I haven’t actually dropped Growlanser yet, but it’s going back on the shelf for a while. I still like the characters and the setting, and the story has just taken a rather interesting turn. If only I liked the battle system better things would be wonderful.
Unfortunately the following things are bothering me quite a bit.
1. The battle winning conditions grate on my nerves. On one hand I’m happy to have something to do other than “Beat everyone to death.” On the other, bigger hand, some of those battles are serious pains in the ar$e. “Hide behind the rocks, spring out, cut the ropes to the bridge on the left before Julian comes back, cut the ropes on the bridge to the right before the princess escapes, kill everyone except the princess and teleport away.” PHEW. And that isn’t even the most complicated battle so far.
2. Point #1 wouldn’t be so bad if the tempo of the battles wasn’t so terrible. First, once you enter a command, the character keeps carrying it out until they either complete it or you interrupt them. E.g. if you say “Kill the Boss” then they’ll attack the boss f0rever and ever, even if their HP is getting low or another character needs help. This is kinda bad, because I prefer being able to direct my party turn by turn.
Interrupting is also harder than it seems, because you have to do it right after someone has finished acting but before someone else starts moving, and you have to take cooldowns into effect.
More annoying than all that, though, is the dumbness of my party AI. If I send, say, Misha to attack an enemy, and Wallace is the least bit in her way, she won’t stop and ask for fresh instructions, or use magic or distance attacks. She’ll run in place for the rest of the battle unless a) there’s another enemy close by, in which case she’ll hit him instead, or b) I notice and ask her to do something else, or c) I manually direct her to move to Point A, then to Point B so she can get around him. It’s all too stupid for words.
Not to mention the animation of each person’s commands interrupts the counter for everyone else. So Misha will take two steps, *pause* MC attacks *unpause* Misha takes another two steps *pause* Ruise uses magic. Ruise comes back for fresh instructions. *unpause* Misha takes another two steps. Etc. etc. etc. The pacing is terrible.
It also doesn’t help that I got lost in a rather short dungeon and spent a lot of time wandering around fighting weak monsters over and over again, making me thoroughly sick and tired of the battle system.
Since I like everything except the fighting, though, I have two options. 1. Give up on playing Growlanser and read spoilers or watch a playthrough instead. 2. Take a break and come back later when I’m fresher and ready for more frustration. I’m going with Option 2 for now.
