ASTLIBRA Revision Gaiden: The Cave of Phantom Mist Review (PC)

I missed out on the original ASTLIBRA Revision game, but it did pique my curiosity as a 2D action-adventure RPG. When I was offered the chance to try out the roguelite DLC The Cave of Phantom Mist I took it.

Game Name: ASTLIBRA Revision Gaiden: The Cave of Phantom Mist
Platform(s): PC (Reviewed)
Developer(s): KEIZO
Publisher(s): WhisperGames
Release Date: February 13th, 2024
Price: $9.99

ASTLIBRA Revision Gaiden: The Cave of Phantom Mist takes place in the middle of the main game of ASTLIBRA Revision. Instead of playing as the main group of heroes, you are in the shoes of the baker’s daughter, tasked with helping find the heroes of the Guild and bring them back to help out her village. To do that, she has to go to the Cave of Phantom Mist and find her way down to reach the trapped heroes. Thankfully, she’s not alone as she has an ally of sorts, Polin, the talking dog, to help her gain information from the Cave of Phantom Mist.

Disclaimer: Even though you can play this DLC without understanding the main game’s story, it is recommended to play the main game not to give spoilers for the main game in this DLC. (Also, you will at least want to open the main game to try out the demo tutorial to get a good feel for the combat)

The Good

The gameplay loop of ASTLIBRA Revision: The Cave of Phantom Mist is extremely addicting. You have to traverse into the cave and go through several stratums. Each stratum has ten floors before you have to take on the boss of that stratum. Each floor consists of a random number of areas attached to a random number of doors with enemies, treasure boxes, gems to combo, or sometimes nothing. Somewhere on the floor is a lever that lets you descend to the next floor. Every enemy you defeat drops a colored gem, thtat if you hold on to theme and bring them to your room, can be used to grow your skill tree. This skill tree is basically how you gain stats for your character. You can increase ATK, DEF, HP, Speed, APD, and Luck and learn many spells and skills through this tree.

The games’ combat feels tight, which is always a plus. Here, you have varying speeds of weapons, from large hammers to short daggers. Depending on the type of weapon you use, you can also move faster or slower. For example, if you have a large weapon, you have high strength, but weight makes it tough to move out of the way of incoming attacks. You have to learn and adapt to your weapon and the enemy you are fighting.

Enemies start as slimes and gradually become bigger slimes or other types of enemies depending on the stratum and floor. The stratum you are in could dictate the enemy to have dragons, or maybe it is flowers that shoot paralyzing bolts at you. Either way, you must learn how to manage your speed best to fight the enemy. It requires real strategy and understanding to best play to the strengths of your kit.

Gaining passives, abilities, and magic stones from maxed-out equipment does make trying out the equipment enjoyable. Every new weapon or armor piece you find gives you something to try out on the next wave of enemies and lets you get a new ability or item when it is maxed out. I put on every new piece of equipment I could find to get another potential ability, magic stone, or crystal.

There is a lot of content in ASTLIBRA Revision: The Cave of Phantom Mist, which is a good thing. You get coins from fighting enemies or treasure boxes that you can use for outfits, weapons, materials, or food items for healing when you need it. You can also use the synthesis book to create materials and better food. There are a lot of styles you can unlock for the main character. Styles are essentially the classes in the game that increase your stats in certain play styles. These styles can also be leveled up by getting more than one style card out in the cave or by using it and increasing its experience gauge.

The Bad

One of the big issues of ASTLIBRA Revision: The Cave of Phantom Mist is the audience  that the game is geared toward, that being those who love the grind and the progression of slowly getting stronger and better at the game. You will not have every encounter as a win, even with a large level, due to the weapons you have access to, or the stats just will make it a long fight chipping away at the health of a far stronger enemy. You shouldn’t expect to be able to take down the boss of a stratum in the first round or sometimes not even the second round. You will need to go back to your room and work on your stats and equipment by going back through the stratum to get yourself leveled up since your level resets back to one when you return to your room.

The more stratums you get access to, the more enemies you’ll encounter on each floor, which make things tougher. In the beginning, this isn’t an issue as the first three stratums have a decent amount of enemies on the screen but once the later stratums hit, it starts getting chaotic. When there are tons of enemies spewing tons of effects and many things you won’t account for. You dodge one enemy attack to get hit by a different enemy who just showed up from behind you. It becomes pure chaos on the screen. Honestly, the chaos is fun, but this can also the performance of your PC – your framerate will tank, big time, depending on your PC, that is.

Verdict

Overall, ASTLIBRA Revision: The Cave of Phantom Mist is a good, enjoyable time. Combat is fun and engaging. and if you enjoy grinding, it is rewarding. There are a lot of mechanics to fall in love with and a ton of equipment to get lost in customization. If you are not a fan of random elements in your game, then you might not like this, but if you are fine with some random elements, then give this game and DLC a look.

ASTLIBRA Revision is available on PC and Nintendo Switch, but the DLC The Cave of Phantom Mist is only on PC but will soon be available on Nintendo Switch.

Review Disclosure Statement: ASTLIBRA Revision Gaiden: The Cave of Phantom Mist was provided to us by WhisperGames for review purposes. For more information on how we review video games and other media/technology, please review our Review Guideline/Scoring Policy.

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