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| Brett Wooley |
The JRPG handbook: beautiful world exploration with beautiful people.
09.25.15 - 5:13 PM
DualShockers has release footage of their time with Exist Archive: The Other Side of the Sky, the newest RPG from Tri-Ace and Spike Chunsoft. The video gives us a good idea of the game's pace, the overworld platforming, and the combat.
If you would rather read about it, here are some notes and impressions:
This game looks like Valkyrie Profile meets Star Ocean. It has the outer space, futuristic, exploratory charm of Star Ocean with platforming and combat mechanics of Valkyrie Profile.
In the menu select screen there is an option to visit a world (or large place of interest), then a specific place in that area. You then edit and confirm the combat team you want to use.
Movement is 2D with jumping and platforming mechanics. You can initiate combat by swinging your sword at the enemy cloud (that's the best way I can explain it), or combat becomes initiated if it touches you. The light sphere used by your character seems to have two functions: stop the enemy so you can fight or avoid it.
The combat uses a combo system, where you order a character to fight with their assigned button. There is an action bar, that is used up when you start inputting characters to attack. Once you select the enemy, the combo madness ensues. It even looks like you can do "over damage" if the combo is still active after the enemy hits zero HP.
During your turn, you can rotate the position of your characters. The front is the danger zone where attack damage goes up but "wait recovery" goes down. The back is the Safety Zone, where attack damage is down and "wait recovery" is up.
Exist Archive: The Other Side of the Sky will be released in Japan for PS4 and PS Vita on December 17th. No word on a Western release, but tri-Ace games are no strangers to us.
