Developer: Hermit Games
Publisher: 2P Games
Platforms: PC
Tested on: PC
Nigate Tale – Preview
The world is a strange place and your perception can be twisted especially after some traumatic events. In Nigate Tale, our protagonist is flying his plane and after a critical malfunction it crashes down in a strange place, where at first cosplaying girls welcome him, but this isn’t the reality that he is expecting. Soon, he will be trying his best to escape this place by searching the castle for the lost parts of his plane.
The story of Nigate Tale begins with a young adventurer trying out his very own plane. Suddenly his plane malfunctions as he gets sucked into a cloud, abruptly ending his piloting career. The boy gets found by an octopus girl called Mayonna and he introduces himself as Roy. The short story goes that Roy has to explore the castle in his new environment while meeting new people to help him on his quest to find the lost parts of his broken plane. The castle is a very hostile place, as it is filled with goblins and other monsters that crave mischief and pain.
After the short introduction, you will be set loose in the castle courtyard. Here you will meet a random friend of Mayonne will assist by granting you a new perk. These come in all shapes and sizes, from normal to epic in rarity and have different functions. Some will grant you a shield while others let you attack while dodging. With the Rogue-lite nature of the game, each run will be entirely unique and perks don’t transfer after death. You can purchase abilities that stay, to make life easier, but they don’t come cheap, so it can take a while to accumulate enough resources to unlock these.
When the game finally gets some traction, you will notice how beautiful the scenery is and how busy the maps are. There will be bullets flying from left to right, traps activating, much information on the screen, all while staying neatly organized so you have a clear overview at all times. Every character is nicely crafted and especially the anime girls are a sight to behold. There is a large repertoire of enemies, with many of them coming in different forms to signal their rank. It won’t take you long to recognize them all and how you best counter their attacks.
While the gameplay and graphics are of really high quality, the sound feels a bit cheaper. Now as the game is only in Early Access, the developers can always improve on the combat sounds. The music that is played in the background is simple, yet relaxing, and it feels like the developers have more plans for voiced characters. The intro movie is nicely voiced and leaves room for more voice acting to be present in the final product.
Nigate Tales is a Rogue-lite dungeon crawler where the player has to make their way through a procedurally generated labyrinth to find the lost parts of Roy his plane. The world that Roy gets sucked in is colorful but hostile, so he will need to defeat the many enemies that cross his path. Defending yourself isn’t easy, as there are not many weapons in your arsenal. At the start, you have a melee attack, a ranged attack, and a dodge roll. Soon you will unlock a remote attack in the form of a placed item and fatalities, that can wipe entire groups of enemies in one hit. During your quest, you will come across different friends of Mayonna, who will gladly help you out by granting you new perks. These perks can be upgraded or swapped with others, but if you want to be the most effective during your runs, there is the ability to min/max certain attacks to your advantage. Currently, it feels like dodge attacks are the main way to go, as you will dodge through enemies while attacking them, having it all feel a bit cheap. This can be balanced out later on, but for the time being it is a valuable tactic that you can exploit.
Controlling the game can be both done with a controller or mouse & keyboard. However, the game advises you to use a controller as it’s more beginner-friendly. The controls are pretty simple, with only a few actions that require a press, so it is accessible for all kinds of players and if you put it down for a while, the on-screen prompts will help you out if you forgot which button does what. Roy responds really well to button input, making combat and exploration while dodging traps feel natural and fluid.
Conclusion
Nigate Tales is a lovely game to play for its setting, enjoyability, and accessibility. The game is hard but feels fair with the available abilities to unlock. It doesn’t feel unfair when you lose for the fifth time in a row, and thanks to the procedurally generated levels each run feels unique and you can enjoy the game from run to run. When you are finally powerful enough, you can blast through the game, but never let your guard down, as your playthrough can end pretty fast if you are not careful.
Nigate Tale – Preview,
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