Review Made in Abyss: Binary Star Falling into Darkness – fall into despair

We have already seen several times that adaptations of a popular anime can not turn out very well. Whether it’s a feature film or a video game. This often turns a hit into a flop or, at best, an average experience. The reasons are different, from limited budget to deadline, it’s just that a lot can go wrong. I haven’t seen the Made in Abyss anime, but the announcement of a playable version of Made in Abyss: Binary Star Falling into Darkness got me excited. I liked the concept and at the same time I thought that if the game was worth it, I would also look at the blueprint.

• Platform: Nintendo Switch (Revised), PlayStation4, PC (Steam)
• Publication date: September 2, 2022
• Producer: Spike Chunsoft, Bell
• Distribution: Spike Chunsoft
• Genre: action role playing game
• Czech localization: Not
• Multiplayer: Not
• Data to download: 7.5 GB
• Game time: 4 + 30 hours
• Availability: 16+
• Sales version: box/digital
• Price: 1299 CZK

Twice the same and yet different

When first launching the game, players will see two modes in the menu: Hello Abyss and Deep in Abyss. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to access Deep in Abyss from the start, so you’ll have to switch to the second mode and play through it. The hero of the Hello Abyss mode is Riko, a “cave raider” with the rank of Red Whistle, and this is, in fact, a very short retelling of the anime story, where Riko is rescued by the boy robot Reg during one of the descents. . The story does begin, but the narrative ends before you know it.

The story does begin, but the narrative ends before you know it.

Also, in this mode, the game doesn’t explain anything at all, so you feel like nothing really matters other than the end of the storyline. Unfortunately, you will also find out later that Hello Abyss falsely gave you the feeling that there are no more complex game principles and resource management. You can dive deeper and deeper into the abyss without worrying about crafting, collecting items, or even fighting. Virtually nothing is explained.

So, you hang around for a while not knowing what to do next, and when you want to enjoy free exploration, the game prompts you to get to the quest marker. And here you can easily run into a problem with the card. Since the abyss has several levels, you will have to constantly climb up and down, but moving around the map is not exactly easy. Both Riko and Reg are constantly commenting on everything, so although the Japanese and English voice acting is very good, after a while you want the characters to become silent during the exploration. Or at least they didn’t get stuck behind smaller objects.

Survive, survive, survive!

Once you understand the principles of the game and immerse yourself in the story, Hello Abyss will end unexpectedly. What’s more, nothing you’ve learned will prepare you for the craziness of your other half as Deep in Abyss. As Rico, you will eventually understand the crafting method and the reasons for collecting items or relics, but you don’t really need them at all and you can easily throw them out of your bag. And leave only food, healing items and materials for making weapons. Because you don’t need anything else.

What’s more, nothing you’ve learned will prepare you for the craziness of your other half.

After a long and very short 4-hour tutorial in the form of Hello Abyss, the real game in the form of Deep in Abyss is just beginning. And this part of the game is incredibly brutal. You can immediately forget about any storyline, the only reason you are doing all this is to get the title of White Whistle. Of course, this mode will also offer an interesting original story that does not hold back. You can expect some really horrifying and emotional twists in the story. But still, all this is relegated to the background by the constant fear of survival.

The first thing that annoys the tutorial is the durability of weapons and the need to craft new ones. Everything you use degrades over time, and it’s not very pleasant when your weapon breaks in the middle of a battle and there are no materials for a new one. Fortunately, Deep in Abyss will open up new shops for you to buy and sell the items you find. In addition, you will find that the collected relics are really important in this mode, as it is a very good way to get some extra money. Then you choose the individual missions yourself, but it’s practically enough to accept them all, and eventually they will come true during the exploration. Also, it will make you go deeper into the abyss and increase your rank. However, there is one problem, and that is the missing Reg robot, so killing enemies is only your job.

Difficulty to the point of absurdity

The Deep in Abyss mode has some interesting survival options. Crafting is the absolute basis, but on the other hand, you have to be aware of how much weight you are carrying on the route. Fortunately, new skills will gradually become available to you that will help you survive in the depths of the abyss and you will appreciate them later in the dungeons. Unfortunately, even as you increase your stats, expand your route, and generally become stronger, the game makes things disproportionately difficult, and you will also suffer from the Curse of the Abyss while you explore.

Even as you increase your stats, expand your route, and generally get stronger, the game makes things disproportionately difficult.

There is nothing surprising in Made in Abyss in terms of graphics either. The character design is nice, it reminded me a bit of Dragon Quest Builders, but the environment of the abyss is more like a labyrinth from some kind of dungeon crawler RPG. It is very likely that you will often get lost and die, but fortunately there is an autosave system here, so the game will return you to the beginning of the location after you die. The movements of the characters are more or less simple, but you will often crawl in front of enemies and even more often climb rocks, which makes it easier to move through dungeons.

Each level of the abyss offers new challenges, but the intelligence of the enemies is very limited. Their only purpose is to attack headlong, and in the lower levels of the abyss it is not a problem to succumb to a large group of enemies, who also regenerate. The weapon options are varied, from melee weapons to shooting weapons, and all of them can be crafted if you have enough materials, but your biggest enemy will be durability. Weapon durability is a very limiting factor when combined with an action meter and a stomach full meter. However, you will need some time to navigate the equipment menu and add items to quick actions. But even this can be mastered with time.

Thanks to Spike Chunsoft for Made in Abyss: Binary Star Falling into Darkness.