks that you push and pull in order to reach the very top and escape from the madness. There are all sorts of different blocks, like ice blocks that cause you to slip and fall, bomb blocks that explore after a short time, spike blocks that shoot out traps to kill you if you stand on top of them for too long, and many more. And the kicker is that you have limited time, since the blocks gradually fall away to an abyss, keeping you scrambling to stay ahead of the puzzles. You have to be quick on your toes in order to figure out a way forward without letting the ground fall from underneath you. This chasing dynamic adds to the nightmarish quality of the stages, giving you an extra push to think strategically in the shortest amount of time possible. See More

Jotun: Valhalla Edition

Top Pro

Beautiful hand-drawn graphics

The graphics and animations resemble a painting in motion thanks to their colorful, hand-drawn style. Lines are bold, with lots of contrasting colors. The crisp, vibrant look is easy on the eyes and helps to make your journey through green plains, forest, and snowy fields even more inviting. With gorgeous backdrops and scenery throughout, exploring the world is simply great. See More

Top Con

Can be a bit boring

Much of the gameplay consists of walking around searching the various areas for power ups and runes. With the exception of the boss fights, there is very little combat. This slower pace may be boring to some. See More

Specs

Genre:Action, Adventure

Top Pro

Immersive Nordic atmosphere

Not only do you fight war gods as a viking warrior, but the entire landscape and story is steeped heavily in Norse lore from start to finish. Rune stones are scattered around the world which give glimpses into tales and stories about mythology. The landscape itself is heavily influenced by Norway including green plains, mountain vistas, and rolling fields of snow. The soundtrack hums along in the background with soothing, woodwind ballads and crashing battle music. All the voice acting is in Norwegian. Taking on the role of a viking warrior as you roam this vast and detailed world is incredibly well done. See More

Top Con

Combat is too minimalist

There is only a light attack, heavy attack, dodge, and a couple special abilities (which are learned as you progress). You'll also use the same axe for the entire game. See More

Top Pro

Bosses provide an exciting shift in tone

Encountering a powerful boss after the relaxing nature of the exploration is a huge shift in tone. Rather than calmly discovering and taking your time, you're thrown headfirst into action-packed battles. This stark contrast between calm exploration exploration and thrilling combat is incredible, as the sheer physical size of the bosses shows how massive the world truly is. See More

Top Con

Overtuned last boss feels very out of place

The last boss is so hard and unforgiving, that it completely ruins the laid-back feel of the rest of the game. This sharp difficulty spike feels very out of place compared to the other bosses. See More

Top Pro

Great boss battles

Squaring off against the larger-than-life Jotuns (bosses) is action packed and requires paying attention to the mechanics, but the encounters never really feel unfair. Trying to get a hit in with your axe while dodging massive attacks and environmental attacks can be challenging, but doable once you learn the patterns. Each boss features their own mechanics, and surviving each of these encounters can be rewarding knowing you beat it through skill and persistence. See More

Top Pro

Relaxing exploration

Much of the gameplay is simply focused on enjoying the scenery and soaking up the lore as you explore. Roaming around and encountering lore items that dot the map and then taking a break to listen to the stories contained within can be quite calming. Walking through snowy fields as the soundtrack plays Viking-inspired music really gets you in the state of mind to see whats around every bend. Casually exploring while enjoying the atmosphere is really what this game is all about. See More

Fe

Top Pro

Enemy encounters can be tense

There's no combat in Fe, resulting in some pretty tense situations with the monsters. If you are spotted by the Silent Ones, rather scary robotic creatures, they can kill you on sight. Hiding in a bush or climbing a tree in a panic to escape can deliver some pretty exciting and tense moments. No matter how careful you are in the open world, some objectives will require sneaking past or evading them to grab key items. These situations can deliver some of the most exciting moments in the game. See More

Top Con

Platforming is a bit unpolished at times

The platforming can feel a bit clunky or rough at times. For example, when climbing trees you have to jump to the top branch by branch. Hitting the jump button one time too many will result in falling and having to re-climb the tree from the base. It's just little unpolished details like this that can sometimes make the platforming feel a bit clumsy. See More

Specs

Genre:Adventure, Action, Platforming

Top Pro

Uses music as an interesting platforming mechanic

Songs are used to interact with the world and navigate the platforming aspects in interesting ways. Using various melodies, you'll be able to perform such actions as calling birds to help you cross large gaps, spring boarding off plants for super high jumps, and even summoning a stag to attack enemies. If you're ever lost, there is a melody you can use to call down a bird who will point you in the direction you need to be going. Using musical melodies to navigate the platforming is integrated incredibly well. See More

