Soma Bringer: The Revised and Final Impressions
1 April 2008I picked a class that wasn’t for me.
I’m getting way too self analytical these days? Anyway, after futzing around a bit in chapter 3 while on a train the other night I said “Fuck this. I’m not having fun.” and started again picking another class. My first attempt was at the Corps class which is basically a paladin. Boring for me in most other games and unsurprisingly boring in Soma Bringer. So I picked a Gunner and gave the game another go.
I flew through the first three chapters easily since I knew what I had to do and was having more fun. Chapters four through six weren’t as painful as my original run through the other chapters but my core issues with the game remain.
There really is too much text in this game. I want to read it all for Japanese practice and just because I hate skipping cutscenes. It was hard. I even enjoyed Xenosaga in all of its bloaty goodness. This was just painful. Perhaps it’s just the mindset aligned with the game-type? Diablo clones are not good places for excessive text. I want to be killing things.
And that brings up the other issue. In agreement with my previous fears the maps of Soma Bringer just got bigger and bigger and the enemy count didn’t increase enough. There were definitely some fun and challenging boss fights. But proceeding from the start of the chapter to the end was definitely a struggle at times. If I ever saw that I was approaching a slightly larger group of enemies I knew most of them would be easily taken out with a few shots.
The AI is unfathomably stupid. I set my healer to be in the back and, well, healing. She spent most of her time being hit in the air as she dared to go too damn close to the enemies. As my class was a ranged attacker I knew someone had to get in the thick of it but that’s why I picked a fighter as my third character. Why my healer couldn’t stop dying I couldn’t discern.
The game does happen to shine and thankfully where it needed to the most. Multiplay. There are some ridiculously difficult hidden bosses within the chapters. Taking them on by your lonesome with the AI is tiring and nearly impossible. Doing this with friends makes it a blast. It’s truly a shame that this game doesn’t have wifi play as getting friends together to play is the biggest challenge I’ve had with the game.
That said, it was a good run if not too wordy. I don’t think I’ll touch the game again unless my friends want to take on some of the bonus dungeons. Soma Bringer does a lot of things right but needs more combat and better design for its maps. I look forward to a sequel.
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