Warhammer 40,000 and brutal simplicity

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 just released a little bit ago, and it looks awesome. I’ve wanted to play it, but unfortunately my CPU is too old. So, I decided to go back and replay Space Marine 1.

I’ve always been interested in the WH40k universe, but never really dove into it. Lately, I’ve been engaging with it way more. Not only did I replay SM1, but I also decided to play through Dawn of War 2. That, alongside watching lore videos and ogling Ork miniatures, I’m pretty sure the Warhammer universe has its hooks in me.

Something that struck me about both games though, is how each is streamlined in their own way. Making both Space Marine and Dawn of War 2 good entry points into the Warhammer 40,000 universe.

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Space Marine

Brutal, and to the point

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine is a straightforward experience filled with brutal action. It drops you onto a planet with a single mission, evacuate a titan as the world succumbs to an Ork WAAAGH!

You then proceed to eviscerate Orks with chainswords, thunder hammers, meltaguns, and the classic bolter. It’s a satisfying experience to fend off hordes of enemies, and the pacing never edged into dull. There isn’t an upgrade tree, but the game managed to keep things unique by slowly introducing new weapons throughout the experience. Meaning there’s always something new around the corner. Combine that with the temporary jump pack upgrade sprinkled throughout key moments, and it keeps combat engaging.

It was refreshing to play something that’s straightforward. Space Marine nails its core gameplay, creating a satisfying experience that can be repeated over and over. It doesn’t need superfluous mechanics or mini games, if anything that would likely mire the pacing. We drop into an Ork horde and get to let loose. The guns feel impactful, the melee weapons visceral, all coming together for an adrenaline-fueled bloodbath.

One of the ways Space Marine facilitates this is with executions. There’s no cover system here, instead you’re encouraged to get in the thick of it and lay waste with melee attacks. This provides opportunities for you to initiate context sensitive executions, which when performed regenerates your health. This is a brilliant way to encourage an aggressive playstyle, as you benefit from taking risks. It’s also incredibly satisfying to land executions, making you feel like a rampaging juggernaut.

I think Space Marine is a phenomenal game. Its satisfying, brutal, and straightforward. This is the second time I’ve played through it, and I doubt it’ll be the last. I also think it’s a good introduction to the world of Warhammer 40,000, as it gives a good foundation of the tone, and a few of the galactic actors. It doesn’t infodump an overwhelming amount of information, nor does it rely on an expectation of you already being knee-deep in WH40k lore. All that said, I definitely recommend it.

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Give us an Ork game

Listen, I can’t be the only one that wants this. I know there are a smattering of other Ork games, but I think we need one in the style of Space Marine. Let us control a Nob or Warboss and go ham on the Astra Militarum. Space Marines might be the most popular faction, but our Ork boyz need some time in the spotlight.

At this point, I’m just trying to will this into reality. I’m sure there’s an audience for an action oriented Ork game. Give us an excuse to WAAAGH!

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Dawn of War 2

RTS, but not really

Dawn of War 2 has been in my steam library for years. I’ve bounced off it twice before, for whatever reason I just wasn’t connecting with it. But this time around, it got its hooks in me. Maybe because I’d been going deep into lore videos and genuinely engaging with the world of Warhammer 40,000.

DOW2 is structured like an RTS, but doesn’t quite play like the ones I’m familiar with. The biggest difference is a lack of base building, DOW2 is squad based. Instead of hunkering down to harvest trees and gold, your squad drops into a map and goes straight for the objective.

At first, I found this jarring. I was used to the base building of Warcraft and StarCraft, but this squad-based gameplay ended up being much faster and more engaging. Each one of your squads, led by a named Space Marine of the Blood Ravens, has unique abilities, strengths, and weaknesses. There’s a scouting squad that can go invisible and plant explosives, one that’s melee based with jump packs so they can get in and out quick to be disruptive, and so on. Each of your Space Marines has a talent tree, and can change loadouts with new weapons, armors, and accessories. All of this makes DOW2 more akin to an RPG than a traditional RTS.

Each mission feels more like loading into a dungeon, with a faster pace than hunkering down and building a base. My only complaint is that in the original campaign it’s not always clear what weapon types are effective against which enemy types. But the subsequent expansion, Chaos Rising, improved this by providing more info in the mission briefing. I also think Chaos Rising is where DOW2 really shines, as the missions are paced better, and structured in such a way that really forces you to take advantages of your squads’ strengths.

I’m glad I gave Dawn of War 2 another try. This time around I’m really enjoying it, and much like Space Marine, find it to be an engaging and straightforward experience that prioritizes intense action. DOW2 also doubles as a good entry point into WH40k. Overall, I’d highly recommend it, just don’t expect a typical base building RTS.

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Conclusion

Both Space Marine and Dawn of War 2 streamline their respective genres into a satisfying laser focused experience. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with each, and plan on trying out the other two Dawn of War games. I’m also looking forward to eventually getting to play Space Marine 2, when I finally upgrade my CPU. Hopefully by then we’ll finally have an Ork game in the style of Space Marine, WAAAGH!

Final Fantasy II, the bad one

Final Fantasy II is the one entry in the series that is rarely talked about. It always seemed that when listing oldschool FFs, you could find people who had good things to say about one, three, and everything after. But FF2 was oft skipped. I didn’t give it much thought until recently, when I started to become curious. It’s the only game that I knew nothing about. I had no concept of FF2’s characters, villain, abilities, anything.

