I cleared the game yesterday--33 hours, though at least ten of that was screwing around in random dungeons like you're supposed to in a Nippon Ichi SRPG. I probably could have cleared it in 20-25 if I'd exploited certain stages. Compare that to 60-70 hours first time through for Disgaea and Phantom Brave, in my case.
I have to say I was kind of disappointed, though I didn't entirely dislike it--the game just didn't feel challenging this time out, whereas there was some noticeable difficulty in both Disgaea and Phantom Brave. The only time I really felt any sense of difficulty was the final level, and that was because I was underleveled.
I don't play Nippon Ichi games for the story, but MK's cutscenes are easily the worst of the three most recent games--low-budget even by Nippon Ichi standards, not all that funny, and tedious near the end. (Salome's voice was great, though.)
As for the game play--not broken or easily exploitable, but unbalanced. Healers are useless unless they're reincarnated as some other class with offensive capability. Mages are overpowered because they have such a wide range of attack--clearing the game with an army of eight mages doesn't seem beyond the bounds of possibility, and may even be the most efficient way to do it. Vehicles and buildings are more likely to be inconveniences than assets, especially since the restrictions of random dungeons render them more or less worthless. (Buildings are especially a liability for the enemy in the scripted dungeons, since mages can often destroy buildings in a single hit, killing everyone inside.) Gency tonics are just a little too rare.
Compared to the other Nippon Ichi grinders, there's not enough stat-tweaking for my taste--nothing like the Item World of Disgaea, or Phantom Brave's grafting of skills from items onto characters.
I may fiddle around with MK's New Game+ a little more, but I found Disgaea's new game+ to be more satisfying, and I'd rather revisit that again. Geopanels are probably the best gameplay feature out of any of the three Nippon Ichi games I've played, and Makai Kingdom really needed something like that to increase the challenge.
I have to say I was kind of disappointed, though I didn't entirely dislike it--the game just didn't feel challenging this time out, whereas there was some noticeable difficulty in both Disgaea and Phantom Brave. The only time I really felt any sense of difficulty was the final level, and that was because I was underleveled.
I don't play Nippon Ichi games for the story, but MK's cutscenes are easily the worst of the three most recent games--low-budget even by Nippon Ichi standards, not all that funny, and tedious near the end. (Salome's voice was great, though.)
As for the game play--not broken or easily exploitable, but unbalanced. Healers are useless unless they're reincarnated as some other class with offensive capability. Mages are overpowered because they have such a wide range of attack--clearing the game with an army of eight mages doesn't seem beyond the bounds of possibility, and may even be the most efficient way to do it. Vehicles and buildings are more likely to be inconveniences than assets, especially since the restrictions of random dungeons render them more or less worthless. (Buildings are especially a liability for the enemy in the scripted dungeons, since mages can often destroy buildings in a single hit, killing everyone inside.) Gency tonics are just a little too rare.
Compared to the other Nippon Ichi grinders, there's not enough stat-tweaking for my taste--nothing like the Item World of Disgaea, or Phantom Brave's grafting of skills from items onto characters.
I may fiddle around with MK's New Game+ a little more, but I found Disgaea's new game+ to be more satisfying, and I'd rather revisit that again. Geopanels are probably the best gameplay feature out of any of the three Nippon Ichi games I've played, and Makai Kingdom really needed something like that to increase the challenge.