Top Con

Story can seem nonsensical

There is no dialogue in the game, so the story can be hard to follow at times. During cutscenes, sometimes you'll have no clue what's really going on due to their surreal and strange nature. A lot of the story is left up your own interpretation, which can be disappointing for those who prefer a solid, coherent narrative. See More

Top Pro

Exciting ability progression

Abilities are learned gradually as the game progresses by collecting gems and also learning the musical language of the forest life from plants and animals. As you gain more abilities or learn how to interact with more creatures, you can then go back to old areas and find new paths that were previously inaccessible. For example, birds that may not have paid much attention to you before may now gladly carry you over large gaps once you speak their language. Plants can springboard you high into the air once you can communicate with them. This ability progression is an exciting way to keep things fresh, and makes visiting old areas rewarding with new secrets to be found. See More

The Banner Saga 2

Top Pro

Great hand drawn graphics

Banner Saga 2 environments, characters, and animations are all hand-drawn. This includes your caravan as it marches over a snowy hill, passing trees and houses in the distance. The various viking-esque soldiers, centaurs and other mythological creatures, swinging axes and thrusting spears on a worn out bridge. Even the very detailed character sprites as they discuss matters with extremely serious expressions. Everything just feels like you’re watching an animated movie, which is something almost never encountered in a game. See More

Top Con

HP damage based attacks cause one-dimensional tactics

A unit's current number of hit points equals the damage it will deal to an enemy. Because of this, the best strategy is always to hit all enemy units in a sequence, so they inflict as little damage as possible. Any other strategy is too risky and can backfire way too easily, limiting your creativity. See More

Specs

Genre:Turn-based RPG

Top Pro

Solid tactical combat

Even though Banner Saga 2’s turn-based combat system is fairly straightforward. You and your opponent take turns in moving and attacking with units on a tactical grid. Each unit has its strengths, weaknesses, and set of unique abilities that you need to consider. For example, archers can attack from far away but they have low armor, so you can’t leave them out in the open. Another example are the Varl, very durable and strong melee units that occupy 4 tiles as opposed to 1. This makes it trickier to position them since more enemies can stand next to them and attack them. This creates combat that is not too simple but still has enough variety and strategy involved to feel rewarding. See More

Top Con

Incomplete story

To get a full and satisfying story, you’ll have to play the entire Banner Saga trilogy. Banner Saga 2 on its own feels like you’ve suddenly started reading a book from the middle. There are a lot of characters you know very little about, making it hard to understand their motivations. The on-going events are not explained fully. Even the ending is not a satisfying conclusion but just a setup for the next arc. See More

Top Pro

Helps you to learn the gameplay thoroughly

Tactical RPGs can be really intimidating, especially if you're just starting out. The tutorials often blaze forward, causing you to miss important mechanics. Luckily, Banner Saga 2 tries to alleviate this by adding a trainer NPC who will give you challenges. These involve performing various combat exercises, helping you to solidify your understanding of the game and even learn something new. See More

Thumper

Top Pro

Unique blend of rhythm gameplay and racing-like speed

Thumper is a rhythm game mixed with fast-paced action, setting itself apart from other titles in the genre. Your "character" is a vehicle that runs on rails in a track, with certain speedbump-like indicators on the road that show up in sequence. You have to press the button prompts in time with your vehicle driving over the indicators, ideally to the correct rhythm to the beat to rack up points. It can be tough going at full speed and catching all of the button prompts while staying in-sync with the song, but the payoff is incredibly satisfying. See More

Top Con

Short playtime

A single playthrough will only take you about seven hours. However, if you go for a completionist playthrough to chase after high scores, then you'll get an extra dozen or so hours out of the game. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Very Positive

Genre:Action, Rhythm

Top Pro

Intense controls and responsive feedback

Other than visual cues, the visceral feedback you get from timing your button presses just right helps keep you on-beat. Getting that timing down rewards you with an addicting rumble, helping you feel the rhythm in your hands. With your vehicle moving at such crazy speeds, pressing the right buttons on-beat simulates the feeling that you're really in the driver's seat, listening to the music playing at full volume all around you. Pressing the buttons correctly with feedback helps keep you glued to the game, motivating you to go after higher and higher scores. See More

Top Con

Might be difficult for players who are new to rhythm games

Thumper can be too hard if you've never played a rhythm game before. Because everything moves at such high speeds right from the start, you may miss a lot of the button inputs and get discouraged. Even for experienced players, it takes some practice before getting used to the flow of gameplay. See More

