Mind Zero isn't a good game. It's mediocre and bland at just about everything it attempts. I would pass on it.
Even if it was super cheap?
I was considering Mind Zero, but then I watched some gameplay and you can immediately see that the game is very low budget. And since practically no one has anything good to say about it... I'll skip it.
What about Conception II? It certainly didn't look as bad as Mind Zero from gameplay videos.
I have platinum'd both Conception 2 and Mind Zero.
Conception 2 is worthless. Mind Zero has one redeeming feature.
Conception 2 has all the bells and whistles... lots of fancy game mechanics and cool ideas and all sorts of other stuff. But as someone else said, the game balance is broken and you will autobattle throughout. None of the mechanics matter -- and that's a lot of mechanics -- battlefield positioning, chaining attacks, cool attacks, none of it matters. It's a boring, terrible grind. Zero redeeming value.
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Mind Zero looks bland. It plays bland at times. But it's got an engaging combat system. Basically, you have a human and demon form, and when you're in demon form your SP takes damage instead of your HP. Skills cost TP, but TP can only be recovered while you're in human form (and thus at risk). There are some other cool things going on too. There are The game is balanced very well (I played on hard) and is challenging throughout.
Basically, what this means is that unlike many drpgs, combat can be engaging. You'll be shifting back and forth between human and demon, looking for a chance to pull off an attack, or heal, or recover TP. Bosses, in particular, could be nice long dances where 2 of your characters might be dead at one point, but you skillfully manage to get everyone back up and running. But if you do backtrack for some reason, you can autobattle which is nice.
Now... that said, everything else is bland. Dungeon design is bland (only the post-game dungeon is really well designed), art is bland, most enemies are just color shifts, lewt is bland,etc. Some of their interesting ideas failed -- for example, you find skill cards and can give them to anyone... which is a great idea at first, until you realize that really makes the characters all feel samey eventually (no classes).
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Conception 2 has about 10 times more to talk about regarding it's combat system. But none of that matters, because you'll never care about any of it since autobattle is faster. Mind Zero has less going for it, but it gets combat (mostly) right.
So between those two, MZ. Do not expect persona. It's not persona. It's a bland drpg with an interesting take on combat that feels generic/bland in every other way.
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Despite its flaws, I enjoyed MZ. I hated my time with C2.
