The Great Gaias

This is definitely my kind of game. The creator has created and excellent game with a ton of activities, a great story, expansive areas to explore, optional boss fights, a robust crafting system, a ton of weapons and armor to find, hidden locations to seek out and much much more. I'm loving it so I want to thank the developer for a job well done.

I never wanted to play this game, but then I fell in love with it.

When "The Great Gaias" was first released, it was obvious how much work the developers must have poured into this game, but I thought this game wasn't for me. Too many characters, too strongly influenced (optically and mechanically) by WRPGs, too difficult (according to early players) - I had avoided games for less. Yet, every time this game was on sale, I pondered: Should I give it a chance? Six years after its release, when I had nothing else to play, I finally bought it - and played the hell out of it (175+ hours).

The story is enjoyable in particular. The player's party has to prevent the resurfacing of an evil entity that could only be sealed (and not killed) by the "Warriors of Light" 1000 years ago. Basically, the player's party is composed of the "Children of Light", reborn souls of the "Warriors of Light", and they have to bring to an end what the heroes of old failed to do. Unfortunately, the enemy's generals are immortal and had 1000 years to prepare, stacking the deck against the player. There are a lot of plot twists, which contribute to an epic adventure journey. What's most impressive are the characters and the world-building. Everything is connected in the present and to the past (most of which can be read at any time in the game's extensive journal), every party member and enemy general has a relatable background story or plays at least a suitable role. To name a few: Protagonist Pots wants to atone for a crime he committed in the game's early hours (which is related to Virgil, another party member that tries to control and improve his magic), Elric wants to investigate his noble father's cause of death, Atrius wants revenge for having been forced to flee from his home country. All these stories play into the greater narrative, where broken countries and conflicts are prevalent, which makes the people of the free nations unable to unite against the looming threat. Much time is spent to deal with all these trouble spots while traveling around the world (per pedes in the beginning, later also via ship and airship). Many quirky characters (17 in total), like the overly righteous paladin Wein, the gluttonous dwarf Bruger (not Burger!) or the spiritual elf Kaelas, join the party along the way. Though nothing ground-breaking, story and characters are simply top-notch. It's not a completely new burger (not Bruger!), but the best indie JRPG story/characters burger I've ever tasted.

Fortunately, the gameplay is great, too. The ATB (Active Time Bar) battles (with an automatic wait function) are a lot of fun, since each party member is useful and has a wide variety of skills at their disposal. Pots can steal from enemies (especially unique stuff from bosses) and gets a lot of turns due to his high dexterity, and the physical and magical attackers are all strong and weak against particular enemies. There are three difficulty settings (only one can be chosen at the beginning, which can't be changed later), but the lower settings only offer a few minor bonuses (like being able to keep AP, a resource that is gathered during battles and can be spent to use skills, between battles). I played the game on the highest difficulty setting and didn't break a sweat most of the time. While I'm known to grind a lot and crazy-prepare, I'm sure the game's difficulty has been dumbed down over the years due to popular demand. Long story short, the game is (only) moderately difficult, apart from the hellish true ending final boss.

The game offers a lot of optional content, and only by completing certain optional tasks will the player be able to pursue the game's true ending (the normal ending pales in comparison, but contains a really cool post-credits scene). Despite featuring a few one-time-only areas, nothing of importance (in-game) is permanently missable (including the true ending), and Firefly130984 has written a great walkthrough that covers everything (including the slightly confusing city building side quest). Two achievements are permanently missable, though (both times the player needs to survive long enough against strong opponents), and some obscure things are explained in the walkthrough, but not anywhere in the game (like the opportunity to unlock stronger versions of the final bosses by completing the most difficult side quest as soon as possible). Also, it's great to know beforehand that players will gain an advantage if they level up their party members equally (at least in the beginning), since all party members must be used at some points (especially in chapters III and V). A perfect playthrough requires a bit of planning ahead, but if you've played JRPGs for decades, just do what you always do (although on a much larger scale) and you'll be fine.

You either love them or hate them: The game features a variety of mini-games. Like in earlier Final Fantasy games, you'll encounter many mini-games, but each one only once or twice. Be it "Obstacle course" (while fleeing from a falling boulder) or boulder-pushing, all the classics are there. The same is true with regards to a lot of clever (but not overly demanding) puzzles (beware, though, that two of the not so entertaining puzzles require the player to examine objects in a particular order). Dungeon/area design is fantastic, too; there's a lot to discover and the player is confronted with some decent pathfinding challenges, even when puzzles aren't involved. Dungeons could be a bit longer (the final dungeon as a mere boss rush dungeon is even particularly disappointing), but the sheer number and variety of them easily make up for this nitpick.

