Celestian Tales: Old North is a refreshing take on the classic turn-based Japanese style RPG, where your decisions in its dark and gritty storyline shape the world of tomorrow. When the future comes at last, is it what you hoped for?
Mixed
100 Steam reviews
| LANGUAGE | AUDIO | SUBTITLES | INTERFACE |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | — | — | Y |
good story, the art is great , the music is kinda standart on fantasy rpg genre. but somehow its lack of charm, icant play no more than a hour without take a break, even though its clunky, i haven found any bug, yet.
This game reminded me a lot of the Suikoden series, which I really enjoyed. As the first game in a new series, it's very well made. The characters are well-written and beautifully designed. It shows that the creators put a lot of thought into the development. The world-building and lore are also well done.
Some might find the battle system too simple, but I think it's fine. Adding tougher enemies would help players develop strategies and better use each character's unique skills.
The plot twist at the end leaves a lot of questions. I really hope the developers will continue the series and finish the story. It would be a shame if all this great work didn't lead to a proper ending.
It's a nine year old game that even at the time was a very indie and old school take on JRPGs. It has excellent pixel graphics in battle and has a reasonably interesting story and upgrades, but it's really clunky and slow. Even still, I hung with it for a few hours until reaching a point where I had no idea where to go to trigger the next story event and didn't find it worth the time to keep hunting around. Supposedly it was planned as the first part of a three part story but the second game has only one tenth the reviews of this one, so it probably didn't sell well enough for them to continue. Cool effort, though.
Old North is a pretty good retro rpg in the spirit of Suikoden and similair titles. You choose your main character and each of the has a unique origin story before everyones timelines merge. I feel that was the maybe the weak point of the game, as who you choose in the end doesn't really matter much as it plays out the same.
But it's well written, lore rich world with great music and simple combat mechanics. If you are craving a old school rpg that isn't too grindy, this will scratch the itch.
the game is nice, the characters are cool, the history is ok....but the maps, its all a big maze, it makes the game slow, more than you need, and it makes me sad, because it has good replay value but no "new game +" to make it easier.
Would give a neutral review if I could.
All in all 6/10, the background art is nice
buy on a sale
Bought in 2015 this 1 hour game. Then the dlc came out 2016 and 2020 for more than they were worth, added a few hours each of content. I guess it did get finished, I just wasn't interested in buying expensive hour's worth of rpg that felt like dressed up "maker-ace".
A nice, short retro style game with assets, that strongly remind me of ragnarok online. It has good writing, good music and the sprite animation team did an allright job. My only gripe with it is, that the end makes the entire thing feel like just a prequel to the real adventure that is yet to come. Maybe it is a prequel and there's a title i know nothing about? There are several big decisions that you never see the resuts of.
Short old school JRPG with modern sensibilities.
Party is fully healed after every battle, meaning each battle can be tuned to stay reasonably challenging.
Final boss is brutal on Hardest; only survived with some specific cheese.
A bit unpolished: some minor bugs, wonky scenery, and minor translation errors.
Mature themes and decisions. Sequel exists.
Not fantastic, but above average in my book
A nice range of characters with differing backgrounds, personalities and scenarios. I've enjoyed playing so far. although think the battle system is a bit clunky (to be expected). It's easy to sink a few hours into this story and it seems that hours pass without me realising it.
[h1]Warnung![/h1]
Ich habe in den STEAM Foren erfahren, dass es wohl keinen dritten Teil geben wird, was bedeutet, dass die Handlung nicht zu einem Abschluss kommen wird.
Außerdem sind die Achivements in "Realms Beond", die das Durchspielen von "Old North" erfordern scheinbar schon seit einer ganzen Weile verbugt und werden vermutlich nie gefixt.
[h1]Gameplay[/h1]
[b][u]Eine Handlung auf Raten[/u][/b]
[b]Celestian Tales: Old North[/b] ist der erste Teil einer Trilogie, in der Entscheidungen sich langfristig auf die Handlung der Spiele auswirken und mit langfristig meine ich, dass in Old North keine Konsequenzen spürbar sind, sondern erst in den Nachfolgern zum Tragen kommen.
[b][u]Bequeme Rundenstrategie?[/u][/b]
In Celestian Tales laufen Kämpfe rundenweise ab und im Laufe des Kampfes sammelt man eine Spezialressource an, mit der man die Fähigkeiten seiner Spielfiguren einsetzt.
Nach jedem Kampf wird die Gruppe geheilt, allerdings erleiden Charaktere, die im Kampf besiegt werden, eine Verletzung, die ihre maximalen Lebenspunkte verringert. Um diese wieder los zu werden, muss man einen Heiler aufsuchen.
Genreveteranen werden das alles irgend wo mal gesehen haben, allerdings kann man recht bequem und ohne groß langfristige Ressourcenplanungen vornehmen zu müssen, auch mehrere Kämpfe ausfechten. Gegner lassen sich allerdings auch leicht umgehen.
[b][u]Für alle Fälle gerüstet[/u][/b]
In Old North kann man drei von Sechs Charakteren in die aktive Gruppe stecken. Jeder Charakter hat außerdem drei Waffen, die jeweils unterschiedliche Eigenschaften aufweisen und kann eine Fülle von aktiven und passiven Skills lernen, die auf die begrenzten Skillplätze verteilt werden müssen.
Zwar hat jeder Charakter in gewisser Weise eine Rolle, aus der er nicht wirklich herauskommt, aber das System bietet einen gewissen Freiraum.
[h1]Schwierigkeitsgrad[/h1]
Es gibt drei Schwierigkeitsgrade. Auf dem leichtesten ist das Spiel bis auf die letzten Kämpfe eigentlich ohne optionale Kämpfe schaffbar.
Auf dem Schwersten braucht es einiges an Strategie, auch wenn man das Levelcap erreicht und eine gute Ausrüstung hat.
[h1]Soundtrack, Grafik, Steuerung[/h1]
Der Soundtrack ist insgesamt gut und passend umgesetzt.
Die Grafik ist großteils handgezeichnet und verleiht dem Spiel einen eigenen Charme.
Für die Steuerung reicht die Tastatur, allerdings sollte zuvor die Tastenebelegung angepasst werden.
[h1]Zusammenfassung[/h1]
[b]Pro:[/b]
[list]
[*] Strategisch tiefgehendes Kampfsystem
[*] Möglichkeit, Charaktere mittels Skills, Perks und Ausrüstung anzupassen
[*] drei Schwierigkeitsgrade, die jederzeit wechselbar sind
[/list]
[b]Kontra:[/b]
[list]
[*] kein New Game+ trotz vieler möglicher Routen, die spielbar sind
[*] Wirkung von Entscheidungen nicht wirklich Spürbar (erst in den nächsten Spielen)
[*] mit einem dritten Teil ist nicht zu rechnen, da die Serie wohl auf eis ist
[/list]
[b]bekannte Bugs[/b]
[list]
[*] Nach Events muss man manchmal die Partie wieder anpassen, da sich andere Charaktere im aktiven Team befinden
[/list]
[b]Achivements[/b]
[list]
[*] Teils Grindlastig (bis zu sechsmaliges Durchspielen nötig)
[*] Großteils leicht erreichbar (mit Guides)
[/list]
[b]Fazit:[/b]
Insgesamt erfindet Old North das Rad nicht neu, wer allerdings rundenbasierte RPGs mag, kann in einem Sale zugreifen.
Auf eine Fortführung der Handlung ist allerdings wohl nicht zu hoffen, weshalb ich eine Kaufempfehlung unter Vorbehalt ausspreche.
[b]------------------------------------------------------------------------
[i]Wenn ihr weitere ansprechende Reviews lesen wollt,
dann folgt doch der [url= https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32139821/}]GermanReviewGroup[/url].[/i]
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[h1]tl;dr[/h1]
Crowdfunded, turn-based JRPG drawing more inspiration from the likes of Game of Thrones than your usual kitchen sink fantasy, Celestian Tales: Old North is a solid offering. If there are two issues I'd raise they'd be as such; game could've benefited from a difficulty choice as it's way too easy, and choosing one of the six characters as your main one doesn't change much beyond the opening/ending bits and some self-contained choices there for flavor. Latter is excusable given the scope developers had to work with. I also wish this genuinely fleshed out setting had more room to breathe, but end result is a gorgeous watercolor-looking game you can nonetheless finish in under five-six hours. Replaying to see those minute differences that promise to matter in the sequel is always an option, though.
[h1]Full Review[/h1]
In unembellished fashion I'd say Celestian Tales: Old North is essentially Game of Thrones meets JRPG. A lot of the former lies in the game's themes and mood. The other half will be more than familiar to any genre fan, though.
Before I briefly discuss the story bits, as I'm usually want to, there is an interesting twist – you get to choose which of the six characters is the primary one. This results in a unique prologue, as bulk of the game is shared, which may be familiar to Dragon Age: Origins players, alongside some self-contained choices throughout as well as the epilogue. In theory this means you should play the game six times to see absolutely everything. In practice you should decide whether it's worth doing so for ~15 minutes of content a pop. I don't know how it panned out, but supposedly these decisions you make should leave a mark in the sequel, though.
We step into the shoes of an ensemble cast comprised of noble youths who travel to city of Levantine in order to pledge their service to lord Alain as his squires in hope of becoming full-fledged knights one day. Befitting customary RPG protagonists the realm is in peril with Enders, warrior people from the north, returning to wreak havoc. Fortunately, there are highly competent generals and bearers of Sacred Swords who will rise to do service to their noble Houses, but that doesn't mean our squires are short of work, much to their frustrations. And yet there are plots brewing as nobles scheme against nobles with commoners caught in the crossfire.
What sets Old North apart is the exhaustive effort that went into expanding the world via all the background info. Only “problem” is most of it is contained under Lore entries when I wish writers found a way to inject into the script more organically. Mind you, this isn't another instance of Final Fantasy 13 where you needed to make up for shoddy storytelling, but rather it feels like a waste when there's so much backstory concerning noble Houses, forbidden magic itself and support cast you'll only get the barest of essentials through obligatory conversations. Like I mentioned in the opening there's a strong Game of Thrones vibe going on and game simply lacks the capacity to explore all of it.
I promise, this will be the last fluff segment and it's appropriate I make it about the characters since our crew is the only constant in the game. Considering you have everyone from a bigoted religious zealot to a sheltered half-elf unfamiliar with human ways you can expect varied reactions based on all the scenarios party find itself in. These characters are not exactly even in their motivations or developments throughout the story, however. Even if you have no interest in replaying the entire game I'd still say check out their prologue at least as it's critical for at least one character.
And now onto everything else. Game stuff which will largely be familiar to JRPG aficionados.
I know from experience this is a deal breaker for some people so I'll say it up-front – no random encounters in Old North. Sadly, there's also no way to be (dis)advantaged when engaging them either as game doesn't account for taking enemies by surprise or vice versa. Still, ability to outrun enemy sprite representations without hassle can only be a good thing. Combat itself? Very straightforward turn-based affair with action order indicator and without need to go extensive menu delving for basic actions. Departing from usual MP-based tradition we have Stamina powering up all your special skills. Capped at eight and gained by attacking, defending or consuming curatives, Stamina leads to this particular ebb and flow where being conservative rarely pays off. In fact, considering the game fully restores your health after each encounter it's implicitly encouraged to go all-out whenever possible with one imperative – you really don't want anyone dying on your team because you'll get a Wounded debuff which can only be removed by going to a church or spending an expensive Bright Red Crystal. This, however, is a non-issue because...
Difficulty is a joke. I can't decide whether that's due to developer under-tuning, giving player the freedom to grind whenever they want, while implementing a universal party level so everyone's always on the same level, or simply because you have six characters to work with so you can tackle any situation even if you can only have three in a party. It's really easy to set yourself a HEALER + TANK + DAMAGE without much thought and breeze through the entire thing down to the final boss. Confusing part is Old North truly does give some freedom to character customization even if they never break the role they're supposed to fill. You're meant to pick and choose from an array of abilities/passives acquired through leveling, as you can only have four/two respectively at any time, but I went with what was flavor-appropriate and was never lead astray. Same with equipment you'll find most of locked away in chests, leaving procuring the ingredients to UPGRADE weapons the only real investment on your end which boils down to fighting the right enemy. No 0.1% drop rates here, no sir.
Lastly we have production matters. Old North was crowdfunded and you see it best in how scaled back the grandness of the presentation is versus the scope of the conflict they're going for as the entire realm mobilizes for war. Fortunately, this is where beautiful watercolor aesthetic pulls all the weight. World map, and by simply having one game already goes against modern JRPG grain, particularly shows it off nicely while avoiding some perspective shenanigans actual areas suffer here and there. Tiles sometimes don't snap together perfectly and couple of times art assets made me think a ramp wasn't traversable. Nothing major, though. Soundtrack has comparatively few tracks you might expect from the usual genre fare where musical offerings span multiple disks and whatnot, but developers made good mileage with what they have. Fittingly, opening movie and final boss tracks steal the show in setting the note if bombastic was the goal.
Well, the artwork for this game is good, and the music is breathtaking,and it really have the "suikoden" vibes
but I can't recommended this because... it's an unfinished game, the game is quite short,and playing as different main character didn't really add up much of the story either, there should also be a new game plus to replay playing as other character, but it doesn't and it feels like a grind
There are places that are still not accessible till the end so I guess it's unfinished especially with the abrupt ending ,and considered it's 2015 and no more update added, it will be never be just like "suikoden", I noticed they released another title , but it mainly consist of story outside of this realm and the DLC is a prologue for another character
the story is rather generic but it's good and the dialogue is quite good but because it's unfinished , sorry I can't recommended this
too bad tho because I even bought the physical copy of the Soundtrack
story 5/10 ( if they finished the story , will update my score )
Art 8/10
Music 10/10
Celestian Tales: Old North is a traditional role-playing game (RPG) developed by Ekuator Games. Set in a fantasy world, this game offers a classic RPG experience with a focus on storytelling and character-driven narratives. Here's a review of Celestian Tales: Old North:
One of the strengths of Celestian Tales: Old North lies in its narrative-driven gameplay. The game revolves around a group of young heroes, each with their unique backgrounds and motivations, who are destined to shape the future of their world. The storytelling is rich and immersive, filled with political intrigue, moral dilemmas, and personal conflicts. The characters are well-developed and their relationships evolve over the course of the game, making players feel emotionally invested in their journey.
The game's dialogue system and decision-making mechanics add depth to the narrative. Players are presented with choices that can impact character relationships and shape the outcome of certain events. This element of choice and consequence adds replayability and encourages players to explore different paths and storylines.
In terms of gameplay, Celestian Tales: Old North follows a traditional turn-based combat system. Players engage in strategic battles, where positioning, skill usage, and timing are key factors for success. The combat mechanics are solid and satisfying, offering a good balance of challenge and strategy. Additionally, the game features a skill development system that allows players to customize their characters' abilities and playstyles, adding depth and personalization to the gameplay experience.
Visually, Celestian Tales: Old North has a charming and hand-drawn art style. The environments are detailed and the character designs are distinctive, capturing the essence of a classic RPG. The soundtrack complements the game's atmosphere, enhancing the emotional impact of the story and battles.
However, it's important to note that Celestian Tales: Old North has some shortcomings. The game's pacing can feel slow at times, especially during long dialogue sequences and exploration sections. Additionally, the game lacks voice acting, relying solely on text-based dialogue, which may limit the immersion for some players. The overall difficulty level of the game is also relatively low, which may disappoint players seeking more challenging combat encounters.
Overall, Celestian Tales: Old North offers a compelling RPG experience with a strong emphasis on storytelling and character development. Its engaging narrative, solid turn-based combat, and charming art style make it an enjoyable choice for fans of classic RPGs. While it may have some pacing and difficulty issues, the game's immersive world and memorable characters make it a worthwhile journey for those seeking an engaging and character-driven RPG experience.
There are story beats that will make you want to rage uninstall, but if you can get past those hitches this a worthwhile RPG that I honestly believe may have inspired the Square Enix RPG Octopath Traveler.
Compare the cast of both games, their backgrounds and movesets, if you're interested to see why I think that.
Good game.
Begrudgingly recommend for Suikoden fans. The game started of strong and I thought it was going to keep building up to an epic tale, but like every other game nowadays... the game ends when it really should just be beginning. If you are a fan of Suikoden it's definitely worth trying on sale for a couple dollars. Everything is there that could make this a great game but unfortunately it falls short of what it could have been. In saying that without comparing it to Suikoden, as a stand alone game it is quite good. It will probably take most people under 10 hours to beat. There are multiple characters to play as so there may be some variation between each play-through but I'd reckon not much. The battle system is sort of like Suikoden in the way it feels but there are character abilities and equipment perks similar to FF9. The story it's self is political in the same vain of GOT of Suikoden etc. The battle system did a few things right in ensuring that you need to use abilities and items to win and cannot just rely on attacks. Hopefully they can bring it all together for the third game. I have yet to play the DLC or the second but I'm hoping it fixes the story issues. It is difficult for these indie studios so I understand the episodic release strategy.
Pros :
- Good writting:I see a lot of review critizing the writting. And yeah, this game´s story wont win a nobel prize by any means, but compare it to big names of the genre like Octopath traveler and it´s streets ahead.
- Combat it´s pretty fun. Skills are well designed and you have to plan to use them.
- You level up your party, not the individual characters. So you cam switch your party all the time, which for me it´s a plus.
- Pretty good art.
Cons :
- The game it´s really linear, there its a main plotline and that´s it.
-The music it´s very uninspired.
-To get the full story, I think you need to beat the game with all the character. Which, combined with the lineal gameplay it´s not really that good of a idea. I enjoyed the game...once, not sure if I wanna play it 6 times.
All in all, the game it´s enjoyable and it´s worth playing.
This is honestly a hard one to recommend, not because it's a bad game, but because it's great - until it isn't. A fairly typical turn based RPG, Celestian Tales: Old North excels at being what it is through an interesting world, enough plot and intrigue to keep you invested without being overwhelming, likeable characters (generally speaking, some may find a few of them annoying) visuals and music that are fairly impressive for an indie game and a nice amount of hidden loot and collectibles to keep you exploring. While a single "perfect" playthrough (max level reached, all weapons found and upgraded, all collectibles found and secret boss defeated) can be completed in about six and a half hours, the game is designed to be played through at least once with each playable character, of which there are six. Plenty of value for your money, if you can find the willpower to play it more than once.
Why is it tough to replay, you ask? Because the ending is one of the worst I've ever seen in a RPG, possibly in any genre of video game. A nonsensical plot twist comes out of left field with the subtlety of a dump truck painted neon pink blaring LMFAO's Party Rock Anthem through a quiet suburban neighbourhood at three in the morning that not only ruins the experience but any desire for a sequel. HBO's Game of Thrones did a better job at giving us a satisfying conclusion, and they dropped the ball so hard with season eight that it plummeted through the earth and shot through outer space. And yet, perhaps because I enjoyed the journey so much I couldn't quite bring myself to hate this game, or even regret the time and money spent on it. It's just a shame how badly they screwed up at the last minute.
Fazit: Simple Rundenstrategie mit ansprechender Geschichte. Wer auf der Suche ist, nach einer visuellen Novelle gemischt mit Rundenstrategie-Kämpfen, sollte sich das hier näher anschauen. Wer nach einer Rundenstrategie-Herausforderung oder komplexer Spielmechanik sucht, kommt bei dem Spiel sicher zu kurz.
Wer es etwas ausführlicher wissen möchte:
Die Musik fand ich gut, vereinzelt (wie z.B. im Abspann) hervorragend.
Sprecher gibt es keine.
Grafisch solide. Die Portraits sind gut. Für mich passen sie gut in diese Welt. Der Stil geht eher in Richtung Pathfinder und grenzt sich dadurch von Anime-Spielen ab. Der Rest genretypisch eher repetitiv und zweckmässig.
