The main character is Prince Eldar of Onnya, who seeks to prove himself worthy of the throne by research the legend of the hero and finding a way to defeat the legendary villain. At first, he's a spoiled brat who cares more about the glory of solving the legend than his actual duties as a prince. In a twist, his research causes him to learn of many truths that were censored by his government and how his kingdom actually perpetrated many injustices against Llooan and the zsagni. Thanks to his travels teaching him more perspectives, Eldar now actually gains a purpose as a royal, making this a roundabout way of becoming a worthy king. However, he also put himself in a position where he might not be able to gain the political power needed to bring justice to Onnya's victims. This game's aesop seems to be that although people have to focus on their duties, sometimes it's alright to indulge in one's own wants and needs if their current life isn't working out for them. This can be partially seen with Yvlor, who spent so long trying to be a perfect hero that he didn't know how to balance his love for Nyo with his duties. That said, I wish we could see more of what happens when Eldar returns to Onnya in the ending, since his aunt and cousin are implied to be running the country into the ground, thus potentially creating interesting consequences for Eldar's decision.

The game also features a time loop where some people can remember past lives, some living beings are forced to be immortal until the loop restarts, and some enemies are unusually powerful while dropping Breach Chunks that can kill immortals. This also causes a religion to form based on the idea that destiny must be preserved, or there could be unpredictable consequences that will destroy the world before a new loop can start. This ties into the main aesop somewhat, since the only way to break the loop and allow the civilization to properly develop is to stray off the beaten path of destiny.

Unfortunately, the time loop does unintentionally make Lue less sympathetic, since she's a chronologist and therefore would know Jovla can be trusted based on previous time loops, yet she treats him as a mere vagabond that Eldar shouldn't associate with. Maybe this was an act meant to hide her status as a chronologist, but it still seems unnecessarily mean of her. Maybe the point is that even with her prior knowledge of time loops, she was never able to overcome her overprotectiveness of Eldar?

As for Jovla himself, I'm not completely satisfied with how Eldar reconciles with him. Eldar screws up Jovla's chance to get an important answer from a ghost and never really apologizes for it or attempts to make up for up. By the time Eldar does mature enough to possibly revisit this issue, it turns out Jovla already knew the answer all along, making the entire issue moot.

For the most part, this game isn't about attacking and dethroning god or fighting against tyranny. It's basically a research project to solve mysteries surrounding the legend of the hero and the time loop. In a twist, most of the explanations are way more mundane than expected, but will almost always lead to a new clue. The time loop in particular is caused not by some nebulous demon lord, but by a powerful witch exploiting the save/load mechanic on a meta level in order to undo Yvlor's suicide. This does lead to some unexplained plot threads, like how the loop restarts despite how Eldar is not guaranteed to meet Yvlor in every loop. My own assumption is that Nyo cannot maintain Yvlor's crystal prison forever, which means the Hive unfairly blamed Eldar just because of circumstantial evidence. On the other hand, it's possible Lue's chronologist memories apply to Eldar's usage of saving/loading, essentially resulting in miniature time loops.


The damage balancing is okay for the most part, though lower HP characters will get oneshot in the final boss fight even at full HP. This is balanced by the final boss sometimes not targeting the party.

Every character has a unique way of learning a new ability, with Eldar learning from maestros, Lue learning from mentor crystals and spell usage count, Jovla learning from new weapons, Laric reading recipes, and Qibayn finding inspiration from regular foes. In terms of character tiers, I'd go with:

