Azure Saga: Pathfinder

Review

The mothership N.E.B.U.L.A is about to leave the planet Azure’s orbit. Based on the protocol, all vessels must return to N.E.B.U.L.A before the light speed jump is activated. This time around, one spacecraft has not complied with the procedure. The pilot is a young scientist by the name of Synch, who is accompanied by his faithful droid, Noide, and they are about to locate the last coordinates of the position in which Synch’s father was last seen. As they ignored the order to return to mothership, the governor deployed the black squadron to intercept them. And just when they were on the brink of finding the exact coordinates, they were shut down and crashed on the planet they know as Azure.   

Azure Saga: Pathfinder is a RPG/ strategy game with turn-based combat where you take control of Synch and his droid and discover the planet Azure and its inhabitants.

After the cut-scene introduction, your character Synch will realise that he has been unconscious for quite some time. The good news is that his droid, Noide, didn’t suffer any damage when they crashed. Their spaceship, however, sustained heavy damage and they need to find a way to repair it so they can find the place where Synch’s father was last seen.  This is where the story really begins and the gameplay is introduced.

Basically, in each of the areas your characters explore, they’ll have a quest to complete, and as you progress through the game, they’ll be given side quests by talking to various characters who have an exclamation mark above their heads.  The map has from 14 to 25 rooms / tiles (this is the most I’ve seen so far) to explore per scenario. At first, you’ll have Synch and his droid in your party, but as you progress, additional characters will join your group.  One thing to remember is that you can only have 3 active characters at any given time, but you can swap characters anytime you want, including during battle. Getting back to the maps; they are 2.5D isometrics and you can move from one to the other by following the triple green arrows which are located at the extremities of each room / tile. Your party can move north, south, east and west, but you may not have all of these options available at the same time.  If there is an item within the room /tile surrounded by sparkles, this indicates that there are items you can collect. In most of your quests, you might need to find keys, or activate levers in order to open inaccessible rooms.  When you walk anywhere near a large blue diamond, your progress will be saved automatically. You can also use the diamond to teleport your party to other blue diamonds within the quest map. Your party will encounter fights every few rooms, which will keep you on your toes!

Each time you enter a fight, you really don’t know what sort of opponent you will face. There are stacks of them (randomized in every fight) and if it is the first time your party faces an enemy, they’ll be able to call on VIGOR, the droid scanner, to give you important information on your new opponent, such as what it is immune to and what sort of attack to use in order to inflict maximum damage. In regards to your characters, they will have several attack options. The first one is to use the normal attack, which will not cost them mana, but will inflict less damage. The second is to use a skills move, but it will cost the character a certain number of mana points to produce the attack. If they don’t have enough mana, (represented by the blue gauge above your character’s head), well . . . your move will not happen.  The third attack is the united or combined attack, where three characters combine forces against one specific enemy. It can be a bit tricky when you face three high level opponents. The fourth one is the guard option, which when selected will try to block your enemy attacks. You can swap characters during battle, which is always handy, or just avoid the fight by escaping, if you can. There are plenty of other things to do in each turn, such as drinking potions (health or mana) or using items in your inventory. The health and mana gauges are located above each of your character’s pictures, and will decrease if they either receive damage (health) or use mana for a skill or unified attacks. The other gauge is under the picture and starts to fill up each time one of your attacks is successful. When it is entirely full, your character will be able to execute a fury move. Most fury moves are deadly attacks, with the exception of the priestess (so far), who can use the fury attack to heal your party. At the end of each fight, your party will receive coins, and every now and then, items too. The good news is that all your party will receive experience points, even the ones who weren’t fighting.

When finishing a quest, you will find yourself back at the ERE capital reporting to the king and his entourage. There you’ll be able to buy or sell items, such as potions, armour and many more. It’s always good to stock up on potions, especially the mana potions.

Personally, I am still in the early stages of the game and at the time of writing this review I have played 8 of the main quests, which are straight forward.  I feel that the story is pretty good so far, as are the characters. In terms of the interface, it is easy to use.

Graphically the game looks great and runs well. The soundtrack and sound effects are really good too. In terms of the controls, you can use the keyboard or gamepad but the mouse is not supported, which is a shame.