When comparing Omega Quintet vs Middle-earth: Shadow of War, the Slant community recommends Middle-earth: Shadow of War for most people. In the question“What are the best RPGs (role playing games) for PS4?” Middle-earth: Shadow of War is ranked 42nd while Omega Quintet is ranked 48th. The most important reason people chose Middle-earth: Shadow of War is:
Shadow of War uses the Nemesis system to create a more immersive and alive-feeling world. Thanks to it, orc leaders have names, ranks, titles, tribes they belong to, and most importantly, connections to other orc leaders. For example, an orc leader might be at war with another orc leader. This conflict won't end until one of them dies. There are also orcs that are considered blood brothers, having unwavering loyalty to each other. Because of this, don't be too surprised if you ever get betrayed by one of your followers that's trying to do right by his blood brother. Additionally, the leaders you fight will also develop connections with you. Orcs that you've killed or spared, may come back with scars, recalling your previous encounter and vowing to exact vengeance. Orcs that you've escaped from will mock you for being a chicken, and so forth. The gradual creation of this web of connections is very enjoyable and sometimes even more compelling than the game's main story.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Rewarding and strategic turn-based combat
Omega Quintet's combat gives you control over your party members' formation on the field, rewarding you with access to powerful combos when you plan out those formations just right. You'll want to prioritize keeping your melee-oriented characters on the front lines, and your long-range companions in the very back. This gives you access to flashy combos where the characters attack one after the other with powerful critical hits, doing lots of damage to enemies on the field. Even better, when you kill an enemy, you're automatically granted another turn. If you manage to one-shot enemies one after another, you'll be rewarded by taking no damage in battle. Keeping your party members in the best formation and one-shotting enemies are the best ways to stay a step ahead in battle.
Pro Cool concept of parodying censorship in the music industry
The story in Omega Quintet revolves around the Japanese public entrusting your group of pop idols to fight against a darkness whose name is censored, only playing the recognizable beep sound when mentioned in the dialog. It's meant to be an interesting metaphor for the idols fighting against censorship in the music industry. This is a cool parody that mirrors the struggles that artists deal with when fighting against censorship.
Pro Cute anime art style
The characters in the game all have a pleasing anime style, both for their normal 3D character models and their 2D versions in the visual novel-style narrative. The pop stars have lots of different hairstyles, eye colors, and cutesy outfits with plenty of bright, vibrant options like pink and purple. Fans of this anime aesthetic will enjoy the art.
Pro Character connections make for a compelling experience
Shadow of War uses the Nemesis system to create a more immersive and alive-feeling world. Thanks to it, orc leaders have names, ranks, titles, tribes they belong to, and most importantly, connections to other orc leaders.
For example, an orc leader might be at war with another orc leader. This conflict won't end until one of them dies. There are also orcs that are considered blood brothers, having unwavering loyalty to each other. Because of this, don't be too surprised if you ever get betrayed by one of your followers that's trying to do right by his blood brother.
Additionally, the leaders you fight will also develop connections with you. Orcs that you've killed or spared, may come back with scars, recalling your previous encounter and vowing to exact vengeance. Orcs that you've escaped from will mock you for being a chicken, and so forth. The gradual creation of this web of connections is very enjoyable and sometimes even more compelling than the game's main story.
Pro Addictive gear collection fuels your thirst for orc blood
As you kill orc leaders, they'll drop random quality gear items, ranging from common rarity every-orc weapons/armor to legendary rarity artifacts with unique names. Each item serves to improve your character, providing various stat increases and damage bonuses. You can also upgrade gear with gems or via challenges that usually involve killing orcs, bolstering your strength even further. On top of that, there are set bonuses for legendary items, giving you special abilities such as your hits applying explosive poison on regular enemies. It's very exciting seeing what gear piece an orc leader will drop once you lob his head off, causing you to constantly seek out new victims.