Die Spielmechanik ist simpel und die Gegner sind schlagbar, auch wenn man wenig Ahnung hat, welche Ausrüstung man verwenden soll.
Der Fokus liegt auf der Geschichte und die gefällt mir gut.
Die Charaktere sind gelungen. Die Welt in die sie uns mitnehmen ist interessant. Wir erfahren nicht zu viel und nicht zu wenig. Sidequests gibt es nicht, was zwar der Spiellänge schadet, aber dafür das Spiel glaubwürdiger macht. Unsere Gruppe hat als Knappen Aufgaben zu erledigen, die ihnen vorgegeben werden. Es ist Krieg und wir befinden uns nicht auf einer Kaffeefahrt. Und trotz der gradlinigen Geschichte bemerkt man, dass so viel mehr um uns herum passiert und auch Einfluss nimmt (Intrigen, Religion, Klassenkonflikte, Politik, usw...). Die Charaktere in unserer Gruppe erläutern einige dieser Punkte, was uns wiederum mehr über deren Hintergrund und Erfahrung verrät. Das ist gut gelungen und wird auch wieder glaubhaft präsentiert.
In der englischen Fassung, hat man hat sich die Mühe gegeben, den Charakteren unterschiedliche Dialekte zu geben, was den Hintergrund der Protagonisten mehr hervorhebt. Die Charaktere sind ausreichend ausgearbeitet und erfüllen ihre Rollen (vom naiven Mauerblümchen bis zur religösen Intrigantin). Das ist nicht innovativ oder aussergewöhnlich, aber es ist in sich stimmig. Für den ersten Teil der Serie ein passender Einstieg. Motive und Entscheidungen (auch wenn wir diese nur selten selbst treffen können) sind nachvollziehbar und erscheinen plausibel. Die Charakterentwicklung gestaltet sich aufgrund der Ereignisse im Spiel ebenfalls nachvollziehbar. Mit einer Ausnahme (Ich verrate keine Details, aber wer sich die Überraschung für das Spiel aufheben möchte, soll hier aufhören zu lesen.):
[spoiler]Leider erfolgt der letzte Plottwist so überstürzt, dass man noch während des Abspanns am grübeln ist, ob man was verpasst hat. Schlecht ist nicht das Ende, vielmehr die plötzliche Wendung der Ereignisse. Es will nicht so recht zu dem Charakter passen. Ohne zu spoilern erfolgt die finale Wendung im letzten Akt ohne Vorlaufzeit. Man erfährt nur von einem vorangehenden Gespräch und schwupps gibt es Mord und Totschlag, wo es 15 Minuten vorher noch absolute Loyalität und Hingabe gegeben hat. Immerhin ist es nicht so, dass nur wir Spieler uns fragen wtf gerade geschehen ist und wieso, nein, auch unsere Charaktere wirken völlig überrumpelt.
Ich kenne den nächsten Teil der Serie noch nicht und man wurde ermahnt, dass wir im unrecht seien und uns an diesen Augenblick erinnern würden, wenn wir erkennen, dass wir falsch lagen. Ich hoffe, dass dieses "Versprechen" gehalten wird.[/spoiler]
Ich bin auf die Fortsetzung gespannt und wünsche mir, mehr über "the Realm" zu erfahren und wie die Geschichte weitergeht
This is a game that doesn't pretend to be anything big and epic, but manages to fall into a lot of the tropes that such games do anyway. You're not the Chosen Hero out to save the know universe, but the cast of characters feels like it's checking off boxes in a lot of ways (you have the Smart One, the Muscley One, the Nature-Loving One, the Religious One, and so on down the line) and it hits pretty much all of the world-saving story beats that you'd find in most medieval fantasy stories.
On the bright side, the gameplay itself is fun enough. It's not too complicated, but there's enough depth that that's okay. It's on the short side, but crucially it doesn't last so long that it wears out its welcome. The watercolor art style and the music are pretty nice. Certain elements such as the in-battle items and some fights could use more polish but it's not unmanageable.
You can replay the game to get the perspective (and more importantly, achievements) for any of the six characters, but it doesn't really affect the game in a major way aside from the introductory sequence that you see.
[url=https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_hT--4HOvreHRgci4_hs75ah6InwD4Fa]Shameless plug for a Let's Play I did of it (and the DLC) a while ago[/url].
รีวิว Celestian Tales: Old North
"JRPG ราคาถูกที่ออกจะสั้นไปหน่อย"
Celestian Tales: Old North เป็นเกมแนว rpg ขนาดเล็กๆเกมนึง ซึ่งถึงแม้จะไม่ได้มาจากบริษัทเจ้าใหญ่ๆหรือทุนสูงมากนักแต่เกมนี้ก็ไม่ใช่ rpg maker ในการสร้างซึ่งทางทีมงานนั้นเลือกที่จะใช้ unityแทน
ด้านเนื้อเรื่องนั้น เนื่อเรื่องไม่มีอะไรโดดเด่นลึกลับและเกินคาดเดามากอะไรเลย แต่ในด้านระบบนั้นเกมนี้ค่อนข้างแตกต่างจาก rpg จากผู้ผลิตรายเล็กๆเจ้าอื่นพอสมควร
เกมนี้นั้นเราสามารถเลือกตัวละครตัวหลักได้หนึ่งตัวจากหกตัวซึ่งการเลือกนั้นแทบไม่ได้ส่งผลอะไรมากเพราะสุดท้ายทั้ง 6 คนนั้นก็มารวมเป็นทีมเดียวอยุ่ดี
ในด้านระบบนั้นระบบหลักนั้นจะให้คุณจัดทีมเพื่อใช้สู้ 3 คนจาก 6 ตัวที่เล่นได้ โดยแต่ละคนนั้นมีความสามารถและการใช้อาวุธที่ต่างกันไป ส่วนระบบสกิลในเกมนี้นั้นเราสามารถตั้ง active skill ที่สามารถใช้ได้ 4 อันจากทั้งหมด และ passive skill 2 อันจากที่เรามีทั้งหมด ด้านเลเวลนั้นช่วงแรกๆเลเวลของคุณจะขึ้นอย่างรวดเร็วมาก สกิลต่างๆจะถูกปลดล็อคก็เช่นเดียวกัน
ส่วนนั้นศัตรูในเกมนี้นั้นไม่ได้มาแบบสุ่มระหว่างการเล่น แต่คุณจะเห็นเป็นตัวๆเดินไปเดินมาอยุ่ในพื้นที่นั้นๆ ในส่วนของการต่อสู้นั้นเกมนี้เล่นแบบ turn-based เช่นเดียวกันกับ jrpg เกมอื่นๆ สิ่งที่ต่างออกไปนั้นเกมนี้ไม่ใช้ระบบ mp ที่ขึ้นอยู่กับเลเวลและเวลาใช้ไปเท่าไหร่จบการต่อสู้จะเหลือ mpเท่านั้น แต่ใช้ระบบ stamina ซึ่งจะถูำหนดมาตายตัวทุกครั้งที่เริ่มการต่อสู้และจะเพิ่มขึ้นทุกครั้งหลังจากเราออกคำสั่งโจมตีหรือป้องกันทุกครั้ง แต่ถึงแม้สกิลเยอะ ก็ไม่ค่อยปรากฏศัตรูที่เราใช้สกิลฆ่ามันให้ตายในครั้งเดียวมากนัก ซึ่งค่อนข้างท้าทายพอควรสำหรับการเล่น
ถึงแม้เกมนี้จะเป็น jrpg ที่ดูธรรมดา แต่ถ้าคุณมีเวลาว่างหาเกมและชอบแนวนี้เผมค่อนแนะนำให้ลองเล่นเกมนี้ดู แต่ควรจะซื้อตอนลดราคาเท่านั้นเพราะตัวเกมนั้นค่อนข้างสั้นมาก อาจจะไม่คุ้มเท่าไหร่สำหรับการกดซื้อราคาเต็มเท่าไหร่นัก
สำหรับใครสนใจเกมนี้สามารถกด wishlist ได้ที่
https://store.steampowered.com/app/315860/Celestian_Tales_Old_North/
ฝากเพจและ curator ด้วยนะครับผม โดยในเพจน้้นจะเน้นเกมผู้ผลิตรายเล็กๆซะมากกว่าแต่อาจมีอาจมี content ที่มาจากเกมดังๆอยู่บ้างนานๆที
https://www.facebook.com/lingnoigamer/
และ curator ของผม ่ช่วยกดติดตามด้วยครับผม
https://store.steampowered.com/curator/37817548/
The concept of moral choice is really interesting, however I don't really see any consequences from your choice.
The music, battle style, it felt very nostalgic for me, like an old-school JRPG coming back to life. I've yet to play the other 5 character and don't really see any reason why I should play the other five. Looking from the other comments, it seems that the story is pretty much the same for each characters.
Its a good game, though I felt there are too many missing elements from the story that you're forced to play all five characters to see the whole picture. It's tiring for me.
Still, it's a rather good game. The music really saved this game.
Music 9/10
Gameplay 7/10
Story 7/10
overall it is a great game. The story is good (especially the ending), and the combat is good. The biggest gripe I have is that it is ridiculously short.
Although I like this game, there are some bad technical aspect. It doesn't have screen resolution option so you'll be stuck with its own resolution. This is annoying because you will not be able to read the logbook comfortably because of small font size and small resolution. Also, the game doesn't run as smooth as its sequel even though the graphics are pretty much basic. But even though it has those flaws, I still recommend to play this game. It's charming with its own way and it's price is very cheap. I bought this game when it was on sale and I paid Rp 12.000, or roughly around one US dollar.
o jojo e bem interessante...unico ponto negativo ao meu ver e que o lvl e grupal intao nenhum personagem realmente difere um do outro a nao ser pelas habilidades e vc pega todos ao mesmo tempo...seria mais interessante desenvolver pouco a pouco pra vc sentir a necessidade de usar um ou outro ...no mais e um bom entretenimento
Just finished my first round of the game and think it's amazing! Can't wait to play it again with a different character!
Some reviews criticize that the game is too short, but I prefer shorter games, so it fits my taste perfectly! As a working adult I can't do a zillion of sub quests and finding people's lost dogs as you have to do in most RPGs. This one is simple and straight to the point.
The battles are a little easy, but still fun and well balanced. I really like that characters heal automatically after a battle. It make the game play so hassle free (but it's still challenging, since characters who fell in battle will receive a HP "penality" for the next battle until healed at a church).
The design team was obviously strongly influenced by Valkyrie Profile and since I loved that game too, I'm happy to see the resemblence.
I also really enjoyed the story! It starts a little slow (but not in a bad way, it gives you time to warm up to the characters before the real story starts) and gets better and better towards the end.
I'm really looking forward to the contuniation of this game!
Oh boy, this one is a roller coaster to review. Let's say the Mixed reviews are very well deserved as it has many flaws, but I think there is a very solid story/game under here that is worth a look, at least when on sale (I've seen it as low as 2 dollars).
So the whole reason I even came across this game was I was searching for "games like Suikoden" and this came up, though with some warnings due to the mixed reviews/reactions. Is that true then, that the game gives a "Suikoden" feel? Yes, but also no. No game will ever live up to Suikoden (except probably Eiyuden Chronicles when that comes out but I digress).
There are two really strong points that makes the game seem inspired by Suikoden. First is the music - damn the music is really good, and really help establish the mood and scenes. It was surprising how good the music is. That opening scene after the prologue gave me chills with the combined music and art. It felt a little cheesy like a 90's cartoon TV show intro but I loved it and it hyped me up for the game to meet all those characters shown.
This one right here:
https://youtu.be/Rc0S0fT39s0
The second point is the overall story, morality, and political intrigue. This is not a game about some chosen one destined to save the world. It's a story about conflict in the human world and how humans tend to be at each others throats. They may be their own worst enemy more so than external threats even if they may unite in such dire times. You follow a group of squires on their quest for knighthood and experience their journey that leads them to see the strengths and failures of nobility, the plights and adoration of the common folk, and a lot of grey morality where nothing is quite black or white. Even the external threat (called the Enders, the giant men int he video above) is more akin to vikings rather than say White Walkers or such so the story still feels like one about human conflict rather than fighting against a fantastical unknown.
There is also some subtleties of political issues brewing in the background. As the heroes are just squires it makes sense they wouldn't exactly be privvy to what is going on behind their backs but it all comes to a head in the ending in a moment that almost feels like a Game of Thrones scene. I felt emotional ever since completing this game. Part of it was due to that ending and my attachment to the world and the characters. The other was being sad that the game was over already and I longed for more and to know what happened. It's a good sign when I get really invested and the world and characters like this.
So yeah, the story is amazing and I can't wait for a sale on the next game so I can play it next. I really got invested. Supposedly this game is the first of a trilogy with only the second game and a prequel DLC out for more content. That explains one of the common issues people have with this game - it feeling a bit unfinished as if it ended right when it was getting good. I can concur with that feeling as I was left wanting, but will see how I feel about the sequel.
That said, the price here is for one game and not the whole trilogy, so its easy to feel ripped off paying 13 dollars for 6-8 hour game.
To be fair, the game does have more content as it was meant to be played through with each of the 6 characters and thus would average closer to a 40 hour game. Yeah it's not worth doing that. Each character does have their own prologue and certain scenes/choices throughout the game, but the majority of the game has no difference and will repeat the same story. Its honestly better to just look up videos or reading about the differences for other characters. Be sure to read up on Camille's ending at the least when you are finished as it explains the truth behind a mystery at the end of the game. So yeah, consider it a 6-8 hour game. I do recommend playing the prologue of each character, then proceeding with the game with the one you like best. Each prologue is pretty short and you can rush through it in maybe 10 minutes at worst. It's a good way to learn who each character is and have some background on why they may act certain ways. No matter who you choose, you will see the rest of the characters throughout the game and will always have all 6 available to your battle party -- I do like that.
Characters and their interaction was another strong point of the game for me. As I said I got quite invested - even to the named NPCs. Isaac and Lucienne interactions were so very good - each character seems to have another that challenges their world view and I love it. For example, Isaac sees all nobles as stuck up selfish ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. Lucienne is the one noble in the group who will consistently show compassion for the commonfolk and is not afraid to get down and dirty herself, completing poking a hole in Isaac's view of the world and directly challenging it.
I chose Isaac as my main character and would recommend his story - it was really intriguing. I read he's not as visible in other characters' stories since he's a bit of a lone wolf but it makes sense due to his background. As a main character though, he shines a lot and has an intriguing backstory that comes back to haunt him.
Alright so now to get into a few other flaws besides the short game length and stopping just when it got so good. Technical issues - my god NPCs were having seizures everywhere. It would be hilarious if it wasn't so immersion breaking. I don't know what is going on but in pretty much every town the NPCs were spinning in place at full speed. It was wild. I just learned to ignore them. Also why is everything so damn slow? The player runs by default which is good, but its hardly a run and more like a brisk walk. Pressing what would be a run button in another RPG instead makes the character walk. Why? I want to go faster, not slower! Town traversal is a major annoyance. The map design of the starting city is horrid and too many winding paths. Hub worlds should be better organized and traversed quickly - not go through 3 winding screens!
And something about the art puts me off just a little. I like it but at the same time Yli, the elf girl, just seems out of place with her art. Maybe its the unnerving smile even if its her character to smile all the time. Then again its also part of her character to feel out of place, so maybe that was intentional. While the art does look quite Indie, I do like it for the most part. Reynauld should close his mouth more though. The veteran adults like the famous legendary heroes all look really cool and probably have the best portraits in the game. So props to that.
I somewhat wonder if I would have enjoyed the game more as a visual novel. Watch the cutscenes unfold and just make me choose the moral decisions or dialog choices or something. Oh yeah - there are choices in the game but some of them feel inconsequential other than for roleplaying/immersion purposes and to just show sometimes no matter what you choose there is no really morally correct answer or to get you to question your own morals. I do kind of like that though, it was interesting to see various scenes and choices that hurt to watch because there was no decent way out of the situation. Supposedly the decisions come back in the next game, so we will see.
As for the actual gameplay, it's okay. I like that you automatically heal between random encounters. I like that random encounters can be skipped. I did enjoy boss battles. Random battles felt like a chore still though, especially versus Enders where battles could seem to drag at times. The system is interesting though. Instead of mana there is "Stamina" which you gain each turn or can increase more by defending. Then you use X stamina to pull off skills that cost that much stamina. It works, but that's all I got to say about it.
Overall, I loved it, want more, but beware it may not be for you. Get it on sale.
This review covers both the base game and the Howl of the Ravager DLC.
I have some mixed feelings about this game, but overall, I still had fun with it.
[b]Complaints[/b]:
[list]
[*] (Base & DLC) Relentless enemies. In most RPGs, if you run from battle, the enemy either disappears or leaves you alone long enough for you to get away. In this game, they are relentless and the character only runs slightly faster. I had to use a mod to avoid enemies when I was just trying to figure out dungeons. The enemies can sometimes pin you against the wall graphics, so you absolutely cannot escape.
[*] (DLC) Mazes. This is a personal taste, but I hate being confused for a long period of time, especially when I'm eager to get to the next story point.
[*] (Base game) Difficulty jump. The game was fairly balanced until toward the end. Even on the easiest mode, with the best weapons/gear, and at max level, the final boss can be a bit much.
[*] (Base & DLC) Not a single dark-skinned character in the whole game, which is ironic, given that there are some bits of dialogue that criticize racist thinking.
[*] (DLC) Statutory r/a/p/e without criticism or negative framing.
[*] The DLC story was too short.
[/list]
[b]Positive Aspects[/b]:
[list]
[*] (More so the base game than DLC) Decent writing, character development, and story.
[*] (Base game) Different perspectives from six different characters.
[*] (Both) Pretty art.
[*] (Both) Encourages players to utilize critical thinking skills and consider morals.
[*] (Base game) Criticisms of toxic religious beliefs.
[*] (Both) Criticisms of classism and wealth imbalance.
[*] (Both) Criticisms of unjust/arbitrary laws.
[/list]
I saw some people criticizing the base game for being too short and I don't get it. You have to play it six times for everyone's perspective. I don't know why you'd want to play a game that many times if it's a regular length RPG. I know I sure as hell wouldn't have played a 70-hr (average RPG length) game six times. Besides, the story was conveyed well regardless of the length.
If you don't mind a basic battle system and the flaws I mentioned, then yes, I recommend this game to those who like Japanese-style RPGs.
Me llamo mucho la atencion el estilo grafico de este juego y me entere de el por el lanzamiento de Realms Beyond y estaba a un excelente precio en oferta. El juego me ha gustado muchisimo en un RPG clasico por turnos con una historia adulta y bien contada con dilemas morales y decisiones que tomar pero siendo honestos estas decisiones parecen no incidir demasiado en la trama. Pero le da cierto aire de dramatismo a algunas elecciones que tendremos que escoger sobretodo en como afrontar una situacion.
Nos encontramos una historia donde escogeremos de entre varios personajes y desde su perspectiva viviremos la historia. Esto le da cierta rejugabilidad aunque yo solo jugue 1 vez. Es una historia de honor y de colaboracion entre reinos pero tambien de traiciones en momentos donde deberia reinar la unidad. Los personajes son bastante buenos y habra algunos con los que te encariñes y otros con los que en definitiva no lo haras.
El combate es el clasico combate por turnos con Ataque, Magia, Defensa, Objetos con la peculiaridad de que aqui se te regenera el HP cuando ganas el combate. Esto no hace mas sencillo el juego ya que los combates importantes pueden ser realmente duros por lo que es importante escoger una party balanceada entre tus personajes (3 por combate). La historia principal me duro 10 horas es un juego corto para ser rpg y aunque me hubiera gustado hubiera durado mas creo que es justo por el precio. Tambien tiene un DLC que es una precuela usando a un personaje importante del juego pero mas desde su origen. En este DLC llevare unas 3 horas y el nivel no decae muy buena historia y personajes.
