Alphadia Genesis (Nintendo Switch) Review

Starting out as an older brother with a younger sister who is a researcher may be one of many RPG clichés, but it set up the team dynamics for the tale. As the brother and initial leader of the group, Fray has to keep everyone's safety in mind, although he can be overprotective of his sister Aurra. Aurra's inquisitive nature means she is less formal than she should be, even with royalty, something Fray has to remind her of.

Thankfully this characteristic makes her endearing, especially to another teammate from the second Kingdom in the story. Corone is greatly amused by Aurra; her skill in battle is strong, but she has a few fears which she learns to overcome with Fray's help. Belief has to be suspended in one of the fights close to the end, though, because he arrives in time to save her exactly at the right moment, but that's a normal thing in RPGs - sometimes things just click into place, and realism takes a back seat.

The antagonism from Corone's bodyguard Walter has to be seen to be believed. The amount of times an overwhelming desire to punch him for being such a snob was far too many to keep track of. His view on clones threatens the stability of the group, whose final party member, Enah, is a clone who Fray found. Enah's personal development over the story was interesting to watch - she takes on more humanlike emotions, and even at the start this reviewer was rooting for her because it felt like she represented all the clones who weren't murderers. Clones prove that they have feelings too, and that even if mistreated they will protect their masters and do their best no matter how bleak the outcome of a confrontation looks. Using a story about clones makes the player think about the morality of cloning, if they agree with the rights that clones have in the game, and the opinions certain characters have on clones.

Flying an airship in an RPG is always good fun. Getting one relatively early in the game didn't make the whole thing too easy, though. The airship could only land at certain places, meaning there was the usual trekking over mountains and through forests after landing. A great feature about KEMCO RPGs is that there is no getting lost: players always knows where they need to go next through the story feature, which recounts where they've been and what the current mission is. That saves a lot of frustration that can occur in RPGs, and saves wandering around aimlessly looking for how to progress the story, and more time for fulfilling the side-quests which got a bit tricky later on. It leaves time for levelling up which is easily done by fighting.

The fights are well planned out, with a slight 3D style that doesn't look out of place with the mostly 2D style graphics. The level of detail in the towns and characters makes it a joy to look at while playing. Even when on the map the main characters and NPCs have both hair and clothing move, making them look more realistic (although sometimes the continuous walking on the spot was a bit odd).

Random encounter battles can be the norm in traditional RPGs. Alphadia Genesis helps the player by changing the colour of the side of the screen from green to orange, then red in the moments before an attack is due to start, a useful feature that hopefully will be used in future games. The variety in difficulty choices means that no matter one's RPG skill, all can play this at their own level.