Beware, though, that the game can be grindy at times, especially when it comes to the extensive crafting system. Most of the good stuff is tied to achievements, so you'll probably want to craft all these equipment pieces. The problem being, though: They require a ton of money (which is hard to come by) and a lot of crafting materials, which must be gained from enemies (drop or steal items), by breaking equipment into its components and/or by buying them from expensive vendors. My guess is that most players - like me - have long reached maximum level (99) with all party members while still trying to craft everything. At least you can partially choose how much work you want to invest. Is it absolutely essential to craft Charm Bracelets (which nullify most status conditions) and Speed Shoes (which waste your precious Dragon Hides) for all party members? No, of course not. Does it feel good and make the game easier? Hell yeah!

Thanks to a lot of custom resources and decent mapping, the game looks really pretty, though the mapping isn't completely devoid of obstruction mapping errors. Speaking of which, I encountered a handful of (mostly insignificant) bugs during my playthrough, but given the game's complexity and scale, they aren't really worth mentioning. The game is in a very polished state, and thankfully, you can save anywhere, which reduces the chance of losing progress even further. A few other nitpicks come to mind, like the clunky party members change mechanic, the improvable mob enemy variety, the fact that most of the hidden items are composed of random loot, and a few orthographical/grammatical errors in the otherwise superb script, but that's it. Even when the game is only decent at some points (instead of great), it's never really bad. A lot of highlights, and even the lowlights are decent - you can't ask for anything more than that.

I had a great time playing this game, and I would even go so far and say that it's a masterpiece and one of my favorite indie JRPGs of all times. Since having played through this game, I'm having a hard time enjoying less epic JRPGs. Whether judging it by itself or comparing it to other games, I'm sure you won't regret giving "The Great Gaias" a chance. Be smarter than me, don't wait six years to give it a try.

The plot is long and interesting. The combat can be challenging but there is always a way to win (but hey, I play a game for challenge as well as fun). There were a number of puzzles on the way and I like that in a game. Many different characters to play with many different techniques and spells. Some of the dialogue made me smile. And I really did care for some of the characters - and disliked a few as well.

The game world is VERY large and, much as I thought about it, I didn't make notes and so I got lost a lot. There is a journal which helps to tell you where you have to go next. Don't assume that your play will take as many hours as mine did. But I sure got my money's worth I must say.

There is a good discussion group and it is attended by the developers (marvelous really since the game came out in 2018 !!

The developers were quite to answer questions as was Firefly 130984 - who wrote a good guide.

While it may look expensive for an rpgmaker game, the fare is worth it. The game is excellent and I heartily recommend it.

I put nearly 60 hours into the game and, while it is clearly the most epic RPG Maker game that has ever existed and clearly a labor of love for some fantastic storyteller/dungeon master to translate their well-crafted homebrew gameworld into a computer game, I have simply lost patience with the absurd lack of balanced game design. After suffering through easily 100 boss fights requiring multiple playthroughs in that hope that this time, the super kill everyone move won't be used, I just can't do another. I made it to the final chapter and that will have to be "game beaten" for me. It's too bad because I would have liked to finish it.

"The Great Gaias" is an exceptional, immersive RPG with excellent visuals, captivating storytelling, and engaging gameplay. The game world is beautifully designed, and the characters and quests are thoughtfully crafted. It offers hours of content, replayability, and a polished gaming experience. It's a must-play for RPG fans and anyone seeking an unforgettable journey!

Fantastic CRPG. Don't be fooled by the art style, it's mostly a western-style CRPG. *INCREDIBLE* lore & backstory to the world - truly remarkable stuff here. The gameplay is smooth and starts to present challenge and tactical ability for the player. Really a gem here. Come for the story and get entangled with its very interesting world. :)

So, I've played through the Demo and then the first few hours of this game and my early impressions are a little mixed.

