Made in Abyss: Binary Star Falling into Darkness

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Game:Made in Abyss: Binary Star Falling into DarknessPublisher:Spike ChunsoftDeveloper:Spike ChunsoftGenre:RPGTested for:SwitchAvailable for:PS4, SwitchUSK:16Released in:10 / 2022

The manga and the following anime series are very popular – and the original setting is also suitable for a role-playing game. In the first part you follow the story of Riko, a girl who lives in a city on the brink. This “Abyss” is incredibly deep and full of legendary creatures and treasures, so a whole society of divers has formed around it. There’s only one catch – the curse of the abyss inflicts pain, wounds and death if the divers make their way back up. But Riko doesn’t care and she sets off on the journey down with the robot boy Reg.

Only after the very long tutorial do you unlock the main mode, which is based on the classic dungeon crawler: you collect materials, fight monsters and make your way back with a full backpack. The highlight here is the curse: If you only go up a few meters, you will be hit by a wave of nausea. If you ignore this, it gets pretty intense – but after a while the effect wears off. This is where the problems start: the curse unnecessarily lengthens exploration, monsters spawn incessantly, and equipment has an extremely low durability cap. Skills that are automatically active in Riko must first be painstakingly acquired in the main mode; balancing hunger bars and durability often means you can’t move forward or backward. The graphics are rather makeshift and you don’t hear anything from the anime music here.

opinion

Daria Varfolomeeva says: The anime story, rehashed as a tutorial in four hours, explains practically nothing for the survival mode, which throws you in at the deep end. Monsters come from everywhere, the way back from the abyss is extremely slow and the hunger bar taunts you immensely in some regions. Unfortunately, the curse only creates frustration instead of bringing a sense of danger. And once the backpack is full, you can no longer use weapons or tools? There’s just a lack of enthusiasm for the game.