somebody please explain how this game is consistently "overwhelmingly positive"

[Quidjibo2021]

I bought this game. I played the game. The cutscenes went on. And on. And on. And they were terribly bland. The combat was bland. The backgrounds are over-saturated photographs with no distinct style, while the foreground elements look like they came from a very unimpressive RPG Maker game. Then animations look over-tweened. What is the appeal of this game that I have missed?

[Nyu]

just my view.
you dont have to share the taste.
i play it on hardest difficulty blind, the combat feels great. i enjoy the slowmo on hitting enemies and the flow of combat and the combos
i like the progression system letting you freely try things out and rewarding trying things out
i skipped everything from the intro cutscene and skipped the demo
i mostly skip dialog. but sometimes feel like reading it and it can be funny.

i like challenging fair games.
the grind feels good too.

i really like the animations of character and enemies
the background images used as texture and background also work after sometime, looked strange first but i enjoy the whole look now.

so story i really dont care, beside i got some laughs from it when i didnt skip, still skipping most things.
the gameplay is great and unique.

thats why i would recommend it.

[Bazokifier]

"Overwhelmingly Positive" just means that an overwhelming number of people people would recommend it to their friends. That they think it's a good game worth playing. Not that it doesn't have flaws or is the perfect game. Two obviously glaring issues are the horrid hitboxes and the occasionally-atrocious English translation that makes even abilities unknown.
In this game's case, I would say that the game itself is greater than the sum of its parts. I still think it's a phenomenal game and would absolutely recommend it to my friends despite its flaws.

[Tim]

To be fair, the game tells you up-front that it's front-loaded with cutscenes & gives you the option to skip. You can also play a demo with a special mode that gives you a selection of weapons and abilities that reflect the mid-game.

[Fusei]

Disclaimer of sort: the game took about 15 years to be made by a single dev. He wasn't even a dev to begin with btw.

More here[www.rpgsite.net].

Now regarding the writing, frankly I find it terrible. It feels amateurish and is all over the place. It's also got a distinctive pervy tone, think master roshi on steroids. The english translation is really poor too (and I'm saying that as an ESL).

So indeed why the positive reviews? Well the gameplay is the bomb. It starts slow, but when it picks up well I had tons of fun (and I'm not into 2d side scrolling action game, it's actually my first). The game also as a fair amount of features when it comes to character progression.

Depending of the difficulty you pick, the game expects you to grind: heavily. Was quite surprised to find that I actually enjoyed grinding here, odd I know.

Really, it's hard for me to explain why it's such a good game. I guess it's one of those game that you just have to play it (long enough) to get it.

[AkumulatoR]

If you have to ask this question the game probably isn't for you. You're one of the 4% who don't like it.

[tsjanith]

Originally posted by AkumulatoR:

If you have to ask this question the game probably isn't for you. You're one of the 4% who don't like it.

Not true. I like the game just fine but I've found myself asking the same question.

Astlibra is a solid game. While I would never give it a negative review, it is profoundly overrated.

The gameplay loop is overall satisfying, engaging and fun, though it does start to gets stale towards the end.

The graphics are actually a refreshing style imo. I don't really get tired of looking at it.

The story, however, is one of the most abominable nonsensical weeabotic tryhard/failhard ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ in the last decade, at least from the limited pool of games I've played. Characters saunter in out of absolutely nowhere as if they've always been there, acting like they're the paramount locus of the game, and the universe they live in seems to agree with them. Other characters move in with the same approach then move out as if they never existed. Things happen that have no relevance to anything or anyone in the game, yet they are treated as if they're important story beats. The dialogue, translation fooches or not, is a deeply sad joke. And that's not even scratching the surface.

It's good for a game but I'm genuinely flabbergasted that anyone anywhere is actually invested in the story.

Oh, and there's rapping in the soundtrack. What the hell is that?!

[SFJake]

Its a weird, niche game that most people don't hear about. The masses aren't judging this one, they are unaware of it. Thus you end up with a game only found out by the people who enjoy the niche it offers.

The game has an obvious "made in a basement" appeal to some levels like the graphics, but it has its charms.

