Celestian Tales: Realms Beyond Reviews

It had potential. It doesn't look like they are going to finish the story so why bother?

Wow. What a great ride for my almost 20 hours playtime. This is the second game from the Celestian Tales. There are things I like and dislike about this game. Things I like: + Better graphics than the previous game. + Characters have more mature personalities. + Story is top notch. + Dialogues are well written. + Beautiful artwork. Things I don't like: - Farming certain materials are very hard. - There is no logbook or journal. - Cutscenes are late, but this is minor problem. - The Enders town puzzle are too hard. All in all, this is a nice RPG that I really enjoyed. I'm looking forward to play the third game. I will wait patiently for it.

(Edit: The game Breaking Bug Mentioned below and in the video has been fixed) Okay, even though I give this a thumbs up the game has a game breaking bug in its loading screen. Now I don't know how long it'll take to get fixed or if it'll ever get fixed. But it's there, and in the first 10 minutes or so as well. Not good. But besides that game breaking bug this game is great. It's sounds are spot on and great. It's graphics are simple but pleasing to the eyes and have their own scattered amounts of detail and dedication. It's combat is charming and quirky and nostalgic. It has its own lore, story, history and its all done in a way that you may not understand everything going on, but you'll still be firmly immersed. Basically everything about this game is pretty decent and quirky and charming. I enjoyed it a lot. But until it's little game breaking bug is fixed I'll have to get a refund. I may come back later if they get it fixed but as of now I'm unaware of any changes. If you want a more in depth look at the game with some gameplay then please check out the video on my youtube channel (link below). Thanks a lot! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3hQVxncHHs&feature=youtu.be

After quite the long wait Celestian Tales Realms Beyond is finally here. If you played the first game, you'll love this one too. It improves upon many things and fine tunes the things that were already great Pros: -Combat is well balanced. If you're paying attention you can plow through enemies at a well pace, however if you get lazy you can become overwhelmed quickly -Characters are unique and evolve throughout the story and each have their own selfish goals. No one character is similar or "morally perfect" -Art style. This game has an absolute fantastic art style, the characters portraits and environments are hand painted with water coloring accents. The characters and enemies are well pixelated and reminiscent of classic RPGS like Chrono Trigger and Hero of Mana -Music is fantastic. The songs are very unique and stand out from each other, and they all have a nice mix of both classic fantasy and opera Cons: -No mini map. A problem I had with the last game was the lack of a mini map and it's a bit disappointing that the problem continued in this game. However there is a map you can pull out in certain areas that's extremely helpful -No Journal. Not sure what the point of taking out the journal was. It greatly helped the player in the last game as it told you where to go and expanded on the game's lore, bit of a disappointment that it was discontinued in this game Overall: This is a fantastic RPG that has a strong story and doesn't rely on tired or overused tropes. There's no "chosen one" or "ancient crystals" or anything of the sort. The game tells a strong story about the darkside of politics and shows how cruel betrayal can be. As the world events unfold the characters are forced to bend their morals to either fit in, or stay true to themselves and fight for their own selfish reasons

Unfortunately, the game is much worse than its prequel. There are too many details that need either reworking or extensive polishing: glitching textures, non-existent balance, misplaced transition triggers that do not align with the doorways, cutscenes that are late to kick in on location changes, etc. I do not recommend “Celestian Tales: Realms Beyond” in its current state.

I haven't finished the game yet, but it's been about 7 hours (current time says nine but in truth I was called away and didn't have the chance to address it) in, and I figure I might as well say my piece. Celestian Tales Old North felt like a more polished tale overall. Despite it feeling a little unoriginal, it was easy to set aside those feelings as "nitpicking" or "fantasy stories are going to feel cliched when there are so many of them." I... Don't feel nearly as charitable with Realms Beyond. Let's address the game's strengths first. The dialogue might not be the best, but the worldbuilding is as fine as ever. I loved the segments where the player actually leaves the main region and visits neighboring regions. It really helped give flavoring to this world. And yet, to a rather minor extent, there was a segment of the game where it took the mystery out of the first game to some extent. It's hardly as jarring as other games, Puzzle Agent 2's removal of the previous game's mystery comes to mind, but that still affected this player's experience. Well, I guess that's a criticism while trying to address the game's strengths. Because it really feels like this game has a lot of great ideas with a lot of issues that smack it in the face despite each good idea. The bugs, well, I haven't seen any game-breaking ones but issues like characters moving weirdly, glitches, and hiccuping frame rates all seemed to plague me when none of those ever appeared in Old North. If we're going to be more generic with our praise, the art and music are great as usual but... That's true of most RPGs. That was true of Old North. Are we supposed to praise a game just because it upheld some of the strengths of its previous installment? I don't see that as being a significant point in Realms Beyond's favor. There was this one gimmick, where the party constantly splits up, that is kind of annoying. I like how these segments are still plot heavy and not necessarily (though there was this one fight featuring a certain pair where, were it not for one of them and if another character were to be in her place instead, the team would probably be dead) combat heavy, but still... Did they have to have the party split up that frequently? Feels so limiting even with its plot relevance. I hate leaving negative feedback for a game. Realms Beyond had a great title screen and opening music. The art is great and the worldbuilding with the ability to visit a lot of the places that didn't feature much in the first game is awesome. But these were strengths that Old North generally had. Realms Beyond, despite having seemingly more content overall, just doesn't match up to its predecessor. Thankfully, I got this game on quite a hefty sale and thus for the price (less than $9 USD) that's worth it, but at full price there are other games that seem like a better investment. I hope the ending blows me away, that despite the flaws I see so far this game will be awesome and I'll have to edit this review right away, but as it stands... I can't recommend Realms Beyond to people if they haven't played Old North OR if they'd rather spend a day playing something else. Edit: Turns out, I was almost at the final boss. The game seems bigger in terms of lore and content compared to Old North, but the game's actual length is still kind of comparable. As such, my recommendation is unchanged. I guess, if you're really itching to play an RPG and have played Old North before, this game can fulfill that fix, but in the end this game feels like a significant disappointment. Buyer beware I guess.

