Azure Saga: Pathfinder

Mobile game with JRPG pretensions, but it doesn't fool me. Simplistic map design, terrible reliance on unnecessary back tracking, and a low budget fanservice art style. Repetitive, uninspiring combat and some of the most generic music I've heard in any game. The story is barely there and the characters range from "meh" to actively unlikable. Localisation is also cheap. I waited for 8 hours to see whether it improved. It did not. Avoid.

Azure Saga: Pathfinder is a turn-based Japanese-inspired role-playing game developed and published by MassHive Media. Created as a tribute to the genre's golden age, it combines science fiction, fantasy, and character-driven storytelling into an adventure that feels comfortably familiar while maintaining enough originality to stand on its own. Rather than chasing modern RPG trends filled with sprawling open worlds and overly complicated systems, the game focuses on delivering a classic experience centered on exploration, strategic combat, and a heartfelt narrative. The story follows Synch, a young scientist who embarks on a dangerous expedition to locate the legendary planet Azure, a world rumored to possess limitless resources capable of saving humanity from extinction. His personal search for his missing father soon evolves into a much larger mission as he assembles a diverse group of allies, each with unique personalities, histories, and motivations. As the adventure unfolds, the narrative explores themes of hope, perseverance, friendship, and sacrifice while gradually revealing the mysteries surrounding Azure. Although the plot follows several recognizable JRPG conventions, it…

I could recommend it to fans of turn-based RPGs who have played the classics. It is a bit like a simplified and turn-based Star Ocean. You might also like other series such as Valkyrie Profile or Atelier. +Visuals/art style +Key rebinding +Setting/atmosphere +Mini/map +Exploration +Turn-based battles +Variety of characters, skills +Auto and manual saves +United skills/triple attacks +Fast travel points +Guard is useful, counter and MP restore -No mouse support, even in menus -Barebones options -Awkward controls -No resolution/graphics settings -No voice -No auto/optimize equip -Clunky inventory -MP heavily limits skill use -No choices on level up -Battles and movement can be sluggish -Can't easily compare equipment -No weapons/armor, only accessories -Random encounters, can't see enemies -Infrequent fast travel points -Clumsy fishing minigame

Simplified JRPG that is almost a very good game, but unfortunately is only decent. You'll enjoy your time with it to a point, but it flaws will probably get the better of you in the end. Pros Likeable Characters Nice Plot Combo Mechanics Negatives No Weapon Upgrading Dungeons can be a chore I actually made it all the through to the final dungeon, but the messy layout made it so I just couldn't be bothered to go and face the final boss (watched the ending on Youtube, job done)

I loved the gameplay, I loved the challange, I loved the story. The game though still has a small number of bugs that are unresovled that make getting all the achievements impossible or not worth trying to earn because they have very specific requirements and narrow windows or coding faults that ignore data stored in save files causing them to be inaccesible. The game was plenty fun aside from those let downs, but for them to be a coding fault is very bad.

About 40 hours in the game starts glitching to the point where it's become unplayable for me. I walk around the map and am pushed outside it. Can't get back inside and essentially am SOL until I restart. Happened 4 times in a row. No longer going to continue with the game.