Ever since it came out on Steam last year, I’ve been a bit of an evangelist for Astlibra: Revision. It comes out on Switch today, and so I wanted to make a post here telling you why this game should *absolutely* be on your radar if you’re an fan of 2D action games like Muramasa and Odin Sphere.
The gameplay loop is the main strength of the game. At the start, the combat is you smacking a slime with a stick, but by the end, you’re spewing lasers across the screen carving through legions of enemies with projectile-launching swords, and that progression is very well-paced. Skills are unlocked by leveling gear ala FF9,, which gives the search for gear and grind an addictive quality! On the flipside though, the cost of this feeling of getting progressively stronger is that early hours can feel slow and simple.
My favorite part of combat is that it doesn’t rely on “press circle to iframe dodge through an attack” skills, with instead your iframes usually coming from magic, and you gain MP by attacking the enemy. This means that to both gain and use your iframes, you need to be in the enemy’s face. It keeps battle really aggressive and engaging!
I imagine that the main narrative itself is going to be the most memorable part of the game for many. While it has a generic opening, it’s creative and *goes places*, and I’ll leave it at that to avoid spoilers. That being said, while the *narrative* is great, the actual moment-to-moment dialogue is Astlibra’s main weakness imo. It’s just not particularly good, a result of the games single developer not being a writer by trade.
Yup, that’s right: Astlibra was mostly made by just *one person* in his free time after his office day job over the course of *fifteen years*. This is a passion project, through and though. It’s the kind of game that can only be created by a single person, for both better and for worse. There’s rough edges that would have been ironed out if there was a larger dev team, like hiding key abilities and items in seemingly-optional areas without telling the player, and have some….tasteless “stereotypical anime” moments in the dialogue. But this also gives us a real creative spark here, with an “anything goes” attitude for both the combat and the narrative. It keeps the game engaging.
It’s some of the most fun I’ve had in a game this past decade. If you’re annoyed when games don’t have that AAA polish to them, you should probably pass. But if you can look past the rough, you’ll find a real diamond buried underneath. If you’re a fan of action JRPGs, this should at the very least be on your radar!
by Galaxy40k
17 Comments
I played the demo on Steam before it came out, it was a lot of fun. I might pick it up at a later date
How long is it, in your experience? You mentioned possible grind: is this just to level up if you need a leg up, or are there RNG elements to critical gear drops for instance?
Okay, that trailer was SICK. I’m going to look at reviews, and if the price is right, then I’m definitely going to check it out. Thanks. Maybe post on r/jrpg too.
damn i dig this! thanks for the info man, definitely checking this out
Looks really good
Looks like a bunch of assets pasted together in paint to be honest. Animations seems like done in css.
Maybe it’s fun.
Is it like a metroidvania style game? It looks similar to Bloodstained which I enjoyed.
Why would this be a JRPG? Seems more like a Castlevania game
Really interested in this–thank you for posting! Hope it runs well on the Switch!
Have had that one on my steam wishlist for a while and it’s highly rated. Glad it’s coming to the switch.
PLEASE play the demo before you buy. I bought this blindly based on recommendations and the very impressive Steam review score but while the core combat and levelling experience is pretty cool, the writing is just terrible and dare I say it, very cringe. Also, some levels are built using a somewhat ugly tileset that makes it looks like an early 2000s Game Maker game, it doesn’t help that you need to traverse these screens multiple times.
In the end, even the really unique and fun combat and unique progression system were not enough for me to hold my attention. It seems like a game for a very specific kind of person.
Wow does that look like a flaming pile right out of 1998.
Not sure how this is classified as a JRPG, but that art is questionable at best. I like the trailer showing the 12 large dragons you stand under and spam swipe.
I guess they’re advertising bouncing titties at 1:20 to really emphasize the superior story telling. Combine that with the bizarre techno song and you’ve got yourself… something.
Not gonna lie it looks like absolute trash
You had me at Muramasa
Does it run 60fps?
You had me at FF9
This looks like ass