Arcadian Atlas

Arcadian Atlas is to Final Fantasy Tactics what Mighty Number 9 was to Mega Man. Bottom line up front: If you like Final Fantasy Tactics, you'll probably be drawn in on this game, and you'll probably even enjoy it. That's what drew me in, and it is why I ultimately did enjoy this game - but that comes with a lot of caveats. Only recommended for strategy RPG fanatics with a lot of patience. The game has a lot of great concepts that just aren't executed well. Steam is rife with games that believed that "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery" but missed the second part of Wilde's quote: "... that mediocrity can pay to greatness." This is definitely a case of mediocrity aggressively flattering greatness. Pro: The story has some Game of Thrones and FFT style intrigue, which is great if you're into that sort of thing - and, let's be real, if you're not into that, why would you even look at this game? It's not as deep as a lot of other games but the story is generally pretty interesting. There's a civil war going due to a succession crisis, and this all eventually takes a backseat to "the wrong person" getting ahold of the titular Arcadian Atlas, which grants the user incredible power through the use of magical cards. Pretty standard post-Game of Thrones fantasy stuff, honestly. Con: The issue is that Final Fantasy Tactics, and a lot of other RPGs like The Witcher and frankly the entire Ivalice Alliance series just did it better. The political intrigue is kind of interesting but it never gets past the "wicked stepmother" plot mixed with "star-crossed lovers on opposite sides of a conflict" cliche. It's like our writers understood that political conflict in fantasy is popular without understanding "why" it's popular. Pro: You know how, in Final Fantasy Tactics, Delita just buggers off after the end of the first chapter and the next time you see him, he's in golden armor and leading holy knights? And you wished you could've seen this low-born boy rise to power through backstabbing and manipulation? Well, Arcadian Atlas actually does give you the chance to play as their Delita analog in some chapters so you can see how things are going on the other side of the conflict. Con: The characters just aren't very interesting. Where Final Fantasy Tactics had TG Cid, the conflicted old veteran who can still kick every ass in Ivalice, this game has Wulff, who is frankly dull as a stale bread. Desmond's got nothing on Delita. Vashti isn't nearly as interesting as Ramza. Lucretia and Valenza are more fleshed out than Dukes Larg and Goltana, though, so they've got that going for them, but, once again, Final Fantasy Tactics just did it better. There's a long plot thread about some deep dark secret that one of the characters has that just seems to go nowhere. And then there's a wizard who seems like he might end up really interesting... and then he dies. Pro: The battle system is pretty easy to master if you're good at Final Fantasy Tactics or Fire Emblem. The way characters level is also pretty innovative, too - everyone who participates in a battle auto-levels once the battle is won, and this even includes every named or "special" character in your group, whether they played or not - usually. Sometimes the game forgets to level one of those guys, which can lead to a story character (like Poncho) suddenly gaining three levels after one battle so he can catch up to the rest of the team. Con: The leveling system does not allow you to grind, which isn't really a problem since the game is pretty easy, but it's annoying that it basically puts your characters on rails no matter what you do. It incentivizes going for decapitation strikes since you get the same stuff at the end of every battle anyway. Steam is lousy with "tribute" games. Some are great in their own right, like Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night with its homage to the Metroidvania Castlevania games. Some are meh, like Mighty Number 9 and its homage to Mega Man. This falls somewhere in the middle. At the end of the day, if you're jonesing for Final Fantasy Tactics or a Fire Emblem game and can't get either one, and you're sad that Shining Force is about to get de-listed on the Mega Drive Classics page, check this game out - but wait until it's on a Steam sale.

