Vortex Gaming

Action RPG 'Aether Gazer,' often mentioned among subculture users, was released on the 13th. Even in China, where countless subculture games are being released, subculture-style mobile action RPGs have been overshadowed by Hoyoverse's 'Honkai Impact 3rd' or Kuro Game's 'Punishing: Gray Raven,' leading to service termination or consumption only within the country. Therefore, 'Aether Gazer,' which has thrown its hat into the ring and advanced into Korea, naturally stood out.

Moreover, since bilibili has made several mistakes in the Korean publishing process in the past, it was only natural to pay attention in many ways. As if aware of this attention, this time 'Aether Gazer' deliberately prepared Korean dubbing. If that was all, I would have scoffed, but it could be said that the quality, which was originally evaluated as a promising work to follow those two games, was a move to induce it to be fully revealed without being buried by the publisher's bad reputation. And if you lift that veil and take just a small step, you can immediately experience the unique gameplay and the design that minimizes trial and error as a latecomer.

Teamwork Action Enhanced with Deep Skill Mechanics

Recently, mobile action RPGs have been trending towards a 'tag-team' style, where instead of one character spamming various skills, skills are rotated per character before switching. This is because, given the nature of devices that require the use of a virtual pad, it is difficult to press multiple keys at once or arrange a large number of skill UIs on the screen. Of course, there is the case of 'Dungeon & Fighter Mobile,' which has established its own framework through repeated research to capture the essence of the PC game as much as possible. However, in 3D action that is not belt-scrolling, the touchscreen was quite unsuitable for continuously performing camera, movement key, and three skill operations.

Therefore, mobile action RPGs have evolved in a way that does not require pressing multiple keys simultaneously, but rather linking skills in time and then switching to another character to perform another action. Commonly seen two or three normal skills, ultimate skills, tag QTEs, and evasion QTEs were the result of that convergent evolution. Of course, attempts to add various systems to give their own personality to the framework continue.

The choice of 'Aether Gazer,' a latecomer, was quite bold. This was because it excluded the 'tag' element, which is one of the axes of QTE action. Of course, given the mobile game market, especially the subculture game characteristics, it was inevitable to choose a collectible RPG model, and therefore, in order to appeal to as many characters as possible, they adopted a system in which they move as a team without nurturing only one character. However, it was different in that the user only controls the leader character, and the rest are configured to have the AI automatically attack enemies around them.

Not only does it mean that you can use the skills of various characters in one game, but such a choice could be somewhat questionable since the linked skills of the tag QTE itself are the main point of the action. This is because, in general, action RPGs mix normal attacks and skills to deal damage, dodge enemy attacks in time to create bullet time, or tag according to conditions to cool down skills again with QTE and catch ultimate or re-tag angles.

From the screen you see as soon as you start, it was predicted that it would not deviate significantly from that composition, and the game went as expected. One pillar was missing, so it could have been empty, but surprisingly, 'Aether Gazer' was able to bring out its own taste of action even without it. Usually, when it comes to AI party members, you think of a structure in which they rush recklessly on their own without defense or evasion and become falling leaves, but Aether Gazer's AI is better at evading than you think, so it also creates timing to prepare for extreme damage timing or the boss's big attacks. However, it wasn't to the point where the AI would catch everything on its own if left unattended, and the aggro was mostly drawn to the player's character, so the difficulty was adjusted to the point where you had to perform basic operations to clear it.

Here, 'Aether Gazer' further complicated the skill mechanism to the point of being close to a PC MOBA, bringing out the unique fun of intensively manipulating one character. The skill itself is activated immediately by pressing the virtual pad, but in order to achieve 100% efficiency, it was necessary to read and understand the skill effect and then operate accordingly.

In fact, Aether Gazer's skills are activated by simply pressing the virtual pad intuitively, but in order to achieve 100% efficiency, it is necessary to read the skill effects. Just looking at the tutorial of 'Verdandi,' which is provided as a basic, you can see that the combo is quite elaborate. When 'Verdandi' activates Skill 2, Skill 1's cooldown is initialized, and when the Rage Gauge is full, the skill that was not used immediately before among 1 and 3 is strengthened and initialized, so various combos such as 1-2-3-1-3 or 1-2-1-3-1 were divided depending on the situation. In addition, depending on the character, the skill is changed to another skill once used and used additionally, or it is organized as a starting skill that is activated only when linked with another skill, and the range of the mechanism is also wide.

For example, Shadow-Kukunochi has a skill mechanism in which the 1st and 2nd skills are not attack skills but 'In,' and if you use the same skill twice or use different skills in succession and then use the 3rd skill, the corresponding 'Ninjutsu' is activated. In other words, techniques to combine and activate skills suitable for combat situations were required.

