Myastere: Ruins of Deazniff - new Studio Saizensen game (Switch/PC) on APR-15-21

[sol-alpha]

Surprised I didn't see anyone post this yesterday.

Summary from Gematsu: https://www.gematsu.com/2021/03/myastere-ruins-of-deazniff-launches-april-15-for-switch-pc

Official site: https://myastere.jp/jp/index.html

Steam webpage: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1557510/Myastere_Ruins_of_Deazniff/

Studio Saizensen have clearly not wanted to put their idea of a spring-wire action game as a metroidvania to bed after how Umihara Kawase Fresh was received so to try that idea once again they went with making a new IP as to not be bound by the conventions of Umihara Kawase.

Myastere: Ruins of Deazniff is developed by Studio Saizensen and Success. The publisher of this game is DIGIMERCE Inc.

It is releasing on April 15th 2021 through Steam and the Switch eShop. The currently known price is ¥2200.

Here's the trailer for the game:
https://youtu.be/tmQde7qkdv4

[Alc]

Oh wow! Thanks for posting this here man.

Really excited to give it a go, and not too long to wait. Do we know exactly who's working on it?

That price is a lot more reasonable than Fresh, too.

[sol-alpha]

Really excited to give it a go, and not too long to wait. Do we know exactly who's working on it?

I don't know. There's also an official Twitter account for the game so maybe if they link any interviews from outlets like Famitsu then maybe it might reveal some people who are working on it.

Official Twitter account for the game: https://twitter.com/myastere?s=09

[imgibbon]

I'm excited for it! Looks like it's in the Fresh engine again and is clearly reusing the same general "fantasy kingdom with a rift that's letting out miasma and demons" setup, though to be fair it wasn't the most original setting in the world to begin with heh. Love the look.

[sol-alpha]

A few things.

The voice actor of the character Aaurae Mawkish is Madoka Hiraide: https://twitter.com/myastere/status/1377425981577646080?s=19

There will be a gameplay video showing off the skills you can do in the game on Wednesday April 7th 2021: https://twitter.com/myastere/status/1377850945808125956?s=19

The Studio Saizensen Twitter account tweeted that the rubber ring movement performance of the spring wire in Myastere is 1.8 times higher than in... What I assume they are comparing to is Umihara Kawase Fresh: https://twitter.com/st_saizensen/status/1377837392204197888?s=19

They posted a link to a portion of the BGM (The main theme) that wasn't played during their promotional video of Myastere. Link: https://limee.jp/spa/listen/tPEGltWY4VCz6h8f5trS#

And now the official site has an English webpage: https://myastere.jp/en/index.html

[sol-alpha]

They posted the gameplay video 15 hours ago:
https://youtu.be/ESOsbfpMlP4

I'm probably misremembering but I noticed the spring hook is being shot out much faster than in Umihara Kawase Fresh as was mentioned in a tweet from Studio Saizensen that I posted here earlier.

[sol-alpha]

Here is the Japanese eShop link if you want to see details of the game: https://store-jp.nintendo.com/list/software/70010000039753.html

Here is a tweet from the Success account confirming the custom engine used for the game is derived from the engine for Umihara Kawase Fresh: https://twitter.com/success_g3/status/1380064075141406721?s=19

[imgibbon]

English eshop link! https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/myastere-ruins-of-deazniff-switch/

[sol-alpha]

The game will have Normal, Hard and Ultimate difficulty modes: https://twitter.com/myastere/status/1380777818930483201?s=19

Tweets to various concept art:
https://twitter.com/myastere/status/1380107250052702210?s=19
https://twitter.com/myastere/status/1380391295970013189?s=19
https://twitter.com/myastere/status/1380451222822383616?s=19
https://twitter.com/myastere/status/1380732270126899200?s=19

[imgibbon]

The put up what is purportedly the first in a series of short gameplay overview videos

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESOsbfpMlP4

[KawaseFan]

Happy to create a new board for this game if people want one, let me know. yeah y'know what, I want a new board for it anyway

[sol-alpha]

New trailer has been uploaded: https://youtu.be/iAMRD4hXTlc

The game will have standard and technical control settings for the wire function. Standard is for beginners, Technical is for people who are familiar with the Umihara Kawase games: https://twitter.com/st_saizensen/status/1382249230668992515?s=19

Trivia: https://twitter.com/st_saizensen/status/1381460057020268552?s=19
(Translated using DeepL)
Kondo: This is actually the illustration on the back of the very first packet of Umihara Kawase. I had her (Umihara Kawase) hold a gun to shoot lures, but Mr. Sakai said, "No, she's throwing it by hand," and I had to redraw it even though it was an analog manuscript.

(laughs) This time, (Aaurae Mawkish) she's holding a wire gun, which reminded me of that.

Promotional art from Success: https://twitter.com/success_g3/status/1381901542056337415?s=19

And there's more concept art posted from the official Twitter for Myastere.

[imgibbon]

Interesting stuff! One more day!

[imgibbon]

It's out! Go go go!

