Overall this is a fantastic game that is extremely cheap. Despite my few gripes about it I still this it is one of the best turn-based RPG's that I have ever played. The story is engaging but still at times humorous, and the graphics are good enough but the game is not so graphically focused that the dev team felt as though they didn't have to have an actual story there (I'm looking at your Final Fantasy!)
Overall this is a great game, but I still have a couple of teensy complaints about the overall game that I think could have easily been improved and sorted out in the testing phases if they actually tested the game with impartial players - which is something I feel that THQ Nordic doesn't do because a lot of their games have small to medium issues that any player would pick up if they simply played the game start to finish.
Gripe #1: Some crafting and enchantment interfaces are convoluted
I don't remember the names of all the equipment that my toons are all wearing at all times and when I am at an enchantment table or asking some vendors to upgrade some of my gear the interface doesn't indicate the following
- Who is using that equipment
- Whether said enchantment will have a detrimental effect on other stats
I know this is nitpicky, but sometimes the items that go into enchanting something are very rare and if you accidentally upgrade the wrong person's gear you can't just do it again without grinding for said part again. A simple picture of who the gear is for would have sorted this.
This is also an unnecessary pain in the ass when crafting potions as you must exit the crafting interface, remember the name of the things you are missing, then scroll through a sometimes very long list of items to find said item, remember how many of them you need, get that amount, then go back to the crafting section, and if you bought the wrong thing or not enough of them, you have to go through the entire process again.
This would have been ok in the 80's back when RPG's were intentionally difficult and required pen and paper be on the table whilst gaming, but I think it is just a mistake in this day and age.
Gripe #2: The load times are completely unacceptable on a machine this powerful
The fact that a game with PS2 or PS3 level graphics for the most part has to load at all on a PS4 is just absurd and I'm quite certain that THQ could have eliminated this, but just didn't care enough to do so. I'm not just talking about when you are entering a new zone or dungeon but in some cases individual encounters involve a loading screen that takes so long you could probably have a bathroom break during the time it takes for this to complete.
If Battle Chasers had "cutting-edge" graphics (which it does not... don't get me wrong, I like the art style, but this is not 3D the likes of even Witcher 3) then I would understand, but this little problems seem to be something that plagues THQ Nordic on a regular basis and well, perhaps that is why their games are never expensive and it is a trade-off that I am just going to have to accept.
Gripe #3: You would never figure out the side-quests without internet help
I get it, some optional content is intentionally very difficult to figure out for the sake of making 100%ing the game very hard and this is done on purpose. However, when you are looking at your crafting screen and see some items that you NEVER randomly get from drops it is just a big friggin mystery about where you are going to get them from. There isn't any good indication in-game about where it is that you are going to get these things from.
In one of these situations you need to talk to an otherwise useless NPC in a part of the interface that I would imagine almost no one ever uses called the "Let's chat" option and you have to do this 3 times in a row before he finally gives you a recipe for an item required to complete one of the best weapons in the game. Without the internet's help I would never have gone through the necessary steps to make this happen. Maybe there are some autistic people out there that enjoy this sort of thing but for me, it is just busywork that I would rather not have included in the game at all. At least it is optional, so I realize that I am being nitpicky here.
Gripe #4: No auto-leveling of idle characters
At first I appreciated this because it was more realistic but I think that most people that enjoy RPG's with party member choices probably have a few characters that they deem as their favorites and stick with them. Then you complete say 40% of the game using just those said party members only to later discover that some other character, that you haven't been using, is necessary to advance in the game so you go back to pick said person up only to discover they are 10-15 levels lower than the rest of your group.
There are only a maximum of 30 levels in this game, which I like. However, if you find yourself in a situation where you need to level someone up 10 levels before said character can possibly be useful in battle, it is going to take you HOURS to accomplish this.
To make matters worse, the only way said character is going to survive battles is if you go and fight mobs that are well below the level of the other 2 characters in the party and this means that the higher level characters are going to receive no XP at all. You just end up one-hit killing all enemies with your higher level toons and Bobby McUseless does almost no damage at all. It's just kind of stupid and the grind is annoying. There should be a work-around for this.
Overall, this game has been one of the better games I have played in 2021 and I am still happy that I bought it (it was only like $5) but the discount doesn't mean that I am obligated to give it points where it doesn't deserve them.
THQ Nordic is one of those companies that almost makes great games but kind of misses the mark in a lot of areas so I approach their titles with a little bit of trepidation. I don't know what it is about this studio that results in almost all of their games being slightly "broken" upon release and they don't seem to ever patch the problems either but that does seem to be the case. I suppose this comes with the flip side being that almost all of their games are never "full-price" and that is a trade-off that I am willing to deal with for the most part.
Have you played Battle Chasers: Nightwar? If so, I would love to talk about it in the comments!