How are you doing my family and friends!? I hope you have had a great week! Oh! And thank you for stopping by once again… This is Sumroad, and today I’m writing this from Astra, right beside some sort of platform which I found interesting to be in the middle of nowhere. Anyway… the place is nice. This weeks’ game is called Alchemy Stars, a 2.5D strategy game with a twist. So! Without further due, let’s get down to it here… in The Modern Gamer!
What is it Alchemy Stars (AS) to begin with? Well… it does have a very nice and polished story, about Caelestites, Eclipsites (the bad guys) and Aurorians (basically), so at the very beginning we encounter a huge amount of cutscenes and dialogs which you can skip of course, but I do recommend taking a moment and grab a patience drink from the fridge to really understand what’s going on in this world. As always, I try to save the story to you guys as I’ve always hated spoilers, especially when it comes to the core of the game. Anyway! AS is, fundamentally a strategy game, but it is not your regular card or turn based strategy classic, no… it does have a fresh mechanic that guides the user through paths, color paths to be precise. Each color represents an element so it will determine which member of your team will attack and how.
Let’s break it down, shall we? In the very beginning you are gifted 3 Aurorians, these fellas are your warriors of sorts, each one of them does have specific abilities that helps in battle (well… obviously!). They also have special attributes that can be initiated manually to change some aspects of the battlefield or the battle itself. Take for example Ms. Blanc, she is a water type Aurorian so she will benefit from blue tiles on the battlefield. When her special attribute is initiated, she changes the color of the front, rear, right and left tiles to blue and hence making a bridge to adjacent blue tiles. Now… it is not only a matter of hitting color tiles, but making the longest path of them. This will make your Aurorians’ attacks stronger and by making a 14+ tile path you will make it to Aurora Time; in plain words… you can attack twice a turn. Yes… you guessed right, Eclipsites aren’t happy when that happens. Each battle (most of them) will also consume Prism, say… energy, so you can’t keep playing like a madman, unless you decide to pay to get a Prism refill. Or simply wait for it to refill overtime.
AS also features a classic gacha system, so you can get more and better Aurorians and as per any gacha slot machine, you need to use a special currency (Lumamber) as well, meaning… you can get more of that for real money. You know, I always recommend not to spend any money on RNG and this isn’t any different. All in all, if you plan to play casual, rumor has it you will do just fine by saving the few Lumamber you get from missions and quests. Speaking of in-app purchases. AS does have several options to “enhance” your experience, so if you tap on the Store button, the whole menu of sinks will display in front of your eyes… I mean, it is okay, I’ve always said that if a game entertains you, then go ahead and spend some money on it, just… be careful ;)
I almost forgot! You can build team presets so you don’t have to pick manually each time your Aurorians. Plus, upgrading them is quite easy, you just need upgrading materials, and you’ll be good to go. There’s also this Breakthrough feature that increase your attribute stats and again, you’ll need a different material to do so.
Technically speaking, AS is a nice game, the SFX and music reminds me of great classics, like FFV or Chrono Trigger. Simple but immersive SFX and BGM are great, honestly. The 2D and 2.5D graphics combines really well, the animations are fluid although I’d love to have a +60 fps option, especially now that we there are better screens out there. The cutscenes give the game the right amount of depth a game like this needs so try not to skip them ;)
Now, is Alchemy Stars worth playing? Ha! I think you know by now what I’m going to say and the answer is… YES! This game feels refreshing in it’s own right and I believe the game mechanics are great, I mean… the whole package is well rounded and worth trying, even for the casual player. I also believe this game has a great future if they balance the in app purchases with the content updates, so we can only hope but I think this game is a great one to play either flat-out or plain casual.
Okay guys, it is time for me to make my leave, it’s been a great day here at the battlefield that’s for sure! If you want to try AS and feel the need to share your thoughts, please! Do so in the comments down below, I will love to read them and contrast opinions. This is Sumroad signing out, hoping you have an amazing gaming weekend my family and friends! Selamat tinggal!