1. Eldar - Has TP regen equipment to spam his TP skills easily, including his healing skill.
2. Lue - She has single-targets, AOEs, and strong heals, making her very versatile. Her only flaw is that her skills take long to grind to their full potential and she leaves after the Keeper boss fight. Personally, I think she's a very close second to Eldar.
3. Jovla - Has a double hit normal attack and a buff that stacks with Eldar's group buff. However, his evasion buff can prevent affected characters from receiving heals/buffs and his ailments are generally less meta in this game because enemies will either die quickly to regular DPS or bosses resist those ailments. He has no TP regen, but his normal attack heals 20 TP if he lands both hits and his 40 TP AOE is stronger than Eldar's 60 TP AOE.
4. Laric - They're dependent on ingredients to use their skills, but their normal attack and HP are high to compensate so that you can save ingredients if needed. They can also set up group regen to make healing overall more efficient. IMO, red herbs are somewhat more scarce than other ingredients out in the wild, and most of his best recipes depend on those.
5. Qibayn - She has stronger single-target spells than Lue and learns skills more easily, but her only healing spell has an exhaustion penalty. She also cannot do AOEs without using a special consumable first, and by the time she sets that up, Eldar and Jovla will likely defeat the enemies with their own faster AOEs. Her spells come with ailments and deal good damage, but again, regular enemies die before the ailments will actually matter and bosses tend to be more resistant, giving her less overall utility than Lue. IMO, it would be better if her spells came with weak but irresistible debuffs. Unfortunately, she replaces Lue in the final stretch of the game, creating an artificial-feeling difficulty spike. I generally prefer difficulty spikes that are based on enemies becoming more complex than the party losing power and/or versatility.

The game's mapping philosophy is designed to make maps look bigger than they really are. While most games will just use regular walls, this game makes walls out of boxes, pots, and other obstacles to close off parts of the map that you shouldn't be able to access. YMMV may vary on this, since while it prevents the world from looking small, the amount of stray boxes everywhere starts to look excessive after a while. At this point, it's practically a safety violation. TBF, the NPCs seem to be humorously self-aware about the placement of obstacles.


7.5/10

I liked uncovering the secret history of the setting and the aesop about balancing self and duty, though there are moments that make Eldar and Lue come off as more unsympathetic than was probably intended. The time loop story is surprisingly cohesive, but there are a few details that needed more elaboration like loops where the journey stops prematurely. As for the combat, every character has their own strengths and weaknesses, but there is a tierlist that becomes very obvious when Lue is replaced by Qibayn.

