Earlier this week I took part in the Babylon’s Fall beta that ran from November 15th to November 17th, giving me an opportunity to finally find out more about the nature of Platinum’s forthcoming action RPG. You may remember me talking about this game in my E3 2018 coverage, when it was first unveiled during Square Enix’s showcase. Since then, I haven’t seen a lot of information revealed about the game – we were treated to minor blog updates and a few images and gifs, but I don’t really feel like there was anything of substance to enjoy until Square Enix’s E3 2021 presentation, where they reminded us that the game still existed. I was still intrigued about the game in the years that passed, but I never felt like I was given enough information to really justify publishing any kind of “progress update” article on this site. Consequently, I was quite pleased to receive an invite to the recent Babylon’s Fall beta session – not least because it would finally give me a chance to understand what kind of gameplay Platinum would be going for, and whether or not it was even worth maintaining my interest in this title.
Beginning the Babylon’s Fall beta
The experience I had with the missions in the Babylon’s Fall beta mainly reminded me of old 3D Phantasy Star games, but only if those missions were accessed via the kind of elaborate hub seen in some hunting games, or maybe certain F2P MMOs I tried many years ago. The hub here is known as the meeting area, and whilst it felt like a few parts of the meeting area were disabled for beta purposes, you were still able to buy and sell equipment at a vendor, visit a different character to see daily challenges (defeat 100 enemies, complete a quest using Quick Match, etc.), go and talk to someone who could change your character’s appearance, and find a chest which acts as storage for your character’s excess belongings. I had just set up my character and I didn’t exactly have currency to spend, so instead I found a billboard that I could interact with to start my first quest.
This is where the Phantasy Star comparison comes in. My memories of Phantasy Star Online: Blue Burst and Phantasy Star Portable 2 amount to recollections of time spent in walled arenas fending off waves of samey enemies – the Babylon’s Fall beta isn’t a massive improvement. You’ll step into an open area and then you’ll be locked in, as foes begin spawning in. You can attack with light and heavy swings (or bow shots, or whatever you’re using) to build up a meter, and then spend that meter casting magic projectiles (not unlike the magic seen in the original Nier.) The catch is that the magic attacks feel more effective than the regular weapons in terms of dealing damage, but you’re spending meter to use them. So I assume the intention is to alternate between building meter with your equipped weapons and casting magic to cause significant damage. It’s a nice idea in theory and it encourages a certain “rhythm” when playing, but (like Phantasy Star) you have to work through a lot of spawning enemies before you’re allowed to move forward. Consequently, what begins as a fun exercise can lead to your patience waning.
Sponge life
If the respawning enemies were the only disappointing aspect of the combat in the Babylon’s Fall beta, it might still be excused – after all, this is a Platinum game, so you’d expect some exciting combat. Unfortunately, I was kind of disappointed when it came to the moment-to-moment action as well. I found that health bars of regular enemies were long enough to make them feel like damage sponges – not only that, but a lot of enemies had “super armour” where their own animations couldn’t be interrupted with your attacks. I feel like this is another misstep in the general experience: if they were damage sponges that could be interrupted more, the player’s attacks would feel satisfying… and if they had super armour but could be dispatched quickly, they’d be less of a nuisance. However, the combination of these two things leads to a slightly dull experience, and this feeling is exacerbated by the amount of new enemy spawns that arrive before you’re allowed to move on.
Babylon’s Fall beta – room for change
Things are made worse when you’re playing a beta and you can’t find enough available players to fill a party – leaving you slogging away on your own – so the game really wants you to go in with a full team. Completing a mission rewards you with new gear that can increase the stats and level of your character, allowing you to take on harder missions. However, if missions tuned for characters at the “intended” level are this much of an ordeal, I can’t imagine the core combat loop becoming that much more satisfying. Hopefully I’m proven wrong, but we’ll only know after more tuning and tweaking is done by the developers.
Find out more about Babylon’s Fall at Square Enix’s website
