izigame.me

I don't really like Terra, and the frusturating thing is that I really should like it. But I don't.
Terra Incognita (Unknown Land, I guess) is an Early Access RPG about the world of Terra and the Descendants who guard it. You start the game as Alexis, a Descendant who's fallen from the sky. He meets an archer fisher dude named Leon, who gives him food and shelter for a night, and the two of them head off to the mainland for... some reason. Anyway they reach a village called North Willow, which is under constant threat of bandit attacks, so the duo try to bring peace to the northern continent, gathering friends and equipment along the way.
Right off the bat, there's a bunch of problems with the game - not related to even the story or gameplay, but the operational aspects of it. For some reason, you aren't able to alt+tab out of the game, there isn't a functional Steam Overlay, and (to me) the biggest issue is that it forces itself into fullscreen, regardless of the window size you pick. It was definitely a hassle to get started, but I let it slide and read the opening cinematics a few times (thanks to having to restart it over and over).
But as soon as I start controlling the game it starts to kinda show it's, well, Early Access. Not that I'm complaining, I mean, I knew the game was Early Access when I bought it. I'm pretty sure the whole game was made in RPG Maker - which isn't a bad thing, but considering the versatility of RPG Maker, I was surprised at how bare the gameplay was. The tile-based movement doesn't make a lot of sense when you have sprawling forests and tons of nooks and crannies to explore - it all felt really cramped or really open; there wasn't a place in the game I could describe otherwise. Worst thing is, I didn't know the controls - I did see a "controls" picture overlaid on screen at the beginning, but it apparently disappears by itself after a while and I had assumed it'd stay there until I did something.
As for the actual gameplay portion of the gameplay, it was kind of underwhelming. After you get all four party slots filled up, you can pretty much just start an encounter and spam enter for a while. HP/MP conservation isn't that much of a problem when leveling up (which happens often) and save stones (which are everywhere) restore all your health and mana. On the other hand, potions and items felt way too weak - considering most of the magic attacks took around 35~50 MP to cast, getting a "Blue Potion" which only restores 40 MP felt really underwhelming, especially when the game starts you with potions that heal for 500 HP.
The game also feels really handholdy in parts. "We have to go this way!" But do we really have to? I want to at least explore a little bit first. The fact that I didn't even get to see inside the ruins kind of bums me out. Some areas, though, you can return to later, which is alright. But the fact that the party (or "Battle team", as the game insists on using) went RIGHT back to town and didn't even let me blink after defeating Tybalt just kind of made me say "but, why?"
I wouldn't even mind that so much if it weren't for the inconsistencies. Like when Alexis and Leon were climbing up the ruins, you could apparently only progress if you went around the left side. The right side of the ruins were, inexplicably, blocked off by an invisible wall. But they both went to the same section. I don't get why that happened; why not let me go either way?
Also, item balance doesn't really feel like it exists at all. Scroll that lets you summon a giant bone dragon when you're still in early-game? Sure, ok. But you have to pay like 500 GP to get a measly upgrade to an item which may or may not even be that much of an improvement. The fact that some items don't even reveal what they do is also kind of weird. Don't get too drunk? What does that mean? What if it's a bad thing and I used it on the last living guy on my party during a big boss fight? Or what if it's a really good thing but I wasted it on the last turn of a battle? Idk. LISA did item descriptions very well and also showed off the stat boosts pretty nicely, so use that for comparison if you need it. And LISA was also an RPG Maker game!
Dialogue and stuff felt really bad. It was really bad, actually, partly due to the unintuitive menus (seriously, a shop should not be a Choose Your Own Adventure-like dialogue tree) and partly due to the unpolished sentences. The fact that Brom's name inexplicably loses its capitalization when recruiting Frann just felt really... bad. And that's not the only issue, either. Random varying length of ellipses (from .. to ........), unnatural conversations (I do what I want!), and just a general feel of "Really? This is what we're doing? Okay." just kind of ruin the game as a whole for me. I cared more about the dialogue than I do the game itself and that's just not cool.
As for the general presentation of the game, I guess I could say it's better than a lot of the ways RPG Maker games present themselves. Customized character portraits, sprites, tilesets and music is definitely a step above the reused stock assets I see all the damn time. It looks nice. It IS nice. So props for that.
I dunno. I really kinda want to be able to say "yes, this is worth buying!" But I honestly don't think it is in its current state. I do think Terra Incognita has the potential to improve so I'll be able to say that. But, again, I'm not sure if that's going to happen.
One more thing. Yes, I'm aware the game is Early Access. I don't believe in Early Access as a shield against all criticism (well it's a beta so you can't complain!!). I believe Early Access should be a way for players to genuinely give feedback to developers and other potential players, and that's why I'm writing this - I'd really like at least someone to see this and get a good idea of how the game is right now. Because overall, it's not something I'd recommend. But I want it to be.