Stern's turn based rpg blog @thesturnest - Tumblr Blog

Legitimately can't imagine how anyone could ever find real-time with pause preferable to turn-based combat in isometric CRPGs. Completely alien mindset to me.

imsobadatnicknames2

Even in games where it's not frustrating to play I'm still constantly thinking "this would probably be better if it was turn-based"

imsobadatnicknames2

Once again to paraphrase the smartest girl on this website, they call it turn-based combat because you put it in a game and the game turns based

il3x

@thesturnest

One of the things I learned from playing a lot of turn based rpgs is that the internet fucking lied to me about the frequency of encountering a fishing minigame

#there honestly aren't that many of them #honestly people say that all jrpgs have a fishing game when they really should be saying that about card games #turn based rpg #jrpg #fishing minigames

My review of Artis Impact

I'd like to put a disclaimer before I begin this review, that this is the first time that I am reviewing a game where I have not finished the game's main story, and hopefully this will be the last time it happens, I'll explain why this is the case in a bit but for now, I'd like to begin with what I liked about this game

When I first saw the trailer for this game the main thing that stood out to me was how beautiful it looked, and now that I am playing it I can confirm that every part of this game is utterly gorgeous in how it is presented and animated.

This game perfectly utilizes two visual styles that I rarely ever see explored to this extent in games, every single pixel animation in this game feels beautiful and unique to that moment.

While this games pixel animations feel like they simplify character design to make animation easier (Akane is a completely black sillouhette with a white head while bot is just a cube with a red dot) this games other style does the opposite of that, during cutscenes Artis Impact will often switch to beautiful CG's that feel like they've been taken right out of one of the prettiest manga I've seen in a long time,

This game utilizes both styles perfectly in every part of the game, from story moments to small moments where Akane and Bot are just hanging out and doing things such as finding a wishing well or stumbling onto a bunny.

Oddly enough, I think the feeling that this game captures best is one that many other rpg's aren't even aiming for, that being comfort, this game feels like an extremely cozy slice of life and while that kind of stuff is usually not my thing, Artis impact captures that vibe in a fascinating way.

Now I'd like to use this as my chance to move on from this beautiful games art and focus on it's story.

And boy do I have a lot to say about this games story, or the weird way in which it almost doesn't feel like it has one despite it clearly being the case.

This games world feels extremely lived in, and the first thing that gave me that feeling is how much you have to pay for things.

I know this might sound weird, but usually in video games you only have to pay for stuff like Items that help you in combat and upgrades for your things.

Now in this game you usually don't have to pay for anything beyond that, they key being that you don't have to.

When you're job reassigns you to a new town they give you a bunch of money to pay for your travel, you have to pay for the train ticket and if you want you can pay more to get a vip ticket

what are the gameplay benefits of the vip ticket?, nothing, You get your own cabin for the duration of the train ride, during which you can't do anything but wait, you can use the cabin to work out or stare out the window but those don't have any benefit.

and this is just one case of that, when you get to the new town, you don't have to buy a dorm to stay in, and you get no benefit for doing so, but you can and that adds a lot to this world's feeling of a slice of life.

This is a post apocalypse where the world is overrun by robots, with very few places for people to live safely, but you can tell that people are actually living in this world.

Now the actual plot of this game is something that I'm not sure if I like or dislike.

Akane is a person who's job it is to essentially fight the robots roaming around the world, whether it is to retrieve a rare material or defend a town.

And the story is just her going on a bunch of missions and the things that happen in them.

There's barely any connecting plotlines, it feels like you are just put into this world through this person's perspective as she does a bunch of things and then the game ends presumably ends (I got pretty far into the game and the place where I gave up had the devs literally saying thanks for playing the game in the sky)

The writing in this game is very good, it just doesn't feel like it's trying to tell a connected story, which I suppose in a way might add to this world's feeling of slice of life.

Now onto my main complain with this game and the reason I cannot finish it.

The combat in this game is really bad, the first disadvantage it puts itself in is that it is a turn based rpg with only one party member (Yes bot is there but you cant control him in battle) while this doesn't automatically diminish a game it needs to be handled very carefully in mechanics.

An rpg that handles having one party member very well is Jack Move, through giving the player the ability to manipulate the turn order and switch out their abilities on the fly it balances Nora very well against the enemies she faces.

This game doesnt handle that nearly as well.

In it's normal difficulty the game feels extremely difficult and unbalanced, almost every attack can take very large chunks of your health off without giving you any chance to recover.

And while the regular enemies can be managed, every single boss feels completely impossible, It feels like Akane is barely dealing chip damage to them while many of them can kill her in a single turn.

And in the easy difficulty it's the opposite problem, until the final boss every single fight in the easy difficulty feels like it ends in a single turn.

The final boss is just too hard on both difficulties.

Maybe it's a skill issue but I believe that when I fail at a game it should feel like it's completely my fault for playing badly.

The combat in this game does not make me feel like I failed it feels like the game just wasn't balanced correctly

#Artis Impact