Game Review | A.W.:Phoenix Festa

So here’s the deal…… This….. is not a game for people that have not read the light novel/ anime that it’s based on.

I repeat!

Do not consider getting this game if you have not seen/ read the story it is based on.

If you choose to ignore that warning and get it anyway, then you’ll be spending your first few hours with the game similar to the way I did, lost and confused about pretty much everything plot related, especially if you choose the create a character option. This options assumes you already know the plot of the anime and it in no way tries to explain it to you, all the while expecting you to know what it’s going on. The second option sees you take control of the main character from the anime, Ayato Amagiri. This option offers more in the way of explaining the story by loosely following the plot of the anime. There are however a couple changes between the plot of the game and the anime, so fans of the anime will be able to get a tad bit more out of it than most others. If you truly want to understand everything then watch the anime.

With the warning out of the way, lets talk about this game’s plot.

A.W. : Phoenix Festa is based on a popular Japanese light novel, The Asterisk War: The Academy City on the Water, where in the 20th century a catastrophic event known as the Invertia leads to the destruction of many large cities on Earth. In order to recover from the devastation, the Integrated Enterprise Foundation is formed and cities are reorganized including one city called Rikka, also known as Asterisk. Within Asterisk, six academies hold tournaments called “Festas” pitting students from each academy against each other with the winner getting whatever they desire.

You take take control of a student in one of the academies, Seidoukan Academy, and try to win the Festas. The story is also completely linear, so don’t go in expecting any kinds of plot twists or split paths to follow. They’re not present in this title. What you do get is a set amount of days and a couple options as to what your character can do on each day. These options include; shopping for weapons, healing items or gifts to give to other characters, weapon upgrade options, training, duels, dates, Jobs for money and resting to regain health. As long as your character keeps fulfilling some preset goals the game has in place and winning battles against NPCs, you will eventually reach the end of the story. At which point you can either play it again in a new game plus kind of way, play the other of the two plot-line, the battle mode, or look at the Gallery. During my first play through I found myself not enjoying the story mode until I was already about 6 hours into the game. I associate my lack of enjoyment to the fact that I choose to play the created character plot-line my first time through, as well as the linearity of the story and it’s lack of a way to learn about the characters outside of the vague plot or through other means outside of the game. You’re not even able to initiate interaction with the characters you wish to. Interaction between the other characters and your character is either according a few presets and the rest is random. So if you like girl “A” you better hope she chooses to visit your character often.

Other than the story you the Battle mode is the only other mode that features gameplay. It’s main purpose is to allow the player to battle their way past the games characters as long as they can. In this mode you can choose among some of the characters from the story mode as well as the main character and eventually your created character upon completing the created character story-line. The battle system it use is the same as the story mode, so it can also be considered a training mode whereby you can practice your moves and familiarize yourself with the battle system. This system is similar to that of other 3D brawlers games like Senran Kagura. You control one character by navigating the battle arena, jump, dash, block, alternate between two types of attacks and two types of special attacks. In most battles you are usually accompanied by a teammate who supports you by engaging enemies, and heal you when you interact with them during battles. Each character is different an unique in the way they attack, the damage they deal and strangely enough also the way in which their hit boxes work. Some characters can be attacked immediately when they raise from being knocked over while other can’t. It’s something I considered weird and a bit unfair, but Its nothing the developers can’t  fix with an update or two.

As for visual appeal. A.W.:Phoenix Festais a decent looking game, but it’s not gonna win any awards for it’s graphics. It sports a sort of shell shaded look with a couple effects for attacks. It’s a game that won’t wow you, but you will become accustomed to the look of it the more you play. The 3D effects are your standard affair you’d expect on your average Vita game, while the visual novel bits are pretty good looking. For those that have seen the anime, you may be disappointed to learn that the visual novel bits that present the story have been toned down to match the teen rating of the game, so don’t go in expecting the same changing scene or accidental boob grab from the first episode of the anime. Some of the text is there, but the art is not the same.

Final Verdict

Should you get the game?

Well,

If you spend enough time with A.W.:Phoenix Festais you will find a good game that you can loose twenty or so odd hours to, however due to it’s heavy reliance on the source material it is based on, it makes it hard to recommend to anyone other than fans of the anime or light novel, especially at its $39.99 price tag on PSN. If this title was $20 I’d recommend it to anyone that likes anime and visual novel types of games in a heart beat, That not being the case I’d recommend waiting till you see it on sale if you’re not already invested in, or like the source material.