Toge Productions' fantasy RPG Azure Saga: Pathfinder Deluxe Edition is headed to Nintendo Switch later this month, and pre-orders have now gone live on the eShop.
The game sees players join the adventure of Synch, a young scientist on a quest to find his lost father. You'll be exploring a foreign planet in 2.5D isometric landscapes, as you can spot in the trailer above, and venturing into dungeons and solving puzzles to unlock new areas. The whole thing looks rather lovely to us.
There are also mini-games to enjoy inside some of these dungeons, such as fishing, but you'll also stumble across a healthy number of enemies that will try to stop you from goofing off. Battles are said to be JRPG-like in style, with turn-based combat helping you to gain EXP and items.
Game Features:
- A world with a classic storyline that will delight both veterans and new RPG fans, infused with highly detailed 2D illustrations
- Traditional Turn-Based RPG Gameplay inspired by the classic JRPG of the 90s
- Strategize and configure your characters’ gear and jewels in to enhance their maximum potential.
- Unite, mix, and match your characters’ skills to discover powerful abilities, each with their special effects
- Classic old school adventure with tons of puzzles and secrets to discover
The game launches on Switch on 21st March for $9.99 / £8.09, but pre-ordering it will get you 15% off.
Might you give this one a go later this month? Do you like what you see? Share your thoughts with us in that inviting-looking comment box below.
Comments 26
I like everything about this except for how the characters look in battle mode. That marionette style is so jarring. That being said, a long, involved RPG is always my cup of tea, and that price is great. I can get used to those visuals if the game is reasonably meaty and fun to play.
Wow I'm impressed, seems like a traditional RPG that aim at the old school crowd. May definitely check it out soon.
The art style is actually very good imo. After seeing so many NES / bad-SNES caliber sprite work on games like these, it's nice to see something that it would appear more effort has gone into.
The combat is like watching team america world police lol. The rest looks amazing though.
@andywitmyer Sprite work if done nicely is more more difficult to do and more time consuming in a lot of cases.
As if I didn't already have a long list of RPG's to go through. That being said it's a list I don't mind getting longer.
I like this. Hopefully it comes retail.
@Dualmask I didn't watch the trailer but I looked at the battle screenshot NL has embedded and was immediately like, "marionettes....meh." It's a look you really have to commit to in order to pull off well. I do like the look for the rest of the game though.
Oh my god. I just realized...meh marionettes...MEH-rionettes!!!! PUNS!!!!
@Jokerwolf don't get me wrong, SNES era RPGs are some of my all time favorite games. But, the whole retro thing is played out imo. Especially with the ones that look like NES games.
@andywitmyer I still see it done very well in a lot of games, NES style I agree is a dime a dozen.
Yeah those battle animations on the characters look stupid. But what I dislike even more is how the world is made of those platforms. Just looks unappealing to me.
But the price is right and the artstyle otherwise reminds me of something between 16bit and 32bit, which is nice.
For $10? Sure, I'd be down! I'll wait for reviews though
It looks pedestrian. If it goes on sale for $1, I'd consider it.
Looks like it may be something for me.
Can’t wait I am on board!!!
what is this style called? cuz Ive always hated that cheap pc flash game look. that way I know what to stay away from just by reading some info haha
This looks terrible.
Common Physical.....preorders....
@derty
The technique they're using is 2D skeletal animation, it uses a skeleton mapped to "pieces" or bones of the characters. It allows for things like setting keyframes of the animation and allowing the system to do interpolation to animate from one key frame to the next. It can be done quite well as with recent games like Unruly Heroes that uses Spine 2D skeletal Animation and based on the look I'd be willing to bet that all of the Steam World games uses skeletal animation. Again, you need to put the time and effort into not making it look rigid though.
The overworld looks fine, but everything else is gross. There’s a lack of cohesion of battle, overworld and cutscenes animations. $10 is a good price, but indicative that it might be a bad quality product.
Looks like a bad mobile game.
Anyone else thrown off by the wonky animations?
This looks decent enough, I might even be a fan of the marionette art style.
Maybe it's just me, but I used to be a big fan of 'traditional' jRPG'esque designs, but nowadays, I kind feel, if you do a basic, traditional turn-based system you have to put a particular spin on it, to keep it fresh, and also present it in a visually interesting and most of all exciting way. Basically what Persona 5 did with it's unique style and forgoing (most of the menus) in favor for direct button inputs, or the 2D-HD visual style of Octopath paired with it's BD-inspired boosting mechanic, or Indivisible with taking inspiration from one of the few non-so-traditional, turned-based fighting systems, aka Valkyrie Profile.
In short, I still like these games, not everything has to be action-focused at all, but too often, they are just way too generic for me to really care. If I have more or less the feeling that at some point before, I've virtually played the exact same thing to death already, I just don't care anymore.
It's not that great game people. Played it on Steam.... it was a letdown for me though... just my opinion
@Alucard83 "It's not that great game people. Played it on Steam.... it was a letdown for me though... just my opinion"
That's good to hear but did you realize Switch is Portable unlike steam.
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