Generally good issues come to those that wait, and few issues embody this idea higher than ASTLIBRA Revision, the ultimate launch of a recreation that’s been developed by one man for over 15 years. KEIZO, a humble Japanese salaryman, began work on Astlibra as a result of he felt there weren’t sufficient 2D motion RPG video games that stuffed the area of interest he most loved. Over time, he launched the sport in elements as an ongoing freeware venture, and within the final couple of years, a staff got here collectively to assist him lastly get it throughout the end line. Astlibra Revision isn’t with out flaws, however that is total an pleasurable and distinctive motion RPG that we’d advocate you take a look at.
Astlibra’s story primarily follows a anonymous blond boy who loses a younger woman near him in a sudden monster assault on his village. When he involves, he’s been struck with amnesia (ugh) and has no thought who or the place he’s, although he finds himself accompanied by a mysterious however pleasant speaking crow named Karon. The 2 got down to discover their means again to the protagonist’s hometown, however they spend over eight years roaming the wilds with no success, and with out seeing a single different human for your entire period. The gameplay picks up while you encounter your first traveler and share a campfire, solely to search out that he and the fireplace have seemingly vanished with out a hint by morning… as in the event that they have been by no means there to start with.
Over the 40-ish hours it’ll take to clear the primary story, issues naturally get much more attention-grabbing, looping in ghosts, witches, time journey, dimension-hopping, and god-killing. It may be fairly exhausting to observe at occasions, maybe partially due to the prolonged, stop-and-go nature of the event cycle, however Astlibra in the end tells a memorable and emotional story. In some ways, we have been reminded of a few of the early Xeno video games with the ‘weightiness’ of its tone, but this narrative nonetheless feels approachable sufficient.
Gameplay in Astlibra may very well be most precisely described as an action-focused JRPG, with components of an ’80s text-based journey and a Metroidvania thrown in for good measure. It’s damaged up into remoted chapters, every of which has its personal storylines, characters, and locales, after which you come to a hub metropolis. In some ways, you’ll be able to very clearly inform that this venture was made in stops and begins over the course of 15 years, as it could actually appear somewhat disjointed and stitched collectively, however the remaining product is in the end price sticking with.
Fight is the star of the present in Astlibra, presenting as a mix of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night time and the Ys collection. You interact foes in primary hack ‘n’ slash battles, evading assaults with a fast backstep or a well-timed block along with your defend. In the meantime, each hit you land along with your weapon builds up ST, which could be burned by a D-pad enter that briefly summons a magic assault or creature, equivalent to a rock spire erupting from the bottom or a small dragon dealing AoE injury with its breath. Land sufficient assaults on a foe, and you may knock them into the ‘Break’ state the place they’re frozen and take further injury.
This fight system options the proper stability of simplicity and complexity, however essentially the most alluring characteristic is the moment-to-moment suggestions. There’s a satisfying crunch with each swing of a membership or a slash of a sword, because the display screen briefly pauses or shakes to promote the burden of the impression. Generally it could actually virtually seem to be these animation results trigger battles to get too chaotic while you’re being swarmed with enemies, besides, there’s an incredible sense of texture to encounters that by no means will get outdated—Astlibra does an excellent job of constructing fight really feel suitably weighty.
Character development is dealt with through a multipronged method that provides you a couple of completely different avenues to energy up your character. Leveling up through defeating enemies grants you a couple of ability factors you’ll be able to manually distribute to completely different stats, whereas enemies may even drop coloured orbs that may be invested right into a mazelike ability tree that unlocks an assortment of further one-off stat bumps and talents. On high of this, tools objects you put on could be leveled up and ‘mastered’ individually, with every one often granting you a brand new passive skill for Karon that may be activated through the use of crystals you discover whereas exploring. We appreciated this multi-tiered method to constructing a personality, because it ensures that you just’re at all times getting stronger it doesn’t matter what you do, and grinding subsequently feels a lot much less tedious.
And grinding will be required sometimes when you progress, as the problem scaling could be far and wide. Fortunately, there’s an virtually Diablo-like sense of mindlessness to the fight that actually satisfies the lizard mind—battles in opposition to trash mobs sort of require your consideration, however you’ll be able to simply have your consideration on a podcast or Netflix present when you slowly work to make the numbers go increased. These fixed stat rewards actually add some good suggestions to encounters, and also you don’t have to spend all that lengthy toiling in an space earlier than you’re able to tackle the following boss or dungeon.
Although we liked the way in which that fight and character development is dealt with in Astlibra, one space wherein it notably stumbles is in its obtuse puzzle design and signposting. That is the kind of recreation that expects you to speak to each NPC, and even doing this can generally solely yield a obscure trace about the place you’re presupposed to go subsequent. Different occasions, you’re probably not advised what to do and simply must stumble round at midnight till you work it out.
For instance, we famous one egregious occasion early on the place progress was gated behind a dialog with a shopkeeper, however the one solution to set off that particular dialog was to speak to one other utterly unrelated NPC elsewhere within the village. Had we not regarded it up, we wouldn’t have any means of figuring out that the shopkeeper had the rest to say, a lot much less that they’d solely say it after you talked to another person and returned to aim one other dialog.
The purpose is, Astlibra can generally really feel antiquated within the worst means. There’s nothing incorrect with an RPG that refuses to carry your hand and forces you to interact with the world extra deliberately, however Astlibra generally goes effectively over the road into territory that feels spiteful and tedious only for the sake of it. That is the sort of recreation that we wouldn’t advocate enjoying with out a information able to go on a second gadget, as you’ll in any other case end up intermittently operating into virtually invisible development partitions and making an attempt to determine what the developer needs you to do.
Visuals in Astlibra are one other disappointment, though they aren’t essentially dangerous. Your character roams throughout varied 2D planes positioned in entrance of photorealistic backdrops, and it has the impact of feeling like an unfinished construct of a recreation with non permanent artwork property. Character designs are additionally primary, whereas the animations are usually stiff and somewhat awkward. Positive, there are definitely enhancements in visible constancy when evaluating this to the unique freeware launch, however there’s an underlying incongruity to the artwork route right here that merely cannot be neglected.
Fortunately, the soundtrack virtually makes up for visible shortcomings, imbuing the journey with a great deal of environment that reminded us of ’90s JRPGs in one of the best of the way. Whether or not it’s the quiet piano medley while you enter a swamp or the high-energy battle theme when enemies leap you, the music right here does an excellent job of stoking your sense of surprise and giving Astlibra the sensation of a grand journey, even when the visuals can’t fairly promote the fantasy. That is the sort of soundtrack that’ll have you ever in search of a YouTube playlist, and we’d advocate enjoying with headphones if doable to get the total expertise.
Conclusion
Astlibra Revision might not be a really nice recreation, however it’s most definitely an attention-grabbing one. On the very least, it’s unafraid to problem JRPG conventions in distinctive methods whereas additionally demonstrating mastery of the style’s most elementary tropes. It will probably really feel somewhat too archaic in its design and haphazard in its pacing, whereas the vaguely Flash game-esque visuals are a little bit of a letdown. On the entire, although, it proves to be a worthwhile expertise, one which we might particularly advocate to followers of older RPGs. If you happen to can look previous its faults, there’s loads to like about Astlibra; we’d recommend you examine in case your curiosity is piqued.