Ex Astris Early First Impression
Ex Astris is a adventure RPG with turn based combat that has some action elements. Now that I have purchased the game and am playing through it, I can tell you in full confidence that this game does not have any gacha or micro transaction.
This is a one time purchase, buy to play premium mobile game.
🎮 Gameplay: So you might be wondering how a turn based game can have elements of a action game.
When you engage combat with enemies, you do take turns between each other and your characters do require action points (AP) to use skills. But when it is the enemies turn to attack, your characters goes into a "defensive" state. In this state you will be able to perfectly parry the enemies attack if you time it properly.
Your attacks and especially your parries can inflict "break" on enemies which is a bar all enemies have. When the break bar is broken, your characters enter hyper time as your able to unleash skills without costing AP.
Now occasionally, enemies will do powerful attacks that has either a blue or red indicator. This indicator dictates which character can parry that attack. These attacks can come out unexpectedly so it really keeps you on your toes as you need to switch to the appropriate character that can block it and parry it in time.
Last but not least (I think, I am only 5 hours into the game as of writing this), you can also create combo skill chains between your characters. At the start of a turn, usually only 1 AP is available. But if you use a "starting skill", it will restore 1 AP and allow another team mate of yours to use a skill. There are also other ways to get AP. For example certain skills can inflict certain crowd control on enemies. If a skill inflicts "knock down" the enemy will be "downed". If an ally attacks using a skill that inflicts "downed strike" on an "downed" enemy, it will restore 1 AP and allow your allies to cast another skill. By properly timing your skills and managing crowd control, you can create some satisfying team combos!
I hope I was able to explain the core gameplay of Ex Astris. There are some things I haven't even touched on like ultimate skills, switching skills mid combat, character specific talent and talent tree where you can unlock different skills and ascension traits.
🐞 Performance: Performance has been smooth on my, at this point pretty old phone with a Snapdragon 750g Octa-core, 12 GB RAM. This phone is between the minimum and recommended specs so I was locked to 30 fps if I wanted a stable performance at medium graphics settings at best. I do want to note that at no point did my phone heat up in the slightest which is pretty impressive in terms of optimization. I was also able to play for 5 hours straight without my batteries dying too!
💰 Value for Money: Honestly this game is more than worth $10. Visual fidelity is amazing even on lower settings, the gameplay system is pretty in-depth and the story paired with the semi open world exploration really gives off classic 3D JRPG vibes. I am keen to play more and see how enjoyable this single player experience is!
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