A warrior, a thief and a spell slinger (or a mage, I suppose). This uncanny trio of adventurers have but one goal: to rid Amytah of whatever is currently wreaking havoc across the land. In order to accomplish this, as is true for most RPGs, they shall be forced to fight. A lot. It’s a good thing then, that combat is actually where Nadia Was Here truly shines, based on the pre-release demo. In fact, I’d almost say that semi-turn-based battles are rarely this interesting.
See, while kicking ass and taking names did initially seem like a simple affair – heavily mimicking the Active Time Battle system of Final Fantasy IV – it didn’t take long for said demo to show just how different things are done in Amytah. While the old ‘wait as a bar slowly fills, after which action is taken for that character’ is still part of the experience, there’s so much more to it than simply queuing and waiting. In fact, you don’t even have to choose which action to take for characters, as whatever has been picked when the bar is full simply… happens. Again and again. Until you change it.
A simple system, but it’s also one that works wonderfully, leaving players free to focus on the timing element instead – which plays a pretty darn important role here. And not because you have to swap between offensive and defensive actions or some such nonsense. No, to avoid taking damage, you’ll have to swap characters around! Why is this useful? Well, different actions take less/more time to trigger, meaning if you move everyone accordingly, damage can easily be kept to an absolute minimum. Attack, steal, attempt to learn an ability or something else entirely, after which someone else takes that character’s place to soak up the damage. Damage which can, in fact, be healed by Tereshan, the mage. Oh, and Nadia’s the thief, Hogan the warrior.
Fight epic battles with a battle system unlike any other, and develop your heroes in a completely new way. Explore a diverse world filled with classic dungeons and solve puzzles to unravel the mystery that plagues Amytah.
So, now that everyone’s been introduced and you know what’s what, it’s time for something that’ll likely come as a surprise, given its emphasis on combat: there’s no levelling system in Nadia Was Here, nor is there any grinding, seeing how the only way for Hogan, Nadia, and Tereshan to grow… is to learn new skills. Okay so maybe that will end up involving a bit of grinding as, in my experience, learning skills and stealing weapons doesn’t always work. Stupid monsters, clinging to their equipment. Grumble grumble.
That said, how about taking the ‘battle demo’ for a spin, readily available from Steam?
Nadia Was Here will be available on Steam from May 26.