Most online sentiment for FF2 is not very positive. Particularly for the original release, which was apparently brutal. But, the pixel remaster fixes all that and makes the game far more playable. So, I finally gave FF2 a try.

Too many random encounters

This is agony. The encounter rate is atrocious. It’s way too high, every few steps triggers a fight, making exploring dungeons a chore. The fights themselves are also really easy and straightforward, to the point that I played nearly the whole game on auto-battle. I wasn’t engaged with the combat, just auto-attacking through everything. With such a high encounter rate, I can’t imagine what it would be like if each fight was difficult. I probably would have tapped out and not finished the game.

The high encounter rate makes the pace of the dungeons grueling. Each dungeon is built like a maze, with multiple floors of winding corridors and dead ends. The exit to the next floor isn’t clearly marked, and is usually hidden behind a door. The game loves to fill dungeons with empty rooms, that means you’ll be going in and out of doors with little to no reward, butting up against dead end hallways, and doing it all while the high encounter rate bogs down the whole experience. This makes dungeons a frustrating grind, which is unfortunate considering there isn’t much else to the game other than its dungeons.

Thankfully, the pixel remaster gives you tools to mitigate this. You can turn encounters on and off with the press of a button. And, there is a boost option in the configuration menu that allows you to apply experience multipliers, so you can level up faster by doing less fights. I still find it frustrating that I have to go noodle in the options menus, and turn off combat—a core feature of the game—to enjoy it. I’d much prefer having the encounter rate reduced overall, with more exp from each fight, so we could just play the game from beginning to end without any hinderances. They could’ve added a classic mode for those who wanted to play through a grinder like the original release.

Flat characters

I didn’t find the main cast interesting at all. There’s not much to them, nothing interesting is revealed about their past, and their relationships with the other characters are sterile at best. This is true for almost all the NPCs in the game, from the princess who gives you your early quests, to the final villain. There’s no substance to any of them.

The rotation of guest characters doesn’t fare much better. They all fall into the same category, uninteresting and flat. The only intriguing thing about guest characters are their interesting visual designs, but that only goes so far. Even then, they lack a sense of uniqueness in combat, since each character has the same moveset and spells. Unless you keep the guests with their original weapons, like the dragoon with a spear, there isn’t much that differentiates them. They don’t even get special abilities like jump, steal, chakra, or any of the other Final Fantasy staples. All this makes the guests feel like just another unit, easily replaced with a blank soldier rather than a named character.

Proto-Final Fantasy

Final Fantasy II has many of the hallmarks that would become the norm for the series, like guest characters and character deaths. But, being an early entry in the series, none of it is fleshed out yet. The characters and villains are loosely tied together, but not in a way with any meaningful depth. The guest characters feel shallow, and the deaths are often lacklustre (except one that I thought was well done). All in all, FF2 very much feels like a proto-Final Fantasy. An early version filled with all the narrative beats that would become standout moments in the following games. The characters and story arc even feel like an early version of Final Fantasy IV, like FF2 was the rough draft to FF4’s final edit.

Conclusion

I thinks it’s fascinating from a historical perspective, but on its own I can’t say it’s a good game. I would not recommend playing it, especially if you don’t already have an interest in the history of the series or that of JRPGs. If you do play it, I’d suggest making shameless use of the experience multipliers in the boost menu, and turning encounters off whenever they start to annoy you.

The boost multipliers and toggle for encounters help a lot, but I still find it frustrating that I have to turn off a core aspect of the game. The most fun I had was when encounters were off and I was only fighting monsters from chests and bosses. Which made me wish they’d modified the encounter rate and experience by default, and then gave players some kind of classic option for those that want the grind.

Despite all that, Final Fantasy II grew on me in the end. This is clearly an important part of Final Fantasy’s foundation, one that future FFs would build off of. Even if I can’t wholeheartedly recommend FF2, I’m still glad to have experienced it.

Darkest Dungeon and Narrative Context

Darkest Dungeon is the best game I’ve played that doesn’t have a plot, and yet has a story. It’s a peculiar distinction to make, but it’s the only way I can think to describe how Darkest Dungeon’s narrative and themes are laced throughout every aspect of the game, without having a point A to point B plot.

Darkest Dungeon is layered in a gothic Lovecraftian aesthetic. You find yourself pitted against tentacled horrors and warped pigmen. The whole game has an oppressive feel, bearing down on you with inescapable hopelessness. It’s phenomenal. This is all communicated with an amazing mix of art and sound that comes together to create a vivid experience.

The final knot that hold the whole experience together, is the ancestor’s voice over.

Conflict and Tragedy

The ancestor’s voice over narrates the entire game, from combat, to the Hamlet (the game’s hub town), and all the little pieces of exposition we’re fed over the course of the game. It’s a low, pained tone that haunts us as we try and clean up the ancestor’s failings.

Darkest Dungeon is inextricably tied to the ancestor’s actions. We see the remnants of his dark rituals, grotesque experiments, and disregard for the townsfolk who were his charge. Each dungeon, each boss, and every broken thing about the Hamlet is the ancestor’s fault.

This is where conflict and tragedy intersect, rooted throughout the game’s design. Each boss is tied to the ancestor’s actions. When you enter a boss dungeon, the ancestor narrates a snippet of that boss’s history. They are always created by the ancestor. A problem that was the result of his greed. And you are there to clean up, throwing body after body at horrors to fix his mess.

In time, you will know the tragic extent of my failings...

