PRESENTATION
Graphics were a mixed bag when it came to the mapping portions as some maps were well done and others were a bit sparse or bland (especially the town map which wasn't great in comparison). There were also a lot of inconsistencies with passabilities which made parts of the game a bit annoying to manoeuvre through. The graphics themselves were a mix of different styles and while some did fit well together, some stood out as too different in style.
The writing was decent technically. The characterisation was pretty flat and bland, but there were some parts that did a decent job of showing off the characters a bit better (the scene with MCs mother, for example, though it was rather ham-fisted).
The story itself was alright but it took a while to get to the actual hook of the game and the pacing was a bit on the slow side at times.
Music and sound was decent. Nothing really stood out as good but it didn't stand out as bad either. There wasn't much in the way of ambience created by sound effects but they weren't missing completely. Pretty standard - what was used fit well enough.
GAMEPLAY
Gameplay consisted of battles, interacting with items on the map and menu-based growth/creation.
The battles consisted of Pulling from enemies in order to get orbs that allow you to summon new party members to use in battle or fuse to create new ones. Each character had their own skills, though a lot of them were underwhelming for the most part.
In the menu you could choose to use an orb to summon it's character or blend it with an already summoned character in order to either enhance their ability or create a new character instead.
Items could be found by interacting with different on-map events. You didn't get many items and the amount of gold you got didn't really get you much in the way of healing items either.
The balance was pretty bad in some areas - especially if you got new summons, who all start on level 1, and have to battle against enemies who are 10 levels higher than you. Even killing all the enemies beforehand meant that you were underlevelled when summoning a new character and trying to get them up to the MCs level.
One of the characters mentioned that you could swap your summons in battle but you were never told how to by the game and as such I was stuck with only those I bought into battle with me.
ENGAGEMENT
The balance really made this an annoying game to play. You either had to stick with the same characters all the way through (which you couldn't since most of them were weak to certain other characters in a BIG way) or try to level up your newer summons against enemies that are far superior in ability to your own. It got very frustrating, too, when you didn't get enough money to offset the cost of healing items. There was the bed to sleep in, true, but having to go all the way back home just to rest up and try to get back to where you were was also an annoyance (and you can't sleep in the middle of battle when your summons are getting wrekt).
Add to that the shallow characterisation that tried for something deep but fell rather flat and it just wasn't very fun. It had some great ideas (I really liked the whole summoning/splicing ideas) but it could have been handled a bit better balance-wise.
THEME
The theme was teen angst. I guess it showed that well enough in the dialogue. Well, to be fair it was about saving the world and growing up to understand others, and some of that was touched on well in the story. The mechanics didn't really show that off well though - I guess you could kind of make a connection between growing bonds and summoning.
42/80
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