Amayui Castle Meister part two: The story
Entry posted by Clephas
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I'm going to be blunt... the story of Amayui can be summed up in one word... unimpressive. The same could be said for Kamidori and Himegari, but whenever Eushully goes off on one of their item-creation rampages, the game's story inevitably takes a back seat.
Now, that's not to say that this story doesn't have good points. Toward the end it actually starts to resemble an IM world game... the problem is that it doesn't feel like an IM world game until near the end. For better or worse, the protagonist and the main heroine are both inveterate optimists (though Avaro is not supposed to be one, he certainly acts the part through most of the game). For another part, the cast in general is just... small in stature compared to the best of Eushully's lineup. For a goddess, Fia is just a bit too airheaded. Avaro can't seem to decide whether he wants to be a moody craftsman, a half-assed priest, or an idealistic kid. Mikeiu (the white-haired catgirl) is a mage that wields snowmen as familiars. Ioru is a greatsword-wielding assassin catgirl whose favorite hobbies are cooking and pleasing Mikeiu. Rish is a scheming local ruler who intends to bring Avaro to her side with her body. Kisnir is a samurai with no sense of modesty (she and Deet are really the only members of the cast that I liked). Rosaline is a depressed immortal ghost-wielding oppai-loli with horrible luck. Katorite is a weak-hearted loli dragon who cringes at loud noises. Finally, Mikshana is an angel whose stiff manner is due to what amounts to a lack of social experience.
Compared to the grandness of the characters of the IM series, the Genrin series, Madou Koukaku, or even Soukoku no Arterial, this game's characters were just too quirky and light-hearted to fit into the pretty grim setting that first came into being with the first Ikusa Megami game.
That said, near the end the story actually starts to get exciting... briefly. I spent so much time trying to get rare materials near the end that I ended up feeling like the story was a mere one-tenth of the game... and a fragmented one, at that. Not only that, but this game committed several of the largest grind-causing sins an srpg hybrid can commit... indiviidual experience, enemy level scaling, and a failure to scale experience gained from defeating enemies to their levels. I'm sorry, but when a character defeats an enemy ten levels their superior (near the end, several of my characters had fallen that far behind) I expect enough experience to go up a level or two, at the least.
As such, evening out the levels of my party toward the end took over ten hours, aside from the six hours to get them all fitted out with the best equipment I could make (primarily due to the lack of availability for most of the major materials near the end).
So... this game is fine if you just want to make items from a list and fight repetitive, grindy battles against uninspiring enemies. However, it isn't that attractive for someone who wants a good story.
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