Juego muy recomendable y seguramente despues de terminar este ire por Realms Beyond que continua la historia varios años en el futuro. Lo compre para jugar en una GPD Win 2 de manera portatil y tuve problemas para que me detectara el mando el cual nunca pude solucionar pero mapee los botones con Controller Companion y santo remedio aunque me parece muy raro este tipo de problemas.
The only thing I really enjoyed about this title was the story overall. The difficulty going from ease to being slammed again a concrete wall to force you to grind was a buzz kill (Yes, I fought everything along the way and ended up around 25). I understand some JRPGs do this, but they also have an option for difficulty when you're trying to go for story and not sit there grinding the hardest monsters for hours on end. The game itself is also very short and a lot of time being spent was walking back and forth from multiple zones.
A lot of the areas you couldn't explore either 'lore' purposes or it was 'off limits'. To me that tells me the game wasn't fully fleshed out or they ran out of time and had to release it. I think they could've added way more to the story with more backgrounds with each hero and their locations in terms if you're playing Aria and going to Reynald's home and what not. There wasn't a lot of exploration since more of the maps were very linear in terms of go this direction and hit a roadblock or go here to go to the next zone.
The art design was a pro and a con. I enjoyed the hand drawn work and it was beautiful, but at the same time you couldn't tell the walls from the floors from outside to the inside. A lot of the colors would mesh into each other (first major city - docks) or it'd look all the same layer of art. It would try to be 3-D and 2-D and a mixture of the two on some structures and the art. Again, I enjoyed the art style, but the execution was confusing at times.
I did enjoy the JRPG setup - world exploration, battles, gear setup, etc. The animations at times were off putting as the wings would flap but rest of the body didn't move (e.g. fairies) or a spider throwing out his web and it was a standstill frame. The AI would also spas out; by this I mean would look left to right and back to left in place and just do this really quickly. Why? Maybe it had something to do with the coding? I don't know, but this happened quite a bit throughout the game.
With it being on the unity engine I believe it could have brought out the better parts of the game and may have fixed the others too, but I’m only assuming here. For all I know they were on a time to budget ratio and things had to be done quickly. Overall, I felt the game was a 5/10. There were too many odds and ends and not enough lore/story to go through the other storylines which may be only the prologues and then rinse and repeat rest of the story for each character. Sorry, but I don’t have the patience for it. Hopefully the next edition will be way better.
Now that I've completed all stories, clinched all achievements, and even beat the DLC episode (Howl of the Ravager), here's my take on [i]Celestian Tales: Old North[/i].
The game is rich in political intrigue, and how the ramifications of the characters' words and actions all have a ripple effect on how the story goes is clearly inspired by the [i]Suikoden[/i] series. This is not that surprising since the creators are Indonesian, and the [i]Suikoden[/i] series has a considerably huge Indonesian fan base. The main characters have their own quirks, yes, but they all receive the much-needed character development as they learn more about the world they live in.
Regarding the game play, the implementation of party levels and level caps means there is less grinding to deal with. Also, the implementation of the stamina system simplifies the already simple battle system.
The graphics are clearly inspired by [i]Ragnarok Online[/i], especially the sprites. Despite the clear inspiration, the combination of hand-drawn backgrounds with the sprites gives this game a unique flair.
All in all, I'm quite impressed by how Ekuator Games pulled this first game of a planned trilogy off. Sure, I detected some bugs and glitches, but they don't get in the way of my enjoyment of this game. Now I'm looking forward to how the story continues in [i]Celestian Tales: Realms Beyond[/i].
This is a review that truly makes me wish there was a "neutral" option.
I really, really liked Celestian Tales: Old North. You know how there are games that are 40 or 50+ hours long but could have easily been 15 or 20 hours in length? Well, my Celestian Tales run with Aria, one of six characters that you get to choose from, took me 6 hours and 40 minutes to complete.
Some games feel like they overstay their welcome, dragging on and on with repetitive dialogue and long dungeons. Celestian Tales does the exact opposite. The journey is wonderful, the dialogue is well-written and the battle system is so simple yet fun. All these positives coalesced into an RPG that I very much enjoyed. The problem is that it ended way too soon AND on a cliffhanger.
The game is supposedly a trilogy. I did not know that going into it, so perhaps that's on me.
Sure, I COULD replay the game with a different character to experience their prologues and view some scenes throughout the journey that are specific to them and also reveal different aspects of the main plot, but then I would have to traverse the same dungeons and start over from Level 1 just for a handful of scenes. Although I do have to mention that the game gives you an option to skip scenes the moment a dialogue box pops up during events that advance the plot, so if you have time to spare and you're dedicated you can probably power through each scenario in maybe 3 or 4 hours?
It just feels like all of the six characters' scenes could have perhaps been incorporated into the first playthrough to make for a much more meaningful, fluid and comprehensive experience, and that's my main gripe with Celestian Tales.
The game utilises a very simple battle system, and looking at the pictures on the store page you can probably figure out how it works. Mana is replaced by stamina which can replenished every turn by attacking or defending.
The sprites used during battles remind me of Crimson Gem Saga, an RPG on the PSP that I really liked, so that was nice
Also, your entire party levels up as a unit, which is really cool and means that you do not have to worry about reserve party members getting less or no EXP at all.
Celestian Tales uses a save point system, and trust me when I say there are MANY save points (just a random observation that I found worth mentioning, I guess).
All in all, I truly enjoyed Celestian Tales. But I would only suggest buying it when it's on sale, and a hefty one at that.
However, IF you do enjoy the concept of replaying a game with different characters just to experience some of their unique scenes scattered throughout the course of the main journey, then by all means buy the game at full price, because you'll probably get your money's worth from Celestian Tales: Old North.
As for me, I'm going to continue powering through my insane backlog of Steam games, but I will also keep an eye out for this game's sequel, Celestian Tales: Realms Beyond, because I did enjoy the plot and cast of characters. I really want to see where the story goes, and I sincerely hope that the devs do not adopt a similar approach for the sequel.
It's worth a shot when on sale honestly (I got this with DLC for $3). I would say this would be the Evoland of the RPG genre, incorporating so many different things:
1) The stamina from Xenogears, though you have normal attacks.
2) The art style is similar to Ragnarok Online (developers did claim they were inspired but did the pixel work themselves, you be the judge). I'm just glad there's an actual story attached.
3) The political intrigue on a Suikoden level in Howl of the Ravager.
4) The vast array of characters to choose similar to Saga Frontier or Octopath Traveler. I always liked this approach in that I can try another story if I feel pacing is off.
5) Visible enemies like Chrono Trigger, though combat does start pretty easy.
The only things I didn't like are that the animations can be off sometimes, like when I'm on a boat hearing it creaking and neither the boat nor water animate, like it's some visual novel stillshot (though its character portraits are good, but not as detailed as that genre), and the whole Z, X, V default controls for reacting (see the character's icon if you can get something, walking, and menu). The menu also has you go into status to equip rather than inventory/party, which was kinda weird.
I do like the characters' ambitions (I played Severin from DLC and Reynard, and it's nice to see more complex/simple views). Dialogue may take some time though, but it's not bad.
I can't recommend this even though it was pretty fun.
It feels like an rpg maker game with nicer visuals.
Almost everything written in bold under "about this game" is either misleading or a lie.
Plot feels extremely generic for a jrpg and there are literally no impactful choices.
Very short and there is little point in replaying it unless you want to see 5% new content each playthrough.
They just removed about 20% of the story and forced you to replay the game over and over to see it.
If you are going to buy it then at the very least wait for a sale.
Celestian Tales: Old North is a fantasy based story-rich J.R.P.G. developed by Ekuator Games and published by Digital Tribe. In this brilliant title you take on the role of one of six different young characters, all from noble houses but each with their own origin story, who eventually come together when they are sent to the port city of Levantine in the North to squire for their eventual Knighthood. Unfortunately for you war breaks out across the kingdom just as you and your companions begin their duties as a squire. Prepare to go on a grand journey across the land of the Old North as war rages across the region.
[h1]GAMEPLAY[/h1]
The gameplay of this title consists of the traditional J.R.P.G. with turn-based combat. Speaking as someone who doesn't play many J.R.P.G.'s, I have to say that I truly enjoyed the battle system. It's not that I dislike J.R.P.G.'s it's just that I tend to play more of the western style roleplaying games which is why my experience to Japanese R.P.G.'s is quite limited. With that said, when combat is initiated your group and your adversaries take turns attacking one another until one side emerges victorious. During these battles you'll have a chance to select which blade attacks, magical spells for offense, healing or protection as well as what artifacts to use during the melee. This is where the game truly shines in my opinion alongside the fantastic narrative of course. Speaking of the narrative, this title has a fascinating storyline that will keep you engrossed from beginning to end. Also, if you're into exploring and gathering loot like me, as your party travels across the land you'll have an opportunity to acquire different types of weapons, armor, trinkets and ingredients for crafting or upgrading your gear.
With any R.P.G. worthy of the title, completing tasks and winning battles also grants experience points which when enough is accrued gives your group access to additional sets of skills to use in battle. As wonderful as the combat system is in this title I must stress again how intriguing the storyline also is. Political intrigue, war, discovering the true nature of oneself, these are all things that you will take part in over the course of the story-rich narrative. There are also a number of vital decisions that you will have to make which could have far reaching consequences for not only your party but for various towns or kingdoms throughout the land.
[h1]VISUALS[/h1]
The visual presentation of this title is outstanding. Portrait images used during dialogue sequences look fantastic. The characters used in the battle sequences and while exploring the world are exceptionally animated and rendered with bright beautiful colors. Add to that the gorgeous highly detailed backgrounds from the various cities, warehouses, ports of entry to the bandit and beast infested forested regions that you traverse over the course of the narrative and the overall visual presentation of the game shapes up quite well in my opinion. The aural quality of the game is also terrific delivering wonderfully orchestrated tracks that fit the fantasy setting of the game phenomenally as well as excellent sound effects. The introduction song to this game is one of the best that I've heard in years it's fantastic. In summary, Celestian Tales: Old North puts forth an impressive graphical presentation that really compliments the interesting storyline.
[h1]CONCLUSION[/h1]
I absolutely loved my first playthrough of this wonderful title with it's story-rich narrative and engaging turn-based combat. Replayability is high as you can experience the story through the eyes of six different characters all with their own unique backgrounds and outlooks on life not to mention the Achievements that you can't get with just one playthrough. As options go, as I said before there are a number of Steam Achievements to hunt down in addition to Steam Trading Cards to collect. D.L.C. is available in the form of an original soundtrack featuring 17 wonderfully composed tracks. There's also the "Alternate Costume Pack'" which adds new clothing and armor for your party if you should choose to change what they wear over the course of the game. And finally, there is "Howl Of The Ravager" which is a prequel story set some twenty years before the events of the original game. In conclusion, if you're looking for a solid R.P.G. experience with a truly excellent story then look no further because Celestian Tales: Old North is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED to fans of the roleplaying game, turn-based combat and fantasy genres.
2018冬予定の続編が、いつまでたっても発売されないので、書いてみました。
6人のキャラクターから主人公を選び、仲間とともにストーリーを進めていく、昔のJRPGを彷彿させる作品。
全編英語で、日本語対応はないものの、さほど苦労することなく進めることができました。
ストーリーは基本１本道で分岐はありません。
戦闘は6人のうちから3人を選出し戦う方式。
それぞれ固有の武器が数種類、それと固有スキルを組み合わせて戦い、これにアーマー・アクセサリー・消費アイテムがあるという、オーソドックなスタイル。
Honor medal集めという（どこかで見たことあるような）おまけ要素あり。
・街中の移動が結構もっさり
・主人公を変えて進めても、さほどシナリオが変わらない
・キャラは6人いるけれど、結局戦闘に選ぶのは変わり映えのないメンバーになってしまう
などの弱点はありますが、全実績解除してみようと思うぐらいには楽しめました。
昔のJRPGが好きな人で、セールなどで安くなっている時には良いかと。
Vorweg, das Spiel ist gut, aber kann es dennoch nicht empfehlen.
Wieso das? Weil es einfach nicht fertig ist.
Die Story ist glaube ich auch nur dann wirklich gut, wenn man den richtigen Charackter wählt.
Ich habe zu Beginn einen Schurken ausgewählt(Isaac), dessen Hintergrundstory wirklich gut umgesetzt wurde (da hab ich ja echt Glück gehabt). Man lern im Laufe des Spiels alle Characktere kennen und alle sind soweit auch interressant, manche mehr, manche minder Klischee behaftet, andere einfach nur still und unauffällig (Camille)
Was gut ist:
- Das Storytelling was alle Begleiter miteinander verbindet ist wirklich gut
- Die Story generell ist gut, das Spiel hatte unglaublich Potential
Was schlecht ist:
Das Spiel ist einfach von Heut auf Morgen released worden und ist schlicht nicht fertig. Es gibt massenweise Bereiche auf der Karte die abgesperrt sind, wo einem NPCS sagen man könne sie derzeit nicht besuchen. Aber man kann sie niemals besuchen, weil sie schlicht nicht fertig sind. Auch recht früh in der 2. Stadt darf man nicht in den Stadtkern gehen, weil Camille einem sagt sie würde es aufgrund ihres Vaters meiden. Das ist auch ein Problem des unfertigen Spiels. Alle characktere haben eine solide Hintergrundgeschichte AUßER Camille. Das find ich total schade.
In der Worldmap gibt es viele Orte die man einfach niemals bereisen kann.
Ich glaube, das hängt auch etwas damit zusammen, dass jeder Charackter einen eigenen Prolog hat und möglicherweise folgedessen Gebiete nur für bestimmte Characktere zur Verfügung stehen.
Dennoch fühlt es sich komplett unfertig an. So gut das Spiel auch ist, am Ende gibt es einen Storytwist der sehr sehr wichtig ist, und er wird weder erklärt noch geht es weiter. Es ist einfach ENDE... ENDE mitten im Storytwist... einfach MITTENDRING VORBEI. Das war nie im Leben so vorgesehen. Ich hätte gesagt, das waren 50% von dem was es hätte sein müssen. Sry aber das reicht nicht.
Es wurden in dem Spiel gefühlt insgesamt maximal 100 Sprites genutzt für die Level und insgesamt gibts wenig Skills und ab lvl 20 bekommen die Characktere einfach auch keine neuen mehr. Das Spiel sagt sich:" Ende, mehr haben wir zeitlich nicht geschafft"
Und auch ein Indiez wieso das Spiel nicht fertig ist:
Man kann Waffen upgraden, angefangen von Rang C , dann C+ und ganz zum Schluss B... B als ende...
Jeder der dieses Upgradingprinzip kennt weiß auf B folgt A und dann S...
Das Spiel ist eigentlich gut aber EINFACH NICHT FERTIG. Das ist total schade. Ich find das dürfte nur 5€ kosten weil es ja nichtmal fertig ist. Und vom Umfang her ist es auch keine 13€ wert weil das halt einfach mit der Unity Engine an einem Wochenende fertig gestellt wurde... also für die Story hat man sicher länger gebraucht aber ganz ehrlich, es ist alles auch nur auf englisch, alles nur text zu lesen, wenig sprites, wenig von allem. Tolle Story aber das Game ist eine Bachelor Arbeit, kein vollwertiges Spiel.
I was fairly surprised when i checked the reviews after i beat the game. I thought it'll be at least mostly positive.
It's a fun game in JRPG Style. No big riddles (thank god) with a nice story and a, for my taste, good endinng.
The Endboss can be a bit hard. Did him quite easily with the silence and DMG skills from my mates.
Took me about 6-7 hours to beat it.
Короткая.
Линейная.
Выбор без последствий.
Большое количество многозначительных заходов, которые не имеют никакого развития - возможно, с прицелом на будущие части.
На по-настоящему удобный интерфейс можно не рассчитывать.
Из плюсов - визуал и музыка... Но ничего сверхъестесвтенного.
I'd probably give a neutral review if I could. Despite its flaws, however, the game does have its charm. I did enjoy it to some degree, so I will lean towards the positive side, even if it does play like a short but ambitious RPG Maker game.
[h1]Quick Rundown[/h1]
Here's the short of this game's pros and cons. Remember that the following is my opinion, and something positive to me might be a negative for you or vice versa.
[u][b]Positive[/b][/u]
[b]+[/b] Pretty good music.
[b]+[/b] Nice art, somewhat reminiscent of 80's anime.
[b]+[/b] My non-XInput gamepad works fine (didn't need to use x360ce).
[b]+[/b] No random encounters. Most enemies on the field can be seen and avoided similar to Chrono Trigger.
[b]+[/b] Managing Stamina instead of MP is a refreshing take on combat ability usage.
[b]+[/b] Weapons and accessories have different effects beyond just damage.
[b]+[/b] A relatively low-magic setting.
[b]+[/b] The story is full of moral gray zones.
[b]+[/b] Main characters have varied personalities and motivations.
[b]+[/b] Playing each character adds a little more context and closure.
[b]+[/b] All but two late-game cutscenes are skippable.
[b]+[/b] Plenty of world lore can be read in the logbook as people and places are mentioned.
[b]+[/b] Game saves will supposedly be usable in the sequel, making decisions in this affect the future.
[u][b]Neutral[/b][/u]
[b]*[/b] If not for the combat, it would seem more like a visual novel than a roleplaying game.
[b]*[/b] Damage taken is healed after every battle.
[b]*[/b] Only one experience bar to note; all characters level up at the same rate.
[b]*[/b] "6 playable characters" feels more like, "pick 1 of 6 to be unofficial party leader."
[b]*[/b] Main characters have recognizable tropes but just barely avoid being clichéd.
[b]*[/b] Half the characters give no choice to the player on moral issues they feel strongly about, which makes sense.
[b]*[/b] There are several points of interest on the overworld that are inaccessible, except for very briefly in the prologues.
[u][b]Negative[/b][/u]
[b]-[/b] Music sometimes feels repetitive, though I think that's more to do with being in areas for extended periods of time, rather than the music itself.
[b]-[/b] Most sound effects are generic; probably free domain to ease the budget.
[b]-[/b] Though made in Unity, it plays and feels more like RPG Maker.
[b]-[/b] [url=https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1369733524]Have to use regedit just to change resolution.[/url]
[b]-[/b] If your monitor has screen tearing, it will be incredibly visible in this game.
[b]-[/b] All but story enemies are the same generic sprite of a shadowy blob. You can't see the specific type of enemy you'll fight beforehand.
[b]-[/b] Combat isn't at all challenging by default. Only two fights in the entire game are tricky, one being the final boss and the other a secret boss.
[b]-[/b] Other difficulty settings simply inflate enemy stats, namely Attack, Defense, and HP.
[b]-[/b] The writer indulges in the cardinal sin of jerking off to his pet NPCs.
[b]-[/b] The beginning is somewhat slow and boring.
[b]-[/b] It's a relatively short game. My first playthough took about 12 hours, and I'm the type to go everywhere, talk to everyone, read everything, grind/upgrade the party, and otherwise take my time.
[b]-[/b] For being a main selling point, moral choices are very rare and have almost no impact on the game (though allegedly will carry over into sequels).
[b]-[/b] The ending feels a bit contrived when someone acts very out of character with a [i]completely[/i] exaggerated overreaction, which is only half-explained in one of six playthroughs.
[b]-[/b] Egregious overuse of ellipses above characters during dialog.
[b]-[/b] Other minor gripes, such as graphical issues (floor tiles and clipping mostly), spelling/grammar mistakes, NPCs saying lines at inappropriate times, confusing lutes and lyres (continuity), displaying incorrect story logs, usage of terms like “asshats” and “super powers” conflict with the setting, and being in Limbo after dying to the final boss. These bugs/issues are fairly uncommon, thankfully.
