Category Archives: 8 Star Games

Ghost Sync Review

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Kemco is back with another great RPG. The company really never lets you down and its impressive just how many titles they have churned out. As always you have a ton of great gameplay mechanics here and they also try a few new techniques as well. In this case I don’t see the new gimmicks catching on but none of them were bad which is the important thing. It’s a bit on the shorter side compared to some of their other RPGs but ultimately it’s a solid experience through and through.

The plot starts with a whole lot of amnesia. The main heroine has lost her memories and then she bumps into a spirit who says he has also lost all of his memories. Ah well, they both like helping people which is the important part and so they travel the world fighting against monsters. This leads them to joining up with the national guild where they meet a travelling priest of sorts who is looking for someone. The three agree to form a team since you need 3 in order to be registered and they will help each other out along the way. Eventually they are joined by a hungry fairy who eats other creatures for power.

There are a ton of mysteries throughout the game as each team member is holding something back. I like just how many are ongoing at once too. There’s even one cutscene where each character has to face off with their dark self and so we see how everyone’s keeping a secret even up until the end of the game. I guess they just really don’t trust each other and of course that is part of the character development. By the end it’s all good and the ending may not be the most satisfying, but that’s one of 3. I’ll work on beating the other two endings shortly and getting the Platinum trophy because we’re already so close to getting that one as it is.

The story is fun here and the characters are all pretty reasonable. At most you can say that sometimes the weakness of a Kemco game is that some characters can be a bit overly weird with a gimmick that gets played out early. Fortunately that’s not the case here. Every character has a clearly defined personality and everything but they are never one note. They all have serious plots going on and we get a good amount of banter out of everyone. It helps make this a more complete experience.

Additionally for the gameplay it’s as streamlined and smooth as ever. You can speed up attack animations when grinding, turn off minion encounters for levels that you’ve already beaten, quick travel, etc. If there’s a nice quality of life feature that you can think of, this game almost certainly has it. That’s something I’ve always loved about these games. It makes it fun to level up and explore without having to be fighting minions every second.

The level cap is really high and I beat the game close to level 300 but getting those level ups is really quick. Just keep on fighting and you will secure the levels before long. For one of the new mechanics in this game you can absorb/take over monsters once they are weakened. It’s interesting but the main problem is that it’s never worth it. You do more damage normally so taking them over is only good for the novelty and since there’s no trophy for that…there’s no real point to doing so.

Then you have the skill leveling which is interesting enough. You can buy a ton of skills using blue points and then level them up with red points. It’s interesting but I’d say the reason it doesn’t work is due to just how many of them there are. Even by the end of the game I probably had at least half of the skills still locked and you don’t really need most of them. So buying them all is just fun for being a completionist but you’ll be okay with beating the game either way. I’s definitely not a make it or break it deal.

So I think you could leave that out of the next one. The equipment was solid though with ranking it up to work for you with better stats. That is pretty streamlined and easy to use which I appreciate. You can alter your team’s tactics, formation, etc. There is really a ton to do and you have complete control which is awesome. You can buy tons of great permanent upgrades from the shop and you can farm the currency through the triple fights in the cave. That is definitely the best part of the grinding because it basically turns itself into an extra boost.

Overall, Ghost Sync is definitely a great game. The gameplay is on point and the story is a lot of fun. The soundtrack is really fast paced and intense like you’d expect from this company. Really this is an RPG developed by a very experienced company and it shows. It shines on basically every level. While the replay value may be lower than some of the other games since you can platinum it fairly quick, you’ve still got a lot of good value for your buck which is what counts. Definitely a game that I will not be forgetting anytime soon.

Overall 8/10

Justice Chronicles Review

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Justice Chronicles is one of those great games that really has everything you could want. A top tier soundtrack, a solid plot, good characters, great gameplay, etc. It’s really the whole package and you love to see it. The game can be difficult and will absolutely require some grinding but that’s how you know that it’s legit. It never feels annoying to grind either because the game is well developed. Yes sir this is the way to go without a doubt.

The plot starts off with the main character being a part of a legendary group of hunters who have to travel to the human world to check on things. There is a war brewing between both sides or at least that’s what the rumors say and so they have to check into this. Ultimately the group gets split up and the hero finds himself stranded in the human world. He ends up saving a girl who nearly died by making a pact with a demon in exchange for his soul. A nearby witch is able to halt the pact for a while but now the hero has to make sure to get back to his people and stop this war or a lot of good people are going to die.

There’s a ton more to this story as this is a proper RPG through and through. You have betrayals and conspiracy going on. There’s a fairly large cast here as well and you have time to get used to all of the characters. The game even has a bit of a double ending going for it so the experience lasts even longer than you would expect. I wouldn’t say the cast is quite ready to take down the Asdivine Hearts folks but it’s a pretty strong cast either way. They’re easy to root for and we get a lot of good banter the whole time.

For the gameplay, you have your classic attacks, special moves, and such. It’s turn based combat so you want to plan your attacks carefully. There are so many different things to level up with limited resources so choose carefully or you’ll end up regretting it later on. Of course at that point you could always do more grinding if necessary. One thing I didn’t focus on until the end was ranking up my weapons because the whole harvesting system looked a bit complicated. It probably is a little more complicated than it needs to be but in the end I wouldn’t say that it’s bad.

Basically you have to complete side quests in order to unlock different materials for purchase at the shop. For that reason I would say not to use any materials until you have unlocked them because you will need those eventually. The money will come naturally the more that you defeat the enemies so you really don’t have to worry about that. It does mean that like Harvestella you will often have to choose between focusing on your level or focusing on getting materials. For the most part I would say focus on levels first until you can easily one shot any minion from a weaker zone and then get the materials. Ranking up your weapon increases your attack power by about as much as 10 normal level ups which is why you want great weapons and armor. That said, you don’t want to forego either one of those for too long or you’ll really be in trouble.

