AFFOGATO DEMO REVIEW: PROMISES A LOT!

I’ve been playing the Affogato demo … Well, actually I was playing it a few weeks ago, but I ended up messing around with other posts and nothing, typical. Be that as it may, in the end I have decided to write you a review with my first impressions of it after playing the demo.

I’m already telling you that the game that I loved and the truth is that I think it has a lot of potential if they know how to finish it well. It’s an indie with game mechanics that I find very entertaining (I’ll explain it better below) and it has an anime-like aesthetic that I think to no one’s surprise that’s something I quite like.

Looking ahead to its launch, they comment that it is planned for 2023 . Oh well; I do not advance more, let’s go with my first impressions in detail!

WHAT IS AFFOGATO ABOUT? WHAT KIND OF GAME IS IT?

In terms of lore, I’m telling you that I haven’t understood the subject very well yet, it’s about the fact that you are a girl who has to eliminate a kind of curse that some people have and you have the power to enter a kind of dream world where you can defeat them… something like that, I’m telling you, I’m a bit lost with the subject and on top of that the demo is in English (I hope the final game is translated).

The case, let’s talk about mechanics and others that if we can talk better. It is a game that mixes several genres but what would be the main game mechanics is a Tower Defense in reverse (we’ll talk more about that later). But in addition to this we have to add the following:

• We will have the typical story in which we will have to advance and others visiting different places, defeating enemies and bosses (which is the first), the typical.
• We also have our own cafeteria where we can serve customers and others. That it would have been quite cool for me to be able to try it in greater depth because that roll is quite cool for me.
• RPG system with levels, upgrades… There are, for example, some Tarot Cards with which we can summon characters in battle with different roles. You already know: Tank, Healer, DPS, Supports…
• It seems that we can visit other types of places such as shops and others, that these are things that are not yet complete in the Demo.

We could say that in the end the game has on the one hand that part more about “managing your personal life” and on the other the more combat part. The truth is that I have always really liked games that do this kind of thing.

REVERSE TOWER DEFENSE

I think that with the name you can already deduce the concept, but I’ll explain it to you anyway. In Tower Defense we normally put static turrets while there are mobile enemies that move along paths and we have to passively defeat them. Well, just the opposite.

We will be the ones who move along the roads invoking our characters while facing the “turrets” (which are enemies of all kinds). We will have to guide them along the paths and invoke them so that they can do their job; All this with a background music that is to get up and hit a tremendous dance… what a great song .

I leave you here the trailer so you can take a look at the game, also the theme that is heard in it is precisely the one that I mentioned that I liked a lot and others:

ARTISTICALLY IT LOOKS VERY GOOD

Artistically, the truth is that I liked it a lot, apparently in the demo at least for now we could differentiate 3 different styles depending on what we are doing at that moment:

Here you can see what would be the style that “the world” has and how good that representation of the characters looks when they speak.

• We have in the first place what would be the most pure anime style, a style that we can see when talking to the characters in the game. The truth is that I think the characters are very well designed, at least those that have been seen so far, of course.
• Then we have another visual style… 3D (it’s a bit like Paper Mario) which is what we’ll see when we’re traveling the world, so to speak. In this mode the characters will be shown in a more “chibi” mode.
• And to finish the visual style of the battles where an isometric view is taken and where the environment, at least from what I’ve seen so far, is like very disco. I mean, we tend to be in dark places full of neon and lights everywhere.

Regarding the music, I have already commented that the main theme (it is the one we hear in battles, I don’t know right now if it will always be the same theme that sounds) is tremendous; I just hope it’s not the typical game that has a good theme and that’s it, I hope they surprise with several themes at that level.

THINGS I’D LIKE TO SEE AT YOUR LAUNCH

And since the game is currently not finished I wanted to give some feedback on what things I would like to change/improve/keep/whatever:

• By God, let it be translated into Spanish .
• Given that at the moment the content is limited since it is a demo, I have been wanting to see a little more of everything that the game offers us. What they have shown for the moment has seemed very good to me, I just hope that the rest is also good.
• That the part of managing your daily life is very complete to disconnect a little from what would be the combats, that you can grind to improve your characters, get improvements through your daily routine… that kind of thing.
• Make the plot interesting (this is starting to sound like a letter to the wise men). It’s the same in the demo, but it’s not the same in English, at least I don’t understand it as well.
• Adjust the difficulty in bosses. The first boss is crazy, I don’t know if it’s because there are still mechanics that aren’t unlocked or because I’m still a n00b; The fact is that at least when I fought with him he seemed very exorbitant to be the first (and I think I know a lot about bosses). Challenging bosses are their thing, but when the first one is SO challenging when you still barely understand the mechanics, it’s still going a little too far. It’s so much so that he seems like the first boss of a Souls turn designed so that yes or yes you die, but no no, you have to kill him.
• That the fact of adding missions that must be done in “x” days (days in the game) does not become too overwhelming that it prevents you from also enjoying the aspect of managing your life, that you can go a bit calmly. Because of this I decided to go all out with the story (in the end I had a lot of time left over) and I feel that because of that I missed part of the experience, but of course, that’s what going against the clock has to do with it… you don’t know how long it will take to do the main mission and therefore you don’t know how much you can dedicate to your cafeteria and that kind of thing… you don’t know if you have plenty of time and therefore you can mix the mission with your daily chores or if, on the contrary, you should do without everything and focus purely on that mission.
• More interaction with the world.
• More great songs, more characters, more of everything… of course, what has been said, in the end the demo only shows a small part of what the game is.
• That when you change your clothes it also changes in the representation of your character when he speaks.

To finish, I leave you the steam link with the demo in case you want to try it.