Developer: chime
publisher: Spike Chunsoft
Platforms: Switch, PlayStation 4 (Reviewed), PC
Release date: Available now
price: $59.99 – Available here
Summary
There are some anime and manga series that you can feel are a perfect fit for a video game of some kind and Made in the abyss Just so he happened to be one of them. With its cute, blood-soaked exterior, darkness hiding beneath, and a gripping story, the franchise has continued to be a success for nearly a decade with multiple films and two seasons of animation. Now that a video game for this series has already been made, it Made in the Abyss: A Binary Star Falls into the Dark Worth diving in for fans or newcomers?
a story
It was once believed that every site on the planet has been explored and there is nothing left to discover. This was until a massive hole was discovered in the ground on an island that happened to contain many artifacts and advances in technology far beyond what anyone thought possible. With untold riches hidden within this “abyss” the town of Orth has formed around the crater as Cave Raiders delve into the abyss in search of treasure in danger of dying…or worse. The Curse of the Abyss catches all those who venture inside as one goes to the deep, and the more one suffers while trying to get home, one of these children by the name of Rico lives in an orphanage because her mother did just that.
With her mother formerly celebrated as one of the best raiders in town, Riku wishes to follow in her mother’s footsteps and when she learns that her mother may already be alive somewhere inside the abyss, she begins her adventure even if that means it. ends with her death. Of course, she’s not alone as the mysterious robot boy Reg she’s discovered in the abyss joins her on her journey and acts as her protector against the many dangerous threats ready to tear Rico apart. As Riko searches for her missing mother and tries to learn more about Reg’s past, she will be faced with many mysteries of the abyss.
Made in the Abyss: A Binary Star Falls into the Dark It unlocks by offering two game modes it seems players will get but unfortunately the ‘Deep in Abyss’ mode is locked until players complete ‘Hello Abyss’. The reasoning behind this is fairly sound as it not only introduces the Made in Abyss world to players and explores a small portion of the series’ plot while also serving as a “light” tutorial, but it’s also incredibly problematic. As someone who has seen most of what the series has had to offer over the years, Hello Abyss only provides a simplified introduction to the basic story with the simplest character interactions that often lack the weight of what I originally felt and even then don’t continue far enough to be enjoyable. Players will hardly find themselves learning about certain secrets from the world and meeting fan-favorite characters before the story ends abruptly in a completely meaningless place, especially since it’s not past where the first season of the anime ended five years ago.
This leaves a bit of fun for old fans and even newcomers will only leave a vague idea of the core story as a result. Fortunately, once players get past the approximately five-hour Hello Abyss mode, they will find that the original story in Deep in Abyss is much better because it finds players taking their own attacker and striving to become the White Whistle while interacting with many of the fan-favorite characters and Experience a solid original story that perfectly fits into the world’s themes and tone that fans will be familiar with. It’s a shame that to get to this point players have to struggle with the aforementioned summary mode Hello Abyss.
Play
As we mentioned before, Made in the Abyss: A Binary Star Falls into the Dark Players are forced to play through Hello Abyss mode before they can reach the second and much better mode Deep in Abyss. Hello Abyss mode is an introduction to how different mechanics work in the game before immersing players in the core experience, but unfortunately it’s not the best tutorial out there. Not only does it give players barely any explanation of the things they are supposed to be doing, the game does a poor job of even explaining some of the more important aspects of the game’s mechanics which in turn will nibble the player once they step into the depths. In Abyss, the difficulty of the game takes a huge leap when players stop playing Riko with Reg as an ally in combat.
essence Made in the Abyss: A Binary Star Falls into the Dark It sees players exploring the abyss in dungeon crawl style with players needing to examine their surroundings, observing paths that include the ability to climb cliff faces and even rabel to advance deeper into the abyss. As players explore, they will have a number of survival aspects to worry about because not only do they need to balance their hunger and endurance, but they will also need to manage the durability of their weapon to survive the fight. Players will find themselves needing to hunt down monsters and collect items to cook them into food that will keep them going, but, as mentioned, they will be limited by their weight bearing though players will eventually be able to unlock various upgrades that make things a little easier. In fact, linking player progression to the tasks they complete is actually one of the most interesting aspects of the game and allows players to grow stronger even when avoiding conflict and instead focusing on collecting artifacts and resources like Cave Raider.
Unfortunately, weapon durability remains something that continues to be an issue throughout the game, as even seemingly powerful weapons will quickly fall apart as players engage in incredibly tough combat. Fighting monsters in the abyss is rarely an exciting process due in part to the limited stamina and malaise when fighting. To make matters worse, instead of enemies with a standard pose, they will often be scattered randomly around the player during exploration. There have been multiple occasions that have seen a previously cleared path almost immediately re-populated. This leads to annoying swarms that can lead to some cheap deaths in combat but especially when it comes to climbing.
As fans of the series know, Made in the abyss“The curse of the abyss is horrific and players will need to deal with it as they explore the abyss. This means that any time a player begins to climb up too quickly, or even jump a lot, they will begin to suffer from the curse and have to wait for it to subside before going further. This is a little annoying, especially when it can appear simply by going up a cliff too quickly, but stays true to the series and offers another side to survival.In fact, those looking for a survival game are likely to find that Deep in Abyss mode has Some of the most rewarding aspects of survival that really challenge the player, especially with the successful run feeling like real accomplishments, but it’s unfortunate that it takes so long to get to these aspects of the game.
Videos and audio
Consider the platforms that Made in the Abyss: A Binary Star Falls into the Dark Being released, it’s a bit surprising that the title seems rather poor even for a game that’s also coming to Switch. The overall aesthetic of the character designs remains faithful to the original series, and there is still plenty of blood and gore, but there is a certain lack of detail for just about everything that makes the title seem incredibly cheap. Even the exploration of areas in the abyss is limited to smaller, exploreable areas that hide the formidable nature of the journey, and while the enemy designs are handled fairly well, the animations for both the enemies and the character models are poor.
Fortunately, the choice between Japanese and English voice work is well handled with both original performers and English actors handling their roles well here. The soundtrack also features a great selection of tracks that are perfectly suited to exploration and combat as well as some story-revealing gloom.
Inclusive
Perhaps the longest and weakest tutorial in recent memory, Made in the Abyss: A Binary Star Falls into the Dark It limits what players can do for a very long time before they can reach the equivalent but extremely challenging Made in Abyss Survival Mode. The different gameplay mechanics may have their flaws but the game does a solid enough job of imitating the Made in Abyss world and the challenge of Cave Raiders even if it feels like a failure more often because of cheap deaths than anything else. as such, Made in the Abyss: A Binary Star Falls into the Dark It’s really only for fans of the franchise, and even then they’ll need to go through hours of core content before they can dive into the meat of the game.
Capsule Computers review instructions can be found here.