8-Bit Adventures 2 by developer and publisher Critical Games—Sony PlayStation 4/5 review written by Pierre-Yves with a copy provided by the publisher.
Estimated Reading Time: 4.5 minutes.
8-Bit
Adventures 2: The Adventures of Squishy, is finally here on consoles! Who's
Squishy you ask? Squishy is your robot and totally the main protagonist. Don't
worry if you don't really get it, it's more an inside joke with Josh Hallaran,
the head of Critical Games.
Having originally launched last March, this retro inspired JRPG by Australian studio Critical Games has now made its way over to consoles. Taking place after the events of the original 8-Bit Adventures, 8BA2 continues the journey of the Warrior (Blue), Thief (Green) and Wizard (Red) as the world expands past the original RBG composition with new dangers and challenges around every corner.
Having been originally covered by Richard for the PC at launch, I was also gratefully provided a key at the time in order to stream on Twitch for an Extra Life marathon. Returning to this adventure over a year later however is just like meeting up with a good friend and it was really nice to see that the porting group Ratalaika Games did 8BA2 justice on the PlayStation.
Visually,
8BA2 has taken a step past the 8-bit realm into more of a 16-bit environment.
The original Red, Green and Blue visual approach worked well with the art style
and the gameplay mechanics. There was a charm to it and it really sold that
8-bit nostalgia. Moving into the 16-bit realm however offers a visual upgrade
and provides more details as you move through the adventure with your party
composed of members both old and new.
Audibly, 8BA2 has knocked this out of the park. Most tracks are what the kids nowadays call bangers and can also be easily listened to on Soundcloud. Each track feels like it was designed for the moments that they take place. If that wasn't enough, the battle music just slaps which I believe is the other new term being thrown around these days. Maybe it would be more appropriate to use the old school term that they rock and I swear my foot started bouncing to the sound of the battle track every time that it started.
Where 8BA2 comes into its own is in both its storytelling and its gameplay mechanics. The story starts off with a light tutorial following the Warrior from 8BA1 as he moves about desert ruins. Learning how to move and how to fight, it's not until moving over to Charlie that you get a better scope of what you're in for as he sneaks onto a ship with the Thief before meeting up with the Wizard.
I'm
going to try to avoid spoilers but the importance of this is that for a good
deal of the adventure, you're going to be splitting the party between
characters new and old. This allows you to get acquainted with everyone both in
terms of their play styles as well as personalities. Care was also taken to
make sure that the party splits are feasible as 8BA2 isn't the easiest when it
comes to fighting certain enemies.
Battle is turn based with a speed-based initiative approach. Both party and enemies can cast haste or slow on each other in order to turn the tides. Status effects compared to most JRPGs are your best friend. Poison, freeze, shock, blind, and more are available and often worth the turn that it takes to use them.
With three party members on the field at a time, it is very appreciated that it doesn't take up a turn in order to switch them out for someone in reserve. Switched characters and realized that's not who you meant to switch out for? Switch them again and then play out your turn. 8BA2 is really friendly in that regard as I had mentioned above just how hard these battles, and boss battles, can be at times.
But it's not all about combat. My favorite part of 8BA2 is the story and the character interactions. Each character’s personality is written in a way that makes them stand out and feel so much more than a 16-bit like sprite on the screen. It deepens the immersion and at times may even make you forget that there's no voice over.
Before wrapping everything up, while I absolutely loved 8BA2, it's not perfect. Combat, while fast paced in the turn-based style, often has you on a more defensive mode as you try to come out of it with a decent set of hit points. HP numbers do not rocket into the thousands, which is fine, but when you have 300 HP and enemies are hitting for 150~220, you either try to heal up in battle or make sure to heavily budget restoratives for once it's over.
Overall, 8-Bit Adventures 2 is an excellent love letter to the 8 and 16-bit era of gaming. Between the storytelling, musical accompaniment and slick gameplay, if you haven't had the chance to sit down to this yet, there are no more excuses now that it is out on the consoles!
Score: 8.5 / 10
0 comments:
Post a Comment