On the one hand, it is fairly enjoyable in a "old school" type of way, it reminds me a little (visually at least) of the first two Suikoden games.
On the other hand, it is a strong collections of various fantasy cliches in play.
The dwarf and elf do not get along very well, and since the dwarf is also a barbarian, he also does not get along with the wizard.
The protagonist is haunted by his past deeds (though be fair, you actually get to see them done here) and can't tell anyone for fear of them thinking it would make him a monster.
The party are the reincarnations of heroes of old, destined to vanquish the great evil their past lives were unable to fully destroy.

As I said, a collection of cliches, but still enjoyable in it's own way, especially as it offers you a fun game of "guess the next plot point".

I do recommend it if you are into that sort of old school stuff.
For me it's kind of like a warm bath, comfortable and relaxing, but not the first one I've ever had nor is it going to be the last.
Enjoyable while it lasts, but eventually I'll move on, and I won't really give it much thought once done.
but hey, few places are as nice to be as in the bath while it lasts.

I honestly don't understand the negative reviews (and there aren't many, but still). No game will ever be "perfect", nor will every game be the right fit for every player. That said, this game does a lot of things very well. For me, for an RPG to be enjoyable, it has to not only be fun to play (battle mechanics, exploration, crafting, etc), but it has to have a good story and well fleshed out characters. This game delivers all of that, and more.

I'm a completionist, so it took me about 200 hours, yes, 200 hours, to finish. But I wanted to craft everything, beat every boss, and get the "perfect" ending. And to do all that, I had to grind a fair amount, and use the guide. I could have finished in 1/2 the time, easily (which is still an epic game), but I never would have beaten the final boss, nor achieved the perfect ending.

The story revolves around Pots, a thief, who through a series of events, forms a band of characters - The Children of Light. They are all different races (elves, dwarf, etc), and each one has a different reason for joining the group. Further along, you get more involved in their individual stories, and what they and their people have suffered, which really is a nice world view of how events can have a rippling effect.

There is a coliseum to compete in, crafting to upgrade your equipment, quests - if you like the feel of a classic RPG, this definitely fits the bill. My only complaint (which to me was minor) is that I did do a fair amount of grinding to get all the achievements. Even early on, you realize quickly that if you're going to 1) complete this quest 2) beat this boss 3) win enough events to get better prizes, you're going to have to grind a bit.

Note: Don't be fooled by the playtime. I played the majority of the game in offline mode because of a glitch that could crash the game in online mode. As proof of my actual playtime, look for my LP of the game on Youtube.

Intro

The Great Gaias is a RPG Maker game based on the developers' Tenat D&D campaign, and as such has a lot of worldbuilding concerning the gods, different races, and countries. The main protagonist is Pots, a thief guild member who quits after a mission forces him to do something he regrets. After escaping from a slave ship with some new party members, Pots and his new friends discover they're actually the chosen ones of a prophecy, which may be the chance for redemption that he's looking for.

Writing Quality

Like I mentioned in a forum post, Pots's sinful deed feels awkwardly written, since he regrets the deed while he's in the middle of it. His completion of the deed is necessary for a villainous character's development, but I feel like there should have been an additional factor to incentivize Pots into betraying his conscience and finishing the deed.

While Pots is the main character, many other characters get their chance to shine with their own inner conflicts and personal sidequests, but some of them, such as Hiro and Caelia, get left with little to no meaningful character arcs. It just feels like they exist merely to ensure that we can fill out all the slots in the character selection map. I feel like Hiro in particular had a lot of potential due to his blood relations with one of the major villains, but the two don't seem to acknowledge their blood relation at all.

My favorite part of the game is when where we explore the main enemy nation, which does a good job of showing how the fascist government uses propaganda, military worship, and secretly enforces famine to manipulate citizens against the elves. Additionally, it's shown that the citizens are otherwise normal people and some of them can see through their government's BS, though some like Eldromus are beyond redemption. I find that a lot of games that try to make their bad guys racist and fascist often skip the important developments that lead to such ideas being normalized, so I'm glad this game put effort into covering that. That said, I wish we could see what life is like for the second-class, non-military associated members of the empire.

Also, the fascist part isn't hyperbole, since one of the military school teachers quotes the Norsefire from V for Vendetta.

Gameplay

tl;dr play easy or normal instead of Core Rules for the most consistent experience, unless you want bragging rights for Youtube.

In most games, skills and normal attacks tend to have similar accuracy unless stated otherwise. On Core Rules, physical skills have accuracy penalties while having fairly powerful effects. Personally, I would have preferred weaker but more accurate skills so that there's still some challenge while reducing the RNG factor, since I'm the type of person who is nettled by wasted turns and resources. The accuracy rate is saner on the easier difficulties, so I recommend going for those if you have a similar mindset.