I died several times during the game and had to spend hours grinding. So this isn’t a walk in the park but the grinding is always enjoyable. The EXP you get per battle is fair so you don’t feel like things are going too slowly. Throw in the resource grinding and that keeps you especially busy the whole time. I’d say what helps also keep things from getting stale is the soundtrack’s really good the whole time. Don’t underestimate the power of a great soundtrack to keep anything from being too tedious. The fast paced nature of the themes really work well.

Of course the visuals are also great here and I would expect no less. It’s all very streamlined and full of color. Yes the game succeeds on a technical level very well. Then there is a good amount of replay value here to get the trophies. The platinum will definitely take some time but I also wouldn’t say that it’s super difficult. It’s a pretty fair one where if you put in the effort then you will get it. By the time you beat the game you will be well on your way so I would definitely recommend going for it. I’ll probably work on this soon once I’ve worked on some other titles.

Overall, Justice Chronicles is definitely a great game and one that I highly recommend checking out. The story is really good and as always there are a ton of great quality of life features here. It may be lacking some of the functionality that Asdivine Hearts had and other gimmicks don’t play quite as strongly as the classic games yet I still had a lot of fun here. It’s still heads and shoulders above some of the other RPGs of the past. Additionally I really like how they went the extra mile for the opening cinematic. This is a game that was clearly giving its all right from the start and I can definitely respect that. I highly recommend checking this game out whenever possible.

Overall 8/10

Harvestella Review

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It’s time to look at a farming game and this is the first time that I’ve bought one like this. I was a little hesitant because farming isn’t necessarily my thing but I had heard that this game had a really good story and was still in large part a full RPG with lots of combat. So I decided to take the plunge and it really is a great game. Certainly on the long side as it took me over 50 hours though and nearly ended up catching up to Tears of the Kingdom. The Switch has definitely gotten a whole lot of playtime lately!

The basic plot is that one day you wake up in the middle of nowhere during an event call Quietus. You have complete amnesia but fortunately the local doctor nurses you back to health and even gives you a little farm. You are determined to make this the best farm of all! Eventually an alien ship lands and a girl appears from it. She claims to be from the future and needs a way back to her time. So now you have to help her, tend to your farm, and you also need a way to save the world. See these Quietus events are dangerous since if you stand outside during one you could die and they’re happening very regularly now. Something’s up, but what? As you travel to different towns to buy farming ingredients you meet more people to add to your party and find out more about this time traveler. Ultimately the pieces will fit together but you’ve got time.

There’s a lot to enjoy here but the one thing I will take away from the game is that I would have liked more voice acting. For a modern day Switch title it’s pretty odd to just be reading text the whole time. It’s not like they couldn’t have voice acting either since your fairies call out to you every day when you leave the house and when you return. For two of the final bosses we suddenly get full voice acting as well. So to me it just seems like a budget thing or they were hurrying a lot but it’s unfortunate since voice acting could have helped to elevate this further.

The actual graphics are really good though. I really like the colors and the overall atmosphere of the game. It has a bit of a sci-fi feel to it even when you’re on the farm because of the crystals everywhere. The visuals and the fun soundtrack do a lot to make this game feel grand. It’s an RPG that is taking itself very seriously and I can definitely appreciate that. As a mild negative it would be nice if the fairies didn’t have to greet you home or say goodbye every time. They only have 1-2 sound clips so this gets really old fast. It’s one of those audio things the devs really need to think about since you will be performing those actions well over 100 times.

The RPG combat is really solid, if a bit complicated. Basically you have around 10 different job classes which all change up your attacks and element type. You can use a sword and just slash away at the enemies or you can use futuristic energy blades to fire at opponents from long range. Each job seems to have some advantages to it. I used the Mage class for around 80% of the game and then went to the fighter and holographic classes for the climax. I didn’t experiment too much with the others but they all seemed pretty fun.

There is a stamina system like Breath of the Wild which can get a little annoying. You can’t regenerate it naturally so the only way is to eat some food or go to sleep and start the next day. Not ideal when you’re in the middle of a dungeon though. Additionally you have a hunger meter so after a point you can’t eat anymore. You want to stock up on fruit juices because those you can continue to have even once your character is fully full. This is probably the main point where the game is being just a tad too realistic. I think the game should have dialed that back a bit.

I’m also not typically a fan of the day system and you can bet that this was not an exception. Having to rush home because the day was ending is not really my idea of a good time. I like to just relax and do things as they come so that goes against my gaming style. I’ll make it work of course but yeah these are all mechanics that I could do without. I suppose the most satisfying part of the farming is gathering resources though. It was always nice to finally build something.

By the end of the game I had completed all side quests and managed to build almost all of the items. So I really got a whole lot done and it shows jut how tough the final boss is because I needed all of that in order to win. I would recommend creating a juicer as early as possible because that is really what let me beat the game. I saved up over 40 fruit juices and had to spam almost all of them in order to win.

You could probably do with less of those if you got more level ups I suppose but I capped out in the early 50s so I didn’t have a ton of health. Without all of the health recoveries I would have certainly gone down. You can only get one juice per day too so the earlier you start the better. I ended up beating the game in around 1 year in-game time since I got to experience each of the seasons once so that was pretty cool.

It goes without saying that there is pretty much unlimited replay value here. You can keep on playing for a very long time as you keep upgrading your farm and getting level ups. I imagine it would take an extremely long amount of time for you to 100% this game but at least you do have a final goal of sorts. So the game never feels aimless. I can’t picture myself ever trying for the 100% but at least it is there should you ever be tempted to try and pull that off. Beating the story was satisfying enough for me.

Finally one of the big things about this game is how you can’t do everything you want to do within the day since it goes fast. You always have to decide between resource grinding, progressing the story, doing side quests, or working on equipment. Some of those categories can be broken down even further as well. I would usually focus on resources since there are always enemies to fight along the way but attacking enemies uses stamina which you need to pick up items so it’s still a tough call. Go with your gut on this one and remember there’s no time limit so eventually you will have what you need to get the win.

