I'm just putting together my thoughts on the game, because I think a lot of parts are really, really cool, but that it just doesn't come together cohesively enough.
I think that the biggest thing I'm wondering is whether it would be better to have gone the way of other RPG maker games and just ditched the combat altogether. It's just so boilerplate and brainless that I can't help but think think that it puts a damper on everything else. There are two main mechanics setting it apart from other RPGS, but I don't think that they're fleshed out enough to carry what's supposed to be the main meat of the game. The first, the emotion system, presents a way to marry buffs and debuffs with the standard rock-paper-scissors element system in other RPGs. Making it so that you can change your party's and your enemies' elemental affinities on the fly has a lot potential, but the game doesn't go far enough with it. I think part of that is that none of the skills themselves are typed. A fireball will always deal fire damage, but there isn't a single skill that will only deal Anger damage, for example. All the attacks deal regular damage, and take on the affinities of whatever your character currently has. Some attacks gain bonus effects while the user has a specific emotion, but they're just that – a bonus. They're not really needed at any point in the game, so you can get away with just spamming whatever your strongest attacks are.
What's more is that that game just never asks you to change up your strategies. You get to decide what emotions your characters and opponents have, and if an enemy changes their emotion, changing it right back costs all of 5 SP. Setting your characters to one emotion and your opponents to its weakness is a strategy that works for 100% of the game. Some opponents make it impossible to change their emotional states, but all that means is that you need to change what emotions you use. Sadness is weak to anger, but you can't give it to your opponent because they're always happy? Just make your characters sad, which is happiness's weakness, and use the exact same strategies as before. I feel like having more situational skills, as well as opponents that decide the pace of the battles, would help keep the combat more fresh. Bare minimum, it would encourage you to use your full skillset. The game is less rock-paper-scissors and more "you're always rock, and they're always scissors".
Then there's the follow-up system, which lets you spend points for extra actions. One problem, though, is that two of the characters – Hero and Omori – have really uninspired effects, and are stuck with them for the entire game. All of Hero's follow-ups involve the same healing effect and just change the target. Omori gets an extra attack, a speed debuff, and the super special (which you can only use if you have 10 points). But because that special is so expensive and is rarely needed, it basically wastes a slot, leaving him with one fewer extra actions compared to everyone else. Aubrey and Kel are better, because their follow-ups give them access to more emotions or let them give emotions to teammates. It just makes me wonder what could have been if the follow-ups were customizable/equippable and again, set up so that there isn't always one option that is always better than all the others. Why not make it so that some follow-ups change your emotions for the worse and put you at a temporary disadvantage? Why not put the follow-ups on cooldowns so that you have to cycle between them all before they refresh? There's nothing like that in place, so the game allows you to use the exact same attacks – with a few changes here and there – for the entire game.
Honestly, I think a good chunk of the RPG trappings weigh down the game. The dreamworld is largely disconnected from the more psychological parts, and because there's next to zero character development during these sections – which make up the majority of the game – parts of what's supposed to be the main content end up feeling like filler. None of it's terribly interesting, and it just feels like an also-ran of Earthbound/Mother. I got very little out of the Western region, which just felt like it dragged on and on. The dreamworld is where the game gets the most interesting in art style and music – and some of the tracks are really, really good – but it's just window dressing for some real structural problems. The enemy design also seemed strange; a lot of the enemies were just variations on bunnies. They weren't just recolors – a fair bit of effort had to go into making drawing and animating the new enemies – but they were just variations on the same enemy type. With the premise being what it is, you would think the enemy selection would be more imaginative.
All that said, I think the game really picks up (just not from a combat perspective) during the fourth major area and doesn't slow down until the end. That's part of the game's saving grace – and what left me feeling more positive about it overall – but I really think the game was in need of some editing. For as good as those last sections are – and as much as they fulfill the promises from the trailers – that doesn't change that a good chunk of the earlier content is just meandering and boring. I have to wonder if they felt pressured to have more content in there just to make up for how long it took them to complete the Kickstarter.
I'm probably going to be a minority in here, but I don't think so. I do think it's worth playing at some point if the premise interests you, but I don't think it's something everyone should play ASAP. If you do buy it, though, do not expect a horror game.