In addition, depending on the character, you can hold down the normal attack to launch a charge attack, or accumulate marks and then detonate them to deal extreme damage, creating a variety of manipulation methods and extreme damage mechanisms, bringing out the fun of researching them. As an example, 'Abyss-Poseidon' can accumulate marks by additionally casting 'Continuing Song' after activating the 2nd skill 'Sealing of All Things,' and in the state where marks are collected, the 3rd skill 'Silver Echo' is changed to 'Silver Frost,' and the Abyss Boundary state is created, in which the cooldown of the remaining skills except for the 3rd skill is initialized and 'Continuing Song' is additionally activated in other skills. As such, while the skill mechanism is quite complex for each character, a separate tutorial is provided for each character to eliminate the inconvenience of simply looking at the letters and experiencing various trials and errors in actual combat to embody them.

Another feature is that the AI character is not simply left unattended, and the user directly uses the 'Ultimate Skill' to use it as another card that can be used in times of emergency or to pass the extreme damage timing. Depending on the character combination, 'Linked Ultimate Skills' that cooperate with each character are activated, allowing you to pour out more powerful attacks or add various buff and debuff effects, adding to the fun of collecting by considering combinations and building decks. Depending on which character the user character is looking at, the AI character's ultimate skill is activated in a different direction, so the lock-on function in the console game was also implemented for mobile.

Each one's completeness is also decent, but the design that makes the system not stand out and makes Aether Gazer's unique action continue is also impressive. By entering 'Absolute Space,' a kind of bullet time, with 'Extreme Evasion' that evades exactly at the timing of the enemy's attack, dealing damage, and then launching an additional hit with a linked ultimate skill around the end of that timing, and then entering 'Modified' mode, which breaks the boss's super armor and puts it into a kind of groggy state, there was a taste of matching the tempo of unilaterally continuing attacks.

The enemy composition that inevitably creates such a tempo was, in a way, a stress factor. Because the three people each play separately, the enemies sometimes scatter and attack from all directions, and the boss's moving line is also wider than other mobile ARPGs, and the aggro is often dispersed, so if you miss the timing to hold it once, it was difficult to force in damage satisfactorily. However, the AI sometimes activates absolute space with extreme evasion, and the performance of CC skills is generally excellent, so there was a charm in designing an egoistic damage trade by linking them somehow.

Stop Meaningless Repetition, Supplementary Devices and Diversified Content

After all, as with other mobile RPGs, once Aether Gazer reaches a certain orbit, it enters a routine of periodically repeating specific content to nurture characters. Since it is a game that continues to provide live service, the feel of action is important, but stress management is also key when repeating it.

The growth structure itself has not deviated significantly from the recent framework of subculture collectible mobile RPGs. If you get stuck while clearing the story, you would go to the character, equipment, and skill level-up material dungeons, and if the level-up is blocked, you would collect breakthrough materials and break through. In addition, farming 'Engravings' that give set effects is now familiar to subculture users.

Character and weapon level-up, 'Puncter' that is equipped on weapons to give special effects, 'Engravings' that activate set effects in units of 3 and can equip a total of six parts, skill level-up, etc. There are quite a few elements to pay attention to in order to nurture a character in 'Aether Gazer.' Of course, since they are elements that existed in previous games, the method itself is not unfamiliar, but the efficient route of when and how to do everything and where to do it is subtly different for each game, which can be a minor but stressful factor.

In this part, 'Aether Gazer' is well following the recent trend of minimizing hassle. Previous collectible games placed material dungeons in a day-of-the-week format to slow down content consumption, but Aether Gazer set it to be open at all times and allowed entry with action power rather than tickets, allowing you to create a growth material farming routine at any time according to your situation.

In addition, it was designed to minimize the stress of equipment farming. In fact, isn't one of the reasons why many mobile action RPGs appeal to users in the early stages but fail to get on track is equipment farming stress? The pattern continues until you find equipment with options that suit your character and those options are strengthened as desired. Unless you are a light user who has already reached a certain orbit and is familiar with the pattern, it is easy to get tired and fall off if the repetitive farming continues indefinitely.

In order to reduce this, 'Aether Gazer' has prepared a device to compensate from the beginning, just like many mobile games are trying these days. It allows you to select the type of engraving you want and enter the dungeon, and 5-star engravings can be obtained unconditionally within 10 times. You can't even choose the part, so you have to repeat farming to match the part, but you can still grind the engravings and exchange them for 5-star engravings of the desired part at the exchange shop, so the balance between repetitive farming to prevent content consumption and stress was well balanced.

In other games, not only do you farm equipment, but you also have to match options additionally, but the attempt to reduce stress in that part was also a part to pay attention to in 'Aether Gazer.' Aether Gazer has an option granting process called 'Enchant,' where you can consume materials and replace them until the option you want comes out. It is not simply a matter of replacing the previous option with the current option, but it has a system that saves the results up to 6 times and selects and applies the desired option among them, minimizing stress. Furthermore, the remaining 5 options that were not selected were also left as spares, so you could change the options at any time. It was designed to reduce the burden even if there was a change in meta or the options required differed depending on the content.

Here, Aether Gazer has also prepared a device to further alleviate the half-ceiling-ceiling system that is usually adopted in Chinese games. In Puncter Exploration, if you set the Divine Realm to which the character you want belongs, only Puncters belonging to that Divine Realm will appear for 4- and 5-star Puncters. In addition, since the 5-star Puncter is a method of issuing an exchange ticket that can be exchanged for the Puncter of the character you want, you can definitely get the Puncter of the character you want if a 5-star Puncter comes out.

