Celestian Tales: Old North - Howl of the Ravager DLC

5.5/10

Taking place decades prior, Howl of the Ravager plays pretty much the same as the base game, but with the following exceptions. Boring story. Boring gameplay. Unlikeable characters. Bothersome areas to traverse. Annoying enemies to repeatedly encounter. There's only two good things I can say about this DLC. You get to visit and explore many areas inaccessable in the main game, or only briefly touched upon within the prologues. It also took longer to complete the DLC than I had expected. However, both of those things are tainted by the fact that many of those areas are exasperating mazes filled with hard-to-avoid lengthy battles, which is why the DLC took longer to complete than its amount of content would suggest. There are a few other things I didn't care for, though they are spoilers concerning both the DLC and the base game. Just ignore the black section if you do not wish to know a handful of story details. A certain battle. [spoiler]There's a fight that you're supposed to lose. However, you can actually win it, as I did. What proceeds to happen is... nothing different. The game acts like you lost even if you didn't. If they're going to make a fight where you're scripted to lose, they could at least make it impossible to win, or maybe have an alternate ending where you succeeded sooner than intended?[/spoiler] Story inconsistency. [spoiler]I remember one point in the normal game where Ylianne had said that she was older than all of the other squires. In this game, however, she is conceived some time after it is alluded that Reed and Reynard were already born. Also, a separate but related thing that bothered me was that the face of Ylianne's mother is [i]completely[/i] different in the DLC than in Yli's prologue.[/spoiler] Severin's rage. [spoiler]Even if the sword Garou is supposed to make its wielder a terrible person, Severin's outburst at the end of the main game's story still seemed unwarranted. There was no true insult to be sustained, and it doesn't make whatever Aria's father said have any more weight, or for the scene to feel any less forced.[/spoiler] All in all, Howl of the Ravager didn't have any redeeming qualities to make up for its flaws, unlike the main Old North game. The entire DLC came off as more of the developers' jerking off to their favorite character, as if we didn't already endure that enough in the original story.

Reminds me of Legend of Mana element when I'm playing this game :) Howl of the Ravager told the story about young Severin, and his two companions, Pierre and Niena. Both are lovable characters. The random pattern in Shimmerlights Garden gives additional taste to the atmosphere, also the quest in Emerald Forest gives the challenge to fellow JRPG gamer. I'm used to find this kind of maze in several titles on old school JRPG. It's not so linear likes the original game. Beated it with 5 hours of gameplay, interesting playtime with small side story. Looking forward to the 2nd title of Celestian Tales :)

A side story about my favorite character in Celestian Tales: Old North. Great! I can say it's worth its price. My only qualm is they still play the main game opening movie which doesn't really suit the DLC.

I really enjoyed playing Howl of the Ravager. Part of this was due to expectations, as I already knew what the gameplay would be like from the base game. The DLC felt identical to the base game, with similar map styles, enemy encounters, serene music, and selection of items. The DLC excelled above the base game in both party composition and storyline. Rather than a rather arbitrary selection of party members as in the base game, the DLC began with a single player character and adds two more as the story progresses. This provided a more familiar tempo to classic RPGs and also keeps the battles from feeling too repetitive. The storyline was fantastic and kept me engaged up until the very end. I felt like the story in the base game was incomplete, but the DLC picked up the missing pieces with an original back story that resolved the overarching narrative. If you played the base game, then I highly recommend completing the DLC to fully appreciate the story arc. The DLC was also more memorable than the base game. The final maze posed a real challenge, and a few points in the adventure required a degree of problem solving that was absent in the base game. There was a disappointing lack of moral dilemmas with in-game consequences, although the narrative itself provided a satisfying and thought-provoking conclusion. I won't give away any spoilers, but I also appreciated the encounters with the final boss in the game. I was a big fan of Squaresoft's Mario RPG in the SNES era, and I think this game series has the potential to approach such quality. I will probably play the sequels, and I hope that the developers continue to add more puzzle elements, memorable battles, and unique items into the next iteration. The base game and DLC each took about six hours to complete, which felt too short. I'd really like the Celestian Tales series to extend the gameplay (and perhaps slow the pace of leveling) into something approaching Mario RPG or the Avernum series. All in all, an enjoyable experience. I look forward to the continued storyline in the sequels.

