Changing up seasons with Nayuta no Kiseki

Anyone who thinks that the PSP should be put to pasture may want to reconsider, as the system is still a-ticking over sales-wise in Japan. Ys creators Falcom are still sticking to the system before their official "move" to the Vita with Ys: Celceta Tree, and it goes to show with their latest action game Nayuta no Kiseki.

And before you start comparing notes and seeing the lineage between this and past "no Kiseki" games like Zero no Kiseki and Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky, don't bother, because there aren't any story ties between this and past Legend of Heroes games. This is a good thing, as no prior knowledge of past Kiseki games is needed to enjoy the narrative.

This is the majority of Nayuta no Kiseki, and it's really fun.

Players control a boy named Nayuta, whose fishing village lifestyle was disrupted when a giant meteor crashed from the sky and created a giant tower nearby. After much exploration, Nayuta ends up having to solve the mystery of the new continent known as Lost Heaven together with his friend Signa and the fairy Noi while figuring out who the mysterious girl in the coffin of the Star Garden is. Along the way, they come across different continents filled with all manners of monsters and platforming action.

Our tag team duo of Nayuta and Noi aren't defenseless, thankfully. Nayuta brandishes a sword to cut foes apart while Noi can cast spells ranging from giant red spinning blades to whirling tornadoes that damages enemies over time for a short period. There's no such thing as mana management here; attacking enemies with melee force will charge up Noi's magic stock fast so that you can continuously pile enemies with magic without much repercussion.

Chaining as many hits together will yield a temporary stat boosts for our hero until he either gets hurt or until the combo counter meter on the bottom left side of the screen goes to zero. Suffice to say, combat is really fun as Nayuta controls like a breeze and the enemies provide ample challenge.

In addition, our hero has access to special gear moves that are bolstered by his fairy compatriot. After acquiring one of these powerups early in the game, players can press and hold the circle button after an attack to unleash a short-ranged gear-powered slash that breaks down tough barriers and walls. Later on, you can hold onto green bulbs using a gear hold maneuver that lets you traverse to hard-to-reach spots.

Changing seasons will open up new paths for Nayuta and Noi to explore.

The catch is that you'll expend a bit of blue energy; deplete it and Noi gets stunned momentarily. While doing the charged gear slash was helpful in dealing big damage, we had to take some time getting used to the gear hold maneuver. The controls were easy enough, but calculating your jumps from one bulb to another required a bit of guesswork.

Rather than having each area interconnecting with each other seamlessly like a typical RPG, Nayuta no Kiseki divides each area into stages you can revisit over and over (like Super Mario). Players can replay them after their first playthrough just to boost up their rankings and collect anything they missed out on. Thanks to the game's weather-changing system, the game encourages you to as certain parts of a stage won't open up unless you change the game's weather.