Celestial Hearts

Thank you for putting so much time into this game. It really paid off. I'm mostly very positive, except for one thing. I'll point them out below. Pro's: - Polished game - Great, lengthy story. Well worked out. You want to know what happens next, so it's hard to quit. - A massive variation in enemy's, you never know what you gonna get ;) - A massive world with a lot of different maps. There's even an underwaterworld! Lots of work and it looks great. Con: - One. But for me, an important one. Looking at the image and description of this game, you would expect a love story. It is not. The romance story in this game is very, very rushed and I personally think the dialogue for Helen was very out of character. She seems to be a shy, kind, tender and carefull person, however in the love-dialogue she's extremely forward and brash. It just doesn't fit. This could have been done a lot better, a lot more smoothed out. Overall: good, polished game and Joshua put a lot of work and passion into this, and it shows! Good story, massive world, lots to see and discover. But, the love story is not well worked out and therefore, even in this fantasy world, very unrealistic. Overall I enjoyed the game. Thank you for making this Joshua!

[quote][b]S U M M A R Y[/b][/quote] [u][b]Celestial Hearts[/b][/u] is a traditional turn-based JRPG that adds very little to the classic formula and is a part of [u][url=https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/8737/The_complete_Knights_of_Ambrose_saga/]The Knights of the Ambrose Saga[/url][/u]. Overall, I don't recommend it because its gameplay loop is extremely basic and feels like a one-dimensional chore, the character sprites used for combat look horrendous and are distracting, the villain lacks real motives and has no personality, the love story is executed poorly and feels forced, you can't re-bind the controls whatsoever, it is basically an inferior clone of [u][url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/815150/Knight_Bewitched/]Knight Bewitched Enhanced Edition[/url][/u] (henceforth referred to as "KBEE") which costs twice as much, and a number of optional bosses and one optional dungeon are copied from KBEE almost exactly. [hr][/hr] [quote][b]A C H I E V E M E N T S[/b][/quote] The game has 12 achievements, most of which require you to visit optional dungeons in the second half of the game and defeat the bosses within, and it should take around 15-20 hours to get all of them. [hr][/hr] [quote][b]R E V I E W[/b][/quote] [h3]Gameplay[/h3] The gameplay is below average because the combat devolves into using area-of-effect skills to clear the random battles as quickly as possible. This makes it feel like a one-dimensional chore that is ultimately a waste of time but which must be slogged through regardless. Although creatures have elemental strengths and weaknesses, there is no visual indicator when a creature has taken extra damage which makes the process of trial-and-error more arduous than it should be. Moreover, the elemental system can mostly be ignored because it plays such a small part in the combat system and battles can easily be won with brute force. Many creatures are also immune to, or absorb, seemingly random elements that don't fit their theme which is incongruous and frustratingly inconsistent (for example, a statue creature absorbs poison instead of being immune to it). This is a stark contrast to KBEE which displays a helpful reminder of a creature's elemental weakness(es) during battle and further expands on the system by giving each creature a specific classification that had further strengths and weaknesses. Compared to KBEE, the game has TP (on top of MP) which takes a long time to build up and only serves to gate the stronger and flashier skills behind an additional resource while frankly adding very little tactical depth to the combat experience. There is also much less skill diversity because the equipment only grants extra skills to certain characters and this severely limits the ability to customize each character's skill set as well as the roles that they can fill. [h3]Graphics[/h3] The graphics use pleasant 16-bit pixel art that is standard for games made using RPG Maker (cute character sprites in a colorful and vivid world). While the artwork for the character portraits is good, it only covers their bust rather than their full body which is a downgrade from KBEE. The main female character is also once again over-sexualized (as is tradition in most of the saga) and the cat girl's portrait does have an odd quirk wherein her whiskers look like stubble... The in-battle sprites look absolutely atrocious because they are overly-pixelated, have very little detail, are poorly animated, and their style completely clashes with the fantastic still-images used for creatures, the cute overworld sprites, and frankly the established art style of the entire game as a whole. The sprites seem as if they were ripped from the Nintendo 3DS era of games and look very inapposite and jarring as a result. [h3]Sound[/h3] The soundtrack is composed of standard but uninspired and forgettable JRPG adventure music except for the Hart City and SciTech songs which are awesome on their own. If the soundtrack was available as DLC then I would gladly buy it just for these two songs. [h3]Story[/h3] The story is nothing special and is a standard "fortuitous heroes save the world from a trite villain" story; however, a major aspect of the villain is rooted in an overused trope which I find to be annoying and simply poor design but revealing any details will spoil some story aspects of the saga so read at your own risk: [spoiler]Lilith is canonically used as the primary villain and last boss in four games (thus far): KBEE (where she originated), [u][url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/1308250/Knight_Bewitched_2/]Knight Bewitched 2[/url][/u], Celestial Hearts, and [u][url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/1848070/Absinthia/]Absinthia[/url][/u]. Each time you face her, she never dies and instead magically re-appears in the next game regardless of the passage of time between them. She is also turned into a neutral party during the epilogue of Absinthia which is another overused trope. She is honestly a very poorly-designed villain because her motive is simply to kill Helena which is quite simplistic and trite, and it seems like the story needed a villain and she was merely used to fill that role out of necessity. It also seems like her heinous actions are justified purely for the sake of the audience disliking her rather than for her being a well-designed and fleshed-out villain.[/spoiler] The characters are fine for the most part but the cat girl is overly-huffy and petulant to the point where she ends up being a [u][url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flanderization]Flanderization[/url][/u] right from the start while the main character is revealed to be a misandrist during two optional scenes in the second half of the game. The main issue I take with this second point is how suddenly it's revealed as well as its poor timing — it would definitely have benefited from being hinted at and built up throughout the game but it instead feels abrupt and out-of-place. The love story is well-developed and feels relatable early on but gets put on hold about half-way through the game due to a story reason before it suddenly jumps to the two main characters wanting to be with each other for the rest of time about three-quarters of the way through the game. This drastic shift in tone and sudden change of pace makes the entire love story feel poorly executed because it clashes with the gradual, well-paced, organic, and consistent development throughout the first half of the game. [h3]Miscellaneous[/h3] The game does not allow you to change the keyboard controls whatsoever, which is a downgrade from KBEE where you at least partially could, and forces you to use the horrendous default RPG Maker controls (Z, X, and C for confirm, cancel, and menu, and the arrow keys to move). It also only has partial controller support and I couldn't get it to work with a PS4 controller. A number of optional bosses and one entire optional dungeon are copied from KBEE almost exactly which feels like a low-effort attempt at artifically increasing the amount of content in the game while simultaneously not making sense thematically in terms of the overall world-building and lore. On the plus side, the game does come with a PDF "manual" but it's more of a reference guide which includes a world map, reference lists, general tips, information on sidequests, and boss strategies. [h3]Conclusion[/h3] Overall, this game is frankly a waste of money because it's just a vastly inferior clone of KBEE which costs twice as much. Everything which Celestial Hearts does, KBEE does better and you should just go play that game instead. If you're a huge fan of the saga and feel the need to play this game then at least wait for it to go on sale for [u][url=https://steamdb.info/app/1434350/]60% of at 4.00 USD[/url][/u] which it regularly does.

