For a number of years, it felt like when you’ve performed one in every of Omega Drive’s famed Musou motion video games, you’ve performed all of them. It appears the crew took word of this souring sentiment, nevertheless, leading to extra nuanced takes on the method in newer titles similar to Hearth Emblem: Three Hopes and Persona 5 Strikers (the latter co-developed with P-Studio). It’s continued this push with Destiny/Samurai Remnant, a brand new standalone entry within the sprawling Destiny franchise that gives an enticing motion RPG expertise that may attraction to followers each new and outdated.
The Destiny collection has expanded to turn out to be an unlimited and complicated multimedia soup of varied canon and non-canon works, which might make following the narrative a somewhat difficult proposition, however Destiny/Samurai’s story can readily be loved each by franchise followers and newcomers. The story takes place in Edo interval Japan and primarily follows a younger man named Miyamoto Iori, a talented swordsman who finds himself haplessly dragged right into a supernatural battle known as the Waxing Moon Ritual.
The concept right here is that Iori is a ‘Grasp’ who stands to have his needs granted if he can greatest the opposite six Masters who’re all within the recreation for their very own causes. Masters are supported of their pursuits by companions known as Servants, who’re every the spirits of legendary warriors pulled from the previous to help their Masters, and Iori is quickly joined by a plucky warrior named Saber. Hoping to guard the world from the nefarious needs of a few of his opponents, Iori units out together with his associate on a harmful journey to defeat the opposite Masters whereas warding off makes an attempt on his personal life.
It is actually a cool premise, and the storytelling takes some genuinely stunning turns over the 30-40 hours it ought to take you to clear as soon as. One time round received’t provide the entire story, although, as there are three routes you may take that result in completely different outcomes. Nonetheless, we couldn’t assist however really feel just a bit bit exhausted by the pacing of the narrative in some locations. Up entrance, there’s a lot of lore dumped on you in prolonged exposition cutscenes, and even as soon as this ranges off, there are nonetheless some dialogue sections right here and there that may get a bit lengthy within the tooth. You possibly can at all times simply quick ahead or fully skip cutscenes when you select, however we nonetheless want the script right here reduce out a few of the filler.
Gameplay clearly attracts inspiration from Koei’s basic Musou framework, however right here it’s been reworked into one thing way more dynamic than the grindy and repetitive battles widespread to video games like Dynasty Warriors. Destiny/Samurai is damaged up into chapters, and every chapter consists of exploratory sections the place you wander cities, fulfill quests, and discuss to NPCs, punctuated by brawler-esque area sections the place you battle just a few dozen enemies directly. This wonderful steadiness between fight and exploration goes a good distance in the direction of making Destiny/Samurai really feel way more like an expansive motion RPG and never ‘simply’ one other Warriors recreation.
The world map is split into varied uniquely themed cities that slowly unlock as you make progress, and every one contains a considerably mazelike, bustling structure to discover that’s filled with pickups and little sidequests. These are principally primary duties like killing a certain quantity of a given enemy or petting each cat on the town, however a lot of them are fast to complete or fill out simply by progressing the story. Plus, completionists will respect that each city presents further rewards as you flip in additional sidequests, supplying you with loads to do in every location and incentivizing you to commonly return.
While you’re caught up in brawls, fight unfolds in typical Warriors style whereby you make the most of a string of combos utilizing mild and heavy assaults to fend off waves of foes. Iori additionally has a wide range of stances he can toggle between which can be every efficient in sure fight conditions. The Earth stance, for instance, supplies you a small overshield in your well being bar that allows you to absorb extra injury as you dish out heavy single-target injury, whereas the Water stance grants you a flurry of quick, wide-reaching assaults which can be properly suited to conserving giant hordes of enemies in examine. You unlock just a few extra of those because the story progresses, and we appreciated how every one provides a brand new layer to the way you strategy fight.
