Hellenica

“But I have to put some warnings before recommending it, because for some reason the devs decided to reinvent the wheel on many staple strategy RPG mechanics, and this led to some very unpolished aspects.”

“The deterministic nature of puzzles makes the combat lack in mechanic depth and character progression (very few skills per character, most characters restricted to certain maps), to the point the game even gives you one skill point at most per battle, not one skill point per character, but one skill point to give one character.”

“Further, there is hardly an RPG element to Hellenica, as the game offers little in the way of rewards to improve the characters and gameplay.”

“Graphically speaking, it feels like this came right out of the PSX era of games, drawing up memories of Final Fantasy Tactics and Tactics Ogre.”

“You'd think that it might have something suited to the aesthetic of the world, or matched well to the areas and so on, but no, it's really basic stuff that feels more suited to a game about cavemen than it does to Greek/steampunk tactical scheming.”

“The sprites and combat graphics are fine, but the in-town/conversation art style is just incredibly off-putting to me.”

“The music is fine, but if you take your time in one place, it becomes annoying to hear the same track over and over with few variations.”

“The water isn't animated, the music doesn't fit with the battles, the writing is mediocre, and the story jumps around everywhere.”

“One complaint I have is the soundtrack.”

“This kind of ticks me off because it forces you to replay the level to get the experience (experience is gained through objectives) and there is no way to skip all the same dialogue and etc. somewhat tedious, though still fun gameplay.”

“You get experience by doing specified achievements in each mission, not by grinding or completing missions.”

“It's a different system that discourages farming for XP and really makes you think about how you will approach each battle and which skills you will choose.”

“The second biggest issue in my opinion is that the story could have easily been a solid 20-hour linear adventure with proper character development and tension building, if it was structured linearly (like Final Fantasy Tactics or Fire Emblem).”

“Because of the 'different timelines' storytelling, the dialogue in the game suffers a lot. You will sometimes have to listen to long introductions you've already heard and will skip, be introduced to characters and plotlines that didn't really have any setup because to meet those characters you'd have had to go through a different path, and sometimes even have to see character development that apparently happened offscreen because some characters become best friends despite having met a battle ago.”

“If you're looking for in-depth character development, forget it.”

“Overall, I had fun with the game, but I cannot recommend such a short game (4-15 hours depending on how many paths you complete) for its full price. It might be worth it in a sale if you like the aesthetic of steampunk Greece and don't mind its boring story.”

“And if you are into isometric grid combat systems, and don't mind a clunky, kind of boring story, then you will like this game.”

“I would say replayability is there, but it's kind of weird with multiple paths and ways to progress through the story.”

“I would say replayability is there, but it's kind of weird with multiple paths and ways to progress through the story.”