Nights of Azure Reviews
Nights of Azure is a game that has the potential to be a legitimately enjoyable experience, but unfortunately, most of that potential goes to waste.
Nights of Azure is a solid action RPG.
Nights of Azure overcomes its tropes and the occasional bit of fan service with a heaping helping of content, stylistic panache, and one of the most memorable gaming narratives in recent memory.
Nights of Azure has a story that could have been great, especially with its same-sex relationship between the two main characters coming across as natural and not judged in the game's world.
Overall, Nights of Azure is challenging, but it is fun and rewarding when those challenges are overcome. The game isn't overly ambitious, with a small world, simple objectives and seven chapters of story content. Even so, it can inspire many hours of gameplay and engage the imagination.
While the opening hours do nothing to rid your mouth of a slowly growing taste of disappointment, Nights of Azure eventually manages to claw you back once some of its more interesting combat mechanics begin to shine through. It's relatively short length aids the process, but also comes under fire when you consider the bare-bones storytelling. It's a difficult sell, but one I hope GUST can rehabilitate with the upcoming sequel.
Nights of Azure could have been better than it was. The story and basic concepts of the battle mechanics had something special about them, but they fell flat when they weren't expanded upon and were expected to be repeated over and over.
In the end, Nights of Azure tries to prioritize style over substance, which should be enough to gain the attention of its target audience, but a bit more tightening up of the latter would have been preferable. Whether the grinding gameplay is enough to enjoy a saccharine sweet girl/girl romance plot will depend on the player's tolerance, not to mention their own priorities for a game like this.
While it starts off fun, Nights of Azure gets boring very quickly and never seems to fully utilize its array of other features.
Fumbling between technical issues and stilted writing, this action RPG has the potential to be great... in future installments.
Nights of Azure has an impressive story that is brought down by disappointing gameplay. Those looking for a simple action title will be rewarded with a surprisingly mature story, but the combat is too repetitive to really impress.
Fast-paced, agile and funny, Nights of Azure is a light J-RPG with an unexpectedly interesting (love) story. On the other hand, is too easy and tecnhnically poor.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Nights of Azure is a bit shorter than your average JRPG, but it jam-packs a ton of variety into its 20-25 hours of story — and if you stick around to collect everything afterward, you'll have even more time to sink your teeth into the game's various systems. On the combat side of things, the hack-and-slash at Nights' core keeps things from getting too button-mashy by mixing it up with collectible Servan that can do the majority of the fighting for you, as well as an appealing transformation system and changeable set of weapons. Plus, you've got a compelling reason to fight thanks to the sweet and adorable romance between heroines Arnice and Lilysse; for once, a same-gender relationship in a video game handled with considerable respect. You can enjoy all this no matter your skill level or availability; with gameplay equally suitable for marathon sessions or bite-size pieces, and with a challenge level that can be easily tailored to your play style, this is one of the most enjoyable and accessible pieces of light RPG entertainment available on PS4.
While Nights of Azure is an enjoyable enough ride, it doesn't really possess anything that makes it worth investing a large amount of time in. A lot of the game's extra components, like the inclusion of merchant trading, seem sloppy and poorly thought out, offered as a mere distraction from the rest of the release. Luckily, it's fairly easy to power through combat and see out the story, and doing so is reasonably satisfying, if not a little repetitive at times.
Nights of Azure is an example a very decent game that could have been great given more time and money.
Although the story itself is straightforward and relatively simple, it continues to mirror past Gust games with its focus on the intricate development and interactions among the cast of characters.
Overall, Nights of Azure is a rather unremarkable ARPG that just happens to have a gorgeous art style and a fantastic soundtrack. Even though it's not likely to become the new flagship franchise for the developers at Gust, it's a solid attempt at a new genre and a good distraction until the next Atelier title releases later this year.
Gust has some pretty good ideas with the Servan system, and the gameplay is pretty smooth once you get yourself properly kitted out, but Nights of Azure has a few boring aspects that really make it a chore to play.
Nights of Azure is a game of wasted potential. The game's dark tone and setting is ultimately ruined by the excessive presence of comic relief, which takes a lot of the tension out of the terrible choice Arnice has to take to save the world. With an experience that gets stale way too quickly, Nights of Azure true saving grace are the game's two main characters and the development of their relationship, which takes some interesting turns. A shame, as the game could have been so much more.
Gust's first action RPG is a decent attempt let down by inconsistent visuals and various problems with difficulty.