Developer: ACQUIRE Corp., WSS Playground
Publisher: Alliance Arts
Platform: PC, PS5, Switch
Tested on: PS5
All in Abyss: Judge the Fake – Review
All in Abyss: Judge the Fake is a card battler with visual novel and RPG aspects. The game is set in a city that’s all about poker. You’ll learn the rules of the Texas Hold’em poker variant in no time, and then you’re all set to go out and play. Play as Asuha, take on the Witches who run the city, and find out how crazy each one of them is. But beware of the punishment the loser gets: they’re not for the weak.
Story
The story is rather simple. You play as Asuha, a foul-mouthed, young woman calling herself the best and prettiest (important nuance, as you’ll learn when you play the game) gambler in the world. At the start of the game, you’re at the colosseum, facing off against the so-called Witch of Sweets, who humiliates Asuha in front of a whole crowd and even takes a bite out of her as punishment for losing. Asuha then vows to take revenge on all five Witches who rule the city. Bleeding, Asuha ventures through the city, bumping into a worried stranger named Mina, who becomes a good friend and helps Asuha during her adventure.
As mentioned, the game features five Witches in total. And if you thought they’d play poker fair and square, then … you couldn’t be more wrong. Every single one of them uses a different technique that helps them cheat and win the poker game against Asuha. Asuha then needs to figure out what technique that is and find a way to counterattack. Together, Asuha and Mina journey through the city to find help from fellow citizens, one shadier than the other. The personalities of each of these Witches are unique, and it’s interesting to get to know them all, even though they are a freaky bunch. You’ll learn their background stories throughout the game, which is a factor that will keep you hooked.
All in Abyss is a dialogue-heavy game, as it has many visual novel elements. The writing has a lot of cursing, which is something you should keep in mind before getting the game. If this is not your cup of tea, then don’t go for it. Because it gets worse than cussing. If you or a Witch loses the boss battle, then the loser will get executed, and these cruel executions are described in quite a bit of detail that might make you want to turn away from the screen (yes, it uses visuals, too). You can skip these scenes, but that would erase a certain emotional aspect of the game as you get to know more about the Witches during these scenes.
Graphics
The visuals in All in Abyss look like they’re straight from an anime. The character designs are vivid and colorful. Each of the Witches has their own unique and detailed look (which doesn’t make them look less cruel, though). The minor characters’ designs don’t have much variety, and their designs are used for more than one character. The backgrounds look vibrant and bright as well, but they’re quite standard and don’t stand out much. Lastly, the visuals during the punishment scenes are not too explicit, which makes them a bit more bearable to undergo.
Sound
Guitar-driven music dominates the game’s soundtrack. All in Abyss starts with its Japanese opening song called ‘All in Abyss’ and is an absolute banger. This song is obviously skippable, but it would be a shame to do so. Next, thrilling rock music plays during the battle scenes, which really fits the atmosphere as you’re literally playing for your life against those Witches. The only con, sound-wise, is that the game has little to no voice acting. The little phrases that are voiced are voiced in Japanese.
Gameplay
All in Abyss: Judge the Fake is a card battler in which you play as Asuha, who tries to find ways to defeat the five Witches that run the city, which is filled with poker. The main focus of the game is the poker battles, of course, but there’s more to it. You need to figure out how the Witches cheat during the boss battles. To do so, you need to visit certain places that are accessible from the map, and with the help of fellow residents and Mina, you’ll eventually come to your conclusion. Then, in the same way, you’ll need to figure out how to counter the Witches’ techniques. It’s important to keep in mind to visit every location and every NPC, sometimes even multiple times. This is a fun way to discover the city and meet the characters, but after a while, the backtracking gets a tad monotonous.
On the map, you’ll also find gambling dens and casinos to win money in poker battles. Money is rather important, as you’ll have to use it to buy items you need or to get information from certain characters to defeat the Witches. Besides, venturing through a city that’s all about poker without any money is just a big no-go. The playing-poker-on-the-street-for-money is fun at the start, but during the later chapters it gets grindy.
Poker matches in general, however, feel like fast-paced, turn-based RPG battles requiring a combination of luck and skill. Sometimes opponents are easily defeated and sometimes you’ll have to take your time and think your strategy through. You can use skills to help in that strategy. Winning poker matches gives you skill points that you can use to learn and upgrade a variety of active and passive skills. You can set a limited number of these for each match. The combination of having to think strategically, using the skills, and knowing when to raise and fold makes these matches enjoyable. But of course, you’ll also need a big load of luck.
All in all, the gameplay is easy and fast-paced, the skills aren’t difficult to set and use, and the poker games are easy to get used to. However, the searching for answers gets a bit repetitive near the end of the game, and the poker battles get quite grindy.
Conclusion
If you’re into poker, then this game is definitely worth a shot. If you’re not familiar with poker, then now’s the time to learn all about it. The poker games are presented in a unique and easy way. The game also offers some detective work, which is a fun addition. The graphics look nice and radiate anime-feels, and the soundtrack is top-notch. On the other hand, poker battles become rather grindy near the end, and the fact that there’s no voice acting is a pity. The cursing may put you off, and the punishment scenes may also be revolting unless you don’t mind scenes like these, of course. All things considered, All in Abyss: Judge the Fake has a lot of great aspects which make it worth considering.
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