For resource management, AP is random and rather low at the start of each battle, which is understandable because some of the later AP skills are too powerful to use at the start of battle. The MP situation is pretty bad in the beginning though, since your mages have low starting MP and therefore won't benefit much from their equipment's passive MP regen. Like with physical skills, this is supposed to be balanced by how magic skills are powerful enough to justify their cost. However, the mages really need to have an even lower tier of magic spells that do less damage and cost less than 5 MP, since the 5 MP spells are overkill for early enemies. Again, the lower difficulties alleviate this by giving you more starting MP.

Like Nocturne: Rebirth, you can change equipment in the middle of battle without using up a turn, which really helps if you're playing blind and don't know what ailments the enemies will use. You can also do 1000 IQ maneuvers like equipping a new auto-revive accessory after using the old one up.

The bosses are balanced with the expectation that you're using buffs and debuffs wisely. Some of them also have interesting mechanics, like the bonus bosses of the final sidequest, though some mechanics will take a lot of trial and error to figure out unless you read the Steam guide. Still, it's better than simply fighting vanilla beatsticks all the time.

The game is really grindy, since you have to manage 16 characters by the end of the game. In such a situation, you'd expect that maybe the inactive party members would get half or quarter EXP, but they get absolutely no EXP. Oh, and there are story events that will force you to use specific characters or exclude specific characters, which means you cannot just bet everything on your favorite party. I get that the developers want players to use all the characters and watch them grow in levels, but according to the forum posts, people are trying to stick to only their faves, only to be frustrated when they run into events that force them to use their neglected party members. The only thing that makes up for this is that you will find situations where some characters are better suited than others, but there's also a very obvious tier list in terms of their overall usefulness and some characters feel like Masters of None, making it tempting to play favorites in leveling them.

There is a lot of equipment with special effects, and everyone has their own unique green/purple text gear. However, mid-to-late game enemies are very spammy with very game-changing status effects, making it feel like you can't really equip any Jewel other than status resist ones. There really needs to be a second jewel slot, allowing players to try out other types of jewels without fearing divine retribution from the enemy.

The New City portion of the game is a town building minigame, but it's implemented in the worst way possible. Instead of recruiting unique, meaningful, and interesting NPCs, you just enter and exit specific type of buildings to recruit anonymous NPCs of specific walks of life. Since every iteration of the town has its own Celestium Shards, you will have to spend quite a lot of time evicting and recruiting people just to get everything.

Verdict

7/10, an average but long game. There's interesting plot elements the further you go, but some early game writing and balancing could leave a bad first impression. Also, I feel like having a huge cast of characters hurts the game more than helps it, since not all of them are sufficiently developed and the EXP system and endgame crafting situation can't really handle them all.

Great start, and then the RNG madness comes. It's a constant battle to keep your allies alive, while random mobs ( not bosses ) consistently kill your allies faster than you can revive them. Keep in mind I was already over leveled from grinding original area, and still couldn't keep up. Just too imbalanced. Needs to be refitted for balance.

If you love throwback JPRG games, there has been an embarrassment of riches on Steam as of late. If you loved the Phantasy Star series for Sega, Tangledeep is a beautiful homage. If you loved Final Fantasy VI, but didn't feel challenged by the gameplay then The Great Gaias will make you very happy.

As some of the other reviewers noted, this game doesn't pull punches with difficulty, but it is because you are expected to engage with all of the mechanics. You need to eat foods that provide temporary stat boosts before epic battles; you must craft your own items that suit your party's needs and strengths. You will always feel poor. You need to design your party well (don't think you can get by with one dedicated healer).

I've always been disappointed with early JRPGs that introduce a variety of mechanics that are never required. Status effects are useless in a lot of games, unless they are brokenly powerful. You do need a bit of luck to beat some of the optional bosses at the recommended level, but chance is what makes a game exciting. I think it is enjoyable to have a random encounter suddenly become a desperate battle for survival because I was toying around trying to steal extra gradium ore from a troll.

