Caves, crevasses, and similar places inspire wonder and dread for a reason. Their uncharted depths don’t merely symbolize danger and the unknown; theyaredangerous and unknown. It’s easy to get swept up by stories about those brave souls who would descend into their depths in search of answers and adventure.
RELATED:Iconic Anime Children Who Are Absurdly Powerful
Made In Abyss: Binary Star Falling into Darknesscontinues the story at the heart of theMade in Abyssfranchise:a hole known as the Abyss descends deep into the earth, full of monsters and the remnants of lost civilizations, and it’s up to Cave Raiders to recover what they can find.Binary Star Falling into Darknessis by no means a perfect game, but it offers a lot to like for fans of the series as well as newcomers. Here are a few of the things we loved (and didn’t love) about the game.
6Loved: The Pacing
It’s easy to mess up a game’s pacing. The frequency and difficulty of battles, depth of exposition, number of side quests, character development, and innumerable other factors all play a role in determining whether a game feels like it’s progressing at the right pace. If it moves too slowly, the player will become bored or frustrated. If it moves too quickly, the player will feel underwhelmed and possibly even cheated.The same applies to movies,novels, and other media.
Made in Abyss: Binary Star Falling into Darknessdoes a great job with its pacing.One of the biggest points in its favor here is the inclusion of two different campaigns, the first serving as a kind of prologue. With the story broken up in this way, the game is able to highlight its own characters as well as the player’s custom character without either being robbed of stage time.
5Didn’t Love: The Graphics
Made in Abyssis a sprawling franchise. Though it started with a manga, the series now includes anime and video games as well. Like any series with so many graphical interpretations, there’s considerable variation in the way the story is depicted, even though the overall art style remains mostly consistent.
RELATED:One Piece: Deaths That Rocked The Anime’s Foundation, Ranked
Binary Star Falling into Darknessis faithful to its source material in terms of appearance. The player feels like they’re stepping into theMade in Abyssworld they know and love.The problem is that the graphics aren’t that impressive and don’t always run smoothly.With such a gorgeous world and interesting characters populating it, it’s unfortunate that graphical flaws mar the experience. The graphical issues aren’t so bad that they ruin the game, but they’re a flaw that it’s hard to ignore.
4Loved: Characters
A major reason thatMade in Abyssbecame such a successful franchise is its characters. A world and its unique premise can be fascinating and still fail to engage gamers if the characters that inhabit that world are boring. Fortunately, that’s one area in whichMade in Abyss: Binary Star Falling into Darknessdoesn’t struggle, includinga variety of cute and powerful characters.
Riko, Reg, Hirou, Hablog, and Marulk are just a few of the interesting characters featured here.From their unique appearances to their backstories and mannerisms, these characters do a great job at making the player want to know more about them. Though the game’s graphics aren’t incredible, the character designs don’t disappoint. Everyone in the game feels like they have a story worth telling, and that goes a long way in an RPG like this.
3Didn’t Love: Weapon Durability
It doesn’t matter the mechanic, there will always be players who think it’s the best thing ever and those who think it’s the worst. Whether one likes a given mechanic, most would agree that there are better and worse ways to implement them. There might be a million ways to incorporate double jumping into a game, but not all of them will be equally fun.
RELATED:Best Anime Stepfathers
Binary Star Falling into Darknessincludes a weapon durability mechanic that will annoy some players.As with any such mechanic, weapons get worn down over time, requiring the player to repair or replace their equipment as it gets more battered. On one hand, this mechanic does inject an added sense of realism to the game, which provides an interesting counterbalance to the game’s anime visuals. On the other hand, weapon durability isn’t perfectly balanced. In short, it feels like weapons weaken and break faster than they should, forcing the player to waste time replacing their gear when they could just be adventuring.
2Loved: Deep In Abyss Mode
Made in Abyss: Binary Star Falling into Darknessis divided into two different modes: Hello Abyss and Deep in Abyss. Hello Abyss followsRiko’s descent into the Abyssand acts as a prologue for Deep in Abyss. It makes for a great introduction to the game’s mechanics, world, and characters, so even players with no prior experience in the franchise will quickly be brought up to speed and be able to enjoy the action.
Deep in Abyss mode, meanwhile, lets the player’s custom character brush shoulders with the franchise’s own characters.There are countless ways that the game could have botched the implementation of this mode, but thankfully for fans of the series, they didn’t. Deep in Abyss is a complex and engaging journey that feels satisfying from beginning to end, and after beating it, fans won’t need much of an excuse to jump right back in again.
1Loved: Sense Of Exploration
Whether it’sthe manga, anime, or video games, one of the best things about theMade in Abyssfranchise is the sense of exploration. A cavernous rift in the world, packed with monsters, puzzles, secrets, and the lost remnants of hidden civilizations sounds like exactly the kind of thing one could build an entire franchise around, which is of course what the creators did.
So many factors contribute to the game’s sense of exploration that it would be difficult to list them all.One of the most important, however, is the verticality and scale of the Abyss itself.The environment feels overwhelming in the best way. Games that lack architecture of this scope are in no way bad, but environments like those in the game stir feelings in the player that no other kind of gaming environment can exactly match. Whatever other problems the game may have, there’s always a thrill of excitement when the player gets to step into the Abyss once again.
Made in Abyss: Binary Star Falling Into Darknessis available now for PC, Nintendo Switch, and PS5.
