Vita Exist Archive the Other Side of the Sky Review Reddit

GAME INFO

Be Archive: The Other Side of the Sky

October 18th, 2016

Platform PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita

Publisher Aksys Games

Developer Spike Chunsoft, tri-Ace

What do a subway explosion, magical crystals, and an evil god voiced by none other than Dio Brando take in mutual? Exist Annal: The Other Side of the Heaven, tri-Ace'south latest RPG might hold those answers and more than. With more than some subtle references to Valkyrie Profile in its gameplay and story, there are enough of questions gamers might have. For those looking for a office-playing treat to savor earlier the local releases of Concluding Fantasy Xv and Persona five, is it worth checking to run into if the sky is really bluer on the other side?

The narrative format to Exist Annal takes an approach that feels suited for a handheld game rather than an RPG made for consoles. With no true world map or even towns to visit, everything in Exist Archive is segmented into smaller chunks. From a primal mission listing, both story events and side quests can exist selected in any order and repeatable (side quests, at least) with a recommended political party level to succeed. For most of the game, with a little chip of early grinding and use of the game's Bonus Guess mechanics, I stayed largely alee of the recommended curve. By the time I was taking on missions that recommended I exist at least level 50, my main political party was breaking the 100's and standby characters were all in the mid-fourscore'southward. Information technology'due south worth noting that characters that don't take office in battles still become a share of the feel and amore levels, albeit at a much lower rate.

Be Archive'due south battle system should feel right at habitation for those that have played at to the lowest degree one of the Valkyrie Profile titles. Both titles were developed past veteran team tri-Ace and their inspiration behind Lenneth'south tale carries forward into Kanata's story. Each of the iv party members is mapped to a face button on the Playstation controller and selecting one character makes them unleash 1 of their assigned attacks in proper turn order. While players tin target a unmarried enemy with the starting time of their attacks, about characters strike with sweeping attacks that hit whatsoever opponent in their range. Characters with long polearms or explosive ordinances work groovy to hit many a target at once. Mayura, the first Storm Mage that the party meets, is a starter of nearly every fight equally the tornado that she tin can unleash brings together a big group of enemies and consolidates them together into an piece of cake to strike cluster, perfect for the main grapheme'south short sword swings. With a limited pool of AP that refills each plough, players tin unless as many attacks every bit they see fit with the characters with each strike taking away a certain percentage of the AP pool. The only exception to this are Mage-class characters whom can typically only utilize ane spell per turn and may accept a ii or iii turn recovery charge per unit before they can act once more.

AP, or Activeness Points, should exist a familiar mechanic brought forth from the Valkyrie Profile series. With AP beingness regenerated between each phase of gainsay (attacking and guarding), at that place's a scrap of a risk-reward system associated with being mindful of one's points. Should the party become all out and try to accept out the enemy during the first turn to foreclose a counterattack, or should they take it easy and baby-sit against the enemy party's assault and showtime a new round with a fully stocked AP gauge and deliver twice as many attacks?

Typically the right answer is to strike the enemy without allowing a risk for retribution. A Bonus Guess mechanic that'southward become commonplace in tri-Ace RPG's builds up with fashionable combos but can exist taken abroad in a single strike. The higher combos and juggling air strikes that the party performs, the higher rates of item drops and experience gains increase and carries forth between battles. Unfortunately, taking fifty-fifty a single enemy attack during the Baby-sit Phase of boxing has a chance of shattering the Bonus Gauge. I can't brainstorm to tell y'all how many times that I've guarded against i alone enemy enemy and even so lost what bonuses I've saved up, fifty-fifty if that attack simply hit the party for i single point of damage.

Exploring the 2D dungeons in Exist Archive feels similar in that location are influences of the Metroidvania genre when information technology comes to navigation. Initially, Kanata can only perform a single jump along with a sword slash to attack enemies and proceeds the initiative. As the story progresses and more crystals are tendered to Amatsume, new abilities are unlocked to assistance encompass more basis. Double jumps and footing slides are typically the commencement abilities unlocked in a modern Castlevania title and give reason to backtrack to previous areas. Exist Archive stays true to this formula and fifty-fifty adds in some unique skills that utilise fallen enemies as launching pads for higher jumps. With abiding rewards given every time the player uncovers a dungeon map to completion, there's e'er an incentive for returning back to a previous mission and searching out every nook and cranny.

The grapheme designs are somewhat of a rough spot for Exist Archive in my opinion. Each of the various party members has their own color and style associated that help them stand out from one another with hand-drawn portraits. However, once another dimension is added to these characters and they are transformed into 3D models, much of that fidelity is lost. What the player is left with are a number of adolescent dolls that all gaze out with the same porcelain stare that I can only describe every bit unnerving.

If you're deciding between getting Be Archive: The Other Side of the Sky on either Playstation 4 or Playstation Vita, taking into performance is an important consideration. While the Playstation 4 release targets lx frames per second, the Vita strives for roughly half that on a consistent ground. When the game isn't performing its all-time on the handheld is in the midst of combat. When the game isn't hard crashing back to Vita'due south main menus (something that'south happened five times, more than any other title I've reviewed on the handheld), there's some sloppiness mid-battle that always causes worry that the next crash is going to happen at any time. Even when tasked with only a small number of enemy combatants, some of the nigh stylish combos cause the game to dip into choppy territory with not only dropped frames just the occasional dropped combo. Powerful Demon's Greed attacks occasionally drop with aught to bear witness for them, salve for the wasted resources and energy.

When Exist Annal works, I detect myself enjoying it more than and more. As the narrative progresses, new skills and abilities are unlocked with each crystal acquired. Earlier long I was finding myself constantly switching out party members to acquire unique skills depending on party makeup and trying out new strategies as I worked towards ane of Exist Annal's multiple endings.

Exist Archive: The Other Side of the Heaven is full of surprises and rewards players for experimentation throughout its smaller segments. While it may not be the timeless classic that the original Valkyrie Contour strived to be so many years ago, Exist Archive takes that inspirational gameplay and infuses information technology with more mod tropes. Despite some rough edges with the portable version, it'due south a classic role-playing adventure that deserves being noticed before it falls into the backlog archives.

PS Vita version tested (review copy provided past the publisher). Game as well available on PlayStation four.

7.5

While it may non exist the timeless classic that the original Valkyrie Profile strived to be so many years agone, Exist Annal takes that inspirational gameplay and infuses it with more mod tropes.

Pros

• Party experimentation and customization
• Valkyrie-inspired gainsay
• Lite Metrovania exploration encourages replaying areas

Cons

• Poor 3D models
• Portable version riddled with performance bug and crashes in battle

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Source: https://wccftech.com/review/exist-archive-the-other-side-of-the-sky-review-divine-assault-nibelung-crystalis/

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