Foreword
Some time has passed since I finished this game, and whilst initially my intention was to even make a "real" review, ultimately I have chosen to simply collect and post my thoughts on a variety of things regarding this game, partly because "real" reviews take more time and effort, and partly because I am essentially a lazy person that loses interest in any one prolonged activity (such as writing a review) rather quickly. But since I had already written about a number of things in my text file for Exiled Kingdoms, and thinking how it would be a waste for that to not share, here it is in its rather basic and incomplete form. I do intend, given time and if I find it necessary, to create updates to this text.
As usual, I played the game on its second-highest difficulty, named “Hard”, the most difficult one being “Iron Man”. On “Hard”, there are more enemies around and they are tougher, and traps are deadlier. “Iron Man” is a kind of difficulty I dislike personally regardless of a game it is present in - it gives only one “life” to the player character, and should they die the game ends. Other than that, “Hard” mode is described as being for “hardcore RPG players”, and whilst I most certainly am not one such it still is something I prefer simply because of challenge.
General information
The developer praises this game as offering “120+ hours of gameplay for an average player”, not taking into account the potential for replayability. Now that is quite the praise, 120 hours of quality gaming from an RPG is an exception worth pointing out, but we shall see if this praise has something to back it up. Personally, I have played this game for around 100 hours and have finished 71 out of its 90 quests, including the main quest (though on this a bit later), as the screenshot below shows.
As for the game, Exiled Kingdoms is an action RPG developed and published by 4 Dimension Games, which was first released as a mobile phone game, then later on PC as well. As I understand it, it is the work of a single person, and as such quite a feat despite its flaws both objective and "subjective".
Technical aspects
As a mobile phone game, players may initially be discouraged by its rather basic and perhaps “archaic” looks, lack of physics, isometric perspective and other similar “old” technical aspects; it takes a bit of time, but realistically no more than a couple of hours, to get used to these potential “shortcomings” for a potential player. Personally, having played all sorts of games, I did perceive it as somewhat lacking technically, but still not so much that I would be constantly annoyed by it. It was, after all, made by a single person, and that is an achievement on its own, and one worthy enough for the player to not be too judgmental. The good thing is that it runs on pretty much any PC regardless of its specifications, and coupled with its small purchasing price, download and installation sizes, it ultimately proves that - even with “outdated” technical characteristics - a potentially good game can be made.
Interface
In-game interface and control is simple: the camera moves as the player character moves (the character is always at the center of the screen), and the keys used for movement are W, S, A and D, although the game also supports moving with the mouse (by pressing the left mouse button whilst having the cursor in some direction away from the player character). Spacebar serves for attacking, and can be held to continuously attack, and keys from 1 to 8 serve for activating special abilities called “Skills”.
There is a possibility of rebinding keys, which can be necessary considering some play styles and class choices. For example when it comes to default key bindings, as a Rogue, I often felt that the Skill 5, which is “Stab”, is located “too far” from my left hand and sometimes it is impractical to quickly press the key number 5 to activate it, especially in more demanding encounters, or if I want to sneak up to someone farther away. Admittedly, this can be alleviated by clicking the Stab icon in the lower-right corner of the screen with a mouse, but the possibility of rebinding keys is more than welcome. As far as PC is concerned, there is no justification for not having "rebindable" keys, possible exception being developers not having either the skill or time and money to implement it.
Most information, including stats, is easily and quickly accessible from the character menu, an example of which is the screenshot below (under "Assets").
Assets
Putting aside that some of in-game assets are bought from online repositories, or so I have heard, one thing which the developer did and which I found both amusing and clever, is the usage of real-world photographs of items that are then incorporated into the game.
For example, here:
Tiara of the Heavens is one such item,
that is basically this real-world item whose photograph was incorporated into the game:
Golden Headband with a frieze consisting of flowers, gazelles and a stag head. Egypt, 15th (Hyksos) Dynasty. 1648 to 1540 B.C.
Considering the wealth of artistic creations the humanity has created over the millennia, I believe they should be incorporated into games much more than they really are, even more so if they are made to provide the "believable" function in-game with regards to what they were used for in real life.
World
It takes place in a continent named Varannar, where four major kingdoms exist, as well as various factions within them, and non-affiliated natives of Varannar. The story starts when the player character receives a mysterious magical letter that says there is a rich inheritance awaiting him, but the player is free to either immediately pursue said quest or do as he pleases. There are no actual “emergencies” in this game that would result in a failed main quest should the player take his time with the game.
