Record of Agarest War is an enjoyable RPG with interesting elements added for extended plability.
The game follows a single young lad who rescues a young elvish girl from harm or certain death. During the conflict, you become injured to the point of death to only give a part of yourself away to a woman who just so happens to be out nearby in an attempt to live and provide protection from the young elvish girl. As you progress through the game, you uncover an ominous evil emerging that plans to destroy the world. It's up to you to stop it. However, because of some barrier that prevents you from exploring past a certain area, you have to make babies. Yes, babies. Your child, varied from one of three women you choose along your journey per generation, will be able to go into the next area or continent. Spanning a total of five generations, the game closes to an end as you find yourself in a emotional journey. As you acquire new members, your party goes from a single lad and a young elvish girl, into a mob of all sorts of characters.
Gameplay is fairly simple when you get the hang of playing around with it, but trying to understand it at first may take some time. Took me half an hour just to realize the character can JUMP while in exploration mode; the game never mentions that you CAN jump so I'm just making that apparent - you can jump. During the battles, you can have up to six members and each member in your party (the active battling members) have a grid pattern that links each member with one another, which is the key to actually doing battle in this game. You take turns moving your characters around in a set fashion. After each player has been set, you must figure on your arrangement in battle because this game has two phases; move, and action. You cannot select a member and move and then act, you have to move all your members and act accordingly. Sometimes it can be frustrating. Based on your characters agility as well as the enemies figure the battle line-up. Have a person in your party with a high agility, and if he or she is linked with the rest of the party members, you can all act first. Maybe even annihilate the enemy's party before they can react. Battle is arranged in one of two ways. There is the field battle points, which are just single battles, unless specified by EVENTS, or there is the exploration mode which has you exploring dungeons in a free-roaming manner (sort of). In exploration mode, battles are infinite but your health stays the same when the battles finishes. In field battles, since there are typically one battle at a time, after each battle your health replenishes. If you die, you turn into a crystal. Fail to revive the crystal in an appropriate amount of time, and your character goes KO, in which you will need to attend First Aid at any of the towns you may visit for a price.
If you don't like your party, or any of the members in your party; get new ones. While the major characters might have much to say during cutscenes, you are not in any way obligated to play as either one of them, which makes this game rather interesting. Although the main character has been my favorite, you could take it upon yourself to acquire one of the many but not always available monsters you fight against. Acquiring a monster requires a special skill that lets you capture them. Once captured, they're yours to do as you see fit. Trade them for items or accessories, or let them join your ranks in your party. There's many monsters to choose from, with different grid placements, different weapon sets assigned, and even different stats. There are even big fat monsters you can acquire as party members. Sure they might be big, but that doesn't always compensate for brute force, plus they may make for an easier target for enemies. There's generally a con to something of that nature, plus not every single battle map (or field) will allow them most of the time; usually at least 2 big monsters on some battle fields.
The customization has always has been a big interest of mine and this game actually does a well job of presenting fashion new weapons and armor in the game. Pretty much every single piece of weapon, armor, or accessory can be made or made into something completely different. Sometimes it might be a piece to a higher grade weapon, or it might be an effect or modifier for your stats or status. Acquiring new manuals unlocks what can be made from the Blacksmith however. You can find most of the manuals along your journey, some you can buy from the store, most special manuals can be picked up from the Adventurer's Guild for a price of TP.
Ultimately, the game itself is rather good and enjoyable and I've had a lot of fun just playing with it. The controls are not the best since a lot of the camera angles during combat are pretty bad and the sense of trying to adjust the camera is annoying, and then to have it fix back to the bad angle is one of disappointments I've noticed. Also during the exploration mode, the HUD can be in the way and with no way to hide it makes for some problems as well since it, most of the time, is blocking my view of the dungeon's exit. The story itself, from generation to next generation, is hard to pick up and leaves me wondering about a few facts about the backstory.
PROS
- Game is big and lots to do with every little bit
- Fun and engaging to play
- Plenty of characters and optional slots for monsters
- Blacksmith shop added an enjoyable element for customizing and crafting new weapons or armor
- The 3rd Generation was a riot
CONS
- Little information about "how to play" or information about the stats' features
- Each new generation picks up midpoint without an explanation what's going on
- Camera angles during exploration and battle don't offer total freedom of choice; they're fixated