[h1]Circular Reasoning[/h1] [h2]Story[/h2] The main character is Prince Eldar of Onnya, who seeks to prove himself worthy of the throne by research the legend of the hero and finding a way to defeat the legendary villain. At first, he's a spoiled brat who cares more about the glory of solving the legend than his actual duties as a prince. In a twist, [spoiler]his research causes him to learn of many truths that were censored by his government and how his kingdom actually perpetrated many injustices against Llooan and the zsagni. Thanks to his travels teaching him more perspectives, Eldar now actually gains a purpose as a royal, making this a roundabout way of becoming a worthy king. However, he also put himself in a position where he might not be able to gain the political power needed to bring justice to Onnya's victims[/spoiler]. This game's aesop seems to be that although people have to focus on their duties, sometimes it's alright to indulge in one's own wants and needs if their current life isn't working out for them. This can be partially seen with [spoiler]Yvlor, who spent so long trying to be a perfect hero that he didn't know how to balance his love for Nyo with his duties. That said, I wish we could see more of what happens when Eldar returns to Onnya in the ending, since his aunt and cousin are implied to be running the country into the ground, thus potentially creating interesting consequences for Eldar's decision[/spoiler]. The game also features a time loop where some people can remember past lives, some living beings are forced to be immortal until the loop restarts, and some enemies are unusually powerful while dropping Breach Chunks that can kill immortals. This also causes a religion to form based on the idea that destiny must be preserved, or there could be unpredictable consequences that will destroy the world before a new loop can start. This ties into the main aesop somewhat, since [spoiler]the only way to break the loop and allow the civilization to properly develop is to stray off the beaten path of destiny[/spoiler]. Unfortunately, the time loop does unintentionally make Lue less sympathetic, since [spoiler]she's a chronologist and therefore would know Jovla can be trusted based on previous time loops, yet she treats him as a mere vagabond that Eldar shouldn't associate with. Maybe this was an act meant to hide her status as a chronologist, but it still seems unnecessarily mean of her. Maybe the point is that even with her prior knowledge of time loops, she was never able to overcome her overprotectiveness of Eldar[/spoiler]? As for Jovla himself, I'm not completely satisfied with how Eldar reconciles with him. Eldar screws up Jovla's chance to get an important answer from a ghost and never really apologizes for it or attempts to make up for up. By the time Eldar does mature enough to possibly revisit this issue, [spoiler]it turns out Jovla already knew the answer all along, making the entire issue moot[/spoiler]. For the most part, this game isn't about attacking and dethroning god or fighting against tyranny. It's basically a research project to solve mysteries surrounding the legend of the hero and the time loop. In a twist, most of the explanations are way more mundane than expected, but will almost always lead to a new clue. The time loop in particular [spoiler]is caused not by some nebulous demon lord, but by a powerful witch exploiting the save/load mechanic on a meta level in order to undo Yvlor's suicide. This does lead to some unexplained plot threads, like how the loop restarts despite how Eldar is not guaranteed to meet Yvlor in every loop. My own assumption is that Nyo cannot maintain Yvlor's crystal prison forever, which means the Hive unfairly blamed Eldar just because of circumstantial evidence. On the other hand, it's possible Lue's chronologist memories apply to Eldar's usage of saving/loading, essentially resulting in miniature time loops[/spoiler]. [h2]Gameplay[/h2] The damage balancing is okay for the most part, though lower HP characters will get oneshot in the final boss fight even at full HP. This is balanced by the final boss sometimes not targeting the party. Every character has a unique way of learning a new ability, with Eldar learning from maestros, Lue learning from mentor crystals and spell usage count, Jovla learning from new weapons, Laric reading recipes, and Qibayn finding inspiration from regular foes. In terms of character tiers, I'd go with: 1. Eldar - Has TP regen equipment to spam his TP skills easily, including his healing skill. 2. Lue - She has single-targets, AOEs, and strong heals, making her very versatile. Her only flaw is that her skills take long to grind to their full potential [spoiler]and she leaves after the Keeper boss fight[/spoiler]. Personally, I think she's a very close second to Eldar. 3. Jovla - Has a double hit normal attack and a buff that stacks with Eldar's group buff. However, his evasion buff can prevent affected characters from receiving heals/buffs and his ailments are generally less meta in this game because enemies will either die quickly to regular DPS or bosses resist those ailments. He has no TP regen, but his normal attack heals 20 TP if he lands both hits and his 40 TP AOE is stronger than Eldar's 60 TP AOE. 4. Laric - They're dependent on ingredients to use their skills, but their normal attack and HP are high to compensate so that you can save ingredients if needed. They can also set up group regen to make healing overall more efficient. IMO, red herbs are somewhat more scarce than other ingredients out in the wild, and most of his best recipes depend on those. 5. Qibayn - She has stronger single-target spells than Lue and learns skills more easily, but her only healing spell has an exhaustion penalty. She also cannot do AOEs without using a special consumable first, and by the time she sets that up, Eldar and Jovla will likely defeat the enemies with their own faster AOEs. Her spells come with ailments and deal good damage, but again, regular enemies die before the ailments will actually matter and bosses tend to be more resistant, giving her less overall utility than Lue. IMO, it would be better if her spells came with weak but irresistible debuffs. Unfortunately, [spoiler]she replaces Lue in the final stretch of the game, creating an artificial-feeling difficulty spike. I generally prefer difficulty spikes that are based on enemies becoming more complex than the party losing power and/or versatility[/spoiler]. The game's mapping philosophy is designed to make maps look bigger than they really are. While most games will just use regular walls, this game makes walls out of boxes, pots, and other obstacles to close off parts of the map that you shouldn't be able to access. YMMV may vary on this, since while it prevents the world from looking small, the amount of stray boxes everywhere starts to look excessive after a while. At this point, it's practically a safety violation. TBF, the NPCs seem to be humorously self-aware about the placement of obstacles. [h2]Verdict[/h2] 7.5/10 I liked uncovering the secret history of the setting and the aesop about balancing self and duty, though there are moments that make Eldar and Lue come off as more unsympathetic than was probably intended. The time loop story is surprisingly cohesive, but there are a few details that needed more elaboration like [spoiler]loops where the journey stops prematurely[/spoiler]. As for the combat, every character has their own strengths and weaknesses, but there is a tierlist that becomes very obvious [spoiler]when Lue is replaced by Qibayn[/spoiler].