Pro Satisfying combat
Shadow of War gives one of the better feeling combat systems in recent times, allowing you to be either stealthy or go for direct confrontations.
If you choose to be stealthy, you can skewer unsuspecting orcs from behind with your dagger, drop onto them from a building while impaling them with your sword, or just pierce them from afar with your bow.
If you choose a direct confrontation, it's a really quick-paced and brutal showdown against your enemies with your chosen melee weapon. You weave combos against enemies, dodging, parrying, and countering enemy attacks, which ends in a devastating finishing move, resulting in a mutilated or decapitated orc.
Whichever method you choose, the combat flows really well and you always feel like a force to be reckoned with.
Pro You can lead an orc army and expand your own dominion
As part of the Nemesis system, you can recruit orc leaders after you've bested them in combat. Each one has his own unique strengths and weaknesses, so making the best possible army for conquering enemy territories might take a while.
For example, an orc leader can be completely immune to ranged attacks, but can take increased damage from explosions. You should take such an orc leader on assaults against fortresses filled with archers but be wary of the slightest hints of any bombs.
Once you've finished building a sizeable force, you can assault a fortresses. If you succeed in the assault, you'll take over a territory, allowing you to install your own orc leader as the ruler. With enough effort you'll gradually take over Mordor and its surrounding lands.
Shadow of War makes you feel like a recruiter, general, and a ruler, which is very empowering and a lot of fun.
Cons
Con Shallow, generic story filled with anime tropes
The pop idols' quest to save the world from an evil darkness feels done to death because of all the cliches. The story is filled with bad writing, like the male manager being surrounded by cute female pop idols, and the silly, shallow drama surrounding the romantic and sexual tension between them. Despite the clever angle of the parody on censorship, this concept is underutilized and underdeveloped, instead overshadowed by the generic storytelling. The tropes are lazy and distracting, adding nothing to the plot.
Con Terrible graphics
Textures for environments are poor, making the game look dated. They lack detail or any kind of realism, looking a lot like something from a PlayStation 2 game. Even though the character art is nice, the overworld graphics stand out too much. These can be a turn-off for players who want something more pleasing to the eye.
Con Overworld exploration is padded in frustrating ways
The forests, city locales, and other locations on the overworld map have a lot of filler to pad out your playtime. They're bloated with obstacles like makeshift bridges you need to push down to get from one area to the next. It's nice that each of your party members have unique ways of dealing with these barriers, but you're limited on how soon you can access them. If your character isn't a high enough level when you approach the indicator to interact with the obstacle in your way, then she'll apologize and say she's not sure how to get past it. This happens a lot when you explore new areas, imposing an arbitrary level gap on getting from one place to the next.
Con Awful framerate drops
While the game normally runs at 60 FPS, the performance isn't too reliable. In battle when there's a lot going on, and you're using all of your flashy skills and attacks, the framerate will dip below 30 FPS. It's really distracting and slows down the action way too much.
Con Too many complicated tutorials
The tutorials are huge sections of text with the occasional image here and there, overloading you with information. Instead of implementing more intuitive tutorials through gameplay demonstrations, the game expects you to read everything to figure out how things work. Even descriptions for what each button does have lines and lines of complicated, descriptive text. You're better off skimming the basics and figuring out the rest from there.
Con Can get repetitive
The overall gameplay formula doesn't change much over the course of the game. You fight orcs, take over strongholds, upgrade your character, and collect blips on the world map. After a while it can start feeling like a grind, especially during long play sessions. This is made worse in the final stretch of the game where you have to fight through 20 consecutive stronghold battles without any story segments or exposition.
Con Unskippable cutscenes disrupt the flow of the gameplay
Every time an orc leader enters the screen, there is an unskippable cutscene where he rambles a bit, focusing the camera on him and halting combat until the cutscene ends. This usually happens as you're fighting another enemy, potentially disrupting your rhythm, which can be really frustrating, especially if mess up your combo or take an unnecessary hit after the cutscene.