Overall, Harvestella is a pretty great game. I do think it survives entirely based on the combat gameplay and the great story though. You really get to know all of the characters after being with them for 50 hours so the climax hits really hard. You also had some tough moral decisions to make and ultimately this was just a very complete story. Ultimately this tells me that I still wouldn’t be fully on board with a big farming title. It doesn’t hold the game back enough to hurt it but it would absolutely be really bad news if the whole game had to rely on that. So if you’ve ever been curious about the genre, check this game out. As long as you like RPGs you will still enjoy it and this way you get to have a taste of what the farming is like. It’s really a full win/win for you. There’s also so much depth to the game that it’s hard to mention it all in one shot so trust me you will come across a lot of things that I didn’t even touch on here. The main thing to remember is that this is a game with a serious amount of grinding so pretty much all power ups and equipment really have to be earned. Prepare for a long journey right there!

Overall 8/10

Shadowverse: Champion’s Battle Review

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Shadowverse is one of those games that always looked pretty fun but I can’t say that I knew a whole lot about it. It was a hype game with a fun color scheme but yeah that’s the extent of it. Well after playing through it I can safely say that this is a great game and one that you should definitely check out. There was a whole lot of effort put into this one and you can feel it in all of the small details.

The game follows the adventure of Terry (Or whatever else you name him) as he learns about the game of Shadowverse. It turns out that he is actually quite the prodigy at it and starts winning tournaments quickly. He joins up with a local club at school and that’s good because they desperately need him. If one of their members does not win the national championships then the club will be disbanded. This sounds like a job for Terry and trust me, he’s up for the task!

One aspect that was impressive right out of the gate was the full voice acting. Yes this game has every line read out loud which is great. It really makes this feel like a true AAA game all the way through. It enhances the story since you really feel the stakes this way and the fact that even side quests have voice acting and everything is cool. It works as an extra incentive for you to really play through the adventure. Either way it’s long as the game’s story is well over 40 hours. After that you enter the post game and I haven’t started that one so I can’t say how long it is but I bet it’s another 5+ hours in there.

So you don’t have to worry about replay value. Even outside of all story content there are in-game trophies to obtain and a lot of side quests to complete. You can also work on obtaining all of the cards in the game which is actually more achievable than usual. I came super close to getting them all myself after all. The character cast is likable and the story is strong. It’s not going for an end of the world kind of vibe to be sure but it still brings the tension since your club is at stake.

Now for the gameplay, with so many different card games out there I’m sure the creators had to think carefully to make this one stand out. Well, they definitely succeeded. First off, you can only own 3 of a card so that makes it feel less infinite since after you’ve obtained around 1900 total then that means you’ll have them all. You build your deck with monsters and spell cards so there are two base types. You each start the battle with one energy and it goes up to 10 by the end of the battle. You each have 20 life points and the first one to hit 0 loses.

Beyond that it will take a lot of trial and error but the game really gives you the tutorials in a way that is very easy to understand. The explanations were definitely high quality and you can view them again at any time. There are also over 200 duel puzzles which help you understand more of the specific mechanics built into each clan. Each of the different types of cards have very different strategies and by the end you will want to have more than one deck. For example I had a shadowcraft deck for attack and a havencraft one for defense. What do I mean by that?

Well, when playing a blood deck that is built on damaging the user, I’d go for Shadow which is based around dealing damage to the enemy quickly. It’s a perfect counter so it works well. Then if an opponent is using a slow burn deck like Royal, I would bring in Havencraft. It has a card that basically works like Exodia, if you summon it then you win the duel by default no matter how many life points your opponent has. That part was really cool, I built a deck around that and it helped me win a ton of battles that would have been really tough otherwise.

The game is very friendly when it comes to setting up decks. For example whenever you defeat someone then you get a copy of their deck recipe. You have to get the cards yourself but once you do, then you can set that up as a deck. It revolutionizes deck building which can take hours and hours in a Yugioh game since it’s all manual. This one actually gives you some help which was nice and it’s an incentive to find every duelist and take them down. I ended up only having a little over 30 deck codes out of over 100 so you can tell that I didn’t fight as many as I could have. Once I had my 1-2 punch setup I just figured I didn’t need them.

Meanwhile the graphics here are really solid. The characters are all very colorful and we actually get fully animated cutscenes in addition to the CG ones. That was really cool and also made the game feel more special. Finally there’s the soundtrack which is also really good. There are quite a few really epic tunes in here that get you into the flow of the duel. The game spared no expense.

Overall, Shadowverse is a great game and one that I definitely recommend. It also serves its purpose in getting you more hyped to watch the show since the game was so engaging. I dare say even the Yugioh games can pick up a few things from this one like the deck creation enhancements which do make it a lot more fun. At the end of the day it’s too strong to call this the best card game out there but it did exceed my expectations and I was definitely satisfied by the end.

Overall 8/10

COGEN: Sword of Rewind Review

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It’s time for a platformer with a pretty fun time manipulation gimmick. In a lot of platformers you really focus on running to the goal and dodging attacks but in this one you actually have the ability to rewind as you may have guessed from the title which is really fun. Additionally since the game is built around that premise, it’s actually very well balanced so you aren’t just being extremely overpowered while slicing through the competition. This game has a lot of replay value and it’s actually quite a bit of fun to go back and work on those levels. I ended up getting an S rank on 6 out of the 10 levels which went over better than I had expected.

The story follows a girl named Kohaku who wakes up in a strange world in a cybernetic costume. She doesn’t really know what’s going on but there is a talking sword named EXEBreaker who wants her to break the system. Kohaku is fine with doing this but what is this system and what’s going on? As you go through the game this will all be explained. You even have to go up against your father and Kohaku will have to make some tough choices. It isn’t going to be possible to make everyone happy this time around so she can’t just press on ahead without a plan.

