An action RPG described as 'the best RPG you've never heard about' is about to drop on the Nintendo eShop this week on November 16th, 2023.
Although the above trailer is perhaps not the most alluring we've ever seen, general feedback on the PC version of ASTLIBRA Revision has been 'overwhelmingly positive' with a current total of 18,182 user reviews. The game will launch at £19.49, but if you get your pre-order in ahead of November 16th, you'll bag 20% off the listed price, bringing it down to £15.59.
The gameplay certainly looks pretty slick and there are a lot of tasty numbers being thrown about, so we're definitely up for that. We're not super keen on the visuals or animation, but it seems like this title will thrive on its gameplay and story more than anything else.
Here's some key information from the eShop page:
Travel Through Unfamiliar Worlds - Explore a vast, dangerous, yet beautiful world. Broken up through multiple chapters, join the protagonist and Karon, his talking bird companion, as they confront time and fate.
Back to The Golden Age Of JRPGs, with Side-scrolling Action - Slashing, Smashing, thrusting countless enemies while building up stamina for powerful Possession Skills, which are enough to melt away anything that blocks your way, including huge bosses that could take half, or even more of the screen. Fight aggressively while thinking strategically, always pick up the most trust worthy equipment, and select the best suited skills to deal with ever changing circumstances.Fight God-Like Boss Battles - Battle ferocious bosses throughout the story, each with their own set of attacks and challenges. Upgrading abilities and acquiring new skills are vital to finishing each battle and progressing through the protagonist’s story.
Will you be grabbing Astlibra Revision when it launches later this week? Let us know with a comment.
Comments 42
Game looks like it could be decent but that first screenshot is so off putting.
The animations looks so incongruous. The super stiff protagonist with way too few frames of animation, combined with the motion-tweened puppeted monster assets animating unnaturally smoothly, layered on top of a combat system that just has a smidge too much hit-stop going on, makes everything look really weird and stiff and cheap and bad.
Reminds me of Eiyuden Rising, which I enjoyed, but very much despite its shortcoming... of which it had a lot! This doesn't look like the story will appeal to me, but I am happy for those who will love it. The overwhelming positivity is there for a reason.
Yeh, I'm not sold on what I've seen so far. I was concerned at first that all the good reviews on Steam were paid for. Having not played it though, I could be mistaken.
@InnerSound Thank you for the extra context. These one-person games usually are labors of love and I'm here for it.
Whenever I get the chance I want to try this
Glad it's a japanese one.
When this game was still a demo made by this one Japanese dude, it gave strong impression to Vanillaware artist Shigatake. Shigatake later contributed some artwork to this game, hence the “Revision” part in the title. This is one of the games you shouldn’t judge by the cover.
@Jey887 That's weird, that first image had me like hey maybe we give this game a shot.
I was thinking "this looks decent" until the uhhhhhh jiggle-spell-moment... I don't know if I can take any of it seriously now.
Still might get it on a sale, I dunno. Just felt gratuitous.
It's a pretty well-made game overall, the only thing I don't really like is the needing expendable light sources for every major gameplay area.
This looks cool. Definitely giving some Castlevania vibes.
Straight to the wishlist with this one for sure - heck, I was even pretty close to already grabbing it last payday. Reviews and userscores can go lick a Switch card, but what I've been seeing of the game with my own eyes so far looks damn promising in its own right.
Off topic, I just looked the game up again, tapped the "Keizo" developer link promptly supplied by Google and... found myself on another search page with an eponymous Demon Slayer character as top result. Tell me MORE about artificial intelligence.🙄😏
@Jey887 you've got message from the first screenshot: "our eyes may be closed, but they're still up here"
Cannot wait for this. This game was also a big contender for rpg of the year last year on rpgsite.
Overall looks cool to me and even more so considering it's made by a single person, to the wishlist it goes!
@Jey887 you’re not the only one
Will be waiting for a review for this one
Looks meh to me. But I like the music.
Its been avaliable on the PC for a while but Ive been on the fence with the title.
On one hand Ive heard its excellent.
But on the other hand Ive heard its very old school by nature.
