Indivisible has been reviewed by the wonderful Salman (who gave it a 9) but it’s now getting a new breath of life being ported to Switch – like many, many games. The port however was a surprise release to the devs, as a seperate team who were working on this version released an older version of the game, apparently one that doesn’t include coop or New Game+, has any of this affected my opinions of the game?
Well not really, no. I’m not one to play new game + and I’ve been playing solo, so coop hasn’t affected me anyway and I’m not even sure if coop would suit this game. There have been a couple of minor glitches where parts of the scenery are there but can’t be seen (basically an invisibly blocked path) but it really hasn’t changed my opinion of the game, which is that this is a really great game and not your typical shallow indie. Indivisible has found it’s own place between turn based RPG, platformer and indie and pretty much hits every element perfectly. I was pretty blind before going into this review, I had played a brief demo at EGX but at the time it didn’t really grab my attention – this is simply because i didn’t know how to play this game and because it can’t be played as your classic turn based game! I was happy as the game’s story was fresh, despite it being out for about 6 months; and the combat was surprisingly fun, despite me drowning in all sorts of RPGs recently.
More on the combat in a minute, firstly I’ll break down the story. I was a little underwhelmed at the VERY beginning as it starts with the classic ‘you’re a person of power and the evil kingdom burns down your village stroy line’ however when the main character Ajna absorbs her fathers killer into her head, which is actually a pocket dimension….well my interest was piqued. The story really kicks off about 5 hours into the game so I don’t want to ruin anything but essentially everyone who can help you or become part of your party gets absorbed into your head, and can pop out when facing enemies (obviously with a max party of 4). You can jump into the dimension whenever you want to level up power, train or just have a chat whenever you feel. The world and story is then built around the party you encounter, the evil kingdom and your mysterious powers. Powers which become helpful in combat and exploration..
Ajna has been trained for a long time by her father in the art of combat, obviously this aids you greatly when fighting (imagine taking on the kingdom without years of training!). This also means that she can do things like wall jump and that people want to give her stuff such as axes and bows. All of these elements make up the really fun platforming the game has to offer. I have played so many of these types of rpgs where there was hardly anything to do between battles except boring conversation so its been an absolute pleasure to do some platforming and light puzzle solving as I make my way between different levels. The level exploration feels just as important ad the battling, as you’re rewarded for finding secrets and using all of your abilities in certain areas. What’s also pretty neat is the fact you can ambush enemies with said bows and axes (and more) to build up your attack bar before battling, and even get rid of some of their health before the battle sequence.
Battles take place in 3 scenarios, you ambush the enemy, they ambush you or a boss fight. As mentioned this is a turn based rpg but not quite as you know it. Each party member has a button assigned to them, when ready to attack this button will be visible below their health bar and this is also their block button for any time an enemy attacks (there is also a team block button option with L), generally enemies will only attack one member at a time and its quite clear when they’re targeted Each character has different abilities when pressing a directional button with the attack button, which you must utilise and mix up to damage different enemies and to break shields. There is an ‘ap’ bar at the top of the screen that you’re trying to build up with successful attacks, it depletes when you block out of time, so your aim is to block quicker for less depletion. When this bar is full you can do special abilities such as super attacks and party heal. The best way to go about these battles is pulling off a multi hit combos with all party members ending in your power attack, and aiming not to hold block constantly as that essentially wastes your ap bar. The result is a constant fluid turn based combat system which will challenge you and keep you on your toes, and will really make you think about who to put in your party (if you ain’t got a healer you’re gonna struggle). The boss fights mix this up by adding platforming into the fight, crazy I know. The first couple times this happened I really struggled as I kept losing the majority of my health on the platforming segments then getting annihilated getting to the fight with little health. But mastering both parts makes for a very enjoyable and rewarding experience and a real sense of achievement when winning.
There are couple of minor things I didn’t like about the game. Several times (and its bound to happen again) there haven’t been clear enough instruction on how to do parts of the game, for example certain enemies definitely need more explanation on how to block their attack as it hugely varies, I don’t even remember being told there are individual block buttons; this was also an issue with certain parts of exploration. I understand they don’t want to hold your hand but I definitely got unnecessarily frustrated because of mechanics, not idiocy. I also wish there was some more customisation or Levelling up, you do collect crystals to level up Ajnas power but apart from this you just earn team xp which makes everyone better (I think). I would have just like some sort of simple system where you could customise their speed or attack points which have existed in games as long as there have been games….
Anyway these are super minor points and I’ve not played anything else on switch since I started this game up and I can see me obsessively playing it until I’m finished. I give the indivisible switch port a:
You can also WATCH the review here: