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Forging Solid Bonds!

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Developed by EXE-CREATE and published by KEMCO, Sword of Elpisia is solid JRPG with an incredibly unique story even compared to other KEMCO titles we've reviewed. Does this game live up to its predecessors? We think so, but you'll need to read the rest of the review to find out why!



Sword of Elpisia tells a gripping story of a girl who loses everything to protect the people she cares about and her quest to regain what she's lost. As far as KEMCO games go, Sword of Elpesia's story is one of the better ones with some heavy-hitting moments that will make you feel for the characters on a level few other KEMCO games accomplish. That said the gameplay in SoE takes a huge step back from recent KEMCO titles with much more simplistic mechanics that feel quite dated and lackluster at times, but despite this there's nothing inherently wrong with it and the game is still fun if you don't mind extremely old-school gameplay.

The game has a few minor nuances such as skills being tied to your weapons for a bit of customization for your characters and the game has some decent side content such as optional recruitable animal familiars, an optional dungeon that can be unlocked in the premium shop with a small amount of premium points that can be obtained in-game, as well as post-game content, including an extra story scenario, bonus dungeon, and a battle arena to name a few of the post-game goodies.



The game is actually pretty difficult at the higher difficulty settings so expect a challenge if you try to tackle the game on hard difficulty. The controls in the game are intuitive and easy to learn which is always nice. Now something that isn't so nice is the frequent minor frame-rate drops in the Switch version of the game, which while not a major issue did hamper our enjoyment of the game slightly at times.

As for the audiovisual-presentation, SoE is a HUGE step-up from the previous KEMCO games we've previously reviewed, visually speaking. It's not going to blow players minds or anything like that, but in-general is detailed and is quite pleasing to look at. And lastly the music fits the game's atmosphere quite well and is a bit more varied than in previous KEMCO titles, but is definitely one of the game's weak points. Still we'd say the soundtrack is still pretty good!



Bottom-Line: With solid gameplay, a fantastic story, intuitive controls, and excellent retro visuals, Sword of Elpisia is a good JRPG that most fans of the genre will likely enjoy, however some performance issues do hold the game back a bit. Overall, however we believe the game is still well worth its price and therefore we give the game a good level of recommendation!

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Score: ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 8/10

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#Review #KEMCO #EXECREATE #JRPG #Switch #eShop #PS4 #PS5 #PSN #Gaming

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