There are 5 main levels and then 5 SP levels so there are 10 levels in the game. Each level is reasonably challenging though which is exactly why you have the rewind feature. As Kohaku you have a single life point so taking any damage automatically means you lose. Fortunately you have 3 seconds of rewind time in the vault and so you can use that to quickly get back in the action. Of course if you die while you have no rewind time left then you go back to the last checkpoint. You passively gain your rewind time back up to 3 seconds once you use it so as long as you don’t die too often then you’re good.

Of course with the way these enemies attack that can be easier said than done. Other times you may find yourself in a death loop accidentally and be doomed. This can happen when you are squished by an object for example. So plan things out well or you will jus get yourself in a jam. On paper I know that sounds easy but that’s why this game stands out. The levels are really well designed to keep you from cheesing it. You do have to actually get a hang for the controls. I would say the gameplay itself reminds me of Mega Man Zero a lot. You can dash, back dash, crouch, use your sword combos and you have a double jump. Basically if there is a movement option then odds are that you have it.

You can cover a lot of ground and so the actual platforming will normally be easy while the real danger is sticking away from the enemy robots. Once you beat the game then you unlock a super mode which makes all of the levels a lot easier. This is perfect for earning S ranks and all of that plus it’s just fun to have a laser cannon instead of only relying on the sword. Just be careful that you don’t get sloppy as it can be very easy to relax your guard when you have a better weapon.

I died numerous times against the final boss for that reason. It’s just hard to go back to the sword when you’re used to the lasers. Also I kept getting trapped by this portal attack the boss uses and it turns out that I wasn’t supposed to go inside it. See, I thought that was just the next phase of the fight and so I always let it suck me in but apparently that’s a trap. It’s actually kind of clever when you think about it. I can tip my hat to the developers on that one.

The base game is reasonably long since those 10 levels are not a walk in the park. Then you have a lot of good replay value with trying to get the Platinum here. It’s definitely a difficult platinum but one that looks achievable. I would say to give it a go and see how you fare. Even without that, the base game was still fun enough where you will have a great time. I really enjoyed the story all the way through. It’s a pretty fun sci-fi premise with a lot of fun twists scattered all throughout the game. The cast is fairly small but memorable and each character brings something to the table.

By splitting the 10 levels into two sets it also helped you get used to two different fighting styles. For example in the second half your rewinding abilities are much more limited so you really have to focus on your pure fundamentals. Just running in won’t be helping you out much at all because you can’t spam rewind the way that you could. Then at the very end of the game you get the third gameplay style which is a lot of fun and I’m glad it was added to free play.

The graphics here are definitely very solid. The art style really gets the sci-fi feel across very well. It has that Mega Man vibe without feeling like a clone and all of the character designs are on point. The soundtrack is also very good with a lot of solid rock type themes. I actually need to look them up later since it would be a lot of fun to listen to those tracks again. On a technical level the game holds nothing back.

Overall, Cogen really delivers on everything I could have wanted here. It’s a fun side scroller with an intense story and a lot of fun gameplay. The rewinding gimmick is one that never feels annoying and in instead it’s really innovative. The game had a very specific goal in mind and executes on all cylinders. I really had no issues with the game at all and highly recommend checking it out. Hopefully at some point we can get a sequel here since there is still a lot of potential all around.

Overall 8/10

Asdivine Menace Review

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Whenever there is an Asdivine game that is a direct sequel it’s really cool to see. It’s not everyday that you get to see what happens after the heroes have saved the day. It has certainly happened like in Golden Sun but I would argue that it is still more on the rare side. Of course the whole Asdivine series is interconnected by the two goddesses from the first game and it’s cool to wonder where everyone is at these days. We do see a cameo of the cat but since Zack and the heroine took over the roles later on maybe this takes place early in the continuity. It could also be a multiverse setting. Either way that’s not important to this game but it’s fun to think about.

The game starts with Izayoi waking up after the 100 years slumber he had to take from the first game. He saved the universe though so things should be good but unfortunately that isn’t the case when he wakes up. His powers still haven’t fully returned for some reason and the Murk (Shadow energy that corrupts all) is still around. Then a goddess from another universe arrives and explains that things are getting worse across all of the dimensions. Izayoi decides to go and tells the other gods to watch over the universe while he’s gone. This writes out the cast from the first game so don’t expect them to do much aside from quick appearances here and there. Instead the main cast is this goddess, a shrine maiden, and a mysterious little girl who accompany Izayoi. He must check in on all 4 of the universes and take down the main villain.

It’s a pretty fun plot because this was also foreshadowed back in the first game. It had that creepy ending with a girl appearing and she’s the main villain here. Her backstory is also kinda tragic so you can see why she got this demented. Of course it’s another cast of “Sad story but you’re still evil bro” moment but I appreciate the game giving her such a tragic backstory where you can really see why she went the way that she did. It would have been tough to have been on her own for so long. The story evolves quite a lot as you play through it and we have a pretty big cast here. Izayoi is as oblivious as ever and one of the characters is also super oblivious in nature which makes for some fun dialogue. On the whole this game does lean more into the shipping than some of the other Asdivine games but the core story will tide you over. It’s a good premise here and the game takes advantage of the fact that you are playing as a super powerful god this time around. You aren’t going to back down when the villains show up and that’s how it should be.

Of course the whole “I’m depowered!” trope is a bit annoying since at full power this would all be trivial but you do understand why they went in this direction since ordinarily Izayoi could just wipe everyone out. My counter would just be to make the enemies all scale up to gods though. It would be interesting to just make this a big fight between gods of all sorts of dimensions. There is still a human villain here as well but he looks really bad the whole time. Yeah he is being suckered for a good portion of the game but he was suckered too easily and it doesn’t take away from what he was doing. The guy doesn’t have a lot of strength of heart and do I don’t cut him any slack here.