[h1]Final Thoughts[/h1]
The game feels incomplete. Not incomplete like unfinished, but incomplete as in lacking. It's similar to how the Hobbit movie remake could have easily been one film like the original, but was instead split into three. Celestian Tales was deliberately built from the ground up to be a trilogy, and it shows. I suppose in a way it's excusable because they don't have a big Hollywood budget, but it most certainly has an adverse affect on the game.
Each main character adds a bit more to the story with their own perspectives. However, they don't add a whole lot individually and you'll get the same general experience every time you play no matter who you choose. Each character has different storyline logbooks, a separate prologue, a few solo scenes, and a couple scenes shared with another party member, and that's it. Most of the character insight actually comes from frequently checking the logbook. It's a shame you have to play through the whole game in its entirety so many times just to get the whole picture, but at the same time, I understand why they'd do it this way. People can play the game only once, if they so choose, and still get the main overall story.
One of the most glaring flaws of the game is the writing pitfall in which they practically deify a few NPCs. Someone at Ekuator obviously loves the main NPCs and never tires of shoving that in your face. Yeah, they're super great and powerful. We get it. No need to keep reminding me of it in every other scene. It gets old fast when you're a player in a tabletop RPG and your GM practically masturbates to their almighty NPC. At one point in this game someone even openly tells a player character that they'll never be as good as the NPC. Get over yourselves Ekuator.
The combat is mostly standard turn-based JRPG style but the stamina system does add a layer of strategy to it. There's some neat abilities too. Otherwise combat is pretty simple. Healing after every battle is a little weird and gives it a casual feeling, yet also encourages optimizing loadouts for strong starts and blitzkriegs. Another unusual part is having only one level for the whole party, but at least you don't have characters falling behind in experience?
There are several places on the world map you can see but not reach. This is both good and bad. On the one hand, it establishes that there's a developed, wide world out there beyond where your duty lies. However, it also is yet another contributing factor to Old North feeling less like a full game and more like the first part of an episodic series. Also, there's a section of the main city which is blocked off “temporarily” for the entire game. [spoiler]The bridge is even under maintenance roughly 20 years ago in the Howl of the Ravager DLC as well.[/spoiler]
The game as a whole isn't bad but I'd recommend waiting for a sale to pick this one up.
Este juego me causa conflicto, no es presisamente bueno pero definitivamente no es malo, me costo empezarlo pero sin embargo si hubiera podido lo hubiera terminado todo de una partida.
Tiene un apartado grafico muy lindo para estar hecho a mano. Los personajes tienen personalidad (nada muy complejo) suficiente para tomarles cariño, odiarlos u admirarlos. La trama no es algo espectacular y tiene algunos giros algo forrzados.
Las batallas son tipicos combates por turnos en base a generar stamina con ataques para poder usar tus habilidades, lo que vuelve todos los combates lentos en los primeros turnos, que para mi es la mayor pega del juego.
La personalizacion del equipo es completamente arbitraria y no alienta a la rotacion de los miembros del escuadron, esto puede ser bueno o malo dependiendo de cada uno, en mi caso no soportaba al pelirrojo ni a la pelirroja asi que no verlos en todo el juego fue un acierto.
Reitero el juego no es malo pero no es tan bueno como para pasarlo una segunda vez, cosa que trata de alentar, para conocer el punto de vista de otro protagonista pero si lo suficiente para esperar una segunda parte, donde espero revisen el ritmo del juego.
Quelle est l'ambition des devs derrière cet opus ?
Voilà la question qui a parsemé la dizaine d'heure de jeu pour finir ce jeu aux graphismes attrayant et au riche background.
Car en effet malgré les promesses qu'on peut avoir au sujet de ce jeu, elles restent en l'état de bonne idée mais raté dans l'éxécution.
Le rythme de l'histoire est mauvais, l'évolution de l'histoire passe de rebondissement en rebondissement de façon superficielle. Y adhérer devient impossible. Les nombreux dialogues ajoutent une profondeur au character design mais coupent trop le rythme. Pourquoi pouvoir jouer 6 personnages différents si ce n'est pour n'avoir aucune expérience différente. Si les choix et évolutions du jeu différaient en fonction du personnage, on aurait vraiment eu un interet à recommencer le jeu avec chacun. Mais là c'est simplement une façon artificielle d'augmenter la durée de vie.
Le gameplay des combats est pourtant bien pensé, mais il est deservit par un système d'expérience général , le trop peu de compétence déblocable et le peu d'arme à disposition. Alors oui on joue que 10 heure et il est dit que c'est un premier chapitre ...
Les combats ne sont pas compliqués du tout, et sont vraiment lourd à la fin. Seul le boss de fin saura vous demander de la réflexion.
Pour ma part, je suis déçu, et je me suis fait avoir par les vidéos de présentation sur steam, on est comme dans une BO d'un film de SF a moyen budget : on voit tout dans la BO et le film nous ennuie ensuite.
Là c'est pareil, ne gachez pas vos euros là dedans, pas parce que le jeu est mauvais, mais parce que les promesses et les espoirs qu'il peut faire naître en vous resteront au stade de la déception.
bought the game on the last winter sale and finished one of the character story
so here is my review ....
the good:
Beautiful art and music
6 different character story to play
the turn based gameplay is pretty enjoyable i love the agro system
the bad:
too bad the story itself too short for me and im just interested with isaac story
no voice acting
unbalance, i easily kill even the last boss with isaac in my party
Art and Story- 11/10
The art is amazingly beautiful, the storytelling is immersive, the combat system is nostalgic while still being effective even amoung all the plethora of systems out there, and did I mention the art yet? Because... woah! Hand-drawn with pen and pencil on physical paper, rather than digital, which while digital is not inferior, creates an amazing nostalgic effect. Really, overall, this game is beautifully done to create a wonderful sense of nostalgia while not skimping on the story or incorporating new ideas. And the music is so well done, too! I just can't say enough about how beautifully this game has been made.
Choices- 9/10
None of the choices felt very heavy or intimidating to me, though I've only played through Ylianne's story so far, and only once at that. In fact, I probably couldn't enumerate the points where I did have to make a choice if I needed to because I can't remember many of them, let along any of them being very important. Additionally, I haven't had the courage to play through the game a second time, so I'm not sure of it's replayability factor.
Finishing Feels- 10/10
Honestly, it did feel a little short, but I had played through the first bit a while back on a different account. However, part of that feeling of it not being long enough is simply because the complete storyline is in 3 parts. This is just the first portion of the characters' lives, and the vision for the whole storyline is absolutely inspiring. When I got to the end of this part, I couldn't believe it was over and so desperately craved more. Can't wait for the sequel to officially release!
**Note: I spent a large amount of time playing this game in offline mode, so I do have a decent number of hours logged, more than steam says I do.
Honestly, not a terrible game by any means, but suffers from several issues. Graphics and art in general is pretty good, even though there's not much variety of enemies/places. Music is pretty solid, but again not much of it. Story is pretty poorly written but the setting is solid so it could have been better, the interesting parts only start in the last 15mins of the game. I found characters to be particularily unlikeable, while the royalty characters tend to be pretty common in this type of game, they're usually balanced by having different point of views. Only Yliane provides a different point of view in this game out of the 6 characters, and her point of view is cliché and always the contrary of everyone else so it becomes dull also.
The game suffers from a few bugs such as NPCs twitching when patrolling as well as some technical issues like the lack of proper resolution or keyboard+mouse support(can't click on most stuff, have to use up/down on keyboard to move through everything, can't Esc out of stuff but instead have to use the Cancel button etc, so definitely play this with a pad, not with a keyboard).
Difficulty felt very uneven, with most of the game being easy, but tedious(combat against trash mobs takes about as long as boss fights when you get the large groups, but pose no real threat if you use a proper setup... nor do the bosses really). However here and there some spikes in difficulty, like the last boss which proved to be unkillable with the particular set of chars/skills I had, I had to reload a save and change my skill build to kill him(I don't mean I was dying, I meant it was a permanent standoff, with the boss simply healing for more than I could damage him and with no way to prevent it because his heal has low enough cost that draining him of stamina wasn't enough). On the other hand I feel if I hadn't played the setup I had(tank+healer+DPS), the game would have been a lot harder. Monsters seem to hit for stupidly high damage with very little ways to prevent it due to how restricted you are in your skill usage by the basic combat mechanics, so having someone who taunts and having someone to heal that character felt almost necessary.
Customization felt minimal, there's very little gear to use and most of it is very standard stuff so no choice there, there's skills and passives, but a lot were redundant or weren't balanced properly when considering their cost versus their effects. I feel most characters only had very few swaps to be used, and most of it was fairly obvious, they were mostly stuck into their primary role. Which isn't necessarily bad, but there just wasn't much to do in these. You give your healer a single target heal, an aoe heal, a way to remove debuffs and that leaves one skill only. And obviously the passives will be stuff that increase healing or similar, so no real choice there. Every characters felt built like that.
I'd say the most negative aspect is it's basically not a full game, it's like the first act of a game. The price is relatively low so it's not so bad, but don't expect a great rpg, this is just the opening act, a teaser, and not a particularily appealing one. This is especially blatant when you have to make certain choices during the story that have absolutely 0 impact on this game's story. I assume they'll matter in the next game maybe, but that feels pretty bad.
The game, as a whole, was fairly pleasant to play. However, after playing it, to completion, in less than 8 hours, is a little pricey for what you get from it. The gameplay and story is relatively dull and the final boss has an immensely overpowered heal that means you aren't allowed as many options to strategise as you would have had for any other fight. All in all, if its on sale for cheap it's ok to pick up. Otherwise, don't bother.
Celestian Tales: Old North is a good first act of a game. But it's not a good game.
Sadly, the game is largely undone by its ambitious pitch. A low fantasy RPG about grey morality and realpolitik sounded right up my alley. While Celestian Tales has plenty of opportunities to capitalize on these ideas, it seems like they didn't make the final cut. The characters and the plot are very compelling in a way similar to Game of Thrones (albeit much less dark), but they don't get enough time to grow and blossom. The tone and setting are intruiging, but the game ends right as it all bubbles to the top. What the game's description promises just isn't delivered.
The game itself is a pretty standard RPG, nothing worthy of note. There's a few technical bugs that show a lack of polish, but it's pretty easy to overlook them. The game does have some incredibly bad signposting issues, where it's not at all apparent how to progress the game. The final boss is not immune to instant death attacks. An entire chapter of the game is simply backtracking through the first few areas. It's pretty damning when your game is less than five hours long and it still has padding.
As for the good: The character art is absolutely phenomenal, and the music is generally pleasant too.
Celestian Tales has potential. However, when Ekuator Games says it's the first installment in a trilogy, what they really mean is they don't have the resources to make the full game they want to and will instead release it in parts. Even at the $12 price tag, this game is too expensive.
Hopefully the sequel will live up to its ambitions, because this game clearly didn't.
Well this game has some bugs, but is a well designed project. The story is very good, but it would be sooo much better if we had more choices/ options in the game, and different endings. ***SPOILERS *** we can't stand for the arcanist who saved our lifes in the zombies attack, we can't choose to be on lord Severin's side, and so on.*** SPOILERS END***
if they had get this trait from western RPGs in this old school jRPG setting this game could have been so much more, in the end it falls as another standard RPG with some nice memories, but nothing that stands out.
The idea to have six different pespectives is good, but i don't feel compelled to do the same thing over and over again, just to see the difference in opinion of the characters and some new scenes, to me, it would be better to have everything in one ride.
The game is too short.
The world map should have more exploration, its too blunt and the art is horrible, not cool.
But aside from all this problems that i said, the game is good, it has the 3 main pillars; good story, good gameplay, and good music.
Celestian Tales: Old North is a really lovely RPG that had me excited playing for hours. It took me about 9 to 10 hours to finish the game. I had no big issues with the game and it ran smoothly on my computer.
Things that were good/neutral/bad in my opinion:
Positive:
+ six characters, one of which you can choose as the main character
+ turn-based combat system
+ level-up system and customizable skills/weapons
+ engaging story
+ really nice and original artwork
+ nice soundtrack
+ skippable cut scenes
+ more than one save slot
+ customizable controls
+ Steam achievements and trading cards
Neutral:
* comparably short, but replayable
* characters are automatically healed after each battle
* so far I have only finished it once so I can't comment on the replayability of this game with each of the characters, but I doubt I will want to play it a total of six times to get all the achievements
Negative:
- quite linear
- not possible to change characters during the battle; you choose three characters for the battle and can only change them out of battle
It's not the greatest RPG I've ever played, but I definitely liked it and it definitely stands out to me compared to other RPGs. I know I will replay it at least once to get to know the other characters and their stories better, and I will remember this game as my time being well spent.
EDIT: I have actually replayed it until I had finished it with all the characters as a lead, and considering I wasn't so sure about doing that at the time I first wrote this review, I must say I have been pleasantly surprised. It's really nice to discover the details that are added when playing as different characters, and I even found out that the ending sequence can change slightly depending on a choice you make earlier. If you're interested, the additional playthroughs took me about 2.5 to 4 hours each.
I also want to say that the developers actually fixed a bug that was preventing you from getting achievements at some point of me playing. And their solution was a nice one too, it gave me the achievements that previously had not been recognized by Steam as such.
Overall: Still a recommendation.
I don't recommend this game, but I don't hate it. It's just a "meh" for me. The art is great and a lot of effort went into the game, but the story felt a little cliche to me and many of the characters felt like they relied a bit too much on tropes and stereotypes. After a while it became a slog to get through the game. The choices felt superficial and the combat was just standard: nothing special, nothing terrible. The writing felt a little simplistic, and the ending was abrupt and dissastisfying (probably because there is a sequel in the works.) In short, it was adequate enough, but not anything I'd recommend to someone else.
Frankly, if you went into this expecting Final Fantasy or some of the other RPGs of old, you'll be disappointed. It's the first part of a trilogy and as such it will feel quite short.
The writing can feel a bit cliched at times, if only because fantasy has been done so frequently at this point that most fantasy series are bound to feel cliched I'd wager. While one could spend time playing through each prologue to gather the backstory, and therefore 6 full playthroughs to get achievements, well, the gist of the story will still be the same.
Now with that out of the way, even the repetitive music tracks are great. The artwork is quite nice, especially for a game that takes the look and feel of RPGmaker games, and I happen to be a player who doesn't really care about artwork as much.
The characters themselves are actually quite interesting. Even though the plot is less intriguing to this player, the cast is likeable enough. Isaac and Camille have very intriguing pasts and series of events. Aria shows more depth than your typical zealot. Reynard seems to grow as a person. The other two have amusing moments and so forth.
In the end it is rather short for a Japanese styled RPG, but it kept this player invested enough to wait for the sequel. I hope the developer delivers, but in the meantime you should meet these cast members and decide for yourself!
EDIT: After hearing about the release of Realms Beyond, I've decided to replay this game to prepare a save file for it. Not much has changed, though comparing this game to various other JRPGs, such as The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky, might be a tad unfair.
This game was a labor of love, the effort put into it is clear as day. Here's hoping Realms Beyond has similar heart.
The game is really beautiful, fun to play, with interesting options and a somewhat interesting storyline. The only downside, imo, was the ending, which felt a little abrupt. Was expecting a little more exploration.
You do have 6 playable characters, and I've only played one of them, but it feels kind of tiring to replay the game 6 times, presuming it won't dramatically change with each new character.
That said, it's definitely worth the play.
I....perhaps will struggle a bit to review this game because I absolutely loved it to the point that I finished it in one sitting.
*Car screeches to a halt* Yes, I finished the game on hard mode in one sitting. So you probably know why this is going to be a bit hard to review because I was busy playing and getting into the story and was about to resolve major conflict when all of a sudden....sad soundttrack rolls in and credits show. SO I am like.....wait, the game done already! Not a ra$$. Listen, this just needs to end, like stop half-assing things, just do it well and give an experience one will never forget. This happen to me before with another game that I found out had 4 other parts to it-__-. Who you think ago buy the rest! Get the hell out of here with that.
As for what I applaud the game for:
- Interesting characters, I laud the depth that must have been placed in each. I played with the blond intellectual female. I was thoroughly impressed by her discerning attitidude and morals.
- Interesting storyline, kept me wanting to learn more. There are deep moral and ethical principals at play here and it allowed for introspection of certain real life issues
-Combat was great. I ennjoyed it thoroughly, fast-spaced turn vs turn aspect,
-Appreciated the graphics, clean and well done.
So should this be recommended, yes it will be but I will not laud it without pointed out my major fault seh it too damn short and it doesnt allow the player to experience the full capability of the project as it wasnt completed.
喜欢练级的同学就不要买了。。。升级好快（30级 最高？ ）。剧情不错就如同老外说的画面音乐都是上乘。可选角色比较多。。。但是没有重复通关的必要。因为！都是一样的剧情。 只是有些对话不一样罢了。因为主角不能换下去，所以主角还是选个刚一点的吧。。。本人选的第一个高冷女神攻击力略低。。。刺客Isaac和那个野蛮人那斧头的不错。。平砍小怪就能解决了。6个人的队伍基本上不用更换什么的一直走剧情。。。通关快的10小时，慢的也就15小时吧（练满级）。圣诞打折入的，划算！DLC也不错，6小时通关，讲的那个破坏者年轻时期。
吐槽一下，玩到第4章为毛还只有30块！！！打怪不掉钱。装备升级和物品购买消耗我只能说。。。摆设！因为战斗后自己会回复。。。根本可以无伤刷怪。
总体来说还是个有趣的游戏。。消遣下不错，也没有刷刷刷的疲惫感，适合剧情向！看清楚了！剧情向！
I really, really wish I could write a positive review for this game. The art style is great, the soundtrack is above average, and there's a germ of an potentially interesting tale here.
But that's all it is, a germ - an incredibly threadbare and frustratingly content-light germ of an idea. Simply put: the game needs more of pretty much everything. It needs more monster variety. It needs more actual story content - my first playthrough, complete with me exploring pretty much everything, ran about 6.5 hours in length. It needs to expand more upon the ideas it brings up - about the only one that was even close to properly covered was the concept of poverty vs duty and the law, i.e. can you truly blame poor people for turning to crime when you tax them into starvation, and even that idea felt just barely covered enough to warrant its inclusion in the storyline. Pretty much every other concept that was brought up felt like it was brought up just to be able to say that it was briefly talked about, without any kind of in-depth consideration or true discussion within the game's story - and if you're not going to actually spend quality time talking about piety, or broken legal systems, or whatever else you want to bring up, then don't bring it up on the first place. The characters were also very two dimensional, and almost no real character growth of any kind occurs. Not to mention the story "resolution" resolves virtually nothing, leaving a dozen or more story threads completely hanging in the worst possible "sequelitis" kind of way.
And the combat. Oh, the "combat". Incredibly simplistic and easy, with the only even vague challenge occurring in the final boss battle, or a secret boss battle - and even that "challenge" was mild at best. There's just enough of an effort to make planning for battles tactical that it's clear the developers knew they needed to do something there, but you can pick three characters and run them the entire playthrough, spamming the "attack" and perhaps one or two abilities each, and you'll be fine. There's also next to no character customization, with each having a starting weapon and only two more that you can find along the way, and the ability to upgrade each of those twice. That's it. There's a half dozen armor choices for both armor types, too. And maybe ten different accessory variations, most of which - similar to the weapons - you can find a more powerful version of, and then a more powerful version of that second one. But that's it: just enough variety that it's clear that an effort was made, but nowhere near enough variety to make the variety actually matter any. It's similar with the enemies, too: there's only a couple dozen different foes, and several of those are just reskins of previous enemies.
I truly wish the game's makers had spent more time on this title. Another ten or twelve hours of content (and no, saying "Now replay the game again with a different character! It'll make 1% of your playthrough different!" does not count as more content) and actually fleshing out the framework of ideas they timidly created would have made this a game I could recommend. As it is... if you catch it on sale for 75% off and you've nothing better to do with an evening, consider it, but otherwise definitely avoid this title.
