A mysterious string of suicides have been happening recently in Modern-Day Tokyo and the occult investigator Hayato Ibuki is on the scene. Along with his handy-dandy notebook, they came into the scene of the crime only to get tied up in the middle of everything when he met a mysterious lady dragging a highly suspicious suitcase which he then gives to Hayato. After bringing the said suitcase back to the LOST office, he then meets another girl named Lua, a self-proclaimed angel which happens to be waifu material that would tag along with Hayato to guide him as the Chosen One that would save the world from the war between angels, demons and fallen angels.
Bearing the power of the Gangour, a gun that has the power to capture Astrals and a tablet that has the power to purify and use their power in battles, they set off to rid the impending danger that would swallow the world in whole against the demonic forces that lurks in the shadows.
Set in a world filled with hidden entities, Hayato and Lua are required to jump between other dimensions called Layers to stop the enemies from doing whatever it is they’re doing. Because apparently, angels don’t listen to anyone else but God.
A 2D adventure of dungeon-crawling and puzzle solving mechanics that goes way back to the classics. Armed with features that makes dungeon-crawling a bit more approachable to newcomers. Auto-piloting which is a feature that lets the AI handle the traversing block by block in known locations in the map. Auto-battle which is pretty self-explanatory and just lets the AI issue attacks. And an infinite abyss that goes up to 99 floors filled with enemies and floor bosses to challenge the very core of your being.
Astrals. They are the very entity that fills the world and beyond. From angels, demons, and fallen angels, most if not all can be captured and purified to help you in battles. Evolved them if you so wish and they gain new abilities and a higher level cap or use them to learn new abilities from other astrals. But unlike other games which levels up your companions through battling, each battle with the three different factions of the game as well as choosing different dialogue will earn you karma which is then used to purify or level up your astrals. While battling with your chosen astrals will bestow them with new skills.
Graphically-speaking… if graphics can actually speak. But all jokes aside, it’s not perfect. The dungeon walls itself feels a tad bit too similar because they are. There’s not enough variation to make each floor a little less repetitive to the eyes in which case it is a bit too easy to get LOST without consulting the map. Although each dungeon has their own set of wall designs to make them different from each other. When it comes to the art style on the astrals however, most of them felt like they were done poorly. There’s not a lot that strikes me as good and memorable. Their evolution lines are a tad bit too similar with most of them having similar designs with a palette swap or slight modifications to how they look.
Meanwhile, the sound and voice-overs aren’t bad, it has both English and Japanese voices but it would’ve been great to have proper voice-overs on the minor characters you talk to in the areas outside the Layers. Also what is up with the uberly small texts that don’t even take half of the entire text box? Something that I find annoying despite it being readable through the PS Vita’s screen while on remote play with my PS4.
I’m at a LOST for words but so are THEY
While I’m not the biggest fan of D-RPGs nor do I hate them in general, I can at least say that being at a lost for words here mean that there’s something missing here, features that is! First of all my initial impressions weren’t actually that high to begin with but as soon as I boot up the game I immediately got turned off with the game for being so strict with its rules. “Press the OPTIONS button to start” to me translates to “I’m a rebel and I press any button I like!” Now that didn’t work so on to the next, OPTIONS from the main menu pops up an upload and download save data… like, what the actual fuck? LOADING from a save slot doesn’t pick the latest one. THERE’S NO LOAD OPTION FROM WITHIN THE GAME!!! SAVING a game, honestly… even that is a huge annoyance when you have more than one save slot as it hovers on default to the older save making you overwrite a game that you might not have wanted to if you’re not careful. THUMBSTICKS have no purpose other than hovering over save slots. MARK TO SELL MULTIPLE ITEMS apparently isn’t even a thing. APPRAISING ALL EQUIPMENT AT ONCE isn’t either. STRENGTHENING EQUIPMENT? Again, one at a time!
BEFORE you buy!
Honestly, it is despite all the missing features, the core story while not the best is a bit intriguing. Maybe not at the full price of $49.99 but definitely when it goes on sale as there are a couple of better options out there that would give a better bang for your buck. The astral hunting and customization are what really draws me into the game despite the lack of uniqueness to each evolution line. The dungeons, however, isn’t my cup of tea, I find it too vast when I really just want go to through the story and hunt more astrals. *definitely not for collecting monster girls*
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