****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
Lost Sphear is a charming little game that owes a lot to games like Final Fantasy VI, Chrono Trigger, and Grandia, but doesn't quite live up to any of those games. The story is your typical JRPG fair with people, places and things disappearing through out the world and your main character being the only one who can bring them back and stop the tide to save the world. There's an evil empire, a lost kingdom, a tribe of natives who get a long with some of the monsters. Along the way you meet and recruit a motley assortment of other characters to help you in your quest. The plot isn't bad, but if you're a fan of the genre there's nothing here that will knock your socks off, but there is enough to keep you playing.As for the combat, it's reminiscent of Chrono Trigger and the old Sega Saturn game Grandia. The monsters are on the field and combat takes place on the field screen, bringing up your menus once it's triggered. You have attack, special abilities and item options, and are able to move around the battlefield freely when your character's turn is active. You also have the option to change into your mechanized "Vulcosuits" which eat up a pool of shared points for each action you take in combat. This brings me to my first issue with the game: the suits while cool are practically useless outside of boss fights because either the enemies will be too weak, or you'll use too many of the shared points to make them viable when you actually need them. So you never get a complete feel for how the suits are supposed to work.My other major complaint is all of the sub-systems that the game has: in addition to the Vulcosuits, which have their own quirks the special ability system is reminiscence of Final Fantasy VII's materia system called spritnits. You can equip each one (and each character has their own unique set) and then equip special secondary abilities to the main abilities that you can activate if you have charges built up. These will imprint on the main abilities after a time (and can be shared by all the characters) giving them extra effects. In addition to the spritnit there are artifacts that you can active and discover through out the world that allow you change battlefield conditions, world map conditions, and dungeon exploration conditions both on a world or local level. There's also a rudimentary upgrade system for armor and weapons as well as a cooking subquest where you gather ingredients for different chefs through out the world to help them prepare meals. It's not that any of these systems are terrible, they're not, but neither are they fully robust and at the same time come across as too much. Either they don't add much to the game or what they add doesn't make a significant change until your near the end of the game. It introduces new concepts at an appropriate pace, there's just too many and none are fully fleshed out.That being said the game is still enjoyable. Despite the lack of use the Volcusuits have, they are still a cool idea. The Spritnit systems work, though the imprinting of the secondary abilities feels quite random. The plot while not original is still entertaining, as are several of the characters. This game was meant as a bowl of nostalgia for the old fans of JRPG's and it accomplishes that quite well. New comers will likely enjoy it as well, though some of the homages will be very lost on them. IF you like JRPG's or you're curious about them, this isn't a bad game to pick up.