The world is divided into four major Kingdoms: Varsilia, Mercia, Ilmara and Thuram. Varsilia, the starting kingdom, is quite generic-looking “medieval” one, Mercia features slavery-based society (and reminds of Ancient Rome, I think), Ilmara is a theocracy and Thuram is ruled by a circle of mages.
Each kingdom has square-shaped “areas” or maps which the player is able to explore at leisure (shown on the screenshot is Freetown, capital of Mercia), since almost all available maps of the world are accessible from the beginning and each map is a continuation of the surrounding ones. Somewhat confusing at the beginning are the individual map layouts, as well as those of city interiors, dungeons and the like: with respect to the cardinal directions (north, south, east, west), the maps are rotated 45 degrees clockwise, so it takes some time for the player to adjust, especially when traversing outdoor areas.
Of the four kingdoms, by far the most useful one for the player is Varsilia, where the game also begins. Varsilia has the most number of cities and fully-featured towns, five of them. Each city and town of Varsilia has an inn where the player character can rest and restore health, or hear rumors, a town hall where the player can access storage vaults (which need to be purchased prior to use), and in case of those having access to either a river or sea also the ability to travel by a boat or a ship (with a fee). And four out of those five towns in Varsilia do offer such transportation. This gets useful in mid and late game, when the player usually has surplus amount of coins to pay for such transportation, rather than traversing the map by foot which, whilst not something requiring a lot of (real world) time, is still sometimes simply cumbersome. This makes Varsilia the “hub” of the Exiled Kingdoms, and a place where the player will spend most of his time in all probability. It also makes it a place feeling most “alive” of all other places, for example Ilmara seems pretty dull and “sleepy”, whilst Thuram - an icy kingdom - feels pretty dead and "closed off" initially at least.
I have mentioned “fully-featured” towns, the reason for which is simple: some towns, or rather settlements, do not offer all mentioned services (inns, town halls with vaults, more varied merchants, transportation by a boat or a ship). One such example of a settlement is Lamis, situated in the far north-west of the world map, in the kingdom of Ilmara. This settlement offers a single merchant (in comparison, most Varsilian towns offer at least two) and an inn, but lacks a town hall (and hence storage vaults) and transportation despite being located near the sea. This makes it a village or a simple settlement, rather than a town, but it is shown on the main map (this is not a criticism of it, just a mere statement).
As for the other kingdoms, Mercia has three settlements accessible from the start, Ilmara has five of them (along with those not fully-featured), and Thuram has three theoretically (I do not wish to spoil things here about Thuram’s settlements, so I will leave it at that). There are a few other towns and settlements in the game not accessible immediately, or not aligned with any of the kingdoms, but they have much less importance since they are situated so far away from Varsilia.
Quests
There are 90 quests in total in the game, from the basic “fetch quests” to more elaborate ones where the main quest also belongs to.
Pressing the keyboard letter C, and then clicking on “Journal” opens up a menu where quests in progress, completed quests, rumors and any jobs the player took from local city and town authorities are shown.
Unlike serious decline that major RPGs of the past at least 10 years experienced with their quest design, this game has very little to no “hand holding”: meaning, there is no magical quest “compass” nor GPS in place, that the player simply has to follow in order to solve quests. Instead, quest design is such that there is very little initial text explaining it, however it is more than adequate for the purpose most of the time (but not always), and the player is left with either listening to rumors in inns, asking locals for any information or simply paying attention and exploring a location on their own. Considering that this is an open-world RPG, for some more elaborate quests it can take a while before all the necessary clues are obtained in order to finish them.
A simple example of how the game requires of the player to think is one of the quests involving a missing person. Asking the locals yields no significant information, with the exception of a lone grumpy alcoholic who simply refuses to talk about anything except his favorite beverage. Obviously, what the player needs to do is to obtain said drink and offer him, hoping that by doing him a favor the alcoholic will reveal whatever it is that he knows. There is no “quest arrow” or “compass” here, the player may or may not (initially) “get the clue” as to what he is supposed to do, and the game is satisfied with merely providing things as they are, without treating the player as a low-intelligence automaton.