Difficulty aside, the gameplay is very solid. The crafting system is straightforward yet engaging. The combat system reads SNES Final Fantasy, but with some clever advents. I really like being able to switch gear and change rows without losing an action. The character classes are more rigid than I would like, but much more flexible than its spiritual predecessors. Some of the menu interface is awkward, but not excessively. It would be nice to sort items more effectively and the Equipment Optimizer is not terrific. The villages and cities actually feel substantial as you explore them. I was always bothered by the fact that the biggest city in the world in early JPRGS might contain. 4 buildings and 11 NPCS. Unlike some of its forebearers, The Great Gaias generously rewards you if you compulsively check barrels, paintings, and clocks.

The story is deeply immersive. The characters are well-formed and show no signs of the annoying anime archetypes that plague these types of games. There are times where the exposition is a tad heavy, especially when names of people, locations, wars, and kingdoms are delivered rapid-fire, but the world is fleshed out meticulously through interacting with NPCs and the environment to the point where there is real emotional weight of each twist and turn.
Some folks have grumbled about the price, but that’s patently absurd for content provided. I’ve meandered a bit, but I sunk 40 hours before I clearing a third of the main storyline. Moreover, shouldn’t we be willing to support independent developers and their labors of love?

This is a great game; please give it a try!

So, I don't really get the positive reviews. This game, as it stands is mediocre at best. It has significant balance issues, and its not really the level of difficulty - difficult is good. The balance issues are status based and economics. For example: A mage type character with only spells as an offense is obviously meant to be a high DPS character, but gains 1 mana per level? At lvl 15 my mage has 1 AOE spell and 31 mana with 900 hit points and that is with the necklace that gives mana. This means that at 5mp I can cast 6 spells against Bosses that have thousands of hit points, multiple AEO spells, and seemingly are not bound by magic points. There is a great crafting mechanism, or at least it seems great, I can barely use it because Ive been in like 10 cities and can still only access copper and iron. Occasionally I get some silver as a drop and 6 hours in I got 1 mythril, but the crafting has pretty much been usless. All of these issues don't make the game unplayable or more challenging, they make it BORING, as it means GRINDING, like Dragon Warrior I grinding.
Really though, the mana problem is the worst - I had to spend 17 lvls and $10,000 in necklaces just to get my white mage to 47 mana - so she can use prayer 3 times in a battle, against normal foes, like the black winged cats who can literally chain inferno, an AoE attack at 500+ damage per cast - while I am attacking for 80.
SUPER UNBALANCED!!

I usually don't write reviews for games, but I couldn't help but write one for this game. I'm going to try to make this as brief as possible because if I'm allowed to go into more detail, I will spoil too much without realizing it.

Anyways, I was a bit hesitant about this game after the starting couple hours felt a bit rushed and trying to cover too much too quickly. However, after the first couple hours, the game started moving at a VERY comfortable pace and I found myself very much hooked into this game. I honestly spent more hours at a time playing The Great Gaias than I have in any RPG in recent memory. I absolutely found myself hooked on the game's story and wanting to see how everything played out.

Is it the perfect game? No. There are a few issues I've found in the game, but the production team is willing to listen and try to fix any errors that anyone finds. As well, there are some things in the story that probably could have been done slightly differently, but that could just be my opinion. None of the issues I found will take away from such a great game.

It took a bit of work, but I managed to finish with the True Ending and I think it was worth all the work. I highly recommend this game to anyone who wants a lengthy JRPG that will surely suck you in. Before you know it, you will have spent 50-60 hours playing the game and you can't complain about it at all.

Edit: A couple hours and all bugs got fixed. Those Developers are increadibly active and kind! I am truly grateful for all the help they provided in such a small laps of time. I will leave all that happened down there has a testament to how efficient and respectful they are to their fans. Thanks a lot for taking the time to help me. Bless you! ^-^

It's a very nice game but i came across a bug that broke the game and i'm quite furious about it. I was not expecting that kind of bug out of a 30$ game... Let me explain. I have ben playing for a few hours and i came across my second encounter with Raziel the summoner in the castle store room. Before you fight him you can get the chalise in the same room which is a quest item a merchant asked you to retrieve for him. So i was a quite under leveled and killing Raziel was quite impossible so i went back out to level up. Has i went back i reported the chalise to the merchant which was at the exit of the city and went to level and gather money to buy the best gear. While exploring and leveling i defeated the kraken and everything was fine. That little side adventure / leveling roughly took about 3 hours. Once that was done i went back to fight Raziel and defeated him. Yay!!! finally defeated him! So i quickly go to the save point and save to not lose the progress. but then my party tells me i need to get the chalise from the chest before exiting the room. Something which i have already done and reported to the merchant... I did not make a back up save because why should i? So now i can't leave raziel's boss room. Every time i try to get out my party tells me i need to get the chalise before leaving even thought the chest where the chalise was is open and empty. The end... I guess i got to restart the game. I can't recomend a game with the kind of bug that leaves you stuck in such manner.

