Celestian Tales: Old North

Well, the artwork for this game is good, and the music is breathtaking,and it really have the "suikoden" vibes but I can't recommended this because... it's an unfinished game, the game is quite short,and playing as different main character didn't really add up much of the story either, there should also be a new game plus to replay playing as other character, but it doesn't and it feels like a grind There are places that are still not accessible till the end so I guess it's unfinished especially with the abrupt ending ,and considered it's 2015 and no more update added, it will be never be just like "suikoden", I noticed they released another title , but it mainly consist of story outside of this realm and the DLC is a prologue for another character the story is rather generic but it's good and the dialogue is quite good but because it's unfinished , sorry I can't recommended this too bad tho because I even bought the physical copy of the Soundtrack story 5/10 ( if they finished the story , will update my score ) Art 8/10 Music 10/10

[h1]tl;dr[/h1] Crowdfunded, turn-based JRPG drawing more inspiration from the likes of Game of Thrones than your usual kitchen sink fantasy, Celestian Tales: Old North is a solid offering. If there are two issues I'd raise they'd be as such; game could've benefited from a difficulty choice as it's way too easy, and choosing one of the six characters as your main one doesn't change much beyond the opening/ending bits and some self-contained choices there for flavor. Latter is excusable given the scope developers had to work with. I also wish this genuinely fleshed out setting had more room to breathe, but end result is a gorgeous watercolor-looking game you can nonetheless finish in under five-six hours. Replaying to see those minute differences that promise to matter in the sequel is always an option, though. [h1]Full Review[/h1] In unembellished fashion I'd say Celestian Tales: Old North is essentially Game of Thrones meets JRPG. A lot of the former lies in the game's themes and mood. The other half will be more than familiar to any genre fan, though. Before I briefly discuss the story bits, as I'm usually want to, there is an interesting twist – you get to choose which of the six characters is the primary one. This results in a unique prologue, as bulk of the game is shared, which may be familiar to Dragon Age: Origins players, alongside some self-contained choices throughout as well as the epilogue. In theory this means you should play the game six times to see absolutely everything. In practice you should decide whether it's worth doing so for ~15 minutes of content a pop. I don't know how it panned out, but supposedly these decisions you make should leave a mark in the sequel, though. We step into the shoes of an ensemble cast comprised of noble youths who travel to city of Levantine in order to pledge their service to lord Alain as his squires in hope of becoming full-fledged knights one day. Befitting customary RPG protagonists the realm is in peril with Enders, warrior people from the north, returning to wreak havoc. Fortunately, there are highly competent generals and bearers of Sacred Swords who will rise to do service to their noble Houses, but that doesn't mean our squires are short of work, much to their frustrations. And yet there are plots brewing as nobles scheme against nobles with commoners caught in the crossfire. What sets Old North apart is the exhaustive effort that went into expanding the world via all the background info. Only “problem” is most of it is contained under Lore entries when I wish writers found a way to inject into the script more organically. Mind you, this isn't another instance of Final Fantasy 13 where you needed to make up for shoddy storytelling, but rather it feels like a waste when there's so much backstory concerning noble Houses, forbidden magic itself and support cast you'll only get the barest of essentials through obligatory conversations. Like I mentioned in the opening there's a strong Game of Thrones vibe going on and game simply lacks the capacity to explore all of it. I promise, this will be the last fluff segment and it's appropriate I make it about the characters since our crew is the only constant in the game. Considering you have everyone from a bigoted religious zealot to a sheltered half-elf unfamiliar with human ways you can expect varied reactions based on all the scenarios party find itself in. These characters are not exactly even in their motivations or developments throughout the story, however. Even if you have no interest in replaying the entire game I'd still say check out their prologue at least as it's critical for at least one character. And now onto everything else. Game stuff which will largely be familiar to JRPG aficionados. I know from experience this is a deal breaker for some people so I'll say it up-front – no random encounters in Old North. Sadly, there's also no way to be (dis)advantaged when engaging them either as game doesn't account for taking enemies by surprise or vice versa. Still, ability to outrun enemy sprite representations without hassle can only be a good thing. Combat itself? Very straightforward turn-based affair with action order indicator and without need to go extensive menu delving for basic actions. Departing from usual MP-based tradition we have Stamina powering up all your special skills. Capped at eight and gained by attacking, defending or consuming curatives, Stamina leads to this particular ebb and flow where being conservative rarely pays off. In fact, considering the game fully restores your health after each encounter it's implicitly encouraged to go all-out whenever possible with one imperative – you really don't want anyone dying on your team because you'll get a Wounded debuff which can only be removed by going to a church or spending an expensive Bright Red Crystal. This, however, is a non-issue because... Difficulty is a joke. I can't decide whether that's due to developer under-tuning, giving player the freedom to grind whenever they want, while implementing a universal party level so everyone's always on the same level, or simply because you have six characters to work with so you can tackle any situation even if you can only have three in a party. It's really easy to set yourself a HEALER + TANK + DAMAGE without much thought and breeze through the entire thing down to the final boss. Confusing part is Old North truly does give some freedom to character customization even if they never break the role they're supposed to fill. You're meant to pick and choose from an array of abilities/passives acquired through leveling, as you can only have four/two respectively at any time, but I went with what was flavor-appropriate and was never lead astray. Same with equipment you'll find most of locked away in chests, leaving procuring the ingredients to UPGRADE weapons the only real investment on your end which boils down to fighting the right enemy. No 0.1% drop rates here, no sir. Lastly we have production matters. Old North was crowdfunded and you see it best in how scaled back the grandness of the presentation is versus the scope of the conflict they're going for as the entire realm mobilizes for war. Fortunately, this is where beautiful watercolor aesthetic pulls all the weight. World map, and by simply having one game already goes against modern JRPG grain, particularly shows it off nicely while avoiding some perspective shenanigans actual areas suffer here and there. Tiles sometimes don't snap together perfectly and couple of times art assets made me think a ramp wasn't traversable. Nothing major, though. Soundtrack has comparatively few tracks you might expect from the usual genre fare where musical offerings span multiple disks and whatnot, but developers made good mileage with what they have. Fittingly, opening movie and final boss tracks steal the show in setting the note if bombastic was the goal.

