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Turn-based action from the Arknights developer, Ex Astris
Hypergryph, well-known in Korea as the developer of 'Arknights', has set up a dedicated booth at the G-STAR 2023 B2C event and unveiled the first playable demo of its new turn-based mobile game 'Ex Astris'. Ex Astris was previously introduced through the Hypergryph booth at TGS, but at that time, only SNS events and cosplay exhibitions were held, and a playable demo that visitors could play directly was not released. In fact, this G-STAR is the first event where you can experience the playable build of Ex Astris.
The 3D turn-based mobile game 'Ex Astris' is Hypergryph's first B2P (Buy to Play) role-playing game, and is a work where you can enjoy turn-based action battles using various characters with unique personalities and a solid story. In the main story, the protagonist Yen, who came from Earth to record the civilization of another planet, is dispatched, and the adventure that unfolds as he communicates with the people he meets there will be depicted.
The Ex Astris demo build at the Hypergryph booth featured Yen, who arrived at a remote station pulling a broken motorcycle-shaped vehicle called 'Motorei', and another character, 'Vi³', embarking on their first adventure together. The two characters also appear in the main visuals of Ex Astris and are expected to be key figures in driving the story. The demo build was about 10 minutes long and had a structure that allowed you to check the basic elements such as turn-based battles, field exploration, and story progression with dubbing.
When you start the demo, you can immediately check the composition of the battle content. It was a very basic turn-based battle composition in which the battle starts with a symbol encounter method in which you approach and attack an enemy character existing in the field, and the ally's turn and the enemy's turn proceed alternately. If you press the portrait of each character on your ally's turn, you can attack the enemy as much as the remaining action power, and if you combine skills according to the situation, the action power value is recovered, allowing you to perform more attacks in one turn efficiently. It seemed that you could create various skill combinations instead of simply relying on one powerful skill.
The operation continues even on the enemy's turn. Basically, when the enemy's turn starts, the allied character enters a defensive state, and at this time, you can arbitrarily select the target to receive the attack by touching the character icon. In addition to simply dispersing the damage, active response is possible, which is to operate the 'Warding Light/Shadow Evasion' button located at the bottom left of the screen. If you press the button at the correct timing, parrying is activated, which not only neutralizes the damage but also blocks the enemy's attack opportunity.
Enemies use attacks with different motions and timings depending on their type and type, and if you capture the moment when it flashes and is emphasized on the screen, you can deflect the enemy's attack without much difficulty. In this way, by implanting operating elements in both attack and defense moments, it does not feel stiff even though it is turn-based action, and it seemed that maintaining a certain level of tension at all times would be the charm of Ex Astris battles.
After the battle, you can freely roam the wide field and enjoy the adventure. Objects that can be destroyed are placed in various places, and you can also find story clues that can broaden your knowledge by recording and updating them in the NOUE WAVE, a concept of an exploration notebook. Instead of simply following the green marker that guides you to the next target point, it was expected that you would be able to enjoy the fun of getting to know the world of Ex Astris by freely roaming around.
After repeating several battles while exploring the inside of the remote station, and completing the exploration request given by the station master NPC, the boss battle content 'White Iris' begins. White Iris shows a powerful appearance that is differentiated from ordinary enemies, such as using a 5-hit combo attack that requires continuous evasion maneuvers. Of course, if you have learned enough attack and evasion timing in the previous battle, you can clear it without difficulty. After that, if you board the camper van in the parking lot, all demo builds will be finished after a short story cutscene.
The demo build of Ex Astris, which was released through G-STAR, was a very limited amount compared to the main story, which will show a play volume of about 40 hours or more, but it was enough to taste the charm of turn-based action, which can be said to be one of the charms of the game. Although the exact release date has not yet been clearly revealed, the neatly applied Korean subtitles and localization have raised expectations for the main story to be released in the future.
Hypergryph's new game Ex Astris will be a B2P structure game where you can enjoy all the stories without additional payment just by purchasing the game. It will be interesting to wait and see what Hypergryph will complete and present a new structure of the game that it has not shown so far.
웹진 인벤박광석 기자
2023-11-18