—Ancestor

The ancestor starts in a position of power. A leader of vague title to the surrounding town. He’s wealthy and wants for nothing. But then his greed and selfish fascination with the Darkest Dungeon drives him to more extreme actions, until his end (this is all shown in the opening cutscene). Which is when the player, as the descendant, enters a derelict and broken Hamlet.

The ancestor starts as a powerful leader, but we enter after the tragedy, when he has already brought himself low and expired from this world. The ruins of the Hamlet, the dangers of the dungeons, are all that’s left of him. And it is all failure.

The minute to minute gameplay is laced with this subtext. Every raised undead and grotesquely summoned monster is reinforcing the ancestors actions. He may be gone, but his failings haunt us. The player is partaking in the tragedy, at the very tail end of it, by throwing heroes into the fray. And our frustration, either when a leveled up hero dies, or we run out of gold, its all part of the hopelessness that hangs over the Hamlet. All initiated by the ancestor. His actions still affecting us.

Plot vs Story

I wouldn’t say Darkest Dungeon has a plot. It may be possible to very loosely apply the boss encounters and build-up to the final dungeon on a plotline, but that feels like a stretch. Really, the game is about grinding out levels while partaking in the gothic fantasy atmosphere. But there is still a story.

The discussion of what plot versus story is can get convoluted, it depends on who you ask. In this context, I separate plot as being the story beats that make the backbone of a narrative. Hero leaves town, meets mentor, encounters villain, climbs Mt. Doom, etc. But lacks all the characterization, worldbuilding, and atmosphere that makes a story complete. The two are so intertwined that is makes sense to not break them apart outside of noodly conversation around narrative.

For games though, the way stories are presented can be very different than other media. Darkest Dungeon might not have the player following a clear route through a plotline, but it’s still enmeshed in story. The narrative permeates every aspect of gameplay. Heroes permadeath frustrates us, makes us angry or hopeless, even feeling like we wasted our time. The background sounds, especially when the torch is at 0%, evoke horrors just beyond our sight. And all of this, the reason we’re sending heroes to die in nightmare wrought landscapes, is because of the ancestor’s actions.

The game design is the narrative. Grinding levels is part of the conflict, a result of the ancestor’s tragedy. One the player strives to push against, despite the consequences of our predecessor’s actions constantly bearing down on us. Each dungeon run has narrative conflict rooted in its foundation, and supports the ancestor’s tragedy. The narrative and game design are so expertly interwoven that it creates an amazing experience. There’s no part of Darkest Dungeon that feels out of place.

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If you can’t tell, I’ve been playing a lot of Darkest Dungeon lately. I went through the same stages many players do, where at first I got incredibly frustrated, considered dropping it, but then ended up hooked. It’s a peculiar game that can shift from infuriating to comforting once you learn the tactics to deal with each enemy type. But I was particularly struck by how the narrative is tied to the gameplay, it really is phenomenal.

If you haven’t tried it, and you like the sound of a turn-based rogue-like, then I highly recommend Darkest Dungeon.

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For A Vast Future is really good

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I picked up For a Vast Future. I saw it recommended in a Quartet Kickstarter email, and picked it up on a whim. Advertised as a compact, Gameboy inspired RPG, I couldn’t help but give it a try.

A Vast Apocalypse

For a Vast Future takes place in a beautifully crafted apocalyptic world. You start out as Chel, an orphan who spends her days looking for scrap, until she encounters a cyborg who can’t remember his origins. Promising to help him, and maybe get some loot on the way, the two set out, kicking off the story.

The worldbuilding is fantastic, creating a world scarred by corrupt governments and a desperate war. But to really dig into it, you have to read the optional logs that can be found on bookshelves and interactable computers. Each is short and to the point, but they do an amazing job of laying out the context of the world, revealing the intricacies of the apocalyptic war and the experimental tech that grew out of it.

There are some weaknesses though. I’d describe the game as having a strong plot, but weak story. We move through the twists and turns at a fast clip, and it’s a satisfying pace. But there’s a lack to the character interactions and their role in the story that makes it feel plot driven, but not character driven. It’s a letdown, but not a dealbreaker. And the gameplay more than makes up for it.

Ammo, scrap, and wargear

Combat is turn-based and works around a simple but elegant ammo system, where each character has access to the same pool of ammo types. There’s basic, burn, ice, shock, which are some of the traditional damage types. Then there’s the interesting ones like delay (move enemies’ next turn further back on the timeline), vampire (absorb hp), desperate (deal more damage at low health), and so on. There's also an EXPLODE damage type. Which I find both hilarious and awesome.

Enemies can have strengths and weaknesses, where certain damage types deal more or less damage. The difference between a strength and weakness is significant, so it’s incentivized to try and exploit weaknesses to keep battles from turning into a slog. Especially after the first quarter of the game, because spamming attacks with basic ammo starts to do much less damage.

Then there’s wargear, which is stuff like first aid kits, grenades, and items that invoke a temporary weakness, like the oil can making enemies weak to burn damage. To my surprise, the simplicity of all this together made it so that I would be regularly using wargear, as it’s extremely effective, especially when you upgrade a character’s dexterity stat (it increases wargear’s damage).

In most games I tend to ignore damage items, but in For a Vast Future I used them constantly. It was made more fun since you can craft wargear with scrap. So if you need more grenades or tasers, you can get it from a junk-o-tron as long as you have the requisite scrap. And you get a ton of scrap, I never found myself wanting for basic items.