Thumbs up for now but this can change. I really enjoy the art style. Its really easy on the eyes and refreshing. The music is nothing to write home about but it is nice and calm. Nothing too over the top. I really like that there is a lot space to walk around, you're not really forced to walk on these tiny paths nor will you get blocked by a pebble on the ground. Quality of life would be nice such a journal or simple maps. Played for a little bit then had to run an errand. I forgot what I was suppose to do for awhile, as I could not find anywhere that even hints at what you are doing or should be doing next. I noticed there are previous titles so I am going to check those out first as it seems that may help with playing and understanding this title better. You start at level 40.

It's a seriously flawed game, much as I would like to like it. Dialogue is tedious and slow, graphics are basic but passable, but the real kicker is that basic QoL features such as showing where you are on the map, a journal to track your quests, an in-game bestiary so you can see what your're fighting - all these features are missing completely from the game which frankly makes enjoyment impossible. I've just refunded. Seriously, don't make the same mistake I did.

Celestian Tales: Realms Beyond is the second part of the Celestian series. If you like Suikoden series then you might enjoy the feeling this game has to offer. It does not have Suikoden 108 Stars of Destiny system, but from gameplay to storytelling the game has that Suikoden feeling of the first 2 games. Lets start with the cons: -Plenty of bugs and it is recommended to have multiple saves. A lot of time you have to exit and re-enter an area to activate the storyline event to progress the story. -The world, the castles, the cities feel empty. Like there was suppoesed to be more characters there but they are not. -The crafting mechanic is too basic and does not offer much to the game. -The dialog feels amateurish at times. The first one had much better dialog. -The enemies interactions are weird. Like, why are bandids teaming up with spiders and the like? -The base like system feels incomplete. Pros: -The artstyle is really amazing and it is what interested me on the series. Sadly, the art at time feels incoherent, like it started with one artist and then moved to another. -The gameplay is basic but fun. If you likes PS1 era of turn-based RPGs you are going to like it. If you are looking for something more complex then tyou might find it too basic and simplistic. -Some characters have a pretty interesting story and character development. Ylianee character development is specially good. If you are interested in playing this game I recommend starting with the first. Sadly, this one is not as good, but still worth playing if you are looking for a Suikoden like feeling RPG. In general, the games feels like it was too ambitious and needed a lot more of development time.

TLDR: Memorable characters, gorgeous artwork, hauntingly beautiful music, all trapped in a poorly built game. I've never been more upset writing a negative review for such a great game. Seriously. The potential is all there; Incredible writing, beautiful artistry, and great music. But the game build is atrocious, even compared to the earlier titles in the series. ESPECIALLY compared to the earlier titles in the series. Things are supposed to get better with knowledge and experience, not worse! Gone is the Lorebook that kept track of your quest and the incredible lore of the world. Had to turn off the game for the night, and forgot where to go next? Too bad, so sad, Game Over I guess. Gone is the ability to click on items and compare them to what you already have to see everything that changes. Want to know if a +3 Agi ring is a better fit than a +3 Vit one? Who knows? Certainly you never will... Gone is the ability to see thumbnails of which enemy is coming up in the initiative rotation of battles. Want to take out that assassin that's about to take out your healer. Is he A, B, C, or D? Some assets, like beds and tables can be walked through, some can't. Both trapping you til you reset the game. NPC's will block you in doorways...causing you to have to reset the game. Heck, I had one just nudge me into a wall as he passed. Trapping me there til I reset the game. And that's just what I've noticed in the first few hours of the game. God only knows what else was stripped out or watered down in the game compared to its prequels. I'll finish my review once I finish the game. Yes, I'm going to play through it, 'cause I do love the characters, the world, the music, and the beautifully drawn landscape. Just hate that with each new game in the series the game development itself gets poorer and poorer. It's just so deeply disappointing to see such great talent wasted...