The art direction of this game is sensational!
the music is peak and varied, gameplay gives a bit of a challenge for a turn based veteran like me, and there’s still plenty of humour and light-hearted moments in a game full of melancholy, sadness, and struggles.
I can understand it’s not for everyone though, the parry system is quite a bit tricky to get a good timing.
To anyone saying they like the battle system of “turn based with QTE/rythm” you might also like Super Mario RPG, Paper Mario (original N64 and Thousand Year Door), and the Mario and Luigi series (first three of them). Mother 3 also has a rythm element matched to the >40 battle tracks. Go emulate them rather than trying to track them down at scalper prices.
They all use turn based battles with timed button presses for extra damage with attacks, blocking/dodging, and specials. Definitely not as pretty, as good a story, or as complicated mechanics, but same sort of battle system.
I was hearing people talking about innovative brand new mechanics with the QTE parry system. I was so excited because how could it be new? What could they possibly have done? And its basically Mario RPG super hard mode.
Yeah, my wife has historically loathed JRPGs in part because the turn-based combat was too dull. She tried Expedition 33, fell in love immediately, and tried to show me the combat system like, “Look! It’s so new and innovative! This is how all those old games should’ve been!”
…So I’m putting Barkley Shut Up & Jam Gaiden on her computer next time she leaves it unattended.
I’ll add south park and wrestlequest to this list