The graphics are really good here as expected. I really like the way that the cosmic realm looks and of course it has one of the best tracks in the game as well. You really feel like this is a big battle to end them all. The fights are also really tough and the game notches the difficulty level a few layers higher to really make the whole thing feel authentic. No expense is spared for this game and you appreciate that. All of the tracks are excellent as you would expect too so the game really has no weak points. You definitely feel like going for the true ending as a result. I went for that right away and even with all of my level ups it wasn’t exactly a walk in the park. I’ll try getting the rest of the true endings at some point.

The length is fairly standard for an Asdivine game at around 15-20 hours. You shouldn’t have a problem really diving through the game and by the time you get the platinum as well we’re definitely looking at closer to 30 hours. It’s a fun experience all the way through and well worth the price. The gameplay is top tier as always with Asdivine. The game doesn’t have some of the quality of life features that the others have but it’s got the ones that matter like battle effects and reducing enemy encounters in the wild. Then when you want to grind you can increase the encounters.

The only mechanic I never really used was Unison here. You could merge magic attacks so you do them all in one turn but then the other characters did not get a turn so I never felt like it was worth it. To me it just seemed like using your normal attacks but with more steps so why would I really need to do that? I’m sure there is some benefit but I couldn’t really figure out what it is. Just focus on leveling up and buying all of the EXP upgrades. Do that and you should be good and ready to take on any challenger. Some bosses may still take you more than one attempt but that’s normal so fight hard and just keep pressing forward!

Overall, Asdivine Menace does a great job of following up Dios and it’s a blast to see the old cast again. It would have been nice if more of the old characters could have participated as well. Maybe in a third game we would get to see the extended cast of both games team up. That would be a blast and to this day I’m waiting for an Asdivine game where the protagonists of all the games get to team up. Now there would be a game for the ages! Trust me, it would be incredible and probably a 9 star game right out of the gate. The longer we wait on doing this, the more leads there will be to crossover so I suppose that’s a plus. I definitely recommend picking up this RPG.

Overall 8/10

Asdivine Cross Review

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Asdivine continues to churn out hit after hit and this is one of the better ones in a while. I thought the characters had a really good dynamic going for the most part and was one of the stronger dynamics since the original Asdivine Hearts which will still go down as one of the best RPGs of all time. This one isn’t quite ready to challenge the original of course but it’s still a very strong game all around. With classic end of the world stakes going on and all of the usual quality of life updates this is a game you don’t want to miss.

The game revolves around a thief named Harvey who is really good at what he does. So good that the son of the leader of the guild wants him out of the way and is always trying to get him captured. This time he succeeds but Harvey is broken out along with a girl who claims to be the princess of the kingdom. Problem is that a shapesifter/look-alike has taken her place so she is not currently wanted at the castle. Harvey will have to help her out since his thieves brigade’s motto is to always protect a lady at any cost. He’s not thrilled about this assignment but will do his best. Along the way the heroes will meet up with some allies and enemies as they get closer to unraveling a giant conspiracy. It wouldn’t be an Asdivine game without some cosmic threats on the way right?

Right off the bat we do have a lot of the usual quality of life features that make the games so much fun. You can reduce enemy encounters, turn off battle effects, and more to make walking around and the villain encounters more fun. Grinding up to the max level just doesn’t feel like a chore this way since you can keep on getting stronger and stronger. There are also a lot of different abilities from unity attacks to skills, magic, etc. So you can have fun building your character in a whole variety of ways until you find the one that really sticks with you. Then once you are strong enough you really feel like you can do anything. It’s one of those games where you really feel your strength as it increases which is nice.

The Asdivine series also has fun experimenting with a bunch of features to keep their games feeling different. For example one had a tree that you would raise to get stats every 8 hours, others have weapon merging to make them stronger, roulettes, combo attacks, etc. They’re always features that you don’t have to use of course but they make the game more balanced overall and I appreciate them being there. Trust me it’s a great thing to have. You’re only going to get one final smash during a battle so you have to decide if you use an offensive one that deals mega damage or a support type that restores everyone’s health and boosts their stats. Personally I really liked the support one for once because restoring everyone’s health is huge.

Grinding to get the levels also benefits you in slowly earning currency that can be used to buy online items or saved to use as an extra life mid battle. I recommend using it to buy all of the EXP upgrades and then after that it’s really up to you. I’ll typically buy other permanent upgrades but I recommend skipping on money since by the end it is inevitable that you will have more than you know what to do with. Don’t make the mistake of of wasting your coins on that since they are tough to come by. Extra lives are also super handy because even at around level 300 I was getting beat by some of the opponents. These games can really be challenging if you don’t have a plan up your sleeve.

So the story was really good and that’s one of the things I really enjoyed about the game. Sometimes these titles will go a bit too far in trying to make all of the characters very quirky and zany but this one was mainly keeping the characters feeling real. There is one that gets to be a bit too tsundere by the end which could make you shake your head a bit but otherwise the cast all interacted well. I enjoyed seeing the stakes get higher and higher as the game went on. I’m sure you will see some of the twists coming before the title ends but maybe not all of them. Either way it still makes for a fun adventure cover to cover.

The graphics here are also very solid. I always enjoy the illustrations used for each character portrait. It would be nice if the game ever went a bit farther to have some kind of cutscene during the game. That would just go a long way to making the game feel a bit more special. It’s not necessary of course but would be really effective since it hasn’t happened before. One of the highlights of the game is the soundtrack as expected. The Asdivine games always have a tremendous ost with a ton of really fast paced tunes and this one is no exception. The tracks really hit you with a lot of power in an instant and it works perfectly. I highly recommend looking up the tracks on Youtube when you finish the game.

The story is a good length at around 15 hours or so and then there is a good amount of replay value in trying to unlock all the endings. My only slight complaint here is that unlike most of the other games where you just keep reloading and fighting the main boss, for this one you actually have to play the whole game again on new game+ mode. I thought that was a bit odd and feels a little forced since it was never like that before. It’s not a big deal because you don’t have to play the game again but it seems like a way to extend the replay value a bit without needing to.

