When talking about new gaming releases, the term “much-awaited” usually gets thrown around like it’s the smallest cheerleader at a pep rally. In the case of Rainbow Skies, that term applies in an additional manner, because the original release date was announced to be sometime in 2014. Finally, on June 26th, 2018, the world will be blessed with the spiritual successor to SideQuest Studios’ 2012 release, Rainbow Moon.

Like its predecessor, Rainbow Skies is a tactical role playing game (SRPG), but many of the features from the first game have been expanded upon or refined. Admittedly, I really enjoyed Rainbow Moon, so when I heard there would be a second entry in the series, I couldn’t wait to play it. Then the 2014 release date turned into 2015, which turned into 2016, which… you get the picture. When a game’s release date is delayed by four years, you’d think that the end result would be a finely polished product. And, for the most part, you’d be correct thinking that about Rainbow Skies. Here are the things I like, lament, loathe, and love about this game:

I like that it feels as if the four years I spent pining for its release were not wasted; there is a ton of stuff in this game. This is a vague statement, I realize, but when you consider the environments, the character interactions, the amount of sidequests, and the number of dungeons, there is plenty to do and see in Rainbow Skies. Including everything would cause this review to approach the length of War and Peace.

I like the charming music and graphics. Good music will evoke the appropriate emotional response from a player and the music in Rainbow Skies does just that. The battle themes made me feel a sense of urgency and danger, while the village and indoor songs had me feeling safe and serene. In a few themes, I heard short melodies that vaguely reminded me of portions from the Final Fantasy series, which only endeared me to the soundtrack more. The graphics are quite cartoonish, but are rife with nuances and detail that speak to just how refined a product this game really is. I am fairly certain, however, that the monster design team got their inspiration from a team-building trip to Disney World where a team-wide high was established and maintained by consuming a cocktail made from LSD, industrial strength marijuana, and children’s Tylenol. The designs are original and intricate, but sometimes really odd.

I like the mildly complex combat. The mechanics are simple enough that entire turns can be played out by only using the D-pad or joystick, yet each character is capable of learning enough skills to make them useful in nearly any combat situation. A simple press of a button takes you to a menu with additional options, such as item usage, equipment changes, and the ability to defend (make sure you defend frequently, as monsters hit much harder when you don’t).

I like that the player has the ability to skip random encounters. In many RPGs, random encounters are triggered by simply walking around. In Rainbow Skies, not only will a notification pop up informing you that there is a random encounter, but it will also tell you which enemies you would fight, what level they are, and how many of them will be in the battle. The only downside to this system is the button to enter the battles is the same button used to interact with options and people, so you might find yourself entering battles accidentally. However, one of the aforementioned menu options is ‘Flee’ and it has a 100% success rate, so time spent and damage taken were almost always minimal in the event of a mispress.

I like that they removed the hunger mechanic from the previous game and changed it into an optional buff the player may utilize to enhance the party in tough battles. In Rainbow Moon, you had to keep feeding the members of your party because if their food level reached 0%, they’d begin to take periodic damage. It was terribly annoying and I am glad to see it gone.

I like that there is a huge number of sidequests, a good number of which you are able to complete simply by playing through the game, killing monsters, and looting everything you see. However, there is a downside to the sidequest system in Rainbow Skies…

I lament the lack of a sufficient tracking system for the sidequests. You can always check on the sidequests you are currently on to remember who gave you the quest and the general area they are at, but that’s it. No pin on the map for the quest giver’s location, no “You have found 9 out of 13 items,” and no highlighted boundaries to show you where to search for the items or monsters of interest. The latter might be asking too much, but the inclusion of one of the formers would go a long way in improving sidequesting. I guess I just expect a little more in the sidequesting department from a company named SideQuest Studios…

I also lament that every character’s normal attack is a melee attack. Makes complete sense for a guy with swords and I can understand the spellcaster having a mana-less bop over the head with a staff, but the other character is an archer. An archer. Who whacks people with his bow rather than shoot an arrow. In fact, I don’t even think he has conventional arrows, which begs the question: WHO THE FRICK CARRIES A BOW BUT NO ARROWS?!

I lament that party members cannot use items on fellow party members in adjacent squares during battle. This is practically a trademark of tactical RPGs, and item usage on fellow party members is not a foreign concept in the entire genre, so this is a curious omission from the party’s skillset.

I lament that healing spells cannot be used outside of battle. Again, another staple of an RPG party’s repertoire that is missing from Rainbow Skies. It’s only a problem if you avoid expanding your potion carrying capacity, which isn’t cost-prohibitive or difficult to do, so it’s a minor gripe.

Finally, I lament the feeling that there are a lack of notable bosses twenty-one hours into the game (at which point I have 20% completion). There have been fights which could be considered boss fights, but the typical fanfare preceding boss fights in other RPGs is notably absent thus far. I feel that the main antagonist should have already been introduced by this point, and perhaps he or she has, but it’s not evident, and that’s a problem. I suppose time will tell who the archenemy (or enemies) is/are, but while on the subject of bosses…

I loathe the fact that most of the bosses I have faced were: a) totally optional, b) waaay too difficult to fight when slightly underleveled or at their level and c) gave severely underwhelming rewards when I finally was able to beat them. Had each one given me even a modest amount of gold, experience points, or skill stones (more on these later) for my level, I’d probably feel differently about this.