There is a number of quest types: fetch quests, rescue missions, finding missing items, clearing an area or a dungeon of enemies, and similar. Quests involving missing persons or items will usually say where the person has last been seen, whilst using inns may yield additional information as to the general whereabouts, however it is still up to the player to prepare for expedition and search the target location. This can be somewhat confusing and problematic, because there are quests simply pointing out the outdoor location of, for example, missing person, and that location may also contain one or more dungeons; a few times I went into said dungeons, instead of thoroughly exploring the exterior first, only to expend my potions and other things and ending up failing to find the person; only later on did I find, for example, a skeleton or bones lying on the ground above with a clue that they are the one I have been looking for. As I have said, it can be confusing, but I cannot blame the game for stating “It was last seen heading to that and that location”, as it is a perfectly valid and fine description. And this confusion and ambiguity, whilst sometimes frustrating, is also a source of great satisfaction and a sense of achievement, once the quest is solved.
Completing quests has other benefits, beside the immediately obvious one such as acquiring XP (experience points) needed for leveling, or obtaining loot. Nearly every quest completed increases the standing (called Reputation) with the kingdom, province, city, town, or one of the major organisations (Warriors Guild for instance) that the quest is related to, and which of these will be positively affected depends mostly on location where the quest is completed. It must also be noted that some quests can be completed for multiple sides, which in practice translates to simultaneous gain of prestige with one faction and a loss of it with another, depending for whom the player ultimately decides to solve the quest. This ties in with some quests which require one to have sufficiently high reputation to even be able to do them, so some losses will preclude the player from acquiring and completing quests.
As a bit of criticism towards the developer, it is necessary to mention something about the quality of writing here, with mild spoilers, when it comes to quest design. It is unwise to name a quest in a way that it will immediately reveal something about either the “plot twist” or resolution of a quest; sometimes, the player is able to infer how the quest will proceed almost in its entirety, based on the name of said quest alone. One such example is the quest named “The seed of trust”, where by the short exchange between the player character and an NPC, as well as by the very name of said quest, it becomes immediately obvious what the resolution of the quest will entail. There are a few (two to three as I remember) additional quests named in such a way, where it becomes apparent what the quest will be about in the end as soon as the quest has started. And this is wrong, for whilst almost all quests in RPGs are formulaic, and someone who has played enough of RPGs will have seen them all so to speak, it still further diminishes the desire to see those quests through just by naming them in a “spoilery way”. Developers need to take heed and never do this. Somewhat redeeming is the fact how most of these unfortunately named quests are for low-level characters, which means that they appear in the beginning of the game and are mostly absent later on.
Combat
Combat occurs in real time, and there is no pause available as such, though the player is able to access his “Character Window” by pressing the C key, and from there is able to use potions, scrolls and other items he may have in his inventory (or assign them to numbers from 1 to 5, as quick-keys usable in real-time), or change weapons and armor used, all the while the game is “paused”. On the one side this can be considered as a flaw of sorts, requiring skillful and timely use of keyboard and mouse keys to win a fight, whilst on the other being skillful at combat does imply being skilled at using input devices, and hence is a function of player skill - and after all this is an action RPG. Overall, seeing as how combat is mostly about resourceful use of Skills while occasionally chugging a potion, most of the time the ability to pause mid-combat is not missed.
Every weapon has a percentage chance of inflicting a critical attack, which yields greater damage (by how much it depends on Traits, Skills, weapon type and possibly some other thing I am forgetting now), and said chance can be increased later on by purchasing an “upgrade” that belongs to Advanced Skills. Most armors, necklaces, head garments (such as crowns), rings and various clothing offer different bonuses to: overall armor rating, health, mana (for mages and clerics) and resistances to various elemental damages (fire, frost and others). Some, rarer items also give special abilities, such as “Stun immunity” which can be pretty useful against certain opponents that can otherwise pose a greater challenge especially in groups (of trash mobs).
The good things about combat in this game is how fast-paced it is, requiring skill in utilising one’s Skills, potions and movement; hitting enemies from behind will trigger a “Flanked” bonus that significantly increases the damage dealt (by how much you will have to research yourself, the exact percentage or number did not interest me much). Since most of the game can be played with a companion, this can be both abused and extensively utilised by letting the companion hit the enemy from the front, whilst the player takes a second or two to position himself behind the enemy and starts hitting it that way. However, and this is a good thing, most enemies when faced with multiple opponents at the same time will start hitting the one who causes them the greatest damage. In my case, this meant that some more powerful enemies still posed a threat to my character, since they would quickly disengage my companion and turn against me once they would “realise” that I am causing them greater harm. This becomes prominent in certain demanding fights (against semi-bosses and bosses for example), where the enemy is able to quickly kill my character (Rogue) should they realise that my character is a greater threat; not once has this resulted in me utilising a “hit-and-run” tactics, and letting my better-armored companion take the brunt of the damage.
