Posted April 23, 2014
Considering getting this game for its story & minimal turn-based combat. Just not sure yet based on the above. I mean, I can always follow a guide if need be, but I kinda wanna know if I'll need a guide first.
I never experienced lots of deaths, even though I had it on hard difficulty. I only died (not the kind I can use Tears to fix) about 11 times in the game, including deaths in the mini-games. Honestly, the combat is not hard. You can save at lots of places, but hard difficulty does limit you to using the creatures to save - they're everywhere. As for penalizing you for not having XYZ because you forgot to get XYZ, I never really experienced that either. However, the game does have some leeway when deciding to start a new plot pojnt. There're one or two places where you have to make you're prepared. At least in one case it informs you to not go further until you're confident you're ready for it. It doesn't say what you need. It's not anything specific anyway, so much as it's making sure you have enough Healgrease and Tears and (customized too) Mystech and levels. Again, I only know of one or maybe two places where this matters. In almost all of the game, as long as you follow the plot, you'll have enough levels to win. I say all this on hte assumption you'll play on hard difficulty, as I did.
I never redid old areas on purpose. This is not like an MMO where you grind old places.
Almost all items (such as weapons and rings etc.) can be bought in stores. If you miss them via side quests etc. you can always buy them later - but doing the side quests (or finding them as you walk around) means you can get them much earlier.
I think I died on some mini-games more often than in the main battles. I think the first time I played I had to re-do that shuttle escape mission many times because I sucked at it - and because I didn't find the shuttle shield (didn't know it even existed at that point). Of course you can skip all the mini games so it's not a big deal anyway.