Everything we know about Digimon Survive
The delays seem to finally be over. If you're ready to do battle with your favorite digital monsters, here's everything we know so far about Digimon Survive.
Digimon Survive gets a release date after years of delays
Digimon Survive finally got a concrete release date after three years of delays.
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ALTDEUS: Beyond Chronos’ ‘Episode Yamato’ DLC Arrives Next Week
When it comes to big branching narratives in virtual reality (VR) few can match ALTDEUS: Beyond Chronos‘ offering and soon its going to get even more expansive. After teasing the first details a couple of weeks ago, developer MyDearest Inc. has announced that the first DLC, Episode Yamato, will drop next week.
The Episode Yamato DLC focuses on Second Lieutenant Yamato Amanagi who pilots the Ares Makhia, the other giant mecha used by the Prometheus organisation to protect the planet from an alien race called Meteora. In the main campaign where you play Chloe, she tries to escape from Prometheus but as Yamato, you now stand in her way vowing to bring her back at any cost.
With a new storyline and mecha comes new features with the Ares Makhia using a close combat Swordstrike system to attack the Meteora, rather than the railgun system found on Chloe’s Alto Makhia. MyDearest Inc. states the DLC should clock in at around 2 hours once players have located all the story branches, helping further bolster ALTDEUS: Beyond Chronos‘ 15-20 hour base campaign.
ALTDEUS: Beyond Chronos is the sequel to Tokyo Chronos, set 200 years in the future where humans have been driven into the underground city of Augmented Tokyo by the alien Meteora. These colossal creatures have decimated the Earth’s surface, with humanity’s only weapon against them being the Makhia. Alongside Chloe and Yamato, there are several colourful characters including an AI called Noa, whose 360-degree J-pop concerts have made her a local celebrity.
VRFocus’ review of the visual novel said: “ALTDEUS: Beyond Chronos is the interactive visual novel Tokyo Chronos needed to be.” Going onto add: “Currently, when it comes to Japanese VR visual novels ALTDEUS: Beyond Chronos is the new standard to beat.”
While ALTDEUS: Beyond Chronos is available for Oculus Quest and Rift, PlayStation VR and PC VR headsets, the upcoming Episode Yamato DLC will be exclusive to Oculus Quest for the time being, with the DLC’s launch date set for Thursday, 10th June 2021, retailing for $9.99 USD. The studio has already confirmed that the DLC will be made available to other platforms at a later date. VRFocus will continue its coverage of ALTDEUS: Beyond Chronos, reporting back with further updates.
ALTDEUS: Beyond Chronos Review – Captivating Story For Visual Novel Fans
Tokyo Chronos was a good attempt to bring visual novels into virtual reality last year, presenting an entertaining story but minimal VR use. Now developers MyDearest have brought us a sequel, promising greater interactivity within a similar gameplay premise. Read on for our full ALTDEUS: Beyond Chronos review.
You don’t need to play Tokyo Chronos to understand ALTDEUS’ plot. Whilst that entry took place in modern-day Shibuya and focused on a group of high school students, this sequel takes us 300 years into the future instead. Earth’s surface has been decimated by the mysterious Meteoras, causing humanity to flee underground to A.T. City, a place filled with holographic illusions to escape their dreaded reality. It wouldn’t be entirely accurate to describe this dystopia as Cyberpunk but it’s not far off either.
You play as Chloe, a “Designed Human” augmented to the peak of her abilities. Working for a military organization called Prometheus, you pilot a mech named the Alto Makhia, and it comes down to you to protect A.T. City whenever Meteoras come close.
Haunted by the memories of Coco, a blind girl she was once sworn to protect, the two became close friends but soon after, Coco is devoured by a Meteora, leaving Chloe felling guilt with a vengeance. Unable to move on, matters are made worse by Noa, a virtual idol designed to look like Coco, one that also assists her in the Makhia.
You’ll be joined by several characters, each playing a key role and there are no minor characters here. Your immediate colleagues include Yamato, a fellow Makhia pilot with an impulsive nature and Aoba, a cooler head who takes charge of communications during missions. All of them are led by the stern General Deiter, who carries out mission planning, and there’s also the eccentric Professor Julie, head of research at Prometheus that created Chloe and Noa. Most curiously, rounding off this cast is Anima, a mysterious Meteora that’s taken human form.
Your decisions surrounding battles and each character affect how your playthrough unfolds. All communications are officially monitored by the Libra system, which suggests multiple dialogue choices when prompted. Some are less consequential and just affect people’s perception of Chloe, such as choosing whether to compliment Yamato’s swordplay or ignore his boasts. Others have a more meaningful impact that directly determine the following events, like choosing to scan a Meteora mid-battle instead of attacking it.