[h1]Warnung![/h1] Ich habe in den STEAM Foren erfahren, dass es wohl keinen dritten Teil geben wird, was bedeutet, dass die Handlung nicht zu einem Abschluss kommen wird. Außerdem sind die Achivements in "Realms Beond", die das Durchspielen von "Old North" erfordern scheinbar schon seit einer ganzen Weile verbugt und werden vermutlich nie gefixt. [h1]Gameplay[/h1] [b][u]Eine Handlung auf Raten[/u][/b] [b]Celestian Tales: Old North[/b] ist der erste Teil einer Trilogie, in der Entscheidungen sich langfristig auf die Handlung der Spiele auswirken und mit langfristig meine ich, dass in Old North keine Konsequenzen spürbar sind, sondern erst in den Nachfolgern zum Tragen kommen. [b][u]Bequeme Rundenstrategie?[/u][/b] In Celestian Tales laufen Kämpfe rundenweise ab und im Laufe des Kampfes sammelt man eine Spezialressource an, mit der man die Fähigkeiten seiner Spielfiguren einsetzt. Nach jedem Kampf wird die Gruppe geheilt, allerdings erleiden Charaktere, die im Kampf besiegt werden, eine Verletzung, die ihre maximalen Lebenspunkte verringert. Um diese wieder los zu werden, muss man einen Heiler aufsuchen. Genreveteranen werden das alles irgend wo mal gesehen haben, allerdings kann man recht bequem und ohne groß langfristige Ressourcenplanungen vornehmen zu müssen, auch mehrere Kämpfe ausfechten. Gegner lassen sich allerdings auch leicht umgehen. [b][u]Für alle Fälle gerüstet[/u][/b] In Old North kann man drei von Sechs Charakteren in die aktive Gruppe stecken. Jeder Charakter hat außerdem drei Waffen, die jeweils unterschiedliche Eigenschaften aufweisen und kann eine Fülle von aktiven und passiven Skills lernen, die auf die begrenzten Skillplätze verteilt werden müssen. Zwar hat jeder Charakter in gewisser Weise eine Rolle, aus der er nicht wirklich herauskommt, aber das System bietet einen gewissen Freiraum. [h1]Schwierigkeitsgrad[/h1] Es gibt drei Schwierigkeitsgrade. Auf dem leichtesten ist das Spiel bis auf die letzten Kämpfe eigentlich ohne optionale Kämpfe schaffbar. Auf dem Schwersten braucht es einiges an Strategie, auch wenn man das Levelcap erreicht und eine gute Ausrüstung hat. [h1]Soundtrack, Grafik, Steuerung[/h1] Der Soundtrack ist insgesamt gut und passend umgesetzt. Die Grafik ist großteils handgezeichnet und verleiht dem Spiel einen eigenen Charme. Für die Steuerung reicht die Tastatur, allerdings sollte zuvor die Tastenebelegung angepasst werden. [h1]Zusammenfassung[/h1] [b]Pro:[/b] [list] [*] Strategisch tiefgehendes Kampfsystem [*] Möglichkeit, Charaktere mittels Skills, Perks und Ausrüstung anzupassen [*] drei Schwierigkeitsgrade, die jederzeit wechselbar sind [/list] [b]Kontra:[/b] [list] [*] kein New Game+ trotz vieler möglicher Routen, die spielbar sind [*] Wirkung von Entscheidungen nicht wirklich Spürbar (erst in den nächsten Spielen) [*] mit einem dritten Teil ist nicht zu rechnen, da die Serie wohl auf eis ist [/list] [b]bekannte Bugs[/b] [list] [*] Nach Events muss man manchmal die Partie wieder anpassen, da sich andere Charaktere im aktiven Team befinden [/list] [b]Achivements[/b] [list] [*] Teils Grindlastig (bis zu sechsmaliges Durchspielen nötig) [*] Großteils leicht erreichbar (mit Guides) [/list] [b]Fazit:[/b] Insgesamt erfindet Old North das Rad nicht neu, wer allerdings rundenbasierte RPGs mag, kann in einem Sale zugreifen. Auf eine Fortführung der Handlung ist allerdings wohl nicht zu hoffen, weshalb ich eine Kaufempfehlung unter Vorbehalt ausspreche. [b]------------------------------------------------------------------------ [i]Wenn ihr weitere ansprechende Reviews lesen wollt, dann folgt doch der [url= https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32139821/}]GermanReviewGroup[/url].[/i] ------------------------------------------------------------------------[/b]