[KawaseFan]

Just posting the required storage for the game here in case anyone wants to know, the PC version takes up about 2.3 GB, while the Switch eShop is reporting the required storage as 2.1 GB.

Haven't had a chance to play it myself yet, hopefully soon.

[sol-alpha]

Haven't had a chance to play it myself yet, hopefully soon.

I was hoping to play it at midnight but only the Japanese eShop release launched at midnight for their region.

[Combi~ringer]

I'm gonna wait to see what you guys think of it. Can't wait to read some early impressions!

[imgibbon]

I def recommend playing on console, or at least having a controller with a good d-pad on pc.
The localization is about on par with Fresh's PC release; ie: machine-translatey but understandable.

I feel like this not actually being a UK game is good, as it's free to just full-on be an indie metroidvania.
It's snappy, has great music, interesting enemies, plenty to explore and discover.

I'm really enjoying it so far.

Some notes:
this is old-school design, with dedicated save points that you'll need to make sure to save at and will be restarting from when you die.
you can change the controls from an option on the title screen. The default is auto-wire, similar to BaZooKa, for newer players, and changing it to "technical" will put it at traditional UK wire action where you control the length and swing and such.

[CyanideBlizzard]

I caught wind of this from Gematsu, and was glad that sol-alpha got a post up here since I didn't have the time to at that particular moment.  Was really excited to see this, and especially so to finally play it.

You can definitely tell this is a Studio Saizensen game.  The wire mechanic feels very similar to the lure mechanic from Umihara Kawase, and after the initial ten or so minutes I played I was launching Aaurae through the air with ease.  As mentioned by imgibbon, there's different options to be set if you want a more Umihara Kawase style experience.  Though I've kept it on the default for the time being. 

Animals/monsters have a design style similar to how they were in Sayonara Umihara Kawase.  There's no reloading required for the main weapon, and bombs/grenades have a cooldown so you can't just spam them.  The first boss fight is rather simplistic, but a great way to help you get comfortable with maneuvering our heroine.  There's loading segments to break up the map, but the biggest thing I noted is just how massive the dungeon feels.  Perhaps once explored more it won't feel as such but there certainly feels like there's a lot to collect, kill, and explore.  I had mentioned some odd years back about what if Umihara Kawase Fresh was meant to be a more metroidvania game, so I'm over the moon to actually see those faint elements of ideas put into practice for a whole new experience.

Biggest let down is the translation.  Dear gosh, it's not good in the slightest.  I don't even remember Fresh being to this level.  Like this was a single pass of a script by someone with beginner level understanding of the language and no editors touched that draft.  Which for a game that is far more story and character geared definitely hurts.  It's not impossible to decipher, but it's very obviously noticeable.  I'm hopeful that this will be something that will be updated with patches, because as-is this will definitely turn people off of the game.

First impressions, I find the game to be quite charming.  There's little nitpicks, like bullets having no real feeling of impact on creatures.  Or how when you call HQ over a phone/device there's no real feeling of it being through an actual device, as in they sound like they're standing right next to you.  Things of that nature.  but this definitely feels like a good effort from Saizensen, and a creative use of the lure mechanic under a new idea.  Looking forward to playing more of this over the month!

[sol-alpha]

I'm using the Technical wire settings. Unless I have to use the gun I am preferring to fight how you would in Umihara Kawase by shooting the hook at an enemy's back and then reeling towards the enemy for an instant kill.

The animation for that is much quicker than in the Umihara Kawase games so you can take out a lot of those worms on the ground quickly.

I am pretty much using the Technical skills from the Umihara Kawase games such as the Rocket Jump in this.

Biggest let down is the translation.  Dear gosh, it's not good in the slightest.  I don't even remember Fresh being to this level.  Like this was a single pass of a script by someone with beginner level understanding of the language and no editors touched that draft.  Which for a game that is far more story and character geared definitely hurts.  It's not impossible to decipher, but it's very obviously noticeable.  I'm hopeful that this will be something that will be updated with patches, because as-is this will definitely turn people off of the game.

This is also my biggest complaint at the moment. If it's this bad in English then imagine what it's like in the other language options.

I picked up a potion and it said, "Portion obtained". I picked up a "Granade". I "Destoryed" the boss.

Here's some screenshots:

[sol-alpha]

Since you can run through enemies and not get hurt unless they hit you, I've been making use of the Rocket Jump to run through an enemy faster than they can hit me so then I can hookshot their back and inflict backstab damage.

This became realised when I was in a section of the game fighting a large knight with a health bar. I just repeated running past him to inflict backstab damage and avoid getting hit.

[KawaseFan]

I "Destoryed" the boss.

Well, I mean... you did "destory" the boss.  You removed it from the rest of the story.  Perfectly valid.

[sol-alpha]

I finished the game on Normal in six hours. I haven't gone back to collect everything yet. Don't know if there's hidden endings or anything.

[imgibbon]

There are!

There's an entire hidden area and a handful of extra bosses leading to an additional ending!

Collecting all coins nets you a new costume for Aaurae, as does collecting all relics.

