Virgo Versus the Zodiac Review (thepenguinduke)
TLDR: It's wouldn't be right to say that Virgo Versus The Zodiac is a bad game, but for $23 CAD, there is simply not enough engaging content to be found. Maybe pick it up on sale if you want an (eventually) decent story and good characters buried between empty overworlds and disappointingly simple combat. At least there's a killer soundtrack to listen to while you're bored!
REVIEW: I'll start by talking a lot about the combat, mostly because I have a lot to say about it. It's simply too static across the entire playthrough, with no new mechanics added after getting your third and last character (which happens in chapter 2). Nor are the combat systems fundamentally interesting or deep enough to offset this. Sure there's a plethora of different gear and buffs/debuffs, but it never feels like you need to evolve past the basic strategies of "shield, then attack" for single enemies or "spam area attacks" for multiple enemies; there isn't much need, or incentive, for innovation through equipment. This isn't to say that the game is too easy (I played on the recommended "Zodiac" difficulty and still died a few times), but I feel there's too much of an emphasis placed on the QTEs, many of which are frankly unreactable since you never know what to look out for on your first try. Every attack has a different timing, strictness, button, etc. As a result victory often feels more like a knowledge check as opposed to a triumph of strategy and skill.
This problem is exacerbated by the failure of a weapon triangle system. Theoretically this should incentivize you to swap builds to approach different fights, but for 90% of fights I couldn't even tell what element the opponent was, since it's inexplicably tied to their colour palate and nothing else (do blue enemies fit into the green, red, or pink category, I still couldn't tell you). Regardless my +5 green spear on Virgo (starting weapon btw) was enough to chunk through pretty much everybody in the game so I can't say this system accomplished anything.
I do think there was a really interesting base for something here, and with some rebalancing, more transparency of mechanics, and frankly fewer, but more diverse weapon options it could be incredibly engaging. As it stands it's only in boss battles, where the fight is not an one-turn kill or reset because of missed QTEs, where I was really enjoying myself. Because at it's core, pressing buttons at the right time is still fun. It's also a missed opportunity that most of the boss fights split Virgo off from her companions, which only serves to further reduce the strategy needed.
The story, especially the ending I got, I thought was quite good and featured some impactful (if not melodramatic) character writing and dynamics, but only near the end. Up until chapter 5, the story is really just "Virgo goes to galaxy and kills Zodiac" repeated. The story does become a driving force for the player to continue later on, but at the beginning it isn't compelling in the slightest. This leads to a significant bloat near the beginning of the game...
If the combat is a missed opportunity, the level design here is just a miss. The worlds of most chapters feel vast, pointless, and way, way too long. The first three chapters are especially egregious and definitely soured my experience for the rest of the game. Ironically, there is in theory a lot to do in the worlds - there are plenty of NPCs, a lot of interactable objects, quite a few collectables, and some side quests. The issue is that there is absolutely no reward for anything, and the player is sometimes even punished for trying to explore. NPC dialogues add nothing to the worldbuilding, interactable objects (of which I stress, there are a lot ) are witty on rare occasions, but mostly waste your time or spawn surprise enemies. And collectibles/rewards from quests are limited to stars (the games currency, which you get more than enough of anyway), crafting parts (which you can buy with stars in the hub world, making them also pointless), or weapons (which you probably won't bother with past a point - see combat). I'm usually the kind of player who explores everything in a game (likely to my detriment here), but by Chapter 3 even I was sprinting through ignoring almost every interactable to see the next Zodiac's cool design and fight. Each enemy in my way was an annoyance rather than a challenge, and not having upgraded weapons yet made every fight last way longer than in later chapters.
As an example, there's an NPC in Chapter 2 which if you accept their betting "minigame" you're held hostage to watch three back-to-back uninterruptable fights between the AI, all of which play out at regular speed. The whole process takes probably around 5 minutes, for a reward of some stars if you're correct all three times, who thought this was a good idea?
Of the 10 or so hours it took to beat this game, probably the first 6 hours were spent on these three chapters. At least for the remaining 4 chapters I'd say the overall pacing was just right.
As far as other elements go:
The pixel art - fine in the overworld, really pretty in cutscenes.
The portrait art - anywhere between fine and uncanny valley, Virgo is unfortunately probably the worst offender here. It's a shame that the portraits are static, for instance you never see Leo with her eyes open lol.
The character designs - absolutely fantastic, probably the best part of this game.
The soundtrack - nevermind, this is the best part of the game.