This is a hard one to decide between recommending or not. Ultimately I choose not to, but it's a taste thing. Let's start with the good stuff.

The foundation is absolutely great. I was never a fan of turn based RPGs but this series is an exception. Its environmental mechanics are a lot of fun and not just a gimmick, but perhaps poorly optimized when literally the whole map is on fire. The art direction is pretty decent and the UI is fine. The music is merely serviceable, it's sample based and transparently low budget but the compositions are overall fine with both inspired and uninspired points.

There is only one "bad" to this game but for me it's the most important thing in an RPG, which is why I ultimately chose to not recommend it. The world. It can't decide if it wants to be low or high fantasy, and the vast expanses of non-urban content really grinds my gears. I need a city every now and then to feel like I'm in a living world. There's a village in act 2 (which has the best quest content in the game!) but after that the game drags on through wilderness after wilderness. This is the reason I'm writing this review in the first place; I saw this great game sitting unfinished in my library 2 years after I bought it, because I got so fed up with the world. I want to play it, but then I remember the part of the story I'm on and I just lose the willpower.

Great game, but hopefully if there's another game in the series they can mix it up, and make the world feel as immersive as the foundation allows it to be.

This is a hard one to decide between recommending or not. Ultimately I choose not to, but it's a taste thing. Let's start with the good stuff. The foundation is absolutely great. I was never a fan of turn based RPGs but this series is an exception. Its environmental mechanics are a lot of fun and not just a gimmick, but perhaps poorly optimized when literally the whole map is on fire. The art direction is pretty decent and the UI is fine. The music is merely serviceable, it's sample based and transparently low budget but the compositions are overall fine with both inspired and uninspired points. There is only one "bad" to this game but for me it's the most important thing in an RPG, which is why I ultimately chose to not recommend it. The world. It can't decide if it wants to be low or high fantasy, and the vast expanses of non-urban content really grinds my gears. I need a city every now and then to feel like I'm in a living world. There's a village in act 2 (which has the best quest content in the game!) but after that the game drags on through wilderness after wilderness. This is the reason I'm writing this review in the first place; I saw this great game sitting unfinished in my library 2 years after I bought it, because I got so fed up with the world. I want to play it, but then I remember the part of the story I'm on and I just lose the willpower. Great game, but hopefully if there's another game in the series they can mix it up, and make the world feel as immersive as the foundation allows it to be.