Update Two Hundred and Ten: 12 August 2018

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

This ended up being a pleasant surprise! I must admit I didn’t have high hopes for this game when I first started out - it comes off as being a liiiittle cheap and a liiittle too heavy on the cribbing (Fray and Enah’s battle stances and win animations are just… Lloyd and Colette’s from Tales of Symphonia) at first glance. It’s overall story went to places I didn’t expect, and the characters were much stronger than I thought they would be.

For a standard JRPG fantasy game and world setting, the storyline is decidedly sci-fi in nature: it’s all about the clones. Not personal, one-to-one clones, more analogous to robots. The major contention is fifteen years ago two warring countries used a variety of different types of clones as weapons. It goes very well, by war standards, and very poorly for, uh, living life standards. They agree to a peace treaty and stop using clones as weapons, but there’s an uneasy feeling toward clones still remaining.

Then, out of nowhere, two clones owned by a rich man malfunction and kill him, his guards, and a thief during a break in to his manor. Your point of view character, Fray, and his assistant technical director younger sister, Aurra, are set on a inter-country task force to figure out what the hell is going on. The plot takes off from there.

Everything keeps moving, and the writing is light and fresh. Not perfect, but always peppy and everyone sounds genuine - every character has a distinct voice. I especially liked (surprise!) the male lead, Fray, and how his inevitable romance with the female lead, Corone, was handled. The whole emphasis was on her making decisions, following her own will, being self-determinating, etc., and Fray was always incredibly supportive without ever being patronizing. He’s just a genuinely good person in a way that felt authentic.

Is it spectacular or groundbreaking? No, but it was a pleasant time! If you like JRPGs, pick it up!

Next up:

See you soon!