Developer: Navegante Entertainment
Publisher: Team17
Platforms: PS4, PS5 Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PC, Switch
Tested on: PS5
Greak: Memories of Azur (PS4) – Review
The beautiful peaceful land of Azur is plagued by the Urlag; an evil and twisted race. The only choice people have is to flee their lands and find a safe haven elsewhere. Greak, Adara, and Raydel are three siblings that possess some extraordinary abilities and form a powerful team when together. It’s your job to reunite them and try to save the land of Azur. Developed by Navegante Entertainment and published by Team17, we once again dived into Greak: Memories of Azur.
Story
The story begins in the lands of Azur where a faction called the Urlag is threatening all existence. You start playing as Greak, who’s searching for his two siblings, the magical apprentice Adara and warrior Raydel. After encountering your sister for the first time, you suddenly awake in a bed in the Raven’s Road Camp, which makes that first encounter seem like it was a dream. In this camp, you’ll find a group of people who are taking refuge from the nasty Urlags. They need help in finishing their airship to flee from the Urlags, and with your arrival, you’re the perfect subject to ask to help them gather the materials they need in order to finish the airship. After getting reunited with your siblings, you take on the task of finding a Primeval Cribe to build a new life somewhere else. The story of Greak: Memories of Azur is well-written and will surely make for an epic journey.
Graphics
The world of Greak: Memories of Azur looks absolutely great with hand-drawn animations in a colorful world. Especially the cutscenes look amazing with great animations and a good eye for detail. All conversations are subtitled, so you can decide how fast you want to go through the conversations. All the different enemies have their own distinct look and also look very good as well.
Sound
The music in Greak is done very well. With its intro video and accompanying music, it instantly captivates you and won’t let go throughout the course of the game. Each area has its own background music that perfectly fits the environment. The conversations in the game aren’t voiced, and the only sound you’ll be hearing alongside the music are the effects, which all sound very good as well.
Gameplay
Greak: Memories of Azur is a 2D side-scrolling adventure game where you control Greak, and his siblings, on their quest to retrieve a Primeval Cribe. When you have teamed up with your family members, you have control over all three siblings, and controlling them can be quite tricky sometimes. Nonetheless, when you master the mechanics, the game plays great.
You start with only Greak in your party, and in the first sequence, you’ll learn how to control him. When Adara and Raydel join your party, it gets a little bit trickier as you now have multiple characters to control at once. You’ll be needing to take control of them separately quite often, as there are a bunch of puzzles in the form of obstacles you can only get past by using the abilities of each sibling. Greak is small, which makes him able to crouch into tight holes in the wall that bring him to areas his brother and sister can’t reach. Adara can hold her breath much longer than Greak, and Raydel is unable to swim, so she’s able to cross long stretches underwater. Lastly, Raydel has a grappling hook which he uses to grab hold of objects on walls to reach higher places. In movement, they also differ a bit, as Greak and Raydel can double-jump and Adara can float in all directions for a short while after she jumps.
Aside from moving separately, you can also control them all at once. When you control them all at once, they can all jump twice, but Raydel’s grappling hook and Adara’s floating abilities only work when you control them separately. When they are locked to mirror each other’s movements, it’s best to keep them next to each other, which looks like they are overlapping each other, but by doing so, you can control them as one character. In this mode, the other two will attack automatically when you approach an enemy, tripling your damage output. If they’re not next to each other, they’ll easily miss jumps on ledges or bouncing objects, and you need to switch control to get them there individually. The developers have thought about this, as with the press of a button, nearby teammates will come towards you while you are frozen in place to regroup.
Each sibling has their own style of combat, with Greak and Raydel focusing on melee combat and Adara using ranged attacks. Greak combines both melee and ranged weapons, as he also wields a crossbow for firing arrows next to his trusty sword. Raydel carries a shield that blocks all incoming attacks while he finishes his opponents with his two-handed sword. Adara uses her magic powers to fire magic orbs towards her opponents, and when charged, they can deal a lot of damage. You’ll notice that some enemies are easier to take out with one of the siblings compared to the others, but when together, they can easily defeat anything in their path.
In some places, you’ll find vendors where you can purchase healing items and items that temporarily increase your damage. You’ll find money by opening chests and defeating enemies. You’ll also find fruits and vegetables that you can use to cook better healing items, which are always good to carry with you, but each character’s inventory is limited, so you’ll need to think before purchasing something.
Aside from the normal enemies, you’ll also run into some bosses from time to time who offer some variation and are quite fun to defeat. Each boss has its own attack pattern, and by figuring out when and how to strike, they’re quite easy to beat. This also means that the difficulty of the game isn’t really that high. You can turn the difficulty higher, but this really doesn’t change anything when it comes to the behavior of enemies, only their health and damage output will increase. Nevertheless, we found that the low difficulty level didn’t hinder the game at all, as the game’s story itself is a great experience.
Conclusion
Greak: Memories of Azur is a great 2D side-scrolling adventure game that offers you a mix of great gameplay and an intriguing story. Because of the game’s rather easy controls, this game is accessible to most people, even those who don’t often play games. The game also looks very nice with the hand-drawn animations, and it’s fun to explore the colorful world with its distinct areas. If you’re looking for a game you can easily step into while also being able to enjoy a good story, then we’d definitely recommend adding Greak: Memories of Azur to your shopping cart.
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