Top Pro

Really cool psychedelic visuals

Thumper looks stunning. The futuristic vibe with the flashing blues, purples, and reds everywhere. The road your vehicle travels on jets through a seemingly endless void that changes depending on the stage, such as showing off bosses that appear as large, abstract enemies looming overhead. The trippy visuals are pretty neat, making the game stand out more along with its unique gameplay. See More

Top Pro

Playing in VR adds a whole new layer to the game

Virtual Reality makes Thumper much more fun and intense. Along with the feeling of the controls putting you in the seat of the vehicle, you're actually put into the game itself, surrounded by the visuals. The lights, the music, and the rumbles all feel more up-close-and-personal, as if you're part of the environment itself. Thumper is compatible with VR on both PlayStation 4 and PC, so anyone with a headset for either platform will be able to try it out for themselves. See More

Battle Chasers: Nightwar

Top Pro

Fun battles thanks to overcharge

Using your basic attacks builds up a special charge that allows you unleash devastating attacks, oftentimes being awarded bonus damage based on the charge spent. This charge disappears when combat ends, which encourages you to use it or lose it. This means you can constantly use the most fun and flashy attacks without having to worry about conserving resources for a boss fight or tough enemy. Building up and unleashing brutal attacks in every single fight, no matter how minor, really makes the battles shine. See More

Top Con

Story is generic

The story fails to break out of RPG stereotypes and ends up feeling very plain. You are playing as nine year old Gully and her ragtag crew of misfits when your airship is shot down over a strange land. You soon come to find out this land is under the threat of an evil sorceress who intends to steal all the mana for herself. Your characters never get deeply involved in the story, don't have any struggles of their own that get resolved, and simply seem to just be in the wrong place at the wrong time. They then set out to stop her because it's the generic "hero" thing to do. The story never really goes any deeper than that, characters are never fully developed to their full potential, and there are very few side stories. See More

Specs

Genre:Role-Playing

Top Pro

Engaging side content helps the world feel alive

Outside of progressing the main story, there are a lot of interesting side activities to take part in that help you feel like you're part of a real world. Fighting wave after wave of increasingly difficulty enemies in the arena is a great way to put your skills to the test. Seeing how far you can advance in the arena is pretty fun. Certain NPCs also give you the opportunity to go on hunts, where you can track down and kill rare monsters for rewards. These hunts are a great way to get out exploring and find things you normally wouldn't encounter. If you ever want to take a break from the fighting, there's also crafting and a fishing minigame to partake in. See More

Top Con

Party system has some glaring issues

Although you can recruit additional characters to your party, you can only have three active at any one time. Only active characters get loot and experience, which makes it clunky and hard to level all your characters equally. This essentially creates an imbalance in your roster where it feels like you're pigeonholed into using the same three characters for the duration of the game. New characters you pick up along the way never feel like they quite fit into the groove you've built up with the original three. See More

Top Pro

Satisfying battle animations

While in battle, all your attacks and special abilities are accompanied by fancy and colorful animations, such as the wizard Knolan waving loops of fire around shortly before tossing at the enemy, or Calibretto the giant golem making a huge spectacle of charging up his big guns before firing them. Watching these attacks play out is satisfying due to all this showmanship, and there's an exciting anticipation that comes with watching a big, powerful spell wind up. See More

Top Con

Characters feel plain and static

While all the party members are mostly likable, it's hard to become attached to any of them. None of them change in any meaningful way or learn anything over the course of the story. There's not much banter among them as you travel, and they don't ever really seem to form any kind of real bond. Their backstories are never explored in any depth, and none of them have any major problems that need to be resolved. During the entire adventure, they seem to be just "going through the motions" and don't have much enthusiasm or reaction to the world around them. See More

Top Pro

Exploration is rewarding

There is a large and detailed overworld filled with dungeons, towns, secret bosses, and plenty of hidden treasures. Just exploring and finding all the tucked away secrets in each of the eight regions can be quite enjoyable and extra rewarding when you find a special monster or treasure chest. See More

Top Con

Story ends on a cliffhanger

There is no story resolution at the end of your adventure. This can be a major turn off for some, especially people who enjoy a story with closure. See More

Top Pro

Robust and interesting crafting

Almost everything you pick up can be used to craft something. There are recipes, but you are free to experiment and add new reagents to known formulas to create interesting items. Even if you are missing a certain ingredient, you can often substitute a larger quantity of a different one to make up for it. It's a fun side activity for those who like to experiment and get creative with crafting without being locked into strict recipes. See More

Top Con

Latter portion of the game starts to flail

Due to the crafting system and easy-to-acquire dungeon loot, it's very easy to steamroll everything in the latter portion of the game. This takes away some excitement from the battles as combat poses no challenge, and it makes the final portion of the game way too easy when it should be harder. See More

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