Azure Waves

Story
You play as Vivann who is informally child minding Ariana and then we're introduced to Rano and Calena who are friends of Vivann. They start out at the beach but have to evacuate because was flooding and in the process lose Ariana's teddy bear. From here we go to Vivann and the Ariana's homes and go on an errand for Ariana's mother and then the plot continues from there.

The Good
+Good pacing.
+Plot flows generally well.

The Bad
-Didn't enjoy the opening.
-Ariana is too willing to open up to a group of people, 2 of whom she only just met.

Gameplay
I'm not usually a fan of ABS in RPG Maker and I'm sorry to say Azure Waves hasn't changed that but I can say it's implementation is one of the better ones. Battles take place on a separate map and are initiated but coming into contact with a flame thing.

Blue flames are stronger enemies. I think this was the only Blue flame I saw outside the starting area.

In battle you have access to a regular attack and three equipped skills. Sadly Azure Waves suffers from a lack of balance, which is probably due to the deadline of release something; one of your starting skills - Lumina - trivialises all combat except for the final boss. What it does is hit one enemy for non-trivial damage on screen. It does appear to be rigged who it hits but that doesn't matter if you use it enough everything dies soon enough and it means that all my battles (besides the final boss) were me running away hitting x all the time.

All things must die to Lumina!

In the later areas there is a twist to the combat with an enemy reviving the other enemies and it's at the end of the Lumina queue.

It'll still die, just not as quickly.

As I said this tactic doesn't work for the final boss, I don't wish to spoil so I will just say that had the dynamic the final boss used been used sooner I might have used other skills.

Never did use Rage.

The game has a host of skills you can use in battles. I tried about half of them through my playthrough. It does allow you to make combat harder for yourself but only if you want a challenge. I'll discuss skills again later in the creativity section.

The equipment you use also affects how you fight, from increased mana regen (yes please) to decreased delay between attacks. Thankfully Azure waves does not go down the route of button mashing attacks, there is a delay between your actions forcing you in to a hit and run style... Unless like me you just run and sling spells!


More mana? It'll have to do until I get regen.


Oh here it is.

The Good
++Plenty of room for customisation to the player's desire
+Combat evolves during the course of the game.

The Bad
-I'm sorry but the combat itself was not inherently fun.

Graphics
Visually the game is very appealing. The town was gorgeous, let's have a look.


I wish I could make my game look so pretty!

I believe Ocean did most (maybe all) of the graphics himself so kudos for that. They are in general very well used with occasional mistakes.


Oops?


Very pretty world map, but it clashes a bit?

One final thing, your equipment changes your sprite, it's a nice subtle touch and not to over the top.


Capes? How every me.

The Good
++All high quality custom graphics

The Bad
-Not always a consistent style

Creativity
This is probably the area of the game that most stood out to me and is what convinced me to give this game a 4. Azure Dreams lets you equip skills for combat, not a new idea by any means but there is a fair number of different ways to acquire skills.


Buy them!


Learn them by winning 4 battles with each type of weapon.


Learn them by having an important conversation with your friends... If you can.

Azure Waves has a social link system, the main ways I found to raise it were using items related the friend or items that you could give to any friend and if you were one or two points short of the required social stat...


Equipment. Only I equipped some of those items.

Now to sandwich something bad. I'm a devout hater of lottery boxes, although it's not an mmo so I'll let you off.

*RAGE* I only bought 3, I didn't get anything good.

At one point in the game there's an optional section where the battle system is put to good use! Did I really just say that about an ABS? Yes I did. There is an optional mini game of Laser Tag! Where you have to either run past the enemies or stealth your way through.


If only I was this good at laser tag :(

Now let's talk about the shops, being a modern rpg Ocean implements online shopping. Which is a fun idea and allows you to shop any where... With next second delivery! After visiting the shops they will give you the app or whatever to order online.


How helpful! Now if someone did that to me in real life, I would be annoyed.

So while you do have to suspend disbelief it is very handy. Sadly shop upgrades don't seem to have had much thought.


No comment.

The Good
++Lots of generally well thought out ideas that are of benefit to the player.
+Fun take on the online shopping, fits well with it being a modern game.

The Bad
-I wish some ideas had been developed a bit more. In particular the social links.

Summary
Azure waves is a good short modern rpg with a great creative flair to it. It's only about an hour long so if you're looking for a quick fix, give it a go.