Nayuta no Kiseki is an action RPG from Falcom, a developer I have a slightly-love/mostly-hate relationship with. It’s not that they make bad games – quite the opposite, really – but their stuff usually doesn’t sit right with me. Their turn-based RPGs like the Trails series are tiresome, long-winded affairs and just when they get interesting, whoops, end of game, be sure to buy the sequel okay? Meanwhile their action RPGs like Ys and Zwei!! are confusing and hard to play for ARPG newbies like myself.

That’s where the happy medium of Nayuta no Kiseki comes it. Since it is a complete standalone title, I don’t have to worry about some stupid cliffhanger non-ending. No matter how many pointless errands and quests the game forces on me, I know everything will be wrapped up in the end. And on the gameplay front it has a Beginner mode that makes it much harder for Nayuta to die. Not that he hasn’t tried repeatedly but I’ve been able to (barely) avoid a Game Over so far and I’m almost 20 hours in.

I would have posted earlier but I was having way too much fun to stop. Every time I freed up a block of time and thought about blogging, it occurred to me that the time could be much better spent playing Nayuta instead. Heck, I could have completed two or three stages in the time it took me to write all this. In fact I’m going to do something I almost never do and let some other site explain all the gameplay and story and other stuff: Hardcore Gaming’s article on Nayuta no Kiseki.

I haven’t read it myself in case of spoilers, but it looks quite thorough. I should do this more often :-ppp But I won’t. Because I have diarrhea of the fingers and just like to write. Before going back to the game, the main reasons why I’m enjoying this game oh so very much.

• It’s an action RPG! I’ve played a few and find them a little hard to grasp, but when I get into one, I get into it in a major way. It’s all action and stuff so you run and jump and dodge and slash at this boss and jump on that pillar, it’s sooo much fun. Nothing against turn-based RPGs and SRPGs but there’s nothing quite like the rush you get from beating a tough ARPG boss.
• It’s easy! I’m getting the same relaxing vibe from this as I did from Phantasy Star Portable. Sometimes you just want to check your brains out and slice and burn your way through a bunch of hapless monsters, no questions asked. Ahhh, bliss.
• The stages are short and manageable. Most of them can be knocked out in 5-10 minutes, even by a klutz like me. Some stages even reward you for finishing in 3 minutes or less. That makes it very easy to fit the game into a busy weekday schedule. We can all find at least 5 minutes to spare every day.
• It’s bright and colorful. Bright happy colors and all that. The setting is a sub-tropical island with sun and sea and sand as far as the eye can see. The town feels a bit small, but it’s very warm and cozy at the same time. The game is based on the summer vacation adventures of one Nayuta Herschel, and the laid-back vacation vibe really comes through. At least until the game takes a turn for the darker in chapter 5.
• It’s not too “talky.” It’s mostly gameplay broken up by short skits and conversations, nothing too annoying. Not like some of the other games, especially Ao no Kiseki where everyone turned into a pontificating gasbag. Blech.
• It’s a complete experience. As I said before, I don’t have to worry about any “To be continueds” or dangling plot threads once it’s over. At least I hope it won’t.

But it’s not a perfect game. In the name of fairness I will halfheartedly list a few of the things that bug me.

• Some of the dungeon gimmicks are annoying. I’m looking at you, little green circles floating in the air!
• I don’t really like platform games.
• It’s maybe a little too easy? My fault for picking Beginner mode, which was fine at first but now that Nayuta & Noi have so many skills at their disposal I wish I’d chosen Normal.
• A lot of time could have been saved if mascot character Noi had just told us everything she knew from the start. She’s always doing that “I know something I won’t tell, I won’t tell, I won’t tell” act I hate so much in videogames and anime. Even now she’s still holding out on me. But she’s super useful in battle so she’s partly forgiven.
• The worlds feel kind of empty. Nayuta’s island only has a few people living on it and the alternate world is almost devoid of sentient life. Too many characters would be bad but I think a few more inhabitants on the other side would have made things more interesting.
• It’s not long enough! After 20 hours I sense I’m approaching the final stages and I haven’t done nearly enough fighting and exploring yet! More! More!

Enough! Time’s a-wastin’. God willing I’ll be back in two or three days with a boastful report on how I creamed the final boss and he wasn’t a match for me, ho ho ho, bring on the big guns, etc etc. Or I’ll come and grumble about how it was too hard, this sucks, I quit, blah blah blah. Win, lose or draw, it should be over in a few more game-hours. After that I have both Stella Glow and 7th Dragon III locked and ready to go. Which one first? *tosses coin* 7th Dragon wins? Boo, that can’t be right. I’ll just flip the coin until Stella Glow wins… there we go. Stella Glow it is!

Related posts:

Zero no Kiseki – TL;DR Last Ranker review (spoilers, unfortunately) Nayuta no Kiseki – I love happy endings One Hour Review: Ys VIII Lacrimosa of DANA