Overall: this game is a great value if you catch it on sale. 6.5/10
Pros:
- Cool story with mega Game of Thrones vibes
- interesting character breakdowns and origins
- Decent over-arcing plot
- Engrossing character development
- Easy to understand battle system and tactics system
- Sets up future stories and really showcases great world building techniques
Cons:
- SUPER FREAKIN SHORT MAN
- Battles become very repetitive very quickly
- Creativity on beasts and monsters encountered is limited
- End battle is wildly frustrating and much more difficult than any battle prior
- If you lose the end battle, the game dumps you with nowhere to go and no one to talk to, so you have to reload the game manually
Others may find the story much more worth the short run time. It is a must-play for any fans of old school RPGs though. The art direction and sound design are leagues above what I expected or as compared to other games at similar pricepoints.
TL;DR Winter is coming, but only with a discount.
Coherent character driven storytelling is a rare story telling method in video games, and Celestian Tales: Old North does this so well that it justifies the current price tag of $12.99. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of things wrong with the game. Little things that could have been improved, such as level design and color palette choices that scream amateur, or under developed combat systems and a distinct lack of mini games or side quests. Some translation choices are questionable to say the least. All that aside though, the core of Celestian Tales: Old North story telling remains intact and very much enthralling.
So lets start with the price of the game and why the minimum standard of the game is worth it. The price of the game is 12.99. A modest price for a game, less than most high quality indie games. The vast majority of those games run between 15 and 30 dollars, an average of 22~ dollars. Old North beats that average by nearly 10 dollars, and offers more in a lot of areas, while admittedly less in others. While the gameplay could use some more depth, and the story could help facilitate this, it's still just a minor hiccup in what is otherwise a very deep and rich game. At 13 dollars, Celestian Tales is well worth the price point if youre looking for a strong narrative
There are still things that can drive you away from wanting to pruchase this game though. While the story is strong, its rife with strange translation and language choices. While this is undoubtedly a product of the game being built in another country then ported to the US, it's still a shame that it didn't get the final polish it could have used for its US release. Those are really the only problems with the deliverance of the story however. The characters, the story itself, and the way the world is made to live and breathe through these things is very impressive, especially for a game that is relatively short. Which brings us to another problem people might have with the game. Without spoiling too much, the game ends on a cliff hanger. On it's own, that isn't necessarily a bad thing, but considering the games epic feel, seems like it should have been a little bit longer. While this doesn't bother me so much as I don't have as much time to game as I used to, it could bother others. The game has a surprisingly small amount of fluff in it however. While there is back tracking and fetch questing, the way the story is delivered doesn't necessarily make it feel that way. While this probably helped attribute to the games short story, it also helped keep it engaging and enjoyable.
Longevity isn't the last problem Celestian Tales might have though. The gameplay is solid but lacks in depth where there could be more. One of the long standing issues with turnbased battle systems is that people are afraid to innovate with it, sticking to the tried and true systems. Old North doesn't offer anything especially new in this area. It's reliable and fun for the most part, but given that there are incentives to play the game 6 times over again, it just lacks the depth to keep players coming back that many times.
These are small problems for a 13 dollar game though. Even playing through Celestian Tales: Old North the one time is worth the monitary investment. While I myself am looking forward to the next installment of the game, I can only hope that more people will discover the depth and intrigue of this game.
Hey! So I read the decription of the game and it was intriquing: what would I do in order for my nation to win? After all right or wrong is for me to decide. That's a great pitch! I'd love to have to pick between doing evil and doing good not to defeat some Big Bad but in order to win the war!
So I started the game, picked a random character (not sure why), and the dialogue wasn't bad but it wasn't good either. There was no real life to the characters. Anyways, I get to the first dilemna facing the character. Do I get a choice in how she acts? Does the game ask: will you do this or will you not? Nope, turns out there was no choice.
Maybe there are choices later in the game and there's nothing wrong if the game hadn't pitched me picking between right and wrong. Take away that choice and the rest of the game, with it's weird keyboard controls and typical RPG writing, and I lost interest in playing. It was a bad first impression and with limited time for gaming, this game goes to the trash heap.
At first, this game was excellent. Lots of lore (I guess it's based on some existing IP), interesting characters with different perspectives and arcs, a very pretty art style and music, and a simple but old-school JRPG combat system. However, it's like a steak at a really fancy restaurant, where the atmosphere is nice and the food looks fantastic, but the steak is this teeny, tiny little morsel in the middle of a foot-wide plate. This game is about 6 hours long, assuming you fight most enemies you come across instead of running or avoiding the fight entirely. The interesting characters I mentioned have little conflict besides fighting baddies, their character arcs are very simple and basically told to you right in their character bios at the game's start, and the game's story is mostly fluff. No, really, the story itself is nothing more than window dressing for some court intrigue, which would be fine except it robs it of any real meaning. The main plot is just here bad guy, fight bad guy. The REAL plot that this lends itself to amounts to a few lines of dialogue and the ending scene. Which is a downer of a scene, honestly, that leaves you with questions and feeling unfulfilled. I almost would have prefered a simple story of good triumphs over evil instead of setting up greater conflict that we don't get to see because the credits roll. Also, even within the short story, there are some meaningless chapters. We find a heretic evil guy...who is never seen again. Then there's this other traitor/criminal situation that...just gets resolved peacefully and never leads anywhere. To be frank, this is like Game of Thrones if it was 3 episodes long; by the time you even learned everyone's name, it's over. All that potential is just wasted. It would take ten of these to equal one solid game like, say, Suikoden II, a game that clearly inspired this one. One last story point; you have to pick a main character to play as. This character will always be in the combat party, gets a short intro scene in the beginning (and a paralled outro at the end), and has a few unique character interaction scenes. That's it, that's the only difference. They expect you to play this game 6 times to see the whole one extra hour, if that, of different scenes and dialogue that give just a smattering of insight and background over what we see in the main game anyway.
As for gameplay, for the curious, it's pretty basic and easy. My only problem with it is the relative worth of some characters over other; despite having the same party for the entire game, you can only fight with 3 of them at once. Of course many classic JRPGs did this, but it not only feels arbitrary in this game, but it makes some characters terrible, characters who are great at inflicing status effects or using multi-enemy attacks that simply lose out because it's easier and more reliable to just pound your foes in the head. With a full party of six fighting larger enemy groups, however, these others could have lent valuable support and allowed for more strategy. As it is, they just slow you down. Furthermore, every character only gets 6 total skill slots out of 11 skills. Again, why even bother? Why not let me have all of those skills and thus a more varied arsenal? My healer gets one attack move, but I never use it because it would take up slots I need for healing moves, kinda defeating the point of using her. If you're only going to give me a handful of characters and a handful of moves, why aribtrarily cut me back just a little bit more? It just seems like a lazy way to add some depth and replayability at the cost of fun, just like with the main character scenes I mentioned above being blocked off for further playthroughs.
This review feels longer than the game. Basically, the setting, setup and execution are great, the plot and sub-plots are questionable, the design choices are lazy, and the whole experience is wrapped up in an afternoon with a rather depressing and lousy ending of a bow. This could be the opening chapter to a fantastic AAA title published by Tri-Ace, it really could, but as it stands, it's disappointing and shallow and feels like it goes nowhere. There's just not enough meat here, not enough to really develop the themes and explore the moral grey-areas the game focuses on, it needed depth, it's plots needed payoffs, it needed time to cook instead of just shoving it's lesson in your face whenever it had one. I'm sorry, as much as I want to applaud the indie devs for what they did manage to get right here, I can't in good faith recommend this game to anyone, even fans of the genre who, like me, are hankering for the kind of RPGs we had in the SNES era through the PS2 years.
"Celestian Tales: Old North" นับได้เป็นเกมเล็ก ๆ ที่ดีอีกหนึ่งเกมที่คุณอาจจะได้เผลอทำหลุดรอดออกจากเรดาห์ไป แน่นอนว่าตัวเกมไม่ได้ยอดเยี่ยมมากมายในระดับห้ามพลาด แต่ก็นับได้เป็นเกมแนว JRPG (ที่ไม่ได้มาจากญี่ปุ่น) อีกเกมหนึ่งที่มีเนื้อหาดีและมีรูปแบบการเล่นที่น่าสนใจ
Old North ก็คือภาคแรกของไตรภาค Celestian Tales ที่จะบอกเล่าเรื่องราวของเหล่าอัศวินฝึกหัดทั้ง 6 คนผู้สุดแสนจะธรรมดา (ถ้าไม่นับรวมเรื่องที่ว่าหนึ่งในนั้นเป็นเอลฟ์สาวสุดโมเอ้) ที่ไม่มีพลังพิเศษใด ๆ ซึ่งมีมุมมองในการใช้ชีวิตและความเชื่อที่แตกต่างกัน ทว่าต้องมาร่วมหัวจมท้ายอยู่ด้วยกันในขณะที่อาณาจักรของพวกเขาตกอยู่ในภาวะสงคราม ออกจะจริงที่ว่าตัวเอกทั้ง 6 ของเรานั้นไม่ใช่เหล่าผู้กล้าที่มีบทบาทสำคัญในสงคราม ทว่าจุดเด่นของเกมนั้นก็คือเหตุการณ์และบทสนทนาที่เกิดจากมุมมองความคิดที่แตกต่างของเหล่าตัวละคร มันไม่ใช่บทสนทนาในเชิงปรัชญา เป็นบทสนทนาที่เรามองเห็นถึงตัวเลือกที่ผิดและถูกแต่ชัดเจน กระนั้นปฏิกิริยาที่ตัวละครได้แสดงออกนั้นมักที่จะทำให้เราอดที่จะหยุดคิดเสียมิได้ เพราะเหตุนี้ Old North จึงนับได้เป็นหนึ่งในเกมที่มีเนื้อหาและบทสนทนาที่น่าสนใจอยู่ไม่น้อยเกมหนึ่งและเหมาะอย่างยิ่งสำหรับชาวเกมเมอร์ผู้กำลังมองหาเกมแนว JRPG ที่มีเนื้อหาดี ๆ ที่เรียบง่ายและเข้าใจไม่ยาก
สำหรับรูปแบบการเล่นนั้น Old North แทบจะไม่ต่างไปจาก JRPG แบบผลัดกันตีโดยทั่วไป แต่จุดที่น่าสนใจก็คือระบบพัฒนาการตัวละครที่คุณสามารถปรับแต่ง Skills เพื่อใช้ในสถานการณ์ต่าง ๆ และตัวละครทั้ง 6 คนก็มีจุดเด่นและจุดด้อยที่มีต่างกันอย่างชัดเจน ในความยากระดับสูงของเกม คุณจำเป็นที่จะต้องใช้ทักษะในการวางแผนอยู่ไม่น้อยเพื่อเอาชนะ น่าเสียดายที่ตัวเกมนั้นสั้นไปอยู่สักนิด ยังไม่ทันจะได้สนุกกับเกมก็จบเสียแล้ว แอบหวังอยู่ว่าในตอนที่ 2 และ 3 ของเกมที่จะมาถึงในไม่ช้าก็เร็วจะเปิดโอกาสให้เราได้เล่นกันยาว ๆ กว่านี้อีกสักหน่อยนะ
แต่ข้อเสียของเกมนั้นก็คงจะหนีไม่พ้นไปจากการแสดงผลแบบ 2D ผมค่อนข้างที่จะโอเคกับงานเขียนมือของเกมและฉากของเกมก็ออกแบบมาได้อย่างสะอาดเรียบร้อยดี แต่สิ่งที่น่าติก็คือส่วนของอนิเมชั่นเปิดตอนและฉากที่แบนมาก ๆ จนทำให้ยากจริง ๆ จะบอกว่าตรงไหนคือทางเข้า หรือตรงไหนคือกำแพง ถ้ามีแสงเงาสักนิดช่วยเพิ่มมิติให้แก่ฉากหลังน่าจะดีขึ้นกว่านี้อีกมาก
โดยรวมแล้ว Celesitan Tales: Old North นับได้เป็น JRPG ในราคาเบา ๆ อีกเกมหนึ่งที่มีเนื้อหาดีน่าสนใจ ถ้าคุณไม่ติดปัญหาเกี่ยวกับการแสดงผลแบบ 2D ที่ให้อารมณ์แบบเก่า ๆ และกำแพงภาษา ผมก็อยากแนะนำให้คุณนั้นได้ลองครับ
7 / 10
+/- เนื้อหาของเกมออกจะเรื่อย ๆ เนือย ๆ ไปสักนิด แต่ก็มีบทสนทนาอันเกิดจากมุมมองที่ขัดแย้งกันระหว่างตัวละครที่น่าสนใจ
+ ระบบต่อสู้แบบ JRPG ผลัดกันตีที่มีลูกเล่นน่าสนใจ
+ งานภาพสวยงามที่เข้ากับธีมของเกมเป็นอย่างดี
- เกมออกจะสั้นไปอยู่ไม่น้อย อาจจะมีแยก Route แต่ก็แตกต่างกันเพียงแค่เหตุการณ์ในฉากหลังแค่บางจุด
- อนิเมชั่นช่วงเปิดตอนที่แลดูไม่เข้าท่าเอาเสียเลย (ในความเห็นของผม)
An amazing story line. If you are into Suikoden, this will remind you a little of it and it will keep you coming for more. The map is too cartoonish, however, the level maps are designed perfectly to give the player a great feel for the country they are traveling in. The level or towns that you visit are interesting and each one has its own unique background. Some of the main characters are interesting. The guy with the Axe is just completely stupid. At first glance he looks like the quiet type; instead he's just stupid and ignorant. I would have liked a more Vincent FFVII style character, or better yet Clive from Suikoden. The entire character artwork is flawless and I commend this team for their effort and time they used creating it. Great job guys!
Could be very enjoyable game... but it isn't.
This game has great character art, careful character motivations, detailed world lore. With that you have to have at least a good story, even if gameplay is not that exciting? Nah, not there.
Characters adher to their roles, yes... but those are boring roles, with no attempts to go out of cliche 'obedient squire with personal problems' bounds. They don't interact with each other, they don't try to push personal agendas, they don't do anything heroic or controversial on their own, just go down the stream. Having a choice of protagonist just locks away other squire's points of view and agenda, and makes them bland companions. A pity; with more dialogues and cut-scenes game might be more fleshed-out. And actually that was a major hit for me; as I bought a game expecting good character design, and a game centered around a party of comrades, but instead I've got no sense of working team.
'Reserve' system in combat also adds to bland companions. Three person fighting, three not fighting. There is no incentive to ever switch you main party. And so, you don't become acquainted with your teammates on battlefield as well as in interactions (and this synergy in RPGs usually adds A LOT to player's care of party members!)
Main quest is short and uneventful; you embark expecting some exciting journey, but as you arrive where you've been told, and again, and again, you begin to suspect that's all of the game. And it really is; nothing of importance happen, outside of some plot events near the end - and none of them are your doing anyway. And no sidequests. And no choices!!! You have, like, two minor choices toward the end, and that's it!
Combat is easy and strightforward. Even if you choose to go to explore some woods, there is little of interest to explore, and fighting monsters is excessive - grinding and finding loot is not required to suceed in battles.
The game has a very good idea and potential, but is very barebone for what it tries to accomplish. Oh, and this is the first chapter (of three?). Maybe later ones would be better.
I really enjoyed the game. I am not a JRPG fan (although after this one I may just as well become a fan), but I was attracted by the art and the overall presentation of the game. I went in with a clean slate, I didn't follow the game's develpment or anything.
There is a feel of a large world with an incredible sense of immersion. I read on forums that the game will continue, which is great, because Old North pretty much ended on a cliffhanger. Anybody knows when the next part is going to come out? I am a loyal fan now. :D
So, I decided to do an early-on review, as I've noticed most of the reviewers mentioned playing through all of the routes for the best overall opinion of the game. I'd like to share my thoughts as of 2.5 hours in.
Let me start by saying that I got this game and the DLC as part of a Humble Bundle, so I honestly did not spend very much money on this title.
I'm in chapter 3, around level 12, Isaac's route. You pick a character right away, based on a brief summary of their background. I chose him because that's my favorite name, and his story seemed like the best place to start for the broadest perspective of the game's caste system and such. Simple enough.
--Graphics (9/10) As far as graphics go, the backgrounds are really beautifully done watercolor landscapes. The sprites are pretty detailed, and the character dialogue portraits (and party menu portraits) are nicely done. Appearance-wise, I have no complaints, though sometimes bridges look a little wonky--but that's really not important, and doesn't take away from the game.
--Battles (8/10) The battles are classic turn-based with the usual attack, defend, skill, and run options. You have six characters, though only three are active in battle. Choosing a party was a little difficult for me, basing it on who I liked as a character coupled with who would be most useful. However, several characters have some sort of healing ability early on, so it's somewhat flexible (even though one character is obviously the healer).
You're not really given any sort of tutorial because it's all pretty standard, but I kind of had to figure out after a few battles that attacking (I'm not sure if it's just that or any battle action) raises your STA, which is how you use skills. So, basically, if you want to use a skill that requires 4 STA, and you start the battle with 3/max, you'll need to attack regularly once first. This is an interesting take on MP/TP/Mana/Magic consumption, I suppose. It's not really tedious, anyway.
Lastly, grinding is turning out to be a necessity. I used to be happy to spend hours grinding in RPGs, though I'm a little less enthusiastic about it now when my gaming time is so limited due to a full-time job and two other part-time jobs. Still, it's really not a big deal, nor a complaint. I just noticed that I went from one area, fighting boars and stuff and doing so quite quickly, to getting hit for like 75% of my health five minutes later in the next area. So, I guess just be aware that you shouldn't skip over fights like you might be inclined to. (The characters actually have a conversation about that.)
--Story (7/10 so far) The characters are pretty diverse and seem interesting enough, but I don't really know enough about the story to give it a fair rating at this point. I like where things are going. Conversations can get a little wordy, but as a fan of visual novels, that doesn't bother me unless it comes out of nowhere and just seems like a needlessly lengthy conversation. There really is no great prophecy or incoming disaster here, but it does explore what it means to be human and humane. The game focuses more on morality than myths and magic. Overall, the plot has been intriguing enough.
-- Misc.: Just before settling in to write this, I looked into the money situation. At this point, I had collected a whopping 0 coins/gold/whatever L-word they use in this game. But, I had a lot of loot from battles. I went back to town and visited a shop, and just sold all of it. It put me at around 12k, and scored me an achievement. Then, I went to the next shop over and saw that purchasing weapons requires a base weapon as well as a few items of loot. I had figured the loot would be used this way, but I sold it anyway because I plan to do some grinding. Nothing introduces you to the money/loot/upgrade situation, but now you know.
Anyway, I'm having a good time with this game so far, so I'd recommend it if you're considering it.
Not a bad game. I'd recommend it, but since it has many flaws, I'd suggest to get it when it's on sale.
'Celestial Tales: Old North' plays like most 2D JRPGs - you have a party of heroes, you equip them, level them up, crawl through dungeons, and fight enemies. It's all standard stuff, but it is executed rather well. There is a great deal of polish and attention to detail given in the game.
The game starts off with you getting to choose one of 6 main protagonists. This character will be your party leader, even though you'll get to have all the others in your team too. What's different though is that you don't get to see the cutscenes that dwell on the backstory of the other characters, but all the scenes regarding the main plot seem to be the same regardless of who you choose. This can be both good and bad. Good, because it adds some degree of replayability. Bad, because it does not seem worth replaying the game 6 times just to witness a few cutscenes that get omitted for other characters, and most players wouldn't want to replay a game 6 times.