Given enough physical space of an area, most combat encounters - even those with a boss-type of enemy - can be somewhat abused, by running away from the enemy who then engages in pursuit, and thus giving the opportunity for the fallen companion to rise again with half of their health. It is a somewhat ambiguous issue, some will consider it a flaw, whilst others will have no problem with it, but since it can be abused extensively I think it is a flaw; once fallen, the companion will remain “unconscious” so long as there are enemies nearby, but once the enemies are out of the proximity - whether due to their natural movements, or because the player has dealt with them somehow (by either killing them or drawing them away from the fallen companion) - the companion will rise again, after a dozen seconds or similar.
Additionally, if outrun to the extent that enemies get engulfed by the "fog of war", they will stop their pursuit. This can be used (or abused) to player's advantage: for example as a Rogue class, the player character can hit a single enemy within a group with a ranged weapon (a bow for example), either followed by immediately setting up a trap or having it in place beforehand, and then start running away; the trap will slow down an enemy, and if corridors or halls are where it was set up, the whole group of enemies will be prevented in their pursuit. Usually, however, only one or two enemies pursue, and hence using this tactic - or rather strategy - the player can dispose of an entire group of enemies one by one, with fairly minimal losses and in an acceptable time-frame. Enemies in outdoor areas have less obstacles to deal with in their pursuit, but this too can be countered, whilst running away from them, by getting them close to some city or town guards, or other friendly NPCs, who will then engage them. These strategies and tactics, as in any game, are found out by trial and error, but once the player is able to understand what works the combat becomes substantially easier (but not easy as such, at least not on "Hard" difficulty), which considering the frequency of combat in this game mitigates some of the frustration caused by the number and scale of trash mobs existing.
Sometimes, whether due to the usage of colour palette, or basic graphical presentation, and in case of larger encounters (especially some dungeons, as well as green plains) it can be difficult to discern what is going on and who the player character is attacking. There were several instances where my character died due to not being able to target a specific opponent in a swarm of them, whilst at the same time not being quite able to discern where my character even is in the whole mass of creatures; however, these occurrences were rather rare, and generally this is a minor criticism. It would probably all be solved by giving us the ability to turn on some character contours, or “halos”, “circles” and similar from the options menus.
A major flaw of the game here are trash mobs. They are everywhere. Not only that, but some are still fairly dangerous even at high levels, so clearing the same map over and over again due to respawning quickly becomes a chore and pretty tiring. Potential players should not underestimate just how many trash mobs this game has, for me it was mostly tolerable, but for some it can objectively be a thing that breaks their enjoyment of the game. All I can say for now is that they should not give up on the game too soon, and allow 10 to 15 hours of gameplay before making final judgment, if possible.
Dungeons
Most dungeons have one level (single-level dungeons), and usually only one way to traverse them, although many do have discoverable secret doors, portals and similar, which, if the player character has sufficiently high perception in order to find them, make substantial changes in how said dungeons can then be traversed.
Two major flaws stand out in a couple of dungeons, including some of the largest multi-level dungeons like the one involved in the quest “Sewer of Horrors”. Those are respawning enemies and the existence of levers dispersed across the dungeon (which serve to open certain gates for example). Normally, since most games do have respawning enemies, it is accepted as a given that after a certain time, or after reloading the same area, enemies will be respawned. Even though I have issue with that as well, it would be unfair to criticise this game for it simply because it is so prevalent. What is not so prevalent and what is a major nuisance is enemies being respawned within minutes of play-time, not only are we talking about trash-mobs here but also about fairly high-level trash mobs that require time and a lot of tactical consideration to be disposed of; it is not a contradiction, since those enemies would pose no significant challenge were it not for this high-frequency respawning; often times I even witnessed the act of respawn in the vicinity of my character. This is an awful design choice and all developers should refrain from using it. Instead, what they should do is make enemies of higher level. Respawning is a cheap but also illogical, “immersion-breaking” and lazy way of creating an artificial challenge.
And then there are levers...