All of this works together in a simple yet satisfying system. Defeating enemies by using their weaknesses, getting a bunch of ammo and scrap after each battle, then stopping at a junk-o-tron to craft more wargear to defeat more enemies. I found it to be a lot of fun. There’s an elegance to the simplicity of its design.

Do I recommend it?

Yes.

The only letdown are the characters, who I wish we’d gotten more time with to fully flesh them out. Otherwise, fun combat with a straightforward ammo and crafting system, a fascinating apocalyptic world, and a compact 10 hour playtime make this an easy recommendation. For a Vast Future is a lot of fun and I recommend it to anyone looking for an old school RPG experience.

Check it out on Steam.

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Replaying Chrono Trigger

Screenshot from the Steam version of Chrono Trigger.

I can’t remember if I played Chrono Trigger on the SNES, but I’m certain I played the PS1 port. I have vivid memories of those animated cutscenes and how much they felt like clips from a cartoon series.

I enjoyed Chrono Trigger when I first played it, but it didn’t leave an impression on me like Final Fantasy VI and Final Fantasy IX did. I’ve seen it espoused to be as close to near-perfect a game can get. I’d assumed a lot of that love was driven by nostalgia. I wanted to replay it to see for myself. Could it really be that good? I expected to enjoy playing it, expected it to be good, great even. But perfect? That’s a bold claim.

A COMPACT 20hr RUNTIME

I had forgotten how compact these retro SNES JRPGs were. Chrono Trigger’s runtime is a compact twenty or so hours. It kicks off at a fast clip and doesn’t let up, with a nonstop string of reveals, twists, and world changing events. There’s no excess in any of the storytelling.

We never linger in one area for too long. The player is in and out of dungeons without any meandering, and even the towns are devoid of the usual need to run-around and talk to everybody. The only buildings we get access to are the important ones, entering inns, shops, and homes of prominent NPCs directly from the world map.

It sounds odd to call twenty hours compact, but that’s how playing Chrono Trigger feels. It gets its hooks in early and pulls you along with ease. Like the video game equivalent of a page-turner.

ACTIVE TIME BATTLES ARE HECTIC BUT REWARDING

The consensus that I often see online is that static turn-based battles are superior to Active Time Battles. The argument being that static turn-based systems allow for more strategy. I used to fall into this category too, but after replaying Chrono Trigger, I’ve developed a new appreciation for ATBs.

ATBs can be hectic and feel nerve-wracking, but that can be part of the fun. It’s also apparent that you’re meant to be able to weather a few extra hits while you’re choosing abilities. This works great at ramping up tension in fights and makes each decision feel urgent.

Recently I replayed Final Fantasy IV and Final Fantasy IX. Both have ATBs that feel cumbersome in regular fights, not moving along fast enough and making these basic encounters drag on. Conversely, both really shine in boss fights, where the extra time is needed to adjust to big hits and stay alive. This makes FF4’s and FF9’s combat feel off-balance, with regular fights being burdensome but boss fights being thrilling and intense. Chrono Trigger doesn’t have this off-balance feel, the regular fights are quick and snappy, while the boss fights are still intense and nerve-wracking, but not so much so that they ever feel unbeatable or unfair. This is why Chrono Trigger turned me around on ATBs, it hits the right balance across all its encounters.

SKIP THE LOST SANCTUM

The Lost Sanctum is a side area that was added to the DS port and then carried over to the Steam port (I think it’s in the mobile version too). It’s dull, repetitive, and just not worth your time.

In The Lost Sanctum you hop through a time portal to find a peaceful reptite village. These reptites give you a handful of fetch quests spanning two eras. That means not only are you running around uninteresting dungeons, but you’re leaving and re-entering the Lost Sanctum over and over in different time periods to run around these uninteresting dungeons.

If you look up anything about it online, you’ll immediately find people complaining about running up and down a mountain. Said mountain is a criss-cross path of rope bridges that spans multiple screens, and the fetch quests have you running up and down it like twelve times, back and forth through different time periods.

The reptite village is bland brown cave walls, with holes that are meant to be “houses” (which you can’t enter), and one table and chair plunked in the corner. All the other villages in Chrono Trigger are on the world map, the only buildings you can enter are the important ones, usually with a packed lived-in (and often cozy) interior design. We don’t need the whole village, we know it’s there, just give us the important buildings. The reptite village doesn’t benefit from having a wide open, empty expanse of a cave system that’s devoid of personality. Just plop us in the tavern and leave the exterior village to our imagination.

It's dull, tedious, and uninteresting. The Lost Sanctum seems to miss the point of what makes Chrono Trigger such a compact and tightly woven experience. Skip it.

STILL LOVABLE 25 YEARS LATER

I don’t have to espouse how great the story is, chances are if you’re reading this you’re already familiar with it. Suffice to say, the story holds up. With lovable characters and a plethora of time hopping storylines, it’s an absolute joyous romp from beginning to end. I get it now, Chrono Trigger really is near-perfect.

If you haven’t played Chrono Trigger, go play it. It’s a phenomenal experience and well worth your time.

Rise of the Argonauts and Lost Potential

I’ve always had an affinity for peculiar games that folks seem to have forgotten. Whether due to questionable quality or because they just didn’t hit the right cultural notes to become part of our modern lexicon. If you’ve followed me on twitter for awhile, you might have seen me bring up Dragon Valor for PS1. It’s always been one of those games that I have deeply fond memories of, but is also, by all metrics, mediocre. Whenever I bring it up, I seem to be the only one who’s ever heard of it. And everybody looks at me weird when I show them the totally rad intro for disc one.

