Celestial Hearts
- November 5, 2020
- Joshua Keith
Get on Steam"Celestial Hearts" is a jRPG following the love story of a heartbroken young elf, Kayah, and an angel named Aria. Experience side-view ATB combat with a party of five as you collect hundreds of items and engage in a journey across Belume to stop the Graveharts. Featuring 2D pixel graphics, this game offers three difficulties and an in-game encyclopedia, with an expected length of 12-16 hours.
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Reviews
- The game features a well-crafted classic-style JRPG experience with engaging characters and a decent storyline.
- It offers a polished gameplay experience with balanced mechanics, including an easy mode for accessibility.
- The inclusion of a lesbian couple as main characters adds a refreshing representation in the RPG genre.
- The pacing of the story is too fast, making it difficult to fully engage with the plot and character development.
- The combat system is simplistic and can feel like a chore, lacking depth and variety compared to other games in the series.
- The romance subplot is poorly executed, leaving character relationships unresolved and feeling abrupt.
- story46 mentions
- 13 % positive mentions
- 74 % neutral mentions
- 13 % negative mentions
The game's story is criticized for its fast pacing and formulaic plot, featuring a clichéd villain with simplistic motives and a poorly executed love story that shifts abruptly in tone. While some characters are well-written and sympathetic, many reviewers found the overall narrative unengaging and lacking depth, leading to a sense of obligation rather than enjoyment in completing the game. Despite some positive remarks about the storytelling and character development, the consensus leans towards disappointment in the execution of the plot.
“Incredibly entertaining, the story is engaging and the characters are very well-rounded.”
“The love story is well-developed and feels relatable early on but gets put on hold about halfway through the game due to a story reason before it suddenly jumps to the two main characters wanting to be with each other for the rest of time about three-quarters of the way through the game.”
“Excellent game, great storyline.”
“Unfortunately, the game's plot has very fast pacing, which makes it harder to fully convey the direness of the situation.”
“The story is nothing special and is a standard 'fortuitous heroes save the world from a trite villain' story; however, a major aspect of the villain is rooted in an overused trope which I find to be annoying and simply poor design.”
“However, the core of the experience, the romance between the two characters, and the story in total, very much fails to deliver.”
- music15 mentions
- 33 % positive mentions
- 47 % neutral mentions
- 20 % negative mentions
The music in the game generally complements the scenarios well, though much of it is described as standard and forgettable JRPG fare. However, standout tracks like those from Hart City and Scitech are highly praised, with some players expressing a desire to purchase them as DLC. Overall, while the soundtrack has its highlights, it lacks consistency in quality.
“Most of the music fits well with the scenario.”
“Love the storytelling, the colorful areas, the music, all the goodies you can find in chests or get from boss fights (my inventory was rather full at times)...”
“Some of the music seems a little lackluster, but overall helped set the scene.”
“The soundtrack is composed of standard but uninspired and forgettable JRPG adventure music, except for the Hart City and SciTech songs, which are awesome on their own.”
“If the soundtrack was available as DLC, then I would gladly buy it just for these two songs.”
- gameplay14 mentions
- 14 % positive mentions
- 64 % neutral mentions
- 21 % negative mentions
The gameplay has been criticized for its basic and repetitive loop, with combat often reduced to using area-of-effect skills to quickly clear battles. Many reviewers found the character sprites distracting and the overall experience lacking depth, comparing it unfavorably to other titles like "Knight Bewitched Enhanced Edition." While some noted that the game mechanics are easy to master, the execution of the story and character motivations left much to be desired.
“Game mechanics are good; can't complain.”
“Sophisticated, yet easy-to-master battle mechanics.”
“Overall, I don't recommend it because its gameplay loop is extremely basic and feels like a one-dimensional chore. The character sprites used for combat look horrendous and are distracting. The villain lacks real motives and has no personality, the love story is executed poorly and feels forced, and you can't re-bind the controls whatsoever. It is basically an inferior clone of Knight Bewitched Enhanced Edition, which costs twice as much, and a number of optional bosses and one optional dungeon are copied from it almost exactly.”
“The gameplay is below average because the combat devolves into using area-of-effect skills to clear the random battles as quickly as possible.”
“I only played it for the yuri and even then was disappointed. Don't play for the yuri; play for the JRPG (if you like that form of gameplay).”
- graphics11 mentions
- 64 % positive mentions
- 27 % neutral mentions
- 9 % negative mentions
The game features charming 16-bit pixel art typical of RPG Maker titles, showcasing colorful character sprites and appealing still-images. However, the in-battle sprites are criticized for being overly pixelated, poorly animated, and inconsistent with the overall art style, detracting from the visual experience. While character portraits are well-done, their limited coverage is seen as a downgrade compared to previous titles.
“The graphics use pleasant 16-bit pixel art that is standard for games made using RPG Maker, featuring cute character sprites in a colorful and vivid world.”
“(d) graphics: graphically, the game looked amazing and the avatars were gorgeous.”
“While the artwork for the character portraits is good, it only covers their bust rather than their full body, which is a downgrade from Kbee.”
“The in-battle sprites look absolutely atrocious because they are overly pixelated, have very little detail, are poorly animated, and their style completely clashes with the fantastic still images used for creatures, the cute overworld sprites, and frankly the established art style of the entire game as a whole.”
- character development2 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The reviews highlight that the game features strong and consistent character development, enhancing the overall narrative experience.
“Good character development throughout.”
“Good character development throughout.”