TLDR: I would strongly advise playing Howl of the Ravager before starting the main game campaign. Only caveat is the soul-crushing end-game filled with mazes that really yank you out of the story and turns the game into an endurance slog of stamina and will to keep playing. Howl of the Ravager is a prequel to the main game that reveals the back story of one of the playable characters in the main game, as well as revealing some hidden secrets of the nobility class. It plays exactly like the main game, minus the gear enhancing or party member switching since you only have three characters and two of them are Sword Bearers weilding two of the three legendary blades. The writing is excellent, but the game itself falls way short of being a good vehicle for it. Art assets have a lot of clipping and flickering, world design completely fails the plot and story at the end. Still, I would recommend the DLC for the story, the revealed secrets, and to add a certain bittersweet enhancement to the main game. I only hope that the horrible, horrible end-game slog doesn't burn out potential players from playing the main game. This is just case study number one when it comes to excellent story-telling combining with a poorly developed vehicle to carry it.

[h1]Howl of the Prequel DLC[/h1] [b]This review contains no spoilers.[/b] [h2][u]Overview[/u][/h2] [i]Howl of the Ravager[/i] is a prequel to [i]Celestian Tales: Old North[/i], a medieval fantasy turn-based RPG with political twists and intrigue. [h2][u]The Prequel Factor[/u][/h2] The base game is required to launch this DLC, however the order of play is not a concern. There is no worry of one game spoiling the major events of the other. Personally, I played in release order rather than chronologically: the main game first then went back to try out the DLC. I felt this was the best order to play as this prequel does address one of the main pressing questions after completing [i]Celestian Tales: Old North[/i]. There is a large enough time gap between games that it does not really spoil anything about any of the playable characters from the main game but does have some nice Easter eggs. [h2][u]Story and Characters[/u][/h2] This game serves mostly to further develop a character from the base game – Severin Leroux – and his adventures 20 years prior to the events of [i]Celestian Tales: Old North[/i]. Severin is already a well respected warrior at this time and is tasked with mentoring another swordsman on an adventure to defeat an enemy that threatens the region called an Ancient. Severin, the swordsman, and a guide venture forth and uncover some of the political motivations behind their expedition. It’s an interesting story that further develops the world of the Old North. As a DLC expansion, it’s a much smaller scope than the original game and does not contain the same level of writing and intrigue. At some point I found myself asking, “Why do I care about these characters again?” as I started to find the entire main cast unlikable. Thankfully, it just turned out to be some personality flaws and I was back to liking them again by the end. By the conclusion, I was glad to have played it and experienced more of the Old North world and its lore. [h2][u]Gameplay[/u][/h2] [i]Howl of the Ravager[/i] and [i]Celestian Tales: Old North[/i] both employ the same combat mechanics. It’s a turn based combat system that respects the player’s time by automatically healing them in between battles. Each turn you gain stamina – or can defend to gain extra. Stamina is then used to perform skills such as status changing, devastating attacks, or healing. It’s a great system that works, especially during boss encounters. Combat can be avoided if you desire, as the enemies are all present on the screen. In reality however, you will fall behind in levels and suffer if you avoid everything. Plus the map design in this game makes it very difficult to avoid most encounters as there are so many narrow passages. There are only three characters in the party so there is not much customization other than skill selection. This time there is not really any weapon management either – just armor and accessories. No cosmetic customization at all, even with additional DLC. While the combat system is solid, the lack of customization and poor map design really let the game down. Even the combat itself sometimes drags on too long in normal encounters. [h2][u]Presentation[/u][/h2] As noted above the map design really struggles in this game. There are way too many winding paths and pointless backtracking. At least the game was nice enough to provide an NPC to help skip some of the pointless treks and just teleport you through the most annoying dungeon after completing it once. They were interesting to look at but miserable to actually traverse. Graphics-wise the character art is nice, and the pixel sprite work is a nice throwback to older RPGs. They seem well done. Towns seemed a bit more populated with NPCs walking around and this time they were not bugging out spinning in circles. No immersion breaking – nice! Music is fantastic. Some familiar tracks from the original game make a return, and others are remixed or redone specifically for this prequel. Everything sounds orchestral and epic drawing you into a medieval fantasy adventure. I still find myself listening to the soundtrack at times when I want inspiration – I really enjoy it. [h2][u]Summary[/u][/h2] Overall, [i]Howl of the Ravager[/i] is a worthy expansion to [i]Celestian Tales: Old North[/i] if you crave more of the Old World. Even as a standalone adventure, it works well as a short (3-4 hours) medieval fantasy RPG. However, that context that ties it with the main game is really preferred to more thoroughly enjoy the experience. It seems fairly priced at $5 and certainly worth a grab when on sale, especially if you enjoyed the series. Yes, it has its flaws, but the story and music are the main reason to play this game, and it delivers well in each of those respects. I really think the series would work much better as a visual novel. While the combat system is great for bosses, it just tends to fall short when you’re forced to combat so many regular enemies to keep afloat. The gameplay just sometimes gets in the way of enjoying the map exploration and story. Severin’s adventure is one story that’s worth experiencing, no matter the medium.

