Quick Look: Indivisible

nice, been looking forward to this game

Really excited for this one. Definitely got that Valkyrie Profile vibe

Been quite interested in how this turns out. The demo from a while back was pretty neat!

Do androids dream of electric sheep?

The character positioning makes sense if you look at it from the perspective of you are assigning them to specific buttons on the controller. So if you're running to the right, the character assigned to O will naturally be in the front.

This definitely looks like a game I'd like. I really enjoyed how the combat worked in the Mario RPG games, and I also remember playing at least one Valkyrie Profile game and liking that a lot as well.

This actually looks pretty nice, I like that combat style and the axe jump thing stood out to me as a cool traversal mechanic. Depends how interesting the level design is as you go through the game I guess.

I remember when this was more like a beat em up style combat. These fights take a long time it seems.

@steveurkel: Jan was barely using the super moves at all which would have sped things up a lot. Watch how often he has a full meter and doesn't use it. Having to explain all the mechanics while playing also tends to lead to less-than-optimal play. You might also be thinking of some other game, because this definitely never had beat em up style combat, it was pitched as a Valkyrie Profile sort of thing from the very beginning.

YOOO JAN WITH THE LEGEND OF LEGAIA SHOUT OUT. My first and still one of my favorite JRPGs. Had some killer music too.

You had me at Valkyrie Profile.

Hopefully it runs well on Switch!

Not sure where I'm going to get this, Bloodstained has me skittish on switch, but deeeeeeefinitely gonna pick this up.

Is that Critical Role's own Matthew Mercer as the arrow dude?

it was Valkyrie Profile influenced from the jump, but they did seem easier in the prototype demo they released on PS4 however many years ago.

It may bee a bug with the game, but anyone else notice Jan's almost 200hr save?!?

My bad, I had this on ps4 a few years ago and remember the art and characters but thought the combat was 2d scrolling and not rpg. It does seem like a great game, just feels like enemies have a ton of hp but someone clarified why that is.

Man I cant wait for this new wave of Valkyrie Profile-likes to start hitting shelves.

Not my kind of game, but wanted check out Jan presenting it. Good job.

Also one of the voice actors sounds real familiar.

who would kickstart something so incredibly bland looking? not trying to be a dick but the art is just soooo uninspiring.

Been looking forward to this game for a long time. Thanks for the video!

Perfect crew for this! *washes away in the music*

@steveurkel:

It was never that. It was always presented as Valkyrie Profile. If anything, the combat got faster. The fights are taking long because Jan isn't utilizing any of the combos. He's playing this like a turn based rpg, which it very much isn't.

It's finally here.

@tarmander said:

I noticed that too! Weird.

Hey @janman, when I watch quicklooks I want to get a taste for how the story and dialogue are. So even though you've seen it I want to get a sense of how the writing is and when you skip through it I miss that. Good quick look, however.

I love the Valkyrie Profile series (was actually recently thinking of replaying VP2), so I'm definitely going to pick this up when I have time to really dig into it.

I’d like to play that.

Not a fan of Jan skipping the dialogue. That should be shown off with the rest of the game.

Audio from jeff and jan seems to have an echo to it. Could just be my speakers.

Agreed, still a very good quick look, and I wont pretend I know the perfect balance of story vs game play. I think the solution is probably more Jan lead quick looks so he he can get in the same kinda groove he gets it when he's producing.

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I always play and support modern 2D art-style games like Muramasa, Dust Elysian and this as this is the look I imagined when I was a kid playing 8 and 16 bit games. Never understood why 8bit 2D is so popular, when you can have visuals like this.

Mechanically this looks cool, but something about how it looks just... I don't know...

JAN QUICK LOOK!!!

Jan Good. Make Quicklook good. Skipping dialogue bad. Unfortunate.

I would Kill for VP2 remaster.

Totally. Heard it within seconds, maybe no gate? Definitely not a big problem, but may as well tag in @janman so he's aware.

You are correct, good fellow

Now that I have the game, you can change whether the formation of your team is based on the direction you're facing in the Settings menu, change the first option from "Always Stays the Same" to "Face the Enemy." I'm not sure that being in the front actually affects attack frequency though, the game hasn't said so and it doesn't seem like it does, anecdotally. But there are other things I know are true that the game hasn't told me yet, like that you build extra Iddhi meter from longer combos or air juggles.

So this game... it's a mixed bag. I'd say:

• ( + ) Absolutely delightful character design. You could note the art being its strongest asset, but a well designed character goes a long way. I can tell each party member and even some NPCs have a ton of personality before even talking to them.
• ( + ) Art. Gorgeous and well animated to boot. I really shouldn't have to say more on that front.
• Strong voice acting. A mix of heavy weights and genuinely good newcomers for the performances.
• ( ~ ) Combat has potential but really doesn't give you a reason to avoid spamming then using whichever character has the strongest bar/iddhi attack. Only a few enemies need to be "opened up" before you go back to that tactic. Just wait for all characters to regain their attacks then you're good to go again.
• ( ~ ) $40 USD launch is a tough sell. This is much easier to recommend at the $20 - $25 range.
• ( - ) You don't unlock a dojo/practice arena until like 6 hours into the game. With 30~ playable characters in the game: you really need that unlocked from the get go so you can start to remember what they all do (muscle memory learners especially). You can see an example of this when Jan was playing and using Ginseng & Honey (G&H) (no knocks on Jan I know he's trying to talk at the same time). G&H has a mechanic where your up + att is an AoE heal, but the strength of it is determined by how many neutral attacks you do beforehand. Spamming it will results in a piddling heal that results in time lost more than anything.
• ( - ) Story is very run-of-the-mill shounen anime-styled that even reminds me of a lot of old JRPGs. That's not a terrible thing but it's overly predictable and kind of boring. Add into that the missing assets and shortcuts they had to take on some sections which doesn't do the story any additional favors.
• ( - ) Mandatory platforming is everywhere and feels like an afterthought compared to how intricate you can make the combat if you wanted. Dying in the overworld just resets you on the screen or a few screens back anyway it feels weightless. Also if you run into too many overworld hazards, get set to nearly no health, then enter a fight: your health isn't reset like it is post every fight and you can very easily wipe (not that that matters anyway you just go back a few screens).

I've never played Valkyrie Profile so I can't tell you if this is your next dream game nor can I say it's a fighting gamer's holy grail with the way you can stack and delay attacks with some additional inputs. You'd have to be a huge Skullgirls / Lab Zero Games fanatic to buy it at $40. It's definitely not terrible so far I'm just thinking it's not going to take the world or even this year in gaming by storm.

As much as I love Tri-Ace's complex combat systems, I have to say that my favorite part of the Valkyrie Profile games was the unique premise of controlling a Valkyrie and recruiting dying warriors. The first game especially is among the most unique JRPG's ever made in so many different ways. By comparison, the story, art, and structure of this game aren't really doing anything innovative, which just leaves the combat. Might give it a try at half off, but not worth $40 to me.

This looks pretty nice graphically, but the platforming aspects don't look all that good. That axe jump looked real fiddly and it's only use seemed to be to hang on to walls that you want to walljump upwards afterwards. Why not speed up the game by making you able to walljump upwards from the get go. Either you train the players to look for parts to axe, or you train them to look for slightly lower walls to wallrun on. It's not a huge change. The blocking of enemies seems quite messy as well when there are a bunch of enemies attacking you at the same time, as happened with that sphinx boss.