Citrus

I just finished playing it for the first time today, and, wow, was it rough. I mean really rough. This game was way worse than I remembered. The gameplay concept isn't bad; the turn-based action RPG formula works. For me, the game fails on these fronts: Lack of polish: There are a ton of typos everywhere. The earth and stone elements of all objects are reversed. The only piece of placeholder dialog is "I'm too busy, little Toa! Come back later." (Which is not only a bit patronizing, but also just thematically wrong in a lot of places, like when the slave Matoran say it before you rescue them. Wouldn't they want to be rescued ASAP?) Not enough explanation: The game doesn't do a great job of teaching game mechanics. You don't get to see your elemental strengths and weaknesses before you select your character, and how attack buffs and debuffs work isn't explained at all. There's a good bit of depth to the game mechanics, but all of it left up to the player to figure out on their own, which can be pretty frustrating. MNOG and MNOG II, on the other hand, had much simpler mechanics, but even then they were either intuitive or explained well within the games. Too many fetch quests: Progression is constantly locked behind menial fetch quests that don't relate to or affect the narrative at all. What's worse is most of them demand extremely long treks across the map, which is made even more tedious by the lack of fast-travel. Without console commands to jump back and forth between quest locations, the game would've felt much more of a chore than a game. Boring combat: You only ever control one character, which drastically reduces the depth battle. Once you master the ability to separate enemies before engaging them, you've basically figured out the whole game. And it only becomes easier as you level up. A few bosses are a bit tricky, and using the right gear for them is pretty much essential, but given the lack of information in the game itself (point 2), stumbling upon the winning combination feels less rewarding and more like blind luck. Random progression: Aside from a few a fixed items that the game gives you, all the gear you get is random. I picked Hahli to play the game, but I didn't received any high-level water gear to take advantage of her buffs during my playthrough. I had to grind for water shards to be able to make any water weapons at all. And it also doesn't help that Balta's menu doesn't explain any weapon's stats or effects before you have to pay for them. I was pretty disappointed overall, but at least my curiosity was finally sated after so many years. If you haven't played it yet, maybe give it a try for 30 minutes or so, and then put it away, knowing that you basically maxed out everything the game has to offer.