There are many reasons why a video game is not known, and one of the main reasons is that it could not break the language barrier and this happens in most Japanese video games, since many of them are not translated into other languages and therefore, video games that do not leave their country of origin. There are many good titles that because of this very few people know about them and the game I'll tell you about today is one of those, but even though this particular one has an English translation patch, there are still very few people who have played it outside of Japan.
Today's Retro Review is about: Alcahest.
Alcahest is a very simple Action RPG, both in mechanics and in plot, it keeps all the main characteristics of this kind of games, that despite it was a method quite used many years ago, this game, as other ones that, in the same way keep a lot of simplicity, are still games that are going to give us some hours of fun.
The history of this game, as we can suppose, takes us to a medieval, fantastic and magical world and as I already mentioned its plot is one of the simplest in the world. The story focuses on the kingdom of Panakeia and many years ago they were attacked by a powerful demon, but thanks to a swordsman this creature was sealed. Many years passed and once again the kingdom and the world are in danger. Our main protagonist, Alen, must now take the place of that swordsman of the past and stop the coming evil. A simple and direct argument.
Graphically what stands out most in this game is the character design, as the settings are quite simple and repeat many design patterns and decorations in many places. The scenarios are quite varied and represent quite normally places like castles, dungeons, caves, although places like castles have better decoration.
On the other hand the character design is much better, the sprites are relatively big so in terms of details they are very good, besides the set of movements are quite accurate and very satisfactory, something that in an action game like this, is quite necessary. The enemies also have good designs, they are quite varied, creatures of all kinds, as well as the bosses, because logically as the final bosses these also have very good designs, many of them quite original and colorful.
The music is very good, very much in line with a video game under the old label "Square" and as a curious fact, Alcahest was developed by HAL Laboratory, the same company that was under the development of the Kirby, Earthbound, Pokémon Stadium games and among many other excellent games, so I was 100% sure that the tunes we were going to find in this game were going to be of high quality. Very epic music, with tonalities of medieval music, of fantasy and in general, to a fantastic world that is full of adventures. It's excellent.
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Alcahest, as I mentioned before is an action RPG, so its gameplay is similar to games like Secret Of Mana or the more classic The Legend Of Zelda itself. It's a classic action RPG that doesn't innovate in any of its playable aspects, however the basic and so characteristic aspects that this game presents, are very well made by what makes it a quite fun game to play. A good action RPG, even if it has a simple mechanic, will always give us some hours of entertainment, and it is also a challenge.
As a good Action RPG we must defeat enemies through different scenarios and dungeons, always using some item or skill that helps us to perform that task. When we defeat enemies, we will earn points that will be added to our stats, so as a good RPG it is necessary to eliminate many enemies to have enough stats to defeat the final bosses. We will count with the help of some characters that will accompany us in this arduous mission, they will attack when we do, but we won't be able to control them manually, they have their own AI. A game with simple mechanics, simple to learn and with controls that respond very well to every action we need to perform. There's not much to say, it's a good game mechanically.
Alcahest, is a game that despite not innovating and maintaining the main characteristics of its genre, is a fairly entertaining title, which for not having an official English translation, since never left Japan, is not recognized.