Ex Astris review – a truly premium mobile RPG

A premium cellular sport is a uncommon breed, and a premium cellular anime RPG is even rarer – particularly one which doesn’t function any microtransactions or different monetization past the entry charge. In truth, builders typically stuff premium triple-A video games on PC and different consoles with shops, skins, and in-game gadgets which might be out to empty your real-life pockets. As such, I used to be exceptionally excited to tackle this Ex Astris evaluate – particularly as this intriguing turn-based RPG comes from Hypergraph, creator of the hit gacha sport Arknights.

I first set my sights on Ex Astris someday in late 2022, and it instantly captured my consideration. Not simply due to its premium standing, but additionally as a result of it regarded completely lovely, with promotional supplies hinting in the direction of a splendidly wealthy, futuristic world stuffed with deep lore, some very cute anime-style characters, and a singular fight system. And I’m comfortable to say it actually lived as much as my expectations and, in my view, is a powerful contender for among the finest cellular video games of 2024.

Now, let’s dive into the sport in a bit extra element. Ex Astris is a single-player, real-time/turn-based hybrid 3D RPG set on the planet Allindo within the distant future. You initially take management of an ‘Earther’ referred to as Yan, who has been despatched to Allindo as a part of an investigation accompanied by her drone-like companion, Roy. Nonetheless, inside the first jiffy of the sport, the practice Yan is touring on crashes, and she or he quickly finds herself teaming up with a peppy Allindo native referred to as Vi3.

The 2 type a considerably abrupt but very endearing friendship, touring collectively and uncovering a bunch of mysteries and secrets and techniques alongside the way in which. In addition they meet a wide range of new characters who find yourself tagging alongside, all of which have their very own distinctive fight expertise and gameplay kinds, permitting you to tweak your crew to your liking. The final vibe of the sport, together with its gameplay, characters, and story, provides me a powerful sense of nostalgia, because it actually jogs my memory of the single-player RPGs I grew up enjoying on the PlayStation 2 and Xbox 360, solely with some severe graphical and mechanical upgrades.

The world-building of Ex Astris may be very spectacular, with a backdrop of extraordinarily wealthy and deep lore filling each nook of the planet. From conversations between characters to readable articles that supply glimpses of the world round you, it’s clear that quite a lot of love and a focus went into crafting an intricate basis for this sport, and it had me intrigued from the second I took management of Yan.

Sadly, the primary narrative does wrestle a bit with readability and pacing in some areas, with giant exposition dumps often thrown at you thru partitions of textual content, making it laborious to synthesize all the things totally, and characters utilizing distinctive terminology as if you’re presupposed to already know what it means. Because of this, there are some parts of the sport the place chances are you’ll really feel as if you’re enjoying a sequel somewhat than ranging from the start. Nonetheless, these are very minor niggles, and the story nonetheless stored me engaged all through.

The deep lore isn’t the one factor that makes this world a deal with to discover, because the visuals are additionally completely gorgeous and actually spectacular for a cellular sport. Versus an open world, every space is individually instanced, permitting extra room for element. Each location you go to has its personal distinctive vibe whereas nonetheless working as part of a cohesive planet, with attractive views within the distance, spectacular water, shadow, and light-weight physics, some actually distinctive structure, and a plethora of interactable gadgets, fauna, and flora. It maintains a stunning stability between high-tech futuristic-fantasy parts, nature, and buildings that look as if they belong within the historical past books.

On high of that, you additionally get the chance to discover some distinctive, dungeon-esque areas alongside your journey, together with secret underground hideouts and historical ruins from bygone occasions. Whereas enemies populate many of those areas, there’s additionally a bunch of puzzles so that you can face. The puzzles are typically fairly easy and gained’t be a match for you in the event you’re into different puzzle video games, however make use of some intelligent mechanics that swimsuit the sport’s total vibe. The majority of puzzles revolve round you utilizing one character to maneuver packing containers alongside a observe by swiping alongside the display screen.

A few of these packing containers do nothing, merely appearing as an impediment, however there are others that you could activate with one other character so as to open doorways or reveal gadgets. There are additionally some packing containers which have ladders on the aspect, permitting you to achieve larger locations. Many of those areas are fairly simple to get by, but additionally function a wide range of secret platforms or paths that result in treasures. I like this strategy, because it lets you blast by the sport with out penalty in the event you favor, but additionally rewards you for actually taking in your environment and exploring all the things – one other aspect that jogs my memory of the perfect RPGs that I grew up with.

