I would just like to start by saying that I have played a many of RPG over the years of differing types, from final fantasy to the tales of series to neverwinter nights to elder scrolls. I tend to look at games from an overall perspective, atmosphere, story, gameplay, all totalling to an overall enjoyment factor. I am as well a freelance game designer but that is another story.
So far in the game I have almost completed all the quest or orobos fjords, so still a ways to go yet but I feel I have completed enough to offer some views on my experience so far.
First I must say the writing, and overall design or directing of the game is brilliant. It just offers the perfect blend of elements, between humour and drama, or between fighting, puzzles and platforming. The gameplay tends to stay fresh at all times, I haven't gotten into a situation where I feel I am just going through the motions but rather look forward to the experience of each new quest or scene.
To add to that a couple funniest moments for me so far. First was I seen a chicken once, run through a camp fire, of course this resulted in it's death which also promptly resulted in a loot bad containing a chicker leg. So I literally seen a chicken, pluck, cook and prepare itself for my dinner, now that is service. Other thing is the Dragon Slayer team at the Dragon Cliff castle I believe it's called. SOmeone apparently watched dragonball Z on the design team, it was return of the Ginyu force complete with silly poses and the odd pause afterwards. However my laughing quickly died down when I fought the bunch and found them to be insanely strong despite being 10 levels lower than me.
So, I think the story is great, writing is great, voice acting is fine, gameplay is overall pleasing.
So now the criticims, mild overall but I do have some. First I've read it was different in the original ego draconis which I haven't played but I find the combat to be very fast. By that I mean my weapons are extremly strong most of the game so I am doing a lot of damage but on the other hand so is the enemy. So battles tend to end really quick, while this can be a nice change I've also found I've died in this game more than I have most any RPG. Mostly just due to damage tends to outweigh potions, I can take a high level potion but still a group or archers or a bosses special attacks do more damage than it can possible heal. I haven't found myself frustrated really at any point but sometimes struggling when I find myself in situations where strategy is a before battle thing and if it doesn't work I am probably going to be reloading, Midbattle strategy doesn't really work because the battle is usually over before it gets to that. A solution would probably be to reduce the enchantment power of the weapons but at the same time reduce enemy damage as well, by maybe 25 percent or so would be enough to make battle a little more dramatic rather than franticly fighting to see who goes down first. Another criticism is overused models, a lot of the people look the same, could stand with mixing it up a bit more. Graphically the game looks great but I don't really care for the FOV effects, and I really haven't liked the effect in much any game because they tend to blur at odd times and angle making the game blurry at the wrong times and look bad, it's ok in the conversation screens but during play I like it sharp because I spend more time looking in the distance than at my character. On top of that when the blur is active on the charter it tends to make the character look more like a low res image was cut out and pasted on the background, not really a good blur to simulate fov effects a camera or the naked eye may produce. I also get a little stutter but overall it's not bad, was the worst in farglow and some interior areas. Finally I would have liked to of seen more differences between how people react to character genders, the illusionist could of been used for so much more quest wise if there were differences that required your character to utilize them more. I heard there was a quest in flames of vengeance that might work that in game but still seems like a missed opportunity. Also could of stood to see weather or time of day effects worked in just for visual change though considering the detail of the shadows I can kinda see why not, I did see some screen effects used to change lighting and mood in certain areas but it's kind of sudden and obvious how it's done, like a sudden fog appears on screen the dissapears soon as you leave this small area, or the world is dark in only one spot. Not stand out but noticable to anyone paying attention.
Outside of those things it's a great game and can't wait to see how it all unfolds. Definatly one of the most entertaing RPG's I've played in a while. I'll get back to this once I've finished it all with my final impressions.
