Classic gaming relived, but for some reason, something is not captivating me!
Black Sigil is based on a world where everyone in the world has the ability to cast magic. Fears of those who do not possess magic is due to a history of a magicless man named Vai who wreck terror in the hearts of many. Kairu is one of those people who do not possess such power. Although around his peers in the academy, he has impressive swordsmanship, those around him pity the fact that he does not have magic.
Determined to use magic and protect those around him from an upcoming threat, Kairu remains humble to those around him, often accepting the consequences of not being able to possess any magic. However, he eventually finds himself exiled from his land due to fear where his epic journey begins.
In general, Black Sigil plays exactly the way you expect it to; a classic turn based console RPG. For many, one can reminisce those glory days of the SNES and many will, but I'm not one of them.
Combat seems heavily influenced by Chrono Trigger to an extent. Characters will attack based on an active timer and will move around the battlefield based on the type of action you use. Special attacks range from single targets to a certain radius of the screen which allows you to attack multiple characters. Along with these attacks come combination moves which allow you utilize a special attack with several characters. Cool right? It is for a short amount of time.
It's great to see that you get to fight battles frequently in the game, but the problem is those who want to advance the story will see some difficulty. Battles are random, but at times, players will find themselves taking a single step and having to enter battle. Once done with the battles? Take a few more steps? Another battle. One may think this is very common in classic games, but the rate of battles are much higher than the typical RPG.
Depending on the type of player, Black Sigil can either be extremely hard or very simple as the game heavily relies on using skills to finish off opponents easily. (Heck, where magic is the ultimate weapon, using a melee attack should be proven obsolete right?)
The music of the game is wonderful for the most part and fits well in the environments you're in. Graphically, the game is rather beautiful, but there is room for improvement. For a game that has been in development for quite some time, where the heck are the QA testers? There are several typos throughout the game and some can be rather obvious. Of course, I was not expecting an Atlus type translation, but silly typos should be alluded at all costs.
With a bit of work, Black Sigil could have been a stellar game, but instead falls into mediocrity.