You need to activate specific triggers to progress (which kinda leads to a lot of wondering)
An made up example (to give an idea) You know you need a fish that can only appears from one spot. But the fish will only spawn after you spoken to NPC1 + NPC2 first.
Ive got no real issues with this old school mentality but I have to be in the mood for it
I've dumped at least 150+ hours into this game on steam. It's made by one guy and it has some of the best ARPG combat I've ever experienced. The amount of customization and playstyles for your character is insane, and with mastering gear giving you their abilities innately ala FF9. This game is an absolute gem. Yes the graphics look like a flash game, because this game WAS a flash game. Thats why it has revision in the title. Anyway I'll stop shilling this game now. I already double dipped on the pre-order but wanted to say it's not just the steam reviews.
@Jey887 Don't worry! Those scenes only come up when you're folks/significant other walks in haha
Heard that this game was in the making for 10+ years and was only made by one guy. That is a great dedication right there and the quality is impressive, definitely would buy it soon but considering the hundreds of Metroidvania games I still had to get through, probably won't be getting to this one any time soon.
Not sure if it is my cup of tea. But will wait on reviews.
Looks pretty boring, honestly, but I, um, see why it had so much interest....
@nimnio There were some RPGs that had side-scrolling actions: Ys 3: Wanderers from Ys, Popful Mail, ActRaiser, Princess Crown, Link's Awakening, The Adventures of Link, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, Odin Sphere, Muramasa: The Demon Blade, etc., though a majority of them were more bird's eye view or multi-layer sometimes too.
Hopefully the Switch version is more polished than the PC version. I tried it out on Steam Deck, and it was forced into 720p even in docked mode, which is the only game I've ever seen on the Deck that had that problem. Then when I left a review mentioning that issue, the developer responded by lying about it. Saying that Valve mandates that the game only output to 720p in docked mode on the Deck because of the Deck's own screen resolution. That is flatly false considering every other game I've played on the Steam Deck supports higher resolution output in docked mode.
The best indie JRPG.
Looks great, I want to buy this on steam but I rarely play games on my pc anymore. Besides, the switch is perfect for playing 2D games like this, I hope the port is good 😃
Thought this might be an article about a little game called Hogwarts Legacy, but, alas, no.
@Goofonzo nothin wrong w some tig ol biddies
Oh I was really waiting for this! I've heard great things about this, and honestly the way the developer made this game is something we've all fantasized about no? Just doing it yourself for years upon years until you have an awesome game on your hands.
The lady's boobies flappin' around like she's using a truckstop hand dryer on them at 1:25 was so embarrassing.
Have some dignity, game.
@EarthboundBenjy you said it better than I could. It almost looks like paper dolls or something.
Looks good IMO, but the chaotic combat and M rating make it a pass from me.
This is interesting but I'll need a review.
@aznable @Reptilio @LikelySatan Your comments have me rotf at work. You're not lying though! 🤣
This game seems to have a lot of hype and the best thing I like about it are those giant, painting-like backgrounds. Combat seems pretty competent from what I can tell. I still don't like the segmented animation style too much, though, and the closest thing I liked similar to it would be Muramasa: The Demon Blade. Maybe a review could sway me... I'll wishlist it for now.
@MeloMan I'll have to see it running more
"I'm only level 50 in Hell mode after killing Anubis. Am I under-leveled?"
This a question posted in the community hub on steam... maybe things get better after that weird boob flap scene.
Apparently "back to the golden age of JRPGs" means "gratuitous boob jiggle and sexist fanservice". That's not something I miss from this "golden age", so I'll give this one a pass.
Not only the Steam user reviews, but it's got an "85" on MetaCritic for PC. Just 4 reviews, but all are "80" or above.
this game looks great in stills, but in "motion" it looks like shovelware O_o
@Chocobo_Shepherd I don't think shovelware is the right word for this game, shovelware is a cheap rush game and this game doesn't look or feel rush. I believe low budget and lack of quality are the issues here since it's only made by one person and the vision of the game is just one sided. Had it was made by multiple people we would see the games from all sides with varying quality.
It looks nice, but the stiff animation is off-putting, and that's coming from a guy gaming since the NES era.
Seems quite promising. Wishlisting this but I'll still wait for reviews
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