ASTLIBRA Revision

Honestly, don't let the weird title or the mix-and-match art style throw you off. ASTLIBRA Revision is one of those rare games that reminds you why you started playing RPGs in the first place. It’s a side-scrolling action game that feels like a massive labor of love, mostly because it literally took the dev 14 years to make. The combat is super fluid and flashy. You’re constantly getting new loot, mastering gear, and filling out this massive skill tree. Every time I thought I had seen everything the game had to offer, it threw a new mechanic or the story just surprises you.. yet again. I would actually recommend starting on a harder difficulty (free achivemnt) to really appreciate the mechanics. It's easy to pick up but very hard to master, and it's one of those rare games that makes me want to go for 100% completion. + did not play the DLC yet.

Step aside Chained Echoes, there's a new king in town. This is without a doubt my new favorite and dare I say GOAT. heavy spoiler: [spoiler] The amount of superbosses and post game dialogue changes alone is enough to solidify this as #1 in my book by a large margin. [/spoiler] I am mind boggled by how much detail one person was able to put into this game. This is a one man team, and he put entire studios to shame. I mean, imagine if this game had the budget and giant teams behind modern gacha games, only without the gacha. Same game, same director, just way more resources. All that glazing aside, [spoiler] more glazing incoming actually [/spoiler], this game was surprising in a very good way. I came in expecting a short Ragnarok Battle Offline experience (thumbs up if you played that in the distant past lol), but I got something infinitely better. I quite like this story actually. It's a slow burn, but it gains momentum and really accelerates near the end. I really don't want to explain anything more since pretty much any description will spoil it for you, so just go in blind like I did. But in case you're curious, I will say... if you like anything dealing with [spoiler] time travel to both the distant past AND the far future [/spoiler], then you'll definitely like this one. Also, the good news is that the story is very long, in a good way, if that's something you're looking for. And by long, I mean... *Caution EXTREME spoiler: [spoiler] the story arguably doesn't start UNTIL NG+. You've pretty much been playing the prologue the entire time. You'll see. [/spoiler] The music and art are excellent, and the gameplay mechanics are also really fun. And it's a lot of fun experimenting with the different weapons and ways to buff your character. As far as Story RPG mechanics go, it's fairly linear. You can make choices here and there, and there are a few "bad ends" [spoiler] and missable events [/spoiler], but other than that it's mainly a straightforward path. Remember, this was made painstakingly by one person, so it's amazing we were given a complete and coherent story to begin with. As far as Battle RPG mechanics go, surprisingly, this is the rare game where you actually want to build tanky. Normally in rpgs, you just build glass cannon and steamroll everything. But if you do that here, especially on hard & very hard, then you will just get one shot [spoiler] during the main game. Post-game is a different story. [/spoiler]. Although, arguably, on "insane" you can, and probably should, go full glass cannon again since everything one taps you anyway, and it's best to do lots of damage quickly. But trying to push one stat too far actually leads to heavily diminishing returns as there is a "soft-cap" system in place based on your level [spoiler] until post game, where you can raise the cap. [/spoiler]. So it's for the best to evenly spread your points around after focusing on HP. (except for adaptability, which it seems you don't even need.) I don't really play much of this genre, 2D hack and slash, so the only thing I have to compare the experience to is RBO. I know there are a lot of other games in this genre that veterans might know of. Maybe Skul, Touhou Luna Nights or BlazBlue Entropy Effect? Not sure. (Those games look a bit too fast by comparison actually...) But this feels like a direct successor to RBO to me, which is pretty unique and that was what made me interested in it in the first place. One thing I will highlight though, slight spoiler, is my appreciation for the inclusion of an [spoiler] auto attack button [/spoiler]. You get it fairly early into the game too, and it makes things so much nicer [spoiler] especially if you have carpal [/spoiler]. Thank you so much for including that accessibility feature! Pretty much just go play it! It's 100% worth the money and I highly recommend it. Your first time through, don't be afraid to play on "difficult" (aka hard) or "hell" (aka very hard) [spoiler] Difficult is an achievement anyway, so just start there. It feels like "normal" regardless. [/spoiler]. I wouldn't recommend "insane" until your second playthrough though. I would also HIGHLY recommend getting the GAIDEN DLC along with the main game. There are a lot of improvements that come with GAIDEN that pretty much makes it mandatory. Don't worry, it's worth the purchase as well. CAUTION: When the game asks if you want to jump into the DLC, and gives you a dialogue prompt, I've read reports that if you click "No", then you won't get the prompt anymore and you have to create a new executable file just to select the DLC again. Your mileage may vary regarding this, or it might have already been fixed, but it didn't happen to me. Thank you KEIZO for making this game! OH! One last thing... [spoiler] When you're presented with the "Time Box" for the first time, make sure you talk to Astrea one more time BEFORE using it. [/spoiler] You're welcome lol.

This game TOOK OVER my life for an entire couple of months. If you play the demo or only the first two or three hours of it, you might be mistaken into believing this is just a generic 2D action RPG that sort of captures the aesthetics of 90s PC games, especially some PC98 or X68K or FM Towns titles. It is not. It is one of the most satisfying journeys you will experience in gaming. And it is a labour of love, 15 years in the making. Also, it shows that something fantastic can be made out of generic assets and just pure passion - and then just polished with help by the community. The Shigatake art is gorgeous, of course. The music is insanely diverse and shouldn't make sense but it does. The writing is weird but endearing. Karon is the GOAT. Shiro is insane. Nagumo is the man. All the characters, really, have something about them. Buy it. Play it. It will ruin your life, it will frustrate you, it will troll you into believing it's finally over to hit you with 20 more hours of game, and it will give you some of the best suffering you have ever experienced in a 2D game. Also, Kuro is best girl.