Astralojia: Season 1

Developer: Astrah LLC
Publisher: Astrah LLC Xbox Store: here Price: $13.99

 

Inspired by turn-based JRPGs, games, and anime, with a touch of American sitcom somewhere in between, Astralojia starts as a comedy slice-of-life series that follows the lives of the students of a martial arts and magic school, as they deal with the trials and tribulations of every day life in the world of Astralojia.

It starts with Taku, a frustrated guy headstrong and determined no matter what to pass a rough entrance exam to make it into the school of his choice. He meets his semi-supportive friends, Juno and Misha. Together the three will try to make it through the exam.

In the world of Astralojia, everyone from your shopkeeper to your gardener to your regular old townsfolk is trained in martial arts and magic. Every citizen is born under one of the seven astrological elemental signs of fire, earth, wind, leaf, water, blue fire, and ice. Their entire society is structured around a stringent, extremely competitive school system that almost everyone takes part in. More is revealed about the world as the story progresses.

Heavy on story and tough on battles, rather than level grinding, dungeon crawling or spending eons of time on item collection, it focuses everything on narrative with boss battles that you have to clear. Each fight is different than the next calling for a unique strategy to beat. Skill bars with various 'pitches' will make many moments a challenge, with far and near positions depending on which ability you equip at the beginning of a fight. The battle system presents itself as a 90s traditional turn-based JRPG and requires strategy and skill to clear through.

New options include the ability to 'auto-scroll', allowing you to watch cutscenes like a movie, the ability to toggle voice acting on and off, and the ability to activate an experimental camera lock mode, in which the camera will attempt to shift its focus on the character talking.

For players that really want a challenge, you can also try hardcore mode. If you want more of a sense of strategy, a great way is to crank up the difficulty.