Celestian Tales: Old North

I want to start off by emphasizing that, despite my title, I don't hate this game. It's not a bad game, but I have played a JRPG or two and frankly, there's nothing new here. First of all it's very short so don't pay full price. Gameplay: You walk around getting clues about where to go, fight monsters, level up, buy new equipment and watch some plot here and there. Basically like every other JRPG style game. Combat: Fairly simple which is good and bad I suppose. If you're new to the genre it's a good one to cut your teeth on but veterans will get bored pretty quickly. Story: One of the better aspects of the game, it's well written if not particularly original. Be prepared for an abrupt and unsatisfying ending, though. Characters: The gang's all here. There's the brash meathead, the sheltered one, the one that has something to prove to their father or uncle or someone, etc. Again, well written enough but it's nothing we haven't seen before. Graphics: Graphics do not a good RPG make but they don't hurt either. This game actually looks very nice with its hand drawn art style, so while I wasn't exactly engrossed in the so so plot I did get to see some well drawn locations as it unfolded. Conclusion: I got it on sale for a couple dollars (3 or 4 I think) and it was worth that. Honestly, the game gives me an unfinished vibe what with the short play time and odd ending. I feel like it would be a pretty good beginner's RPG but there just isn't a ton here to keep someone with a few games under their belt interested. Then again, the brevity of the game might make it a good choice for someone that doesn't have a lot of free time but wants a 'quick fix'. Give it a whirl, but don't expect much.

There might be some spoilers ahead... This game is a nice RPG, or it could be a nice RPG, since it's unfinished I don't really know. As much as I understand this is part one of three of the story, you will reach the credits at the worst time, at the same moment the rather slow story seems to be going somewhere. It took me 8 hours to play the game once with one of the 6 characters. I still have to see how much a different starting character will add to the experience but I guess not that much. The graphics arn't great but it never looks ugly either so I put them in the win column. The story is not bad, some nice ideas but I really didn't get the final twist, guess the Inquisitor might have had something to do with it, but all in all it came out of nowhere. The characters are a mixed bag, some of them really work, some of them are really obnoxious streotypes. Character development is rather weak. The music, just like the grafic, is solid. Waiting for part 2 and 3 might be the better option.

Played the Final Fantasies games (until 8), plus a couple of jRPGs back in the days. This game is a big throwback to that, but more adult oriented. The characters have actual character flaws that are not always of the cute variety. Various darker themes are explored through the game and things are not always what you'd expect. Considering the genre, I find that the story can get pretty philosophical at times (it's not Camus, but it sets the bar higher than your traditional jRPG). My only big gripe about the story are the 2 important characters that completely turn 180 degrees toward the end of the game (in their demeanor in general and toward each other). It's believable that one of the two characters might have been faking it all along, but the other one... Also, the story ends with a cliffhanger with sequels on the horizon. I like the concept, though I do wonder how they'll keep up the quality of the storyline if the choices you make have a meaningful impact in the sequels (many branches). The game keeps the amount of grinding to a minimum which was a huge plus for me, especially given the amount of replay to see the story from the pov of the various characters. There is enough character customization to allow for some strategy which you will use for the final boss (who is considerably harder than the other battles in the game which range in difficulty between trivial and mildly challenging). Played 3 of the characters (started a 4th). 80%-90% of the story is the same. Also, not all characters are equal in terms of richness of narrative. From what I've played and read, I'd say Lucienne, Isaac and Camille a definitely worth playing separately. Unless you really really like their character, it's safe to give Reynard and Aria a pass (Reynard has a somewhat interesting start, but all his character specific events after that are rather boring). If you like jRPG, but dislike the grinding and would like the story to have a bit more meat, this is your game.

Well, it is just a normal RPG game with no surprise ! The simple graphic style is ok, but the action is not good enough. And the story is really simple too, the weapon upgrade is too simple also. Everything is just average, so, there are many other better choices.

I liked the story, and I didn't mind that it was short. I especially liked how the choice of protagonist affected the story. However, this game has some serious flaws. It's ugly. The character art is beautiful high-res pixel art that is ruined by the use of texture filtering. The backgrounds are in a rough "hand-painted" style that looks unfinished and clashes with the high detail character art. The writing is full of grammatical errors, mostly around the use of the thou/thee/thy pronouns. If you can't learn the proper verb forms around these pronouns, then don't use them! Combat is slow, and there is a lot of it. While the game does allow you to skip combat, doing so will put you behind the leveling curve. Finally, there's the ludonarrative dissonance. The general beating an ender in single combat is treated as a big deal in the story while my party was already winning against beating parties of enders at 3 to 4 odds without breaking a sweat.