Though well reviewed when they released, Maximo: Ghosts to Glory and Rygar: The Legendary Adventure both occupy that same realm. Games that nobody seems to have heard off outside of a few dedicated audiences. And both were games I remember playing over and over, absolutely loving.

I love these oddball games, peculiar and off the beaten path. Made with passion but oft forgotten. So, when I saw Rise of the Argonauts sitting in my Steam library, I decided to give it a try. I played it when it first released, and have mixed memories of the experience. But maybe, after a second look, RotA might turn out to be one of those hidden gems. Oft forgotten.

SPOILER WARNING: From here onward are SPOILERS FOR THE WHOLE GAME. You have been warned.

The Setup

We start out in the palace of our main character, Jason king of Iolcus. Jason is getting married to Alceme in a juddering, poorly compressed cutscene filled with jaggies that aren’t present in-game. It’s not a great introduction, and doesn’t help that stilted, wooden character models mime going through a wedding ritual. But assassins have infiltrated the palace, and before Alceme even gets to utter her first line of dialogue, she’s shot with an arrow through the heart.

We learn that the assassins are Blacktongues, a murderous cult devoted to Hecate. Later it’s revealed that Alceme was part of some poorly explained prophecy dictating that she would be the downfall of the Blacktongues, which is why they attacked her. It’s not really made clear what exactly that prophecy was, but it’s implied to be self-fulfilling on the part of the Blacktongues, since in killing Alceme they start Jason on his quest that ultimately results in their own destruction.

So Alceme dies, and Jason pledges to bring her back to life. With the help of the gods, he sets out on a quest to get the Golden Fleece, which has the power to revive her.

Right off the bat, this smacks of reducing Alceme to a prop to fuel Jason’s motivations. Though her death and revival is the anchor that tethers the narrative, we never get any insight into her character. The closest we get are a few flashbacks that show snippets of her and Jason’s budding relationship through the years, which is nice, but even these are optional. I only found them because I like to explore the nooks and crannies of levels, otherwise it’s extremely easy to miss these extra scenes.

Stab, talk, and stab again

Rise of the Argonauts is an action RPG. The combat plays like a hack n’ slash, you have two attack buttons, a wounding attack (weak attack), and an execution attack (strong attack). Along with a block, a shield bash, a dodge roll, and a couple special abilities, you set to work slicing, crushing, and stabbing enemies with reckless abandon.

There isn’t much finesse to the combat. Jason has access to three weapons and a shield, and each is associated with a god. The mace (Ares) is slow but strong and deals more damage to shields. The sword (Hermes) is quick but weak, with long combo strings. And the spear (Athena) has the strongest execution attack, but doesn’t do much damage to shields. Finally, we have the shield (Apollo), which has a shield bash that can stagger enemies.

There’s some strategy built into these weapons, using the mace to break shields, the spear to do precise damage, or the sword for a series of quick attacks. But I often resorted to spamming attacks, becoming frustrated from enemies constantly blocking with their shields, and just trying to brute force my way through encounters. A lot of the combat’s satisfying feel is carried on the back of the execution attacks. When an enemy is near death, hitting them with an execution attack will initiate an animation with a slow down effect. It’s undeniably satisfying to see Jason chop a dude in half amid a spray of blood while the world goes into slomo for three seconds.

Pictured: Nessus, centaur traitor, and his tamed spectral beast. There aren’t a lot of enemy types and many of them have similar patterns. But there are some creative boss fights that require more strategy than spamming attacks.

It seems like shields were meant to be a big component of the game. Jason’s shield gets its own upgrade tree assigned to Apollo, and in a super interesting design choice, Jason’s shield is always blocking. This means if you’re standing still, not pressing any buttons, and an enemy attacks Jason from the side holding his shield, the shield will still block the attack. This is true for enemies as well, and gives the impression we’re meant to try and duck and weave around attacks to hit opponents exposed sides. But the combat is so spammy, and encounters often throw a dozen or more enemies at you at once, that this just becomes unfeasible. It’s an interesting idea that ends up feeling like a gimmick because there’s no room to build effective strategy around it.

I mentioned that the shield has its own upgrade tree assigned to Apollo, each of Jason’s weapons has a dedicate upgrade tree assigned to their respective god. So Ares’ upgrade tree focuses on beefing up mace attacks, Hermes enhances sword attacks, and Athena’s improves spear attacks. Each also provides additional benefits and some magical abilities that do things like increase your damage, heal yourself and party members, leave a decoy after you dodge, and so on.

The way RotA approaches leveling up is pretty unique. The game eschews experience points, instead relying on the player dedicating “deeds” to one of the gods. Think of deeds like achievements, kill ten enemies for the first time, you get a deed and can dedicate it to a god. This also includes advancing in the story, recruiting Argonauts, and doing side quests. Dedicate enough deeds to a god and you get an aspect point, which can be used to purchase an upgrade. Rinse and repeat. It’s a clever way to make leveling up feel more involved and thematically appropriate to the fantastical Greece setting.

In-between all this stabbing and upgrading are long sections focused on dialogue. I think this is really the part of the game that’s hit or miss for a lot of players. These dialogue sections often feel drawn out and involve running back and forth in a town or village to talk to people. The dialogue itself is kept short and concise, there only being a few instances with long bits of exposition. Where the drag comes in is the need to run back and forth in a town, talking to the same handful of people over and over.