The second major flaw are levers scattered across a (large) dungeon that open up some gate, or door or a portal somewhere far away in said dungeon. Perhaps the intention was to make it seem like a puzzle, but when the player has to explore a dungeon filled with respawning enemies, and activate a dozen levers (and in the case of “Sewer of Horrors” it really is around a dozen of them), only to open some small gate in the center of said map, a gate through which the player character must traverse in order to proceed further into lower levels of said dungeon, then we are talking about an hour or more of pretty boring and hard play-time (for a level 20 to 21 character, which is a fairly high level able to dispose of almost anything in the “overworld”). Again, it is also completely illogical that a retractable bridge must be opened via a lever somewhere far away.
These two design choices are awful, and the reason for which, objectively speaking, at least 1 point must be taken off of games' overall “goodness”.
Other than these issues, there are a few memorable dungeons that require multiple visits in order to solve, and the existence of secret doors, sometimes leading to whole new areas or even related to certain quests, make it worthwhile to visit some of those dungeons multiple times.
Puzzles in this game are rare, but are decently made and do present a challenge where one has to think and memorise pieces necessary to solve them.
In the above screenshot is one example, where a combination of activated signs will remove the “magical field” preventing access to the small room with the chest (and a body). Interestingly, I once managed to lure an opponent into said small room, slow it down by using one of my special abilities, and then quickly pull a lever which restored said field, trapping the opponent into it. I found it to be a rather amusing little example of “emerging tactics”, especially since my character (at the time) was left with no ability to restore health, and hence was risking death.
Companions
Considering that I prefer not to resort to manuals, wikis, forums or some other place for how to play a game, there is a certain inconsistency with quest-given temporary companions that has resulted in me failing to complete a quest several times, and thus having to resort to reload. Namely, some such companions only pass out upon reaching zero health points, and gain consciousness (and half of their health) shortly after all nearby enemies are gone; this is in line with how regular companions work. However, some quests, without any real explanation as to why this difference is present, involve a companion who dies upon being slain; at least one major quest relies on a companion to aid the player in completing said quest, since it is one of the most difficult ones to complete, and yet said companion can be killed. So not only does this make such quests impossible to fully complete, it also makes them harder, and this inconsistency is aggravating.
Somewhat related to this flaw is also the fact how all quest-related companions cannot be equipped with anything, not even healing potions, and this too does not really make sense. In case of companions that can be killed, this means that sometimes in the heat of a battle, especially if attacked by a mob of enemies or a particularly strong enemy, the companion can easily die simply because there is no possibility to heal them mid-fight. These are major drawbacks and flaws tainting the enjoyment of certain prominent quests.
Usually when we say that something is a “party-based” RPG it means the player is able to assemble a party of at least three members. Now, Exiled Kingdoms does not really market itself as one nor do I feel it particularly necessary to say that it is one, or can be. Here, it is theoretically possible to have such a party, and sometimes it is even necessary to solve a more difficult quest or clear a more dangerous dungeon, but most of the time the player will either play with only his character alone, or additionally with one of the companions from the first type as described below, for a total of a two-member party. Granted, the game becomes substantially easier with that one regular companion, and whilst in theory it can become slightly easier with additional companion of the second type, in practice that is almost never the case as I explain below. At any rate, the game can be played perfectly fine either solo or with a companion, it is simply a matter of how difficult some encounters, dungeons and quests will be if done solo. Naturally, companion-related quests cannot be completed without them.
There are three types of companions.
The first ones, which are three in total (a rogue, a warrior, and a cleric), are unique, with a detailed history and place in the world, and which can be hired for free upon encountering them and solving a quest required for them to accept your invitation into the party. In addition to that first quest, once they are in the party with the player character, and after a while, given proper conditions, they will state to the player how they need to talk about something, which is a prelude to a lengthy quest involving them. These quests are well done, and can be quite difficult to complete. The player is not able to control these companions directly (they cannot be individually controlled, they simply follow the player character wherever, unless ordered to wait), but otherwise can be equipped with any equipment and items they are able to use (which depends on their class). They can also be given certain tactical orders (even mid-fight), like to wait somewhere and similar; basic orders, but work well enough for the game. These are also the most useful companions, and since I played as a Rogue, I usually had either the Cleric or the Warrior as my companion, since they were able to withstand a lot of punishment in combat.