I have mixed feelings about the story. It's not bad, but it doesn't stand out much either. The setting is a pretty generic fantasy with kings, castles, magical weapons, and a looming threat to the world which you have to defeat. The characters are reasonably interesting, and the scenes involving their conversations are fun to watch. The story is a little slow at the start, but that's understandable for an RPG. However, there were some filler scenes and sections in the game that felt unneeded. For example, an entire chapter 5 (Detour) served no purpose whatsoever as it didn't further the plot at all. You can remove it altogether and it will make no difference to the plot and its events. This leads me to another minor annoyance. A lot of NPCs and minor characters were vastly underdeveloped and a lot of their story arcs felt deficient.
Despite that the game promises a lot of choice and consequence, there's very little of it here. So if this is the aspect you're mostly after, you'd be disappointed. In my entire playthrough, I was only given about a couple of choices, and that's it.
The combat was fun. It's your typical turn-based combat that's common to JRPGs. The strategic aspect was good as there's plenty of gear to customize the bonuses on your characters, and most of the skills they learn are pretty useful in the right situations. Having said that, most of the game felt like a cakewalk to me, right up until the final boss, which was a sudden and frustrating difficulty spike. Although the final boss is not exactly unfair, the fact it's so much harder than the rest of the game is very annoying, and it greatly restricts you to what sort of strategies you could use.
To elaborate: [spoiler]I had to constantly use Power Surge skill as Lucienne to keep nullifying his stamina, or else if he gained enough stamina, he'd start unleashing Omnislash and other deadly party-wide attacks that can destroy you in 2 turns. In addition to all that, he loves to heal himself for a whooping 2000+ HP every now and again. For comparison, a single attack against him would deal around 100-500 damage, and you have to spend most of your turns defending in order to regain stamina quicker, so having him restore 2000+ HP sets you back by a lot. The whole fight just felt like a grind as I was forced to utilise the same strategy on repeat. [/spoiler]
The game's visuals and art are pretty great. The music is all right and is what you'd normally expect in fantasy RPGs, but I've heard much better soundtracks in other games personally.
I've not played the DLC, but I might consider getting it at a later time. Overall, don't expect anything overly epic or unique, but if you want a nice, fun fantasy JRPG with some likeable protagonists, then the game is well worth picking up. From what I read on the forums, this is meant to be the first part of a trilogy, so hopefully the devs will step it up a bit in the next part.
Story was promising but uneven and needs future instalments to feel complete. Liked most of the characters.
Visuals were pretty good.
Gameplay was engaging but once you have a strong lineup there isn't enough enemy variation to force you to change it, so I ended up rolling with the same characters for two thirds of the game.
This game is sympathic.
PROS : The graphism are good, music is nice, gameplay is smooth, and scenario well written.
I find the game too easy but i had fun playing it.
CONS The story is short, 5- 6 hours. There are no side quest and the whole game is straightforward. It lacks of depth, and the game feels like all the intented features are not implemented.
Conclusion 7/ 10. I would recommend it since the game is short. I think it s a good side game, to play before going to bed or early in the morning by small session.
Всем доброго времени суток. Только что закончил проходить Celestian Tales и пока ощущения еще свежи, решил написать пару строк об этой игре.
Начну издалека - я большой ценитель JRPG. У меня до сих пор хранятся диски с многочисленными FF еще с первой PS, картриджи с Phantasy Star(да-да еще той, которая не была недо-онлайн гринд-слэшером) и Shining Force. Я не раз проходил такие шедевры как Chrono Trigger, Suikoden, Secret of Mana. И вообще ценю JRPG выше чем ARPG(не кидайтесь тухлыми яйцами, просто японцы, на мой взгляд, умели и умеют делать хардкорные ролевые игры). И увидев данный продукт я не смог пройти мимо.
Не буду обсуждать сюжет игры, возможно лишь слегка коснусь его в своем размышлении.
[h1] Плюсы:[/h1]
1. Наверно самый весомый плюс - это не РПГ мейкер. Не то что бы все игры на нём плохи, но оскомину он уже изрядно набил.
2. Боевка - проверенная временем пошаговая система боя, здесь она конечно заметно упрощена, но всё равно приятный глазу плюс.
3. Звуковое сопровождение - тут без комментариев, саундтрек хорош.
4. Заметное сходство с серией Suikoden - в основном сюжетное. Это история ,в первую очередь, о людях, а не о борьбе со вселенским злом в лице очердного супер демона-колдуна или еще неизвестно кого. История о борьбе за свои земли и свободу и порой из-за этого приходится принимать нелегкие решения.
5. Главные персонажи - здесь их 6. Каждый по из них уникален и меет свой ярко-выраженный характер.
6. Золото - здесь его нельзя заработать убивая противников. Вы выбиваете из них ресурсы, а потом продаете и вуа-ля. Только будьте осторожны многие из ресурсов могут понадобиться и вам самим.
[h1] Минусы:[/h1]
1. Продолжительность - очень мало. То ли из за отсутствия финансов, то ли еще по каким-то причинам игра очень короткая, что нетипично для данного жанра. 6 персонажей подразумевают реиграбельность, но сюжетно это почти ни на что не влияет, кроме пролога и некоторых сцен диалогов. Так что проходить за всех можно только ради ачивок, что сомнительно. Игра вообще выглядит какой-то обрубленной, как-будто на каком-то моменте у разрабов закончились идеи.
2. Сложность - очень легко. Бои скоротечны, противники далеки от разнообразия, а по достижению максимального уровня команды боевка вообще теряет всякий смысл. Боссы, коих тут тоже мало, индивидуального подхода не требуют и проходятся обычным затыкиванием самыми сильными умениями.
3. Персонажи и сюжет - большую часть характеров, как главных героев, так и ключевых НПС так и не раскрыли. Только ты знакомишься с мерзким братом Арии и её скользким папашей и надеешься на какую-то сюжетную ветку, как они тут же исчезают из поля зрения. Встречаешь брата Камиллы (очень похожего на Джейме Ланнистера, кстати) как и он после короткого, но яркого и забавного диалога, пропадает и толком больше не появляется. И таких моментов в игре много. До конца не понятны мотивы эндеров и их одержимость музыкой. А концовка вообще вызывает больше противоречий, хотя надеялись скорее на неожиданный поворот. И опять же упомяну большое кол-во главных героев и то что сюжетно ваш выбор протагониста ни на что не влияет.
4. Иллюзия сложного морального выбора - добавлена в дань моде. Попадается в игре крайне редко, да и не всегда эти решения такие уж сложные. И как и в других играх с подобной фичей практически ни на что не влияет.
[h1] Вердикт:[/h1]
Это середнячок. Изначально хорошо продуманные персонажи, своеобразный мир со своей историей, которую нам толком не рассказали. Вообщем после прохождения остается осадок какой-то недосказанности. Только ты проникаешься персонажами, историей, начинаешь сопереживать - как тебя выкидывают на финальные титры. Немного обидно.
Игру можно купить на распродаже, но полную свою цену она не стоит. Потому-что раз нам рассказали какой-то обрубок истории, то полную стоимость платить незачем.
Слышал что разрабы планируют трилогию, будем надеяться что к следующему релизу они исправят свои ошибки.
К сожалению обзор не может быть нейтральным, поэтому поставлю палец вверх. Разрабы потрудились хорошо, но можно было и намного-намного лучше.
6/10
I can highly recommend for fans of the classic turn-based RPGs, things like Chrono Trigger and Suikoden appear to have had a good influence.
+Artwork and visuals look really good, in a hand-painted style
+6 playable characters each with their own unique skills and backstory
+Combat is fun, good UI and effects, good variety of skills
+Opening/ending scenes and songs are well done
+Episodic series gives something to look forward to
+Rebindable keys
-No map/minimap
-No voice acting
-Walk/run speeds feel too similar and a bit slow
-Limited settings/options, no mouse support
-Uncertain release timeframe for other episodes
Overall well worth the price and a great deal on sale.
It certainly looks pretty, but you should know what you're getting into.
Old North is paced like a full-length jrpg, but only has the runtime of about an 8th of one. It's billed as a narrative experience with meaningful decisions, but you never really get to see any of yours have much of a ripple effect. It's got lovely, animated combat, but not a lot of strategy to that combat beyond hit first and hit hard.
In short, Old North is a good chapter one to a franchise that might not ever continue.
I wouldn't buy this on anything short of a sale. 7$ is the upper limit for what I'd pay here, and most of that for the kinds of art assets Old North rolls out. It's a pretty game. Not Banner Saga beautiful, but nice to look at. And it's got some interesting narrative flourishes, but nothing truly shocking or ultimately satisfying. Its english translation is mostly good, with a few weird grammar hiccups, and it's paced like it was going to be a longer game but ran out of money.
You could do worse than picking this up and giving it a try, but you could also do better.
Celestian Tales: Old North was the 2015 Holiday Sale "best of" sleeper for me. I had seen this game come up on my suggested list when it first came out but didn't have the time to play through it so I held off. Boy am I glad I finally bought it. I have now played through it twice at the time of this review and will most likely play through all six times.
What makes this game replayable? A unique feature of this game is that you get to select from 1 of 6 characters to lead the party of three through the game. You get a unique character intro, at least one small perspective view of the story somewhere in the middle, and a unique ending to the character to give you more of the story from their perspective of the events going on in the world. This gives you a little more of the story for about 4-6 hours worth of work playing through the game (again).
(+)Good quick story, if that is what you are looking for.
(+)Great music track
(+)Good replayability through the leader system
(+)Unique standard RPG characters with their own weapons and abilities
(+)Pleasing graphic style and character art
(=)Standard JRPG
(=)Nothing new brought to the genre
(=)Ending leaves the player wanting more from Old North and beyond (give us a series!)
(-)Game length could be a turn off or having to replay the same story 6 times to get the whole story
(-)Level 30 cap on characters
(-)Only three levels to weapon system
(-)Limited challenge from battle system
In closing, if you are looking for a decent story with some great JRPG elements this is a game worth playing through. If some of the even or negative comments sound like something that would steer you away from the game, then this might not be the game for you. I would still encourage anyone to play Celestian Tales: Old North because it has a classic charm to it reminding me of early Final Fantasy or Suikoden games. It is not these games, but the developers have set the basics that could make this game a classic if developed further through future games.
I have been bored with this post-2000 generation of games, few are the complete package the games in the 90's were. Some have a grat story, some have great gameplay, others look beatiful, and I buy them, and try them, and soon forget. Since 2010, only 3 times I have bought a game and played it from start to finish without playing anything in between: Bastion. The Banner Saga. And now, Celestian Tales: The Old North. They show us the amazing potential of these smaller companies, how good and beatiful can something made with love be.
Old North is a traditional turn-based RPG, with leveling up, equipment customization and all these thing a RPG has. It's not long, but each of the 6 main characters (one of which must be chosen at start) has his or her own story, leading to a lot o replayability. It's a beautifully made 2D game, the soundtrack is quite good, all the characters are very well portrayed, with complex and believable personalities and the story is absolutely amazing. It looks like an interesting cross between The Banner Saga, Game of Thrones and Suikoden 2, so just buy it, you won't regret.
Reminds me of good old Suikoden games.
Simple yet delivers well.
A worthy game for at least those who appreciate good oldskool jrpgs.
+Music
+Story
- Slow run speed
- Mobs spawn every time you exit a dungeon screen
To know the whole story, you need to play the whole game with 6 different characters. I would be very interested in knowing the whole lore, but I cba to play the game through more than once.
Battles are very easy at start of the game, but get tougher towards the end.
The first of a series of games (three? I think?) CT:ON is fairly good. The story is intriguing, the characters are well-written and developed versions of typical fantasy tropes, the combat system is turn-based (which after all the action RPGs coming out lately is a nice change), and unlike most fantasy games, the party is made up of more women than men (4:2). The music is good, if a little repetitive in the field (though I think I liked every event score), and ultimately I enjoyed it.
There are a few flaws, though. For one, given that to unlock all the achievements (and likely the different story paths) you have to play the game 6 times is a little annoying, especially since it seems the deviation is really only about 5 scenes (prologue, 3 scenes within the game, epilogue). So I imagine it'll get boring fairly fast and it feels like a way to artificially add time to the game, when the game play itself could probably be finished in 5-6 hours (especially if you're like me and you spent your first playthrough running around over-leveling and making sure you do everything). Also, when you get to the epilogue, the English gets a little messy... like missing words and sentence fragments (possibly for stylistic effect that's just gone wrong). Finally, when you finally do get the world map open, it frustrated me a little to see all the areas I couldn't visit in this game.
Basically, I'll probably run through the game 2-3 more times, with the characters I liked the most, but I don't expect the kind of replay they really must have wanted with the 6 different stories.
A for effort but his game failed to deliver in a lot of ways. There were a lot of good concepts here that were just poorly executed. I'll list a few of the bigger complaints just as a heads up.
The idea to choose from different perspectives is really neat and interesting, but the actuall difference is so shallow that it hardly warrants an actual replay. The most you get for playing different characters is a few cutscenes, nothing that drastically changes the game. Maybe if I beat it with all 6 characters I would see a greater impact, but as it stands now, it isn't worth the investment.
The story had a chance to be interesting, fighting giant barbarian like creatures in an epic war, however you never actually get to do that. Your ragtag band of "squires" just run around doing meanial tasks that frankly, just feels like filler. I get that you're squires, and not exactly battle tested, but you don't do anything exciting. The boss fights are weak (and I'm just assuming the dire wolf and pig you fight are the boss fights) except for two of them, and one of them you don't even fight as the squires.
Then there is the end of the game. After about 7 hours of boring chores and vague cutscenes (which at the times I just assumed would be better explained later, but now I'm pretty sure that if you want a better understanding of them you have to replay the game as said character) there is a drastic plottwist, a boss fight (which was pretty challenging and fun) and then an abrupt end. No explanation at all, just a massive cliffhanger then the credits roll. Which is a shame because it ends right as the game gets interesting.
There are other minor cons and pros, but anything else I could say would just be parroting other reviews, and honestly a lot of them are just opinionated remarks that players could take as either or depending on what they like in a game. I just wanted to hit some major fall offs so anyone thinking about getting this game knows what they're in for. The game info is pretty accurate when it says "you are not special".
If you want a quick, linear rpg with no bells or whistles then grab it when it goes on sale. My recommended price is 5 dollars or less.
Not entirely sure where to begin. I'm extremely disappointed. I wasn't expecting anything as grand as Suikoden, but when a game promises moral choices that shape the world I don't think it's unreasonable to expect moral choices that shape the world.
I played through as Cammile. There were three moral choices. None of them had any far reaching effect on the game. I know that the devs are supposed to be putting out other parts for the game, but that's not an excuse to put out a lacklaster game in hopes that customers will stick around just to figure out what three choices MIGHT have influenced.
Plus when random interesting things did happen, you don't get any choices. Big things are happing that cause actual moral dilemma? You watch them play out. *SPOILER* I just have to say that taking a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ recipe book that's in a forgein language does not count as a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ ethical conundrum. I don't care if it's in some crazy dude's lab. I don't care if the recipes are for "evil" things (which the game didn't really explain exactly what kind of recipes were in it. They could have been foreign pastry recipes for all we know).
The art style is okay. The character portaits are nice, but the background art is meh. Near the end of the game I still got stuck in random objects. Slightly different colored ground in the middle of the layout? You probably can't walk over it. You'd be going along in a town and SURPRISE you can't actually go that way, but you thought you did because that wall that looks like it should be further back is actually right in your path. There's really not a lot of depth, and I dreaded having to go through the first town. Sprites are okay.
I didn't like the chacacters. I hated the elf. I honestly think that the devs only put her in the game so she could go "Oh my goodness! I don't understand your strange human ways! Explain this odd thing to me!", and then you get force fed history, culture, etc that every character that grew up in the game's country knew but wouldn't have any reason to spout off for the player to learn. The rest of them are flat too. Any character development that does happen does so suddenly and without proper explanation as to why they're having these changes of heart.
The war that your taking part in does have an intersting ending, but what should have been spread out across more time gets thrown at you in a span of like ten minutes, tops.
Also, soooo many unanswered questions. They introduced quite a few things to pique interest, and I stuck around despite all the things that annoyed me because I wanted to see what would happen. The story had so much promise, but it's so slap-dash and rushed and worse left unfinished that you're just left with disappointment.
And the ending? I hated it. I can not stress this enough. I hated the ending. Utter garbage, and it made it worse because I thought *maybe* I'd actually get to make a decision to effect the outcome. Nope. After everything is all said and done *then* you get to make a decision that, you guessed it, doesn't make a damn bit of difference in the game.
[b]Impression: Not bad, but get it at a discount. ~10 hours of gameplay (one playthrough) - controller is advised.[/b]
[b]About me:[/b]
I enjoy a lot of different games, singleplayer and multiplayer. I'm not the kind of person who goes out and does every quest while earning every achievement. I rarely deviate from the main quest and I don't do multiple playthroughs without a reason. I play a lot of visual novels though, and try to complete every heroine arc in those because each playthrough is almost nothing like the others.
[b]Why I bought the game:[/b]
I thought the art looked cool and the music was nice. The gameplay did not look too complicated either.
[b]Good thoughts on the game:[/b]
Celestian Tales: Old North was pretty entertaining. There are these artifacts you can find throughout your journey which attribute to a secret encounter later if you find them all. You can also find up to 3 weapons for each squire. The combat difficulty was pretty well-scaled as well. I have finished only one playthrough (Reed) and I thought the music combined with Reed's perspective turned out to be a pretty enjoyable story. It took me about 10 hours to complete, including grinding to max level and for items.
[b]Bad thoughts on the game:[/b]
There's only a couple of bad things I can think of. One was the random spazzing out of NPCs. It completely broke any sense of immersion that I had when I saw these people just freaking out everywhere. This should not make it into the final product. The other is the poor layout of the towns. When poor layout is paired with an art style that makes it hard to tell which floor belongs to what, without a map this becomes really hard to navigate. By the end I was still getting lost.
[b]Improvements that could be made:[/b]
[list]
[*] While I am fully aware that this is supposed to be a series of games, there is a lot shown and far too little I am able to access. As you play, some areas are opened up for exploration. This is not the case for [i]all[/i] areas though. There are many locations I had hoped to visit at least once because they are on the map, but none of them ever became available to me. I would like to see the ability to interact with places that I am shown, or otherwise I should not be lead to believe that I will get there in this title.
[*] I did mention earlier that I don't do every single quest, but that doesn't mean I don't enjoy the occasional side quest. There are 0 side quests in this game though, making all of the NPCs feel a little boring and a lot of the areas unused.
[*] As the story progresses, you move to various areas and some merchants follow you so that the same 3 shops are always available to you. This is fine, but for reasons I won't spoil everyone packs up and leaves at certain parts of the story. This means that if for any reason you are still in these areas (farming for items, exploring, whatever) you need to travel really far away to access any of these shops. It also becomes very annoying to have to pass through these empty areas on foot to get to the other side.
[*] I think a combat tutorial would have been nice for those who aren't accustomed to JRPGs. For anyone interested, each person has Stamina and Health. Stamina is consumed when using a skill and is replenished when attacking (+1) or defending (+2). Each turn you can either attack, use a skill, use an item (consumable items), or defend. The player's party may consist of 3 people (the character you choose +2) and the opposing party may consist of 1-6 people.
[*] I think there should be scenarios where the player's party could have more than 3 people. I will be honest - I only used Isaac, Lucienne, and Aria the entire game. I never even considered using anyone else. Because they weren't useful to me, I have no feelings for these characters.
[*] Allow custom controller mapping - and while you're at it, allow me to map things to my mouse as well. Include multiple buttons for the same action.
[*] Implement a backlog system that allows the reader to see previous dialogue. In visual novels it's as simple as scrolling up if you accidentally advance too soon.
[*] Allow the skipping of previously-seen cutscenes. That last fight was so painful because of the long scene before it.
[*] Introduce some sort of New Game+ with the above bullet. This would give some incentive to actually see the other characters' perspectives if they're going to have the same story.
[*] Remove that saving shrine. I don't see a reason for it to be there.