RotA uses a Mass Effect style dialogue wheel, but each line of dialogue is associated with one of the four gods presiding over Jason’s quest. Ares’ options are more aggressive, impatient, and to the point. Athena’s prioritize law, honor, and duty. Hermes’ are laissez faire, invoking a more carefree attitude. And Apollo’s are the all-around Good Dude answers, prioritizing respect for the individual. These options help make it feel like you’re influencing Jason’s personality as you play, but they’re more like you’re filling in the edges of an already predefined character. Unlike Mass Effect, options are never gated off or hidden behind upgrades, so it’s not like you’re creating a good or bad character, like might be expected in games with morality systems. Jason is Jason, despite what you pick.

Another reason players might bounce off the dialogue is the illusion of choice. In multiple scenarios RotA makes it seem like the player can affect the outcome with different dialogue choices, but all scenarios play out in a samey fashion. As far as I can tell, dialogue choices might net you some extra bits of equipment, otherwise the story will progress the same for everyone.

But! The branching dialogue does have one material benefit, when you choose an option associated with a god, it’s equivalent to dedicating deeds to that god. Which will get you more aspect points to spend on upgrades. So rest assured, running around talking to people will make you better at stabbing them later.

Self-contained stories amid a larger whole

To get the Golden Fleece, Jason will have to find three descendants of the gods and bring them to the Oracle at Delphi. Each of these descendants are on one of three islands, and are themed around their respective gods, Ares, Hermes, and Athena.

You can choose to visit these three islands in any order, and what happens in one doesn’t affect the narrative of the others. The only difference being that you might have a different Argonaut companion, but this only affects a few offhand lines of dialogue.

Each of these three islands has a self-contained story directly related to one of the descendants you’re trying to recruit, and each is interesting and varied in their own way. The overarching narrative is relatively barebones, its these individual narratives that hook the player and carry us along.

Mycenae is the standout of the three. Homeland to Alceme, and seat of king Lycomedes, her father. When Jason lands he is greeted with a cold and disdainful atmosphere, the citizens refusing to talk to him and in some cases even jeer at you. The entirety of Mycenae blames Jason for Alceme’s death. Lycomedes refuses to hear reason, and condemns Jason to the arena as punishment for his supposed crime.

The Mycenae plot is a great example of the story’s potential, playing on all the emotional strings setup in the opening. Jason has to confront his own guilt while butting up against Lycomedes, who is using Jason as a scapegoat to preserve his own sense of power and control. It has all the ingredients to come together into a crescendo, but doesn’t hit the mark. Instead, the Jason/Lycomedes narrative peters out and we spend the rest of our time on Mycenae trying to uncover a conspiracy.

Saria, another of the three islands that you visit, gets close to this as well. But in this case, it doesn’t rely on Jason’s history with Alceme, instead revolving around Atalanta and her relationship with her adoptive centaur clan. There’s a monster loose in the jungle, and it’s killing centaurs who venture outside of their village. This means they can’t hunt, causing their food stores to dwindle. Turns out there’s a traitor in their midst somehow tied to the beast. As you try and solve the mystery, centaurs start becoming accused, causing anti-human sentiment to bubble to the surface, directed at both Jason and Atalanta.

This push and pull is the strongest introduction to one of the Argonauts, making Atalanta the most fleshed out member. Showing us Atalanta’s need to cement her place among the centaurs while also reconciling their differences is the most in-depth we get with any of the Argonauts.

Both these narratives stand out because their character-first, and it’s why the Kythra plot is the weakest. One of the three islands you visit, it has you meandering around a temple village trying to uncover a mystery with no real hook to keep the player invested.

None of these storylines ever truly shine. They each have strong setups, a variety of building blocks arrayed in the right order, but they don’t quiet fit right. And it’s the almost that’s such a letdown. So much in RotA is almost there. The pieces fit together, but they aren’t flush.

The Argonauts

The Argonauts proper, these aren’t the descendants you’re recruiting for their blood. These are the characters who will fight alongside you, wading into battle shoulder to shoulder with Jason. By the end of the game you’ll have four Argonauts to choose from—Hercules, Achilles, Atalanta, and Pan—and they’re all insufferably likable.

The Argonauts fight alongside you in combat, and accompany you as you run around towns talking to people. You can have two Argonauts in your team, alongside Jason. But whoever you choose doesn’t have a major impact on the story. They only add one-liners and a bit of extra dialogue, and that’s it. The only time the Argonauts are integral to the narrative’s forward progress are during Atalanta’s plot on Saria, for which she is a mandatory character, and the arena plot with Achilles. Otherwise, they’re just along for the ride.

Pan is a mandatory character for the Kythra plot, but all he does is provide exposition and then summon some barriers during a boss fight. So even though he’s mandatory, he could be easily edited out of the story and it’d progress as normal. It doesn’t do much to expand his character, nor does he feel integral to the Kythra plot.

The player has no control over the Argonauts, they act on their own. Atalanta firing off volleys of arrows, Achilles rushing in whirling his spear in an arc, Hercules bearhugging goons to death, and Pan firing off globules of vibrantly coloured magic. This isn’t uncommon, Mass Effect and Kingdom Hearts both have similar party systems, where your teammates act on their own.