I was waiting for this game for a long time as I fell in love with it’s visual style and story preamble. So what did we get? In short, not everything turned out to be smooth. First of all the strong parts of the game are: [list] [*]The story – if you liked the story of Final Fantasy Tactics and Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together with it’s somewhat mature themes than you’ll like Arcadian Atlas as well [*]The visual style – pixel art at it’s best [*]The music – jazz oriented soundtrack is fabulous and unique and suits the game perfectly (go get the vinyl after you fell in love with it) [/list] The rest, which is mainly gameplay related features, leaves somewhat mixed impressions. There are some decisions which seem strange, half-hearted or weird at first and may eventually sour the overall experience. For example, there’s no experience per action for the unit. Experience is gained by a fixed amount for participating in battle instead. There are no random encounters, the battles are story or quest related which are thus limited in number (no grinding, which is not a flaw for me personally, and I met this kind of gameplay decisions in a tactical RPG before). Combining the two above, there is no point in training a non-story unit who missed some battles. It’s convenient to dismiss it and hire a stronger one instead (may seem weird). However, there is also an option to redistribute experience for story units if you don’t like the way you did it initially (and you most likely will). As for unit classes, there are 4 core which divide in 8 later (two classes per initial class) with no unique classes for story related units (which again is kind of expectable from a tactical RPG, but in the other hand is not obligatory). More of a problem (for me personally) are the limitations of user interface which do not give you 100% clarity on some things (whether you actually need them is another question), but still it’s a fact. To sum it up, Arcadian Atlas actually gives you a unique experience, which is solid yet with some features that might frustrate you if you’re expecting something different or more from the game. It’s a question what are you priorities when playing this kind of indie game: to witness a great story with excellent visuals and music or dive in into a deep gameplay. Unfortunately, Arcadian Atlas lacks in the latter. To give some context as to why it is the way it is. The game was developed by a small team of core 4 people with a tight budget which was partially funded by kickstarter campaign which barely passed it’s initial not so high goal. The meaning of this is that some things that were might be initially planned had to be cut or postponed in order to actually release the game. The kickstarter campaign listed 2018 as a release date, but the resulting was 2023. It was a long journey and I’m really glad that the game actually saw the light of day. And I want the developers to continue what they doing because I love Arcadian Atlas and I want more of this kind of games.

Took a chance on this game despite some of the reviews, and that was a mistake. The story's got all the worst parts of Final Fantasy Tactics without the best parts of it. The game froze repeatedly on me while using basic abilities. The game lies about bow range and then froze when I tried to shoot outside my range.

A Final Fantasy Tactics-like, but with klunkier controls. Really that's just what stopped me dead. I couldn't rotate the camera, and sometimes I couldn't click the square I wanted to move my characters to with the mouse because something was blocking the way. It seemed fine but bad feeling controls made me not want to invest a ton of time into it.

Ignoring all the drama around the game, the developer and some of the developer's comments, I can't recommend the game despite its beautiful art and solid writing. The gameplay is really slow-paced, not really interesting and engaging. Actions and options are limited, movement and controls are slow and combat in general feels insignificant. There's a lot of level recycling; two early side quests lead you to the same two maps you've previously cleared on the main quest. Music choice is questionable. I don't think the jazz music fits the tone and setting of the game. While dialogues and overall story are solid, it's not so extraordinary to hide the fact the gameplay feels trivial. Equipping your troops is a chore since many QoL are missing like switching troops while being in the equipment selection screen, and there's no auto equip. Additionally a lot of assets are reused, character sprites and portraits. You fight against the same enemies all the time. I'd rather recommend Triangle Strategy. Only play Arcadian Atlas if you're die-hard SRPG fan and have played all the good ones.

This is just bad. Uninteresting skill tree. uninteresting classes. I do only have a few hours, but it is easy to lock a game up. It freezes up and sometimes it starts working again after a minute, sometimes it doesn't.

Played it for an hour and it froze up twice. Once it recovered after a minute and the other I had to close the game. Don't buy until they fix these bugs. There are some things they could do to make the game more streamlined. Didn't seem like there was enough classes either. Lots of art just shared between main characters and ones you can recruit. Sure maybe this changes deeper in the game, I just couldn't get there because of freezing up.

