Flowstone Saga Review - A Love Letter To A Golden Era of JRPGs

Written by Brandon Hofer  on October 20, 2024

Reviews: A unique twist on an established formula provides JRPGs fans with a new experience that everyone should play.

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Flowstone Saga immediately grabbed my attention when I saw that not only is it a love letter to 16-bit JRPGs, but it also has a really unique twist on combat. The combat in Flowstone Saga revolves around you playing a game of Tetris and, no, I’m not kidding. This seemingly bizarre combination works really well and adds a surprising amount of depth to combat scenarios. In addition to that, the story of Flowstone Saga is fun to go through with some nice twists and turns leading up to the conclusion of the saga. There are some really great ideas throughout the game and like with many other JRPGs, you will have to play around with the different equipment and loadouts that are available to see which works best for you in the heat of battle.

In Flowstone Saga the player assumes the role of Mirai. Mirai has amnesia and can’t remember anything past a year ago when she washed up on the shores of New Riverstone. The village took her in as one of their own and she has struggled to find her place in that small society. It isn’t long before Mirai acquires some powers, and it becomes up to her to take on swashbuckling pirates, members of the Navy, and a variety of monsters. In addition to the main quest, there are quite a few optional side quests to get better acquainted with the world. Some of these side quests will only take a few moments while you explore the town to find something, while others will be a bit more of a challenge. I really appreciate how the developers made each marker distinct, so I always knew what I was getting into when looking for my next adventure. If you see someone with a red flag above their head, that means it is a main story quest. If you see someone with a blue flag above their head, that means they have an optional side quest for you to do. Even though these side quests are optional, I highly recommend that you do the vast majority of them. They will help the town come alive and help you get stronger by gaining experience through battle and items that will help you out along the way.



As I mentioned above, the combat system in Flowstone Saga is really unique. An overly simplistic way of explaining it is that you are playing Tetris in battle, but this combat system has a nice amount of depth to it. The development team also made it so that everyone can enjoy it, whether you are a real-time combat fan or prefer your JRPGs to be turn-based. There is an option that can be changed at will and it will help determine the difficulty of the battles. Obviously, if you choose to do the real-time combat, the combat will be quicker and more fluid, requiring some quick timing on your part. If you choose the turn-based method, you are given time to think and strategize about what Mirai should do next in battle. Options are always a good thing and being able to incorporate both styles in this game is a really nice touch. Flowstone Saga also features a local co-op assist system where the second player can assist in battle, such as tossing helpful items into the fight and stunning monsters.

Another decision that the player must make is what kind of Tetris pieces will be used in battle. This is determined by which frog the player chooses in the village. Some of the different frogs that I ran into during my journey included the “Explorer Spirit Frog,” “Brigand Spirit Frog,” “Time Mage Spirit Frog,” and more. The Explorer Spirit Frog is fairly versatile and offers a basic bag of pieces to use during combat. This is absolutely where people should begin until they are familiar with the game’s mechanics. These frogs also come with perks, such as the Explorer Spirit frog automatically throwing Heat Crystals onto the board every so often to try and give you an edge in combat. After a while, you might want to try something different, which is where the Time Mage Frog comes in. This frog brings a large board and blocks to the party, along with the ability to stop time so you can try and make some really powerful moves. This frog will offer some different pieces than the Explorer Spirit frog, which I appreciated. You can also upgrade these frogs and give them different abilities or some other way to help you in battle. It will definitely take you a little while to figure out what play style you prefer but I appreciated the different ways I could go with it.



Of course, no JRPG would be complete without experience points and some type of skill tree, and Flowstone Saga has both. When you first start out, you will get a reward each time you level up. This reward comes in the form of either learning a new perk or leveling up a perk you already have. This option alternates as well, so one time, you will get a chance to learn something brand new, while the next time, you will get to upgrade an existing perk. There does come a point, though, where these opportunities become more sparse as you get into the higher levels, so keep that in mind when you are deciding what to do early on.

From an aesthetic standpoint, Flowstone Saga is a beautiful game reminiscent of JRPGs from the 16-bit era. This adventure features gorgeous pixel art with the different areas being handcrafted by the developers. Going down that route during the development cycle definitely adds to an already heavy workload, but it has paid off with a beautiful world to explore.



I have mentioned the main protagonist, Mirai, a number of times, but Flowstone Saga has a really great overall cast of characters. There are cute characters such as Nando, who will serve you food at his Bistro, Gon who is lazy and pretty much the village idiot, Sidh who is the leader of the village; James, a young boy running around trying to be brave, and much more. Then there are the external characters outside of the village, such as the pirate captain, Navy officers, and, of course, all of the monsters you will encounter throughout your adventure. The character design is really well done and contributes to the game’s overall charm. The soundtrack is also on point as well. I enjoyed how the music would be a bit faster and frantic in the heat of battle but then was also light and airy when I ran around the village doing errands.All of this combines into one really fun and well done package.

For those times where you don’t feel like fighting, Flowstone Saga has other ways to pass the time. There is a fishing minigame here that took me a moment to figure out but once I did, I really enjoyed it. In fact, I think it is one of the best fishing minigames I have played in an RPG in a really long time and perhaps one of the best I have ever played. For those aspiring decorators out there, Mirai also has a house in town that doesn’t have much inside of it. You can buy items from the local vendor (as well as find some in the world by exploring) and then go to your house and decorate it. While I was out exploring I came across a King bed which I put in one of the rooms upstairs, and also bought a sofa, a bookshelf, and more to decorate my place. There is also a unique way of grinding for items you will need to help improve the village. You do this by going to the mine and mining some material. This is accomplished by another game of Tetris. You have a set time limit and the number of lines you can clear will help determine the resources you gather. Once time expires, you can choose to continue on and go deeper into the mine for a price, or call it a day if you are happy with the items you got in the first run. There are also ruins that you can find strewn across the world that are puzzles you will have to solve. You solve these using the same type of puzzle pieces used in combat but there is another twist here. These ruins give you a specific shape and you have to be able to fit all of the pieces you are given into that shape. It can be pretty fun, although some can get quite challenging.



When I think of my time with Flowstone Saga, I don’t really have any complaints. If I want to nitpick, it would be nice if I could quickly travel back to town after completing my objective instead of having to work back through the area I just cleared. I am allowed to do that for some key story moments but it would have been a nice option to always have once an area is cleared. To be clear, it only takes a few minutes to get back to the beginning of an area, so it isn’t much of an issue; it just would have been a nice feature to have a fast travel option back to town.

When you are deciding what to do next, a good menu system can be important and I found the menu system in Flowstone Saga easy to navigate. You can check on Mirai’s status at any time, switch out equipment to raise your levels, check out what puzzle pieces are currently available to you, and more. There is also a place to check your current quests in case you get lost, as well as a journal that chronicles your adventures. One nice modern option that Flowstone Saga has that a lot of the 16-bit games didn’t back in those days is the ability to save at pretty much any time. The game does a tremendous job with its auto-save feature, constantly saving your progress so that if something happens, you aren’t sent too far back. You can do it manually, though, as well, which is something I really appreciate.



Flowstone Saga is a love letter to games like Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy VI. Other inspirations include the Trails series and Paper Mario: The Origami King. It should go without saying that these are some great titles to look to for inspiration and it has resulted in a really fun game that all JRPG fans should play. Flowstone Saga is currently only available on PC but I do hope it arrives on all consoles at some point. Even if you don’t normally like role-playing games, be sure to give this one a shot. The unique ideas, including the combat, might surprise you and be your introduction to a whole new genre to enjoy.

Please Note: Impact Gameworks provided us with a code for the purposes of this review.