After all, the characters additionally play an enormous half in making this sport so particular. Vi3 and Yan are particularly implausible, each of their contrasting designs and personalities that play off one another, making for a splendidly complimentary ‘darkish and light-weight’ vibe. Yan is mostly fairly quiet, standoffish, and really dutiful and work-oriented, whereas Vi3 is bubbly and upbeat, making buddies in all places she goes and exhibiting boundless empathy for others.

Even interactions with NPCs are a deal with, as their reception in the direction of Vi3 and Yan give an actual perception into the world round them. As an Earther, Yan is commonly met with a way of mistrust and prejudice by sure teams, whereas others strategy her with a way of curiosity and enthusiasm to be taught extra about her tradition and introduce her to theirs. Drawing on real-life experiences, this actually provides one other dimension to the world and the way Yan suits into it, whereas additionally stoking a way of curiosity within the participant as you wish to uncover what makes the individuals of Allindo react to Earthers in such a manner.

Whereas Arknights is a really totally different sport, you may clearly see that Hypergryph’s top-notch character designs have transferred over to Ex Astris. Every member of your ever-growing occasion sports activities a stunning look becoming of their persona and character, and animations to match. Fight, then again, actually strays away from the fundamental turn-based affair chances are you’ll count on from Arknights’ creator.

Ex Astris’ fight is actually turn-based with real-time parts. You have interaction in battle by both hitting or getting hit by an enemy, then you definitely immediately hop right into a basic turn-based battle formation. You’ll be able to have a crew of as much as three characters, with every character both aligning with Warding Mild (blue) or Shadow Shift (crimson). Naturally, Vi3 aligns with Warding Mild and Yan aligns with Shadow Shift.

Nonetheless, not like different turn-based video games like Honkai Star Rail, your crew technically solely has one flip per spherical, whereas every of the enemies get their very own flip – however that is the place the distinctive, real-time parts come into play. You get the choice to change your stance at the start of every flip, which modifications what expertise your characters have entry to. You’ll be able to then start the assault with one character and launch follow-ups along with your different characters, tapping them repeatedly to unleash a full combo.

Enemies have each a well being bar and one thing referred to as a stability bar. Sure assaults deal larger stability harm, and, while you handle to deplete an enemy’s stability bar, they briefly enter a weakened state, throughout which you’ll launch as many assaults as potential. There’s some selection with character expertise right here, with some merely requiring a button-mashing strategy, and others requiring exact timing to tug off correct combos. On high of that, you may proceed attacking an enemy after you’ve defeated them for a short period of time to rack up overkill, which might earn you further rewards on the finish of the battle.

On the subject of the enemies’ flip, you management one character that the enemies will robotically goal, and also you instantly enter a defensive state that displays a sure portion of harm. Nonetheless, you even have the chance to parry enemy assaults by tapping a button on the proper time. Typically enemies unleash assaults that align with both Warding Mild or Shadow Shift, and you might want to swap to a personality that additionally aligns with that state in any other case you may’t successfully parry it. Parrying additionally leaves you open to wreck for a short second in the event you don’t time it proper, which creates a little bit of a ‘threat reward’ situation.

Truthfully, that’s only a temporary overview of fight – there are heaps of different parts that contribute to how nicely you do in battle, together with utilizing gadgets and meals for buffs or well being regeneration, crafting gear in your characters, utilizing factors to unlock nodes in your characters’ ability timber, choosing the proper expertise and formations, and extra.

It’s a really intricate fight system that has quite a lot of transferring elements, and it will possibly positively really feel a bit overwhelming at first, particularly when you end up bombarded with a number of tutorial home windows in fast succession. Nonetheless, it’s fairly straightforward to fall into a snug rhythm, and it turns into very intuitive after a little bit of apply. I additionally love that it gives a lot room for personalisation, particularly as you achieve entry to higher-level gadgets and expertise, and recruit extra individuals to affix your occasion. And, as somebody who’s an enormous fan of each turn-based and real-time motion fight, this seems like the perfect of each worlds and positively had me excited for no matter massive battles had been on the horizon.

