Title: Destiny Connect: Tick-Tock Travelers
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Developer: Nippon-Ichi Software/SYUPRO-DX
Publisher: NIS America
Release Date: October 22nd, 2019 (NA)
File Size: 4.9GB
Review copy provided by NIS America
Yep, another NIS game! This time the game is by NIS and SYUPRO-DX, who helped out on The Longest 5 Minutes. This is a very unique game from NIS because unlike nearly all of their other games, this one is actually a full 3D title, AND it even runs in Unreal Engine 4! How does this game fare? Will it make you tick or tock (what does that even mean?)? Let’s find out!
Here’s Sherry and her friend Pegreo.
Destiny Connect is more or less a typical JRPG to put it simply, however this is certainly different than your typical NIS game… mostly due to it being full 3D and running in Unreal Engine 4 as mentioned. This is actually the second game from them to run on Unreal Engine 4, with the first being a game called Hakoniwa Company Works (sadly not on Switch, just PS4 and in Japan only). At first glance, the game looks surprisingly western, literally like Jimmy Neutron which was a popular observation from fans when it got announced. But it’s not really comedy-driven (or at least as much) like Jimmy Neutron. If anything it’s closer to a Disney or even a Don Bluth film (well not as dark mind you).
A look at the town.
I’ll try to keep the story simple. The game stars a young girl named Sherry, who is asked by her mom to deliver something to her grandma. Along the way you meet up with your pal Pegreo, a timid boy. Before I continue, the key thing is that the story takes place on new year’s eve at 1999. That’s right, the dawn of the new millennium approaches! Anyway, after the delivery is done, the two go to a spot in town where a dangerous incident happened years ago and get attacked by walking TVs (yes), but are saved by a boy who happened to star in a movie Sherry watched earlier at the beginning of the game. He warns the two to stay indoors, at least for the night. This is because upon the strike of midnight, time stops, but mysteriously Sherry and Pegreo are the only ones who can still move.
Sherry finding Issac in the secret basement.
Sherry then comes across a strange robot in her father’s secret basement, who’s named Issac and was apparently built to protect Sherry, but is missing parts. Issac plays a key role in the combat. In an interesting twist, if Issac is knocked out in battle, you automatically lose, regardless of how your other party members are doing. However, luckily he can take quite a beating, so at least he’s not super weak in defence or something. As far as combat goes, it’s the usual turn-based fare. The turn order of all characters in battle is shown on the upper-left corner so you’ll be able to prepare for when enemies make their move. Your speed rating naturally will make it more likely for you to move earlier and more frequently. In fact, a neat thing is that if you encounter an enemy in the overworld from behind, you’ll get an extra turn for each member of your party before the opponents even make a move.
Here’s a battle. The camera does a 360-degree pan-around your character.
When battling, your characters can use unlocked skills, such as Sherry’s heal ability which is the first one she gets, which lets her heal basically a high amount of health to herself, or anyone you choose in the party. You can also have any character defend themselves to reduce damage received instead. Upon winning fights, every party member gains the same experience and has the same experience requirement to level-up. Levelling-up not only heals everyone who does, but often unlocks a new skill for a character. Outside of battle you can buy equipment in shops that everyone but Issac for now can equip to boost stats. These aren’t cosmetic though. However, you CAN buy new actual clothes from your now living heating iron named Iron Ma’am (yes) in your house, but you need to bring her water orbs as the cost. There’s quite a few clothes you can buy and only require like 1-3 orbs a piece.
Here are the clothes that you can buy from Iron Ma’am.
Visually it’s surprisingly decent. It again runs in Unreal Engine 4 but seems to show the common weaknesses of such on Switch. For instance, it’s a bit low-res, like maybe 720p docked. Performance-wise it runs well, seemingly at a mostly locked 30fps? Some stuff in the environments have that ye old PS4 downport-itis. Mainly low-res textures (the face on the big clock, oof), and the reflections on windows and mirrors are… ew, they look horrifically warped and just very low-res in general. But the lighting and shadowing does look good, as does the general design and modelling of the world and characters. Sadly the game’s low budget does show its cracks in how limited the characters’ animations and expressions are. It’s the same stock animations over and over again. I DID however get a kick out of Pegreo’s running animation, where he does that classic “hold backpack straps tight while leaning back” running animation you see in some cartoons. That’s pretty silly in a good way. 😛
Clock! Your face looks TERRIBLE!
Audio-wise, I really dig the music. The opening camera sweep of the town has that classic Disney/Don Bluth-esc emotional orchestral music vibe going on that legit gave me a James Horner-vibe (RIP 😥 ). The battle music on the other hand has a pretty neat rock and orchestral mix which I really dug as well. The sound was apparently by SYUPRO-DX, so that’s very interesting. On the other hand. there’s NO voice-acting, not even in Japanese which is odd for a NIS game. Most of the games I’ve reviewed by them have some kind of cute Japanese voice clips or something, but nope, mute all the way. But at least the lips don’t move to fake speech, so that’s sort of helps I guess?
THE MIRROR NEVER LIES!
Overall this is hard to rate. The combat is legit classic and true, the characters are actually interesting though not the most in-depth (but how often are they in any game on a low-budget I guess? :P). The music’s really good, but there’s no voice-acting to speak of (HA). It’s also so-so in price. You’re looking at only $40 USD and $50.39 CDN on the eShop with the retail release on Switch seemingly being an exclusive Capsule Edition with bonus goodies for about $10 more in CDN at least. If you don’t mind a simple JRPG with a rather unique art-style for a JRPG that has a surprisingly western animation-style, then I think it’s a good pick. However my biggest complaint is the controls in the overworld. There’s some odd lag when moving your character and it feels floaty in general. Tighten this up and it’d make a nice difference. Do it NIS! At least you can press ZL to literally in a frame toggle between Sherry and Pegreo in the overworld, which is nifty.
You’ll Love:
+ The gameplay is the tried and true JRPG goodness. So it’s easy to dive into, even for beginners.
+ The characters’ western-influenced designs actually work. Certainly feels unique for a JRPG.
+ In terms of raw graphics it looks pretty good. It does run in Unreal Engine 4 so that helps a lot. Framerate also seems to be a consistent 30fps.
+ The music is actually really good. Sometimes you get a soft, emotional Disney/Don Bluth-esc track, other times like in battles it’s a rocking, orchestral track. I really liked it.
+ The writing is enjoyable. Hard to put it into words (heh) but the characters are charming and there’s some heart in them and the story?
+ You can buy new outfits and quite a few of them for a nice bit of customization.
+ Has screenshot and video capture support.
You’ll Hate:
– The resolution is a bit low at likely 720p docked (which seems all too common in Unreal Engine 4 games on Switch), plus textures can look horrifically low-res (the face of the clock tower), and the reflections on mirrors and windows look horrible.
– Controlling your character in the overworld is shockingly iffy. It’s notably laggy and floaty. Menus and battles control fine, it’s just here. Also trying to position yourself right to speak with people is a bit of a chore too.
– Zero voice-acting to speak of. But you get used to it I guess.
Score: 7.5/10
I remember seeing a trailer of this game prior to its Japanese release, and thinking it looked good. I may pick it up somewhere down the line if it’s cheap enough but my backlog is ridiculous atm.