Overall, Asdivine Cross is definitely a great game. It’s an RPG that is a whole lot of fun to play. The aesthetic, combat, and soundtrack are all top notch. Kemco knows how to really get you invested into a game and they spare no expense on the fundamentals. In some ways the game will feel familiar and that just makes it even better since you know that all of the other games you’ve played in this style have been fantastic. So naturally that would be the case for this one as well. Hopefully it gets a sequel like some of the others have at some point because there is definitely a lot more you can do with this cast.

Overall 8/10

Knighthood Review

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All right it’s time to talk about a mobile game that sort of came out of nowhere and ended up being a blast. It’s the kind of mobile title that’s definitely very addicting with a whole lot of content to keep you busy. The campaign is likely upwards of 100 hours, I only just beat it now and I started the game back near the end of February. The iPhone sadly doesn’t track play time past 10 days, but I’m at 30 hours played over that time to multiply that by 6 for the 2 months and that’s even close to 200 hours. Especially considering that I was putting even more time in at first and you’ve got a big grind here. Of course that’s only the beginning as any player would tell you.

So the basic plot here is that you are a new knight ready to serve the kingdom and make a name for yourself. Your timing couldn’t be better as the kingdom is in desperate need of help now that monsters are invading. The legendary knights of old have all turned evil except for one who is determined to train you to be the best there ever was. Still, you will have to travel across several continents and defeat all of the knight masters. Are you up to the task?

The story is fairly basic but I do appreciate the fact that there are some actual cinematics here. Near the end of the game you even have a big team up among all of the characters you have met thus far against the main villain and it’s actually kind of hype. So the game’s story does hold up and the best part is that it’s a story which actually “ends”. Well….after you beat the main game there is a post game which seems to have a story of its own and there is a bit of a cliffhanger if you were to end after the main story. So it’s not 100% finite, but at least you could say you beat a saga as opposed to some games that like to just go on forever. From the start of Knighthood you know exactly how many levels there are and it helps you plan things out.

Now what is the gameplay like? Well, it’s a turn based RPG and you have 4 kinds of attacks. You have your weapon attack based on what you have equipped. Then you have your punch and the power is based on the gauntlet you have equipped. Then you have the hero abilities based on the heroes you have unlocked to fight by your side. Finally you have the Rage ability which you can charge up using your punch and then use for great results. This is an extremely simplified version of the controls though so expect a bit of a learning curve as you jump in. The game does a good job of being intuitive though so while it may be hard to explain it all in text, as you’re playing it will just make sense. Trust me on this, it’s a very smooth experience all around.

As you level up all of your stats improve so you really feel stronger each time. Mainly what will slow you down from beating it all in one shot is that you will run out of materials. Materials are used to strengthen your weapons and armor and the material you need changes every 10 levels. Additionally you need rank up materials as you approach the next 10. There are 9-10 different modes that you will be playing daily in order to grab materials but so you have to realize that this will be a gradual process. You won’t be getting everything at once, that’s just not happening. A lot of these are time gated as long as you’re a free to play user so keep that in mind.

That said, the game doesn’t feel very pay to win because you can eventually access all materials. You are given a good amount of currency each day so just spend it wisely. Additionally this is a game where most of the content is really PVE (Player vs Enemy) so it’s not like you’re watching other users beat you up all the time. There are two main PVP modes though in Arena and the Guild Wars. Note that you are fighting an A.I. in this case though so they aren’t live battles. Live battles would be cool but I’m glad that’s not the case here because I’ve experienced that in other games where the wait times get crazy. (Mega Man X Dive)

The Guild Wars can be rather unbalanced depending on your opponents. They need to work on the matchup criteria a little more. I’ve been in two Guild Wars so far. In the first we dominated 100% so we got every single reward (Which was awesome since I was a young player at the time and it gave me a huge boost in materials) but we got destroyed in the second one and couldn’t get almost any materials. So it can be hit or miss but at least you’re getting something either way right? The game can feel overwhelming at first with how much content there is but it’s ultimately a good thing because there is always something happening and there’s always a way to earn what you don’t yet have.

In terms of replay value it goes without saying that this game has a ton of it. With a main campaign well over 100 hours that’s a lot right there. Then the post game is guaranteed to take just as long I’d say. Put it this way, after completing the game I tried the first post game level and I lost in one hit to a normal minion. Needless to say the difficulty jump is quite extensive. Apparently the reason for this is that the post game came out like a year or two after the game’s ending so they were taking into account that people would have really upgraded their gear. There is something called “Mythic Gear” for example that is really strong but I’ve only obtained 1/9 of the gear so far so I have a ways to go.

Also in post game the enemies attack your health directly and that’s my weak point for now until I get some charms. Put it this way, my armor is at around 50000, but my health is at 10000. So you can take it down really quick when you’re skipping armor and that’s not something that level ups will help with much. So right now I am completely stuck with the post game and am just going to have to keep playing the side modes and leveling up my gear before I can get through. Once I have done that though, get ready! I’m going to be absolutely dominating, you can count on it. The max level in the game is 60 and at the time of writing this I am 48 so I’ve made good progress. Now again since this is based on the gear, just being level 60 doesn’t mean much as there will be 60s with much better gear than me.

For example I’m level 48 right now but most of my gear is around 41 and almost all of my heroes are level 20 or lower. So it takes a while to actually bump everything up, but I am getting up there. Slowly but surely is what I always say and you just gotta keep the grind up. As long as you complete the daily and weekly tasks each time you should really be good to go. Right now in my guild out of 17 people I’m the 14th strongest so I’d really like to boost that up but we’ll see. I’m pretty far at the moment.

Overall, Knighthood is a great game. The amount of content it has is just fantastic and that’s one of the positives of jumping into a game that has been going on for so long. Of course the only downside is you will be years behind the other players. For example I know I won’t be touching the upper echelon of players for at least a year or two because of how long the grind is. I don’t even know if I’ll still be playing the game that long. There are very few games that last that long, only Mega Man X Dive and Pokemon Go have pulled off such a feat and X Dive is nearly out of business based on the story ending so soon that’ll be gone too. In the meantime though I’m definitely having a fun time here and I would recommend this to players looking for a fairly unique mobile game. The rpg type combat here really is different from the average title and so it helps make the whole thing stand out.