But it feels particularly disjointed in Rise of the Argonauts because you don’t have access to the Argonauts equipment or abilities. There’s no way for you to upgrade them, change accessories, or have any influence over their abilities whatsoever. Not only does this create distance between the player and the Argonauts, but it means when Pan starts firing off green energy blasts that leave a glowing circle on the ground…I don’t know what is happening?

There’s no way for me to tell what any of the Argonauts’ abilities do, which makes it impossible to strategize. I just have to assume everything is damage and acknowledge that there is going to be no coordination. Particularly frustrating because Jason gets upgrades that slow down or stun enemies, breaks shields more effectively, heals allies, and/or gives temporary buffs to damage and defense when certain conditions are met (like taking a large amount of damage in a short period of time).

If the Argonauts have access to similar abilities, I don’t know it. Because all we get to see is a flurry of special effects with no clear indication of what’s happening. Which is why I have to assume it’s all just damage, which sucks. The combat would have been elevated by giving the player influence over the Argonauts abilities, loadouts, even just some way to pick and choose passive traits.

Hercules and what could have been

The motivation behind why each Argonaut joins your crew is nebulous at best. Hercules and Atalanta have the most well-defined reasoning for joining Jason’s crew. Hercules because he’s a long-time friend of Jason’s and is devoted to helping him on his quest to revive Alceme, and Atalanta because she and Jason develop a deep respect and kinship after going through the Saria conspiracy together. But Achilles joins because shrugs adventure and glory. And Pan joins because shrugs adventure and stories.

I don’t think every character in Jason’s party needs or needed to have an ironclad reason for joining the Argonauts. But when this is coupled with the fact that the Argonauts have little effect on the overall story, and that the player can’t even customize their abilities in any way, it starts to feel like they’re just there. Along for the ride and nothing else.

Which brings us to Hercules. Long-time friend of Jason, there in the beginning and there in the end. We start the game with Hercules by our side, he stands as witness to Alceme’s assassination and is the first to charge into the fray alongside Jason.

And it’s why Hercules is the biggest letdown. He must have the least amount of dialogue out of all the Argonauts, and his shared past with Jason is barely touched on. Hercules could have been the standout of Rise of the Argonauts, the most memorable and beloved character. Devoted to Jason, but not unafraid to ask him hard questions. After a member of the Argo dies, Hercules asks Jason if it’s still worth it, if people dying in the pursuit of Alceme’s revival make it an immoral quest.

Jason doesn’t have a good answer, no grander justification other than he’s set his mind to it and won’t back down. Still, Hercules sticks around.

The bond between Hercules and Jason could have been something really special, the lynchpin which the Argonauts revolve. Instead, we get a lovable brute whose influence doesn’t extend past one-liners and bearhugging enemies. When it comes to missed potential, Hercules is the most egregious example.

Lack of body diversity

From left to right (excluding Jason): Atalanta, Medea, and Medusa.

Hercules, massive, hulking, wading into battle, grabbing mercenaries one in each hand. Achilles, tall and lean, leaps amid the fray in a whirlwind of spear strikes. Pan, hooved, long horns upon his head, casts spell after spell against a charging minotaur. Jason, thewed and stocky, raising his shield against a flurry of blows. The men all get an interesting range of body types, from Hercules hulking form to Achilles tall and lean frame.

Atalanta, quick and agile, wielding her bow with expert precision, is thin with an hourglass waist. Medea, a sorceress you recruit early on who offers insight and advice, is thin with an hourglass waist. Medusa, one of the three descendants you are searching for, is…thin with an hourglass waist. Alceme too, is thin with an hourglass waist. All the women look so similar that I wouldn’t be surprised if they use the exact same base model, just altering the clothing, hair, and tattoos.

As I’m editing this I realized I’d forgotten that the centaurs in the game are all male. Though there’s a line of dialogue that alludes to female centaurs existing, they apparently just haven’t arrived yet?

This has always been a problem in games, but going back into the 00s is revealing just how bad it was. I like to think we’re moving past this now, though admittedly it feels like progress has only been made these last few years.

Folks of all shapes and sizes deserve to see themselves in games, as heroes and villains and monsters. It’s particularly jarring to see this now, when just these past several weeks the internet became (rightfully) enamored with Lady Dimitrescu from Resident Evil Village, featured in this story trailer.

Glitches, stuttering, and crashes

Sometimes the camera would whip around to the left or right, making Jason barrel into a wall. If I took too many screenshots, the game would crash. Jason had a tendency to get stuck on corners that were a foot away from him. And the Argonauts just love standing in narrow doorways, blocking your path until you nudge them out of the way. All while there are constant framerate dips, particularly in areas with a lot of NPCs.

And there was one boss fight that glitched and became unbeatable, so I had to close and restart the game. And another boss fight where, for who knows why, whenever Jason blocked an attack his arms would shoot five feet into the air and twirl around like elastic bands.

There’s just a lot of little things that all start to add up.

On top of that is the fact the game has zero graphics options on PC, other than a resolution option. Which left me with diving into my graphics card’s control panel to try and tweak the performance, it didn’t do much.

I know it’s a twelve year old game, and there should be an expectation for it to be rough around the edges, but I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect a certain level of stability. These compounding technical issues make it harder to enjoy the good in a game that’s already mired in letdowns.

Do I recommend it?

No.

