Before I went to PAX West, all I knew about Indivisible was that the publisher will be 505 Games and it’s been developed by Lab Zero Games, the team behind Skullgirls. That meant it had a expected pedigree for quality art, but it didn’t tell me much about the gameplay. While Skullgirls is a fast and furious fighting game, Indivisible is something a bit different. At first I thought it was actually a Metroidvania, after seeing a trailer showing Ajna hopping around a 2D plane. But then I saw the shift to combat, and it’s much more similar to a classic turn based RPG with some twists. Let’s see how I felt about the demo.
First off, yes Indivisible has absolutely stunning art. Everyone expected that. What took me by surprise was the quality of the game’s writing. You come across a wide array of characters in the demo which you can add to your team of 4, and each one had distinct and colorful personalities. Furthermore, each character has totally different combat styles, ranging from quirky healers to close combat experts to lone gunmen. Nobody is the same or even similar to anyone else, and that’s a great thing.
However, to keep things from getting too hectic, each character controls via the same control setup. Each character on your team is mapped to a face button, and by pressing it during combat, they’ll attack or block an opponent’s attack. Timing is key, since it lets you combo foes and juggle them easier. You can also hold up or down before attacking to initiate different attacks, such as weakening a foe or healing your team. By holding the attack button down, you’ll break through guarding foes, though not every character is capable of this. Lastly, you can utilize super powers once you’ve filled up your meter sufficiently, which allows for some very helpful attacks.
The combat was frenetic and fun, and frankly kind of what I wanted Code of Princess to be more like. In some ways, Indivisible is best described as the love child of Odin Sphere and Guardian Heroes. It’s beautiful, fast and fun. On top of that, exploring the dungeons is a blast, since Ajna can slide, wall jump and even use a hatchet to cling to walls. It’s clear even now this will be an amazing game, even if you have no past experience with Lab Zero Games. Best of all, Indivisible is slated to release on PC and all consoles in 2019. That’s great news for fans of the team or just those looking for a beautiful new ARPG. My only hope now is that the release of this game isn’t delayed for whatever reason, but regardless it should be worth the wait.