Игра шла к релизу долгих семь лет, создавалась силами двух человек: брата и сестры...нет не из Алабамы, из Техаса) Судя по визуальному стилю вдохновлялись они Final Fantasy Tactics, к сожалению Arcadian Atlas в лучшем случае посредственная. Сюжет: История стартует с небольшого пролога и далее мы переносимся на некоторое время назад в королевство Данталион. После кровавых войн на континенте и установлении хрупкого мира в королевстве Данталион умирает король Тирган, его королева(вторая жена) узурпирует власть отстраняя его дочерей, но старшая дочь короля Лукреция не намерена так всё оставлять и поднимает восстание. В королевстве начинается гражданская война в гуще которой оказываются наши главные герои возлюбленные Вашти и Дезмонд генералы армии королевства Данталион. Если завязка сюжета ещё интересная, то повествование хромает на обе ноги, диалоги местами читаются натянуто и такое чувство что их писал первоклассник Вася на перемене, притянутая за уши любовная линия Анналис младшей дочери короля и бродяги Феника вообще ни в какие ворота. Страдает мотивация действующих лиц и ладно, могли бы какие-то решения отдать на откуп игроку, так и тот выбор что здесь есть вообще не влияет на развитие сюжета и концовку. Неужели сложно было сделать хотя бы две сюжетные развилки? Зачем-то сюжетно вообще ушли с политических интриг в сторону атласа аркадии(каких-то карт таро, дающих первозданную магическую силу) и толком ничего про них не объяснили, вот они есть у Феника и всё тут, додумывайте сами. Графика: Визуальная составляющая это единственное что мне понравилось в этом произведении, в целом неплохо и узнается стиль. Но что меня больше всего впечатлило это анимация лиц пиксельных персонажей, они хмурятся\злятся\улыбаются\отводят взгляд в сторону, смотрится все это просто замечательно. Звук / Саундтрек: TJRPG вообще бедный на озвучку жанр, Disgaea не в счёт это вообще другая весовая категория) А вот саундтрек игры навеянный джазом вообще мимо для такой игры. Геймплей: Стандартная TJRPG, но какого хpенa здесь нет поворота камеры на 360? На полях есть изменения ландшафта, но они никак не влияют на сражение, даже разница высот или естественные укрытия ничего вам не дают, все миссии представлены убей всех/убей кого-то конкретного. Боевых классов 4 штуки: рыцарь, алхимик, стрелок, маг. Впоследствии с получением уровня каждый класс делится ещё на 2 по выбору игрока, но в этом нет смысла так как в игре абсолютно нет баланса, условный маг или алхимик с руки бьет не слабее рыцаря, стрелок так вообще имба при развитии ему берется разбойник ближнего боя, но каким-то неведомым образом он продолжает стрелять из кинжала? Ещё тут есть забавный баг руинищий игру, если вы примените способность\атаку на персонаже к которому её применить нельзя, то игра просто наглухо зависает, например: на мертвом персонаже примените хилку или попробуете атаковать труп. Тактической глубины здесь нет от слова совсем. А спецэффекты в сражениях хуже чем в Final Fantasy Tactics или Hoshigami играх конца 90х. Итог: Красивая обложка, интригующее начало и полный слив по всем направлениям. Даже рядом не стоит с Vanguard Bandits, Hoshigami, Final Fantasy Tactics и уж тем более Disgaea. Не стоит внимания даже по скидке, лучше дождаться выхода ремейка Front Mission 3. Енот Пончо из 10

For a bit of context I have had this game on my wishlist for a long time now, writing this as the credits are rolling. Decided to buy it despite the reviews. I don't know the history of the game or the studio, I don't know what they promised before release. All I can talk about it my experience with the game. The game was pretty solid indie game, one that feels like it was made by people that loved the classics of this genre like Final Fantasy Tactics and Tactics Ogre. While they will be in the shadow of the greats, this is still a good game with a story to tell. The final cutscene before the credits was very beautiful. The combat is quite enjoyable the classes and skills are interesting, I love games where the enemies play by the same rules as you so when you die you know why. The game is a bit on the easy side. specially if you do the tavern contracts, but not to its detriment in my opinion. I would definitely recommend this game on a sale. It is fun, and feels like a complete game. Again I don't know what was promised but whats there is a whole game.

Very slow and freezes often.