Asdivine Hearts

Now we are talking JRPG:s dime of dozen

Got this game for the Wii U since it was one of the few fantasy JRPG:s to the system and after the modern Tokyo Mirage I wanted the old good vs evil gods, shadow vs light and the paragon of light hero standing up for the right cause and so and on. And it's really nothing special. The story is one of the more basic ones, but it satisfied me through it. It start one year after some mysterious light across the heavens and the world have become more dangerous as monsters have increased in numbers. You play as Zack who together with the obvious love interest Stella are heading out in the forest to release the wild-cat Felix that they took care at the orphanage they grew up in. While in the forest a mysterious light appears and try to hijack Stella's body, but Zack intervenes causing the light to enter the cat. The light is the light deity that have been pushed out of the heavens by the shadow deity (which caused the light in the sky one year prior). So you guessed it, it's out saving the world with your obvious girlfriend and the pet cat.

During the journey through Asdivine you will encounter the mysterious Uriel who follows Zack after he somehow saved her when her village was destroyed by monsters, but he can't recall the event and the oracle Celine who works for the Queen of Gutemburg Castle. And all girls have a crush on Zack... even the cat... who was the light deity who of course is female. Why not. There's actually a mechanic in that if you get a certain heart rating you get together with that girl in the end of the game. I maxed all up since... why not, but it still went for the ending with Stella, which was nice. Although I thought one could get all the girls, since Zack was such a charmer, but apparently it didn't work... maybe the fact that I changed difficulty from Hard to Easy to speed up the battle sequences and get to the end affected that, but since it only took less than 30 hours to play through the game it was rather nice just cruising through a game for a change.

You travel the world and enters Phantasma to confront the Shadow Deity. You find him, beat him and suddenly find yourself in another world, Revierie. I kinda guessed it since Uriel didn't know anything about the world which hinted on that she couldn't have come form Asdivine (also a prince from Gutenberg have been gone for a year and haven't been seen which also points toward that). You also meet this worlds Zack and Stella, some con-artist and thieves making a nice contrast to the hero of Zack and Stella. You travel this world and enters the final dungeon, climbing the Tower of Sephirot (is it a reference to Final Fantasy 7 or does the name have some important meaning in Japanese?) and learns the truth. Due to people stopped believing in the Deitys (especially the Shadow Deity) they are on their way to disappear. Lumiere the Light Deity didn't understand the threat and was the reason she was cast down. You now have to return to Asdivine where the Shadow Deity have taken over the Queen so you have to exorcise him from the Queen and finding the two servant legions of the Deity. As they commit suicide in helping Lumiere and breaking their vow to the Shadow Deity they summon Phantasmo, yet another otherworldly dimension. Getting through that and we are on the ending showdown with Noctademus and fight of his two forms. During the ending portion it is also revealed that Zack is somehow the light progeny, some kind of manifestation of light as a human... so like Jesus. So when you defeat Noctademus you also get it that light and shadow need to balance each other and since Zack is proficient with light he assumes the role of the new Light Deity as Lumiere take on the role as the new Shadow Deity with her experience as a Deity. And with enough points with Stella you show up to her after a couple of years since you had to stay in the heavens to master your powers.

Is it the end? No, by starting the save again you can fight Noctademus again and not use a certain item in the battle which makes him survive and occupy Stella's body (since she apparently is the Shadow Progeny) and another Deity shows up, the creator Deity... which was probably guessed as well since I think I saw it in the sequence that Lumiere was thrown out of the heavens and the game has 3 different magic teaching, normal, light and shadow. This one isn't as nice since it finds human evil problematic and want to take away their emotions to stop this to happening. Our heroes aren't happy so you traverse the two worlds and find yet another dimension. And damn, it's the worst cause they placed a mini-secret-boss that you have to fight to reach the end where I had to grind for 6 levels before beating, the damn cheater. Not only did he do two attacks in a row (some attacks damaging all party members for over 6000+ damage) but he was so fast he almost attacked after one of my characters could react. But I beat him and pushed to the end. Beat the boss that was a sprite swap of Noctademus final form and he concedes that humans heart maybe should be allowed to continue to feel emotions in that they even can challenge a god. He leaves and the game ends with order back to normal and beliefs in the deitys back as both Lumiere and Noctademus have regained their places. Stella and Zack hooked up. The End!

It really feels like the ending was a bit rushed or maybe not planed since the creator deithy almost comes out of nowhere... I say almost since there was one discussion about it, but out of nowhere Stella is pushed as a Shadow Progeny and nothing really comes out of that. Also, the ending enemies are atrocious since they take forever to kill and when the damn dragons appear, expect 10 minutes of just attacking to take away all the damn health. It still has its moments. I really like the interaction, especially between Zack and Felix although I don't know if I should see it as animal abuse. All in all nothing special. I also think it has some problems, for example, it didn't always register my direction input on the controller and that could be due to the game originally being an IOS title. If you like fantasy RPG:s and want something short, go for it, but as stated it's nothing special. One thing I found irritating is that there is no map over the dungeons, just for the overworked. Nice to know where I'm supposed to go, but finding my way around the final multi-level dungeons can be irritating as I sometimes forget if I was walking up or down and sometimes have a hard time remembering where to go to get out. Found it really irritating in the end.