[/list]
That's all for now. I'm looking forward to the next installment.
Game of Thrones + Final Fantasy = Celestian Tales Old North
Un RPG old-school au tour par tour assez gentillet dans le sens où les héros ne bouffent pas la gueule aux autres. Histoire un peu intrigante, bonne OST (sauf celle du château dont j'ai horreur...), bons combats.
Seulement, la durée de vie n'est pas énorme. On torche l'histoire en environ cinq petites heures. A préciser que je n'ai jamais perdu un combat dans ce jeu.
Plusieurs histoires de personnages sont intéressantes, celles d'Aria Geraldine (ma préférée), Lucienne Leroux et Reynard de la Forêt, qui plus est, était toujours mes trois persos dans les combats. Les autres, Isaac et Cammile (oui oui orthographié de cette façon hélas), pas très emballantes. Et Yli, vraiment inutile.
Un petit peu bisounours par moments, mais rien de bien méchant.
Great game with a solid story, but must be said. A medium between Yes/No is needed here.
Too Short, Too easy & felt like a lot wasn't touched on.
That being said, There were a lot of hints to indicate they are not done yet. couldn't access most so many places on the outer world map, & not to mention a constant reference to this 'outer realm'
Finish up guys, you ain't done yet.
Never written a review before so bear with me.
I grew up on strategy games and JRPGS, and I really wanted to like this game. And for what it costs, it's not that bad. But I can't recommend it, at least not until they fix some glaring issues.
I'll start with the pros.
1 ) The character art and sprites are very well done.
2 ) I liked the stamina mechanic, and the inclusion of aggro into an otherwise old fashioned combat system.
3 ) The music is what you'd expect for this kind of thing.
4 ) I liked the range of character skills, and the weapon specialization system.
5 ) I liked that combat is not random, and is avoidable.
6 ) I liked that experience applies to your entire group, not just the characters currently in your party.
And now for the cons.
1 ) The story, which is supposedly the most important part of this game, is non-sensical. Characters often behave in ways that completely contradict previous scenes. The ending is particularly bad because of this.
2 ) The story is so bad it needs multiple spots. The promised over-arching theme: war between different nations, is completely absent from the game. You instead spend the entire time fighting incredibly generic blue viking monsters called, i'm not kidding, 'World Enders'. Yay.
3 ) Many plot points are never given any background whatsoever, seemingly important characters come and go, and the main villain looks likes he belongs in a TMNT episode.
4 ) The grammar is terrible. FF Tactics got a lot of flack for poorly translated prose back in the day, so much so that when they re-released it on the PSP they rewrote it (and it was good). This game makes FFT's prose look like shakespeare. I understand that the writers of this game probably don't speak english as a first language, and that's fine, but they could at least hire a copy editor or something. Spelling mistakes are rampant, the way characters talk to each other reads like bad fan-fiction, and there is literally no reason to ever talk to an npc.
5 ) As others have mentioned, the game environment is not done well. The background sprites, especially in cities, completely lack depth, making it very difficult to move around at times. A few shadows here and there is all it would have taken to fix this.
6 ) Travelling it tedious. Why not just have a fast-travel option to revisit places you've already been? Literally no one likes to run through multiple zones they've already gone through just to get to one place.
7 ) The game's trailer promises that your decisions have weight, but you only get to make a decision 2-3 times throughout the entire game, with no discernible difference in outcome.
8 ) The ability to pick a 'main' to start the game out with is a neat idea but not executed well enough. The prologue chapter is too short, and the minor differences past that do not warrant replaying the game.
9 ) Despite the fact that I said I liked the combat system, you often rarely need to use the full extent of your abilities. Enemies don't do much, there isn't a wide variety of them, and most of the time you can get by just spamming attack until everything dies.
10 ) On that note, the difficulty often varies wildly, spiking without warning. One minute you're fine, the next common mobs can 2 shot you. You rarely ever see mobs with new abilities or buffs, they just all of a sudden have a ♥♥♥♥ ton more life and hit a lot harder, which just makes the increased difficulty annoying and not necessarily challenging.
11 ) Because of the lack of variety in combat, there's never a reason to switch out your party members, other than to perhaps alleviate your boredom for a few minutes. I never even used 2 of my characters, and I don't see why I'd ever want to.
12 ) Opening sequence animation is pretty cheap, but I guess that's not really a big deal considering the game is also cheap.
13 ) Who closes their eyes when they're happy? What the hell is that? Can you stop? Jesus, maybe this kawaii ♥♥♥♥ isn't for rme.
14 ) Chapter 5 is a complete waste of time, nothing important or of interest happens, and it feels like it was just included to pad out the play time. You could completley cut it and I don't think anyone would notice.
I might be coming off as too harsh, but tough love and all that. I wanted to like this game. I am aware that this is supposedly part 1 of a trilogy, so the issues can be addressed . But this is steam, so there's no reason why they can't release a patch to address the issues that have been reported with this game, as it currently is, especially if they want people to actually purchase parts 2 and 3.
The simplest fixes that would go the furthest, at least for me, would be to:
1 ) Smooth out the difficulty (or even just scale enemy difficulty to your level)
2 ) Fix the stilted english, even if it means re-writing the entire damn game. At the very least, fix the typos and mistakes.
3 ) Add some depth to the most problematic environments (cities).
4 ) Fast travel
Anyway, if all you're expecting is a generic, mediocre rpg, you'll be fine. I have certainly played worse rpgs on steam that have gotten higher ratings. But if you're looking for something on the level of say, suikoden, don't waste your time.
I absolutely LOVE this style of game, so this may be a little bit baised. The soundtrack was great and the gameplay was pretty easy to figure out, so no problems there. The characters are all engaging and unique and I do actually feel like I can play through it again with a different character (I played Cammile first) and be able to make some different choices. I played on and off for a couple days and today I finally finished it but, it left me wanting more. I'm glad it is looking like it is part of a trilogy. I will definitely be purchasing the rest when they come out. :) A rock solid game in my opinion.
A pretty cool indie JRPG. I really like the characters and the conflicting personalities, and Yli is super cute and funny :) The battle systems are not bad etc, and the story is quite engaging as well. I'm only a couple of hours in and I've heard the game is quite short - that being said it's a three part story and the second part will be released sometime in the future. There's also alot of reading dialogue, but I enjoy that so all good.
The only thing that I was disapointed in was there was alot of potential for story to be taken further in side-quests based on characters you meet telling you about themselves and what is unresolved in their life. EG A young boy has never left
his village and wants to so he can find his father, but just when you think "Ok this is an interesting story moment" he
basically shrugs his shoulders and says "Maybe I will one day" and thats it? From what I have heard of the games length
it can't be revisited and expanded on because the game is too short to do this and alot of other story side-quests that
could have been really interesting and added more to the feel and depth of the game. Pity. Hope it's revisited in the later
installments.
To be honest the game doesn't rival old JRPGs and is not a patch on Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy 3, Earthbound, Phantasy Star IV etc
but if you like classic JRPGs that are new, you could do a lot worse. I also think it's still on sale, but that might have past
now.
I will update this review when I finish it and also later when the other two episodes are released.
Jogabilidade muito boa, mas depois de terminar o jogo passa um sentimento de estar faltando muita coisa, poderia haver mais historia mais jogo em si.
Um pouco desapontado pois minhas espectativas eram muito altas, mas ainda assim recomendo.
Edit: Not sure why it still says only 0.5 houts when I've put in 8 or 9
It's not a bad game, but for the price you really aren't getting your money's worth. It only takes about 6 or 7 hours to beat the game and the only thing good in it is the story. Overall, the game feels extremely incomplete and the first video is mostly a lie.
Your decisions do not change the story, only a tiny bit of side dialogue...
"A Combat System without random encounters and level grinds", while it is true no encounters are random, the experience system is so generous that you can reach max level halfway through the game.
"...a refreshing take on the classic turn-based Japanese style RPG..." and if by refreshing you mean lackluster with boring combat and stale mechanics, then yes it is refreshingly awful...
"A Game that seeks to redefine the classic RPG", but it really doesn't seek anything since it tries to do nothing new...
Who made those statements?
Pros:
- Virtually no learning curve
- The Story and backstory is well fleshed out, until the end...
Cons:
- Kinda buggy at times (Sometimes pressing 'A' to fast through cut scenes causes them to hang permanently)
- Very little character customization
- Very few items and equipment
- WAY to short for even $9.74
Overall, put this one on your wishlist and wait until they release more content (which I REALLY hope they do) and then get it if you are really really bored. As of this review, the cost is extremely unjustifiable for what you get since it has no replay value.
It's with a great grief that will not recommend this game. i will establish my opinion.
First, i would say that this game deserves a neutral review, not negative and not positive. I'm probably doing a negative review because the game really frustrated my expectations.
The combat is too simple and unexciting...
The choice of choosing a character is probably a mistake, it would be better to play with all of then in the same game. I say this because there is no point in replaying the game...
The bigger issue for me was the story, i felt it was kind weak and really a bad cliche, i dont mean that a cliche can't be good, but it need to better written and make more sense. I was progressing to see if the game would show me something, but nothing happened.....i think they need to hire a good writer, they have something nice, but badly done.
The good thing are the graphics, they are very nice to see. The game has e few bugs but nothing that can stop you.
The battle system is very nice, the skills and everything is good enough, but still the combat is boring and very easy to manage, it would probably be better if they made something like suikoden and let all the 6 character's together in battle, of course balance would be necessary.
The game felt too straight forward, there was no freedom and very little chance to exploration, didn't like that.
This game is only part 1, and i know more will come, but from what i just saw, IDK if i'm going to jump in...
I'm very disappointed....
Celestian Tales ist in etwa das was jedes RPG Maker Spiel gerne sein möchte. Besonders löblich sind die Origins. Man wählt einen der sechs Knappen die gemeinsam das Rittertum erwerben wollen und spielt zu Beginn dessen Prolog. Das gibt es in extrem wenigen Rollenspielen.
Auch im späteren Verlauf gibt es 5 Szenen die bei höchstens zwei Charakteren gleich sind, weil sie miteinander interagieren. Jeder Charakter hat seine eigene Familie oder Bekanntschaften und macht eine Entwicklung durch.
Natürlich ist der Großteil des Spiels extrem lineal und schon beim zweiten Durchlauf klickt man sich durch den Großteil der bekannten Dialoge einfach durch und bestreitet die immer gleichen rundenbasierten Kämpfe. Ob man sich dies wirklich 6 Mal rein ziehen will um alles zu erleben wage ich eher zu bezweifeln, da ein Durchgang immerhin 10 Stunden dauert.
Nach zwei Durchgängen und über 20 Spielstunden kann ich auf jeden Fall sagen das ich dieses Spiel extrem schätze. Die Charaktere und ihre mittelalterliche Welt mit leichten Fantasy Elementen sind wirklich sehr gelungen. Story und Schicksalsschläge der Charaktere, sowie ihre absolut herrliche Gruppendynamik haben mich wirklich in ihren Bann gezogen. Was will ein Rollenspieler mehr? Gute Englischkenntnisse sind allerdings Pflicht.
It's a not too bad, but it's not good either. With one playthrough consists around 6 hours of gameplay, it sounds like it's a good incentive to playthrough other characters... Except the differences with playing each of them is bare minimum, just some small cutscenes. The battle does have a nice system on the paper, but they don't use the most of it. They don't go full all out for the enemies' strategy. They'll simply just use an attack with status effect or buff themselves. Nothing more.
Regarding the story, I'd lie if I say I didn't enjoy it one bit, and does present a brutal and simplistic world with simplistic people around it with us playing (lyingly) not special party members. Gritty. Still, the interaction is mostly wasted with philosophy sharing. Their time for talking weighs more than doing anything. Maybe it's thanks to our Yli that needs some short crash courses about the world's things.
I do can say the sprites are well animated and nice to look at, and at a glance, the backgrounds are pleasant to, until you know that they exist to disorient your perception of depth. Things are too flat to judge the depth for navigation.
Plus, near the release, the game is riddled with glitches. And they claim it this is a full release? I do give the developers a credit to act fast for fixing the game, but, it's like us, the first buyers, are just testers. Not much different than early access, except the content does tell you it's complete.
I can say if you play this game, it's pleasant, but it doesn't provide you anything extraordinary nor it has anything special to brag. If you don't play this game, you don't lose anything.
##This review might be long, I tend to get ahead of myself when I write, but I do go into details. You have been warned.##
##Introduction##
Alright so I've finished the game after (according to my record) 7 hours of gameplay and I've had some thoughts for a while now about the game and what I've payed for. I'm an old school RPG player with extensive experience in games so I'm hoping I can give a fair judgement of this game with this review.
Let me start by saying, that the game is actually quite short. Some people have stated that it is up to 12 hours long, but I really dont see how they could have played for that long, since I played 7 hours and collected almost everything, i think i was 4-5 items short (achievement items), I'm one of those who basically wants to collect everything in game, as long as it doesnt take forever (there is a limit!).
You could in theory complete this game in less than 5 hours and basically see everything there is to see. With ONE character, let me be clear about that, because the game do encourage you to try the game with more than 1 character.
##Trying to be make a list##
I'll just start by stating the obvious stuff:
## Graphics ##
The game has a pretty art style, atleast if you look at the trailer, but if you look in the details you'll see that it's really sloppy. A lot of the background melts into the actual gamplay, and you often walk right into walls at the start of the game. Later on, you learn what's a wall and what's not, but you still get irritated at "being slowdowned" whenever you touch a wall. I can see why, but it's really annoying. I would'nt hit that wall if it was made more clear.
Later on you realise that the "walking-graphic" and background graphic is really limited and it feels like a cheap version of a JRPG where you cant really move anywhere without hitting a wall, you want freedom, but you get none. And in that sence this game is really linear. The walls prevent you from walking anywhere than where your supposed to. But this also leads to a really slow and boring experience, because your limited to where you can walk.
You also recognise a lot of the sprites of the characters, especially if you have played ragnarok online. The Dev's have stated that they have been inspired by ragnarok online but that they have drawn all the sprites themselfs, but I simply can't see their own "touch" to these sprites, it really looks like they've just almost stolen it completely and put it in their own game.
##fighting##
Anyway, lets move on. After you have grumbled a bit about the graphics and start playing the game, you will soon start fighting. There is no real tutorial in the game, nor is there any manual that will help you out if you're wondering about stuff.
For example, after I had played for a while i was wondering what "power" does, or what "dexterity" does in this game, since I found some accessories that gave me these stats. I actually inquired about this on the forums, and the devs were fast to respond about the actual meanings of the statistics. Which is really nice, it shows that they care. But the game need this info to be in the game, in the lore book for example, not in the steam forums.
But even without that knowledge, the combat in this game is quite simple. They do try to make it hard by making some enemies hit you extremly hard. I'm not kidding here, the enemys hit you 1 time, and you are down to half health.
You can ofcourse prevent this with several abilitys, and characters, and this leads down to you selecting your preferble setup. And there is some number chrunching here, but not that much. I actually had to change my setup once.. at the end of the game. But that was it. I've even seen someone state that they didnt even use a single heal in the game, they just powered through the whole game.
## the story ##
The story if great, that is all. Experience it by yourself. I'm not going to spoil, there is enough of that in the forums.
## other stuff ##
So alright, I think I've covered most of the stuff, but here is a few things that annoys me.
## Rant to devs ##
TIMESINKS, im not kidding. I sometimes get the feeling that the developers in this game put in timesinks in this game just to make it longer. Just so they could say that the game was 7 hours long, instead of 5. These timesinks are so blatantly obvious it makes me so angry. While i was playing i was talking out loud that "why do you do this? It's stupid!" because it was.
As an example: You get a chapter in the game where you're mission is to go to a place and investigate a persons home. You have to walk first to the person who gives you the quest, then through the whole city (as stated earlier, you have no freedom, you can only walk on certain paths, so walking through the whole city takes atleast 1,5 min), walk through a forest of enemys, and once u get to that house you get some boring conversations about nothing, and then you have to walk all the way back.
You do not do this only once, you do this atleast 4 more times in the game if not more, but in other circumstances. It's really obvious, and its really annoying. Do not do that again in you're games, its stupid and obvious and really takes away all feeling. Atleast, atleast put an event when you finally reach the place, not just conversation where you have to walk up to the person and talk and they say something, and say the same thing when u click again. At least put an effort and make an event or boss fight, or bandits, or.. whatever! Don't be so lazy, that you dont even put anything there, but the "idea" that this is a good time to visit other places (without hinting about it). You walked all the way there, to do what?
urrrgh. Anyway. This game is what you pay for. It would probably do better as a novel than a game in my honest opinion, cause the writing is alright. The game, no not so much.
Follow me and find more curator recommends, do not buys, and informal reviews like this one at [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/36485731-I-Am-A-Simple]I am a simple ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)[/url]
I have have played through 1 character route and portions of two others before making this review. Celestian Tales is A good solid game. It is not really breaking any new ground or A new timeless classic in the genre, at least so far as 1 part of 3 episode game. Celestial Tales has an interesting story, and most of the cast is likeable (I however want to punt Aria off of A cliff). The music suits the game, but could benifit from a few more tunes for extra variety. The combat system is decent but you won't have to do little more then button mash attack for the 1st few hours . I can see this game getting A lot of negative reviews because of its linearity. You can't really make any decsion that can impact the story for this episode, The few choices that you do make look like they will influence the way the story for the protagonist will develop in the next episode. I think if the devs would have been more open about this then there would be less of the bitterness that I have seen in some of the negative reviews. Others will have issue with ending. I think it does an adequte job of setting up episode 2. I know I personally want to see what happens after it.
My pros and cons
pros
*Intersting story, while it still has some tropes, it does not include most of the worst routinely seen in JRPGS
*Good Soundtrack
* Simple battle system, but offers depth with character specific abilities
* Nice art direction and sprites are fairly animated for an Indie game
cons
*The mobs have more hp then I'd like to chew through, which causes the battles to drag.
*Very linear. Only have a few choices this episode, and those are near the end of the game
* Short game lengh
* Not really much difference in the characters besides prologue and choices near the end of the game.
First of all, a disclaimer for those who (like me) didn't read all the informations on the game's store page.
This game is THE FIRST INSTALLMENT OF A TRILOGY. Unfortunately I think it's not stated well enough on the starting page, as I bought the game without knowing it. Further on why this information is crucial.
This game is a traditional RPG with a nice and well orchestrated story line and a good soundtrack. I think that the developers did a nice job with the game overall and for that I recommend it, however there are many pro and cons in this game that made the overall judgement of the game not easy to reach. To convey why I felt a little torn about the positive judgement I gave to the game in the end, I'll listen each pro and its relative con one after another.
Story
PRO
-Heavy store line, the devs were quite transparent with their Game of Thrones inspiration yet the story has a dignity of its own. On the other hand, there are some recurring tropes, and if you don't like the GoT setting, well, this would make the game quite less enjoyable for you. Also, during the game you will have a couple occasion when you will have to make important decision regarding the story and the setting...
CON
...but it won't matter, since the game is a trilogy and as stated from the Devs in the game discussion those decision will only come to play in the two future installment of the series. As you can expect, the game will also have some loose ends and an ending that closes the chapter but leaves the story open for the future installment. Some people might be quite discouraged from it.
Combat
PRO
-The Combat System is interesting, and altough it might look simple at a first glance, it is quite rewarding to learn and master, with a few sore notes regarding some whacky scalings and mechanics.
You will control a party of 3 and will be free to change composition out of combat.
Characters have a resource called Stamina that ranges from 0-8, attacking restores 1 stamina while defending restores 2, skills are used consuming stamina while items are free but also don't restore stamina. Managing stamina between attack, defense and skill is how you win your battle. Stats are also quite relevant, and characters are differentiate enough in their skills, with, for example, a Crossbow wielder that is effective against high armor targets, a character using dagger that is efficient against humanoid targets, and so on.