I loathe the excessively wordy dialogue. I get character building, suspension of disbelief, immersion, whatever term you want to apply to character personalities, but the in-game conversations are painstakingly long. Like waiting for the water of your pork flavored ramen (the best flavor, don’t @ me) to boil level of lengthiness. Like seeing the “…” in a text thread and waiting for a response that never comes level of frustration. Like someone using three analogies to explain something simple level of unnecessary.

I loathe games that have too many tutorials. Take a guess how many tutorials Rainbow Skies has… higher. Guess again… higher! Guess once more… okay, not that many. But divide that number by about ten and no, I kid you not, there are seventy-two tutorials. And they pop up at any time, whenever it is that you first experience the respective mechanic, status effect, or ability. Try as I might, I could not find a way to turn them off. At the very least, they can be skipped through by rapidly mashing buttons.

But speaking of rapidly mashing buttons, I loathe games that make you buy items one at a time. I recall a time when I had to buy heal potions one at a time: the year was 1988 and the game was Final Fantasy. I had to convince my parents to purchase an NES MAX controller with the turbo button so I could set a book on the Turbo A button and do something better with the fifteen minutes of my life I would have spent mashing to buy 99 heal potions. Come to think of it, I recall another time I had to buy health potions one at a time: the year was 2018 and the game was Rainbow Skies. You know the famous George Santayana quote, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”? Well, I wish even one person at SideQuest Studios was on a ginseng regimen because this gave me adolescent PTSD.

I also loathe the extremely long enemy spells that lengthen the already very long battles. Tactical RPGs are notable for having long battles and fans of the genre don’t typically mind, but adding a significant amount of time from excruciatingly long spell animations can push battle length over the line that separates tolerable from almost unbearable. Some of the enemy abilities take nearly ten seconds to execute and although they eventually become skippable, it’s only after you have watched two of them, and that quota resets each time a round of enemy attacks begins. Fortunately, Rainbow Skies counters long battles in a way that Rainbow Moon did not…

And I love the manner in which it does. Rainbow Skies introduces monster taming and once you fully unlock it, the mechanic doubles your party size. When you defeat monsters, you will occasionally find monster eggs on the battlefield. These eggs can be hatched and the resulting monsters can be trained to fight alongside your heroes in battle. Of course, each type of monster has different attribute strengths and can use different abilities, so party customization options are tremendously diverse.

I love the fact that you can save the game almost anywhere (in battle being about the only place you cannot). This allows you to make the mistake of challenging a boss five levels higher than you (speaking for a friend) and being able to reload the game when he smashes my fac-, I mean, my friend’s face in. Every RPG gamer has been faced with the dilemma of either shutting off their system and losing progress or leaving the system on for hours at a time until they could return to the game simply because they were not near a save point. In this regard, Rainbow Skies is dilemma-proof (and power outage-proof, RIP my progress through the water temple in Ocarina of Time…).

I love the amount of loot in this game. You will find yourself constantly looting bags or treasure chests, both in and out of battle. Every area has a tracking system on the map that tells you how many hidden treasures can be found there and although they can be a bit of a time investment to find, they usually contain worthwhile rewards. Also, there are treasure map sidequests which are even tougher to find the locations of, but promise even greater rewards to diligent adventurers. If you like games with tons of treasure, you can do no better than Rainbow Skies.

I love how they revamped the attribute leveling. In Rainbow Moon, only the character who killed an enemy would receive rainbow pearls, which could then be used to increase their attributes. In Rainbow Skies, the party finds skill stones and each character can use as many or as few as the player deems necessary to shore up individual weaknesses or pump up that super character to carry the party. Even tamed monsters’ attributes can be increased using skill stones, so their importance to strengthening your party cannot be overstated.

As a rabid completionist, I love how many trophies there are to collect. While this may be seen by some as an impediment to obtaining the Platinum trophy, every PlayStation gamer receives a fuzzy feeling when they hear the familiar chime that represents a noteworthy achievement, and Rainbow Skies will give you so many fuzzy feelings that you may have to wait to stand up if you have company.

Overall, I’d say that I love Rainbow Skies. The complaints I have about it are not game-breaking and I imagine that enough people will also find them so annoying that SideQuest Studios will eventually be prodded into patching in fixes, which will only increase the playability of this game. This is the ultimate completionist challenge, in terms of things to do, and there is enough variety within the game to keep things fresher for much longer than most other games (I didn’t even talk about the lottery or the fishing).

I’m eager to see if the endgame content is as profound as it was in Rainbow Moon, which was one of the things I appreciated most about that first game. Whether you are a tactical RPG veteran or merely interested in learning the genre, Rainbow Skies is worthy of your time. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go find the last hidden treasure in North Borgotonko…

8 out of 10

Pros

• Battle System
• Abundant Sidequests
• Monster Taming
• Leveling System

Cons

• So. Many. Tutorials.
• Bosses (and Lack Thereof)
• Lengthy Spell Animations

Rainbow Skies was developed by SideQuest Studios and published by Eastasiasoft. It launched on PS4, PS3, and Vita on June 26th, 2018 for $29.99. The game was provided to us for review on PS4, PS3, and Vita as it’s crossplay/crossbuy. If you’d like to see more of Rainbow Skies, check out the official site.

 

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