Its incredibly obvious the game has had a lot of development limitations probably due to small team and very small budget. The story is fine, it just adapted itself to these limitations. If you can't get over those and get annoyed at a few quirks, you're incredibly small minded.

[tsjanith]

Originally posted by SFJake:

I The story is fine, it just adapted itself to these limitations. If you can't get over those and get annoyed at a few quirks, you're incredibly small minded.

Let's take a moment to review what's just taken place here: You literally followed me here from a forum of a completely different game, which I directly pointed out likely got the reception it did due to a lack of degenerate moe anime fan service, spewing objective falsehoods about shortcomings said game doesn't even have....to a forum of a game with a preponderance of moe anime fan service, calling me "incredibly small minded" because I point the story out for what it is, a vapid cesspit of asinine and bizarre faux plot points all there exclusively to stuff it with moe, because it's just "a few quirks"

Not only are you impossibly moronic and flooringly petty, but you just incontrovertibly proved the point I made in the Souldiers forum. Go back to your hentai visual novels and leave actual games to actual people

[MrVohl]

Originally posted by Nyu:

just my view.
you dont have to share the taste.
i play it on hardest difficulty blind, the combat feels great. i enjoy the slowmo on hitting enemies and the flow of combat and the combos
i like the progression system letting you freely try things out and rewarding trying things out
i skipped everything from the intro cutscene and skipped the demo
i mostly skip dialog. but sometimes feel like reading it and it can be funny.

i like challenging fair games.
the grind feels good too.

i really like the animations of character and enemies
the background images used as texture and background also work after sometime, looked strange first but i enjoy the whole look now.

so story i really dont care, beside i got some laughs from it when i didnt skip, still skipping most things.
the gameplay is great and unique.

thats why i would recommend it.

I recommend to follow the story wich is really good and really big....you can spend 70h on this game since a lot of things unlock over time....this game is one of my favorite A-rpg game in the genre ever

[Shylaar]

Originally posted by tsjanith:

The story, however, is one of the most abominable nonsensical weeabotic tryhard/failhard ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ in the last decade, at least from the limited pool of games I've played. Characters saunter in out of absolutely nowhere as if they've always been there, acting like they're the paramount locus of the game, and the universe they live in seems to agree with them. Other characters move in with the same approach then move out as if they never existed. Things happen that have no relevance to anything or anyone in the game, yet they are treated as if they're important story beats. The dialogue, translation fooches or not, is a deeply sad joke. And that's not even scratching the surface.

It's good for a game but I'm genuinely flabbergasted that anyone anywhere is actually invested in the story.

I thought it was one of the most enjoyable stories I've seen in a game in years. I don't follow your complaints at all beyond the translation, and it doesn't help that you didn't give a single example of these supposed problems.

Oh, and there's rapping in the soundtrack. What the hell is that?!

Worked for Persona 3.

[Balm]

to put it simply, the type of person who sees the store page and is interested in what is offered is generally speaking, pleased with what they got with this game

the type of person who wouldn't leave a negative review probably would never think of buying this in the first place, since its not misleading and not a fad of the month/bandwagon meme game

[Astellin]

You cant take overwhelming positive as a rating system like 1-10 it was never intended to be that way and that's not what it means system just takes all the thumbs up reviews as statistics and the vast majority are positive impressions that's all it means..

[Varshyl]

This game is basically 50 Shades of Grey. Trashy but entertaining to the uncultured masses. People that would give it a negative reviews in first place wouldn't really get past the initial impressions, the store page & demo doesn't hold back anything.

[gunstrikerx]

to make it more simple for you, if you are the one who dislike it at the point that you question it like that, while most of the peeps like it so much, the answer is this, this game, is not intended for you, or maybe the genre are not suitable for you

[Kain Yusanagi]

The game is highly entertaining on a gameplay level. The story is take it or leave it, as you can see by the number of people in this thread don't care for it (personally I enjoy it and don't have trouble following it at all), but the gameplay is very solid, and it has that Metroidvania feel for the map combined with the constant growth in skills and gear a la SotN and the GB successors to that gameplay style.