You’ll never get to ALTDEUS’s true ending within the first playthrough, this game is designed for replayability and multiple endings are present. Bringing a campaign that’ll keep you busy for twice as long as Tokyo Chronos, specific routes need completing before additional options appear in those original scenes. You won’t have to replay it in full either, as events can be jumped between within the Ariadne, a space bound area which lets you go back to particular story segments once unlocked.
Without spoiling the larger mysteries, I found myself thoroughly drawn into this mysterious world across these multiple playthroughs. Despite bringing the usual anime cliches like everyone having different hair colour, it kept me intrigued about the wider world too, tapping into social commentary about the surveillance state. ALTDEUS also plays into Greek mythology quite significantly and whilst both games are named after the god of time, it makes frequent references to other legends too. Between Chloe telling Coco stories about Apollo and Daphne, Noa praying to Artemis’ before battle or the A.T. City rebel group called “Organisation Patroclus”, this proved a nice touch.
Compared to its predecessor, ALTDEUS makes several improvements to gameplay while retaining a vibrant art style. A lot of this revolves around mech combat and although these scenes are scripted, you can interact with various UI elements, like booting up the Makhia or lining up your rail cannon shots. Much of the VR functionality though is just looking around a 360° environment or pressing buttons to scan/interact with objects, so it is disappointing when compared to other experiences, but does just enough to justify its own existence.
One of the biggest gripes with Tokyo Chronos was the Japanese-only voice acting. Undoubtedly this would please the “subs over dubs” crowd but in VR, that doesn’t work nearly as well when compared to watching anime on a flat screen. So, it was quite pleasing to see that MyDearest have included English voice acting this time around and even though performances felt uneven in places, it works for the most part. Chloe’s VO felt flat at times but honestly, this leans into her character quite well. After all, we have a soldier who was designed to fight, not to feel, and it took a blind friend to change her perspective.
ALTDEUS: Beyond Chronos Review – Final Verdict
MyDearest have done a great job on ALTDEUS: Beyond Chronos, proving that visual novels can work in virtual reality and it’s clear they took onboard feedback from Tokyo Chronos. Having added new language options and some much-needed immersion to the core gameplay, I found myself completely immersed in ALTDEUS’ story overall. Despite interactivity remaining minimal compared to other VR games, this one comes highly recommended for visual novel fans.
For more on how we arrive at our scores, check out our review guidelines.
This review is based off of the Oculus Quest 2 version of ALTDEUS using a review copy provided by the publisher and PR. ALTDEUS is also available for Quest 1 and on the Oculus Rift store for PC VR at a price point of $39.99 on all platforms. For more information you can visit the game’s official website.
ALTDEUS: Beyond Chronos Review – Captivating Story For Visual Novel Fans
Tokyo Chronos was a good attempt to bring visual novels into virtual reality last year, presenting an entertaining story but minimal VR use. Now developers MyDearest have brought us a sequel, promising greater interactivity within a similar gameplay premise. Read on for our full ALTDEUS: Beyond Chronos review.
You don’t need to play Tokyo Chronos to understand ALTDEUS’ plot. Whilst that entry took place in modern-day Shibuya and focused on a group of high school students, this sequel takes us 300 years into the future instead. Earth’s surface has been decimated by the mysterious Meteoras, causing humanity to flee underground to A.T. City, a place filled with holographic illusions to escape their dreaded reality. It wouldn’t be entirely accurate to describe this dystopia as Cyberpunk but it’s not far off either.
You play as Chloe, a “Designed Human” augmented to the peak of her abilities. Working for a military organization called Prometheus, you pilot a mech named the Alto Makhia, and it comes down to you to protect A.T. City whenever Meteoras come close.
Haunted by the memories of Coco, a blind girl she was once sworn to protect, the two became close friends but soon after, Coco is devoured by a Meteora, leaving Chloe felling guilt with a vengeance. Unable to move on, matters are made worse by Noa, a virtual idol designed to look like Coco, one that also assists her in the Makhia.
You’ll be joined by several characters, each playing a key role and there are no minor characters here. Your immediate colleagues include Yamato, a fellow Makhia pilot with an impulsive nature and Aoba, a cooler head who takes charge of communications during missions. All of them are led by the stern General Deiter, who carries out mission planning, and there’s also the eccentric Professor Julie, head of research at Prometheus that created Chloe and Noa. Most curiously, rounding off this cast is Anima, a mysterious Meteora that’s taken human form.
