Congratulations, you are now God.
What They Say:
Several years after a certain revolution came to pass, and the powerful Satanael was defeated, the devils were still dominant in their constant war against the angels. Meanwhile, a certain Celestia was resorting to guerilla warfare to survive. The angels focused on researching a way to create a “God” to use as their ultimate weapon against the devils. After creating the “Fate Awakening Crystal,” which can turn a human into God, the angels awaited the day to find someone who would be compatible.
Walking home from school in the human world, a boy is attacked and stabbed through the heart by a group of devils. As he lay dying, his life is saved by a mysterious girl. He wakes up in an unfamiliar location—Celestia. As if guided by the Fate Awakening Crystal implanted in his chest, he finds himself thrust into the middle of the war between angels and devils. He must harness his newly awakened powers, choose how to use them, and ultimately decide which of the two new girls in his life he will do anything to save…
The Review:
Graphics:
“Awakened Fate Ultimatum” sports colors so vibrant that at many times throughout the game, particularly during visual novel sequences, I felt a pain in my actual eyes and head. Therefore, playing this game long-term required turning down the brightness on my TV so much so that when going to play something like Far Cry 4, I could hardly see what in the hell was going on. That said, the characters and backgrounds of the visual novel components are beautifully rendered. Jupiel—your angel companion—looks a little ridiculous in her tiny Lolita hat paired with the military aspects of her uniform (not to mention her skirt shortened only in the front), but she does look cute. Ariael, on the other hand, more than fulfills the game’s sexy factor: as the devil companion with a kickass design and a Japanese seiyuu whose voice sounds like pure velvet, she was my obvious romantic choice. Hien, the main character’s handsome rival, also could come straight from an otome game. There’s a lot to like about the art.
The 3-D models of the dungeons, however, don’t particularly “wow.” NIS has a reputation for making lackluster 3-D graphics, and “Ultimatum” is no different. The variation of the enemies is minimal at best, and the lack of decent shading really reduces the chibi-like models to PS2 generation graphics.
Sound:
Yousei Teikoku, famous for her openings to the “Future Diary” anime as well as other properties, puts herself in the spotlight here. I like Teikoku more than most, but her work in this game is rather subpar. Her opening song is decent but not much else. Interestingly enough, Teikoku also produced the background music as well as the sound effects…all three of them. Most dungeon songs did not bother me, as few of them as I encountered, but one Celestia menu song sounded like a bad Christmas jingle that I grew to despise.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cF-DnhdpTVQ]
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
You play Shin Kamikaze, an Ordinary Loner High School Guy who walks along one day only to find himself murdered by devils. An angel, Jupiel, comes to your rescue, taking you back to her Heavenly fortress named Celestia. When you next wake up, you find that Celestia’s war prisoner/God-creating scientist/devil love interest Ariael has revived you, but only by turning you into a God. Turns out you are compatible with a Fate Awakening Crystal, which can turn a human into a God—in this case, a weapon of mass destruction in an on-going war between angels and devils.
The game never explains what exactly makes Shin special enough to work with the Crystal, out of millions of other humans, but in the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t matter so much. Shin’s reactions to this news are appropriate, and in his first few battles he goes through some Shinji Ikari-grade reluctance (okay, perhaps not that strongly). Quickly enough, we also learn that in order to turn Shin into God, both Jupiel and Ariael contributed half of their souls to Shin’s Crystal, thus insuring that yes, you will have to choose between two love interests—angel or devil. If you read the “Graphics” portion of this review, you will know that I chose devil.
“The Awakened Fate Ultimatum” really intrigued me back in mid-winter, when I first saw news of its localization for American audiences. At the start of the game, I felt a great deal of excitement for the concept and the look of the character designs. For the first half of the game—about 7 chapters out of the 15—I did actually enjoy the experience. I have had some of my best memories playing Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky/Time, and “Ultimatum” uses a mystery dungeon format for its actual gameplay. As such, the randomization of the dungeon maps, items, enemies, etc. help to vary the experience. Furthermore, the game stages many moral decisions from early on, requiring you to make rather difficult choices. For example, one of the first decisions required either trying to save all angels from a prison but possibly running out time, or saving three, with a higher guarantee of success. I actually had a hard time picking which option, knowing that my choices would likely affect the ending I received. These moral decisions were the most refreshing and emotional aspect of the game by far.
