izigame.me

(After playing a few hours - scroll below to find additional notes)
I've read a few other reviews and I'm not sure I understand the issues people are having. The combat and game mechanics are pretty well explained. It IS a little clunky if you just jump in and face roll it - but if you READ THE INSTRUCTIONS it tells you how to do most everything. Also paying attention helps with that. It plainly tells you to READ THE INSTRUCTIONS. It does not walk you through everything and hold your hand.
I don't really feel it deserves as much of the negativity I've seen so far, so far I'm enjoying it and will keep rolling along. There ARE some things that could be polished a bit in both dialogue and explanations.
The story so far is interesting and the comic strip style story board is pretty nice, I do like the comic strip bits and think they could have incorporated a bit more, its a nice touch. Though some of the dialogue is a bit corny and feels like something taken from too many pirate movies. Can be good, can be bad, however you look at it. Overall, enjoyable so far.
Combat can be a little clunky on occasion but it feels like one of those things you pick up as you get further into it and it starts making more sense. My guess is this is what most people are having so many issues with, they just jump in and expect it to work by rolling their faces on the keyboard.
Some of it can be trial and error and there are some things that could be better explained, but if you've played any number of turn based RPGs / strategy games etc.. you can kind of get a feel for it well enough. Combat is hit or miss at the moment and if your character gets into a string of misses it can get a little annoying and you have to start the fight over again (again only an hour or so into it so I'm guessing once you build out your "crew" a bit more combat gets smoother later on).
Learning how to chain attacks and combo moves helps with making the combat a bit smoother and once you figure some of it out, it gets easier as you go. (Do no dismiss pushing enemies and things especially if they are up against a wall, curb stomping can help to finish off enemies quickly and easily)
Overall, in my first hour of playing, I think I'm starting to get the hang of it.
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Continuing on as I've played almost 8 hours now...
The combat is janky and can be very clunky and takes a bit of getting used to and could do with some better explanations (as stated previously) I think I've got the grasp of it. When things are working, they work well and can be fun, when things don't work well it can get frustrating if you find yourself aggravated at having to constantly redo a mission 3 or 4 times due to a string of poor dice rolls. (I find myself getting frustrated when in having to redo and redo again and redo once more even when I have prepared ahead of time).
This becomes especially noticeable when you get into a fight against enemies that can down your units in one turn and the mission condition is unit(s) "must survive". (You can remedy most of this with items)
Very linear so far (unsurprising) and seems to be very short. If they ironed out some of the combat issues and did a better job at explaning things more directly and gave it a bit more depth overall, I think it could be a good story.