Took me about 12 hours to 100%

[KawaseFan]

I 100%'d this a little while ago, so here are some of my thoughts.

Honestly, outside of the awful translation, I thought the game was pretty good.  I thought it had good music, good atmosphere, has basically the same swinging action we know and love (if you change the wire controls to technical, as imgibbon mentioned).  Many of the collectible items are found by swinging around the various areas, which promotes and rewards exploration.  I definitely prefer it over Fresh, and in many ways this is closer to what I'd hoped Fresh would be (minus the guns and bombs, obviously).  The one thing it probably does lack compared with Umihara games is replayability, and I'm honestly not sure if I see myself replaying it now that I've completed it.  But I definitely enjoyed it while I was playing it, and would recommend it to any Umihara players who enjoy metroidvanias and can put up with the translation.

[Alc]

So having finished up the first boss at around 7 hours I am currently mulling over whether to push on for the secret bosses. I've got down there but had to quit, and there's no save, or none I found. I'm not hugely motivated to re-explore that particular part of the game.

I've got mixed feelings about this one. It's definitely a step up from Fresh in some respects, but the English translation is among the worst I've ever encountered in a commercial game (it reminds me a bit of 80s/90s shmups, Zero Wing and suchlike). I also personally not a fan of the "generic Unity asset" feel to the level geometry and some enemies. None of it feels aesthetically coherent or contiguous. The 2D character sprite art is excellent, which if anything makes the bland 3D assets stick out even more. There are 3D skulls that feel only one step removed from a dancing baby, it's some real clipart shit. The physics engine is great, though, and it provides largely the same entertainment now that it did back on the Super Famicom.

I hope they get back to the classic Umihara design next. I can't fault them for wanting a break from that mould, but I'd take a few dozen small, highly polished levels over another sprawling map like this.

[CyanideBlizzard]

A year later, I've finally gotten the chance to revisit Myastere.  I started a whole new file from scratch, and this was with the 1.05 version on the Switch.

I have to say, I do think there's something really special here.  With the way you can whip around the levels and get stealth kills, the game can be incredibly fun.  Elements of it very much have that Umihara Kawase feel good moment when you hit that perfect wire shot, albeit to far lesser difficulties.  Those were easily my favorite moments of the game.  Being able to find the quickest way from point A to B while zipping around the stages.  Nothing ever felt cheap in that aspect either.  If I died to something, it never felt like I was cheaply hit.  With the exception of the bees.  Even with 1.05, I'm surprised they're still as big of nuisance as they are.  That, and the tentacle creature that splinters off when you kill it.  Thankfully, they're few and far between.  The game works extremely well on a smaller screen as it does a larger one, and when everything clicks?  My gosh, I lose track of time playing it.

I'm inbetween on the visual fidelity.  Going for an underground location allowed them to be more generous with their simplicity in level design, but there's definitely an inconsistency with quality when it comes to our heroine, our stages, and our enemies and bosses.  While I really liked the idea behind some aspects, such as the knights/paladins and the Deazniffs, seeing things like bees, pigs, and weird monster blobs created such a tonal clash.  It felt like there were creatures from three different games in there.  The knights were well explained, and the monsters are explained too but they just felt so out of place design wise.  I did enjoy them, and the challenge of figuring out the best way to beat them, overall though. 

As for the script?  I completely understand that Studio Saizensen is extremely small, and thus their resources are rather limited as to what they can and cannot do.  Even with that in mind, I'm in disarray that they've left the state of the translation like that.  Last year, I was hopeful that they'd look into either touching it up or hiring someone to come in and update it.  It would be an additional expense, but considering that Myastere is far more story driven and focused than anything UK related it desperately needed it.  Sadly, they've done nothing with it.  and I can't help but to fear that's only going to reflect negatively on them with Western audiences down the road.  It speaks a lot to a company when your indifference on their understanding of a story and the characters within falls on deaf ears.  and surely they must, because Myastere has taken a pounding and mostly because of that.  I remembered the translation being bad, but it wasn't until I replayed it (and played more of it) that I realized how utterly atrocious it is.  and it breaks my heart because so much work has gone into improving things within the game, yet the most glaring flaw of all has been left.

Myastere reminds me of a band.  Their promotional EP showcases some promises, but is very much rough around the edges.  I certainly wouldn't want it to be something that replaces Umihara Kawase, but I also feel like Saizensen gained a ton of knowledge from working on this title.  Knowledge that could be put to use to create a sequel that improves upon everything from the first one.  I mentioned this before, but I was hoping for a game of this styling when Fresh was being discussed.  and this didn't disappoint in that aspect, but it really did in several others.  Yet I very much enjoyed myself with this title.  Because when it clicks?  My gosh, it's so much fun.

[KawaseFan]

If I died to something, it never felt like I was cheaply hit.  With the exception of the bees.  Even with 1.05, I'm surprised they're still as big of nuisance as they are.

oh god the bees

Hoping to replay this at some point - based on the timing of my last post in this thread compared with the news posts on Steam, I would've played version 1.02, so it'd be nice to check out the updates.