Developer: Zoo Corporation
Publisher: Zoo Corporation
Platform: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S
Tested on: PS5
Akatsuki: Lord of the Dawn – Review
Akatsuki: Lord of the Dawn is a real-time strategy RPG that takes place in the realm of Celestia. Newly appointed Lord Ark is sent on a journey to find and fight the Dark Tusk raiders and their hordes of monsters. During his journey, he has to complete quests, build an army, and help the people of Celestia’s islands. The storyline may be rather simple, but the game offers some interesting gameplay elements. Unfortunately, they become rather repetitive quite early on.
Story
In Akatsuki: Lord of the Dawn, you play as Ark, a young man living on a remote island. At the beginning of the game, a messenger from the king approaches him and tells him he is the son of one of the Lords of the realm. All of a sudden, the king has decided that the monsters need to disappear, and so he reaches out to Ark for him to do the job. Oh, and for some reason, the king has no troops to spare, so Ark has to figure out how to build an army along the way.
That’s it. That’s the story. And besides the fact that it doesn’t make much sense, it also doesn’t develop from there. Ark meets several characters along the way, but all they do is present quests that Ark needs to fulfill. They don’t add to the storyline. This game is an interesting choice for gamers who don’t care much for a deep and thoughtful storyline. But if you’re looking for more, then you might actually be better off sitting this one out.
Graphics
The visuals in Akatsuki: Lord of the Dawn are all pixelated. In fact, it has quite the retro style, which is charming. However, the sprites of the characters and the monsters you fight are rather small and not at all detailed. Once again, this is something you either care about or do not, based on personal preference. The world of Celestia is quite colorful, though, and there is a certain variety of different backgrounds during battles. But at some point, you’ve just seen them all. It’s a pity that the backgrounds during conversations are nearly always the same on every island, as different backgrounds could have made the different islands stand out more.
Sound
The music in Akatsuki: Lord of the Dawn is rather good and upbeat, but it doesn’t stand out that much either. It’s not bad, but it’s not memorable either. It’s good enough for the duration of the game, though. However, the biggest con, sound-wise, is the fact that there’s no voice acting. After a while, this makes you want to click through all of the dialogue rapidly. Another thing that’s worth mentioning here is that there’s no sound when one of your soldiers falls in battle, so it takes a while before you notice one of them is gone, and you can’t use their ability anymore.
Gameplay
Akatsuki: Lord of the Dawn is a real-time strategy RPG in which you play as Ark, who is going on a journey to rid the realm of monsters. At the start of the game, you’re offered a tutorial, but honestly, it doesn’t help much. There is a lot the tutorial doesn’t tell you, and in the end, you just end up figuring things out on your own. You’ll find that there are different menus, each with a distinct focus. For example, there’s the party menu where you manage your party. But there’s also a facilities menu where you can level up your facilities. The function these facilities have is totally up to you to figure out.
Ark is leveled up by spending money on the aforementioned facilities, which is a bit weird. Your other soldiers, on the other hand, are individually leveled up in the party screen. This isn’t explained very well, but eventually you’ll figure this out. You can also equip your soldiers with better weapons, for example. This is a must because the more you progress, the stronger the monsters you’re facing. Yet, it’s not a challenge since you’ll have plenty of resources to level up your characters more than enough to face those higher-level monsters.
During battles, you control Ark on his horse, and the soldiers you bring along move with you and will attack independently. The only thing you can do is choose a formation, and each formation comes with a certain special ability. Each member of your team also has an ability that you can use after it’s charged up. This seems like the only strategic aspect in the game, besides building your team. And honestly, as you can level up your characters almost as much as you want, you barely need those abilities.
To sum up, battles are quite interesting at the start of the game because everything is new, but after a while, they’re not challenging anymore and get rather repetitive. You keep doing them over and over again while leveling up your team members in between fights.
Conclusion
Akatsuki: Lord of the Dawn isn’t a bad game, and it has certain interesting features like the formations, building your party, and learning about their abilities during battles. The music is good, too, and the pixelated visuals are quite charming, radiating a certain retro vibe. However, the quests, gameplay, and battles become repetitive, and the storyline is rather bland. The game has good qualities, but it just isn’t enough. And honestly, it lacks too many RPG and tactical elements.
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