Developer: Nippon Ichi Software, inc
Publisher: NIS America, inc
Platform: PlayStation 3
Tested on: PlayStation 3
The Awakened Fate Ultimatum – Review
An eternal war is all around earth as angels and devils clash for supremacy and it seems the latter are gaining the upper hand. Di(e)ve in and gain the powers of God himself. These are the two lines of thought that might just as well describe NIS America’s sequel to The Guided Fate Paradox, even though it might sound a bit more impressive than it really is.
Story
You will take on the part of Shin Kamikaze, a laid back, unpopular teenager who likes being on his own. He is usually found on the roof of the school, napping to make the days pass by that much faster. When taking a longer nap than usual, he is awakened by Eri Shiranui, another loner, who seems to share a small bond with Shin, albeit a superficial one.
When finally strolling home, Shin gets ambushed by a weird looking bunch. Well, weird might be an understatement as his attackers were flying through the sky with pitch black wings before they decided to target Shin. After some nonsensical threats were made, Shin is at heaven’s doorstep after being impaled by the sword of the ringleader. When a heavenly looking girl intervenes, all becomes black for our protagonist.
When Shin regains conscience he learns that he actually died and ended up in Celestia, which could be compared with our version of heaven. Whilst he is ‘alive’, he is not in this state by any conventional means. The angels inserted the ‘Awakening Crystal’ in his body, and thank God he was compatible with the weird crystal. That being said, thanking God would actually be weird, as he now actually takes the place of God, seeing God is chosen by the angels through the Awakening Crystal.(Things are getting complicated, right?)
It seems Shin has got himself involved in an ancient war between the angels and the devils, where the angels seem to be the losing force. Not only is he now involved in the conflict, it seems he is actually supposed to be the prophet that leads the angels to victory. At first Shin is reluctant of picking up the role of savior of the angelic race, but as he realizes he has no actual choice, things get better. The character development of the main characters is rather slow, but certainly worth waiting for.
The story is brought through visual novel portions, which actually take up most of the time of the game. Overall the dialogues prove to be entertaining, although they are a tad more stiff at the beginning.
It’s amusing that the game will offer you different storylines as you progress. By making choices you’ll see characters respond differently or you’ll even get a completely different setting at certain occasions. This creates a decent replay value for those who were not happy with their choices during their first playthrough.
Graphics
Graphically the game looks more like a handheld title than an actual console release. Whilst the drawn visual novel aspect is illustrated quite well, they lack subtle motion and certain touches to make them that much more convincing. You’ll sometimes see different emotions through different poses and facial expressions, but they do not always match the description. Sometimes you’ll get a description of someone in tattered clothes, being severely wounded, yet the character looks the same as always. These are small items that would have been a tad better with some more attention spent to details.
The dungeon crawling portion of the game looks a bit like a polished up version of Criminal Girls: Invite Only, as you’ll become a ‘chibi’ version of your serious self, whom you see in the cutscenes. The enemies also look cute in their own way, in the reasonably empty dungeon floors. In a sense the game looks like an angelic/hellish version of the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon series.
Sound
NIS America always spends a lot of attention to the voice acting of their games, and The Awakened Fate Ultimatum is no exception. You’ll have the option to choose between the original Japanese voices, which were already superb, and the newly added English voice cast who sound qualitative as well. Dialogues are fluent, appealing and the overall voices are pleasant to keep listening to throughout the course of the game.
The music on the other hand is quite whimsical. Certain situations have a very fitting theme, whilst other themes are a tad less appropriate for the setting. Most of the times the music is more subtle, which makes it less of a mood setter. Then again, the mood is often set by the dialogue(s) itself.
Gameplay
It’s hard to place The Awakened Fate Ultimatum in a specific genre, as it is part visual novel, part RPG and part roguelike and it actually does a fairly decent job at that. Even though the overall combination tends to work properly, it’s clear that the visual novel aspect tends to overrule the RPG and roguelike portions of the game.
The visual novel aspect of the game proves to be straightforward, as you will simply be able to enjoy the story for the most part. During certain key moments you will have to make a choice between two options, which are either leaning towards the angelic or the devilish side. When doing so you will either receive Angel or Devil Crystal Points, which get added to your main stack of CP when you level up during the dungeon crawling portion of the game.
When you are finally ready to start ‘dungeoneering’, you might be a bit underwhelmed by the overall gameplay. You’ll find yourself crawling through several small floors, with a few rooms in them, in order to reach the final floor. When venturing deeper and deeper, you’ll encounter enemies that are either aligned towards the heavenly or the hellish side. To fight them more effectively you’ll have to ‘Deitize’ to your angel or devil form. When choosing the opposite form of your opponent, you will deal more damage and have more resistance against their attacks. Each of both forms will have different skills, which can be unlocked by spending CP in the right skill tree. Both forms can also enter a super state, which gives you even more power for a limited amount of time. Keep in mind that your AC meter determines how long you can last in the dungeon. If it runs out, you’d best get out of there as soon as possible, seeing you will take damage over time.
Even though the occasional dungeon can be fun, the amusing aspect gets toned down quite a lot due to the horrible controls. As the dungeon consists out of many grids, the moves you’re able to make are not fluent at all. Diagonal movement hardly proves to be responsive and due to this you’ll make many moves you don’t want to, even in the heat of battle. You’ll often find yourself being hit by an enemy, because the controls just don’t respond anywhere near the way you want them to.
In addition to the horrid controls there’s a fairly steep difficulty curve to overcome. The game has a limited amount of levels for you to plow through, but you’ll often find yourself replaying earlier levels to gain more experience to overcome the dungeon you need to overcome. Whilst this is no real issue (except for some gigantic increases of the difficulty level), it would have been more fun if the developers added more dungeons per chapter, instead of having to play the same ones over and over again in order to level up.
Equipment and items play an important role in the game, but they feel a tad too basic to keep you interested to the fullest. Shin will be able to equip a weapon, a shield and one accessory to empower him throughout his dungeon dwelling missions. You’ll be able to upgrade your limited arsenal by combining items or adding gems to them, for even more effects. Other than that, there proves to be little diversity. Consumables however seem to be a lot more significant as you’ll be able to cause more status effects. It’s certainly handy to keep a few paralyze and sleep items close by if you wish to escape certain hard battles.
The central hub is actually just a menu where you can choose between dungeons, future events, shops, storage, customization and several other features. You’ll never be able to run around freely, as the game is just a mix between predetermined dungeons (which are randomly generated every time you replay them) and the overlapping visual novel aspect. Overall a fun mix, but there are still a few wrinkles that need to be ironed out.
Conclusion
Overall The Awakened Fate Ultimatum combines different genres in a fairly good fashion, albeit that some portions of the game are still not fully fleshed out. For the most part you will be enjoying the somewhat heavy story and think about the choices you will have to make, or have made. The constant feeling of pressure proves to create an attachment to the game’s characters and your role as God. Even with the somewhat clumsy and basic dungeon crawling aspect of the game, this title might provide you some entertaining nights.
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