How many endings? I got one, but I'm bothered about there being locations on the map that I couldn't get to, and at least one place that needed a key item I was never able to find. Is there a walkthrough?
I have a love-hate relationship with how almost every single boss battle has a gimmick. On the one hand, I like that it gives a very different feel to most RPGs in that you have to learn the trick to it and can't just overlevel and steamroll, but on the other hand, you can't just overlevel and steamroll. Real frustrating when you can't figure out the trick for the life of you when you're really just here because the epilogue baited you with a good story.
Not that the story wasn't engaging, mind you. It's a rare game that keeps me interested enough to finish, and this one did. There's a lot that's not said directly and I'm fairly certain most of the tidbits we needed to piece together flew right over my head, but one thing that made me smile was how it's revealed one of your party members might be a parent. Or it might be a typo, but I sure was grinning for a while after I read it.
Also, took me a while to notice that Jozz might a corruption of Dios, which means "god" in more than one language... and was so glad it took so long because the cringe almost made me put down the game. Very in line with how the locals butcher a couple of other characters' names though. Take your upvote, goddammit.
I played the run with a rule that only the owner of the music box could use it. Felt like it made using it more meaningful, like it was a deliberate choice on that person's part to endure it because it was necessary, instead of someone else forcing it on.
Then I flubbed the timing for the box on the very last battle where it was hinted that I use it. That was the one battle in the game that I cleared with the standard RPG strategy of use your strongest moves and spam items. I had mixed feelings about that, so I redid it, and it was nice to see that the scene afterwards changed slightly depending on whether you pulled off using the box correctly or not.
I also noticed there's a short dialogue that plays every time you end a battle after fulfilling the music box's requirements. There's this one boss that you're supposed to survive a party wipe to, and that dialogue is so jarring when it's what opens up the next scene. So, if anyone wants to skip the box for that one, you can use the damage halving magic and then have one or two characters defend, and they'll survive the party wipe so you can revive someone else on the next turn.
I obviously missed a lot on my first run, so I'll be poking at the game for a bit longer to see if I can figure out how to unlock more stuff. Apparently you can get a helicopter? How?
And, is this the right link for the prequel game? Is it really just 180 KB? How do you run it?
https://www.rpgmmag.com/rmvault/rm/games/2/abyss-of-vinsaga-aquamoon-pandora