gamrReview: Record of Agarest War Zero Review

"Say what you will about the low number of console JRPG releases this generation, but each one will keep you busy for quite a long time. Record of Agarest War Zero will give you hundreds of hours of playtime if you care to delve into it fully. I just wish those hours were more enjoyable." - Karl Koebke

[BeardedGamerShow]

Thanks for the info, now I really don't want to play this game.

[swirldude]

Yikes, didn't sound fun at all for the reviewer, much less for anyone playing it.

[Machina]

Good review.

[MisterPickles2]

74 hours for a 5.5 game... dear lord I feel bad for this man O.O

[Troll-without-Bridge]

The first Record of agarest wars is an awesome JRPg. I think the reviewer doesnt know what to look for a JRPg and its culture.

[Torillian]

I think that's a copout argument to be honest, how many JRPGs do I have to play before I can call one bad or just meh without people questioning my understanding of the genre? Some JRPGs just aren't all that great. It's not like I've never enjoyed a JRPG or given them high scores. Persona 4 and Valkyria Chronicles both got above a nine, and they're both far far better than this game and the score should show that.

[VampiricDragon]

agarest zero was a great game. The guy is a douche

Its not like recent wrpgs like dragon age 2 and dungeon siege lit the world on fire.

I am looking forward to disgaea 4, xenoblade, dq monsters joker 2, persona 2 is just as much as something like skyrim

[Torillian]

Why would I care how good recent wrpgs are? Not really my genre. Doesn't really seem relevant to how good or not Agarest War is.

[VampiricDragon]

I was responding to Troll-without-Bridge

And the point was, the game is really really good.

Unfortunately in this day and age srpgs are alittle to complex and deep for most reviewers

[Redempteur]

this review is bulls**t :

Yet again a weird review

"I had no idea that only three of the girls in the sizeable harem I had accumulated were plausible mates (there was a hint at the oracle in town, but I didn’t catch it at the time)."

SO the game gave you hints and you failed to understand and it's tha game fault ?

"Throughout the game I was given dialogue choices, but they would almost always affect multiple people."

Like what every Rpgs with dialogues choices . Choice that lock you from having a certain outcome are frequent and expected . you're expected to choose a bride not create a harem . Plenty of Jrpgs does this ..again i don't know how this can be a negative.

"I just chose everything I could with a sword associated with it, and called it a day. "
So you ignore the basic aspect of building your character's stats yet it's again the game fault ?

"I just can’t help but consider my need to grind as an issue of pacing that the developers are ignoring based on the idea that their fan base likes to grind."

GRIND on a SRPG ??oh the irony .i mean who does that these days ? ( HINT : everyone ). It does help that you seems to ignore the basic aspect of the characters stats as i mentionned earlier .

"Speaking of that 74 hours, that was just what it took for me to get the crappy ending."

so you suck at planning ... that was obvious. the fact that this game has multiples endings should be a plus not a minus ..

"Luckily not all of the value comes just from forced grinding and repeating the story, you also have tons of side stuff to do while playing. There are all kinds of activities to do to the point that I didn’t even touch on a few like capturing and combining your own monsters. "

so the game is huge and you didn't touch half teh stuff it has BUT YOU STILL BLAME THE GAME for your crappy planning ?

CONCLUSION : STUPID REVIEW , IDIOT REVIEWER

"Couple that with the audio all being in Japanese, and everything comes off as rather stale."

HOW CAN THAT be a bad thing ??? Facepalm.jpg

[Torillian]

Well since I was able to build up affection with more than just those three I don't think it's a huge logic leap to think that you could choose from more than just those three when it came to the final mate decision.

Dialogue choices can affect multiple relationships but usually you can get an idea of who's going to be affected how, most times it seemed fairly random in this game.

If the game doesn't explain in its mechanics and I have to go to an FAQ then yes it is the game's fault.

Grinding is a part of some SRPG's, but not all of them require it (Valkyria) and many do it better than Agarest War (Disgaea) so I think that's a legitimate complaint.

Perhaps I suck at planning, that's possible, fact that I beat the game makes me think I know what I'm doing but maybe not to your level. Then again I don't think a reviewer can or should 100% a game in order to review it.

I blame the game for giving me a unfullfilling ending after a ton of work. Multiple endings are a plus but the normal ending should still be fairly good. I think Persona 4 did this best, and even Atelier Rorona was better at it. JRPG developers should realize that not everyone is going to 100% their games so they shouldn't make the normal ending quite so crappy.

Having audio only in Japanese is a bad thing when coupled with the lack of emotion in the still images and poor sprites. Even I could have noticed the small facial changes in the characters that was supposed to be denoting huge story moments I ignored them because I was reading the subtitles instead. Makes the characters come off as though they don't really care about being there.