Overall 8/10

One Piece: Odyssey Review

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It’s time to talk about Strawhat Luffy and the gang in their latest adventure. I remember thinking that Odyssey sounded like a lot of fun with how you would get to relive the old adventures in a new way. It was also bringing in the turn based combat system which is fairly rare for One Piece games as they usually go with a 3D action/beat em up style. It definitely does work well for this title even if I have some issues. Ultimately this is a great game but they really dropped the ball on the story itself which is unfortunate.

The game starts off with Luffy and the gang having a good time at sea as always until a storm knocks them off their course and they land on an island. A girl named Lim shows up and steals their powers with her cube abilities. In order to get their powers back they will have to defeat 4 legendary colossuses on the island and additionally they must relive some of their most dangerous adventures. Lim will help them do this by unlocking the memory world and her friend Adio is also glad to help in any way that he can. The whole thing feels a little suspect but the heroes figure they can get stronger and have some fun so it’s a win/win. Are they embarking on their final adventure?

The story’s a bit forced there but hey it’ll be fun to see Luffy and friends utterly demolish all of their old opponents like Lucci and Crocodile now that they are so powerful…right? Well to get around that the film says that the villains have all gotten way more powerful in their memories and of course the heroes have lost all of their new abilities thanks to the cube. So what that means is…every arc basically plays out in the same way. It felt like the laziest way possible for the writers to not have to think of any new scenarios which was unfortunate. What’s even the point of not just making this a direct adaption then. It just felt like the biggest cop out imaginable. The only arc with any real differences is the final one in Dressrosa and even then it was just a small change by adding 2 characters in there.

So the game really didn’t deliver on its premise at all. In a lot of ways it’s sort of like the bait and switch that Sonic Forces did back in the day. The present storyline with the Colossuses and the mysterious Adio was good at least. That’s the part where you can at least get invested in. If the gameplay weren’t so good I would definitely get a bit more annoyed at that though. Odyssey tried to fumble the bag there a bit that’s for sure. We did get a full cinematic fight near the end which was cool though. For a minute there I thought we were going to get another phase to the final boss fight but when it was all a cutscene I thought that was cool. It’s not every day that you get to just watch a pure fight like that after all.

The game is fairly long too and took me over 25 hours. There are 9 chapters here but they each have a lot of battles. Each battle can take a while since you can’t skip cinematics and all special attacks have a full cutscene animation to them. It can make the fights a little longer than they need to be but I’m guessing the devs wanted to show off what a good job they did. I totally get it even if I always love how the Asdivine series lets you turn off attack animations for that exact reason. One mechanic I liked a lot here is that using normal attacks fills your special attack meter. It’s something I don’t recall any other RPG doing so that was cool. It’s better than having to use ethers every turn.

The game also has a customization aspect to it as you can power up your attacks and skills using your level up points. You can also reset the points at any time if you want to distribute them in another way. Additionally you can equip items to improve your stats and make foods/smoke bombs to get stronger or make your opponent weaker. There’s a good amount of options within the game and so you’ll find that unlike most titles it starts out rather difficult and gets easier as you go. This is because you unlock more and more items to use as you go through the game and they easily outpace the enemies you’re dealing with. For example a level up may improve your stats by 30 but then you can by an amulet that increases your attack power by 1400. It’s like you suddenly jumped up tons of levels. Whenever I would see an item like that I had to grab it.

Then later on you gain the ability to merge two equipments together to keep both of their effects in one shot. That made things even better. So there are lots of ways to power yourself up. Finally there is the old fashioned way of leveling up by fighting enemies. The final area has minions that each give you close to 200,000 exp points which is enough to level up twice in every battle. It was crazy how the exp skyrocketed since that’s more than just about every boss fight in the game. You could say the game wasn’t very well balanced by the end.

That leads to one of my issues with the game which is that there actually seem to be “dead spots” where you are trapped in a place with no enemies to fight and no way to escape. So in theory if I couldn’t find a way to beat the boss then I would be permanently stuck. Any good game always needs to leave you a way out so you can go and train so that was surprising here. I could see that being a real big issue if I played on hard mode or something. It’s something any RPG needs to really be careful of because that would just be incredibly disheartening. I’d probably have to put my controller down right then and there.

Meanwhile the graphics are very solid here. The character models can be a bit stiff but we do get fight scenes with them so the game does know how to use this pretty well. Then you also have the soundtrack which is rather limited but still good. What this all tells me is that the game’s budget wasn’t super high or anything like that but they still did a good job in making the game fun so I have to give them credit there. That isn’t always easy. With an even greater budget I’m sure there is a lot more they could have done here.

As it is there is still a good amount of replay value here. There are plenty of bounties to be completed and collectibles to grab. At the end of your journey you can even grab the Platinum trophy which would certainly be fun to have. I’m not sure just how difficult this one would be to grab but if it’s not too high then I may go for it. I have already gotten the platinum for a few One Piece games in the past after all. Either way you can see how the game gives you a whole lot of content for your purchase so you can definitely buy the game at full price and feel good about it.

The game’s original characters in Lim and Adio do a good job of being very memorable. Lim may not be much of a fighter or anything like that but she has a classic character arc of slowly learning to enjoy the journey with Luffy and friends more instead of always being so analytical. Adio’s mystery gradually unfolds as you play through the game but ultimately he’s not really someone I liked all that much. Maybe in part it’s because the game was too obvious with where his story was going to go but whenever the guy was on screen you knew that nothing good was going to happen for him at least.

