Virgo Versus the Zodiac Review (lamllae)
This looked like something I'd love (I love RPGs and I love sci-fantasy! And it used to come bundled with OneShot, and OneShot is absolutely delightful!), but it's... disappointing. Less than the sum of its parts for sure.
I completed the Cardinal+Starcrossed route a few years back, but didn't like it. Recently, I came back after the recent update to see if anything's changed, or maybe if I was just too jaded to see the magic back then. I completed the Capricorn and Taurus chapters, and... yeah, still don't like it.
The combat is certainly the strongest aspect of VvtZ, the pixel art is very pretty (and every attack has its own unique animation), the soundtrack is nice... but the writing, good god, the writing...
I can't stand nor bring myself to care about most of the characters, as most of the dialogue has an artificial, schematically quippy feel to it. Everything feels... tropey. Bland. Simultaneously cosmic-scale and weightless. It's replayable, yes - the major story paths diverge quite early, if I'm not mistaken - but it's just plain boring. And since the story is the main selling point of the game, I just can't recommend it.
And even the more fun aspects of the game can be janky at times. Each playable character has 8 pieces of gear. Sometimes, any of them can equip a specific piece of gear; sometimes, it's only equippable by one of the party members. This sounds trivial, but can get a bit frustrating at times. Enemy-wise, in the lategame I'd sometimes beat a final boss with relative ease, move onto the next realm, and struggle against standard encounters there. I was given a "grind dimension" of sorts, yes, but I didn't think going in there was mandatory!