As somebody that grew up within the midst of the unique wave of the Pokemon craze, creature collectors are consolation meals. Actually, they’re why I obtained into JRPGs and video video games as an entire, as I solely obtained my first console (Gameboy Coloration) for Pokemon. So at any time when I see a brand new up and comer within the style, I can’t assist however really feel a connection, and hope that somebody can carry one thing new and thrilling into this subject.
Lumentale: Recollections of Trey is a brand new creature collector developed by the crew who labored on a preferred Pokemon fan recreation Xenoverse, which has piqued the curiosity of those that already loved that recreation. You play as Trey, an amnesiac who turns up on the earth of Talea. After assembly up with new characters, Trey goes on a journey around the globe of Talea to turn out to be a Lumen, somebody who controls groups of Animon, the creatures on this world. His aim is to get better his misplaced recollections and uncover the mysteries of the land. After an intro sequence you possibly can select to first go to the north, to a extra technologically superior half of the land or to the south, which is extra conventional. I selected to go to the south. From my understanding, this might probably result in some variations in how the sport goes, however I didn’t see these but.
The very first thing I instantly seen when beginning up this recreation is that it’s attractive. It goes for an nearly HD-2D fashion, with 3D backgrounds and pixelated characters and Animon. Every thing seems nice, all the way down to the animations and environments. This all goes to help the design of the Animon creatures, which I feel is serviceable. Greater than something loads of the creatures really feel too busy with their designs, which is a typical subject that these video games can fall into. Some are higher than others, however as an entire they’re advantageous.
The gameplay can also be largely like a Pokemon recreation, albeit with a number of key adjustments. You might be nonetheless making an attempt to seize then battle the creatures, however in Lumentale there might be as much as 4 Animon per facet out at one time. This tends to result in longer battles, all with a turn-based system. The opposite change of word is that whereas all Animon have varieties which might be like Pokemon varieties to find out their strengths and weaknesses, largely elemental like in Pokemon, in addition they have attributes, which decide methods you possibly can form these creatures as effectively. The “felicis” attribute, for instance, permits for an Animon to make use of an additional level of vitality (used as an alternative of PP in Pokemon) so as to add a small therapeutic impact to all the crew. That is an attention-grabbing wrinkle and I can see this including much more technique, particularly to excessive degree play.
Sadly, whereas this recreation made an amazing first impression, the extra I performed the extra I saved wishing I preferred Lumentale to a better extent. Initially, all the pieces feels rather more story pushed, however about ten hours in and I’ve solely gotten a number of extra hints on the overarching story. As a substitute, it turns into much more about going by way of the land and preventing, which might be advantageous if the stability was higher. Early on, I needed to go up towards a boss Animon, which was the second I had encountered. This was nonetheless in what firmly felt like a tutorial space. Nonetheless, this boss summarily destroyed me. I then discovered myself having to grind and seek out particular Animon I hadn’t but encountered to win this battle. I’m not against problem in a JRPG or a boss that requires technique, however contemplating I used to be so early on that there wasn’t even an merchandise store open for me, I felt a bit greatly surprised at this spike.
I additionally really feel that a number of the facet actions, pacing, and simply normal exploration feels empty. There are some good concepts of city designs, having facet quests and different actions, like a card gathering recreation, however finally issues really feel actually empty. There are tons of characters standing round with nothing to say. There are SOME facet quests however not all that many to be attention-grabbing. I’ve but to seek out any form of objective for the cardboard recreation (I might have missed chatting with an NPC however I really feel like a number of cities in there needs to be one thing?). There’s a system of taking down bases run by different lumen however there doesn’t appear to be an actual objective to this past getting some additional expertise. There are additionally some obligatory actions which might be simply weird. Throughout my time I obtained to a seaside city that was having a pageant, so I wanted to do actions earlier than going to mattress so I might go battle the city’s lumen squad. I did two of the actions, after which bumped into a compulsory recreation of conceal and search which lasted means too lengthy as a result of it was in search of one small character (hidden behind objects) throughout an enormous map. This felt prefer it was simply making an attempt to waste my time, as there was nothing I gained from this aside from being allowed to proceed the precise recreation.
I additionally really feel like loads of the nuances to the system are underneath tutorialized. I do know lots of people complain about handholding in trendy Pokemon video games, however going the other route isn’t useful both. A lot is left unexplained. For instance, you will have the sport’s model of Pokemon bins, Anispace, which each means that you can retailer additional Animon but in addition embellish it with furnishings, take out Animon, and prepare them. Nonetheless, it’s by no means defined the way to prepare Animon. You get tons of things that appear like they need to assist, however I attempted all the pieces and obtained nowhere. Possibly it’s later in recreation, however I’m already 12 hours into my save file, I really feel like fundamental techniques needs to be defined already. One among my Animon has developed however I can’t work out if the others will too. There are a ton of techniques like this the place I really feel like I’d be fully glued to the fan wiki if I used to be enjoying this post-release, as a result of, for as a lot as I’ve performed my justifiable share of video games on this style, I felt critically at a loss.
The pacing can also be simply tough. In my journey following the trail advised to me within the recreation, I went from one space to the subsequent. The wild Animon went from being about degree 20 to being about degree 28-29 throughout one display screen. It looks like after I go into a brand new space or battle different characters, I by no means know if I’m going to be wildly overpowered or wildly underpowered, two issues which have each occurred whereas enjoying.
Lumentale is irritating as a result of I really feel like there’s a ton of potential right here. That is clearly made with loads of love for the style, and there are attention-grabbing concepts. I need to love this recreation. However there are such a lot of obvious flaws in the way it’s constructed that, if I wasn’t reviewing this recreation, these would have been sufficient for me to exit out proper then and there. I might simply see a sequel or related title by this developer being one among my favourite video games, however with all the problems this ended up being a tough expertise. I’m going to maintain making an attempt to play extra of this, and since I didn’t come near an ending I don’t really feel like I can actually give this a rating, however I really feel like this recreation is consistently pushing again at me attending to that time.
