Nights of Azure (PlayStation 4) Review

Nights of Azure is the type of game where the screenshots end up looking better than the game itself. This isn't to say the game is bad; on the whole it is decent, but weighed down by many little issues and falling short of what could have been based on the material it was working with. Among the largest inconsistencies is the very "adult" design of the characters, while the actual dialogue and relationship complexities rarely rise above what may best be described as "middle school melodrama."

Taking place in a world where the slain demon lord bled upon the world, which causes new demons to appear, a maiden must be sacrificed to try to seal the evil away. The player-controlled demon hunter goes from area to area, fighting through small groups, with occasional bosses thrown in before more story is revealed, and the maiden (the demon hunter's best friend) accompanies throughout the experience.

The formula is standard, as far as role playing games go. Featuring a strange balance between being mindless action and interesting choices for teams and level ups, combat, at its core, is a real-time hack-and-slash where hitting Squarex4 is the basic combo throughout. An occasional press of the Triangle button may liven things up for a moment, but in general the combat is never very deep. There is dodging, and maybe even a guard command, but the button mashing works in nearly every circumstance and requires no thought.

Fortunately, it does not end there, since all the time spent in combat would suffer if that was the end of it. The best part of it all is the minion system called 'Servans' that lets various creatures to be summoned, allowing a max four out at a time. These creatures level up and fill roles such as healer, damage dealer, and tank. There is arguably much more depth to them than the actually character, as they learn numerous moves and have several traits. At level up, the player picks one of two new traits for a Servan to permanently have, and it may be something like a five percent buff to the party or an immunity to stuns. The same creature could be built differently next time, expanding the options.

The setup ends up being much better than the execution, because, other than a "super" move that can be activated, there is little to be done other than letting them do their thing. The player character can equip new weapons, but it does not feel fundamentally different, since it still is only a button-mash whether it's a huge sword or dual daggers. Combat itself, for this reason, verges on repetitious and is saved only by the interesting "Servan" system.

The story and characters are weak, which is unfortunate given the direction it initially promised. The story is almost entirely focused on the interaction between the demon-hunter and the best friend maiden, who is to be sacrificed. Structurally, the game differs little from titles like Drakengard or Nier, but is leagues behind those games as far as a "mature" storyline is concerned. Instead the mess is a bipolar tone of bouncing, ecchi style of character "development" mixed with occasional subtle, and intriguing or mysterious elements. The latter are simply too rare.

The story is about two women who love each other, though it is never directly stated, and it's unfortunate, given the controversial nature of the relationship already, that it is not handled with more tact or subtlety. Instead, nearly all dialogue proceeds down the same path, with the camera focusing on breasts literally bigger than the characters' heads, through some sort of comic misunderstanding, and concluding with either blushing "Tee-hees," or turning away with proclamations of "It's not like that!"

The utterly misplaced sexual nature of the story cannot be understated. It truly is detrimental to the overall game. To be clear, sexual aspects are not always bad, as Dead or Alive and the surprisingly decent Criminal Girls quite clearly show, but here it quickly becomes impossible to wonder what exactly is supposed to be conveyed when gigantic breasts take up half the screen and bounce with every declaration of "It's not like I meant it that way." It is hard to take the story seriously when both characters' head-sized, jiggling and bouncing chests take up half the screen.

GUST is capable of better storytelling, not necessarily from the Atelier games, but Ar Tonelico had incredible character depth in its dive system. To have this story's material include a demon hunter forced to face her duty or loyalty to her love, a populace afraid to go out at night, and some sort of demonic minion summoning go nowhere must be pointed out. The game falls flat on its own face about the fourth time the buxom maiden, improbably dressed as a hotel maid, falls on her face again to our supposed amusement.