CON
What I previously stated about the combat system is true, but for the most part of the game the battle are so easy that you can just spam attack and occasionally heal and still get through the game. Things get a little more heated up during boss fights and the last 2 chapters of the game, where they actually spike insanely, but overall I lost a grand total of 1 time during 2 playthroughs. And the main reason because I lost, was because I didn't expect for enemies to spike that hard between chapters.
Art
PRO
The style reminds me of Final Fantasy Tactics, and the OST is very well done, characters portraits and art is well made and even their sprites are quite "cute" (considering the 16 bit style).
I already covered the OST but I have to add that the developer placed care in tieing the key moments of the narration with a fitting track.
CON
Certain aspects of the game show how the developer had to make tough choices with the little budgets they had.
While the character art is really well done, other things like the overworld map, or how town and indoors are made look really quaint and poorly executed. I can't blame them since they game is quite cheap, but I expected something more polished.
Replayability
PRO
The 6 characters are all well designed, and they have an unique prologue chapter each.
They also have some unique cutscenes where they have to make certain decisions, and paired with how you can play different character compositions it adds to replayability
Also, save games will be carried over to the next game.
CON
As for the story, their unique decision don't affect the game that you buy now, but the later installment.
Is something that quite bugs me but that I can come to term with.
Overall, I confirm my positive review, as Celestian Tales: Old North is indeed a solid game but with a few caveats: I understand that the game is cheap and that it's just the first chapter, but I really hope that the next game will straighten up some of the problems that the first chapter had.
I don't expect them to change the whole game world and upgrade all the arts, but some things like the issues with enemy scalings during chapters could be fixed with a little number tweaking.
I also expect that the decisions we took during this chapter will have some implication during the lategame and won't just alter a cutscene, but I'm not sure if they will able to deliver that with the budget they had.
And, lastly, it has to evolve the game: If the next 2 chapter will make me feel like they fragmented the game to sell each chapter like it was an adventure game like Deponia, or a Telltale game, I'm not sure if my judgement will stay the same, as then I will have to consider it as a single game that costs as the sum of its parts.
TL;DR= Positive review, but they have to deliver with the next 2 games as it's a story-driven game that is part of a trilogy
This review is written on the basis of one playthrough+some more
This game looked really promising to me on the store page, especially since i've been in the mood for a jrpg for a while now.
Sadly i wouldnt recommend this game.
Here's why:
While the start of the game is really strong and got me into the setting and the world fine the farther i got into the game the more.. incomplete it felt. There's quite a few loose ends storywise and the climax is a huge wtf moment and even after the final boss theres no resolving at all. In addition there is way less moral choice in this game than i've imagined. it boiled down to 3 with 2 options.
Now some general likes and dislikes:
Likes:
[list][*]Gorgeous Sprites
[*]Lovely Artstyle
[*]A solid Combat System
[/list]
Dislikes:
[list][*]Sometimes the world seems badly put together with textures not transitioning well from one to another (Castle Walls in Starting town, Indoors in general)
[*]Almost no guidance in terms of where to go especially when the game tells you to go to the village in the west and has you leave through the right side of town and then travel northeast.
[/list]
The length of the game is fine for this price point i feel. My Savegame just before the final boss clocks in at 5:06 hours. Given how little deviation there is even with having 6 characters to choose from i dont see much replay value.
For some points on what buggered me loose end wise heres my opinion in a spoiler block:
[spoiler] [list][*]Quite early you enter a city where one of the characters asks you not to go into because you yould meet their father. this is never adressed again and remains unresolved. You're never able to enter.
[*] One Area of the starting city is blocked from the start and cannot be entered the whole game
[*]The creator of one of the bosses escapes (Mad scientist trope type btw) This is never adressed again
[*]One Mentor type character is exiled which is fine but its never brought up again afterwards.
[*]The ♥♥♥♥ with that ending o_o[/list][/spoiler]
This game is full of loose ends and could've gone so much farther.
If such storyholes bother you like they do me do not get this game. It provides little to no closure on anything.
If you want a solid JRPG with enjoyable combat and dont care much about loose ends or wtf endings feel free to get the game!
EDIT(August 15th): I was notified that i've overlooked that this is a trilogy which explains the issues of the loose ends. it does hoewever not explain the 'ending' of this first part then it still comes out of nowhere without context and even knowing its part 1 of 3 it leaves a bitter taste. I'm goign to leave my former assesment then for historical purpose but i am going to change it to this then:
I'm still not recommending buying this game YET if loose ends annoy you, rather wait for the other two parts and thus the conclusion fo the game and buy the trilogy hopefully in a bundle then. if those still not bother you then go and buy this
The story about events within a superstitious backwater theocratic nation that is closed off from the rest of the world. Magic exists but mages are persecuted as heretics, the noble caste thinks nothing of abusing the commoners as their god-given right and the ocean borders are constantly harassed by tribal frost giants called World Enders. But one day the World Enders invade, and are much more organized than they were before...
A story involving warfare intrigue more than heroics, featuring a cast of characters almost brilliantly unlikable in their single-minded superstition. You'll play this game more to watch the events of a kingdom that the rest of the world has already passed, and the intrigues that occur within it.
Pros:
Unique art style
Storyline can be played multiple times from different character perspectives
No random battles - enemies show up on the map
Quality music score
Surprisingly interesting storyline
Cons:
Level cap of 30
Combat difficulty spikes at times from easy to especially difficult, without much in-between.
Little variation across character playthroughs outside of dialogue
Linear storyline
Storyline is short - 4-6 hours per character at most if you don't bother level grinding.
Character run speed is only slightly faster than their walk speed - as such much of the story time is spent slowly jogging between points in circuitously designed town maps.
Overall I'd still recommend it if you're looking for a heavily story-driven RPG, but not so much if you're expecting to be that heroic spiky haired dude that travels around battling Satan.
As soon as I saw this game on the recommended games list I wanted to play it. I have only played through one of the six characters thus far. So please take that into consideration when reading my review. I really enjoyed this game while playing it. I loved the combat, story, art syle, and characters. (Except Aria xD) I was really into this game so I played a lot. It progresses very quickly. Surprisingly after a few hours it was over. This game is very short. I would say it has about less than 10 hours of gameplay if you are not messing around. However, they intended that you play through multiple times as different characters. I was a bit let down since there is a level cap at 30 which is very easy to obtain. There are only a few weapons and armor available. Also, the videos trailers on steam portray this game being very moral decision involved. I found that there were only very few instances where it seemed to be the case, and felt like they really didn't impact the world very drastically. In conclusion, I really enjoyed the mechanics to the game and the story line, but i felt as though this game was way too short. I reccommend this game if you like short stories with good game play. But if you are a hardcore RPG gamer that likes to have a long story, really get into maxing characters levels, gathering the best armor and weapons, having a huge world to roam and explore, and finding hidden content, this game might not be for you.
As a Suikoden fan, I just had to buy this when someone mentioned by name that there's similarity between the 2.
[h1]The GOOD and BAD[/h1]
1. Design. Similar to Suikoden, 2D models of characters and cities just brings back memory. World map is kind of the same too. I hope it's more similar to Suikoden II, but the whole thing feels more like a HD version of the first Genso Suikoden.
2. Story.
### THE UPDATED VERSION ###
I've completed both Aria and Reed. Story is definitely good, but to play through 6 times... That is to me, grinding for a complete storyline. Furthermore these 6 characters will be together almost all the time, hence you're looking at the same story over and over again.
Decision making is really ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, and mean nothing in this game. The way I see it, this is probably like an episode 1 in a Telltale game, whereby your decision will probably affect what's coming out next. Thing is, I totally lost any interest for this game after running through 2 storylines.
## OLD VERSION ###
[spoiler]So far I've just reached Chapter 4, story wise is still very linear, nothing like Suikoden. "Situations are presented to the player throughout the game that force players to face moral questions and beliefs." They make you think, not choose. Sucks for me. [b]The only decisions I've made so far is whether I want to end the day or not lmao.[/b] This is more of a story-telling game I would say, in different main character's perspective. Most likely you'll have to play through it [b]6 TIMES[/b] to find out though. So far I'm still on my first run, so I'm not sure if I'm gonna do that.[/spoiler]
3. Combat. I like the combat system. It's the typical turn-based battle. I won't explain more into this but 2 things stand out for me. I like how health is been restored after each battle, which means less after-battle-portion-eating for me. There's also aggro when you perform actions, something new in a turn-based battle. [b][UPDATE][/b] There's no grinding. If you have difficulty at later stage it's because you suck. Some characters work better together. Basically like most games you need a heal, a tank, and a DPS.
4. Music. No complains, but nothing explicitly great like Suikoden II Reminiscence. ;)
5. Gameplay. Like point 2, everything is painfully linear. Nothing else I can do besides progressing the storyline.
[h1]The Conclusion[/h1]
### THE UPDATED VERSION ###
Good story-telling. Better off going youtube to watch someone finish it than buying and playing this yourself. Give it a miss. I give it maybe a 3/10.
## OLD VERSION ###
[spoiler]All in all it's something refreshing to play. Hopefully there's more things to do in later chapter. As of now I give this kind of a 6-7/10 for good story-telling, with design and battle system that brings back memory. If this linear way of doing things run throughout the game it deserves only a 5 in my book. Something you can consider playing if you just missed Suikoden too much. This at least satisfy some thirst for a good story-telling experience.[/spoiler]
My thoughts after having just beaten the game with one of the playable characters:
Pros:
- Atmosphere/style of the game is definitely in tune with JRPGS of old.
- Fast paced story.
- Intriguing plot.
- Battle mechanics are engaging.
- Music was spot on.
Cons:
- Level cap of 30
- Linear in terms of what you do in each chapter.
- Game felt short looking back on my playthrough.
8/10
Looking forward to future installments of this game.
This one tips the scales back and forth between being a good or bad game for me at least.
The art is hand drawn, quite beautiful. Reminiscent of Suikoden which is awesome btw.
Allowing replayability with 6 different characters.
First little bit of gameplay if you'd like to check before you buy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ye22I2FmOuo
Different gear and tactics do change it up a bit
Rather good storytelling.
Now for the cons:
First off, does have a few bugs. Like showing a summary of chapter 7 when your in chapter 1. Kind of a spoiler and some nps go a little funky hopefully gets patched out. SPOILERS! And when your at the war camp and go back to Levantine and they are already talking about the victory that hasn't EVEN happend yet. I'm sorry but how do you mess that one up? Did they think you would stay on the rails and never look around lol.
Battle is rather boring and you'll find you can just spam the attack commands as you will usually get the same results using tactics most of the time.
Other than your main character you will never feel like your getting any in depth character knowledge of any other characters in the game. You could replace the supporting characters with potatoes and I'd get the same feelings and at least we'd have french fries.
If you poke around other than the main questline you'll find it all rather empty and linear forcing you back on the main quest. Pretty scenery but all the npcs say rather generic stuff.
Story tempo is crazy fast paced as beating this one with each character reportedly doesn't take too long. The game is part of a planned trilogy. Budget-wise it probably was easier to make this three parts to fund it but I feel it would have been better off all in one game.
Does boast your character will be faced with tough decisions. Yes that is true, but nowhere do you actually ever have a choice on what to do.
Conclusion:
The game defintitely qualifies as a work of art. harkens back to a better day of JRPG'S.
Suffers from too fast paced storyline and not enough side stuff or a real vibrant world you feel you belong in.
The battle is standard JRPG fare and defintely a step up from RPG maker slush filling up steam on a daily basis.
The story is pretty good, just makes me wish it was slower and a little more, but wanting more is never a bad thing. Actually looking forward to the sequel.
Pretty good price.
I'd give this a 7/10.
Not a masterpiece but not bad either.
I've completed the game with one character, and played the prologue with another. This review is based on that experience.
[h1]Pros/Cons[/h1]
+ The music is great
+ The graphics as well, surprising amount of 8-way sprite variety considering the budget, and they have some neat little touches like weapon drawing/sheathing animations
+ The pacing is very good throughout the game, there's no filler and nothing feels like it wastes your time
+ Equipment is more interesting than most JRPGs so far, quite some trade-offs and unique effects
+ I really like the skill/character advancement system, see below
+ Battles so far have also been fun, I'll describe the system below
+ You have more choices than what you'd expect in a JRPG
+ The characters are pretty interesting, and have a decent party dynamic, however...
- The writing is somewhat let down by a number of grammatical errors
- Bugs: worst one was a wrong trigger which teleported me somewhere, and the game also referred to itself as a "test build" in one instance; [b]edit:[/b] Both of these major issues were patched within the first 15 hours and are no longer in the game at this point.
- Minor stuff: the run speed could be a bit higher, and I'd like to be able to use the d-pad rather than joystick with gamepad controls
[h1]Character advancement system[/h1]
First of all, your entire party levels at once, which is very convenient and makes a lot of sense really.
You get 4 slots for active skills and 2 for passive skills per character. Since you level up very often, you soon have to pick and choose the skills for each, and there are some interesting synergies. It has something of Guild Wars almost in that aspect.
[h1]Battle system[/h1]
The game employs the smart mechanic of healing you back up fully after each encounter. In any game which is not about resource management (which most non-dungeon-crawler JRPGs haven't been about in ages) healing up after battle is just meaningless routine, so I really like that choice.
I also really like how they do stamina management, which is really the main battle mechanic.
You start with a set amount of stamina (which can be adjusted by some equipment and passives), and all skills require a number of stamina points. performing a normal attack regenerates 1 stamina, and defending regenerates 2. There are also ways to transfer stamina from one character to another, and attacks which reduce it in the enemy.
Since stamina is per-battle, like everything else, you are never not thinking about using it. This mostly prevents the "trash mob" button-mashing scenario.
Battles are also generally quick, which is something that I always appreciate. Difficulty is pretty well-balanced and what I'd call moderate so far (I consider most modern JRPGs too easy).
Absolutely awesome. If you were into old school RPGs like Lunar, Suikoden, Breath of Fire, Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy 1-6 (NES/SNES era) then you will absolutely love this. An instant classic in my opinion.
In terms of inspiration, I would say Suikoden is the biggest at hand here.. the warrior is even referenced as "Young Master".
My views:
+: Amazing, hand drawn graphics style. Really works in today's market flood of 3D.
+: Fun battle system, engaging and much more on offer than RPG Maker style games.
+: Not an RPG maker game.
+: Story is engaging and well thought-out. Writing style is fairly relaxed which isn't for everyone.
+: Multiple character approach is interesting. Instead of a 40+ hour game with one character, it is broken out into 5-10 hour chunks with each character.
Fully recommend for anyone looking for that piece of nostalgia - I'd even recommend for people who haven't played this type of isometric sprite RPG before as it effectively bridges the gap between old and new gaming.
Curator Page: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/disastercake#curation
As a fellow [url=http://store.steampowered.com/app/251590]Kickstarter JRPG Project creator[/url], I am very proud to see this team follow through with their dreams and ambitions. I decided to take a couple hours off work to play the game and give it a quick and honest review of my first impressions, and it pulled me in enough to get me to dedicate the time to finish it. I went into this game with the knowledge and expectations one should have of an indie RPG, and came out with a pleasurable experience. I can sense the love and care that went into this RPG, and could recommend it to anyone who is interested in an indie JRPG experience.
[h1]DURATION PLAYED[/h1]
I finished the game with one character and grinded to max level (30) in about 15 hours. The average I've seen reported seems to be around the 10 hour mark.
[h1]LIKES[/h1]
[list]
[*]First off, I was impressed to see that you can play the story from the perspective of 6 different characters. So far, from what I can see, these are not major branching storylines, but instead allow you to choose the "main character". Depending on the main character you've chosen you will get different dialogue scenes at different points in the game.
[*]The character spritework is great.
[*]You see enemies on the main map, which is something I very much enjoy.
[*]The combat in Celestian Tales is very standard JRPG, like Final Fantasy. Each character takes a turn and the player chooses from a menu. Each character has HP and Sta. The combat mode is very tight and polished, with a dynamic camera that seems inspired by Radiant Historia. You will heal to full HP after every battle, but your Sta is regained by defending or attacking.
[*]The music is very appropriate and pleasant to listen to.
[*]The storytelling and writing is well done. I like the dynamic between the different character personalities, and I can see a lot of character development just within the first few hours of play.
[*]The art style is very unique. I can't think of any other JRPGs I've played with this art style.
[*]The characters are each given interesting and unique skills that seem to fit their personalities and backgrounds well while maintaining a unique balance.
[*]You choose 3 characters to take into combat, and can easily swap out the party whenever you feel like.
[*]The leveling system is unique in that your entire party has a single level rather than each individual character.
[*]Your characters can each carry 4 active and 2 passive skills into combat and you can equip them as you like in the menu before combat for different strategies.
[*]There is a weapon upgrading system a few hours into the game where you can use materials you've gained from combat to upgrade weapons.
[/list]
[h1]DISLIKES[/h1]
[list]
[*]I've come across a few obvious, but minor, bugs and 1 critical, but un-reproducing bug. I just had to relaunch my last save and the bug never occurred again. It is surprisingly stable for such a large project with a small team on a tight budget.
[*]Usually the environment art looks very nice and polished, but there are some points that seem like they could have been touched up more. These spots are usually the interiors to houses and the towns.
[*]The quest log is sometimes not descriptive enough on where to go or do next or doesn't update for some of the small milestones in the chapter quest. This made it a little confusing at times for me.
[*]The world map is a bit barebones compared to some traditional RPGs, but is enough to give a feeling for the size and shape of the land.
[*]There's a lack of instructions in the game for some of the different features, so it took some experimenting to figure them out (like how to regain Sta), though this could be a positive for many people.
[*]Chapters 3-4 were very easy, then there was a sudden jump in difficulty at Chapter 4. The step up in difficulty was very much welcomed by me, but it may come as a surprise to some and could probably use a little smoother by ranking up the difficulty of fights before this point.
[*]A difficulty mode that switches between varying HP and Damage output of enemies could have benefited this game for some simple customization to difficulty level.
[*]Cutscenes aren't skippable. So if you die on a hard boss fight, you'll have to go through it again.
[*]No New Game+. Maintaining character levels and equipment between games would have made it more enticing to play through again and see other character dialogue scenes.
[*]No sidequests. Some simple fetch and kill sidequests would have helped add some texture to the main storyline.
[*]The game's pitch might lead one to believe that there is a lot of branching story options. However the game is pretty much linear with a few small encapsulated options scattered about. I would approach this game with the idea of it being a linear storyline like the classics and not a modern "choose your own adventure" type of RPG.
[/list]
[h1]SUMMARY[/h1]
Celestian Tales focuses its energy on delivering an interesting story through smooth and familiar gameplay. I recommend Celestian Tales to any JRPG fan that is acceptive of indie production qualities and is looking for a game that focuses heavily on its storytelling.
Just bought because they show some love to Linux users by releasing the game for our platform. So, as grateful linux user, and lover of JRPG genre, I had to buy it as soon as I saw it :P
Overall experience with linux is very good... some non-xbox game pad support would have been awesome, but nothing really annoying, since a plenty of games only officially supports xbox game pads.
Regarding the game, I just played half the Chapter 1 with one character and it seems it has all the JRPG elements I love: nice storyline and turn-based combat.
2D graphics, without being impressive, are very well done, and animations (anime style) enhance the game experience by giving some deep to the story, but I would loved to see also some [i]incombat[/i] animations (perhaps there are, I didn't see yet any).
非常正統的JRPG,一開始要加冕時,如果直接連續睡覺兩次,Uncle會在加冕儀式直接拔劍砍王進入BAD END
....讓我哭笑不得....
戰鬥系統採用回合制,沒有MP,戰鬥中隨行動累積增加技能點數,可以拿來放招式
有時候走在路上會被NPC卡在牆角動彈不得,需要改進
能增加走路速度就更好了,現在走路稍嫌慢
強烈希望中文化!!