Talking of which, there’s a pleasant vary of enemies all through the sport, each in normal encounters and boss battles. The enemy designs are sensible, with a pleasant combination of people, animals, and a few extraordinary creatures blended in (this features a sentient pile of rocks, a bizarre gelatinous blob with a spiky nostril, and extra), and the bosses boast some distinctive mechanics that maintain the fights fascinating.

Now, onto the controls. Ex Astris takes the usual cellular RPG controls of utilizing your left thumb to manage your character’s motion, and your proper thumb to maneuver the digital camera – although the digital camera additionally has a non-aggressive auto pan that lightly pulls again to heart behind your character over time.

Past that, the sport makes use of a combination of faucets and swiping motions to finish totally different actions – faucet to work together and combat, swipe to equip or use gadgets, and many others. It’s all very intuitive, and inputs are typically very responsive, although typically the ‘button mashing’ required in sure elements of fight doesn’t really feel as if it registers each faucet.

Whereas exploring you may’t leap freely or climb partitions like you may in Genshin Affect and different journey video games – you may solely climb ladders by interacting with them, or leap off sure ledges by working as much as them. That is typically high-quality and reduces on-screen muddle, however does result in some wonky moments throughout platforming sections the place you might want to hop between transferring platforms, although it’s nothing egregious.

When it comes to efficiency, I’ve been enjoying Ex Astris on an iPhone 13 with all of the settings pushed as excessive as they will go, and it appears to be like completely attractive. It maxes out at 60 FPS which is greater than sufficient for a clean expertise on cellular, and I’ve solely skilled a really uncommon stutter every now and then. Load screens are fast, all the things appears to be like crisp and exquisite, and I’m constantly impressed with how clean all the things feels. After a protracted play session my cellphone does begin to really feel a bit toasty in its case, and it’s fairly demanding for a cellular sport, so older telephones could wrestle with the best settings. However, total, it’s clearly a really well-optimized expertise that makes nice use of the cellular platform, and also you don’t want among the finest gaming telephones on the earth to play it.

Ex Astris’ sound design is strong, with nice Japanese and Chinese language voice appearing that basically helps to painting the feelings of every interplay, even in the event you don’t perceive the languages. The UI and subtitles are additionally well-proportioned, and the choice to skip or velocity up cutscenes with faucets is all the time welcome. Plus, it can save you at just about any time and cargo again in as you please, so it’s straightforward to play on the go.

The music is nice and fairly, although it does mix into the background a bit at occasions – I can’t actually think about myself enjoying the OST as I work any time quickly, but it surely’s positively nicely orchestrated and does praise the temper of every scene and surroundings.

Lastly, we return to the one distinctive issue that basically units Ex Astris other than different cellular video games – its standing as a premium sport and whether or not it’s definitely worth the value. At present, the sport sits at round 15-20 hours lengthy, although it will possibly actually take longer in the event you tackle all aspect quests and discover all areas.

It’s not a gacha sport, and there’s no in-game store, battle move, or microtransactions to talk of – and for its RRP of $9.99 (£8.99), you’re positively getting quite a lot of worth in your cash. It’s set to be an episodic affair, with extra chapters coming sooner or later, which I presume can even price a set value to buy. However, at the same time as a standalone expertise, this sport is certainly value your time, and, if it’s half nearly as good as this, I do know I’ll be able to slap down that money when the following half comes out.

Total, I’m actually impressed with Ex Astris. It stands out as not solely a formidable premium cellular RPG, but additionally a hanging and engrossing fashionable RPG that might arise towards a few of the heavy hitters at present available on the market. From its gorgeous world and wealthy lore to its intricate fight system and lovable characters, it succeeds in nearly all the things it units out to do, and it’s nicely definitely worth the comparatively small entry charge for a sport with no further monetization hidden beneath the floor. Let’s face it, all of us love gacha video games, but it surely’s good to return to an easier time when you might use each character with out spending a fortune on their banner first, proper?

Now, it’s about time for me to wrap this Ex Astris evaluate up, although I’m certain I might go on about this intriguing little gem for hours. For those who’d prefer to know extra about Hypergryph’s different hit title, make sure you try our Arknights tier listing. Or for a bit assist with a special interstellar turn-based journey, head over to our Honkai Star Rail tier listing and Honkai Star Rail codes guides.