HomeVideo GamesOperation Abyss: New Tokyo Legacy | Game Review

Operation Abyss: New Tokyo Legacy | Game Review

-

Although the PlayStation Vita may not be as popular with the mainstream market as home video game consoles including the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4, it has proven to be a more than decent home to JRPG’s and niche titles. One of the genres which in particular seems to have thrived on the console are third-person dungeon-crawling RPG’s, which are less graphics intensive but provide a good amount of challenging gameplay.

Following their success with Demon Gaze in 2014 (A on The Otaku’s Study), Nippon Ichi Software America have opted to localise and subsequently publish Experience’s latest dungeon crawler RPG Operation Abyss: New Tokyo Legacy. Presenting gamer’s with a sci-fi world-saving storyline with plenty of twists and turns, this new release is more closely aligned to the traditional dungeon crawling experience, but comes with its own distinct set of features and places a vital experience-changing decision in your hands the moment you start a new game.

Operation Abyss: New Tokyo Legacy | Game Review 1

The Big Decision

While it is actually surprisingly easy to just click your way through this option when beginning the game, Operation Abyss: New Tokyo Legacy comes with two very distinct art styles when it comes to character portraits – each of which come with their pros and cons.

The default option presents you wish a similar art style to Demon Gaze, where you can select a static character portrait to represent your character. Unless you intentionally change it mid-game with a completely new design, this portrait does not change when you equip new items, and delivers what could be considered “anime style” aesthetic which complement portraits used by all NPC characters. While there are a limited number of designs when compared against Demon Gaze, each portrait features a number of special effects and several different colour-styles. Therefore if you wish your character to have blonde hair but the portrait’s default colour is black, there is a chance that one of the alternate designs may have your desired hair colour. Given this game is based within human settlement, the designs provided are more humanoid than in Demon Gaze.

The second style is less aesthetically pleasing in my opinion, however offers a lot more versatility in character design. Rather than working with static character portraits, you are given access to a character editor when creating each party member. With more realistic looking characters, you are able to edit their hairstyles, facial designs, body type, default clothes and more. Furthermore, these character portraits will change as you equip new weapons, equipment and accessories. It is a design choice which stood out to me, and one I personally used during my main playthrough.

While aesthetics don’t usually make a game, it was a surprising that Experience opted to produce two different art styles rather than just stick with the standard anime portraits used in Demon Gaze. Although not as interestingly designed as the characters (Both playable and non-playable), the Abyss designs are also adequate and decently structured.

Operation Abyss: New Tokyo Legacy | Game Review 2

A Story About the NPC’s

The storyline of Operation Abyss: New Tokyo Legacy revolves around a post-modern Tokyo, which is experiencing a spate of mysterious kidnappings and other incidents. Unbeknownst to the general public, the city is constantly finding itself under attack of monsters known as ‘Variants’ and portals which lead to a dimension known as the Abyss. The only people able to stop them are members of the Code Physics Agency’s Xth Squad – a group of teenagers who have the potential to use CPA’s Code Technology to face the powerful monsters and discover the mysterious these labyrinths hold.

Similar to the approach used in Demon Gaze and other dungeon crawling games where your entire party consists of an interchangeable group of custom characters – the character development and storyline primarily revolves around the NPC’s which inhabit the world. Although the story has moments where it takes a backseat for content which could be considered “filler”, the plot itself is pretty good, complemented by some genuinely interesting characters.

Operation Abyss: New Tokyo Legacy | Game Review 3

You Will Want Someone Smart With You in the Labyrinth…

Traversing an Abyss is done in first-person view, as you make your way through multi-level dungeons searching for a particular target, whether it is: a person, an enemy or an item. While travelling often involves moving your party from “A to B” while dealing with the random encounters that appear (With a seemingly higher encounter rate when going through doors), there are a few other things which attempt to prevent you from travelling into a labyrinth with a party of heavy damage dealing members. Some dungeons require you to use spells limited to one particular class (Eg. Levitation), while there are also doors which require you to bring an academic with you (Limited damage potential but can identify traps/items and unlock certain doors not specifically locked with a key). With Academics more or less being an exploration class than one who fares well with direct combat, players are presented with the conundrum of potentially having a mage/healer/archer in their party or someone who is only useful outside of battles.

