Lost Sphear , as it happened with I Am Setsuna , is a new nostalgic Tokyo RPG Factory that brings back the purest of the genre, reminding us of works of yesteryear like Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana or some other classic Final Fantasy the VI. Aerial perspective, small-scale combats and the importance of the plot are some of the elements that forge a work with charm like the one we have today.
Everything about the game will be familiar , and not only because it is a tribute to the roots of the genre, but because a couple of years ago we had seen something similar . This is not a bad thing, since you can always extract praiseworthy elements from the Square-Enix studio's creations.
Sometimes the comparisons are odious, but one cannot look away and try to compare the current and past work of
Tokyo RPG Factory , especially when we have quite recent after the appearance on Nintendo Switch at the premiere of the console makes less than a year. The first important section is that of history, and here they have known 'get to the potato' in a way that did not get the good of Setsuna.
In the world of Lost Sphear is unleashing a strange phenomenon by which places, people and objects are being erased from the face of the earth. However, they leave behind a white trail that recalls what they once were. Our main protagonist, Kanata , has lost his mother in strange circumstances and plans to investigate his whereabouts when he discovers that, together with his childhood friends Lumina and Locke (they will also be joined by the mysterious Van ), he can return these elements " lost "to its previous state.
Lost Sphear plays a lot with that concept of feelings and memories , considering them the two necessary elements to give life to matter and it will be precisely what Kanata requires to return the color and life to the elements that have fallen under this complex spell. This will lead to a rather peculiar game mechanics, because although most of the memories are found as an object on the stage, some special ones are extracted directly from the sentimental dialogues of the other characters. As you can guess, the plot will end up being deeper than it seems as the hours of the game pass , with past reminiscences and the connection of Kanata with them.
In the purely playable, we will find a double-scale navigation system. On the one hand, in dungeons, towns and cities we can see our protagonists with a size that corresponds to the rest of the elements of the scenario. However, there is also an open world that communicates some areas with others and whose disproportionate aspect ratio will serve to move quickly between the main locations.
In this interactive map of the game we will find the same problem as before in what refers to "lost" zones with their characteristic white color. Here, Kanata can not only restore things, but can place certain special buildings known as Artifacts, which will provide a permanent special bonus (allow us to go faster on the world map, increase the power of weak-type attacks. to an enemy, show the remaining health of the enemies, heal the characters out of battle or give an EXP bonus, to name a few examples). It is perhaps the element in which greater freedom of choice we will have.
As for the combat system, we are almost entirely in front of I Am Setsuna, with a couple of tweaks. We are talking about a BTC battle system that makes the action develop in real time, with a bar - visible this time - ATB that tells us when the next movement can be executed. The great novelty with regard to IAS is that on this occasion we will find a clear delimitation of the area of effect of each attack. In addition, we will find an indicator close to the ATB bar that will mark the amount of special "Momentum" that can be done, pressing square on PS4 to do additional damage and that must be used at the appropriate time.
The main differentiation is the arrival of the Vulcosuits . Around 8 hours of play we will unlock by history these special costumes that will turn our protagonists into " mechas ", contributing a bonus to the game experience. By using these suits our statistics are increased, special attacks are unlocked and the teamwork is exploited with certain combined attacks quite spectacular on the screen. However, in order not to break the gaming experience, the time we can use the Vulcosuits is directly proportional to the available Vulcopoints bar.
Speaking of hours of play, as in I Am Setsuna, the full gaming experience can be around 40 hours . It is a fairly direct game in its approach, which especially in the early hours will be fairly linear because history will mark successive destinations, but it will take away all freedom of choice, making it quite linear, even if it is not Passage (at least we can relax in some of the fishing posts). A little later appear certain character quests with which we can know more about each of the characters.
It is quite complicated to connect with the characters. With the exception of Locke and his occurrences, the rest of the protagonists are quite flat , without really knowing what moves or motivates them to embark on this adventure. It even happens with the protagonist Kanata, who in the first place wants to look for his mother and ends up being the prophet who restores "the lost", acting in good faith here and there, but being little more than a messenger ... a game without messenger missions!
Graphically we will find again an inheriting title of the result in screen that we saw with I Am Setsuna . Luckily, in this game the snow disappears in favor of much greener scenarios. With the mechanics of restoring "what is lost", we finally arrive at a discovery exercise with the character of what these white layers hide, giving us certain surprises at the artistic level once the landscapes have been revealed. The characters are modeled in 3D on these flat backgrounds, with chibi doll aesthetics that is so fashionable.
As for the soundtrack, composer Tomoki Miyoshi also returns , delighting us with his piano melodies that fit perfectly in all kinds of situations. The background music has its own protagonism and manages to be a tribute to a more classic style, perfectly adapted to a modern classic RPG. It presents voices in Japanese , but the dialogues are not doubled, limited to certain dialogues in battle.
Developer Tokyo RPG Factory
Publisher Square Enix
Composer Tomoki Miyoshi
Platform Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Microsoft Windows
Release January 23, 2018
Genre Role-playing
Mode Single-player, multiplayer
Tokyo RPG Factory does it again. It manages to bring together in a single play what made the classic RPG great, but it assumes few risks in terms of playability (to say nothing). The main attraction of this "spiritual sequel" of I Am Setsuna is its plot, much more elaborate and sentimental. In terms of the game, the arrival of the Vulcan Suits brings some fresh air to the battle system, but it will not be a great revolution in the formula of the study.
Happy Gaming!!!!
