This is a copy of a review originally posted on Cohost. It should be almost the same except when I add the section about the gaiden DLC.

About two weeks ago I finished this AMAZING JRPG by a single person developer. Little Bit of a history lesson before I get started.

• The developer (Keizo) developed this game solo over the course of 15 years.
• it was a freeware game only with japanese text. He constantly updated the chapters and story as it was being worked on over the years
• alot of the BG assets and music are from public libraries.

All this considered, it was an amazing game. To give a TLDR summary, I've rarely had a game that so excels all cylinders of combat, RPG mechanics, and Story that I become so invested in all three at once. It's very gripping. It may not be for everyone, as I'll explain later, there are some seemingly horny parts that show up out of nowhere and may kick you out of the immersion for a second or two. Also the combat is unique, but may also be strange or off putting for folks, so I can understand that also being something that puts people off.

But i believe if you like what this game is putting down...

YOU'RE IN 100 PERCENT!!!

click after the jump to read more

I'll start with describing the combat and RPG mechanics. I'd describe them separately, but they all work so well in tandem, it's difficult to discuss them alone, but I'll sorta gloss over the basics of each seperately.

Basic Combat

You start out with pretty basic tools. You have a weapon and can do a small 4 or 5 hit combo with the basic attack button. As you progress through the game you'll get more actions like uppercuts, shield tackles, the DmC Round Trip and even the HrT air dash.

Enemies take a minimal amount of hitstun. They react to your attacks, but not so much that you can just mindlessly mash attack in their faces. The game starts you off without a shield so you can get used to properly spacing yourself from enemies to keep up your offense while also being able to dodge and avoid attacks when enemies retaliate. You will get shields eventually, but there are 2 handed weapons that often give you more attack at the expense of not being able to use shields.

Weapons have different attack speeds and attack ranges, which will play into how you play around enemies. You also have access to wands and scepter that let you send magic fireballs with the normal attack button.

Combat is not on the level of souls where every interaction is a do or die scenario, but you will probably get in the habit of watching how enemies move and behave in order to dodge properly. Even if you can't avoid danger with godlike reactions, you'll have ready access to items via shortcut buttons and health items drop fairly regularly (especially if you have a good luck stat).

Magic/Possession Skills

Magic is the other half of combat. By attacking enemies with basic attacks, you'll build up the ST bar under your HP bar. If you ST is big enough, you can hold the magic button and input a direction (or combination of directions to summon a demon to aid you in combat. Magic in this game gives you varying amount of invulnerablity after activating it. You'll either get a small shield for a short amount of time, or directly transform into the demon doing the attacking and be invincible until you change back.

It should be noted that Magic skills cover a wide range of utility. not only can magic attack for you but also....

• summon shields for protection
• give buffs defense/attack/magic power
• summon a demon that follows you around for a while to attack and/or heal for you.

Equipment

Equipment is fairly simple with a few interesting perks. You have slots for a weapon, a shield, and an armor. You can equip (UP TO) six accessories, but I believe you start with 2 acc slots at the start of the game. non-accessory equipment can be leveled up, and leveling up a piece of equipment will either grant you a new KARON (passive) skill, or crystals that you'll use to equip more KARON skills. If you get a new skill, then you can wear that equipment to use its KARON skill for free. So with that let's talk about....

KARON Skills

KARON skills are basically your passives. Why have I be typing KARON in all caps? purely personal preference. When you master equipment, you get new skills here that can be changed at will. Passives include basic stuff like dash and scan capablities, but can include skills that heal you for perfect blocking and go all the way up to healing you for getting hit during certain skills.

Grow (Skill Tree)

In addition to leveling up, this is another way you'll improve your stats, but the main benefit you'll see is that Grow is the main way you'll unlock new magic skills. You can also unlock new equipment and crystals for passives in the skill tree. You progress through the skill tree by using force, something that's normally dropped by enemies or gained through cooking. You usually need a specic type of force to unlock a specific skill, but if you have a surplus of one type of force, you can convert it into another type of force at a 3:1 ratio.

Libra Scale

This is a beautiful part of the game cuz it makes stat buffs and other improvements possible. Here's how it works.

• each item has a weight and related buff
• you place items on each side of the scale
• if both sides are balanced, you receive the buffs of every item

Depending on how well they're balanced, you'll received full or partial benefits of every item on the scale. If the weight difference too big you'll get no buffs, so it's a fun exercise to try and get all the buffs you want while balancing the scales to get the most out of your items.

A fun part of the system is that almost every item in the game can be placed on the scale., even a few key story items. Just as you'll adjust your skill tree passives to suit your playstyle. You can save and load multiple presets for scales.

You start off with two slots for items but you can find and earn more scale pans, which let you place more items and stack even more buffs and benefits.

I think it's amazing how all of these mechanics work so well in tandem with each other. Its a very great Action RPG because the action and the RPG parts of the game work so well, and they even play well into the story as well. I found myself deeply entranced by this game and its systems. I was constantly crafting and mastering new equipment while I got new skills and ways to interact with the combat system.

Some games feel like you have to progress to a certain point before the combat "gets good", so the time before that point often feels like a joyless grind. However Astlibra starts out good, and consistently stacks more on top of that, so you'll always be learning and working out new ways to enjoy and exploit the combat system. I also think the game does a good job of pacing how it gives the player new combat tools. You rarely ever go more than 2 bosses without getting a new skill or ability that can give you new strategies to work with in combat.

Rant about inspirations for the combat systems Feel free to skip this.

Playing through this game, I think there'sa good amount of 2D Tales somewhere in here. America didn't really get alot of the GOOD 2D tales ganes like Destiny Remake or Hearts DS, but this seems to have alot of the quick action and combo systems some of those games have. I think the Ys influence is also notable here. (Particularly the combo buffs you get that encourage more aggressive play. I should maybe check the AMA Keizo did or find other ways to see what their inspirations were, cuz id be interested in playing those games.

The Story

The story is really strong. Amazing stuff, I was rarely ever mashing A through everything because I wanted to follow every single twist and turn. It's a beautiful time travel story about the things we give up when trying to fix our regrets, and how we sometimes have to accept the way life turned out and work to improve the world from there. Also like many other JRPGs there's some climate change undertones as well.

In addition to the story being good on it's own, it also works well with the gameplay. There's moments in the game where you will be seperated from the crow, and since KARON is the source of both your magic and skills, you'll have to fight without those during certain parts of the game. Only gripe with the narrative is that you'll occassionally get hit with a horny bomb out of nowhere, and it can lift the suspension of disbelief. Part of me wants to say it's there for brevity, but maybe Keizo is just horny and we have to accept that as part of the full package of the game. I'll say if you're used to general anime levels of horny it shouldn't be too much, but every has their limits.

Overall Verdict

★★★★★ (5/5)

Feels not exaclty right giving this game a 5/5. It's not perfect, but it's such a rare and enjoyable experience that it stands out among other games for how unique of a game it is. I haven't been this invested in an RPG since I played Raidou Kuzunoha earlier this year. I know it's not a long time ago, but these kinda games that touch me like this are very rare. I gotta give it the extra star or so just for that alone.

I'm also partially moved by how well this game was made with a one person team. My biggest example of this is the soundtrack. None of the songs in this OST was made specifically for this game, but Keizo picked the songs out so well that I couldn't fully tell. he made such strong use of music and asset libraries that the games comes together very well for it.

Game is currently on sale till July 13th.

Go ahead hero, change the world.

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