Another Exe Game

Like almost every EXE game, this isn’t a true RPG. Grinding as the main objective simply doesn’t count. The story is so clichéd and always the same in EXE games.

Overall: Boring and pointless.

Gameplay is very bog-standard. The story is notable for its Japanese-mythology setting; a military tactician protagonist (like Unlucky Mage/Hero); and a female co-protagonist

Jinshin is an Exe-Create RPG in the style of Ghost Sync, and could perhaps be a spiritual sequel. Ghost Sync is a “shoujo” RPG intended to appeal especially to girls; Jinshin has “shoujo” elements such as a female co-protagonist and is most likely intended to appeal to both sexes.

Jinshin is significantly more challenging than Ghost Sync, even though both games have only three difficulties. Jinshin gives the player less access to stat-buffing and stat-debuffing spells, especially early in the game, and there is no party-wide INT-buffing spell or ability!

In Jinshin (and unlike Ghost Sync), the player can’t customize weapons or armor to give them absurdly strong effects. The player can only use upgrade stones to improve the defensive value of armor or the offensive value of weapons. Like Ghost Sync, Jinshin doesn’t have a real-time garden that produces stat boosters.

All of these limitations force the player to play strategically with Jinshin’s entire team of five party members. A formation system (similar to the one in Unlucky Mage/Hero) is Jinshin’s one unique battle gimmick, but 99% of the time the party can just stay in a single formation. The other 1% of the time is when enemies (including some random encounter enemies!) have a formation that the party formation is weak to; then the player needs to either have Mikazuchi change the party’s formation, or quickly defeat enemies to break their formation.

Jinshin’s battle system is ultimately just Exe-Create’s bog-standard formula. The most distinguishing feature of Jinshin is its story.

Jinshin is set in the land of Asuka, which is very heavily inspired by Japanese mythology. The clothing, food, architecture, music, character and place names, and even the system of government are all borrowed from feudal Japanese history and culture. Humans share the world of Asuka with tsukumo kami – minor gods and minor goddesses that arise from the spirit within crafted objects. The female co-protagonist Hinoko is a tsukumo kami who arose from a crafted sword of impure silver.

Although humans usually get along well with tsukumo kami, sometimes tsukumo kami turn into murderous, human-eating onigami. This can happen through the kami death curse (if one tsukumo kami slays another, then the slayer becomes corrupted) or through the tsukumo kami’s own choices, if they allow corruption to enter their heart. Jinshin begins with the return of a particularly notorious onigami and his followers, and the chilling possibility that onigami might have discovered new ways to corrupt tsukumo kami.

Jinshin’s protagonist Mikazuchi is an amnesiac (yes, the common trope is played straight) who was taken in and trained by a tsukumo kami. When Mikazuchi’s benefactor is kidnapped by onigami, Mikazuchi resolves to put his lifetime of tactical study to use and joins Hinoko’s mercenary force.

Hinoko is a caring and charismatic leader, who is also aware of her own weaknesses. She recognizes that Mikazuchi’s aptitude for military tactics could well be superior to that of anyone else in her army, and gives him a chance to prove himself. Mikazuchi then has to use his wits to solve the very first problem of “how can I get this ragtag army and these hotheaded generals to work more efficiently as a team?”

The best parts of Jinshin’s story are iterations of “Mikazuchi is confronted with a difficult situation and has to strategically think his way out of it.” The rest of Jinshin’s story is a pretty standard and somewhat predictable save-the-world RPG plot. Each party member has their own sub-arc within the greater plot of a war between humans and onigami.

The story does use a lot of Japanese terms, especially proper nouns. Sometimes things like armor names aren’t fully translated; a glossary would have been helpful. Whenever there’s a sidequest or a kami request where the requested object is an unfamiliar Japanese term, then it’s probably the name of a crafted weapon or a crafted piece of armor.

Fans of feudal Japanese culture and mythology will likely enjoy Jinshin’s alternative to a European medieval fantasy setting. But that’s pretty much the only perk Jinshin has to offer. Its side content is basic: sidequests, requests, and an Arena.

Jinshin’s postgame has an additional dungeon with a true final boss to clear for the true ending. Excessive level grinding is not required for this.

For players who enjoy postgame level grinding, Jinshin’s postgame has a Secret Arena with a level 550 superboss, a 1 million (or higher) damage challenge, and wandering monsters up to level 850 on various islands.

One final difference between Jinshin and Ghost Sync is that Jinshin does give the player the ability to force battles with every step… in the extremely late postgame, as a Secret Arena prize. Fortunately, monster-encounter pillars in dungeons are a workable substitute for the other 99% of the game.

I enjoyed Jinshin, but it’s not standout and it’s not for everyone. It’s JRPG comfort food, prepared Japanese-style with extra sushi.

Could not make heads or tails of the story

It has so many specific terms without a glossary, that I kept being lost all the time.

Eventually gave up.

Zeroing story is good enough to make me drop any game no matter how good it is, so I’m not confident in my review.

Maybe if it either gets a glossary in the future, or someone compiles a glossary for it, I might be able to actually play it and enjoy, but until then, this was a short experience with nothing exceptional but story, which failed terribly due to the fact I couldn’t actually understand any of it.

(I don’t recommend this game)