Inseparable review: Draws many elements, but does not lay the foundation well

Indivisible (Indivisible) is a horizontal board action game developed by Lab Zero Games and published worldwide by 505_Games, which produced a Demo for players to play in 2015 and achieved a good crowdfunding, which is the only crowdfunding game I am looking forward to this year. The studio's earlier production of Skeleton Girls has achieved a good reputation among players, and it has made me more excited about this game that has not been released in years.

However, the initial appearance of the game is not optimistic, and the development process of the game is very contrary to my personal logic. After entering the game, the first Tips is the display of the game operation, the interesting thing is that it is not a simple key view, but the reset of each key in turn, if you are anxious not to pay attention, a flurry of handle press skip tips, the next tutorial you will be in a very chaotic situation.

"Prove that your A key is A and your B key is B." It's weird to be up here doing this first

I happen to be a impatient player, because I can't find the RB key needed to use in the tutorial forced to explore for dozens of minutes, maybe you will ask me why I don't start again, interesting is that the game has not passed the tutorial level, have the first save before, the title interface is not there, there will be no traditional "start the game, load the save, set" and other interactive menus. The Tips that change the key position will only pop up the first time you enter the game, which makes the player have to try to figure out the RB+X key combination one by one.

They are set to LB+ right stick ↓ by me. And there is no keyboard display, so I may have to spend more time trying to find the desired keys with the keyboard.

The title interface is the first intuitive feeling to enter the game, it is responsible for guiding the player and satisfying the needs, but whether you want to change the resolution or the keys, or the language options, you need to complete the tutorial level first, which is a bit trivial and not satisfactory. But if you had a little more patience, maybe that wouldn't be a problem.

After archiving I have the title interface, mixed flavor

Despite the annoying setup, the game's cutscenes were so selling that I got the feeling that I couldn't do a TV animation alone. In fact, "Inseparable" (Indivisible) did invite the industry leader trigger society to make a full set of cutscenes tailored for it, from the representative "cut suit girl" can be seen its strength, excellent in the American exaggeration and Japanese cute system to find a balance, to create a fantasy world, with the game's own hand-drawn scenes, very pleasing.

This even made me ignore the problem mentioned at the beginning of the article, and the frustration it caused me was swept away. In principle, the animation style of Trigger Club does not match the actual scene of this hand-drawn style of the game, but in the melodious BGM and lovely character details, it forms a wonderful unity, which not only does not let me lose the drama, but also makes me yearning for the world. It's fantastic, beautiful, and adorable, just like I felt when I first played Island of Adventure in 2005, and Inseparable's OST certainly gave me the same feeling.

I love the details of this game, and the OST that can do everything

As an RPG, its bland script is in sharp contrast to the good of the skin, the plot of Inseparable is a little clear soup, can not reflect the protagonist's grand adventure story, a lot of meaningless NPCS and strange dialogue filled every corner of the game, and even a lot of meaningless map scenes.

Inseparable's story is not only very broad, the straight line of the plot is made to feel boring and childish, and the NPC is also made without blood and flesh, which makes the game look very empty and without spirit. There is nothing pushing you to explore this beautiful world. To put it bluntly, the script was a huge drag on the game.

The shoddy script directly affects the formation of this game, as an RPG its team members can be described as dull two words, boring story boring experience and even no more than one sentence of narration, they are not a tool man, is never on the scene, the game has him or he is the same, no difference.

The man who killed your father in front of you, you just go to the boss?

Fortunately, as an indie game studio, they retain the ability to use mechanics to make their games fun. Inseparable as a horizontal board action game, its combat part is modeled after the operation mode of Goddess Side Image, using ABXY four buttons on the gamepad to control the four own characters on the field, using the rocker direction to distinguish the attack mode, and there are blocking, killing and other systems to enrich the combat experience. It's the only place that surprises me, even makes me really smell for a while. The not new but quite practical operation logic makes the turn-based game play the pleasure of ACT, players can use the characteristics of different characters can easily play magic combo, I think every player in the first contact with the combat part is extremely surprised.

With the combat system, the design of the BOSS is also commendable, the battle mode and the marching mode switch freely, the player can experience the essence of the horizontal board game in the turn-based game, and the mode switch from time to time allows the player to cut in while avoiding, you know this is a turn-based game.

But as the plot progresses, I find that almost all levels can be A past, and there is no depth in the battle

If the design of the battle mode is what makes me happy, the design of the levels and maps is another criticism. Inseparable uses a Castlevania-like map design, and the design of the large map is very intimate, you rarely see similar games that can mark events so clearly.

But it also means that the game's terrain has very little interaction, and there are no hidden paths to exploit, all elements are just off the page, laid out in the open, and less fun to explore. However, it does not mean that the running map will be easy, "Inseparable" is very blunt the gameplay of the horizontal platform jumping game is also included, which makes the game become the same as "Blue".

If half the game is fighting, the other half is parkour, but that doesn't make the game cool. The boring side flow design is boring, the trivial semi-Castlevania terrain has almost no transfer points, the player runs to and from various locations, and the platform jumps between these locations are repeated and repeated, with no quest log and no quest prompts, which almost consumes all my patience. The introduction of elements in "Goddess Profile" and "Blue" did not get a proper balance point, but made them look together, independent and divided, difficult to be independent.

Conclusion:

For independent games, I never give too high expectations, but like to look for the bright points worth mentioning in the game content, but Inseparable did not show me the ingenious ideas of independent people, the game itself is more like a big mess, with different games to enrich the content of this horizontal board game, and then write a rough and boring script.

However, "Inseparable" is not particularly bad, at least as a game it can be played, the imitation of various elements is also complete, but there is no proper integration, whether it is parkour content or combat system alone out of the elements can be played, but limited by the rough script and empty characterization, so that the game does not have too much continuous power.

Perhaps the music and the cutscenes are its few bright spots, and they are particularly good ones, but in comparison with the play content, it is really a momentum with no movement, and the problem of Chinese subtitles that began to appear in the middle of the game is exacerbated. Food tasteless, abandoned a pity, and a few years ago, compared to the Demo, the difference is that the game can get through, "inseparable" is not a game worth your discovery, only if you particularly like some of the elements, it is recommended to buy.

Overall average, 7.3