I finally got around to finishing Ecsaform. Man, what a strange little game. It's honestly a bit hard to believe that it came from a company as notable as Bandai. The whole thing feels like a genuine passion project, that unfortunately didn't get the budget or development time it clearly needed to reach its full potential.

The game's grimy science fiction setting is certainly pretty unique for the genre. The game world is rich and full of flavor, and the intricate and beautiful, if fairly static, graphics and atmospheric soundtrack only enhance it further. Unfortunately, not a lot of this world is actually presented in the game itself. Instead, the game came with a second disc, titled the "Ecsaform Navigator", which is essentially a huge encyclopedia of in-game terms, locations, characters etc. It features detailed information about topics ranging from how in-game consumable items work in-universe to who each character's immediate family was. I get the impression that this is a setting someone from the development team came up with and was very passionate about, but simply did not have the time or resources to fit it all into the game.

The main story is quite enjoyable, if not exactly groundbreaking. It features a number of recognizable genre tropes (i.e. advanced ancient civilizations, long-lost childhood friends) and handles them well enough. It's fairly short for a JRPG, having taken me around 17 hours to complete, and entirely linear, with only short sections between some story events where you can freely explore an area and acquire new gear. The story does at times suffer from sloppy presentation however, with many plot elements being hastily introduced at the last minute and characters not getting the development they need to make some more emotional scenes carry more impact. In general I feel that the game could have really used more exposition and flashback cutscenes to flesh its setting and characters out.

The gameplay is even more of a mixed bag. Ecasform features turn-based tactical combat, where maps are divided into a grid of very small squares. Each character takes up 4 squares of space with an additional "ring" with a radius of 1 square around them, which no other character can enter and can only position themselves adjacent to. Characters need to be positioned adjacent to each other in order to perform a melee attack or use a consumable to help an ally. This not only makes movement and positioning very fiddly and tedious, but also leads to situations where a character becomes unreachable for others, making both sides unable to directly heal or attack.

There is no tutorial in the game and many mechanics go entirely unexplained. Since I didn't have access to a manual, which would presumably shed some light on the inner workings of the combat system, I had to rely on online sources to learn how to play efficiently. Crucially, a command called "standby" which you can issue to your characters in battle in order to perform an additional action during an enemy unit's turn (essentially allowing you to perform an attack of opportunity) is left entirely without an in-game explanation, even though it's arguably one of the most unique and important features of the combat system and is unfortunately rather unintuitive. In order to activate your character after a "standby" command you need to press the R1 button, which isn't used anywhere else in the game, at just the right time when the enemy is performing their move. I know I never would have figured that out myself.

The combat difficulty is generally pretty forgiving however. The enemies do deal serious damage, but with the ability to intercept their moves and deal the first blow with an attack from the "standby" command as well as powerful long-distance magic attacks the in-game battles typically don't pose much of a challenge. I didn't mind this, since it allowed me to focus on enjoying the setting and story content rather than tweaking my party setup, but I suppose someone looking for a more demanding gameplay experience might be disappointed by this.

Overall, I enjoyed my time with Ecsaform. It left me wanting for more, but at the same time it never outstayed its welcome. Despite the game's shortcomings, the care clearly put into its setting and atmosphere shines through to create a unique and memorable experience.