By all accounts, I should just love that game. I should revel in its simplicity and straightforwardness, I should lap up its retro graphics, and I should have a field day with its hack-and-slashy fighting system. And yet, none of this is happening; instead, I'm bored. Dreadfully, terribly, horribly bored. So bored, in fact, that I cannot even bring myself to play ClaSen for more than a couple of minutes at a time before turning off my Vita with a sigh of relief. I cleared the first chapter with great difficulty; and although the demo is not over yet, I really don't feel like going any further.
Needless to say, I tried to figure out why ClaSen so totally failed to enthrall me. Could it be because of its half-baked combat marred with wobbly hitboxes and a general stiffness that doesn't go well with real-time action? Could it be because of its ugly pukish colour palette? Could it be because of its pint-sized dungeons totally devoid of challenge and interest? Could it be because of its party support system, which tries to be sophisticated yet comes across as needlessly complicated and pedantic? Or could it be because of all of that combined? Blimey, of course it's because of all of that combined!
Or not really, actually. The aforementioned flaws are certainly irritating, but let's be honest: on their own, they certainly wouldn't be enough to bore me to tears and make me swear off ClaSen. I've played plenty of retro-ish games ripe with similar blemishes, from Astonishia Story to Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure, and totally lapped them up nonetheless; so there had to be something else, something that made me want to forget I ever touched that game. That something can be summed up in one sentence: there is just absolutely no reason for that game to sport retro aesthetics. It's neither a throwback nor an homage to a popular gameplay style from the 8-bit era; quite the contrary, ClaSen is a very modern proposition with its phone game-sized dungeons, its gimmicky mechanics and its inclusive sprites that are similar for male and female characters. It could have sported 3D graphics, and nothing would have been lost in the process. As a genuine retro gamer who was there back in the days, I feel like ClaSen's developers try to pry on my nostalgia and use my soft gamer's heart to make monies; and needless to say, I don't like that much.
It goes without saying that I won't purchase the full version of ClaSen. Another one bites the dust! The good thing with demos is that since they're free, I don't feel pressured by the desire to recoup my investment and I can be fully honest about my feelings for the involved game. The bad thing in that particular case is that I own the first two Cladun entries; and if there are as lacklustre as ClaSen, there goes my money down the drain! See you soon for my next demo report, dear fellow gamers; and as usual, thanks for reading, and be my guest anytime!
I played Cladun: This is an RPG! for over 80 hours.
ReplyDeleteI played Cladun x2 for over 200 hours combined in an European and American save.
I played Meikyuu Tohro Legasista for over 50 hours.
I played Cladun: This is Sengoku! for... 1 hour and never touched it again.
I genuinely can't out my finger on what steered me away from Cladun Sengoku, but something about it just doesn't click with me, and I obviously loved the previous entries. I wanna try playing it again but whenever I'm about to launch Sengoku, I just think "Man, I could be playing Cladun x2" and give up.
Sengoku obviously didn't left you a nice impression, but try the previous entries one of these days. Perhaps you'll like those.
A shame you didn't like the art style. I found the mix of colorfulness and 8-bit inspired sprites and art really charming. Also, it's supposed to be a creator's playground. Editing characters? Design weapons? Create music? Anything goes. And it's actually fun, even if you suck big time in creating decent stuff, like me.
Gee, am I glad to know that you loved all the Cladun instalments apart from Sengoku! This gives me good hopes that I'll enjoy Cladun and Cladun 2, which are patiently waiting to be playing on one of my Vita memory cards.
Delete"I genuinely can't put my finger on what steered me away from Cladun Sengoku, but something about it just doesn't click with me": you know, I have the exact same feeling about Sengoku. Although I tried to pinpoint reasons for my lack of interest, for myself and for my dear readers' sake, the truth is that there's something intangible at work that makes me somewhat dislike Sengoku. I just cannot feel involved in that game, no matter how many boxes it ticks in my "Game I Should Totally Lap Up" checklist. Weird, really.
I don't dislike the art style as much as I find it utterly pointless. It doesn't add anything to the gameplay and feels more like a sneaky way to attract old-timers by playing on nostalgia. For all intents and purposes, Sengoku is little more than a semi-casual mobile RPG; and that 8-bit coating feels like a disingenuous attempt to give the game some legitimacy.