A refreshing RPG adventure premium game, a rarity these days | Review - Ex Astris
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✨Overview
Ex Astris, developed by Hypergryph (developers of Arknights), offers a unique blend of turn-based and real-time gameplay in a mesmerizing 3D world. Unlike the usual gacha offering we usual see from this developer and in mobile games, Ex Astris easily stands out as a one-time purchase premium game, offering a refreshing change of pace, a rarity these days.
🟩Pros
+Unique blend of turn-based and real-time gameplay
+Mesmerizing 3D visuals with an anime-inspired style
+Exploration and puzzle-solving elements
+Login only required on starting the game, can play offline afterwards
+One-time payment, no gacha or microtransactions
🟥Cons
-The storytelling can be confusing and it’s not that compelling
-Limited voice acting and language options (No english voice)
-Combat may feel repetitive in longer play sessions
⭐️Score: 8/10
📖Story and Premise
Players step into the shoes of Yan, an exoplanet investigator with the NOUS WAVE organization, on a mission to retrieve a sample of pure Astrom from the alien planet Allindo. She is then accompanied by a diverse cast of characters, each with their own stories and abilities, as she embarks on an sci-fi adventure filled with beauty and mystery.
In typical Hypergryph fashion, the initial description and presentation of the game is a bit confusing, ambiguous, and almost nonsensical. You might even think there's something wrong with the translation. But I guess that’s part of the charm. However as you play you get to know more of the lore and the character and it becomes clearer as you play. I have to be honest though, outside the alluring premise of exploring and visiting a beautiful scenic world, the narrative is not very compelling and enticing — especially the first few parts of the game are mostly fetch-like quests.
🎨Visuals and Art
Ex Astris features mesmerizing visuals featuring an anime-inspired soft 3D style. It's not cel-shaded like most anime games and opts for a more 3D look. The character models themselves aren’t highly detailed, but the impressive lighting effects and beautiful world and environment design more than make up for this. Exploring the world feels relaxing with its dreamy art direction and bright colors, complemented by a soundtrack that fits the theme well. The game is partially voice acted (for crucial scenes only) and is available in both Chinese and Japanese, but there is English text localization available.
🎮Gameplay
Ex Astris features a unique blend of turn-based and real-time gameplay, it’s not pausable real-time, nor a tactics strategy system. It instead offers an entirely fresh take on RPG combat. Front and center is the so-called Obscuran Maneuver System.
This innovative combat system requires active engagement from the player for both offense and defense. During offensive turns, you need to activate skills in real-time, some of which may include bonus Quick Time Events (QTEs). Defensive turns allow you to switch between characters on the fly to manage incoming damage and activate defensive skills such as dodging or parrying.
You must manage Action Points (AP) to use skills. Certain skills may restore AP or require AP to use, which ties in to the game’s combos and joint attack feature, encouraging strategic coordination between party members to allow for more attacks per turn. Some party members will have skills that restore AP under certain conditions, so it’s a matter of finding the right combo for your team in order to maximize your attacks per turn. Each enemy also has a guard bar that you can deplete to temporarily stun them, allowing for more attacks. It does get repetitive in longer play sessions though if you’ve already found what combo works best for you.
Ex Astris allows players to have up to three party members with them at all times. Each character offers unique playstyles, abilities, and skill tree system to progress in — encouraging players to strategically switch between them to adapt to different combat situations and maximize their effectiveness in battle. What’s better is because there’s no gacha or microtransactions, everything is easily within your reach just like a normal game! There is no pressure to grind or spend money in this game, aside from the initial asking price.
🌍Not just combat
Outside of combat, Ex Astris encourages exploration and puzzle-solving. Even though it’s not a full-on open-world game, there is still a big emphasis on exploration. You'll get to wander across the planet in various ways, and the game is not exactly linear; you can explore levels and areas and uncover secrets. Additionally, players can craft augmentations for their characters, further enhancing their abilities and customization options; or perhaps cook using ingredients gathered from the world, providing stat boosts to players until their next rest.
💵Monetization
Unlike other similar mobile titles, Ex Astris stands out by breaking away from the typical gacha model. Despite its aesthetic and mechanical similarities to gacha games, Ex Astris offers a one-time purchase premium experience. There are no gacha or microtransactions, ensuring that everything in the game is easily accessible without additional costs. (Although DLCs are still possible in the future). The only thing they could have done better in this case is to provide a chapter 1 demo to better attract players, especially those used in playing free-to-play offerings.
📊Technical Performance
The game is playable on my Snapdragon 888 device. I was able to run the game at default settings (mostly medium) but I upped the frame rate setting from 30 to 60 although it does seem to just stays around 30 FPS. There are lag spikes here and there especially when loading new areas, but nothing really game breaking.
Unfortunately, there is no controller support, and the game is only designed with touch controls in mind. The touch controls are well implemented though and it’s perfectly playable in this scheme. Additionally, the game only requires an online connection/login though upon starting the game, but it’s not needed to continue playing. During story and character dialogue, you can skip conversations. However, for some reason, they are not playing automatically, requiring me to click repeatedly to skip every line in the game.
⚖️Conclusion
Ex Astris offers a refreshing and captivating RPG experience, blending turn-based and real-time elements in a mesmerizing 3D world. Sure, it’s story is not as compelling as I thought and the performance could be better; but at an upfront cost of $10 for everything, it’s still a bargain. Honestly, I would have given the game a 7 out of 10 score at face value alone as a mobile game. However, I had to give them a bonus point for going against the current and deciding to release this as a one-time payment premium game instead of a live-service gacha offering.
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