LifeisXbox’s Empire of Angels IV review | Hear ye, hear ye. Turn-based games are on the rise. Read all about it in the next upcoming reviews! Yes, ladies and gents, this a strange time we’re in at this moment. With a pandemic still raging all across the globe, droughts in one place and heavenly downpour in the other? You’d almost forget to take a step back, and enjoy the finer things in life. And if by this review I thus mean scantily clothed females with humorously different personalities and witty banter? Then, yes. This is surely one of those finer things in life. Because if you may? Let me introduce you to Empire of Angels IV, created by EastAsiaSoft. Being very late to the party successor of the successful Taiwanese Empires of Angels franchise, EoA IV brings a brand new story in the world of Asgard. You play as Niya, the game’s lead protagonist. It is tasked upon your person, that you are the world’s last hope in ridding it from the evil that has set upon it. And thus you exist, ridding the world of hoodlums and rabble all alike. When suddenly, a weird shining orb drops down from the sky and mystery starts to unfold right before your very eyes. What is this weird shining thing? Will it herald forth even more demise? Nobody knows. But one thing is for certain. You have to make haste towards the crash site, or otherwise, whatever it may be? Could fall into the wrong hands. Or worse, a demon may have just crash-landed in the middle of an open field, and this may be your final moment before Asgard is subjugated by the evil of untold proportions. Are you ready to find out where this leads? Then wait no longer! This is our review of Empire of Angels IV.
We played Empire of Angels IV for 8 hours on Xbox Series X. This game is also available on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Android, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows, Mac OS
What we liked!
- Customizability| The biggest part of EoA, and actually the thing that carries the entire game the most? Is how open it is into how you create your team. Each character has a wide path of evolutions to go through. Each bringing their own set of skills and bonuses. For instance, do you want your healer to branch off into a warrior, and your warrior to branch into a sucky medic? You could try. Do you want your ranged allies to become a more brute in your face kinda gal? Sure, go ahead! What ever poison you want to pick? Its yours to try out. Each time you’ve earned enough experience and victory points, you’ll be able to upgrade your ally. For money ofcourse. And how do you get this? By doing something that really isn’t fun to do… like… at all. Grinding… ugh…
- Visuals| Oh my gosh, EoA IV looks amazing! With a beautiful and colorful world, it’ll almost make you forget in how cute the chibi figurines look during the battles! For those who don’t know what Chibi means? Chibi is an over simplified version of a full length body. It’s short and stocky, has a big head and tiny body. Your characters do look exactly like their story narration versions though. Because yes, even here there’s a difference. On the tactical map, you’ll have beautifully designed chibi characters. But when the story is being told, you’ll see the full body resemblance of your character. There are perfectly on par with any decent anime out there! And I wouldn’t have excepted anything else! Everything in EoA feels like it was crafted by a talented craftsman. Kudos to the visuals department on this one!
- Music| On the in-game music department, I really have to commend the sound designers. While each mission has its own loop? It really has it’s own loop. There are quite a few actually as well. Each song (while quite basic) matches perfectly with the environment and the battle that you are facing. If you’re grinding, it’s more lighthearted. If you’re battling a boss or something that resembles a deciding battle? The track will be more engaging.
- Story (to a degree)| EoA IV ‘s story is engaging. It makes you wonder “what’s going to happen next?”. Just like any other anime episode, you’ll hear that “Next time, on EoA new mission …” voice pop up in your head, when the game view goes from the tactical map, to the world map. Each time you unlock a new part to go to, you’ll wonder. What will happen there? And this is all thanks to some amazing storytelling! I won’t spoil anything, because there are quite a few story twists. Sure, some cheesy parts as well. But you’ll quickly look past those, because the meat and bones of the story really pulls you in. Honestly? There is no real lull, anywhere. From the very first mission, the mystery surrounding everything instantly engages that “what the hell is going on here?”. And I loved every single second.
Somewhere between
- Grinding| EoA IV has level progression, and thus that would imply that your experience gain equals each level that you beat, right? Wrong. You could see this turn-based tactical game as a pure grind fest. Every time that you are about to go to another big chapter of the game, you’ll have to grind levels in a designed level specially tailored towards gaining levels. You technically could try to luck your way through. But eventually that luck will run dry, and you’ll go from “lucking it out”, right into “oh god I have no other choice”. These grind missions aren’t really fun either. Because it’s always the same principle. Deploy, move, attack. Win. That’s it. The enemies also have some sort of “increased chance to crit strike” as well. How many times that I saw them crit me, while my crits were sparse and few in between? Ugh… Way to much. Also, because there is no loot for you to gain or find (so no epic, legendary or UBERPENTAOMEGALUL quality), grinding becomes even more of a chore, and less of a fun pastime to do. Weird choice by the developer…
- Only female| I know, how could this be an issue, right? Well. I do not mind the game having nothing but women. I just wish that there would be gender diversity. In a world already plagued by gender bias, discluding an entire gender may not have been the best choice out there. Or at least, it’s a franchise ‘s given that really didn’t age well.
What we disliked
- Voice acting| NOTE: I am NOT deducting points for this point but I am putting it in this portion of the review because I truly and honestly absolutely detested this part of Empire of Angels. Why am I not deducting points? Because this really is a “to each their own” kind-of preference. I love anime, and watching them for instance in their native tongue is for most ones not a problem for me. But certain spoken dialects or languages just rub me the wrong way. Like in this here game, the Taiwanese narration is one I absolutely do not want to hear in my anime. So on that part I am biased, and thus, am not going to deduct any points for it. But I do know that for a lot of people out there, this may be something to be wary of as well. Since there is no English or other language narration either, and thus this may or may not interfere with your pleasure or buying potential of Empire of Angels.
Yup, you read it already in the Story part of the review. Empire of Angel’s story is actually really intriguing and compelling. But the fact that you cannot change the voiced narration to English, or any other language really is a big no-no. I commend them for having everything narrated, but at least give us some options to choose between.
How long to beat the story | 40+ hours
How long to achieve 1000G | 40+
Similar with | Disgaea, Valkyria Chronicles, …
CONCLUSION
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