Quit after 5 hours and 57 minutes. Astonishia Story
1. It was boring. The story wasn’t going anywhere fast and wasn’t doing anything attention-grabbing either. This guy is a soldier, the staff he’s guarding gets stolen and he travels the world looking to get it back. He doesn’t do anything or meet anyone or go anywhere especially interesting either. It’s a slow, tired plod across much the same landscape meeting much the same people and fighting much the same battles for hours on end.
2. I was bored. I can live without a super-good story as long as the gameplay is enjoyable. I’m not sure what to make of the hybrid SRPG-JRPG thingy Astonishia Story has got going on, except to say that it’s not fun to play at all. The encounter rate is fairly high, the EXP you get is pitiful, leveling up doesn’t make you much stronger and buying new equipment doesn’t seem particularly effective either. Also the computer cheats, and its magic seems to be more powerful than yours.
3. It’s not as bad as Tactical Guild. I already knew Astonishia Story was going to be mediocre at best, but I was hoping against hope that it would be so thoroughly bad that it would somehow double back on itself and end up in “so bad it’s awesome” territory like TG. Alas, this is not one of those games worth playing just to see if it’s as bad as everyone says. It’s not. And that’s precisely what the problem is.
The only things I can rate rather positively are:
1. The retro graphics.
2. The cluttered house and town layout made me miss Shepherd’s Crossing.
3. Every once in a while something bizarre and funny happened. Like that WTH “penetralia of Chilseong fist” skit and the part where Lloyd peeped on Ylenne in the bath…and she pulled out an axe…which subsequently became an equippable weapon. I actually laughed out loud at both parts.
That’s about it. I don’t even feel like writing one of my usual lengthy posts about it. I’m just glad to put it behind me and glad I didn’t spend so much time on it that I ended up hating it and myself. Right now I’m playing Sakura Taisen 1 and Zill O’ll Infinite Plus. Will write about either or both of them once I’ve progressed a little more.
Hey, love your reviews! Just wondering if you were going to be playing RF4? No pressure, I’m just wondering if you’ve played it and think it’s worth getting!
I really want to play RF4 and the new Harvest Moon Land of Origins game but I’m still on the fence about buying a 3DS. From what I’ve seen, both games look amazing. I’ve enjoyed all the RFs so far, so based on that I’d get 4 right away if I could. However, if I buy a 3DS stateside, I’m locked out of Japan-only games (of which I know there will be many). If I buy a Japanese one, I’m stuck importing all my games. Unless someone comes up with a way of beating that region lock, Nintendo will have to do without my money this gen.
[…] Astonishia Story (PSP) – I played about an hour last week, and it reminded me of Tactical Guild in terms of sheer terribleness. Even the samey-looking bad guys, walk-up-and-attack battle system, forced humor and paper-thin characters are similar. I could grow to love this game, I know I could. But I’ve already played one so-bad-its-good game this year, so AS will have to wait till at least 2012 to get its turn. If ever. […]