I haven't quite completed the whole game yet--I've just finished the second temple, so I'll update anything I need to once I finish.
So far, the story is very intriguing--there's a civil war going on, and factions are divided between the Empress and Emperor. One wants change and to open the border, the other doesn't. You follow the heroine in her quest to hire the Old Assassin to kill the emperor. She fights for the empress, while her brother fights on the emperor's side.
ProsUnlike many games that seem tossed out in beta stage, this game seems very well polished. I haven't seen any of the grammatical/mechanical problems in the dialogue that plague many rpg games, nor have I come across any bugs or glitches. I've read about a few "bugs" on other sites, but they all seem user-end related--things like directx problems and so on.
In this game, you pretty much go from one dungeon to the next. Normally, I like a game that has a lot more exploration in it, sidequests, etc. However, the story has kept me moving forward. I think another benefit is that none of the "dungeon areas" are extremely long, and, since you're constantly moving forward, the areas and monsters are always changing and the story progressing.
On top of that, the battle and skill system is very nice. You earn ki as you go, and this allows you to buy different skills for your party. You also have two different sources of power to draw from. There's the standard SP, which is basically the magic based attacks and is replenishable through items. Then there's Chi, which you accumulate through battles (the chi also disappears and resets to 0 at the end of the battle). Therefore, you really have a lot of different options and ways to proceed in battle.
The monsters are invisible in this game, but there's a handy little gauge that goes from clear to red as you get closer to a battle. This means you can definitely tell when you're nearing a battle, and it takes a fair distance of walking before you encounter another battle. The only downside is that you can't avoid the battles, which does make backtracking a little annoying. However, before you hit a boss battle, there's always a little, blue sphere that replenishes all party members HP & SP, which is really nice!
ConsSo far, I've really only found a few downsides, and they're all relatively minor.
The first is finding locations. It would be wonderful if locations were better marked. In some cases, it's really hard 1) to remember where you're supposed to go and 2) to find where you're supposed to go.
A quest journal--I hesitate to pop this one in because you really just follow the main quest, but the problem is remembering where you're supposed to go next can be really difficult, especially with very foreign names for everything.
Buyable skills/ki--I think there might need to be either a) more buyable skills or b) something else to do with ki. I've only just finished the 2nd tower, but it's not going to be long before I've bought all the skills for everyone in my party.
Spear guy--Jiro R?? (yep, I'm really bad with names)--this guy has no buyable skill to increase his chi like the other party members have. However, he's got the only spell to remove status ailments. The only time he's ever gotten enough chi to use that spell is during boss battles. He either needs a skill to give him chi like the other party members, or that skill needs to be less chi.
So. . .The first installment of Prodigy is definitely a very enjoyable game with an intriguing story. I also love the unique skill/battle tactics the developers included. And, like I mentioned, all of the cons to this game are so minor that they hardly detract from the game at all. This game is definitely worth checking out, and I can't wait to see the next installments
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