It's a nine year old game that even at the time was a very indie and old school take on JRPGs. It has excellent pixel graphics in battle and has a reasonably interesting story and upgrades, but it's really clunky and slow. Even still, I hung with it for a few hours until reaching a point where I had no idea where to go to trigger the next story event and didn't find it worth the time to keep hunting around. Supposedly it was planned as the first part of a three part story but the second game has only one tenth the reviews of this one, so it probably didn't sell well enough for them to continue. Cool effort, though.

Short old school JRPG with modern sensibilities. Party is fully healed after every battle, meaning each battle can be tuned to stay reasonably challenging. Final boss is brutal on Hardest; only survived with some specific cheese. A bit unpolished: some minor bugs, wonky scenery, and minor translation errors. Mature themes and decisions. Sequel exists. Not fantastic, but above average in my book

3/10 on the empty side big open spaces filled with two thing

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I am 32 years old. My ex-wife and I have a daughter together, and we adopted our son together. Both are now 4 years old. When we were going through our separation, I felt lost and unhappy. I was self-destructive. One day, I was so angry with everything spiraling out of control that I punched a concrete wall in a moment of overwhelming emotion. This resulted in breaking my fifth metacarpal in my right hand—the hand I worked with, played games with, and used to carry my children to bed—the hand I desperately needed to ensure I could continue providing. Upon learning the severity of the self-inflicted damage, I became almost suicidal. Keep in mind that just a few months before this, I was the happiest man, with no history of depression or anxiety. I had never experienced anger outbursts, nor was I the type to break down and cry, but I was in a tough situation that truly prevented me from seeing the light on the other side. With nothing better to do, I looked for a game I could play WITH ONE HAND while recovering. Somehow, I stumbled upon this game and read some of the comments. I decided it was worth a try... I must admit I didn't beat the game, nor did I play as much as some of you. In fact, I may have played this game for only a day or two. That being said, after doing so, I had a new joy and hope for life. I managed to leave behind the pain and suffering that had been thrust upon me. I could experience the joy and happiness of other people. I relaxed for 5 ♥♥♥♥ minutes listening to this music, long enough to realize that I would be okay. After realizing this, I turned off the game and went back to work. My hand hurt a lot, but I was motivated. I stopped feeling so sorry for myself and became the father I needed to be at that moment, not the weak boy I was behaving like. Today, I am close friends with the mother of my children. We don't fight, argue, or say hurtful things to each other. We are parents and friends. Now I have 3 children. My third child is, wait, ALSO 4 YEARS OLD. The woman I am with was going through a very similar situation at the time of my separation, and we just unexpectedly stumbled into each other's lives. We have been dating for a year and are very happy together. Moral of the story: you never know what life has in store for you, and if I had given up when all odds were against me, I wouldn't be where I am today. This silly little game helped me realize that. Thank you.

Honestly never trust a game with an all white cast that wants one of those white characters to be an elf/half-elf in order to throw "we must overcome racism" into the mix.

Люблю Я Японские ролевые игры и всё тут. Или игры которые на них похожи. А Здесь будет кошка, люди, которые будут пролистывать страницу, могут погладить ее. 　　　 　　／＞　　フ 　　　 　　| 　_　 _ l 　 　　 　／` ミ＿xノ 　　 　 /　　　 　 | 　　　 /　 ヽ　　 ﾉ 　 　 │　　|　|　| 　／￣|　　 |　|　| 　| (￣ヽ＿_ヽ_)__) 　＼二つ