God Wars Future Past is a tactical RPG that has a healthy amount of Japanese culture and myths woven into it -- from the classes and abilities, to the story itself. Fans of this genre, and the PS1 era of games, will love this one.
What I Liked
Right away this game imparts a sense of nostalgia when you see the visuals and characters. It is nice to see games like this every now and then to give us a break from the modern fare. The animations and characters look old, but still great at the same time.
Jobs and Character Customization
I love the Job system. It's my favorite part of the game, and what keeps me playing the most. There are 3 base Jobs -- Warrior, Priest, and Magician -- which can evolve and branch into even more Jobs.
Each Job has its own skill tree, skills to use in battle, passives, equipment it can use, and more. It was fun to set up my characters the way I wanted them -- and with the ability to use a main and sub Job, there are many combinations available.
Every character also has their own unique Job, in addition to the other 2 that you choose. You eventually get multiple characters, so there are times when you must choose who to take with you based on their specializations, adding another layer of strategy.
Options and Difficulty
There are options to speed up battle by not showing detailed info, which is great when you want to do a bunch of Shrine Battles that aren't part of the story.
But my favorite option is the difficulty setting, which lets you adjust how hard the game is. The caveat here is that there's no benefit to playing higher difficulty levels, and you don't miss out on anything by playing on Easy.
In fact, Easy gives you more rewards than the other modes. This may not be good for people that want a challenge in the battles, but not in the rewards.
Still, it makes the game more accessible and I would rather have difficulties that don't require me to play hard mode to get the most out of the game.
What's Not So Great
Mechanics
If you are someone that does not like to spend a lot of time getting your characters ready for battle, this game is not for you. Battles themselves can take a while, plus you will have several skills to choose from when leveling.
Each character can have 3 Jobs, so that is a lot of planning time -- not to mention choosing the right equips, going to the shop, upgrading your Shrine, etc.
Battles
This isn't really a con if you are a fan of this genre, but I can see battles getting repetitive late in the game. Players could find themselves using the speed battle option more and more as the game goes on. This can lead to them wanting to just get through the fights instead of just enjoying them.
Of course some people, including myself, might do this just so they can level their Jobs faster and get to the more specialized advanced Jobs.
Graphics
Again, this is not much of an issue for fans looking for an old-school Tactics game, but modern gamers that aren't familiar with the style might be put off. This definitely feels like a game that could have been released on the original PlayStation, though that is part of its charm.
The Verdict
God Wars Future Past is a fantastic RPG that fans of the genre will surely love and want to buy. Those unfamiliar with the genre, or more into faster games should be cautious when deciding on this game.
The bottom line is that this game succeeds at what it set out to do -- a brilliant tactics game with an old-school feel and interesting enough to have you coming back for more.
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