I have mixed feelings about the game.

On the one had, the devs did an incredible job with the story and character. Hands downs, story and character-wise it's the best indie game I've played.

However, some of the boss fights and even some of the trash mobs spam attacks so often or are just ridiculous, even when grinding levels to keep pace with reccomended levels. At times, it's sheer random chance that you win. Some bosses it's just been a tactic of 'play enough times that the AI doesn't hit you with that attack 15 times in a row'.

I like the fact that each battle has it's own strategy. I'm no stranger to RPGs and have been playing them for decades. But having to try dozens of character combinations, change equiment every other fight is too much. I've gotten to a point in the game where I love the story but absolutely detest the fights. When you find yourself screaming at the screen because despite having 130% accuracy 75% of your attacks are missing, while in the same fight two of the bosses are resistent to most magic, and once one of 4 bosses dies, it's almost immediately ressurected by other bosses (and this isn't even the end fight), I'm kind of done. Oh, and to try all those different combinations of characters/skills I can't even have a place to change party members right before the fight (instead I have to trudge back and forth across swamp and a convulted town set up to reach the inn). I play games to relax, not stress myself out more.

Reccommended for the story and characters only. The battles are awful. Buyer beware.

I dont really know where to start with this game. It is a fairly simple RPGMaker Game, that said, it is one of the best ones on steam.

There is a lot of story here, it might no be perfect, and it might not be the writing of some of the AAA titles, but it is good, and it will rip your heart out, in the same style that Game of Thrones does. If you care enoght too read everything, you will be happy, you will be dissapointed, and you will somtimes get sad. That said, it is a good thing, the story is sometimes a bit unexpected, and there are some twist here and there so far that keep things interesting.

In summary
* Excellent Turnbased RPG
* Good story that changes things uo
* Crafting (A bit lacking, but it is there)
* Kealas is a fucking beast, god damn!
* Last a long time (Im in 40 hours, and Im no where near done)

For the negative
* The game might crash (Remember to save once in a while (Does not happend that often))
* I dont like Instakill abilites (Might be a personal preference, but instalkill abilities is no fun)
* Some bosses hits you real hard with a "level cap", so you might need to grind some.
* There are some hidden monsters that you can exploit to get high leverl after that the game gets fairly easy.
* Kaelas is a too damn much of a bad ass, god damn is that guy a bad ass.

* How badass is Kaelas you say? Well, he can heal your party to full health, he can transform into several different aspects and regain mana, and do insane amount of aoe damage, or he can be a fucking bear and tank the shit out of the enemies, maybe you want a physical damage character? No problem Kealas got that covered, he can be a fucking saber and asswhipe everything with his awesome skills, hes like the druid above all druids. Why you ask? Because he is a fucking badass, thats why. Need some AOE health Regen? No problem, Need more mana on a different character? No problem, need to instakill some enemies? No problem. God damn I love that druid elf, he will shit on everything for you while keeping your party safe.

10/10 Would play Kaelas Again. Fuck that Pots guy.

Well i'll be damned. 76 hours on a game which both should and could have been made in the 90's. So how come?

Overall 8/10
If you like old JRPGs like Phantasy Star, Final Fantasy and Suikoden, this is the game for you. More mature than Final Fantasy games, and I guess most comparible to Suikoden.

Gameplay 7/10
Based on turn based combat like the earlier Final Fantasy Games. Nothing fancy to mix this up. There are however almost 20 different characters you can play with, which opens up for interesting combinations in party with 4 character capacity. The game is also quite long, roughly 50 hours for normal ending and 60+ for perfect ending. I hear people complain about the price of the game, but if you have a stable job, this is a true bargain. Less than 1$ an hour you filthy peasants.

Story 9/10
A really great story, with interesting characters and twists. Better story than newer "turn based RPGs (not JRPGs though" such as both Pillars of Eternity 1 and 2, as well as Tides of Numenera. IMO better than Final Fantasy 7. I'd say almost on par with Phantasy Star IV, Suikoden and the newer Tyranny and Divinity: Original sin 2. Behind Planescape: Torment, but this goes for all games.

