Strategy RPGs can be incredibly dense and layered. It is often the genres charm. The deeper the tactics, the more engrossing the game can be. Akatsuki: Lord of the Dawn is the antithesis to that complexity. It strips out most of the tactical side of battles and places you on a horse with 15 armies to run around the screen, triggering attacks. It’s light on strategy but can be an approachable, simplified entry point for genre beginners.
The less said about the story of Atatsuki, the better. The short cutscenes set up various islands that are battling against a dark force and their enemies. Each cutscene serves as a prompt for a mission that takes you onto the hexagonal tiled overworld map. Here, you’ll move across sepia-toned tiles, walking into a battle on each one. Once you’ve cleared the enemies, the tile is coloured in and you can then choose to build something on it (if the terrain allows). The overworld map serves two purposes. The first is to chart your march to various checkpoints dotted around the islands to then see the next scene or have a specific battle. The second is to set up your industry buildings to gather resources at the end of each day. In Akatsuki, time keeps moving, and when a new dawn breaks, every building you’ve placed will contribute resources to your guild. This means that when you’ve cleared enemies in a forest, you’ll be able to build a woodchopper cabin or a hunter’s barn. Over water, you’ll be able to build a fisherman trap. In the mountains you can build mines. All these contribute different resources that you’ll use to build more buildings and craft items for your army.
The army mechanic is the best part of Akatsuki: Lord of the Dawn. You can employ up to 15 in a battle and they are auto-controlled. There are lots of classes from melee fighters, ranged gunmen, magicans, healers, and warriors. They are grouped into categories of classes for weapons and defense items, which your resources will help you build. Each person in your army can be leveled up using cash at 20 levels at a time. Once they hit levels 19, 39, 59 and 79, you’ll need to use scrolls to level them up to unlock the next batch of levels. Scrolls are earned by completing jobs on the job board, which revolve around killing a certain type of enemy within a couple of in-game days. This is a bit too random and repetitive, but if you grind through it, you’ll have an army ready to steamroll the majority of the game. At level 99, you can also choose to evolve a character into their plus class. This resets their stats but gives them more power in the long run. It’s worth investing in if you want to breeze through the game.
Breezing through the game is something I did for the vast majority of my playtime. Whilst the resource systems, job boards, and levelling system are detailed, the battles themselves are not. I was excited to ride in on a horse and lead my army, but the reality fell a bit flat. You can pick from a few army formations (unlocked in a research tree) and each formation brings a special skill you can trigger, such as a cure or a fire attack. Alongside this, you can trigger special moves for the first row of your army, equating to five characters. These are class-specific and take time to recharge. I found myself running most battles at 2x speed because I rarely needed to deploy any of the attacks or formations at all. You can even turn on auto-battle. Helpful for beginners, but then the game plays itself. Battles are over so quickly. I spent just as long listening to the same victory fanfare over and over again. The difficulty is too easy, and then when you reach the final boss, you suddenly need to use formations, skills, and tactical placement. It is such a shock to the system, it made me wish there was some of this earlier on in the game. I’d have been more engaged otherwise.
As a result of the easy, autoplay, hands-off nature of Akatsuki: Lord of the Dawn, I found the game simple, approachable but underwhelming. I also found that the longer I played in a game session, the PS5 version I was playing started to freeze every other autosave. This seemed to be tied to changing inventory numbers or levelling up a character, but the freezes got longer and longer. I recommend saving regularly and rebooting the game to avoid this. on the plus side, I did like the pixel art style, and the system for building your world and turning resources into items for battle is a good one. I just wanted it to feel more involved when it came to the battles themselves. If the story is paper-thin, and so is the combat, it sours the experience.
If you are looking for a simple, approachable entry point to strategy RPGs, Akatsuki: Lord of the Dawn is a valid choice. It does pyramid resource systems well, and if you get into the grind, there’s a good 10-12 hours to play. You’ll need to battle every hexagon tile for the platinum, so you’ll see everything on your way, too. Just don’t expect depth on the battlefield or in the world around you. It is not there and you’ll be disappointed. Come to Akatsuki for a breezy time, not an involved one.
Review copy provided by the publisher. PS5 version reviewed.
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