Classes are known as “Blood Codes” in Operation Abyss: New Tokyo Legacy, with each party member adopting the spirit of a notable figure based on their personality trait (Good/Neutral/Evil). Each code grants a party member a small number of bonus stats and grants them access to select weapons and skills. A Warrior for example can adopt the Blood Code of Ushiwaka or Tomoe while Academics can adopt the personality of Moses or Joshua. Each traditional class: Academic, Wizard, Warrior, Physician, Knight, Samurai, Archer, Assassin, Monk and Conjurer have two Blood Codes related to them – although in my experience there seemed to be minimal difference between choosing one or the other.

While you are able to switch Blood Codes of your party members when back at base, each have their own associated level. Therefore if you have a Level 10 Physician and want to make them a Wizard, you not only have to contend with stat points allocated to the Spirit stat (Which is used more by healers), but your character will be back at Level 1. In my personal experience, I managed to get by a good portion of the game with a Warrior, Knight, Samurai, Wizard, Academic and Archer – occasionally interchanging characters on-demand.

Operation Abyss: New Tokyo Legacy | Game Review 4

The All-Important Battle System

At its core, the battle system of Operation Abyss: New Tokyo Legacy is nothing particularly special. With your team of six party members split three in the front and three in the back, you go up against wave after wave of enemy which attack you randomly while navigating an abyss. It is very fast paced, with all bar magic-users quite often just needing to select which row of enemies to attack.

While health is defined as a number which is whittled down everytime you receive a hit from an enemy (or replenished via items/healing spells), each spell is limited by usages. Therefore, until later on in the game when you have enough spells and usages to spare, Wizards and Physicians primarily come across as a last resort option used to tackle bosses or incidents where you face a game over. Less versatile than a traditional MP gauge, this really provided an extra layer of challenge for long winded Abyss exploration.

By selecting certain dialogue options in-game and battling alongside one another, the party is also able to fill a ‘unity’ gauge to unleash special “Unity Skills’. With three types of skills available: Brave, Magic and Academy, these abilities are designed to be used during tough conflicts to turn the tide of battle. While this system does offer skills that can legitimately turn the tide of battle when used correctly, I found it was very easy to forget the system even existed.

When travelling around labyrinths, you will not just be battling the same group of enemies over and over again. Operation Abyss: New Tokyo Legacy introduces a ‘Rise & Drop’ system, where the more you fight in an Abyss, the more dangerous it events. As you increase your danger level, weaker enemies are replaced by those with higher levels and a greater number of them. This doubles as not only a means of providing extra challenge in weaker areas, but also grants you access to more experience and items. Decreasing this gauge means either defeating a “Wanted Variant” which are encountered with a high danger level or fleeing from battle.

Operation Abyss: New Tokyo Legacy | Game Review 5

Overall…

Overall, Operation Abyss: New Tokyo Legacy delivered a satisfying dungeon crawling RPG experience, one which was not just a replica of Demon Gaze with a new theme. While it isn’t a challenging game provided you don’t rush ahead too far without spending a little time to level up / equip new items, the experience delivered was in that sweet spot between controller-throwing difficult and mind-nummingly easy. Plus, I personally loved that Experience offered two art styles, even though it can pose a challenging connundrum when starting a save file for the first time.

Operation Abyss: New Tokyo Legacy | Game Review 6

Sam
Sam
Founder of The Otaku's Study. I have been exploring this labyrinth of fandom these last fifteen years, and still nowhere close to the exit yet. Probably searching for a long time to come.
Advertisment

Recent Posts