This DLC is such a disappointment. Everything that wasn’t good in the original game is here and almost nothing from what was good is in. Loads of reused areas from the original game and no freedom. They’ve taken away the logg so if you are away from the game for awhile and forget where you’re suppose to go, you might have to look around for a bit. The game is not too short but since it’s bad the length makes it even worse. Do you like to walk back and forth? Buy this game! There is some back story here from the original game that is fun to find out about. Play the game as the elf before you try this DLC if you really need to try it out. The original wasn’t great but you could see and feel the love the developers had for it. It really made me excited to see what they would do next. This has non of that. It’s shallow and rushed and I don’t know how to feel about these developers anymore.

It's only appropriate I talk about the Howl of the Ravager since this DLC is almost the length of the base game and in some aspects outshines it. Narratively we're dealing with a prequel story featuring Severin who was barely in the original as idolized, stern general and see more of his relationship with Alain in their younger days. If you've played as a certain half-elf you already know the outcome as DLC introduces your two other party members, though. As a returning crisis unfolds getting humans and elves to join hands we discover brand new information about the Sacred Swords and their true nature in turn framing the original game's finale in a different light. In gameplay terms HotR answers some of the problems I had. You have only three characters total and, albeit once again perfectly filling archetypal roles, you'll spend an extended time without a healer so there's at least an illusion of danger. Good news is there's now ONE challenging fight in the form of a final boss. Remember I talked about how long this DLC is? Well, that's probably because it throws not one, but two mazes at you and expects backtracking. I was just about done when I realized I had to re-visit that damn forest in the penultimate act. Solid DLC delivering largely more of the same with minor tweaks, like loss of weapon upgrading as you're wielding legendary weapons passed on through history.

N-no... more... mazes. That was my only problem with this DLC, which was otherwise excellent and provided a lot of background, not just about the Ravager, but a number of other characters in Old North as well. Because the DLC takes place in areas from Old North, a number of assets get reused, which was fine with me. I really enjoyed that game, and coming back to those areas brought back some great memories. A number of places in this DLC, which I'm calling mazes, require a lot of backtracking and trial and error to get through. The DLC took me about 6 hours to finish, and probably about two of those were spent stumbling through those mazes. Because I'm really bad at avoiding enemies, this also meant that I ended up hitting the level cap about four hours in. I actually would have been perfectly happy with a four-hour DLC, since the storyline was very good, so I hope Ekuator Games won't make this kind of dungeon a regular feature in the series' future.