Transforming Tropes or Aging Formula?
The sheer volume of KEMCO RPGs makes crafting fresh introductions to their reviews a bit of a recurring challenge. Alter Age, their latest release, presents the familiar retro RPG formula, complete with a compelling narrative and a signature gameplay twist. While this might sound like a standard KEMCO description, let’s see how Alter Age distinguishes itself as we explore its world.
Presentation of Alter Age is pretty much the same as every other KEMCO game; somewhat retro themed. The game is split into two halves, more or less, and sees us either wandering around the overworld, getting into fights and finding dungeons, or wandering through dungeons, getting into fights. Everything is the same as you’d expect, with anime inspired characters that are up to the usual standard.
Sound is again as you’d expect; stirring battle music and the swish and whizz of swords and spells. And as a surprise to absolutely no one, the narrative of the game is presented in the usual way, with static images of the character doing the speaking appearing alongside the words they are saying in text boxes. Business as usual, you might say!
Fatherly Frustrations and Soulful Shifts
Story? Well, there is one of them, and while it isn’t the best I’ve ever played through, the one found in Alter Age does its job of keeping the player involved.
We play as Arga, a young man who lived with his mother until she died. Now we have decided to go and give our absentee father a piece of our mind, and as if this isn’t hard enough, it turns out our father is Leogrando, the head of the Bravers, a collection of warriors. And best of all, we have to become a Braver ourselves in order to get near him. And so our path is set.
Now, most people who become Bravers have a special talent, and Arga is no different – it’s just that his skill, Soul Alter, is seemingly useless. What is it, I hear you ask? Well, when he uses his skill, he will transform from a young man to a pre-teen boy. How helpful! Well, this skill also affects the members of our team, and as they are young girls, they become grown women when Arga becomes a kid. And yes, it does get sillier from there on out.
But what about the gameplay? I’ll begin with Arga’s special ability, Soul Alter, as this is entwined in the way the game plays out. You see, depending on his form, and the form of the party members, not only are there different abilities available in battle, but there are also a variety of conversation options that can be had if you chat as a boy rather than a man. You can change between forms at any time while wandering (and there are even sections of some dungeons where the form of the party plays a big role) but in the battles, we can alter the party at set intervals, basically so many turns after using the skill last time.
Apart from this unique mechanic, which is a nice one to play about with, the rest of the game is pretty much the same as every other KEMCO affair. In fact, if it wasn’t for the fact that the scary editor of this website has a strict word limit on these reviews, I’d leave it there! However, there is more I can say…
Tuning Encounters and Leveling Up
Something that is a bit different about Alter Age is a device called the Safe Bell. What this allows you to do is tune the encounters that you run into, and you can switch things up so that the game ranges from a battle literally every time you take a step, right up to making battles a lot more infrequent. Obviously, as always with these games, fighting gathers up EXP, which is used to level up. And we all know what levels make, right? That’s right, they make your life easier! Add this to the ability to fine tune your weapons and armour, levelling them up as you go, and you can almost make the character that you want.
A KEMCO Classic with a Twist
In conclusion then, what we have here in Alter Age is a standard KEMCO JRPG with a couple of new features. Do they lift Alter Age above the run of the mill games? Well, yes, they do. Just. And while this isn’t one of the best games in the publisher’s back catalogue, it does have just enough to ensure a recommendation.
If you’re familiar with what KEMCO push out to the gaming world, Alter Age is worth a look.
Your Links
KEMCO’s Alter Age Introduces a Unique Twist on Turn-Based Battles – https://www.thexboxhub.com/kemcos-alter-age-introduces-a-unique-twist-on-turn-based-battles/
Buy Alter Age – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/1/9P2SQS1SJXGB
