Forum - View topicFirst Impressions: Nights of Azure (PC)
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Themaster20000
 Posts: 863 |
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This game reminded me of The Witch and the Hundredth Knight,in that it's an example of a company going outside their comfort zone with no clue how to approach the genre. Both NIS and Gust had no experience in these genres,with both titles being playable,yet are extremely medicore at the end of the day.
Like most Gust games,the story elements are mostly dull slice of life bits,with some half-assed plot near the end. |
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Yttrbio
 Posts: 3652 |
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I tend to like Gust games for being experimental in their ideas of what an RPG can be, but the gameplay is generally something I "put up with" rather than enjoy. But there was no reason for this story to even be a game.
This game had a couple compelling story beats, but they were barely connected and often contradictory. The interesting parts of the story all happen outside the game itself, having happened in the past or primarily involving side characters. It's not the kind of unique I like from Gust. And the engine is not doing them any favors. The 3D presentation of these types of games can suck the soul right out of a scene faster than a vampire at a blood bank. They've moved away from making up for that with 2D art, too, so these games are becoming a chore both to play and to look at. |
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OtherSideofSky
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Nights of Azure felt like someone just stopped writing it halfway through. Most of the mysteries introduced in the first few hours are immediately and unceremoniously dropped, to be replaced with new revelations about things you haven't really been introduced to and thus can't care about. Given that the voiced cast totals only ten characters, several of whom appear in three or fewer scenes, it is a testament to vacuity that only two of the main five you spend time with ever receive character development of any kind. It doesn't help that the models can't actually make facial expressions (they flap their lips, blink, and that's it for facial animation), so any attempt at emotion dies instantly.
Also, I don't know if the localization was fixed for the PC, but the PS4 version is weird and full of editing oversights that come off as highly unprofessional. Spaces are missing between words, words are misspelled or misused ("possible" is used as a verb in one important scene of the PS4 release), and two hyphens are used in place of em dashes. The actual meaning is mostly intact, except that your mysterious contact calls himself your "brother" in Japanese and your "guide" in English. That change meant writing snide puns out of literally every communication that character ever makes and replacing them with nothing. The PS4 trophy list was gibberish, probably translated by a machine or by a person with a rudimentary knowledge of English. It renders character names, boss names, and game terms differently from the actual game, in addition to having consistently awful grammar. I hope this version fixed that. Gameplay-wise, most of the customization is pointless, because there is a single best way to build your monsters, and you can't really do it until the end game. That means anything you use up until that point is basically disposable unless you got super lucky with its starting trait. |
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Vanadise
 Posts: 492 |
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I played through Nights of Azure back on the PS4 and enjoyed it, but yeah, it's obvious that it's Gust's first action game. The gameplay gets more complex as the game progresses, and the post-game bosses and dungeons are actually pretty good; it's a shame that the game is front-loaded with not-so-good material.
The soundtrack's great, though. Gust never disappoints in that regard. |
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Great Rumbler
 Posts: 327 Location: Oklahoma |
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Nights of Azure is okay, but Atelier Sophie [which was released the same day on PC] is easily the better game.
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Apollo-kun
 Posts: 1213 Location: City 7, Macross 7 |
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Honestly loved this game. The gameplay was a fun compelling of hack n' slash and MegaTen-esque demon training, and I really loved the central love story.
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