KEMCO has returned with a brand new journey for retro JRPG followers: Astral Takers. This launch was developed by VANGUARD, the corporate who earlier this yr gave us Dragon Takers. We weren’t keen on that one, however are joyful to say Astral Takers fares higher.
This time round, we comply with Revyse, a younger chap who meets Aurora whereas on a coaching mission. Aurora has misplaced her recollections; all we actually learn about her is that she’s wished by the empire Revyse serves. He shortly develops an attachment to her, and—with the help of his pal, Fio—helps her escape so she will regain her recollections and discover out why she’s a wished lady.
It’s a high-quality setup, albeit considerably predictable. You’ll meet loads of allies and enemies alongside the way in which, and it’s by no means actually troublesome to find out the place everybody matches in. The story presents few surprises.
You could, nevertheless, be shocked by the sport’s visuals in each good and unhealthy methods. On the great facet we’ve the character art work, which is properly detailed and animated. When the principle characters are talking, they’ve a swaying movement to them that provides life to the considerably stilted dialogue. The one disadvantage to that is that if a personality is speaking to an unimportant NPC, the NPC isn’t depicted in any respect; the principle character darkens and fades again a bit, however nobody is depicted on the opposite facet of the display. I don’t assume I’ve ever seen that earlier than.
Additionally good is the way in which the turn-based battles are depicted. Fairly than the facet view typical of the style, we see the enemies by means of a first-person standpoint. It’s a novel method enhanced by cool results that helps the sport stand out from its friends.
However, the graphics on show when visiting cities and exploring dungeons are extra rudimentary than I’m used to seeing in retro JRPGs, even these from KEMCO. They’re concurrently barren and repetitive. In addition they don’t have a lot to supply on the subject of hidden gadgets or compelling sidequests. Astral Takers will not be a really thrilling recreation to discover.
After all, what actually issues right here is the fight. Gamers can take 4 characters into fight, together with beings you’re in a position to summon at sure factors within the recreation. Summoning is a pleasant hook, because it lets you swap round combatants with particular skills, and so they routinely hop in for any downed teammates. It’s enjoyable to experiment with a brand new summon, and also you’ll doubtless settle in your favorites fairly shortly.
Additionally distinctive is the way in which that enemy strikes are outlined, supplying you with the chance to organize accordingly with the standard bodily assaults, ability assaults or buffs/defuffs, merchandise use, or defensive stances. However, your assaults are oddly imprecise. You possibly can select which enemy to assault, but when there’s a couple of of that sort, you possibly can’t decide which one you’ll assault. Or, should you can, I couldn’t work out how.
That drawback carries over to the UI basically, which is sort of cumbersome. Shopping for and equipping armor is a careless course of that requires accessing extra screens than must be wanted. Even figuring out which button you’ve gotten chosen will be exhausting to determine, because the spotlight is oddly troublesome to see.
These points damage the general expertise, however they don’t kill it. Retro JRPG followers will benefit from the distinctive fight presentation and the get together selection that the summons function presents. And people in search of a lightweight, breezy journey will discover it right here. The sport will not be troublesome in any respect, as evidenced by the truth that KEMCO doesn’t provide the expertise/weapon enhance DLC typical of their releases. Astral Takers will not be probably the most satisfying recreation you’ll play this yr, nevertheless it’s distinctive sufficient to function time-filler.