Your decisions surrounding battles and each character affect how your playthrough unfolds. All communications are officially monitored by the Libra system, which suggests multiple dialogue choices when prompted. Some are less consequential and just affect people’s perception of Chloe, such as choosing whether to compliment Yamato’s swordplay or ignore his boasts. Others have a more meaningful impact that directly determine the following events, like choosing to scan a Meteora mid-battle instead of attacking it.
You’ll never get to ALTDEUS’s true ending within the first playthrough, this game is designed for replayability and multiple endings are present. Bringing a campaign that’ll keep you busy for twice as long as Tokyo Chronos, specific routes need completing before additional options appear in those original scenes. You won’t have to replay it in full either, as events can be jumped between within the Ariadne, a space bound area which lets you go back to particular story segments once unlocked.
Without spoiling the larger mysteries, I found myself thoroughly drawn into this mysterious world across these multiple playthroughs. Despite bringing the usual anime cliches like everyone having different hair colour, it kept me intrigued about the wider world too, tapping into social commentary about the surveillance state. ALTDEUS also plays into Greek mythology quite significantly and whilst both games are named after the god of time, it makes frequent references to other legends too. Between Chloe telling Coco stories about Apollo and Daphne, Noa praying to Artemis’ before battle or the A.T. City rebel group called “Organisation Patroclus”, this proved a nice touch.
Compared to its predecessor, ALTDEUS makes several improvements to gameplay while retaining a vibrant art style. A lot of this revolves around mech combat and although these scenes are scripted, you can interact with various UI elements, like booting up the Makhia or lining up your rail cannon shots. Much of the VR functionality though is just looking around a 360° environment or pressing buttons to scan/interact with objects, so it is disappointing when compared to other experiences, but does just enough to justify its own existence.
One of the biggest gripes with Tokyo Chronos was the Japanese-only voice acting. Undoubtedly this would please the “subs over dubs” crowd but in VR, that doesn’t work nearly as well when compared to watching anime on a flat screen. So, it was quite pleasing to see that MyDearest have included English voice acting this time around and even though performances felt uneven in places, it works for the most part. Chloe’s VO felt flat at times but honestly, this leans into her character quite well. After all, we have a soldier who was designed to fight, not to feel, and it took a blind friend to change her perspective.
ALTDEUS: Beyond Chronos Review – Final Verdict
MyDearest have done a great job on ALTDEUS: Beyond Chronos, proving that visual novels can work in virtual reality and it’s clear they took onboard feedback from Tokyo Chronos. Having added new language options and some much-needed immersion to the core gameplay, I found myself completely immersed in ALTDEUS’ story overall. Despite interactivity remaining minimal compared to other VR games, this one comes highly recommended for visual novel fans.
For more on how we arrive at our scores, check out our review guidelines.
This review is based off of the Oculus Quest 2 version of ALTDEUS using a review copy provided by the publisher and PR. ALTDEUS is also available for Quest 1 and on the Oculus Rift store for PC VR at a price point of $39.99 on all platforms. For more information you can visit the game’s official website.
Tokyo Chronos Dev Announces Follow-Up Altdeus: Beyond Chronos
Personally, I didn’t take to VR visual novel experiment, Tokyo Chronos. But I know plenty of other people did, so I’ve got news for them; a follow-up is on the way.
Developer MyDearest last week announced Altdeus: Beyond Chronos. There’s very little known about the game thus far other than that Tokyo Chronos director Haruki Kashiwakura is returning and it will release in 2020. The description for the game’s early teaser trailer (which you can watch below) also confirms that it will be a ‘VR Adventure Game’, though other platforms haven’t been announced.
The teaser trailer doesn’t give us much other than some ambiguous imagery. Based on the name, though it could be that Altdeus is a direct sequel to Tokyo Chronos, or at the very least connected to the original in some way.
Tokyo Chronos itself was a fairly traditional visual novel adapted into VR. The game had you following along with its story subtitles, in which a group of school friends find themselves stranded in a deserted rendition of Tokyo. I thought the game was visually striking and included some curious moments of VR intimacy. But the reliance on subtitles really killed the immersion and overall I’m not sure the genre suits VR so well, at least when translated to directly.
I’ll be interested to see it Altdeus changes my mind, though. Tokyo Chronos came to basically every VR headset under the sun, including, Quest, Go, PSVR and PC VR devices. There’s a good chance this ends up on a platform you own at some point in 2020, then.
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