Hahaha! Cute, but deadly.
I think I'm getting near the end of the game now. I've completed all quests except killing this wizard guy, who I assume is the final boss. Most of the game has been terrific, with the odd frustration and stupidity thrown in just to annoy me. It's also long, way longer than I thought it was going to be initially. I even put off buying it, thinking it was a little game, don't know why now. Gamespot is wrong about linearity. Once you have all the minions, nothing forces you to do the quest paths in any order. You can even drop one pursuit and go after another.
For example, I didn't find the durium smelter until way after I got the arcanium smelter. I didn't realize the understreets had a 2nd level. The only way there is to come in from Heaven's Peak with red minions already in tow. You can't get them inside because water blocks the way. There's a fire barrier by the door to the 2nd level, and I ignored it the first time through. I still have no durium armor, although I may get it if there's a related achievement. I have a ton of gold.
I'm really happy with the freedom of action and the openness. While you get constant suggestions from your main minion, whose name I forget, very often you can figure out your own ways of dealing with obstacles. Even at this late stage of the game I find green minions of little use. I've never been big on stealth, and I prefer to simply pour on the browns whenever I can get away with it. Speaking of browns, I love how they bash everything and pick up the best equipment they run across. Right now the top 35 are almost up to 400% in armor & weaponry. That's made me a lot more protective of them. I always bring at least 5 blues along to, er, do their thing, and I can deal with losing a couple of fighters; but I will not allow for the game to wipe out the entire horde in a single mistake.
The sandworms in the Ruborian desert frustrated the hell out of me at first. I turned off the console about 3 times, after one of those suckers bashed everyone out of existence in a single pounce, and not on the sand either. I got them safely across, but not far enough. This turned out to be a brilliant area of the game, though. The challenge is relatively high, but there's a way to remove all obstacles. The bugs which follow their eggs and explode when killed are the obvious key to the bone barriers, and the not-so-obvious key to the sandworms, and the game will let you know if you pay attention. There's a section where your minion runs with an egg across a small stretch of sand where 2 explode-o-bugs follow and get swallowed up by a worm. Blam! No more worm. I didn't even realize what had happened until sometime later. No more rumbling on that sand, I got braver on it, no worm. Aha! Heh . . . I wonder if most people realized this way sooner than I did (without GameFAQs). Regardless, it was a great touch.
On the other hand, herding Jewel into the gate was the dumbest, most frustrating thing I've endured so far. I'm told to block her with my minions, yet if I place them anywhere except in just the right places, she walks right through them, providing zero feedback as to why it's wrong. After about, oh, an hour, I gave up and looked up the answer. Don't think I would have ever gotten it without help. Kudos to those who did.
While chiefly inspired by Pikmin, there are touches of Fable in here as well. The game looks like it was set in the Fable universe, and it allows you to do good or evil as you go along. I'm not sure if this is more than window dressing, though. I've been doing mostly good this time. I always replay games which absorb me, so I'll try out a full evil path next time, and see if it makes a substantive difference.
I also get to check out the other mistress. Mwahaha.
