Clouds of Rain (2020, PC STEAM Gameplay 2021)
2Clouds of Rain is a Jrpg/Tactical hybrid game that mixes the genres elements nicely. The game was released on PC in 2020, it was Developed and Published by Graphic Line Games.
STORY: 20/20
"In the skies of a forgotten world, a decadent civilization is finishing every resource, including the Leviathans, huge creatures that sail the skies since the dawn of time. The Sky Watchers are fighting for their survival, but the hunters are more every day and their trade maintains the precarious balance of the Kingdom. Live the stories of a Queen trying to stop a civil war, a group of soldiers investigating a shady trade in the capital and two orphans looking for their place in the world." - STEAM.
GRAPHICS: 18/20
I love the game's hand drawn graphics, it kinda gives me an old-school vibe of some games made in the early 2000s, which I love. The game's graphics really reminds me of Suikoden on the PS1 also for some reason. The characters, monsters, icons, character portraits, locations, towns, and other locales are also all hand drawn.
The game is extremely unique in that art style, it's impressive but here's the reason why my rating is not 20/20, it's because the game is all hand drawn you'll find yourself getting stuck on things because you can't judge your surroundings properly, as you see often during my video. The game also has some nicely hand-drawn cutscenes that brings the story together which gives the game also a deeper story experience.
SOUND: 15/20
The game's music is okay, it's nothing special to rave about but as it's an Indie Game and probably with a low budget you can't moan about it, it serves its purpose. The game has quite a lot of sound effects in place, monsters attacking, attacking skills, magic skills, item finding, menu accessing, and a lot more. In all the sounds fit the places it's used but well, they are just boring and don't stand out.
GAMEPLAY: 12/20
So I think this is where the game is a bit of a mixed bag, it has 3 difficulty setting which you can switch when starting new chapters, depending on which you choose is the result of if you have an easy time or hard time getting to the end. The game is heavily story driven and with a LOT of cutscenes for it's four characters that each have their own story arcs. The game also switches to and forth a lot between the characters, i'm not a real fan of broken up stories like this.
The gameplay in battle I think is where it all shines, you really have to think about each battle, what position you put your characters in, what equipment and weapons they use, should they use magic? whilst also thinking about managing your party's HP/MP and deciding your action, all this can be done during fights. in exploration areas.. they seem to be quite small, especially the floating islands you can land on, which brings me to my next point.
There's a flying section in the game that get's you around the World Map, it's WAY to long, it's a nice addition but man, it's boring. The controls of the airship takes a little time to get used to but it's not that bad once you do. At least its not as bad as controlling the airship in that God awful Jrpg STEAM game - Soul Saga, man.. that game sucks. If there's something else I have to complain about also.. it's the lack of inventory space to carry more items than just 8 or so of each.
Other than all that mentioned above, that's all the gameplay is, is just walk around talk to people to advance the story whilst being lead by the hand.
SYSTEMS: 14/20
The game has a number of systems in place, a unique row system for your fighting characters, weapon/armor system that also supports the row thing. You also have an elements system for strengths and weaknesses for monsters for you to exploit. There's the basic INN / Store system, the airship system, and a bit more.
OVER ALL: 79/100
It's an enjoyable story, especially with the hand-drawn cutscenes and graphics but there's just so much more room for improvement. Do I recommend it..? sure if it is on offer or if the devs decide to upgrade the game further, if not then i'd skip this one.
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If your interested in trying this out then you can find it on STEAM here..
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1383200/Clouds_of_Rain/
Have you played this game? What did you think? Let me know in the comments below.
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