God Wars: Future Past Review

It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what makes a JRPG good or bad, and I’ve played a tonne of JRPGs in my life before God Wars: Future Past. I usually find myself asking the same questions when looking back on games like this. Does the story make sense or is it a pile of overwritten garbage? Is the gameplay solid and flowing or more akin to document sorting? It’s these questions and more that have lead me to  say for a fact that God Wars: Future Past is a truly solid tactical JRPG at its core, with the exterior, unfortunately,  being a bunch of pointless fluff.  

The game takes place in the mythical land of Mizuho, which is composed the nations of Fuji, Izumo, and Hyuga, where humans and Gods lived among each other, and at some point things got hairy and the Gods were angered. In an effort to appease the Gods and prevent further destruction of the world, the Queen of the Fuji Nation, Tsukuyomi, sacrificed her beloved second daughter Sakuya to the fiery depths of Mount Fuji.

Basically, all the abilities and skills you have unlocked and mastered get removed for new ones, which may leave you severely under-prepared for a big battle. I understand the reasoning for this, as in games like Bravely Deafult and Final Fantasy III you can end up super overpowered by stacking class abilities. In God Wars however, you are left feeling super vulnerable in the next battle after changing jobs, especially when you get to the later stages of the game where the difficulty ramps up, and you are about as strong as a wet cloth.

Though in saying this, there are a lot of significant advantages of every class, so they all do feel unique and effective, with no clear combination being super broken and unbalanced  unlike other JRPGs *cough* Final Fantasy III *cough*.

Aside from the job system blunder, the rest of the tactical gameplay goodness shines through as you progress through each linear mission on your journey. Each battle starts with your party and the enemy being transported to a small cube like dimension, and its up to you to figure out how to dispose of the bad guys.

Sure, you could just charge right up and start wailing on them, or you could come up with an infinite amount of more tactical options. You could flank around and take the high ground, offering additional damage, or you could draw attention to the tank and have buffs cast on your other party members for an explosion of damage. The choice is entirely up to you.

The visual design of the game is quite refreshing. The toned down 3D battle models are nice enough to not make gameplay look and feel dodgy, albeit slightly clunky on the smaller maps.  The animations flow smoothly in battle, with each character standing out in battle, allowing you to move around and plan you attacks with ease.

The 2D visuals , seen in the dialogue and cutscene sequences are beautiful and add a layer of depth to the game, and seem to be inspired by traditional Japanese ink paintings, which makes the overall aesthetic of the game a whole lot more appealing. The cutscenes also have a rather effective use of onomatopoeia, which makes them all the more enjoyable.

Overall, the visuals make the game stand out among all the other JRPGs out there, with some very unique ideas present.