Pros:
-Almost no loading time: i mean zero ... the most loading you'll see is when you start up the game. Once you get going whether it's transitioning areas, entering battle, or even going in and out of buildings (an act that some games have murdered with load times) is all but instant.
-Awesome cinematics: Ya this story is HUGE on the storytelling thing. It can be a bit much i'll admit (like put your xbox into screensaver mode long cinematics :P) but the upside? -> you can just hit "select" and jump right thru them if you don't care about the storyline (which sadly is one of this game's strongest points.
-Good visuals: The graphics are of course stunning and the "world and dungeon" designs are all pretty unique. You won't see any copycat map setups here, each area has it's own unique layout that will keep you interested.
Cons:
-Controls: while you have freedom of movement and can try to circle around your enemy to attack, the controls are lacking when it comes to actually attacking your enemy. You have 3 basic combos, and you gain special attacks as you level up that you can "chain" into your normal swings. And when i say "chain" i mean struggle to get an effective combo together. Basically your basic attacks are performed by tapping A or B and your special abilities are activated by HOLDING A or B, an act which, in my experience, the computer seems to have difficulty distinguishing between. -Spectator Sport?: You are very involved early in the game; meaning the outcome of battles and events relied heavily on YOUR personal participation. However about half-way thru (either right before or right after i inserted the second disk) while i still found it enjoyable to beat on the trash mobs and minibosses, i soon realized that my role as an actual "player" would come to a grinding halt very soon. I think it was the second or third main boss i came up against when i realized this fact -> "Holy crap, for me to win this fight, i have to pretty much stay AWAY from the boss and let my secondary group (which can't die by the way) fight him themselves and when they weaken him enough i run in and hit the big chain that we're trying to destroy." Rinse and repeat that and you have the last few major boss fights. Sad right? My jobs were to: A. stay alive and B. hit the chain. Because heaven forbid i actually try to ATTACK the boss, he would 1 or 2 shot me into oblivion everytime.
-Saving: or lack thereof. Save points are few and far between almost to the point that i found myself constantly thinking "holy crap if i don't find a save cube soon i'm gonna have to do all this crap over again if i die!" which brings me to my next con ->
-Death: ya it sucks. Especially when you've been playing for half an hour or so and still haven't come across any save cubes so then you get to have the fun experience of repeating the aforementioned half hour of gameplay. And as i mentioned about the boss fights; it is VERY easy to die. You can die one of 2 ways: A. your whole party including you die (that's an immediate game over) or B. you die and some of your party is still alive; if they don't rez you in a certain amount of time .... ya you guessed it ... game over. It wouldn't be so bad except your CPU companions aren't all that bright. You could die ... and have a healer that could rez you in the group OR even a whole stack of rezzing potions in your inventory. So while you're laying there ... slowly dying ... you'd think that they would pick ONE of the 2 options to get you back in the game ... wel i'd say that happens about 50% of the time. I'm not joking. They CPUs are idiots ... so i won't even make a separate section in the cons for them.
-Skills and leveling: you level up like nobody's business in this game, but at what price? A lot of your time is spent scrolling through countless submenus making sure that none of your 12 or so party members hasn't learned a new skill that you should apply to their combat abilities. Not to mention the massive skill and item database. This game is so high maitenance i felt myself going cross-eyed trying to keep all the information straight. In fact to even USE any items you have to bring up the menu (which makes you stationary and completely defensless) and scroll through all of your other crap to find the healing or mana regen potions you thought you bought but you can't remember what they're called cause there's so many different kinds and while you were trying to find them either you or the rest of your party was killed cause you couldn't move or help them ..... ya that pretty much sums up item usage. There are so many other issues i had that would fall under "maitenance" that i really just dont' feel like listing them. Suffice it to say it seemed like a lot of work for very little benefit.
There are plenty of RPGs you can choose to play and having fun to enjoy more than you expect. Spiral Knights is a MMORPGs you can play and explore the adventure in some other planet. You can enjoy more Spiral Knights Hack as a great help for your entertainment.