Graphics 6/10
All areas are custom made, with separate graphic tiles. Graphic placement is however somewhat odd, and enemy sprites are usually not animated in combat. Nothing too fancy though; Bob Ross wouldn't approve.

Sound 8/10
Decent soundtrack. keeping you engaged. A tad worse than my JRPG favourites, such as Phantasy Star IV and Suikoden. On par with the newer XCOM in terms of engagement (Not XCOM 2). No really catchy songs that you will remember forever, however.

Bugs and stuff 3/10
Few game breaking bugs, but is as functional as a Ford Fiesta; It will get you to the finish line, but it will be a bumpy ride.

RECOMMENDED [when on sale] Ratings : 8/10 (Great story, Great game mechanics, Overpriced)

This is an excellent RPG Maker game that is extremely well made. However, currently it is way overprice at $30, and I would unequivocally recommend this game whenever it goes on sale at more than 50% discount.

What I love about this game is the epic storyline, the extremely well develop team of 17 NPC that you can recruit as your team members, each with their own background stories and individualized skills. Every one of the team member is different and unique and a delight to play. The game also have an excellent battle system and a very thought out crafting system, where you keep on crafting & upgrading your weapons and armors. You farm drops of various crafting materials from fighting monsters, mining and explorations.

Although this game is really good, I still feel that it is currently overpriced and not worth the full US$30. There are several other great games (even with ratings 10/10 like the "Last Dream") that are selling at a fraction of the price of this game. I own several hundreds RPG Maker games, and this is probably one of the most pricey game that I have bought.

I would recommend this game whenever it goes on sale, and you can buy it at more than 50% discount.

+ A wonderfully crafted JRPG styled of yesteryear that doesn't pull any punches when it comes to story.

+ A decently complex combat system that harkens back to the oldschool without being boring (if you're a JRPG fan).

+ Large roster of characters with a four character party cap, making for interesting play styles.

+ Well crafted and unique sprites.

- Price.

- Niche; won't appeal to modern RPG players.

Verdict: Buy, but maybe wait until it's on sale.

I would rate the game 8/10 so far

I have played around 80 hours so far. If I had to compare it to existing games I would say the closest game it resembles is Suikoden (especially with all the characters and town building) followed by FF6 (especially in chapter 3).

Gameplay

Pros:
1. Lots of content. I am 80 hours into the game and I still have not beaten it yet.
2. Lots of secrets. Check everything! Every book case, pot, or piece of paper. You may find a good item, a rumor leading to a legendary item, or a secret door leading to a boss.
3. Freedom to go to places beyond your lv. At least in chapter 2 you get a decent amount of freedom which lets you go to higher lv places. I like rewarding exploration and strategic play by allowing the player to go places which test their skill. Once you get the sea ship and then the air ship it opens up even more.
4. Lots of items to find and craft. You can customize your builds based on what stats you like. You may focus on crit, dodging, raw physical or magical dmg, high HP, ect. You can't ahve it all though since you have a limited amount of armor slots.
5. Tough battles especially with side quest bosses. Some side quest bosses are quite tough, but they have good rewards. They may give you a summon of themselves, a good item, or multiple decent items and XP. Also with the ability to go places a bit above your lv you can run into regular mobs who give you a run for your money.

Cons:
1. Near the end of chapter 2 and into chapter 3 I started gathering a lot of gold. Before that it felt like I needed all the gold I could get and there was a ton of stuff I wanted to spend it on. Later on your limiting factor is mainly materials to craft gear rather than gold.
2. Sometimes an abundance of fights can be annoying, but many RPGS have that issue. I guess I could flee if I really wanted to. Later on you get ways to avoid fights if you don't want which is quite nice.
3. The game got easier later on in the game. However I found a good place to level and overleveled a bit so this is probably my own fault.

Characters

Pros:
1. There are a lot of characters which alows you to put together a team you enjoy for many different play styles.
2. Some characters can be customized multiple ways. For example with the druid you can focus on physical dmg and gear him accordingly with his shapeshifting or you can focus on his magic and go the complete opposite direction. Similarly with the summoner you can focus on summons or his more monk like punching fighting style. Some characters don't have duel roles, but you can still customize their focus quite a bit. Throughout the game I switched my parties characters around as I figued out better strategies and got more gear options.

