By Joshua Williams
Nights of Azure is an action RPG from Gust with its combat reminiscent of Devil May Cry and an art style that heavily evokes memories of any game from the Tales Of series.
In terms of gameplay Nights of Azure provides a somewhat memorable experience. The story of the game focuses on two girls named Arnice and Lilysse fighting creatures known as fiends who are the byproduct of a demon lord who was slain centuries before hand. The game is then about preventing the demon lord’s return and destroying the fiends.
The character designs within the game seem very anime-esqe and manage to blend a sense of gothic style. The only problem I had with the character designs is that it felt like they had put a little too much time into animating the female characters’ breasts. During several of the cut scenes in which the characters are walking or speaking to one another, their breasts continue to bounce long after they’ve stopped moving.
The combat system at the start of the game feels lacking. Most of the combat is conducted by the demons Arnice summons called Servans. Each Servan is assigned to a key and fights in conjunction with Arnice. The attacks Arnice use are based on the weapons she currently has equipped and range from light, heavy and special attacks. These weapon changes not only boost her abilities but the abilities of the servans she has equipped as well. Not only that but by successfully performing attack chains, a meter which allows Arnice to transform fills up and can change the flow of the battle. These transformations and her ability to change weapons make the game feel as if each new battle still has a fresh feel to them so that the gameplay doesn’t feel stagnant. However, this version is merely a port of the game originally released on the PlayStation consoles. Because of this the game feels much better on a controller. In fact the game only refers to the buttons necessary to play by their assignment on an Xbox controller that is plugged into the PC.
When I first launched the game, I was unable to find the controls necessary to play the game and had to open the readme file in order to locate them. Playing this game with a keyboard is the most daunting way to play it. The game is clearly optimized for usage with a controller and this is evident with the key bindings. Having to use the number pad to change the camera angles becomes frustrating because it forces you to take your hand from the buttons for combat to look for your enemies on the field. The inability to use a mouse to control the camera seems like a massive oversight on the part of Gust, but this is easily remedied by using a controller instead of the traditional mouse and keyboard setup.
Aside from that the game is still enjoyable and overall provides an interesting experience for those who play it.
from Nerd Reactor
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