Mana, Khemia break

LMAO! You almost fooled me into thinking Kabi-kun wrote this, but its a good thing I know your the only one who writes the game reviews. =3 Did you really write that pun? If so, I THINK KABI’S GOT SOME COMPETITION!!! XD

Maybe I just don’t have the same hate for “nice but clumsy” haremettes as Ender, but I think the pink-haired jailbait makes a decent character. I found the “her bag contains everything” running gag mildly amusing and the “her alchemy is terrible” running gag mildly annoying, so overall a wash on moe modes.

On the other hand, Flay is my hero.

Overall, I give a thumbs up to the cast just because I feel like they have the right mix of characteristics to make for amusing sitcom-style situations and interplays. Sometimes I find that having a light-hearted plot most of the time actually raises the tension more for me when the drama kicks in; if I’ve been genuinely laughing along with the characters, then I actually give a damn when the villain tries to off them. As opposed to the “angst… angst… angst… SUPER ANGST!” of some other JRPGs, which doesn’t leave much of a story thread for you to hold on to if you didn’t buy the angst.

Like Ender says, after a certain early point SP is pretty much free as long as you rotate your members regularly, so the ridiculously high SP costs actually make sense. They’re still annoying up until that point, of course.

Also, all the problems with the early-game combat disappear once you get a larger party, since you can then swap characters out of the front lines to regenerate SP automatically, and the plethora of support abilities increase the choices available in combat.

Interesting factoid: apparently Jess’s JP name was Philomel Hartung, while Flay’s name was Gunnar Damm. I wonder how the translator decided on what English name to use?

Production Values:

It indeed looks a lot like AI3, but there’s a little less variation in the visuals. I think the pseudo-3D environments have something to do with it. And given that there’s some annoying slowdown in the dungeons, I suppose less is better. But, still, I kind of liked the full 2D approach of the game’s predecessor.

I also agree about the character designs being a bit so-so. AI3 designs were more anime standard, whereas the MK designs seem to have a little more manga influence. Also, perhaps it’s just me, but a lot of the text and overlay graphics in the game seems small and overly sharp. I find I’m having a hard time reading things, especially when there’s a lot on the screen.

Plot and characters:

I prefer lighter, less involved plots to “save the girl, save the world” type plots, so the lack of any grand story (so far, at least) doesn’t bother me much. Nikki is probably my favorite character, too, although Jess is a decent enough heroine. I wonder why they changed Jess’ name, though? It’s a little weird, because the original name is retained in the Japanese audio, so you end up with a case of, “see one thing, hear another”. A few other character names were inexplicably changed as well. The Japanese voice acting is pretty good, however.

Setting:

The school setting is a nice hook, but I think it could have been executed better. You’re right that the class/job system is pretty much a rehash of the Guild quests from AI3. Except, this time, you have to follow a set schedule and perform to a certain level in order to progress. Perhaps there’ll be more variety now that I’ve gotten most of the tutorial type classes out of the way.

I also wish there was a little more room for exploration. I’m sure I’ll appreciate the menu-based map system later in the game, when all I want to do is to get somewhere fast, but early in the game, I’d like more opportunity to wander around and stumble upon things. Oh well.

Gameplay:

To be honest, I didn’t screw around with the alchemy aspect of AI3 more than I absolutely had to, so I was worried I’d get bored with MK given it’s strong alchemy focus. However, since you pretty much HAVE to make full use of alchemy in order to level up in the game and complete most classes, I’ve spent a lot of time tinkering with it. And, I’ll admit, it’s kind of fun concocting and synthesizing new items. I hope the ingredient gathering process doesn’t turn into a never-ending snipe hunt later in the game, however. I remember some key ingredients in AI3 being very difficult to come by just when you needed them most (and some recipes being very difficult to figure out with resorting to trial and error).

The battle system works pretty well. Then again, it’s basically the AI3 battle system with some variation in detail, so I knew how to work it to my advantage from the game’s very first fight. The SP budgeting is kind of wonky, though (not much SP in the bank, it costs a lot to use, and it’s not easy to replenish), and combined with the fact the Burst Gauge takes a lot longer to fill up, you can’t just go skill spamming the enemy for a quick victory. So far, this has made for a lot of dull, back and forth battles. It’s also made stronger enemies a lot more difficult to defeat than you’d expect, given that you can only chip away at their total HP with routine attacks, whereas they’re practically killing you every other turn. I’m sure the battle experience will improve with time, but it’s kind of annoying to start the game off with such a tiny bag of tricks.

Overall:

Despite my criticism, it’s actually a pretty fun game, and the easy-going atmosphere really hits the spot right now. Also, I fully expect a lot of the problems I currently have with the game to pass with time… I seem to remember that it several hours of gameplay to get in to AI3, too. And that was a game that just got better the longer I played.