Sword of Paladin RE Reviews

As many people know already, I am a very specific, honest and rightfully picky gamer and player. I have played over 3200 games in my life, generally all Windows PC games. I am a HUGE RPG/JRPG fan, but many games are not balanced, too hard, frustrating, annoying and do not take into account a majority of us players of this genre. I started with the demo and loved it. Well balanced, allows change of difficulty level during game in the options menu, does not make us think too much, and has the right amount of story, challenge, fun and appropriate upgrade system. This is a more unique but familiar game genre style that gets just about everything right. In a very few places there are some typos and places that did not convert to English, but this is very minor and not invasive or problematic in playing the game at all. And this is one of the first games in a long time I did not have to search for, and use trainers and cheats. I love the variety of fight/defense gems you can apply and change accordingly for each character, and the ability to save almost every place you go is a plus also. This game NEVER holds you hostage. If you die from a boss, you just change the difficulty level down from hard to normal, as needed, and fight the boss again from where you last saved. This is a key genius in the game! And there is even an auto-fight feature for general fights, except the bosses, which are not really necessary, since the fun of the boss fights is using each tactic and character to beat them. ALL RPG/JRPG makers of all genres and years, please take note: This is what I am talking about, and this is overall how it's done. Thank you Paladin Works for making a truly great special RPG game. There are games that cost ten times more that I do not even like, or would not even bother to buy. PLEASE continue to bring out more quality games like this. Along with game makers like Square Enix/Famicom, you get things right. I appreciate you! :)

[h1]The Translation's Power Level is Too Low[/h1] [h2]Story[/h2] If you judge the game based on the title, you're probably assuming that this is going to be similar to Final Fantasy IV. In reality, this game is an over-the-top Shonen anime power fantasy. While there is some overlap between JRPGs and the Shonen anime genre, this game has more Shonen tropes than the average JRPG. The protagonists are constantly in search of powerups to overcome the current unbeatable foe, only to overwhelm the boss once they get those powerups, and this repeats until the protagonists and enemies are god-tier. Many of the important duels and boss battles end with the main character getting knocked to low HP, only to get a scripted finishing move while spewing hammy lines, which I find oddly satisfying. If you enjoy Shonen anime, this is the game for you. If not, then I don't know what to say. For the most part, the plot is nothing too groundbreaking. You control a knight-turned-paladin who has to go around the world in order to stop a conspiracy of Extra Gems and Miasma. That said, the main characters are charming in their own ways, making the story enjoyable despite the clicheness. As for the villains, I enjoyed Red Rose, the second duel opponent, and the final chapter villain for their morally gray aspects. However, I think some major villains, such as Berienstahl and the Chapter 3 main antagonist, need more depth. That said, the plot point where [spoiler]we lose the first healer and the party gets framed is really contrived, since there's no effort to show fabricated evidence and therefore the healer should have no reason to believe in the party's guilt.[/spoiler] Unfortunately, the current translation is terrible and pretty much reads like a barely edited machine translation, to the point where there are even untranslated lines. Worse yet, not everything is translated consistently, such as how the Flotsam is also called the Soaring Stone and how the dictionary uses both "Alec" and "Alex" as the name of the rival character. While the translation can be unintentionally funny at times, it can be very annoying for parts of the game where you have to make choices based on dialogue. It's a real shame, since I feel like the game would be a great Shonen power fantasy otherwise. [h2]Gameplay[/h2] Yes, the Shonen tropes carry over into gameplay. The equipment system is set up so that the player can only change ornaments and skill gems while everything else is determined by the story. This allows the story to maintain relative power levels between the characters, since stats from equipment matter more than stats from leveling. Fortunately, the skill gem system is designed so that it's possible to make even low-tier characters effective as support casters for stronger characters, so it's still balanced in a way. Speaking of relative power balance, the Paladin class is designed to be overpowered, since it has very high stats and constantly learns new skills, making it a Super Swiss Army Knife. Normally, it's not good for one single character to carry all of the game's buff skills, but this is balanced by a mechanic that allows Nade to share his Paladin skills with other characters. This will make it easier to apply the Paladin's powerful buffs quicker, since the Paladin's skillset can be divided among five party members. One of my favorite features is the formation system, since it allows the player to cast an instant buff on the party and control how much enemy aggro the party members get. It reminds me of both the formation system from [i]Nocturne: Rebirth[/i] and the Brave Order system of [i]Trails of Cold Steel III/IV[/i]. That said, the game does throw a lot of miasma using enemies at the player in the endgame, meaning the Sword of Paladin formation ends up the only viable option for long battles. This is balanced by the Commander gem, which gives access to other formations' buffs. The game has a duel system that works similarly to [i]Suikoden[/i]. Melee allows Nade to guard against a ranged attack before striking back, ranged attacks can safely damage a countering enemy, and counterattack allows Nade to negate a melee attack before striking back. This requires the player to memorize the enemy's dialogue to figure out which action they're going to do, though later battles also require the player to memorize facial expressions. Sadly, this system has two major pitfalls. One is that melee vs ranged still results in damage to the melee user, which is bad for the player on hard mode because they'll still take more damage to their total percentage of health than the enemy. The other flaw is that the bad translation can make it hard to discern the enemy's intention. As for the game's difficulty, I played most of the game on hard mode. It's fairly balanced, but the difficulty can fluctuate a lot due to the story-enforced power levels. Once Nade gets his Paladin abilities, he's very powerful compared to even bosses and shouldn't have much trouble at all. However, when the game forces the player to control a party of lower-tier characters, the difficulty skyrockets, though it's still possible to win all the mandatory battles with some effort. [h2]Verdict[/h2] 7/10, this game is the embodiment of the meme, "I have the power of God and anime on my side!" The game has a decent story and is well-balanced for the most part. However, the translation doesn't do the game justice at all. I really hope the game will get a better retranslation in the future so that it'll be easier to appreciate its sheer Shonen anime energy.