To spice issues up additional past swinging your sword, you may as well solid a wide range of equippable offensive and defensive spells to help with issues like crowd management, stat boosting, and well being regeneration, whereas you may as well name in Saber (or whichever different Servant you occur to have outfitted) for hyperlink strikes and particular assaults after you land sufficient primary blows on foes. Get sufficient hits in, and you’ll even play as a Servant for a quick interval—every one does far more injury than Iori can muster himself. Mix these help options with the combo and stance system, and also you’re left with fight that feels fairly fast-paced and, most significantly, diverse. There’s extra to it than merely mashing primary combos and letting the fireworks play out.
Issues get much more attention-grabbing with the one or two ‘massive’ enemies that pop up in every battle. Not solely do these guys have a lot bigger well being bars, however they typically have tremendous armor that lets them tank your assaults and harshly reply with their very own when you aren’t cautious. You thus want to observe their actions for openings, strike when you may, and when you’re particularly daring, you may dodge on the final second to set off a Witch Time-esque impact for touchdown a strong riposte assault that may stun them. Apart from bosses, these bigger enemies don’t put up too a lot of a battle, however they add simply sufficient resistance to maintain fights from feeling such as you’re simply knocking round a bunch of rowdy schoolchildren.
So as to add a little bit extra technique to the gameplay loop, the story will often propel you into prolonged turn-based technique battles on the world map the place Iori vies for management of ley strains. Right here, the world map mainly turns into an interconnected recreation board the place you wish to ‘seize’ as many nodes as potential, with every one boosting your stats additional. You possibly can solely take one step every flip, and each time you progress, just a few enemies positioned elsewhere on the map will even transfer and declare extra territories for themselves. You possibly can both stumble upon these enemies head-on and set off a battle, or you may attempt to outmaneuver them by going round them and slicing off their connection to their base, which immediately kills them.
These ley line sections are normally just a few minutes lengthy, however they supply simply sufficient of a break from the fight and exploration to meaningfully add one thing to the gameplay expertise. It may be nice enjoyable to plan out just a few turns upfront which nodes you wish to take subsequent, just for an enemy motion someplace alongside the best way to scupper your plans and pressure you to vary course.
Character development is dealt with through a talent improve system just like the Sphere Grid from Last Fantasy X. Iori has a base talent tree with a smattering of stat upgrades and new spells or expertise, and he can later unlock further talent timber that correspond to every of his elemental stances. Every of your servants additionally has talent timber of their very own to fill out, with progress dashing up the extra you employ them in fight. This talent system might not be something that you simply haven’t seen earlier than, nevertheless it provides to fight incentives by supplying you with extra to shoot for than merely pushing numbers greater, and we appreciated how this provides you some restricted leeway to craft builds in your characters in accordance with the way you most frequently use them.
Graphically, Destiny/Samurai manages to significantly impress with its artwork fashion, executing a wealthy and detailed anime aesthetic that appears unbelievable, particularly contemplating the {hardware}. Whether or not you’re elbowing your method by a crowded market or combating foes beneath the pink petals of a cherry blossom tree, Destiny/Samurai does a fantastic job of presenting Edo interval Japan in an interesting mild. The issue, nevertheless, is that these fairly visuals include a fairly hefty efficiency price.
We famous many situations the place loading occasions went past 30 seconds when loading new areas, however the ache is actually felt right here within the body drops. Most villages will droop to a uneven sub-20 FPS mess that, although not massively affecting the gameplay right here, drastically reduces the attraction of those areas. Oddly sufficient, efficiency improves a bit extra whenever you’re in battle with dozens of foes, however even fight parts aren’t resistant to frequent body drops that can impede the gameplay. Destiny/Samurai is much from unplayable on Change, however general efficiency feels subpar — dangerous sufficient that we’d counsel you examine different platforms if that’s an choice for you.
Conclusion
Efficiency points apart, Destiny/Samurai Remnant is a massively pleasant motion RPG that showcases a powerful evolution of the very acquainted Musou method. Dynamic fight, rewarding exploration, a great deal of content material, and an interesting artwork fashion all work on this one’s favor, although be warned that the story can get a bit too verbose at occasions. All the identical, we’d give this one a advice each to anybody on the lookout for a good motion RPG so as to add to their assortment and to any followers of Warriors video games. Destiny/Samurai Remnant is properly value your time — when you can deal with the efficiency dips on Change.