There is a lot of potential here, but Rise of the Argonauts doesn't fully realize it. I like the fantasy version of ancient Greece, and their willingness to altar Greek myth. But spammy combat, long stretches of running back and forth to speak with NPCs, technical issues, and an overall sense that the game was stapled together in a rush keep me from being able to recommend it. The likable Argonauts, cool aesthetics, and moments when the combat clicks aren't enough to elevate Rise of the Argonauts to a must play. Though I do genuinely think RotA deserves either a sequel or spiritual successor that can truly take the good elements and refine them. There’s amazing potential here, it just needs a second chance.

This piece originally appeared in my newsletter, Hello Void. You can subscribe here.

Sea of Stars Looks Awesome

Sea of Stars is a turn-based RPG from Sabotage Studio, a Québec based indie developer. Their Kickstarter smashed through its original goal, accruing a total of $1,628,126 CAD.

The early demo released on August 20, 2020, and will be open to backers until September 20, 2020. It follows two Solstice Warriors, Valere and Zale, as they search for [REDACTED FOR SPOILERS] (this is actually used in the demo) who has presumably been taken by the game’s villain, the Fleshmancer.

Shades of the Past

Sea of Stars is heavily influenced by retro JRPGs, but the most notable influence is Chrono Trigger. Sea of Stars features beautiful hand-drawn sprites, vibrant backgrounds that are filled with life, and an overall style that will feel familiar to fans of old school RPGs. Maybe most notable, no separate battle screens. All combat happens directly on the dungeon map.

And there are team attacks, which will also be familiar to Chrono Trigger fans. These allow Valere and Zale to combine their abilities to make them stronger. Team attacks work differently from Chrono Trigger’s Double Techs. They use Assist Points, which are gained by breaking enemy ‘spell locks.’ Spell locks require you to hit an enemy with specific damage types (lunar, solar, physical, etc.) before the counter reaches zero. If successful, then the spell is interrupted and you gain an Assist Point.

Linking team attacks and Assist Points to spell locks is a great way to add an extra challenge to combat, and I really loved trying to plan out my attacks so I could break spell locks before their counter reached zero.

It’s one of the ways the folks at Sabotage are taking from the old but adding the new. The game’s aesthetics, sound, visuals, and story all feel reminiscent of retro games many of us love. But they aren’t beholden to any of it, there might be glimpses of JRPGs like Chrono Trigger, but there’s a whole lot of new innovative ideas in Sea of Stars that shine all on their own.

Elegant Simplicity

Sea of Stars also features ‘timed hits,’ similar to Super Mario RPG. When making an attack, you can press the A button (or X button on a Dualshock-style controller) just as the attack is about to hit, and do bonus damage. When enemies attack you, pressing the A button just before the attack lands will reduce the damage.

This also applies to special abilities, where getting the timed hit just right will increase its damage or boost an ability’s healing. The special abilities are especially fun though. Valere’s Moonerang is a great example, when she tosses it out, it’ll bounce off enemies and back to her. Press the timed hit just as it touches Valere and she’ll launch it back at the enemy. It’ll go on for as long as you can get the timed hits right, gaining speed with each strike, becoming an extremely fun form of pain volleyball.

I love how all this is mapped to one button. It makes it simple and straightforward, it’s easy to pick up exactly what you have to do for each attack and ability. Once you understand there are timed hits, the learning curve for each new attack type is quick.

I think of a few games that had Super Mario RPG’s style of timed hits, but tried to build upon what it started. Games like Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door, and The Legend of Dragoon. TLoD had combos for its basic attacks, which had the player hitting a variety of inputs at the right time. But these always felt like quick-time events, and could sometimes be more frustrating than satisfying. Paper Mario: TTYD had a whole range of inputs, everything from swirling the analog stick, to pressing the Z button along with the shoulder buttons, to full-on mini games in the middle of combat.

These were all fun at the time, but looking back I think they’d frustrate me now. Paring it down to the simplest, most straightforward form is an elegant solution that still allows for a lot of variance in combat.

And when combat in Sea of Stars gets rolling, everything clicks into place. Going from trying to get the timed hits right, to blocking multiple attacks one after another, to planning out your special abilities to break spell locks. It falls into a rhythm that’s both challenging and satisfying. I had the most fun in battles where the enemies would fling everything they had at you, forcing you to use every tool at your disposal.

But Gimme A Minute

Sea of Stars uses turn-based combat and doesn’t use an Active Time Battle system. A subset of turn-based combat, ATBs make a game’s flow entirely different. They became common among a lot of old school RPGs (Chrono Trigger used it as well), and lasted into the PlayStation 1 era. I’ve always preferred turned-based combat without ATBs, even though some of my fondest memories are of Final Fantasy games that use it (more on that in a future blog post 👀).

ATBs definitely instill a sense of urgency in combat, but don’t think Sea of Stars can’t match it just because you can take a second to think. When you’re trying to figure out if you can break a spell lock before the counter runs out, while also trying to get the timed hits right to both defend from incoming attacks and do more damage, the combat naturally creates tension without the need for ATBs.

All in All

Sea of Stars is looking amazing. The early demo is a lot of fun and already has a ton of polish. The game is expected to release in two years, and I can only imagine the things the folks at Sabotage Studio will do to truly elevate the experience. This is definitely a game you should keep your eye on.

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Interested in reading more about retro gaming?

Then I’d suggest checking out Aidan Moher’s work (Twitter). He just recently released “Timeless: A history of Chrono Trigger,” a monumental deep dive into the history of Chrono Trigger and the people that made it. I highly, highly, recommend it.