The visual novel elements feel basic, almost as if NIS feared bogging down their console game with too much text. Jupiel and Ariael both have distinct personalities with their various quirks, but Shin acted like a cardboard main character throughout, never reaching any convincing development. Early on, the game maintained my curiosity about the new world, the history between angels and devils, and the backstory of the various important characters. Yet, this curiosity resolved itself in constant anticlimactic scenes that never deepened the story or upped the characters’ stakes. While the visual novel component has a shiny veneer, glimmering with the hope of romance with your chosen companion, in the end the whole story reeked of a fanfiction, with a one-dimensional cast and nonsensical plot progression to boot.
In fact, I would say “Ultimatum” is a fun game on the surface that quickly broke all of its promises. If you’re playing for the mystery dungeon aspect, prepare for a sudden increase in difficulty that requires hours of tedious grinding. One thing that the game had going for it was its final boss battles: intimidating opponents who could wipe out your health with increasing ease, with no HP meter to show how much your damage was actually affecting it. The last chapter features two different bosses, and during the first I ran out of healing items. I did somehow manage to defeat both on the first try, but talk about tension!
If you’re playing this game for the visual novel aspect, prepare for the aforementioned bad writing. Even worse, the game broke its promise of romance with your chosen companion. The game allows you a “trial period” of both Jupiel and Ariael’s personalities before it blatantly has you pick which companion path you’d like to go on. Some scenes teased Ariael and Shin’s growing friendship and even a possible romantic interest, but even at the end of the game, the relationship never moved beyond a kind of “good friends” status. No declarations of love, no kissing—not even a held hand. The romance component feels like half the reason to play this game—without it, the whole point is lost. Why did I even grind through those dungeons again and again and slog through the bad story if I can’t see the characters’ relationships develop?
Lastly, if you’re playing this game for the moral decisions directly affecting your ending, you’d meet with disappointment. It appears that most of your hard decisions scattered throughout the game affect only early bad endings that require you to restart from a previous save, as if ending your adventures too soon. For instance, when asked whether I should save an important character or give them up, thus avoiding sacrificing people necessary to the war effort, I opted for the latter. As a result, Shin went a little crazy, killing everything in sight and resulting in a Bad Ending. This was less than halfway through the game. Where the “ultimate” decision directly affects what kind of ending you receive comes just before the final dungeon, and that decision feels like a cheap and predictable cop-out—although I won’t spoil it. After defeating the final boss, the game treated me to an exceptionally brief, bittersweet scene between Shin and Ariael. Once again, neither of them made any romantic or otherwise significant connections, and nothing else was described about the fates of various other characters, worlds, etc. It’s as if “Ultimatum” says, “You beat the game, congratulations!” and sends you on your way to play a much better visual novel.
There is a “True Ending” that can only be accessed after beating the game once, but in order to reach the penultimate conclusion of that ending, you have to go through another dungeon and another series of bosses, all harder than before. It’s more of the same grind. Is it worth it? I didn’t bother reaching it for this review, so in my opinion: no, it’s not worth it.
In Summary:
I would have given this game a B-, but the pointless, underwhelming ending demoted its grade to a C+. “The Awakened Fate Ultimatum” is a vibrant and promising game that draws the player in for its first half. After a certain point, however, the newness begins to fade while the game’s extensive problems begin to pop up: namely, the shoddy storyline, the flat characters, lack of romance, and the completely underwhelming ending. Fans of NIS and the anime-esque concept will enjoy “Ultimatum,” but ultimately it’s not worth the full-price purchase.
Grade: C+
Provided By: NIS America through a PSN early access code, downloaded for PS3
