Celestian Tales: Old North

This is a really fun game if you know what you're getting into. It's essentially a simple jrpg style game with a strong focus on characters & story (but mainly characters.) The gameplay is fun, but not complicated, and is largely exactly what you'd expect from this genre. The main reason to play it is because of the six protagonists. You get to choose any of the six as the main character, and the other five become your companions for the rest of the game (there are no other recruitable companions.) They're all charming in different ways, and I personally enjoy the character dynamics, and was always looking forward to the next conversation. (Be careful which character you choose as you will have to keep them in your party for the entire game.) One important note though: It's very short, especially for an rpg. I completed my first playthrough in about 8 hours, and while you are likely meant to replay it multiple times playing as the different characters, it still feels a little limited. There are also very, very few choices. From my memory my Lucienne playthrough only had two choices in the whole thing, but I am not sure if the other characters have more. Also the ending, while engaging & surprising was also a little confusing, but this might be something meant to be explored in the next game. tl;dr: if you like short character driven rpgs you will probably enjoy it.

Cons: There are moral questions and beliefs to face, one of the playable character is a religious fanatic (but good heart) and I don´t use this word lightly, but I never really feel the weight of my actions since the game is too linear. I agree with JinKazaragi about wasted potential but I think the developer will continue the story with another game of same franchise. Pros: The politics of the world are more belivable than most jrpgs out there. It´s not the pure, saint kingdom attacked by all evil, wicked empire. The enemy have some virtues and your king is not a saint. It´s very beautifull for a indie game, I liked the style. The characters don´t try to be comedian and tell a joke ever few minutes (Thanks Deus). There are no idiotic jokes to break imersion.

So, I really loved this game. The story is decent, the music is really good, but more or less, I loved how simple and straightforward and honest with itself it is. It's basically a love letter to Secret of Mana and Final Fantasy VI and other pre-FF7 titles turn based JRPG's. It doesn't try to innovate or even hide the fact that it's literally that style of game, it really owns it, and I love that. The controls are simple, the battles are really straight forward and fun, the character leveling is fun and easy to manage, And I'm definitely game to play more in this series. It's pretty short, so if you're looking for something way deeper, this might not be your thing. You can basically choose one of six characters to play as your party leader, and then choose two more at any given time to be in your battle party of three. A single play through took me about 8 hours. So if you're really into those older Squaresoft turn based RPG's, this game is perfect for you.

I've been a huge fan of classic turn-based JRPGs of the 8-, 16- and 32-bit eras since childhood, so games like this were made for me. I still love the simple, old-school turn-based battle system this game has, so if that's what you're into as well, this should appeal to you. Additionally, this game has nicely animated sprites and simple but attractive painted backgrounds, and the story is good enough to hold one's interest. Each of the six main characters has a distinct personality, which you can see more of when you replay with a different main, and decent character development for the length of this story. The only major issues I have would be the short length and the several still remaining bugs, but at the low sale price I bought this at, it was well worth it.

Pretty blatant copy paste of art from other games. Specifically Ragnarok Online's character sprites, but I vaguely recognize some of the other art as well. Can't speak to the quality of the game itself, but I don't think this is ok to do.