Overall, One Piece: Odyssey is a great game. At times the lack of budget starts to seep through but ultimately it’s a good chance to hang out with Luffy and the gang again. I think it did have some ambitious mechanics within it like every character having their own special ability. The game just could have done a little more with it. Mainly I’d just like them to follow their own premise a bit better and not just sabotage it right away. It’s just a very strange move narratively. Still, if you like One Piece or want to play a fun RPG, this one should be right up your alley.

Overall 8/10

Nexomon: Extinction Review

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Okay it’s time to talk about Nexomon, a game that I picked up on a whim and it turned out to be way better than I was expecting. The story is absolutely epic and a nice change of pace after playing through Need for Speed (2015). In a lot of ways it’s sort of what you could picture Pokemon doing if they ever decided to make a story that was a little more Shonen like in nature. There are certainly a whole lot of twists in this one so by the end you know that you were in a huge RPG.

The game starts out by explaining that the Nexomon and Dragons were in a big war a long time ago. The humans didn’t fare too well in the crossfire but eventually a group did manage to destroy Omnicron, the king of the monsters. The world went into a state of relative peace afterwards but the Tyrants continue to spawn and while the humans do their best to fight, every day is a never ending battle. This can’t be how humanity was supposed to live. In comes Terry (You choose the main character’s name) and he aims to become a guild fighter who will climb up the ranks. Can he save this world?

One of the many reasons why the story is so good is because of all the factions here. You have the humans, the Nexomon, the higher Nexomon known as the Tyrants, the kids of Omnicron, the Dragons, etc. Everyone is mixed in here and the Earth can only take so many factions so naturally there is a lot of action all the time. The game also asks you a lot of moral questions as you have to wonder if you are on the right side at all. I would even go as far as to say the game hints you are on the wrong side for a good chunk of the second half and I would say yes.

Now you are technically presented as doing the right thing at least in as far as you’re seeing things from the main character’s point of view but at the same time you also know that the arguments made in favor of his side are usually used by the villains. Basically the heroes fear the birth of a new creature called Vados who will end up wiping out all Tyrants in the world. This is actually the goal of the heroes so that sounds good right? Well the issue is that Vados is so powerful that he can wipe out all Tyrants in the blink of an eye so if he ever turned rogue then the heroes would be in trouble. Sounds similar to how Lex Luthor views Superman eh? Think about it in that context and it makes everything very interesting.

The game also doesn’t take the easy way out by making Vados a mindless creature or one who is super evil. He is actually fully sentient and even says several times that he will not harm the humans. He just seems like a good guy and as the heroes keep pushing him farther and farther you wonder if he will be able to stay strong or not. The writing here is excellent in how the game never makes any side appear to be too deranged and both sides have a lot of good points throughout the adventure. Throw in some clever 4th wall breaks as well as a lot of witty dialogue and you’ve got yourself a very engaging script. This would make for a really solid anime all the way through if it ever got animated.

Now the gameplay is also important of course so lets get into that. It’s basically Pokemon as you fight in turn based combat battles and catch Nexomon to add to your collection. The type advantages are a little different so you will need to get used to that and the way you catch Nexomon is similar to catching Pokemon but still a bit different as you have to match the right actions on the screen in order to effectively throw the Nexotrap. You can also increase the odds of success by feeding Nexomon or using a specific type of trap. As you play through the game you also get a lot stronger thanks to passive items with permanent boosts like EXP going up by 3% or your catch rates going up. Each one stacks so you really want to open every treasure chest that you can find.

The gameplay is very smooth and is probably one of the better Pokemon homages that I’ve seen in a while. The hubworld is really solid and a nice feature here is that monster encounters only happen in specific patches of grass that you see ahead of time. So you don’t have to be constantly worrying about running away from monsters as you can safely avoid them almost 100% of the time. There are a few select areas like some caves where random encounters will happen but these are few and far between. You can expect that you won’t be seeing these very much at all. So you’ve got quite a few quality of life updates here.

One edge Pokemon does have though is the EXP share system. It feels so odd to go back to only leveling up one Nexomon at a time. I’m glad there is only a trophy for getting one of them to level 99 and not a bunch because that would be a lot of work. I got one of mine to around level 70 so I don’t think it’ll be too hard to get it to 99. You do have cores you can synthesize which allow other Nexomon to get at least some EXP per battle though. So if you grind and get enough materials then eventually you can make your own pseudo EXP share.

So yeah you should have a lot of fun with the gameplay. As more and more games turn to a real time action combat system, it can be fun to go back to the more retro turn based style sometimes. I’ll never turn down real time action of course but I also really like turn based. Why not both as they would say right? This one still has a whole lot of relevance within the video gaming world and as long as it’s done smoothly then it will always work out. At most you could say that one thing the game is lacking is that the opponent can switch Nexomon after one is defeated while you cannot. Feels like a bit of an unfair advantage in the game and considering that in Pokemon both trainers can do this, it felt like an odd change. I always thought the computer was basically cheating a bit tbh.

The difficulty can be a little high at times so you should know that you will be grinding at some points within the game. It is basically inevitable but at the same time you can really focus on one and not worry about the other. The game’s enemies scale up so as you level up, so does everyone else in the game. Wild Nexomon, trainers, etc. So just get one Nexomon really high up and then catch 5 others to make up a team of super powerful fighters. If you do that then you will already be in a good spot and will stay that way for the rest of the game. Also make sure you at least use some strategy because the final boss is actually really difficult and has more phases than your average RPG final boss. Now that was an impressive way to end the game and if I had skipped out on any training then I may have been in trouble.

Overall, Nexomon: Extinction is a great game that I definitely recommend. It had one of the best stories that I’ve seen in a while and the developers did a great job with a fairly low budget. There may not have been big animated cutscenes here but the illustrations were all very well done and so were the sprite based animations within the gameplay. They showed more creativity with these than I’ve seen some AAA titles use. You really felt like the world was alive by the end of the game and it nailed the mix of humor and action. This is the kind of game you can play for hours without worry because of how smooth everything is. Definitely check it out and hopefully they get that sequel in quick!

Overall 8/10