In Depth Review - Curse of Lagdou
Let me just start by saying that this hack was such a breath of fresh air! The crit system was so fun and unique, and the hacks place in the world of Sacred Stones was really cute and fun. This review will be split into two parts. 1. The Writing and 2. The Gameplay. I’ll have some closing thoughts at the end, but aside from that, here we go.
Writing
So by now, we’ve all played a bunch of different hacks with none nobility taking a starring role. But I’ll open by saying that Isabelle was such a breath of fresh air. Her involvement with her father and the rest of Carcino’s politics felt so unique. I never considered prior to playing this that Carcino could make for an interesting set piece, but this hack totally changed my mind! Honestly, my main criticism for her falls into just wishing there was more of it. And that really exemplifies my problems with Isabelle. Her personal conflict is genuinely very interesting. And I love how it gets wrapped up in the fight with the demon king. The problem is that it doesn’t get much screentime in the early and mid game. The Master Taylor is a complete non character for most of the plot, and his lack of presense makes it very easy to forget he even exists. It’s a shame, because he seems like an interesting character, and there’s so much that could have been done with him, especially in the Carcino mini arc.
A lot of these complaints can apply to Jeanne as well. She’s a very cute character, and I love her arc of slowly realizing she desserves to live even if she doesn’t have a purpose necessarily. However, there’s a lot of development that could have been had were her parents mentioned more throughout. I got the impression that they weren’t supportive of her transition, and that’s an interesting point of contention. What we got was really special, and it’s amazing seeing a trans fem lead in a rom hack! But overall, I wanted more out of her relationship with her family and sister, and even moreso from her relationship with Isabelle. The two are both main characters, yet it felt like they didn’t have much going on together.
Now I know I kind of opened just by analysing the main characters, and I haven’t even gotten to the story yet, but I do see this as a very character driven story, despite the steaks. I think the actual world ending nature of this rendition was very well done. There’s a real sense of urgency, hurt, and ruin towards the later half of the game. This is a place that this hack really shines. My only real complaint is that I wish there was more integration with the base game characters and story. Obviously, the OC’s are the stars of the show, I want them above all else. But they did end up feeling very much like OC’s planted into the world rather then living in the world. There are many ways to fix this aside from major alterations. Really, the biggest thing I was missing were supports between OC’s and Sacred Stones characters. That alone could make them feel more naturalized into the world. I know, anyone playing the hack has already played base Sacred Stones, but it was still off putting seeing the original cast getting sidelined so hard so frequently.
Final thoughts for this section: I really liked this hacks story and characters overall. They felt really well fleshed out with distinctive personalities. And the story was quite fun as well. I would have just liked it to be more fleshed out in certain places, but that’s neither here nor there. With all that said, let’s move onto-
Gameplay
I said it in the beginning, but the crit system is so damned smart, so damned creative, and so damned fun to play with. I adore how it really makes you think through unit placement, especially in regards to flanking. The skills as well we’re a great addition, seeing certain skills interact with the crit system was very fun to see.
That said, there was a lot of unit balancing that felt especially off. Some characters cough cough Jeanne, felt very overpowered- to a point of breaking the game. The enemies really aren’t that strong in this hack, and having these powerhouses running around kind of trivialized large parts of the game. This is especially ashame because I really liked a lot of the maps here. The map design is quite well done, the maps look appealing, and there’s a good sense of progression to them. I do wish there was more stress placed on the player, though, maps did tend to be rather easy to turtle and typically became rather trivial five turns in.
My biggest issue though, isn’t the overtuned characters. Really, it’s the undertuned ones. Pretty much every character that wasn’t given a skill was at a significant disadvantage. It really started to weigh me down as I played because skill dispersal didn’t feel fully mindful. Sometimes, it made sense. A shitty unit like Neime being helped out by galeforce was really smart. But then characters like Natasha or Gillaim would just have nothing to help them. I’m ok with unbalanced casts, but in a game with skills, the lack of them alltogether/lack of useful ones, on so many characters didn’t feel interesting, it just felt like “oh hey, guess I won’t be using Ephriam.”
That’s about all my thoughts on the gameplay. It was still a really great time, despite my issues. A lot of maps especially towards the end were very unique and fun to play. The hack even managed to make the demon king fight fun somehow.
Final Thoughts
Overall, Curse of Lagdou is an excellent time. The new characters, the new take on the story, and the interesting gameplay additions really helped bring it all together. I hope my despite my criticisms, my love for the hack still shines through. I finished the hack in a matter of days, which is partially because the game is a bit shorter than what I’m used to, but it’s also a sign of how much I enjoyed it. Props to you DoinThangs.
TLDR: If you’re looking for a fun new take on Sacred Stones, with all new maps, and a couple new and interesting characters, this is the place to get it <3
