Touhou SouzinengiV -The Genius of Sappheiros-

Really good game with nice soundtrack. For some reason, the pixel art style looked similar to that of Touhou Soccer Moushuuden to me. I really love the pixel art especially.

I'm only half way into the game's story and the prolonged grinding that's suppose to be reminiscent of past RPG games like Final fantasy and the fact that it's Touhou is what's keeping me from not giving it a thumbs down, The game itself is enjoyable to play for long time RPG fans but I'd only buy it if your willing to play this for Touhou or for the deeply curious individual that wants to play RPG games similar to Final fantasy.

while the base mechanics are all fine and there is alot of fun to be had the whole game has so so many other issues which seem extremly stupid and backwards. here are a few examples: - no (mini)map in a game in which alot of rooms look very simular and you are stoped for 30-180s each fight every 10-20 seconds of exploration. (now granted enemys dont respawn unless you get out of the dungeon or touch a save circle) - almost all bosses are a "use this one specific tactic with this specific party setup or fail" - party memebers lvl individualy, so if you need a relatively unused party memeber you have to grind for 2-6h just for them to be on the same/simular lvl as your party - almost all enemys 1-3 shot your partymembers, doesnt matter if you have a tanky frontliner or not (and depending on your formation alot of enemys act before you) - no duplicate of gear allowed. having trouble with 1 or 2 status effects in normal/boss fights? to bad no resistance gear for your whole party. - infliction ratings are a joke. almost all debuffs you cast will not trigger, even on normal enemys unless you go for a 200-300 infliction rating (ignoring all other stats you may need in said battles) - on death effects of bosses that trigger insta party wipes failing the boss fight EVEN IF YOU USE RESISTANCE GEAR TO COUNTER THE EFFECT. having 95% + 90% resistance gear on a char to at least have one party member survive? to bad the boss ignores 50% of your resistance so have fun cointossing the bossfight untill you survive the insta death aoe. - forced party splits. mainly using 1 or 2 party setups? to bad 2 MANDATORY dungeons have you splitting your party into 2 or 3 smaller partys requireing you to grind for hours to get lvl/gear (which again can not be duplicated) - abysal drop ratings for gear that almost feels mandatory. have fun killing a specific monster out of a pool of like 10-20 monsters with a 1-5% chance of dropping the required gear/material - horrible stat scaling near the end game of the NORMAL game (not the expansion pack). you have killed every monster in each dungeon atleast once (more like twice)? to bad you are still 10lvl below the recomended lvl for the boss so go grind for another 10h to even have a chance at somewhat reliably fighting the boss (which again has a *** of debuffs which removes your power from your party's equipment slots) - most bosses use aoe attacks nonestop (quite a few of those attacks also have 1 of the many "you lose x turns of action and/or the current turn, cause you know we need 5 status effects which effectevly are the same "you dont do *** for this turn" effect) the list goes on and on. i gave up at stage 21 (final stage of the base game) right before the actual final boss, since the boss before it just would require me to grind for another 10h to beat and aparently (if you look up a guide) the boss after that one requires you to have 2 full partys, so no im not going to sink another 10-20h into grinding out a second party (again) all in all nice idea but horrible decisions in its mechanics. 4/10 go play a different game unless you fancy yourself mindlessly grinding for hours in a SINGLEPLAYER game and get thrown way to many status effects at your face.