I'm hesitant to give this game a negative review, because it does a lot right. A lot of the RPG elements and exploration are very well done. However, the core of the experience, the romance between the two characters, and the story in total, very much fails to deliver. The relationship between the two leading ladies starts strong, and seems to be going somewhere. Unfortunately, it never does. One of the two characters turns out to be absent for a large chunk of the remaining adventure, and by the end, the relationship between the two is unresolved, as is their overall quest, and even the fate of the villain. It feels like a set-up for a sequel, and yet the next game being made in the series apparently isn't even set up to follow these two characters further. Just about everything about the way this game ends is deeply disappointing. If you want a game from this developer that actually resolves the romance in a much more satisfying way (and is much better overall in most regards) go play Knight Bewitched: Enhanced edition. I can only hope that in future games, this developer puts in the time and thought in order to deliver a romance that actually goes somewhere and respects the characters involved enough to give their stories a satisfying conclusion.

ENG: Another great RPG by Joshua Keith, this one is set decades after Knight Bewitched 2 and before Absinthia, of the ones I've been playing it was the easiest in terms of balance, I recommend the saga if you are looking for classic RPGs of less than 20 hours with lore and some Yuri. ESP: Otro lindo RPG de Joshua Keith, este esta situado décadas después de Knight Bewitched 2 y previo a Absinthia, de los que vengo jugando me pareció el mas fácil en términos de balance, recomiendo la saga si buscas RPGs clásicos de menos de 20 horas con lore y algo de Yuri.

well what can i say iam a veteran in the rpg games world played alot off the old Final Fantasy also some others games and this game gave me much fun. Game mechanics are good cant complain . About the story well "basic" Story i guess dont want 2 spoiler anything but let me say you will apriciate it. I was a little bit disapointed cause the romance part was weak in my opinion and the publisher could work on that in his/her future projekts. summarized its a solid RPG game if you enjoy Yuri and the old RPG games you will love this game or atleast have a lot of fun with it. PS Keep the yuri romance stuff alive its refreshing and personaly iam a fan of it

Incredibly entertaining, the story is engaging and the characters very well rounded. There's a lot of content and optional areas to explore, making it a very well-worth purchase. I sincerely love the dynamic between the characters, and learning their backstories had me in tears at some points. Thank you for making such a great game.

It's a cute lil straightforward RPG + GAY <3

I promised myself I wouldn't start playing this one til I caught up with the other two I needed to play, buuuuut, I couldn't help myself in the end. lol Anyway, I'll probably come to revise this review later when I actually finish / get further into the game, but so far I can definitely see how much your games have come along since the old ones! Movements are smooth and quick, the battles go smoothly too. Battle animations are fun and lively. Characters - thus far - strong and charming. And the CGs? Lookin' goood! You see see the improvements quite strongly already - at least, from where I've come from. Hahah. And I always like how your games tend to reward people for exploring; I love getting into almost every nook and cranny that an area has to offer to see if anything is there and, in this game, oftentimes there is! With the addition of secret rooms, well, that's even more of a treat. ~ Hope more people see this game and give it a shot!