This title came at me out of nowhere, when my bestie at NIS gave me a code to check out and much like most of their titles, they can be pretty hit or miss. I must admit when I saw alchemy, I didn't see it ending well as I don’t have the patience to learn the ins and outs. Luckily it is fairly basic as you mostly use it to breakdown your gear for points to be spent on character development or upgrading gear. I particularly enjoyed the timed battle system as you pick the weapon you want to use, and have to hit the attack button in a timed pattern to get the most from your move. That is just the attack function, the real strategy comes in the form of map control, occupying strategic points, and summoning huge creatures.
It was a bit simplistic but that simplicity keeps you coming back for the one last battle to see how latest upgrades and allocation of points results on the battlefield. The story is a lot of fun being over the top with dramatic undertones. The character are likeable and grow on you throughout the story and surprisingly the alchemy mechanic behind the character progression ended up being one of my favorite features. I lost track of time between battles trying to figure out the best loadouts for my band of misfits.
