An Undertale-like with the wackiness and colour dialed as much as 11.
It’s plain the impression that Toby Fox’s Undertale had on the online game business, and indie video games particularly. Few titles, nevertheless, have been daring sufficient to attempt to kind of replicate the expertise wholesale. Enter Athenian Rhapsody, which appears to skirt the border between imitation and homage, particularly when it comes to its RPG fight. That stated, whereas Undertale dabbled in a mixture of each refined humor and slapstick, Athenian Rhapsody is far more in your face with its comedy, with hilarious sound results, fart jokes, and a cavalcade of outrageous characters.
After a collection of quiz questions set towards a black background, your Ness-looking character awakes on the planet of Athens, and it is exhausting to disregard the colourful, cartoony atmosphere by which you end up. Among the many first characters you encounter are a pair of inseparable creatures that appear like both Grimace knockoffs or Pokemon that ended up on the reducing room flooring (which might really describe a good few of the ridiculous Athenian denizens you find yourself befriending). That is Richard and James, they usually set the tone for the extremely absurd puzzles, antics, and trials you’ll encounter all through the sport’s roughly 10-hour most important story. Your final goal (insofar as the sport really has one) is to achieve the Gardens space on the finish of the world, whereas working to know the drive of so many in Athens to earn as a lot EXP as they will. Nonetheless, a way more efficient option to expertise Athenian Rhapsody could be to continuously cease and odor the roses, even if you happen to’ll ultimately catch a whiff of one thing reasonably disagreeable.
Not like bigger or extra mainstream RPGs, there isn’t a quest information or guidelines to work on as you weave your manner round Athens. As a substitute, you’ll must hearken to what characters inform you and communicate to everybody, which finally ends up being worthwhile for different causes, too. As an illustration, it’s not at all times apparent which characters may be invited to hitch your celebration, so including to your secure is one reward for chatting all people up; one other perk is that a number of the writing is genuinely humorous, and I by no means discovered it boring to stroll a couple of new space and test in with all of the locals. Every new atmosphere inside Athens affords a brand new colour palette and design as effectively, which helps to differentiate these areas and preserve pushing you in direction of the endgame. The catchy soundtrack doesn’t damage, both.
You’ll be able to win turn-based battles by attacking and defeating enemies or by befriending them, which sees you taking an motion like posing, insulting, or laughing till your opponent is prepared to surrender and settle for your friendship. Throughout an enemy’s flip, you’ll must play a dodge-’em-up minigame that’s precisely like that of Undertale, whereby you have to fastidiously keep away from a collection of projectiles from all sides of the field in the midst of the display screen. Each fundamental enemy and boss has a novel model of this minigame, with bosses typically introducing a handful of variations to it. Should you select the extra pacifist befriending route, you’ll must step as much as the problem of an HP meter that mainly by no means grows (because you don’t earn any EXP) and enemy assaults and obstacles that may put out heaps of injury. You do earn cash from any profitable fight, and these can be utilized to buy therapeutic gadgets, however your pocket house is restricted, and so chances are you’ll discover that well being restoration is usually in jeopardy.
Two components that may assist flip the tide in battle are the power to swap your most important character out to your chosen associate ally, who has their very own distinctive skills to prop up your group or end a battle. The opposite is the Burst mechanic, which lets you draw from one other pool of factors to heal your self or velocity up your avatar within the dodging minigame. Efficiently evading enemy photographs can shortly restore your Burst meter, however taking too many hits will lower each your well being and Burst, which makes for a harsh penalty. Athenian Rhapsody does have a “Chill Mode” possibility that may make the fights a bit extra palatable (by providing non permanent invulnerability after you get hit), however even with it activated the issue stage by no means felt too low. What always did really feel too low, nevertheless, was the overly restrictive merchandise storage field and your character’s personal pocket, which mixed nonetheless solely allowed you to maintain about 20 gadgets.
There are components of Athenian Rhapsody that time in direction of a long-tailed future for the sport after its launch. For one, every playthrough of the sport creates a person, personalised Rhapsody, which may be shared with different gamers or rewatched by your self. The sport’s Steam web page means that Rhapsodies may be mixed and even used to entry particular in-game occasions; I’m wanting to see if a considerable group types across the recreation and if these options result in some fascinating methods of sharing and storytelling. I do know I haven’t seen all the pieces the world of Athens has to supply, nevertheless it seems like there’s potential for this world to develop if the assist is there.
Athenian Rhapsody is far more than simply one other creator’s tackle Undertale. Via efficient comedic writing, a world that’s crammed to the brim with surprises, and a horny presentation, developer Nico Papalia has crafted an expertise that stands by itself as each an homage and a reimagining of what Toby Fox completed virtually a decade earlier. The concept of every playthrough being remodeled into its personal object and gaining a tangibility is an intriguing one, reinforcing the facility of decision-making in a world of unknown consequence. The vibrancy of Athens comes as a lot from its nature and biomes because it does from its inhabitants, and it was finally a honest pleasure to spend time right here. As a lover of each Earthbound and Undertale, I discovered in Athenian Rhapsody one other expertise that felt like dwelling, full with characters randomly exploding extra occasions than I might rely.