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 beautiful character art, engaging music, and a well-crafted story that resonates with classic JRPG fans.
- It offers a fun sapphic romance and character development, making it a worthwhile experience for those interested in LGBTQ+ narratives.
- The gameplay mechanics are polished, with a balanced progression system and optional scenarios that enhance character growth.
- The gameplay can feel overly simplistic and easy, lacking challenge even on higher difficulty settings.
- The story pacing is fast, making it difficult to fully engage with the plot and character relationships, leading to a sense of obligation to finish rather than enjoyment.
- The combat graphics and character sprites are criticized for being poorly designed and distracting, detracting from the overall visual experience.
- story24 mentions
- 17 % positive mentions
- 71 % neutral mentions
- 13 % negative mentions
The game's story has received mixed reviews, with many finding it formulaic and lacking depth, particularly criticizing the pacing and the poorly developed villain. While some players appreciated the inclusion of a well-developed love story, others felt it was abruptly interrupted and poorly executed. Overall, the narrative struggles to engage players, often feeling like a chore rather than an immersive experience.
“Incredibly entertaining, the story is engaging and the characters are very well-rounded.”
“Excellent game, great storyline.”
“I had high hopes for this game and after 20 hours of time well spent (story mode), I must say, I am more than pleased.”
“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.”
“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.”
- music8 mentions
- 38 % positive mentions
- 25 % neutral mentions
- 38 % negative mentions
The music in the game is generally described as fitting the scenarios but often lacks inspiration, with most tracks being forgettable standard JRPG fare. However, standout pieces like the Hart City and Scitech songs are praised as exceptional, making the soundtrack a mixed bag overall. Some players expressed a desire for the soundtrack to be available as DLC, highlighting the appeal of these standout tracks.
“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.”
“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.”
- gameplay7 mentions
- 29 % positive mentions
- 29 % neutral mentions
- 43 % negative mentions
The gameplay has been criticized for its simplistic and repetitive mechanics, with combat often reduced to spamming area-of-effect skills, making it feel like a chore. Additionally, the character sprites and overall execution of the story elements detract from the experience, leading to a perception of it being an inferior clone of a better game. While some mechanics are noted as easy to master, the overall execution leaves 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. 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).”
- graphics6 mentions
- 67 % positive mentions
- 17 % neutral mentions
- 17 % negative mentions
The game's graphics are a mixed bag; while the 16-bit pixel art and character designs are praised for their charm and vibrancy, the in-battle sprites are criticized for being overly pixelated and poorly animated, creating a jarring contrast with the otherwise appealing visuals. Overall, the artwork is visually appealing but suffers from inconsistencies in quality and execution.
“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.”
“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 development1 mentions
- 300 % positive mentions
- -200 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The game features strong character development, with players noting a consistent and engaging evolution of characters throughout the narrative.
“The character development is exceptional throughout the game.”
“I was impressed by how the characters evolved and grew over time.”
“The depth of character development really made me feel connected to the story.”
