Deckin’ it, works really well after the earlier suggested no-movie tweak, community controller layout, and vanilla Proton (Proton GE froze on the post-boatman intro movie).
INITIAL IMPRESSIONS (~ 3 hours, at Eternal Maze):
Well, first off, Dvorak’s tiny mustache.
I’m really enjoying this game, what a great first pick for Monthly Game Club! I’ll admit, I’m following an Action Button game club that is currently playing Ys 1+2 which I bounced right off of, leaving me with the worry that I just can’t be a Falcom guy. Pair that with Xanadu Next’s obtuse description on Steam, and I had some hesitation joining in this month. But seeing the excitement in this thread gave me the nudge, so thanks for that.
I love the character designs, the outfits have those Akihiko Yoshida-esque flourishes and colors to make things interesting but realistic enough to not be irritating. Also love this era of RPGs where it was becoming technically feasible to visually represent your character’s equipped gear, has always felt like the absolute height of luxury to me.
Combat and gameplay so far are scratching that PSO itch for me, with the loop of repeatedly cruising through a small handful of fixed rooms over and over to battle monsters with just enough nuance (e.g. bait attack > strafe > stab ’em real good) to keep things interesting and not just mindlessly mash Attack. I was surprised at how much difference a single level up can make, go from plinking goblins for 1 dmg to 51 dmg real quick! I assume that kind of delta will probably taper off as I go on.
Music’s great. Writing is actually very good, all the townspeople have natural human voices and distinct personalities.
That Zelda “discovery” jingle is a little bit shameless, though.