There are also many familiar contents prepared for users who have cleared the story and grown to some extent. There were various types such as 'Time of Reincarnation,' a kind of infinite tower, 'Multidimensional Variable' with roguelike elements, 'Black Hole Purification,' a high-difficulty challenge task, 'Reconstruction of Dreams,' a challenge task in which powerful enemies encountered in the story appear in a more strengthened state, and 'Causal Observation,' a field exploration.

Each one was not special, but there was nothing to criticize. Not only do you exchange various growth materials and equipment at the exchange shop with the goods obtained while clearing the content. Because Multidimensional Variable rotates, it also provides an opportunity to experiment with and increase understanding of combinations by experiencing characters that you have not drawn. In addition, by adding roguelike deck building, it was also a place where you could directly experience how to build an efficient deck for each character while equipping various effects, Puncters, and engravings.

However, it was burdensome because you had to go down to the 4th floor to complete it once, and there was also a rank. However, there were no rank rewards, and there were only point rewards according to the achievement points and multidimensional variables that were differentially paid according to the clear difficulty, which significantly reduced the burden of rank competition.

The subculture mobile action RPG market is already occupied by two strong players, 'Honkai Impact 3rd' and 'Punishing: Gray Raven.' In the meantime, 'Aether Gazer' is showing the best choice that a latecomer can make and is preparing to follow in their footsteps. Based on the trials and errors that the leading players experienced first, they refined the points where users feel stressed in the character nurturing process, and appealed to Korean users by adding 'Korean dubbing,' which the two games did not take care of.

If it was simply done that way without the quality being supported, words such as imitation or follower would have come out, but 'Aether Gazer' showed its own quality while firmly establishing its own core. It has a level design that induces you to practice the technique of holding enemies and dealing extreme damage by making the most of these elements: skill mechanisms that have been deeply refined to bring out the taste of manipulating one character in cooperation with AI rather than tags.

In addition, it showed the possibility of establishing itself as another strong player in the subculture mobile action RPG world by showcasing the graphic quality that meets the recently raised standards of subculture users and the production of Aether Gazer's own linked ultimate skills. Although it is somewhat lacking compared to consoles, it has basic features such as lock-on mode, and it also has pad support options on mobile, showing that it has prepared in many ways.

You may have doubts about these evaluations. The reason is simple. 'Aether Gazer' came out with a decent quality, but there are still not enough points to solidify its own 'individuality.' The character design and background graphics that are visible on the outside are decent, but the introduction and appeal of the character and worldview are weak.

First of all, the worldview was ambiguous. I know that the previous world was in danger of destruction and moved to another world called 'Gaia,' but the description of what kind of world that world is is not clear. In that situation, proper nouns are poured out from the beginning, and there was a lack of elements to make you feel any urgency even in the situation where you met a powerful enemy. The futuristic sound was of good quality, but the accent of the song describing the desperate situation was somewhat lacking, and the cutscenes were ambiguous to say that they felt like the character's action or desperately struggling in a critical situation.

The affinity story, which was mentioned in the 1st CBT, was somewhat equipped, but it was somewhat lacking in giving the feeling of interacting with and continuing the relationship with the character. It feels like it was implemented with something that all subculture games have, which allows you to know more about what kind of character that character is.

And when you look through the content, it has been reorganized in the Aether Gazer style and melted well with things that came out in various games, but so there was a lack of killing content that you could say this is Aether Gazer. The 'Multidimensional Variable,' which adds a roguelike deck building style and features various tricky enemies, can be said to be the core, but it is close to the reorganization of existing content, so the freshness is somewhat lacking. Furthermore, due to the combat characteristics in which units are scattered and fought, there was a problem that the gap between characters who can put in stable damage with CC skills or ranged attacks and those who cannot was felt to be larger than expected in situations where enemies are scattered and boss aggro is튀는.

It is relatively easy to get a 명함, and the stress of farming Puncters or engravings after 뽑은 the character has been reduced, but it is Aether Gazer's task to present some 'charm' that will allow them to continue to do so. Of course, since it is a game with a 'future vision,' it is predicted that it will gradually supplement this as the version passes. However, the key is whether it will maintain the user-friendly attitude of including Korean dubbing while that foundation is being laid. I hope that the previous mistakes will end with that, and that the possibility will be fully realized in 'Aether Gazer.'

8.0

Aether Gazer

AETHER GAZER

• PC MOBA-level Deep Skill Mechanics
• Nurturing Content that Reduces Meaningless Repetition
• AI Party Members that Don't Get in the Way and Assist Well
• System that Brings Out the Taste of Designing Unilateral Damage Trades

• Unintuitive Worldview and Story
• Killing Content with Distinctive Features is Weak
• Character Individuality that is Not Fully Revealed
• Enemy Placement where Holding and Gathering Become OP

리뷰 플랫폼: Mobile(1.00)

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웹진 인벤윤서호 기자
2023-06-16