Cons:
1. You get a lot of characters pretty quickly in the beginning and that doesn't give you a lot of time to digest them. It kind of felt like Suikoden where I kept getting new characters before I got a feel for the abilities of ones I just got. I ended up thinking of my characters by their class rather than their actual names because of this. However unlike Suikoden there aren't 100 characters, there are only 17 so you get to know them eventually. I felt like I started getting to know the characters in chapter 3 after a specific event happened which I won't spoil here.

Story

Pros:
1. Toward the end of chapter 2 and into chapter 3 the story starts getting into some interesting situations and scenarios. Cities alternating between undead and semi living, gladiator tournaments, ect.

Cons:
1. The main story seems to move at too fast a pace in the beginning and can make it a little hard to grasp everything. I would have liked a little more filler light hearted content, perhaps to get to know the characters more in between some of the main story elements. Note I am doing all of the side quests I find, but they are usually fairly short and don't delve into the characters too much. This does improve in chapter 3.
2. I think the children of light vs the dark lord and his group of high lv subordinates is a little too standard. I like more mystery and unconventional plots to stories.
3. You begin to understand the history and a lot of the plot quite a bit later in the game when you delve into the past. I feel like I wish I knew some of that information earlier on.

Misc:

Pros:
Dev interaction is good and they provide quick bug fixes, Most of the time within 24 hours.

This game is quite reminiscent of older RPG titles along the lines of Suikoden and the SNES Final fantasies. I would not say there's 20 hours of main story line, it is more along the lines that 15-20 hours is required to meet the storyline requirements

ZERKER GIVES: 7.0/10

THE STORY/SCORE

The world is well setup with various Lore and interesting enough characters with what is currently released. The protagonist has an interesting story explored in the prologue. Several interesting themes are presented that may prove a very solid basis of future content release. The second chapter focuses less so on these elements and bulls ahead with the struggle between good vs evil at an alarmingly fast, nearly dismissive pace for some keystone events yet still presented in a way that invites curiosity to see it through.

The minor writing elements of NPCs and other scripted events are fairly well done, with a good balance of lore elements, humour and filler content. However, Horizon should go through their transcripts to correct various spelling and grammatical issues prior to their official release.

The score itself is well varied and enjoyable, with tunes fitting to the area and situation.

GAME SYSTEMS

There is little in terms of explanation of the various attributes, certain spells or status effects and combat elements that may leave a newer player a bit lost until they experiment for themselves. This is particularly an issue when it comes to party composition, as the game does not make it clear you can change your party members at a Great Gaias book.

CHARACTERS

The party members themselves are varied enough in how they function and mesh together, allowing for a decent amount of experimentation and preference. Certain members make a significant difference in certain fights or parts of the game so do not write anyone off too hastily.

THE COMBAT

I find that the combat system itself is rather fine, if overall a bit slow for these first 2 chapters. Combat speed can be adjusted to a player's liking in options and combat becomes paused when it's time to decide a character's command. This is then followed by a much shorter charge up time until said character executes command, allowing a window for interrupts and being K.O. before that last second heal. Enemies who have completed their ATB charge are indicated by a brief sprite flash so one can plan accordingly. The various resistances, traits and tactics of enemies favors a dynamic party composition to best tackle different areas.

THE CRAFTING SYSTEM

Crafting in the Great Gaias is organized in a simple tier system, where products of the previous tier are required to create the next and so forth. It provides a good means to supplement your equipment beyond shop content. By the end of chapter 2, it becomes increasingly clear the necessity of top equipment unless you plan on overgrinding content. The system does not save you any money or grinding, as items needed are often monster specific drops or stolen and require multiple encounters to A. get the drop then B. get the gold needed to perform the synth.

THE CONS

Beyond some more minor elements previously discussed comes one of the biggest issues of the genre, the grind. Since your Protagonist is always a partner member, he ends up significantly ahead of your other members as you rotate out to level or try them. Every other character seems balanced and on par in party contribution, but the Protagonist pulls miles ahead due to his class and design. EXP is not shared outside those who participated, so you can find yourself with level 8 characters in the Gaias while your main party is in the mid twenties.

Some encounters and story fights are great challenge, downright difficult but completely dismissed with a bit more grind. The grind erases the need to be tactical or try out other characters better suited to the content. You can win everything simply by grinding more.