#I feel like replaying ex astris will be similar to replaying dragon quest ix

[obsessedwithkirby]

Continued thoughts on ex astris:

[initial thoughts here]

-fought the first boss to really use complex attack patterns and it is really fun to counter/dodge those kinds of attacks

-the enemy designs continue to be really really good, said boss is my favorite so far

-the combat system keeps getting more complicated (this is a very good thing)

-the game is surprisingly lowkey about there being side quests, and about informing you about the rewards for doing side quests. I found this a little confusing. The quests themselves have been strong so far though, with them fitting in naturally with the context of the world and providing some extra background to the world

-localization may apparently be getting a fix-up which is very good news

-the story has started to complicate a bit and I’m interested in where it’s going

-the journal is great, especially for someone like me who loves logbooks and bestiaries in games, but I have noticed that it occasionally gives information slightly ahead of what the player has actually experienced in-game. It’s not super egregious though

-starting to think about how I might want to replay this game in the future like I do with a lot of other rpgs I like, which is certainly a testament to how much I like the game so far. Specifically, I think the amount of tutorials could be a bit of a pace-breaker for the earlier game if you already know what to do, and it seems like most of the customization options appear gradually as you progress through the game, meaning the first hour or so on a replay might be a bit repetitive. Then again, the first hour also has some unique locations, events, and enemies that you wouldn’t have seen for a while, plus a lot of unexplained terms and concepts that you would now have context for, so that might be enough to keep it interesting (this is so long-term that I’m not even sure why I’m thinking about this, I’ve basically barely started the game)

-the story has a very different approach to that used in arknights and I find that very interesting. Arknights has a deeply personal story that treats each character as a realistic person and uses these nuanced, complex characters to tackle tough societal issues. Ex astris feels very detached in comparison, most of the side characters feel more like representations of what the people in its world would be like rather than complex individuals, and it feels like the player is then left to imagine for themself what a real person in this world would be like. The npcs feel like how they would be in older rpgs where they act mostly just to serve a purpose for providing a specific bit of extra worldbuilding, facilitating a side quest, or hinting to gameplay mechanics. I think this works just fine for the tone of the game, I think I like it even, I just thought it was interesting