Strap on your JRPG boots, drape yourself in your wizard robe, and charge into a horde of goblins – it’s a nostalgic walk into lands of Lagoon. As of today, Alphadia Genesis has come to Steam. If the name Alphadia Genesis sounds somewhat familiar, I wouldn't be surprised. This versatile JRPG has existed on the Wii U and mobile devices for some years now. Playing it on the PC is a completely different experience than previous ports of this title. Overall, the mechanics of gameplay come off very smoothly on the PC adaptation.
The journey’s main hero is a guild member by the name of Fray. After winning a local combat tournament, the king eyes his usefulness and sets him off on a journey to investigate nearby murders occurring. This eighteen year old is accompanied by his genius little sister Aurra, a mysterious clone, and others trying to complete similar goals. Though the game takes place in a fantasy setting, there is a high scientific element. Much of the plot revolves around clones and moral issues they bring to the table. Since clones are so alien to the fantasy setting, the plot manages to crawl out of a genre niche – which is welcome to this otherwise generic story.
The appearance, art, and combat all feel traditional. To the JRPG fan, this isn’t a bad thing. The world map is delightfully simple in both graphics and design. The writing has a very anime feel to it – especially in ‘downtime’ scenes with party interaction. This gave the characters more life and made their interactions more interesting. The stoic, only duty bound, and flat heroes can often hurt an otherwise enjoyable JRPG. While following the main story you get a bunch of small interactions which further develop the characters each time. While the game is voiced in Japanese, you can turn voice off if you so desire or have subtitles on.
Other than having backup-assisting characters, combat doesn’t bring anything new to the table. Your characters can attack, use magic/skills, or use an equivalent to limit breaks. What was beyond exceptional is the ability to auto battle – especially useful while grinding EXP or gold. It’s the speed though appealed most to me. The ability to skip random encounter intros and swap on auto battle makes ‘the grind’ minimal in time. Slow combat is often another killer for me in JRPGs.
Speaking of speed, over all Alphadia Genesis is quite optimized. Instead of having your party move at a snail’s pace with 4-direction only movement, Alphadia Genesis encourages you to use the mouse. Just click where you want your party to go or clink and hold to constantly move in one direction, which makes sense considering its mobile roots. On top of that, your characters move incredibly fast. No ‘sprint shoes’ required. The general locomotion is all very satisfying. I was surprised that the Steam version of Alphadia Genesis doesn’t support gamepads. While I was initially turned off by this, the mouse controls were surprisingly efficient. Sure I miss being able to lean back but other than that, the mouse gets it done. Steam also adds trading cards, badges, and achievements.
Alphadia Genesis should take you about 15 hours to finish, so at the low price I’d recommend this game to any JRPG fan. Either play it for the first time or on yet another console. The story and general gameplay hasn’t changed, but the mechanics and controller schemes have. While you can choose between easy or normal, I’d say the experienced JRPG fan won’t run into any terribly difficult aspects. There is always the option to grind and with fast battles, this process is much quicker. Can Fray solve the murder mysteries? That’s up to you. Don’t expect anything terribly new but expect modern JRPG that resembles those of yore.
