Another generic rpg, another story, but it's able to occupy you.
The LOHII is an old school turn-based visual novel role-playing game with graphics that are quite astounding. The brightly colored 3-D scenery with little details such as flowing water or the sun shining are completed with the 2-D sprites. There are portrait of characters that appear when they speak, differs in personality which adds a touch to the game. The towns are nice to explore at and the people all have a thought bubble above their heads, and when there is someone important to talk to, there is a red exclamation point next to it. You're going to be so grateful to that, because you'll be confused about what to do most of the time, and that's the trick to have you waste time wandering around. You can't free roam, and it's strictly traveling from one place to another which gets very predictable.
You will have other characters that will join you in your quest, though some for only a short period of time, while others come and go. You also have the choice of choosing between three pets, I chose the bunny that would be running along, and by feeding it, it can help you in battle and find useful items for you, though I tend to ignore his moods most of the time. You can save anywhere, and that's great if you can only play for a short period of time.
The controls are fairy simple, and the four party combat system is basically selecting an action then waiting for it to be execute. It's boring cause I prefer to be doing the action, sometimes I end up battling half asleep. The magic powers animation is so slow you'll be very agitated when you want to finish a battle in a zip. There is also a distance range that can be use to your advantage, but the downfall is you can lose a turn if you're too far from the enemy to attack. There is a power gauge that fills up so you can unleash much more powerful attack for the final blow. The unique thing about this game is the enemy also has a bubble above their head, with different colors representing their mood. Strong enemies will approach you, while weaker one will run when they see you. This is great considering you won't have to worry about random encounters and can avoid them if you're trying to get somewhere, but is also an indicator if you're too low leveled Since you'll be able to know how far you should train, you won't have to be grinding for levels all the time.
The music is average though soothing, but gets very repetitive after a while but the sounds are great while you're walking about, you'll hear animal cries, rush of the ocean, concrete noise beneath your footsteps, except the battle sounds are very unrealistic. There is no voice acting though, so there would be just long passage of text to read, except this game suffers from mildly bad translation to the point where you'll mentally correct them. Some characters you encounter in this game are very humorous giving you a chuckle here and there, while others talk very strangely leaving you wondering what they meant.
Other downfall to this games are it suffers from a glitch where the frame rate slows in random areas which happens very frequently throughout. You can easily forget what you're doing because there is no quest chart to show what to do next, though there is a history to keep track of what you've already done. There is also unnecessary things you are required to do to progress, as an attempt to prolong the game, so you have to be very patience to bear it through. Because of that you could be trap in an area walking in circles endlessly to find someone or something with the red exclamation point before you can continue on.
The game is easy if you don't get lost in the traveling puzzle and the load time is quite fast, except when you walk into the next scenery or random movement where the frame rate delays it. This game is pretty long, but that's what you get when you go rpg style. You do get your money's worth from the length of the game, and though this game looks pretty much like any other rpg, there are some quirky little things that makes it unique and enjoyable.
Storyline: 7 [quest to save their land ]
Graphic: 8 [quite pretty to gaze at]
Controls: 7 [easy to learn, can get boring]
Game play: 7 [solid rpg game]
Music/Sound: 6 [okay music, good sounds]
Difficulty: 8 [easy if you don't get confused/lost]
Load Time: 6 [fast, except for the glitch throughout]
Value: 7 [worth playing, long game]
Originality: 6 [another rpg and another story]
Enjoyability: 8 [you will want to finish it, just because]
Overall: 7/10