The second ones are scattered across the world, both in towns and cities as well as in wilderness areas, and cannot be hired for free. The amount of money they require for hiring depends on their level. It was a bit of a disappointment finding out that the only type of mercenaries one can hire are warriors, so no mages, clerics, rogues or any other potential type is available, at least what I have been able to see. Additionally, and which I found both bothersome and illogical, is that said companions cannot use any of the equipment that the player may want to give them, nor can they use scrolls, potions or other items, nor can they be given any strategic or tactical orders that the first type can be given. Basically, they work “as is”, and the only variables they have are their power (as a function of their level) and health. This means they die very easily, especially in larger battles (which can be many in succession), and are for the most part totally useless. This is aggravated by the fact how these companions don’t come cheap in the early game, where the player is still trying to figure out when and where to go for “grinding” or treasure hunting, and spending a few hundred coins can be pretty expensive, for what is otherwise a very weak and uncontrollable companion. When all is said and done, this type cannot in any way justify its very existence, unless one just needs that little extra push in some battle from this type of companion, but it would be better to simply grind and level up a level or two at the most to completely overshadow such potential usefulness of theirs.
And finally, the last type are quest-related companions, which obviously come with a quest. Some of these are very useful, for the time they do spend with the player, whilst others are... completely useless and often times a great liability. Now, whilst I consider the possibility of quest-related companions to die, and therefore for the quest to fail, as something wonderful and a genuinely "immersive" and "realistic" aspect that all RPGs should have, not being able to at least give such temporary companions some potions and scrolls to use to protect and heal themselves, and also often times not being able to tell them to wait somewhere safe until I have disposed of nearby enemies, means that they often brought more frustration than enjoyment.
However, when everything is said, it comes as both useful and nice to be able to have a companion, whatever the type mentioned above. It gives more “life” to a world, especially since the first type of companions have their own place to which they can, if the player so wishes, go to and “live” their separate lives. The existence of large-scale quests involving said companions enriches both them and the world, and they come as being not just a mere “mechanic” to be used as a tool. The second type, in theory, also fits nicely with the world, if only they weren’t so completely useless. In general, this aspect of the game is one of its positives all things considering, however major issues exist which a potential player must be aware of.
Other
Of course one could always nitpick and find many small inconsistencies and issues given sufficient contemplation about the game. One such is the naming of certain enemies, for example “Steel Wizard” is properly named considering the general setting (which is that of fantasy), but “Battle Droid” is not since “droid” is a non-existing word in the realm of Exiled Kingdoms. “Battle Giant” would be more appropriate, for example.
Conclusion
Time that I had available for playing this game, or any game for that matter, was rather limited. I have a full-time job and other activities that simply prevent me from playing any game for more than a few hours every week. It is therefore unsurprising that it took me months to complete this game, sometimes not playing for weeks even. Thus, the final score(s) (which I divide into “objective score” and “subjective score”) I intend to give this game will depend on how it treats me and my time. Is it wasteful, excessively so? Does it deliberately employ some mechanic or “game design” aspect whose purpose is to artificially extend the play-time?
This is why I have to give two scores. For someone, let us say a teenager who has a lot of time on his disposal during summer breaks from school or similar, certain flaws of any game that artificially extend its play-time will not be such a big deal. On the other hand, for someone having a lot of stuff in his life, some such flaws could be a “deal-breaker”. Hence, “objective” score will not take into *full* account such flaws, meaning they will influence the score but not by much. However, “subjective” score will even *emphasise* the importance of such flaws. It will thus be up to the reader to accept as “truer” one or the other score, depending on arguments presented throughout this... opinion piece.
Objectively, on a scale of 1 to 10, this game can be said to be 7. I give 10 to games which I enjoyed greatly, 9 to those which I enjoyed a lot but some flaws stood out, 8 to good and enjoyable games spoiled by a number of issues, and 7 are decent and "good enough" games (especially if they do manage to occupy me for 100 hours) that nonetheless have some serious issues that prevent me from recommending them without reservation.
"Subjectively", from my point of view, primarily due to excessive use of trash mobs and some questionable design choices when it comes to dungeons, all of which needlessly prolongs the play-time, this game is 6. Meaning, a lot of flaws that sometimes generate frustration, but also quite a lot of good things which may, but does not have to, override the impact of said flaws, enough to be recommended to some, but again not without reservation.
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That would be all, for now at least. As I have said, it is an incomplete collection of my thoughts on the game, but I do hope I have provided at least some concrete criticisms and pointed to some good and bad things of the game. Please excuse any grammar or other mistakes, I may fix them later.
