Divinia Chronicles: Relics of Gan-Ti is an Indie Action RPG currently within Steam’s Early Access that was inspired by one of the best generations for the genre, the Super Nintendo (SNES). Put into the shoes of a young and apparently lazy man named Cyrus, players will get to explore a beautifully designed environment while tackling monsters with sword and a fairy’s magic. They’ll need everything they have as they move further along with our hero having possibly just put the entire world at risk. Ahhhhh the good old days!
At its current state of being, Divinia Chronicles is within Alpha v0.92a meaning that the Beta stages have yet to be started. If what is currently available is a true taste of what is to come, then everyone is in for a treat.
With just over the hour that it took to complete the current story content while exploring its environments, leveling up a bit in order to better tackle monsters, and exploring everywhere that I could to make sure that I wasn’t currently missing anything, Divinia Chronicles is already pretty solid. There were no tears, lags, or stutters in the graphics while exploring and engaging in combat with giant evil squirrels. The combat itself is already well designed in which I’ll get to in a little bit, and the camera angles work smoothly while looking around. The best part? It already has controller support!
One big thing that the SNES era did, and did well, was design systems that may not truly evolve over the course of the adventure per se but instead remained solid and fun to play from the start to the finish. They did this by bringing the change within the environments and the enemies instead of the core mechanics. If Cyrus’ abilities with both his training sword and the eventual real sword that he pulls from a stone are to be compared to the previous statement, then the variety of enemies and the new magics to acquire will bring about said change without having to re-design the combat which is plenty of fun already.
Using a form of stamina system, anyone who’s ever played a Legend of Zelda will feel right at home. Standard attacking and combos are simply done with the press or multiple presses of a button as Cyrus will flow through his moveset into the enemy or air as you want to get used to how you attack before actually encountering anything. I’m sorry mister scarecrow!
Now while there is no shield present, at least not yet anyways, Cyrus can block attacks to minimize the damage done to him. For players not wanting to take damage a dodge system is in place allowing for side stepping and back flipping that is more than fun to do while avoiding your enemy’s attack only to leap forward with a heavy strike! These moves will all take up stamina and players should be careful as if the bar empties itself completely then it will turn orange forcing the player to wait until it replenishes itself. During this time only moving around can be done and if your enemies are close, running away may be a good option!
Just a short ways in, the steel meets magic in the form of a fairy that joins up with you. Instead of using an MP system in order to cast spells, spells need to be worked for by landing hits on your enemies. After a certain amount of hits and filling up a bar, one of three squares will light up and your skill available for use at the bottom of the screen will light up. There are three bars to be used but interestingly enough, and most likely to prevent the abuse of it, the first level skill requires one bar, the second requires two, and the third requires three. The first skill available is akin to being your best friend as it is a very useful healing spell while the second is one of protection. Where things got a lot of fun was the third as it allowed for a whirlwind attack that did not only a decent amount of damage, but also kept us safe while tackling two or more enemies at the same time.
Divinia Chronicles: Relics of Gan-Ti from Team Monkey is already shaping up to be a stellar experience. I can’t wait for more content of this well designed and fun to play Action Adventure RPG!
| Platform | PC |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Team Monkey |
| Publisher(s) | Team Monkey |
| Genre(s) | RPG |
| Mode(s) | Single Player |
| Other Platform(s) | None |
Article by Pierre-Yves