[Redempteur]

-ABOUT DECISIONS
you're already making your decisions :that's what these choices are .. Being unable to get a heroine because you've made a bad choice earlier is something that exist in AGES be it RPGS , or Vns ( something agarest take a huge inspiration from in his presentation )
-ABOUT GAME MECANICS
Game mecanics are explained. As for the rest, the choice are quite clear. it's just your fault thinking you could work on 3 heroines at the same time and guess what it doesn't work ...just like in real life.
-ABOUT GRINDING
It's not when your grinding is the only option left due to your own carelessness.
In the first game your were required to do some battles to progress the story(4 each time ) .. think this is any better ? I don't think beating disagaea 1 without grinding is a walk in the park , same for valkyria .. grinding a little is part of the SRPG nature, complaining about it is silly at best , especially when you admit not having touched plenty of side questing ( it could have helped a lot mind you ).
-ABOUT COMPLETION
You don't have to 100% a game to review it . in fact you should be glad you've finished the game before writing the review .That's better than some other "sites" but still .
I think i know what i'm talking about since i've finished this game last year .
-ABOUT THE ENDINGS
Well you didn't enjoy the normal ending .. well it's not a great ending i admit . but the fact that you can change this is still a plus .. not a minus. i didn't like suikoden 5 normal ending so i went to work on the best ending .. if you feel burned by that well it's your opinion but my point still stand.
Imagine some dude writing his review after getting AT3 bad ending ? did you think that's fair ? You can change this ending . And that's a plus.
-ABOUT THE VOICES
Well think that a poor dub with actors without talent ( because they don't have the budget for this ) would be any better ? As for the subtitles that's a 12 years old internet argument . Leave it original if you can't dub it properly , hardly a malus. Especially since Fans WANT IT that way.

[Torillian]

-ABOUT DECISIONS
nothing to add here.
-ABOUT GAME MECANICS
I never said I wanted to work on 3 heroines at once, I was actually just trying to work on one but I would talk to a completely different girl and it would affect the girl I was trying to woo in an unexpected and seemingly arbitrary way. I don't think that having to consult an FAQ just to know how each decision may or may not affect the girl you are working on is a good design.
-ABOUT GRINDING
I just didn't do monster taming, I actually did both optional free dungeons to try and get myself ready for the final bossfight, I don't really see what other side quests you could mean unless you think I should have gone for all the titles, but that would just be grinding under a slightly different guise, farming instead of grinding for experience.
-ABOUT THE ENDINGS
In AT3 you didn't have to replay the entire game to get a better ending, so it's reasonable to expect people to work towards a better ending, again it's like Persona 4 where you have an obvious choice that affects which ending you get so you can save accordingly, I saw no such obvious single choice in this game and the only thing opened after I finished it was a NG+ so I couldn't just continue after beating the final boss. If you put that many walls up to people seeing the good ending you should at least give them something a bit better for the normal ending.
-ABOUT THE VOICES
Again, it usually works to have subtitles but I don't think it does in this instance because of the still images. I watch tons of anime with subtitles and that works because there is something going on along with the subtitles so that you aren't just reading, Record of Agarest War Zero just doesn't have that.

[Redempteur]

you watch anime with subtitles yet this is a problem ??? WOW seriously i felt like i just read an hyperbole.

-Please , of course every choice matters.NOT having a girl on sight doesn't mean that whatever you said/do does not matter in some way. Devote yourself to the girl you want.. Quite clear, having hidden parameters for choices is something EVERYONE DOES and is a perfectly logical design used by everyone.Choices determine your alignement , your alignement determines the girl you get. You crying at something that make sense in every game .
Besides you're asked to choose at some key points, even if your other potential partners aren't there it just matter that you did something , especially when some of them have different opinion about a same subject.

As for the ending , your complain is : "it wasn't obvious "..i guess you're one of those who want to be spoonfeeded.
To get the true ending , you only have not mess up your fight(s) and have a great overall relationship with everyone ..but i guess that wasn't possible for you since yo can't manage talking to the girls.

A shame really : a message saying " you must have a good relationship with your party to pass this door" would have been better for you i guess /s

[Torillian]

guess I shouldn't have expected a reasonable discussion from someone who started out the discussion calling me an idiot. Oh well, was a fun argument anyway. Just have to agree to disagree.

[Redempteur]

Well i pointed all the things in your review that make it onvalid and stupid in my eyes.

And you proved that you are not consistent with your facts . At least you tried to defend this piece of cr**.

How can you watch "ton of animes"( with subtitles ) and have a problem with this presentation..

[rataranian]

A "review" is someones opinion about a game.
...Why would you listen to what anyone else thinks?

[stunkilla]

this is bs i got this game and it's at the very lest a 8.0! fu*ken rpg review are just stupid this gen